CHILDREN'S GARDENS 109 



When children see that plants grow a long time in 

 sawdust, without earth, their attention will be roused 

 as to where the plant gets its food, and they will be 

 more easily convinced that the greater part comes from 

 the air. 



Earthworm box. Start the earthworm box and 

 give a few simple talks about what the earthworm does 

 in preparing soil. 



Sprouting plants. When the children come into the 

 garden each day, they will want to go first to their own 

 plots to see what has happened since the last visit. 

 About the third day they will probably find small 

 cracks, and slight lifting of the soil directly over where 

 the seeds are beginning to sprout, and in a very short 

 time the different vegetables will begin to appear above 

 ground. 



Attention should be called to the special way which 

 each vegetable has of coming up and the shape and 

 color of the first leaves. This is especially necessary 

 with such plants as the radish and carrot, whose second 

 leaves are quite different from the first ones, and with 

 the onions, which have an interesting method of com- 

 ing up with the leaf doubled, and the bean, which 

 lifts the whole seed from the ground, and seems to 

 back out. If they are keeping diaries they should pick 

 some of these first and second leaves and make tracings 

 of them, and note the date of the first appearance of 

 each above ground. 



Some small weeds may come rapidly, and the chil- 

 dren should be shown how to pull these, but warned 



