446 Junior Ni^TURALisr INIonthly. 



is quicker than any grown-up farmer can get a crop from his fields of 

 many acres. 



Water-cress and peppergrass belong to the same family, and in the 

 catalogue are found under the head of cress. The two have different 

 ideas about what is plant comfort. Their ideas differ as much as those 

 of ducks and hens. Water-cress likes to have its feet in water, and is 

 found in running streams. Peppergrass is more comfortable when its feet 

 — I mean its roots — are in moist soil. Please note that I have said moist 

 soil. Can you conceive a condition of soil that is not wet and yet not dry? 

 If so you will understand what I mean by being moist. Peppergrass 

 belongs to the cool loving class of plants, and in its way is as uncomfort- 

 able in the hot, dusty summer as is a St. Bernard dog with all his shaggy 

 hair on his back. It may be sown in the open ground as early as sweet 

 peas. If sown in mid-summer, it quickly goes to seed and does not 

 amount to much. The second sowing may be made in September at about 

 the time school begins, at wdiich time the nights are growing longer and 

 the days shorter. 



(In the first pages of this lesson you will see among the illustrations, 

 how Little Pepperpod grew her peppergrass.) 



WINDOW-BOX GARDEXIXG 



Some of my nieces and nephews have no out-of-door, — no soil even 

 large enough to have a farm or garden as large as a handkerchief. In 

 such instances the berry-box farm is the best they can have, and much fun 

 and profit may be had from them. The process of nature goes on just 

 the same as though the peppergrass was growing in a field of a thousand 

 acres. 



Even though you may try hard to make your peppergrass in the 

 berry-boxes comfortable, I feel quite sure that for all of your good in- 

 tendons it will have many hours of discomfort. 



If peppergrass could think and talk and remember stories, there 

 v/ould be many times when it might think about the sufferings of travellers 

 across a desert where no water is to be found for miles and miles ; or of 

 shipwrecked sailors who wdien leaving the sinking ship, took only a small 

 keg of water, which was soon gone, and there followed days and days of 

 parched lips and swollen tongues for the want of a drink. Something like 

 this is quite certain to happen while you are making the acquaintance of 

 your plants and learning how to make them comfortable. 



Yes, I know the thought which is coming up in your minds : " Why, 

 Uncle John, can't you tell us how often to water our farms?" X^o. T 

 cannot. T can no more give you such a rule than T can say how often each 

 of you should be given drink. It is not a question of time but of 7cJicti you 



