Now what about the gardens, for it goes without saying that Girl Scouts must have gardens. Getting right down and smelling the fresh soil is good for any one. It is mother earth's own breath. Watching the growth of our seeds is a veritable joy of joys. But what had we better plant? Why not let every one plant at least one tree? Never mind what kind of a tree. We will talk about that in a minute but decide at the outset that you will have at least one tree growing this year. Your trees will be a legacy to posterity, a gift from the Girl Scouts to their country. For in this United States of ours we have cut down too many trees and our forests are fast following the buffalo. Nay, the bare face of the land has already begun to prove less attractive to the gentle rains of heaven and offers far too open a path to the raw blasts of winter. In many sections of our country the climate is drier and colder than it was before so much of the forest was destroyed. We are just waking up to this sad fact which it will take many years to rectify. So let us plant trees.

A tree is a tree anyway be it large or small. Some are useful food producers while others are of value for ornament or timber. All are good. There are no bad trees. So if you plant and raise a tree there can be no mistake. Whatever kind you select you will have done well. Fruit and nut trees will of course appeal most strongly to the young, especially to those with good healthy appetites. Many very young trees can be made to return some fruit in a comparatively short time by being budded or grafted. Scouts should learn how to bud and graft. It is not hard. Pears, plums, figs, and peaches all do well in the South as do also some apples and grapes. Peach trees though are in the main short-lived. But trees of different kinds can be grown all over the country. Apples and pears are at their best in the North and many kinds are very long-lived trees. There are apple trees known to be a hundred years old still bearing. Sugar maple does well where there are long winters, and a wood of them—locally called a "sugar bush"—is a paying piece of property. Most fruit trees are best bought from dealers or obtained from your friends. They do not come "true," as it is called, from the seed. A Baldwin apple-seed will not produce a Baldwin apple. But as all the varieties are got by selecting from seedlings we can experiment if we wish. We are already saving apple-seeds for next year, and it will certainly be grand if we can get a new kind of apple and name it the Girl Scout.

We shall not make many suggestions about flowers. Any and all kinds of flowers will do in your gardens but do not neglect our own wild ones. Take the goldenrod for instance. The finest we have ever seen is grown in a city garden. Many other of our wild flowers will bear cultivating and some well repay the care necessary to "tame" them. The atamasco lily seems to be perfectly at home in the garden and so does the bloodroot. Violets of course would be favorites if our native species were not with one exception scentless. As any gardener's book will tell you all about our "tame" flowers it is not necessary to say much about them.