When you have learned how to make plants comfortable in a flat, you will know what is necessary for their comfort in a window-box. They should have the same kind of earth, but more of it. The box should never be less than eight inches wide and eight inches deep and as long as you can afford to fill with earth and plants. There must be holes in the bottom for drainage, and moss or small stones placed over the holes to prevent the soil from washing away. The plants should be set four to six inches apart in the box. At first, this will seem too great a distance, but after a few weeks of growth, the plants will cover all bare spots. When transplanting either to window-boxes or to the open ground, do it the same way as when changing plants from the cradle flat to the kindergarten flat. I know of a brother and a sister who found enough soil to fill some egg-shells. The shells had small drainage holes in the bottom. In time the plants grew and became too large for the egg-shells. Then the children went in search of more soil. They found enough to fill a few tomato cans. These cans also had drainage holes in the bottom. In each can they set a plant. They then put the cans into a soap box. Then they packed excelsior into all the vacant places in the soapbox. The excelsior helped to hold the moisture. The box stood on a back veranda where the plants had plenty of sunshine. So long as they were comfortable they did their best, which is as much as they could have done if they had been in expensive vases in the grounds of the White House at Washington. CONSIDER YOUR SCHOOL GROUNDS. On the last page of this leaflet are two pictures of a school-house. The first shows how it looked when it had not a friend. The second shows what the friendship of the teacher and the children could do for it. In both cases the building remains the same. Look at one picture and then at the other. See, if you can, what one thing has been done to make the difference--a difference as great as that between a tramp and a gentleman. A few shrubs have been planted by the friends, but the greatest thing they did was to clean up. They took away everything that looked untidy and shabby. At this time of the year you see many beautiful crocuses, tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths. Nothing children can plant will give so much for the labor as these bulbs. Why not have some on the school grounds? When school begins next September, write me for directions how to grow them. [Illustration: _Fig. 363. Product of a child's garden._] [Illustration: _Fig. 364. School premises before improving._] [Illustration: _Fig. 365. School premises after improving._ _Could you not do as much for your school grounds?_] LEAFLET LXXVI. THE GARDENS AND THE SCHOOL GROUNDS.[97] BY JOHN W. SPENCER. [97] Junior Naturalist Monthly, June, 1903. MY DEAR BOYS AND GIRLS: [Illustration]