101 



than six months. For roasting or baking, the best method is to 

 wrap the meat in some of the leaves ; and for boihng, to add to 

 the water some of the expressed juice or a piece of unripe fruit. 

 The exact proportion to be used, and the time to be employed 

 to render meat tender without softening it too much, can only 

 be learned by experience ; but in a hot country, where meat is 

 necessarily cooked so soon after killing, a method by which it 

 may with certainty be served tender, without detriment to its 

 flavor or wholesomeness, is worth taking some trouble to de- 

 termine. There can be no doubt concerning this property of the 

 papaw juice and leaves, for we have frequently rubbed tough 

 beefsteak with the milk of the unripe fruit with the result that 

 the meat could be pulled to pieces with a fork on the following 

 morning. The milk has a remarkable effect in eradicating corns 

 and warts. A decoction of the leaves is a wholesome medicine in 

 internal fevers. The dried leaves mixed and smoked with to- 

 bacco, or alone, afford great relief in cases of asthma. For dys- 

 entery the ripe fruit is a sovereign remedy. — Tropical Agri- 

 culturist. 



HOW TO MAKE A SCHOOL GARDEN. 



The following interesting article contributed by ]\Ir. C. A. 

 Barber to the "Madras Agricultural Calendar," is reproduced in 

 The Journal of the Board of Agriculture of British Guiana. 

 Every elementary school should have its garden. It is, of course, 

 important for children to learn to read and write and to do simple 

 sums, but other things are necessary to equip them for life, es- 

 pecially in those cases where the mass of the population is de- 

 voted to agriculture. They must be taught to observe ; not only 

 to see things, but to understand what they see. The school 

 garden, if properly managed, is one of the best means of training 

 children in this way. There is yet another way in which the 

 school garden may be useful. If the children are taught to do 

 work themselves, they will be taught to do things, not merely 

 to know how to do them. The school garden, then, may be used 

 to train children in observing, in reasoning, and in the capacity 

 for doing things for themselves, all very important matters in 

 after life. They can also be taught to be neat and methodical by 

 making them keep the place neat and tidy. 



The main Ime of work should be to learn all about the way 

 plants grow. Plants should be reared and examined at all stages 

 from the bursting seed to the flowering and fruiting stages. The 

 sowing of seeds in pans should be taught, with the necessary pro- 

 tection against the sun. wind and rain. The seedlings when very 

 tiny should be pricked out into smooth beds so as to leave just 

 room for them to expand and make a few leaves. Then they 

 should be lifted, each with a ball of earth around its roots, and 



