654 Junior Naturalist Monthly. 



The children in the Ithaca schools are already deciding on the things 

 to plant and you may want to do the same. Ask your teacher to send to 

 any good seed firm for a catalog. These are advertised in rural papers. It 

 is always a great pleasure to me, when the wind is blowing and the snow 

 is flying, to look over a catalog of seeds that 1 may want to plant on a 

 future sweet spring day. I then have visions of onions peeping above 

 the soil, of neat rows of radishes with their pretty, green leaves ; and to 

 my study seem to come odors of sweet alyssum and of mignonette. 



If you have selected a piece of ground, divide it off into sections 

 in your plan, so that each pupil may be given an individual garden. There 

 should be neat paths between these gardens and perhaps an attractive 

 border of flowers that will bloom in autumn when school first opens. This 

 border might be planted and cared for by all the children in the school. 



But you will say, " Who will take care of the garden in summer ? " 

 If you live very far from the school, of course you cannot go every day 

 to care for it; but it will be worth the while to plant it and I am sure 

 some of the things will be growing in the fall when school begins. In 

 summer, those who live near the school will, I am sure, take care of the 

 borders and weed out the garden beds. At any rate you can grow some 

 early crops that can be harvested before the close of school ; radishes, 

 lettuce, onion sets, and many other things which we shall discuss later. 



If you know some resident of the village or district in which you live 

 who is a good farmer, ask your teacher to invite him to the school to 

 talk with you about making your garden. He will suggest crops to be 

 grown for the first year so that you may not become discouraged. 



Now, in these February days, let us look over the seed catalog and 

 select such early crops as we think will be harvested before the last of 

 June. Then let us select some flowers that will be in blossom when we 

 come back to school in autumn. The school garden at Ithaca was very 

 attractive in the September days when the zinnias, marigolds, phlox, 

 larkspur, and bachelor buttons were in bloom. 



We want every boy and girl to make a list of the things he would 

 like to grow in his own small garden plot and send it to Uncle John. 

 Select first those flowers and vegetables that you like best ; then select 

 one that you do not know, for each year one should become familiar 

 with a new plant. 



THE WILLOW 



Ada E. Georgia. 



Now is the time to study winter buds, for many of them begin to 

 swell and show that they feel the " northing sun " as early as February ; 

 and a good way to make the study easy, is to gather small branches and 



