6io 



Home Nature- Study Course. 



some circumstances the assignment was acceptable, but when another 

 boy, sitting on the wood pile outside the kitchen door, was waiting for 

 me to go fishing with him, chopping hash was a bore. If the chance 

 offered, the bowl was put into the pantry with the chopping about half 

 done, even though I knew I should be called back to do the task over 

 again. Do not let the children slight the spading as I did the chopping 

 of the hash. Pass the work around, and put it in the light of a privilege, 

 as Tom Sawyer did that of whitewashing the fence. 



Fig. 4 shows how the spade should 

 be placed in the ground vertically, by 

 pressing down and wiggling sidewise 

 and perhaps forward and backward, 

 that the tines may dodge any obstacle 

 they chance to strike. The spade 

 should be pressed down full length, 

 then pull the handle toward you, using 

 it as a lever, the full spadeful may be 

 lifted from the ground, and should be 

 inverted like a griddle-cake when 

 dropped. That spading fork full will 

 nearly always be lumpy. These lumps 

 must be made fine by spanking them 

 with the back of the spade. (See 

 Fig. I.) 



If any debris remains in the spaded 

 soil, it should be spaded and spanked 



Fig. 4. — A spading fork at the proper 

 angle to press into the soil. 



some more. Then the garden rake 



must be pushed back and forth as a girl would pass the comb through 

 the hair. This is one form of tillage, and tillage means fertility — a fact 

 that I hope I may have the opportunity to explain when your pupils are 

 promoted to journeymen gardeners. 



If the soil of your gardens has a tendency to be clayey, do not 

 disturb it when wet. When spaded in such condition, even though 

 thoroughly spanked, the soil will dry out lumpy. See page 36, October 

 issvie, where experiments are recommended in making marbles from 

 wet clay, and also from partially dry clay. A clay soil is much improved 

 in friability by mixing with it organic matter or sand. 



Season for Planting. 



It is with serious purpose that I would correlate physical geography 

 with the season for planting seeds. To the inexperienced all plants 

 may seem alike sn far as adaptability of season is concerned. To 



