220 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Garden Director: "That's just the reason." 



Daniel (finishes transplanting his first head of lettuce. Looks at tomatoes). 

 "Miss Hill, what kind of insects are these on the tomato plants? They 

 jump like everything." 



Garden Director (examining leaves): "These are flea beetles. We 

 must put on some lime. What kind of mouth parts do they have, if they 

 are beetles?" 



Daniel (thinking a moment): "Biting mouth parts." 



Garden Director: "Would you put on something to choke them or 

 something for them to eat?" 



Daniel: "Something to eat, like lime, Paris green, or Bug Death." 



Garden Director: "What did we use to kill the aphids on the lettuce?" 



Daniel: "We used hot soap suds (takes out a lettuce plant and examines 

 it) to choke them, as they have sucking mouth parts, and it has killed 

 them as there are none on it now." (Puts lettuce into ground.) 



Garden Director: "So it has. Pat the earth round them good and 

 hard." 



(Daniel takes another to transplant.) 



Garden Director: "I am going to give you a regular examination to- 

 day. Now tell me about fertilizers. Why do we use them?" 



Daniel: "Because there are certain foods plants cannot easily get from 

 the soil." 



Garden Director: "Yes, and some soil hasn't the proper food, so we 

 have to supply it. Let us go straight through the garden, and see what 

 each plant needs." (Both look at sunflowers.) 



Daniel : " Sunflowers need nitrogen for the growth of leaves and stem. 

 Corn, nitrogen for quick stocky growth, and potash and phosphorus for the 

 maturity and growth of fruit. Tomato plants also need potash and phos- 

 phorus for the growth of fruit." 



Garden Director: "How did you raise these tomato plants?" 



Daniel: "I planted the seed in the house in March, in a twelve-inch 

 square box, in two inches of rich soil. When a few inches high, I thinned 

 them to three inches apart. They grew like everj'thing, and I put them 

 out the first of June." 



Garden Director: "You raised some very nice plants. What kind of 

 food do beans need?" 



Daniel: "Phosphorus and potash for maturing fruit. Beets and rad- 

 ishes need potash for the growth of the roots, and lettuce needs nitrogen 

 for the growth of the leaves." (Transplants fourth plant.) 



Garden Director: "You remember that pretty well. How did we 

 find what phosphates the land needed?" 



Daniel: "By experimenting with pure fertilizers." (Takes out fifth 

 plant. Looking up.) I saw a crow pulling corn this morning." 



Garden Director: "I know the crows pull corn. What is the rhyme 

 we say when we plant corn?" 



