up on a fence-post. It has no background, and it looks out of place. 

 The picture does not mean anything when hung in such a spot. In 

 the same way, a flower bed does not mean -anything when set out in 

 the center of a lawn. We must have a background for it, if possible, — 

 a wall upon which to hang it. So we will put the flower bed just in 

 front of some bushes or near the back fence, or alongside the smoke- 

 house, or along the walk at the side of the house or in the back yard. 

 The flowers will not only look better in such places, but it will not 

 matter so much if we make a failure of our flower bed; there are always 

 risks to run, for the old hen may scratch up the seeds, the cow may 

 break into the yard some summer night, or some bug may eat the 

 plants up. 



Perhaps some of the children may live so near to the school house 

 that they can grow their plants upon the school grounds, and so have 

 sweet peas and asters where there are usually docks and smartweeds. 

 Grow them alongside the fence, or against the school house if there is 

 a place where the eaves will not drip on them. 



2. Mow to make the bed. — Spade the ground up deep. Take out all 

 the roots of docks and thistles and other weeds. Shake the dirt all out 

 of the sods and throw the grass away. You may need a little manure 

 in the soil, especially if the land is either very hard or very loose and 

 sandy. But the manure must be very fine and well mixed into the 

 soil. It is easy, however, to make sweet pea soil so rich that the plants 

 vsdll run to vine and not bloom well. 



Make the bed long and narrow, but not narrower than three feet. If 

 it is narrower than this, the grass roots will be apt to run under it and 

 suck up the moisture. If the bed can be got at on both sides, it may 

 be as wide as five feet. 



Sow the seeds in little rows crosswise the bed. The plants can then 

 be weeded and hoed easily from either side. If the rows are marked 

 by little sticks, or if a strong mark is left in the earth, you can break 

 the crust between the rows (with a rake) before the plants are up. The 

 rows ought to be four or five inches further apart than the width of a 

 narrow rake. 



3. Row to wafer the plants. — I wonder if you have a watering-pot? 

 If you have, put it where you cannot find it, for we are going to water 

 this garden with a rake! We want you to learn, in this little garden, 

 the first great lesson in farming, — how to save the water in the soil. 

 If you learn that much this summer, you will know more than many 

 old farmers do. You know that the soil is moist in the spring when 

 you plant the seeds. Where does this moisture go to? It dries up, — 

 goes off into the air. If we could cover up the soil with something, we 



