674 Junior Naturalist Monthly. 



wicli, N. Y.. Ruth Kidder, Jamestown, N. Y.. Donald Fox. Avoca, N. Y., 

 Grace Barringer, Middleburgh, N. Y., Elsie Phillips, R. F. D. No. 3, 

 Ithaca, N. Y., Donald Homer Tyler, 116 Lake Ave., Albany, N. Y. 



This year we shall offer ten prizes consisting of books, and we hope 

 that every boy and girl will select one of the topics for a letter or 

 composition which he will send to Uncle John before October 15. The 

 letters that took the prizes last year were not written hastily, I am sure. 

 Many of them were received late in the year and showed that the children 

 had studied the subject during the summer. I would advise you, there- 

 fore, to select some topic from those suggested in this Leaflet and think 

 about it during the coming months. Write the name of the subject with 

 the suggestions given for the study of it in a note-book, and whenever 

 you have found something interesting in connection with it, write the 

 facts briefly. Then when you are ready to send your composition or 

 letter to Uncle John you will have a good many interesting things to 

 tell him. Even if you do not take a prize, this letter will be greatly 

 valued by Uncle John and I am sure you will have learned many things 

 that will be interesting to you through the years. Address all corres- 

 pondence for the prizes to Miss Alice G. McCloskey, Cornell University, 

 Ithaca, N. Y. 



1. The history of a plant grown by a child from seed to seed. Tell 

 all the story : Where you obtained the soil ; whether you started the seed 

 indoors or in the garden ; whether any fertilizer was used ; how you 

 cultivated it ; the length of time from sowing to first bloom ; to seed-time ; 

 how many fold was the increase. Any accident or unusual circumstance 

 which was met and overcome. 



2. Ownership and care of some domestic animal by a child. Some- 

 times parents, as a reward for assistance in caring for the farm animals, 

 will give a boy or girl a pet lamb from the flock, or a bossy calf, or a 

 little pig, or most valuable of all, a little long-legged colt. If any Junior 

 Naturalist is so fortunate as to become an owner of live-stock in this 

 way, we would be glad to have the story. Tell how you first earned the 

 gift; how you cared for it; whether you trained it in anyway; whether 

 you cared for it in any accident or through an illness ; whether it is kept 

 for growth and increase or sold and why. Note the illustration on Page i. 



3. Care and ownership of poultry by children. — Hens, ducks, geese, 

 turkeys. This is a delightful subject on which we hope to have many 

 letters. Tell whether you began with a clutch of eggs, or one or more 

 fowls ; what you fed them, and whether you earned or bought the food 

 yourself, or whether it was given by your parents ; whether you built a 

 coop or roost for them; whether they were thrifty or troubled with 

 disease; whether you suffered loss from prowling enemies — skunks. 



