Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-05-21


verse:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
1t is not the finest specimen of a
rhyme, as to make it jingle properly you
have to say contrary, which is contrary
to the rules of pronunciation. Perhaps
| instead of asking Mary, or any other
yOungster, boy or girl, how her or his
garden grows, had better find out if she
or he has garden. Have g0u garden?
If not, go to work right off and make
one. You will think that very diff
cult thing to do, especially those girls and
| boys who live in towns and villages
where land, one of the very first things
one needs in making garden, is very
scarce. The word garden covers a wide
range, as a garden may be of many acres,
| only few feet of backyard, or an old
soap or similar box filled with earth. In
| fact, it often happens that the one who
has the smallest of these gardens finds
more enjoyment in it than those who
have very large ones. Enjoyment is
Just what | wish you to have a garden
for, and [ hope that every boy and girl
| old enough to read this will this summer
have garden, if it is only just one plant.
and that bean or one of the commonest
|
in the ground and seen plants grow, here
is something you can do that will give
! you pleasure all summer long. Not
pleasure only, but you can learn much
| from a garden even if it is only a very
| little one in box or a pot. The crack
ling sound when you stroke the cats
back on cold, dry day in win
ter is only thunder on very
small scale; the little snaps are from
| the same cause which follow the same
| laws as that which makes the stunning
! thunder clap. A tWenty-acre field of
wheat is made up of single wheat plants,
and if you SOW single wheat grain and
watch it from the seed until the plant that
comes from it ripens wheat again you
can learn as much about the way IN which
wheat grows as if you had large field to
observe. Indeed, you would be likely to
learn more, as having but one plant to
watch you would have better chance to
see what it was doing than if it were
crowded by others. If you can get
small bed in the large garden of your
parents that will be very pleasant; but if
this is not convenient you may be able to
find little spot in some fence corner
somewhere. Those who live on a farm
will usually be able to do one or the other
of these. Those who cannot get a bit of
earth in any other way can have box in
some safe place, only box of earth will
often need watering in hot weather. Hay
ing the earth, it must be made light
and fine by digging and raking, and then
it will be ready for the seeds. What
seeds shall | sOw?" you will ask next;
and my answer will be, What you can
| get. If your mother finds that you wish
to have little garden: you may take my
word for it that she will be very glad to
| help you, and if she has no flower seeds
there are no doubt some friends who have
will be willing to let you have some. |
| have noticed that persons who are really
fond Of flowers are not only willing but
glad to help others who love them. II
there are no flower seeds, then take some
beaEs, or squash, or any garden or field
plant Only have something that will
grow, and that you can watch from
day to day. Don't put your seeds too
deep, nor too thick. Small seeds need
but very little earth as a covering, and
no plants do well when they are crowded.
\ on must ask some older person to tell
you how the seeds ought to be sown. A
seed-did you ever see anything more
wonderful? A little dry, 1ifeless body
that has been lying still for months, it
may be for years. You put it in the
ground, and what wonderful change! A
living plant comes from it that viii grow
often many feet in length. don't mean
to say that the plant was in the seed, but
the beginning Of it was tiny, baby plant,
so to speak, all wrapped up, very much
asleep, you will think, to have kept quiet
so long, and with enough food with it to
keep it growing until it is strong enough
and quite ready to run alone. Suppose
that all plants had heretofore grown from
cuttings or slips Of other plants, just as
you know some do, and some one should
come along with bag of seed, we will
say tomato seed, and declare that each
one of these little yellowish things, no
bigger than fiattened out pins head,
would produce large plant that would
bear bushel of fruit, who would believe
him? Why, each single seed would be
a greater wonder than Barnum's "Great
Moral Show" But, oh dear! Gods won
ders are so manifold that we all of us, old
and young, have our senses confused by
their very abundance. As with the seed,
the whole of a plants life is full of won
ders, and II you watch your plants care
fully you will see every day some
new thing. If you have morning
glorles or other climbing plants, just see
~ my 5St 1iOlo vi W IiiL up
their weak stems; if they Irvine like
morning glory, just try to make one of
them Irvine in the opposite way and see
| what success you will have. Each leafa
II appears will be thing of beauty, and
then there will be fowers-bright deli
cate f1owers-for you to admire. But be-
lore the flowers open there will be some
| thing to see that is quite as interesting as
anything else about them You must no.
tice,. with the single flowers at least how
nicely the parts are packed away IN the
bud. The parts of the flower are not
slowed away all in a mass, but each as
carefully folded as your mother folds her
choicest linen. Just see how nicely the
morning glory is packed, and how pref
tily it is twined, and compare this with
the way in which the flower Of the four
O'Clock and others are tucked in. Then,
as flowers go, seeds will begin to ripen
You will notice that the seeds are in pods
or cases of different shapes, and that some
Of them when ripe open to let the seeds