_3. How to water the plants._--I wonder if you have a watering-pot? If you have, put it where you cannot find it; for we are going to water this garden with a rake! We want you to learn, in this little garden, the first great lesson in farming,--how to save the water in the soil. If you learn that much this summer, you will know more than many old farmers do. You know that the soil is moist in the spring when you plant the seeds. Where does this moisture go to? It dries up,--goes off into the air. If we could cover up the soil with something, we should prevent the moisture from drying up. Let us cover it with a layer of loose, dry earth! We will make this covering by raking the bed every few days,--once every week anyway, and oftener than that if the top of the soil becomes hard and crusty, as it does after a rain. Instead of pouring water on the bed, therefore, we will keep the moisture in the bed. If, however, the soil becomes so dry in spite of you that the plants do not thrive, then water the bed. Do not _sprinkle_ it, but _water_ it. Wet it clear through at evening. Then in the morning, when the surface begins to get dry, begin the raking again to keep the water from getting away. Sprinkling the plants every day or two is one of the surest ways to spoil them. _4. When and how to sow._--The sweet peas should be put in just as soon as the ground can be dug, even before frosts are passed. Yet good results can be had if the seeds are put in as late as the 10th of May. In the sweet pea garden at Cornell last year, we sowed the seeds on the 20th of April. This was about right. The year before, we sowed them on the 30th. If sown very early, they are likely to bloom better, but they may be gone before the middle of September. The blooming can be much prolonged if the flowers are cut as soon as they begin to fade. Plant sweet peas deep,--two or three or sometimes even four inches. When the plants are a few inches high, pull out a part of them so that they will not stand nearer together than six inches in the row. It is a good plan to sow sweet peas in double rows,--that is, put two rows only five or six inches apart,--and stick the brush or place the chicken-wire support between them. China asters may be sown from the middle of May to the first of June. In one large test at Cornell, we sowed them the 4th of June, and had good success; but this is rather later than we would advise. The China asters are autumn flowers, and they should be in their prime in September and early October. Sow the aster seed shallow,--not more than a half inch deep. The tall kinds of asters should have at least a foot between the plants in the row, and the dwarf kinds six to eight inches.