Rural School Leaflet 767 



will learn more by careful observation in one week than by reading for 

 a year. 



12. Do not be afraid to have some flowers in your vegetable garden. 

 Fill in empty places with them. Make every foot of ground produce 

 something useful or ornamental. 



13. When you gather your vegetables, put them up in attractive pack- 

 ages for the house. It helps you and it helps the others to do this. We 

 like things better when they are good to look at. 



14. If a disease or an insect is injuring your plants, find out what it is 

 and how to get rid of it. Do not stop until you have conquered. 



15. Live in your garden. Love it. Know everything in it so well 

 that you could tell it somewhere else in any stage of growth. 



16. Remember that perseverance brings success; that study brings 

 mastery; and that while you are learning many new things yourself, you 

 are also doing a definite piece of work that contributes to the welfare 

 of others. 



17. It is much better that you use your own originality on your garden. 

 However, if you meet problems that you cannot solve, write to the State 

 College and we shall be glad to help you all we can. 



18. If you have time to read and want to know more about gardening, 

 a good book to own is " The Manual of Gardening," by L. H. Bailey, 

 published by The Macmillan Company. 



GARDENING 



THE SOIL 



Edward M. Tuttle 



The soil serves as a support for plants and also furnishes them with 

 food and water. Plants take in food through the tiny hairs on their 

 roots. The food must be in solution in water, that is, it is dissolved or 

 melted, we might say. Therefore, water is important to the plant because 

 it carries food, as well as making up a large part of the plant structure. 

 One of the main reasons why we cultivate crops is to keep the right amount 

 of water in the soil. Too much water drowns the plant ; too little starves it. 



When a soil is in a state of good cultivation, fine and firm, yet mellow, 

 the grains of soil lying close together form tiny tubes between them. 

 Water rises in these tubes just as it does in a small glass tube when you 

 place one end in water. When the soil water reaches the surface of the 

 ground, the heat of the sun causes it to evaporate, in the same way that 

 a little water left in a pan in the sun will disappear. If we want to keep 

 the water in the soil we break the little tubes. This is done by stirring, 

 or cultivating, the surface to a depth of two or three inches. Then tlie 



