6o4 



Home Nature-Study Course. 



cress. While peppergrass and water-cress belong to the same family, 

 they have widely different tastes as to plant comfort. The 

 water-cress delights in water as much as a duck, while peppergrass 

 has a preference for dry ground as much as a hen. Peppergrass is 

 one of the cheapest to be found among the garden seeds — five cents 

 a paper or ten to fifteen cents per quarter pound. When you are well 

 acquainted with the merits of this plant, both for demonstration and 

 for the open ground garden, to be used as a salad, a quarter pound 

 should be your minimum order. The plants will be peeping through 

 the soil in about a week after sowing, which is as short a time as can 

 be expected of any variety of seed. I suggest that the seed be sown 

 too thick rather than too thin. In the former instance, the plants may 

 be thinned when about an inch high and eaten by the owner. It is 

 true the harvest will be but a nibble, yet it is a product of his own farm 

 and will be as much as a feast will be later in life. 



LESSON CLXXIV. 



SOWING THE SEED AND CARING FOR IT DURING GERMINATION. 



Purpose.— To teach the pupil how to sow the seeds and how much 

 covering to give them. 



The area of the " farms " is so small that the seed should be 

 sowed broadcast, and the young farmer should learn to accomplish 

 this by rolling it between his thumb and index fingei This is a 



bit of handicraft that can be acquired only by 



practice. 



The pupil may be given frequent exercises by 



sowing the seed over a paper spread on a table 



or desk, \^'hen the seed has been distributed 

 L JIJ^iK^^ ^^ ^^" ^^ gathered up, and the process repeated 



fc^ ^^^Hjl as many times as the teacher thinks best. In 



9^ ^^^^^^ sowing in the pots described above, the seeds 



^^\J^^^ may lay about half an inch ai)art. If they fall 



^ -J irregularly an adjustment to regular distances 



Fig. 2.—Soui}ig the seed, may be done by means of a tooth pick. 



The sowing of seed is usually a serious mat- 

 ter with a child — as much so as writing the first letter. The amount 

 of covering for seeds should be about four times the size of the seed. 

 This is a rule with many exceptions. As an exceptional instance, peas 

 should be planted in the open ground four inches deep, which is much 

 deeper than the above rule. This is done that the roots of the peas 

 may be down in the cool and moist soil. For a variety of plants, some 



