AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS 



carefully noting results and percentage of germina- 

 tion. Seeds should be clean, bright, plump, and 

 range from 85 to 90 per cent in fertility. 



In distributing seeds for planting, they may be 

 given out in envelopes or poured into the child's 

 hand when he is ready to drop them into the 

 ground. If the first method is used the envelopes 

 should be distinctly stamped with name of seed, 

 and perhaps in addition, with a brief cultural 

 direction as to the depth of planting and distance 

 apart.* For marking such envelopes a rubber 

 stamp or alphabet costing about 75 cents will be 

 found very useful. In some gardens the lesson 

 of the day is written on the blackboard to be 

 copied by the children into a class book, and the 

 seeds in envelopes are given them as they pass to 

 the garden. The books are left in the classroom. 

 Some few boys copy planting directions on slips 

 which they take with them; others depend upon 

 comparing memory notes, watching others or 

 asking the teacher. With third or fourth year 

 boys in graded training, or older pupils, this 

 method of blackboard lessons may be good, but 

 with little folks it seems a weary effort and lost 

 labor. For them a diary of what they do and 

 what they see, kept as they choose, long or short, 

 written or drawn (provided they keep it with a 

 fair degree of neatness), is greatly to be preferred. 



♦ Planting tables give the usual depth. See Appendix A, Note 

 10. Very wet weather decreases and very dry weather increases it 

 by about half the depth of normal planting. 



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