spring
wheat.

Winter wheat is sown in the fall. A few days of sun and rain, and the
plants spring up like grass, remaining green through the winter.

What color does the wheat turn as it ripens? When it is ripe what is
done with it?

For what is the flour of wheat used?

[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?

[Illustrat