New Series, Supplement to April, 1906. 



443 



She is having pretty hard work in 

 spading up the soil for her outdoor 

 garden. But she works away, jumping 

 upon the spade to drive it into the soil 

 until she has broken up quite a space 

 of the hard ground which she whacks 

 and spanks with the back of the spade 

 to make it fine and mellow. She fin- 

 ishes it by raking it over many times, 

 picking out all sticks and stones as 

 they keep working to the top. Her 

 little neighbor thinks that he can do 

 this work as well as she, and begs, 

 " Please let me comb some, too." 



Pepperpod takes pride in doing her 

 work very neatlv. Plants will 



grow 



well standing in crooked rows, bnt they 

 will not look so well, nor can they be 

 cared for so easily. With the handle 

 of the rake she makes a shallow groove 

 in the soil, and sows the seed carefully, 

 not too thickly, and then pushing the 

 board aside gently tumbles a thin cov- 

 ering upon it from the soil at the sides 

 of the groove. Then she walks upon 

 the row, " heel and toe." This is very 

 important, for it is necessary that the 



soil should be well firmed down upon 

 the seeds, for if it were left full of 

 tiny " air holes " the delicate rootlet 

 might wither and the plant would 

 never come above the ground. 



The young plants will be large 

 enough to show the straight green rows 

 in about a week. In a week after that 

 Pepperpod may stir the soil with a 

 hoe or rake. This will not only kill 

 the weeds, but will prevent the moist- 

 ure in the soil from passing off into 

 the air. 



