192 SCIENCE OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 



HOME PROJECT 19 



Purpose. To raise some early vegetables. 



Directions. Early vegetables sell at good prices. They are 

 also very desirable for the home table. If you care to raise them 

 for either of these reasons, study up all you can about hotbeds 

 and cold frames in some book like Bailey's Manual of Gardening. 

 Follow the instructions you find there, and make and plant a 

 hotbed or cold frame. Keep an account of the value of the 

 plants raised. An expense account may be kept, like that sug- 

 gested on page 201. 



SCHOOL PROJECT 6 



Purpose. To raise seedlings of some vegetables in the 

 schoolroom so they may be taken home and planted, in your 

 gardens. 



Directions. Those who are interested can work together to 

 raise seedlings of some plants like lettuce, cabbage, and tomato 

 in boxes in the schoolroom. For this purpose shallow flats can be 

 made and the seeds planted in them. Care should be taken to 

 see that the plants do not freeze between Friday and Monday. 

 When it is time to set the plants outdoors, they may be divided 

 among the members of the class and taken home. 



Cultivation of soil. After the plants have once got started, 

 the essential point in caring for them is to hoe the ground 

 around them often. This serves three purposes, it keeps 

 down the weeds, it mixes air with the soil for the roots to 

 use, and it helps retain the moisture in the soil. During 

 the winter and early spring the ground becomes soaked with 

 water, and then as the warm weather comes on the water evap- 

 orates and the soil becomes dry. There is usually enough 

 water in the soil in the spring to last the plants nearly all 

 summer if it can only be kept from evaporating and thus 

 retained in the soil where the roots can use it. The water 

 at first sinks down deep into the earth and then gradually 

 rises to the surface, where it evaporates. Between the par- 

 ticles of soil are small pores through which the water rises by 



