244 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [10:6— Sept., J914 



school year. The garden shotild mean infinitely more to the 

 school than the interest that attends an incidental crop. What 

 value, measiired by any standard, is a plat of ground upon 

 which a few vegetables are grown during one season while for 

 the remainder of the year it is abandoned to the weeds. 



Crops by Seasons. 



The attention given a garden at any one season of the year 

 depends very largely upon two things; namely, what crops have 

 been grown on the ground the previous season, and what the 

 conditions will permit to be done during the season in question. 

 Of course, in addition to these might be mentioned overlapping 

 work such as gathering the crops of the preceding season, and 

 making preparation for the succeeding crops. 



In the case of school gardening the vacation season is a very 

 potent factor in determining the succession and companion crops 

 of the year. For reasons previously advanced there should be, 

 without question, vacation crops. Of course they should be of 

 such a character as to demand a minimum of attention and be 

 least subject to any unfavorable conditions of environment that 

 are likely to arise during the summer months. Their time of 

 seeding, period of growth and date of maturing should be such 

 as to make it possible to connect them up with the school work. 

 In other words, vacation crops should be planted just before the 

 close of school in the spring and should mature just in time to 

 be gathered by pupils after school opens in the fall. The ques- 

 tion naturally arises, how can the garden be kept economically 

 busy during the months from September to May? To meet the 

 needs of the school and to conform to Southern climatic condi- 

 tions fall and winter crops should be planted that can be removed 

 by the latter part of February at the latest, and early spring 

 vegetables be grown that can be disposed of in time to prepare 

 the ground for planting vacation crops in May. 



The Fall and Winter Period. 

 It is the purpose of what follows to suggest some possibilities 

 for the fall and winter period. Under the head of outdoor work 

 fall, growing crops in the open, in hot beds and in cold frames; 

 starting early spring vegetables in hot beds, hardening off the 

 more delicate ones in cold frames, and planting in the open the 



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