irregular rows, and wide space
between rows--all these scored against Jack. George's corn was thrown
out because black kernels were found here and there in with the others.

Albert's and Jay's Peep-o-day came out in fine shape. But Peter's
Country Gentleman after all had the record. Philip dropped out of the
race because he went on a summer vacation. So for a slight amount Peter
took over Philip's corn hills.

That fall the boys made very careful selection of seed corn.

"After all," Myron said one night at club meeting, "although Peter's
corn was the only really fine specimen, I think some of the rest of us
got fully as much out of the corn contest."

"So do I," added Jack; "and I, for one, shall test corn after this."

"I think our corn was pretty good," Albert went on in a half-injured
way; "but we are going to beat that record next year. We shall rotate
our crop, planting our corn where the beans were this season. That's a
thing fellows ought to know; that it's a mighty good thing to rotate
crops."

"What's that?" asked Philip.

"Rotating crops means not always planting the same crop on the same
piece of land, but changing every two or three years. It happens that
beans are very good to plant before corn. They do not take from the
soil, The Chief says, what the corn needs. So a piece of soil planted to
beans gets in shape for corn planting another year. It would not be well
to plant corn on a certain piece of land more than two successive
years. Then something else should be planted on this land and the corn
put somewhere else."

"Good!" said The Chief. "Some day we shall discuss rotation of crops
more fully. There are no end of topics for us to work over this next
winter."

XV

THE GIRLS' SECRET WORK

The girls were each to raise something special at their own home and
then each was to have a share in a big garden. Katharine, who had quite
a lovely yard, was to give the space for the general garden. This was
largely because Katharine's home was on the river road, a bit out of the
village and near none of the boys' places, for the girls wished to keep
the knowledge of their work from the boys as long as possible. Helena
lived next house to George and the land she might have used for this big
garden would have bordered George's corn patch. So that, of course,
would never do.

The garden while formal was ornamental. The girls were all to work on
the staking out and preparation. But each girl w