1024 RcRAL School Leaflet. 



Perhaps some of the children may live so near to the school-house 

 that they can grow their plants upon the school-grounds, and so have 

 Sweet-peas and Asters where there are usually docks and smartweeds. 

 Grow them alongside the fence, or against the school-house if there is a 

 place where the eaves will not drip on them. 



2. How to make the bed. — Spade the ground up deep. Take out all 

 the roots of docks and thistles and other weeds. Shake the dirt all out 

 of the sods and throw the grass away. You may need a little manure 

 in the soil, especially if the land is eithqr very hard or very loose and 

 sandy. But the manure must be very fine and well mixed into the soil. 

 It is easy, however, to make Sweet-pea soil so rich that the plants will 

 run to vine and not bloom well. 



Make the bed long and narrow, but not narrower than three feet. 

 If it is narrower than this the grass roots will be likely to run under it 

 and suck up the moisture. If the bed can be got at on both sides it 

 may be as wide as five feet. 



Sow the seeds in little rows crosswise the bed. The plants can then 

 be weeded and hoed easily from either side. If the rows are marked 

 by little sticks, or if a strong mark is left in the earth, you can break 

 the crust between the rows (with a rake) before the plants are up. The 

 rows ought to be four or five inches farther apart than the width of a 

 narrow rake. 



3. How to water tJie plants. — I wonder if you have a watering pot? 

 If you have, put it where you cannot find it; for we are going to water 

 this garden with a rake! We want you to learn, in this little garden, 

 the first great lesson in farming, — how to save the water in the soil. 

 If you learn that much this summer, you will know more than nlany 

 grown-up farmers do. You know that the soil is moist in the spring when 

 you plant the seeds. Where does this moisture go to? It dries up, — 

 goes off into the air. If we could cover up the soil with something, we 

 should prevent the moisture from drying up. Let us cover it with a 

 layer of loose, dry earth! We will make this covering by raking the 

 bed every few days, — once every week anyway, and oftener than that 

 if the top of the soil becomes hard and crusty, as it does after a rain. 

 Instead of pouring water on the bed, therefore, we will keep the moisture 

 in the bed. 



If, however, the soil becomes so dry in spite of you that the plants 

 do not thrive, then water the bed. Do not sprinkle it, but water it. 

 Wet it clear through at evening. Then in the morning, when the sur- 

 face begins to get dry, begin the raking again to keep the water from 

 getting away. Sprinkling the plants every day or two is one of the 

 surest ways to spoil them. 



