V23919 Bamboo Plantation, Nanking, China

People in Asia use the bamboo plant in many, many ways. First of all, Chinese people are very fond of bamboo sprouts. The underground stems are dug up and eaten like asparagus. Long pieces of large, dried bamboo stalks are used to carry water. Boys and girls take the long tubes to the stream and fill them. Whole houses are built of bamboo. The large stems make the support. The smaller ones are tied together to make walls and ceilings. Instead of lead and iron pipes, bamboo is hollowed out and used. The outside of the stem is so hard that it can be used as a whetstone. What is bamboo used for in our country?

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V26363) Walnut Grove in Southern California

Look at the little streams of water. Do you think it has just rained? No. Then where did the water come from? These walnut trees need a great deal of water and there is not enough rain. The owner of this walnut grove has made little ditches between the rows of trees. Then he has pumped water into the ditches from a canal. The water seeps through the ground to the roots of the trees.

Can you find any nuts on the trees? Do they look like the walnuts you have seen? Why not?

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V26361 Maple Sugar in Barrels Drawn by Oxen to the Station for Shipment

When you eat maple sugar candy do you ever wonder where it comes from?

The trees you see are maple trees. Early in March holes are bored into the trees and buckets are placed to catch the sap that runs out. Everyday men go to the trees and collect the sap. They empty the buckets into a big barrel. Then they take it back to the little house you see in the picture. There they have big pans over fire. All of the sap is put into the big pans and boiled until it is a thick syrup. If it is boiled long enough it turns to maple sugar when cold.

What kind of animal do you see in this picture? What is that strange thing on their necks? Did you know that the queer sled on which the barrel rests is called a stone boat.

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13569 Great Trees in the Oregon Forest

In the western part of our country there are large forests of big trees. These trees were big when George Washington was a boy. They have been growing larger ever since. Some of them are so large that you and six of your playmates together could not reach around one of them.

It would be very easy to get lost in a forest like this, so the boys will not go far from the clearing.

Some of the trees have been cut down and the land has been cleared to make farms. The trees are sawed into lumber to build houses. In parts of our country so many trees have been cut down that there are no forest left. Now people are sorry the forest is gone.

Our government is trying to save some of the forest which are still standing. It sends out men to see that fires do not get started. They see that trees are not cut down without a good reason. They explain to people how wonderful and valuable trees are so no one injures the trees. But this will not bring back the forest that have been destroyed. What can you do to save our forests?

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27223 Apple Orchard in Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, Canada

These trees are loaded with rosy-cheeked apples. Barrels and barrels of them are being picked to sell. The apples must be picked from trees and packed very carefully so that they will not get bruised.

We all like apples and are glad that they are good for us. Some folks say an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Did you ever think how many kinds of apples there are? There are the kinds we like to eat in our hands. Then there are the kinds that mother uses in the kitchen to make pies, jellies and preserves. Can you name any of these kinds of apples?

Isn’t it strange that one little seed can grow into a big tree which will bear hundreds of apples each year. Another strange thing is that a tree grown from seed sometimes does not bear apples like those on the mother tree.

The trees in apple orchards are started from seeds. The little seedlings are cut close to the ground and slices of branches of other apple trees are tied on. This is called grafting.

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