under his control, of drawing from the atmosphere the free nitrogen of the air, and of fixing it in any field he may wish to enrich. It is a story of minute organisms which are in the soil-or if they are not there the farmer can put them there- which locate themselves upon the roots of certain plants, and give these plants power to store up in their roots, to be left in the soil, its most valuable constituent of plant food - nitrogen. Tell them what the tassel and the silk of the corn are, and why one is at the top of the stalk and the other very much below it. Tell them why the blossoms of corn, oats, rice, and wheat are colorless and odorless, and why the blossoms of cotton and the clover are so beautifully colored and why they have such exquisite perfume. Tell them what the bees and the bumblebees are doing, and of what superlative importance they are to the existence of many plants, and how they are most industriously serving man a little by the honey they make, but vastly more in other ways; for they not only increase his apple, peach, and pear crop, but they also aid in adding fertility to the soil. In the school garden--for there should be a garden near every school-teach many of those devices by which fruits are propagated, and by which a new and desirable variety is multiplied and distributed. Very few of our most valuable fruits are propagated by seeds- in fact some are without fertile seeds. There was never but one Brother Jonathan apple tree, or Sudduth pear tree growing on its own roots. Explain to the children why the seedsman sells no strawberry seeds. Let the larger pupils understand plant breeding, as of corn, in their garden, and tell them about the efforts being made to produce better - better from a dietary point of view varieties of cereals, and also more hardy and more fruitful. The possibilities in plant breeding are just dawning upon the farmer, and are as fascinating to him as are Marconi's discoveries to the telegrapher, yet there is nothing here that a bright pupil might not apprehend; nothing, at any rate, so difficult as the inverted divisor in arithmetic or the passive voice in grammar. Let the children observe how the young things of the farm gain knowledge. The young chick and the colt and the lamb begin with minds all blank and very rapidly they learn, so that shortly they are quite wise. Let children observe the means by which they gain this wisdom. A sitting hen in the schoolroom to hatch her chicks and train them to eat, and to come at her bidding, and to scuttle away and hide when danger comes, would not be a bad beginning for the study of psychology. The successful management of farm animals requires an understanding of this law of their intellectual growth. "Intellect is the outgrowth from the simple reflex response to external conditions." Let the children observe that all young animals upon the farm are at first without fear, and that the emotion of fear only comes to preserve from harm, and that if the young things meet no harm, and early receive kind usage, they will always be without fear. The application of this upon the farm to the rearing of animals will soon make a "happy family" of all; and the resulting kindliness of treatment which will be given to all farm animals will greatly enhance their value, increase the working years of the horse, the richness and the quality of milk from the cow, the rapidity with which weight on the fatting animals accumulates, and add greatly to the pleasure and the profit of those engaged in animal husbandry. Who can doubt the practical value of teaching these things to those who are to be the future farmers of this land? Think how it would brighten the dull monotony of the lonesome little country school to teach the children to understand the things about them; the weeds by the roadside and the harm they do; the birds in the hedge and the good they do; the honeybee and the white clover, the bumblebee and the red clover, and the great value of the work they accomplish; the angle worm in the field and its work. These things for the child, and more complex things for the young man and the young woman of the farm, how they would change the mental and spiritual attitude of the future farmer toward his vocation! Instead of being either the discontented drudge longing to get to town, as he so often is, or of being the hard-fisted, grasping land grabber, which some, alas! are, he would be a student working joyously and happily and successfully in that greatest of all laboratories--a well-kept farm. "BEHOLD! the Holy Grail is found- MY SUMMER IN THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SET A TLEMENT KINDERGARTEN. BERTHA JOHNSTON. FTER ten long months at my desk I decided this year to accept an invitation to be head gardener for eight weeks in a child garden in New York, and feel greatly refreshed and enriched by my life with these vigorous plantlets. The garden was in the most congested district of a large city. We had good weather most of the time, tho there were days when the atmosphere was charged with something akin to electrical disturbance, for some of the plants had decided electrical properties. I had the usual assortment of types found in any such garden of fifty individuals. In a few days I could classify the larger number, tho some I had to study at greater length in order to know the family characteristic and the exact treatment required to develop their highest, and eliminate undesirable tendencies. My plants were peculiar, in that they required little or no water, but responded much more happily to a daily apportionment of good milk, and a good child plant food, known as crackers. Change of air agreed with them marvelously well, and I therefore transplanted them every week, for a few hours, either to