Rural School Leaflet. 



775 



3. Watering the garden. If it is necessary to water the growing 

 plants, it should be done late in the afternoon, if possible. If watered 

 in the morning, the sun causes very rapid evaporation, leaving the soil 

 dry% and in hea\y soils causing it to bake. Thorough cultivation of the 

 soil or a mulch of either grass or straw will hold the moisture in the soil 

 and lessen the need of water. 



4. Soils. It is not often that a heavy clay soil will be found. If 

 no other soil is obtainable, drainage, sand, muck, grass, or coal ashes 

 will be beneficial. Clay soil should- never be worked when wet. 

 Gravelly loam, sandy loam or even clay loam are easily worked, and are 

 the soils generally found to give good results. See 

 Lesson on soils, page 121. 



5. Starting plants. The seeds of all but the 

 ranker growing plants rnay be started in the house 

 through March or April, using shallow boxes filled 

 with light soil. A little care is needed not to sow 

 the seeds too early, for if the window conditions are 

 such that the plants grow spindling, they transplant 

 with difficulty. Six weeks before the time to plant 

 out of doors is early enough to sow the seeds in 

 boxes, and it is then often necessary to transplant 

 into other boxes before the ground is fit to receive- 

 the seedlings. For the first year it would be well to 

 have the children grow some one thing in-doors, 

 in order to give them a lesson in transplanting. 

 Tomato plants would be good for the first lesson. If 

 flowers are desired, pansies might be started in boxes. 



List of Garden Vegetables, seed of which may be sown as soon as 

 the ground is fit to work in the spring. 



Variety Time of Sowing Depth of Sowing Soil Best 



Asparagus April 



Beets " 



Carrots " 



Chicory " 



Cress " 



Kohlrabi " 



Endive " 



Kale " 



Leek 



Lettuce " 



Mustard " 



