80 



A SIMPLE FLOWER GARDEN. 



Boil for an hour ; cool and decant the clear solution. 

 Mix a half pint in four gallons of water and use freely. 



THINNING SEEDLINGS 



is something that must be attended to, if good plants are 

 desired. On the spots where the seeds were sown a mat 

 of green plants will appear, and probably growing too thick- 

 ly together for health and comfort. Having determined, 

 from the height and habit of the plant, how many can stand 

 there, pull up and destroy the rest, beginning at the weak- 

 est, so that those left for growth shall be the finest and 

 strongest. 



PINCHING. 



Our common garden plants grow, and increase in size, 

 by what is called "the extension of the growing point." 

 That is, they push out the tip ends of their shoots and 

 elongate them in that one direction. When a plant is in 

 vigorous growth, it will not only extend its shoots in one 

 direction, but in several. From the sides of a shoot other 

 growing points start out. These in turn repeat themselves, 

 and in this way the plant becomes filled with growing ends 

 or shoots. As the flowers are always borne upon the ends 

 of the shoots, it is plain that the more shoots, the more 

 flowers. If by any means the number of shoots is still 

 farther increased, the gain in flowers will correspond. This 

 is easily done by pinching between the thumb and finger 

 the soft and tender tip of the shoot. The plant, disap- 



