204 THE SCHOOL GARDEN BOOK 



thinnings: the first when the plants are very small, leaving 

 them about one-half an inch apart in the row; the second 

 when they are larger, leaving them about three inches apart 

 in the row. After this, pull the young roots as fast as they 

 get large enough to eat, and this will give room for those 

 that mature later to spread out to a larger size. 



Summer grown turnips are very likely to be badly injured 

 by root maggots, a pest that is difficult to contend against. 

 The earliest crop is not so likely to be injured. In localities 

 where these insects are very abundant, it is scarcely worth 

 while to attempt to grow turnips unless one has a consider- 

 able area, so that the crop may be rotated from place to place 

 in succeeding years. 



POPPIES 



Few flowers are more exquisitely beautiful than poppies, 

 although the very quality of the beauty necessitates that it 

 be ephemeral. Poppies may be grown in any garden and 

 the glorious blossoms are yielded in great abundance, while 

 the variations of type are so numerous that one may gratify 

 almost any artistic taste with them. The simple whiteness 

 of the single Shirley Poppy is very different from the gorgeous 

 splendor of the bright-balled Fairy Blush, while between the # 

 two are all gradations of form and color. No flowers, per- 

 haps, are better adapted to the school garden than these; to 

 give each child a row of one variety to care for would be a 

 means of liberal culture. 



Poppy blossoms are creatures of a day, but this transitori- 

 ness enables their lovers to handle them afresh each morning 

 with new delight. To Celia Thaxter, whose passion for 

 poppies has been revealed so delightfully in the pages of 



