Agriculture for beginners

Preface

Since its first publication "Agriculture for Beginners" has found a welcome in thousands of schools and homes. Naturally many suggestions as to changes, additions, and other improvements have reached its authors. Naturally, too, the authors have busied themselves in devising methods to add to the effectiveness of the book. Some additions have been made almost ever)- year since the book was published. To embodv all these changes and helpful suggestions into a stricth- unified volume ; to add some further topics and sections ; to bring all farm practices up to the ideals of to-day ; to include the most recent teaching of scientific investigators — these were the objects sought in the thorough revision which has just been given the book. The authors hope and think that the remaking of the book has added to its usefulness and attractiveness.

They believe now, as they believed before, that there is no line of separation between the science of agriculture and the practical art of agriculture. They are assured by the success of this book that agriculture is eminently a teachable subject. They see no difference. bet\veen teaching the child the fundamental principles of farming and teaching the same child the fundamental truths of arithmetic, geography, or grammar. The)' hold that a youth should be trained for the farm just as carefully as he is trained for any other occupation, and that it is unreasonable to expect him to succeed without training.

iv AGRICULTIRE FOR BEGIXXERS

If they are right in these views, the training must begin in the public schools. This is true for t^vo reasons :

1. It is universally admitted that aptitudes are developed, tastes acquired, and life habits formed during the years that a child is in the public school. Hence, during these important years ever\- child intended for the farm should be taught to know and love nature, should be led to form habits of obser\ation, and should be required to begin a study of those great laws upon which agricultiu-e is based. A training like this goes far toward making his life-work profitable and delightful.

2. Most boys and girls reared on a farm get no educational training except that given in the public schools. If, then, the truths that unlock the doors of nature are not taught in the public schools, nature and nature's laws will always be hid in night to a majorit}- of our bread-winners. They must still in ignorance and hopeless drudgers- tear their bread from a reluctant soil.

The authors return hearty thanks to Professor Thomas F. Hunt. Universit)- of California ; Professor Augustine D. Selby, Ohio Experiment Station ; Professor W". F. Massey, horticulturist and agricultural writer ; and Professor Franklin Sherman, Jr.. State Entomologist of North Carolina, for aid in proofreading and in the preparation of some of the material.

CONTEXTS

Chapter I. The Soil Section Page

I. Origin of the Soil i

II. Tillage of the Soil 6

III. The MoisTiRE of the Soil 9

IV. How THE Water rise.s in the Soil 13

V. Draining the Soil 14

VI. Improving the Soil 17

VII. Manlring the Soil 21

Chapter II. The Soil And The Plant

VIII. R00T.S 25

IX. How the Plant feeds from the Soil 29

X. Root-Tlbercles 30

XI. The Rot.\tion of Crops ^^

Chapter III. The Plant

XII. How the Plant feeds from the Air 39

XIII. The Sap Current 40

XIV. The Flower and the Seed 42

XV. Pollination 46

XVI. Crosses, Hybrids, and Cross-Pollin.\tion 48

XVIII. Plant Seeding 59

XIX. Selecting Seed Corn 66

XX. Weeds 69

XXI. Seed Pcrity and Vitality 72 vi AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS

XXXI. Insects in Gener.\l 144

XXXII. Orchard Insects 132

XXXIII. Garden .\nd Field Insects 165

XXXIV. The Cotton-Boll Weevil 173

Chapter VIII. Farm Crops

XXXV. Cotton 180

XXXVII. Whe.\t 192

XXXVIII. Corn 197

XXXIX. Peanuts 202

XL. Sweet Pot.\toes 204

XLI. White, or Irish. Potatoes 206

XLII. O.ATS 209

CONTENTS vii

SECTION PA«^

XLIII. Rye 213

XLIV. Uarley -'5

XLV. Sugar Plants 217

XLVI. Hemp and Flax --^

XLVII. Buckwheat ^-9

XLVIII. Rkt. -3'

XLIX. The Timber CRf)i" -3-

L. The Farm Garden -35

EX. The Dairy Cow 293

l.Xl. Mii.K, Cream, Churning, and Butter 297

EXn. Hi)W Milk sours 302

EX in. The Bahcock Milk-Tester 304

Chapter XII. Misceeeaxeous

EX IV. Growing Feed Stuffs on the Farm 309

EXV. Farm Tools and M.achines 313

LXVI. Liming the Land 3^5 viii AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS

SECTION PAGE

LXVII. Birds 31S

LXVIII. Farming on Dry Land 323

LXIX. Irrigation 326

LXX. Life in the Country 330

APPEXDLX 339

IXDEX 351

TO THE TEACHER

An earnest teaching of this book will add to the attractiveness of your course of study. Do not hesitate to enter very heartily into the subject. To teach agriculture you need not feel that you must be an authority on all questions arising in this broad field. To teach the elements of agriculture one need not be an expert in agricultural science. A farm practice based on the fundamental principles of science will make life on the farm easier and will make the farm more beautiful, more productive, and more profitable. Any earnest teacher can easily learn these principles and then teach them with success.

