[Illustration:  HARVESTING WHEAT IN THE WEST.]

What is sometimes done with the stalks, or straw?

Indian corn is one of the most useful of plants.  Do you know why it is called Indian corn?  It is because the Indians first raised it.

When is corn planted?  How is the land prepared for planting?  What is done to the corn while the plants are small?  When does it ripen?  How tall does it grow?

[Illustration:  SEVERAL KINDS OF GRAIN.]

What is the stem of the corn called?  What are the flowers on the stalk of corn called?  On what do the grains of corn grow?

What use is made of the green stalks and leaves?  What use is made of the ripe grain?  For what are corn-husks largely used?

Sweet corn, if boiled when green, is an excellent vegetable.  It is preserved by canning.

A large cornfield, with its tall, straight stalks, covered with green shining leaves and crowned by flowers, is a very pleasant sight.

[Illustration:  “ANOTHER GRAIN WHICH WE FIND ON ALMOST EVERY TABLE.”]

Corn is sometimes called the national emblem.  What does emblem mean?

What use is made of oats; barley, rye, and buckwheat?  Some of these grains are useful in two or three ways.

There is another grain which we find on almost every table.  It is rice.  The rice plant, when growing, resembles wheat; but, unlike wheat, it needs a great deal of moisture.  So the rice-grower sows it in fields which he can flood or drain at will.

Do you know what people live on rice without any meat at all?  Ask your teacher to tell you how rice is raised in China and Japan.

You ought to find something to tell your teacher and classmates about the grains.

Perhaps you would enjoy drawing some of the grains you have seen.

Choose one of the grains, and write what you have Learned about it from conversation and observation.

  We plow the fields, and scatter
    The good seed on the land,
  But it is fed and watered
    By God’s almighty hand. 
  He sends the snow in winter,
    The warmth to swell the grain,
  The breezes and the sunshine,
    And soft refreshing rain.

LESSON XXXI.

FRUITS.

Name some trees upon which grow things to eat.  What do we call such trees?

[Illustration:  “THE ORANGE TREES ARE LOADED WITH GOLDEN FRUIT.”]

What fruit trees have you seen?  What do we call the place where many fruit trees grow?

Did you ever pick berries?  What makes it hard to pick blackberries?

Name fruits that grow about here.  Which grow on trees?  Which on bushes?  Which on vines?

Mention the different uses of these fruits.

The orange is one of the most delicious and wholesome of fruits.  It grows only in the warmer parts of our country.  In winter as well as in summer, the orange trees are loaded with golden fruit and fragrant blossom.  The blossoms are white, and are very beautiful.