Teachers' Leaflet. 609 



these first steps, like all children's steps, must be made short and simple. 

 Let them do their work by the short row process. 



I would suggest that an area as large as that of a handkerchief, 

 albeit a large handkerchief, will be sufficient for the average child. Cer- 

 tainly an area two feet square should be the limit for the most efficient 

 apprentice pupil in the lower grades. It will seem much larger to the 

 child at the end of eight weeks than in the beginning, when he has the 

 enthusiasm of a young convert. 



Preparing the Soil. 



Many school grounds are a combination of lawn and juvenile 

 athletic field, with the general appearance of a Sahara. I have no com- 

 ments to make on such an appearance so long as girls and boys find 

 plenty of exercise. Even in such instances, a border on the outer edge 

 of the grounds may be found that will not be disturbed by tramping 

 feet. If the garden is made next the walls of a building, I would ask 

 you to turn back and read what is said on page 2>^. The form of a 

 plot should be long and narrow — about two feet in width, so the young 

 farmer may reach to the center from either side. An ideal garden soil 

 should be very fertile. By that I mean that it should have a fertility 

 that is immediately available to the plant. In other words, a sumptuous, 

 quick lunch soil. Such condition may be partly determined by tests 

 for the amount of humus, as given in Lesson CXXXIII. If found 

 deficient in that important ingredient, spade in rotted sods and leaves. 

 For a veritable hurry-up lunch — a form of plant food that will imme- 

 diately ba available — nothing contains a greater combination of virtues 

 than well-rotted stable fertilizer. If this is spread over the garden 

 to the depths of four inches, and thoroughly mixed with the soil by 

 spading, and the soil worked to a friable condition, you have a soil 

 that has " ginger " in it. 



Spading. 



After determining the size of the united gardens, the ground must 

 be spaded and that very thoroughly. All the stones down to the size 

 of an overcoat button, should be picked out, also grass roots and in 

 fact all roots, otherwise they will plague you by soon developing into 

 plants. No matter how much they are desired before, if they appear 

 in your garden, where they are not wanted, they become weeds — and 

 weeds are plants out of place. There is no probability that the prepara- 

 tion of the soil will be overdone in thoroughness. 



When a boy, I was the only girl mother had, and I was often 

 required to chop the hash in a big well-scoured wooden bowl. Under 



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