When it is possible, lead the pupils out into the field, make simple experiments before them, and have them also perform experiments. Let them learn directly from nature ; a fact gained at first hand will linger in the mind long after mere second-hand book-knowledge has departed. Teach by observation and experiment. The young mind grasps the concrete but wearies with the abstract.

You will find in the practical exercises many suggestions as to experiments that you can make with your class. Do not neglect these. They will be the life of your work. In many cases it will be best to perform the experimental or observational work first, and turn later to the text to amplify the pupil's knowledge.

Although the authors have arranged this book in a logical order, they hope that teachers will feel free to teach each

X AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS

topic in the season best suited to its study. Omit any chapter or section that does not deal with conditions in your state or with your crops.

Tr}- to get for your school library ever)- farm bulletin issued by the United States Department of Agriculture and as many bulletins as possible from different state experiment stations. These bulletins cost nothing and are mines of practical and interesting information.

TO THE PUPIL

Consult the glossar\- in the back of this book for the meanings of all hard words.

Perform all the suggested experiments for yourself. Do not be content to watch your teacher or your fellow-students perform the experiments. First-hand work gives expertness, accuracy, interest, knowledge, and power.

Above all, learn of nature. At first she is a shy and silent teacher, but on better acquaintance she will talk to you in many tongues.

CHAPTER I section i. origin' of the soil

The word soil occurs many times in this Httle book. In agriculture this word is used to describe the thin layer of surface earth that, like some great blanket, is tucked around the wrinkled and age-beaten form of our globe. The harder and colder earth under this surface layer is called the subsoil. It should be noted, however, that in waterless and sun-dried regions there seems little difference between the soil and the subsoil.

Plants, insects, birds, beasts, men, — all alike are fed on what grows in this thin layer of soil. If some wild flood in sudden wrath could sweep into the ocean this earth-wrapping soil, food would soon become as scarce as it was in Samaria when mothers ate their sons. The face of the earth as we now see it, daintily robed in grass, or uplifting waving acres of com, or even naked, water-scarred, and disfigured by man's neglect, is ver)- different from what it was in its earliest davs. How was it then } How was the soil formed }

Learned men think that at first the surface of the earth was solid rock. How was this rock changed into workable soil } Occasionally a curious boy picks up a rotten stone, squeezes it, and finds his hands filled with dirt, or soil. Now,

I just as the boy crumbled with his fingers this single stone, the great forces of nature with boundless patience crumbled, or, as it is called, disintegrated, the early rock mass. The simple but giant-strong agents that beat the rocks into powder with a clublike force a millionfold more powerful than the club force of Hercules were chiefly (i) heat and cold; (2) water, frost, and ice; (3; a ven- low form of vegetable life; and (4) tiny animals — if such minute bodies can be called animals. In some cases these forces acted singly ; in others, all acted together to rend and crumble the unbroken stretch of rock. Let us glance at some of the methods used by these skilled soil-makers.

Heat and cold are working partners. You already know that most hot bodies shrink, or contract, on cooling. The early rocks were hot. As the outside shell of rock cooled from exposure to air and moisture it contracted. This shrinkage of the rigid rim of course broke mam* of the rocks, and here and there left cracks, or fissures. In these fissures water collected and froze. As freezing water expands with irresistible power, the expansion still further broke the rocks to pieces. The smaller pieces again, in the same wa}, were acted on by frost and ice and again crumbled. This process is still a means of soil-formation.

Running water was another giant soil-former. If you would understand its action, obser\'e some usually sparkling stream just after a washing rain. The clear waters are discolored by mud washed in from the surrounding hills. As though disliking their muddy burden, the waters strive to throw it off. Here, as low banks offer chance, they run out into shallows and drop some of it. Here, as they pass a quiet pool, they deposit more. At last they reach the still water at the mouth of the stream, and there they leave behind the last of their mud load, and often form of it little three-sided islands called deltas. In the same way mighty rivers like the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Hudson, when they are swollen by rain, bear great quantities of soil in their sweep to the seas. Some of the soil they scatter over the lowlands as they whirl seaward ; the rest they deposit in deltas at their mouths. It is

Fig. I. Rock marked by the ScRAriNc of a C^laciek over it

estimated that the Mississippi carries to the ocean each year enough soil to cover a square mile of surface to a depth of two hundred and sixty-eight feet.

The early brooks and rivers, instead of bearing mud, ran oceanward either bearing ground stone that they themselves had worn from the rocks by ceaseless fretting, or bearing stones that other forces had already dislodged. The large pieces were whirled from side to side and beaten against one another or against bedrock until they were ground into smaller and smaller pieces. The rivers distributed this rock soil just as the later rivers distribute mudd\- soil. For ages the mo\"ing waters ground against the rocks. \'ast were the waters ; vast the number of years ; vast the results.

Glaciers were another soil-producing agent. Glaciers are streams " frozen and mo\"ing slowly but irresistibly onwards, down well-defined valleys, grinding and pulverizing the rock masses detached by the force and weight of their attack." Where and how were these glaciers formed ?

