RVESTING AND STORING OF GARDEN CROPS

As soon as the vegetables reach their best stage of development, they
should be taken from the garden by the owner. All dead plants and refuse
should be removed and covered up in a compost heap. The boys of this
Form should also assist in doing part of the general work of the school
garden. They might take up from the garden border such tender plants as
dahlias, gladioli, and Canna lilies. These should be dried off and
stored in a cool, dry cellar. If the cellar be warm, it is necessary to
cover the bulbs with garden soil to prevent their drying out too much.

CLASS-ROOM LESSON

The pupils are led, through conversation, to state their experiences and
observations. The teacher assists them in interpreting their
observations and organizing their knowledge and stimulates them to
thoughtful search for further information.

Discuss with the pupils such questions as:

What are people busy doing on their farms and in their gardens at this
time of year? Why do they harvest and store the wheat, oats, corn,
potatoes, and apples, etc.? Are there any countries in which people do
not need to gather in the grains, vegetables, and fruits?

The discussion of these questions will direct their thought to the need
of storing sufficient food for animals and for man to last through the
winter, when these things do not grow. They must be gathered to protect
them from destruction by storms of wind and rain and the severe frosts
of winter. People who live in very warm countries find foods growing all
the year round, and they do not need to prepare for winter, but these
people are always lazy and unprogressive.

Discuss the means taken to protect the various crops, as follows:

Why can grain be kept in barns or granaries or in stacks? Why can
apples, turnips, and potatoes not be kept in the same way as grains?
What are the conditions that are best suited for keeping the latter
products? Name some kinds of crops that cannot be kept in any of the
ways already discussed. Why can they not be kept in these ways?

These discussions will develop the idea of the necessity of keeping
apples, potatoes, and turnips, in cellars, root-houses, and pits, where
they cannot freeze, but where they are kept at uniformly low
temperatures which are as close as possible to their freezing points.
The air must not be too dry, as dryness causes them to shrivel up. In
dry cellars they should be covered with fine soil. Very