Teachers' Leaflet. 605 



lettuce and radish seed may be sown also, more for a wider acquaintance 

 with plants, than for the harvest, but peppergrass should never be 

 omitted. Let it be the main crop. When all the farms have been 

 sown they may be put in shallow boxes that the gardeners call " flats." 

 The bottom of each flat should be carpeted with an inch of sand. This 

 sand helps to hold .the moisture. The bottoms of the eggshells may be 

 dented in the sand so as to keep the farms right side up. Next comes 

 the process of watering the farms. This watering must be a type of 

 all waterings that are to follow. The flats should be placed where the 

 water that slops over will do no harm. Drench the soil on the farms 

 until the water drips out of the drainage holes in the bottom, then 

 stop. Allow fifteen minutes for farms and flats to drain and then place 

 in a warm — not hot — place for germination, which will occur in about 

 a week. During the period of germination light is not necessary but 

 as .soon as the young plants show their heads through the earth the 

 " flats " should be placed in the window seat for light. If during the 

 period of germination the soil should become dry the embryos will 

 die, no plants will appear and your probable conclusion will be that the 

 seedsman has sold you poor seeds, when the fault was yours and not 

 his. Every year tons of seeds fail to grow from this cause and the 

 seedsman is censured. 



LESSON CLXXV. 



HOW TO MAKE THE YOUNG PLANTS COMFORTABLE. 



Purpose. — To lead the pupil to consider the several ways of making 

 the growing plant comfortable ; and that plant comfort depends upon 

 the soil, its condition, water, heat, light and tillage. 



The south window gives the best light and the north the poorest. 

 The east and west stand between the two as to merit. As your location 

 will be one of those circumstances over which you have no control, 

 make use of what you have and let it go at that. If the light is poor 

 and the air too much baked the peppergrass plants will be spindling 

 or " leggy " as the gardeners say. Let me again say that you should 

 accept the conditions as you find them, and do not fail to sow pepper- 

 grass even though the conditions are not ideal. Even if uninstructcd 

 in observation, the child will see a lot about plants of his farm because 

 they are his very own. No matter if the child does not carry the 

 peppergrass plants through to maturity — in fact you had better plan 

 that he should not if he could. I prefer that he use the same pots for 

 two sowings of four weeks each than to carry one sowing through 

 eight weeks. The object is for the drill, an exercise rather than a 

 product. The inspiration of ownership, the credit of having a farm of 



