264 CROP PRODUCTION 



pots are very inexpensive, the smaller sorts costing at whole- 

 sale but twenty-five cents per hundred. They also take up 

 less room than do the common kinds, and as the sides of the 

 pot are of oiled paper they do not allow the constant evapora- 

 tion that is likely to take place in a heated schoolroom from 

 the entire surface of the ordinary flower-pot. They are less 

 easily broken than the ordinary pot and it is safer to trust 

 pupils to carry their plants home in them. 



The seedlings may be grown for several weeks in these 

 individual pots and are then to be transplanted to the outdoor 

 garden. If, in the meanwhile, the roots get too crow^ded in 

 the pot in which a plant is growing it should of course be 

 repotted into a pot of larger size. 



The Flower Border 



In the case of the more important annual flowers discussed 

 in these pages specific directions are given for transplanting 

 them out of doors. In general it may be said, however, that 

 the best place to plant the flowxr garden is along the border 

 of a yard, with the fence or w^all as background, or along the 

 sides of the house or in some part of the vegetable garden. 

 Flower gardens should not be a bit of space cut in the middle 

 of a lawn, for this not only injures the beauty of the lawn 

 but it seldom gives the flowers a good opportunity to develop. 



The first requisite for a successful border garden is a wjell- 

 prepared place for the roots to live and feed in. In almost 

 any school this is easily accomplished if the teacher will let 

 the pupils help. Dig out the soil or sand or gravel of the site 

 selected to a depth of at least eighteen inches, — two feet is 

 better. Then fill in this lower space with fallen leaves, 

 grass raked from the lawn, mulching from the winter cover- 

 ings of ornamental gardens, almost anything in fact that 

 consists chiefly of plant fiber that will rot down to form 

 humus. As these materials are placed on the bottom, 



