tomatoes, beets and
carrots. This combination of vegetables was a happy choice as they all
can well wait until rather late for planting. The boys used the planting
table that Peter had worked out.

[Illustration: Photograph by H.L. Schultz

<b>Jay's Tile Drain Converted a Swamp Into a Garden</b>]

Many times boys and girls are bothered by the word "hill". I have seen
boys make nice little heaps of earth and then make a hole in the top of
these like a crater in a volcano. Down into this crater they poke
seeds. Now a hill merely means a place. This place is not to be heaped
up above the level of the ground. Place five seeds to the hill. Do not,
of course, make a little pile of these seeds but lay them on the ground
with a little space between seeds, say an inch. When planting beans
place the eye of each bean down against the ground. The bean stands up
on edge.

The pumpkins were planted in between the hills of corn. This is just the
place to plant pumpkin or squash because there is opportunity sufficient
for the vines to run. Remember not to plant these two together.

Soon after the pumpkins began to come up the boys noticed one morning
that the leaves had been eaten. Some were completely riddled, looking
like lace work. Digging about the ground Albert found a black and white
striped beetle. Its name is the Striped Beetle. The boys killed these in
the course of three days. They bought five cents' worth of white
hellebore, which is a powder, and sprinkled it on the ground in a circle
about the stems of the young plants. They made the circles some six
inches from the plant stalk. Doing this at night, the evening dews
prevented the scattering about of the powder. They put this on for
three nights. Afterwards sand was sprinkled lightly over the hills and
at the end of the runners. This makes a discouraging sort of prospect
for the beetle who is hunting for something good to eat, not sand to
walk over. If instead of sand they had used lime it would have been
better. For the lime is quite likely to form a sticky mass on the legs
of the insect pest. The moisture from dew or rainwater helps this along,
while sand is far more likely to drop off the victim's legs. The Chief
felt sure that besides the beetles there were slugs in the garden. Slugs
are very likely to bother. They appear early in the season, feed chiefly
at night and after rains, and lay eggs throughout the summer and autumn.
These eggs are laid in the ground and