Central Park or to Midland Beach. At the latter place, strange to say, tho they were not what would be called salt water plants, they all were instinctively drawn to the rolling surf, and seemed to suffer no harm from any dash of salt water, but brightened up perceptibly after the treatment. Their daily portion of milk and crackers was, however, not omitted, but, on the contrary, doubled in response to a crying need. My flowers were not annuals, but might properly be called dailies; at least they popped their heads up in my garden-bed every week-day. Some were of the climbing variety, and every afternoon were seen mounting the stairways up to the roof-garden, there to enjoy anew the sunshine and air and movement that should have been their natural heritage. Some of my plants were very young. belonged to a nursery, but having once Indeed, they properly admitted them I could not find it in my heart to uproot them. Among these there were several Johnny-jump-ups, and they were particularly vigorous, so much so that I found it necessary, especially with some of the older specimens, to bind them, for a short time, to a support, to assist in training them in the desired direction. It was very pretty to see the little specimens together, tho at times there was visible a tendency to interfere with one another's movements, and to knock each other by unfortunate, tho not by always unthought, movement of both upper and lower limbs. Thus the gardener in time discovered that she had in her garden several weeping Willies that required very judicious treatment, as it was the gardener's ambition to transform, by wise and loving system of nurture and selection, the weeping varieties into sunnyfaced blossoms. It is truly delightful to observe the wonderful transformation that can be thus made in the characteristics of the different seedlings. Some of the older growths were nearly ready for transplanting to the public garden, which would receive them in September. These were at times troublesome, tho for no real fault in their own natures. It simply meant that they needed now a different environment. They threatened at times to overrun my garden of seedlings and to crowd out the sweeter qualities we were cultivating. The one assistant gardener was efficient, and there was a capable little attendant, but with a garden of so many plants of such varying degrees of development the aid of at least one more trained gardener would have been invaluable in keeping out weeds and in the giving to each exactly what its nature required. Another year the gardener would, perhaps, do better by excluding the tiniest seedlings. There was one occasion only when the head-gardener found herself in a state of grievous anxiety. That was the day when a wee plant of uncertain variety proved to be a Wandering Jew. The tiny thing strayed beyond the set boundaries and wandered on and on in sore perplexity itself, and the cause of consternation and grief to the parent plant and the gardener, who set off in dire distress to find the little one which certainly found it no great joy to go a-roaming on this particular day. No true gardener could rest until she knew a stray plantlet was safe at night in its own proper bed, and it caused infinite relief and joy when, late at night, the wanderer was found safe and sleepy in one of those havens (?) for the lost, known as police stations, whither a kindly stranger hand had conducted it. It has been a truly happy summer, and the blossoms have thriven, on the whole. The gardeners have gained valuable experiences, and will always recall with genuine pleasure their summer in this garden, which those less experienced might call a wilderness. S' A VERY YOUNG KINDERGARTNER. ALICE DAY PRATT. HE was a very young kindergartner with whom the habit of thoughtfulness was still too new to sit quite easily, and whose restless energy of manner and seldom wholly untroubled earnestness of expression betokened perpetual inquiry. She came softly into the office of her ex-superior, a woman of large affairs, and seating herself to await the latter's convenience, immediately fell into a brown study. Half an hour later the two had established themselves for a quiet conference in a secluded corner of a neighboring park, just so far withdrawn from scenes of activity that signs of life still might but need not be observed. Then the young girl turned suddenly upon her friend. "I have had an experience!" she said. The older woman made no attempt to hide a smile. It was so rare for these young crusaders to have experiences. "You know I have had a day off," Camilla proceeded unheeding, "and I went down, before nine this morning, to Asheley House to get every minute of the day's program. It is unbelievable that I have never been there before, but it has happened so. Two other visitors besides myself were there on time. A fashionable young mother of one of the children and such an antiquelooking old gentleman. "As I entered the room the kindergarten day was already beginning, inaugurated by a soft, slow rhythm from the piano-a signal evidently to the children to lay away dolls and toys and gather on the circle for the first half hour's rhythmic activity. The effect of the gathering was kaleidoscopic-those numerous moving atoms of daintiness and color (so different from my own poor little half-clad creatures), each at first bent on a separate errand, but gathering gradually and surely to the common center. I was hypnotized, I suspect, for certainly I never experienced a half hour of more perfect satisfaction of mind and sense than that which followed. "I had time while the circle was forming to feast my eyes on the appointments of the room. Such harmony of color! and such. pictures everywhere!-pictures suggestive of all that is highest |