6oo Home Nature- Study Course. 



I ask that you write on the tablets of your memory this fact that 

 because of the impulse of motherhood each plant wants to grow and 

 become the best plant of its kind that ever grew, so that it may in time 

 become the founder of a new and prosperous colony. The help that 

 plants require of you towards their success is to make them comfortable. 

 I wish you would write upon the blackboard for the benefit of your 

 pupils these lines : 



All plants want to grow. 



They ask that they be made comfortable. 



This statement may simplify what has seemed like a problem full of 

 complexities and vagaries — the growth of plants. The remark is often 

 lieard that " plants never do well for me," implying that plants with 

 some people have sulky moods and do not try to do their best as I have 

 said they would. 



LESSON CLXIX. 



THE WATERING OF PLANTS. 



Purpose. — To teach the pupil that in order to water a plant properly 

 he needs to watch it closely and use his judgment ; and that neglecting 

 to give plants water one day cannot be compensated for by giving it 

 twice as much the next day. 



The study of what constitutes plant comfort is a most interesting 

 one. For illustration, let me mention the importance of one item, that 

 of water, and the large quantities required by a plant during its growth. 

 An acre of corn has sweat out through its leaves during its growth to 

 maturity, an amount of water that would cover that acre from seven to 

 nine inches deep, all of which was taken up by the roots from the soil. 

 The amount is not all the water the soil has had to supply. We have no 

 adequate conception of the amount that passes oflf into the air from 

 the soil by evaporation. If we were to add together the two means of 

 water dispersed, you might perhaps think the farmer must needs have a 

 fire department to sustain the supply. You must remember that where 

 the great consumption of water by plants exceeds all others is when they 

 grow in window boxes, vases and pots. The amount that evaporates 

 from such recepacles with all sides exposed to the hot air is far beyond 

 that from the soil in its natural position. Rain, as it usually falls, is 

 inadequate to supply the demands of the plants in exposed conditions 

 and the excess must be made up artificially. 



There is no question that is asked of us more frequently than " How 

 often must I water my plants?" Plant comfort cannot be arranged 

 by schedule. You do not become thirsty winter and summer with the 

 same frequency. A recipe may be the best means for teaching how to 