Once a great part of upper North America was a \-ast sheet of ice. Whatever moisture fell from the sky feU as snow. No one knows what made this long winter of snow, but we do know that snows piled on snows until mountains of white were built up. The lower snow was by the pressure of that above it packed into ice masses. By and by some change of climate caused the masses of ice to break up somewhat and to move south and west. These mo\ing masses, carr\-ing rock and frozen earth, ground them to powder. King thus describes the stately movement of these snow mountains : " Beneath the bottom of this slowly moxing sheet of ice, which with more or less difficultA* kept itself conformable with the face of the land over which it was riding, the sharper outstanding points were cut away and the deeper river canons filled in. Desolate and rugged rocky wastes were thrown down and spread over with rich soil."

The joint action of air, moisture, and frost was still another agent of soil-making. This action is called u'cathcriug. Whenever you have noticed the outside stones of a spring-house, 3^ou have noticed that tiny bits are crumbling from the face of the stones, and adding little by little to the soil. This is a slow way of making additions to the soil. It is estimated that it would take 728,000 years to wear aw^y limestone rock to a depth of thirty-nine inches. But when you recall the countless years through which the weather has striven against the rocks, you can readily understand that its never-wear)ing actixity has added immensely to the soil.

In the rock soil formed in these various ways, and indeed on the rocks themselves, tiny plants that live on food taken from the air began to grow. They grew just as )-ou now see mosses and lichens grow on the surface of rocks. The decay

Fig. 2. Ground Rock at End of a Glacier

of these plants added some fertility to the newly formed soil. The life and death of each succeeding generation of these lowly plants added to the soil matter accumulating on the rocks. Slowly but unceasingly the soil increased in depth until higher vegetable forms could flourish and add their dead bodies to it. This vegetable addition to the soil is generally known as Imunts.

In due course of time low forms of animal life came to live on these plants, and in turn by their work and their death to aid in making a soil fit for the plowman.

Thus with a dehberation that fills man with awe, the powerful forces of nature splintered the rocks, ciTimbled them, filled them with plant food, and turned their flinty grains into a soft, snug home for vegetable life.

Section II. Tillage Of The Soil

A good many years ago a man hv the name of Jethro Tull lived in England. He was a farmer and a most successful man in every way. He first taught the English people and the world the value of thorough tillage of the soil. Before and during his time farmers did not till the soil veiy intelligently. They simply prepared the seed-bed in a careless manner, as a great many farmers do to-day, and when the crops were gathered the fields were not large.

Jethro Tull centered attention on the important fact that careful and thorough tillage increases the available plant food in the soil. He did not know why his crops were better when the ground was frequently and thoroughly tilled, but he knew that such tillage did increase his yield. He explained the fact by saying, " Tillage is manure." We have since learned the reason for the truth that Tull taught, and, while his explanation was incorrect, the practice that he was following was excellent. The stirring of the soil enables the air to circulate through it freely, and permits a breaking down of the compounds that contain the elements necessar}' to plant growth.

You have seen how the air helps to crumble the stone and brick in old buildings. It does the same with soil if permitted to circulate freely through it. The agent of the air that chiefly performs this work is called carbonic acid gas, and this gas . is one of the greatest helpers the farmer has in cariy-ing on his work. We must not forget that in soil preparation the air is just as important as any of the tools and implements used in cultivation.

If the soil is fertile and if deep plowing has always been done, good crops will result, other conditions being favorable.

Fig. 3. Sloi'e to Water shows Soil weathered from Face of Cliff

If, however, the tillage is poor, scanty har\'ests will always result. For most soils a two-horse plow is necessary to break up and pulverize the land.

A shallow soil can always be improved by properlv deepening it. The principle of greatest importance in soil-preparation is the gradual deepening of the soO in order that plant-roots mav have more comfortable homes. If tlie farmer has been accustomed to plow but four inches deep, he should adjust the plow so as to turn live inches at the next plowing, then sLx, and so on until the seed-bed is nine or ten inches deep. This gradual deepening \\ill not injure the soil but will put it quickly in good condition. If to good tillage

Fig. 4. Mixed Grasses gruwn fur Forage

rotation of crops be added, tlie soil will become more fertile \\ith each succeeding year.

The plow, harrow, and roller are all necessary to good tillage and to a proper preparation of the seed-bed. The soil must be made compact and clods of all sizes must be crushed. Then the air circulates freely, and pa>ing crops are the rule and not the exception.

Tillage does these things: it increases the plant-food supplv, destroys weeds, and influences the moisture content of the soil.

1. What tools are used in tillage?

2. How should a poor and shallow soil be treated?

3. Whv should a poor and shallow soil be well compacted before sowing the crop ?

4. Explain the value of a circulation of air in the soil.

5. What causes iron to rust?

6. Why is a two-horse turning-plow better than a one-horse plow ?

7. Where will clods do the least harm — on top of the soil or below the surface ?

8. Do plant roots penetrate clods ?

9. Are earthworms a benefit or an injun,' to the soil? 10. Name three things that tillage does.

Section III. The Moisture Of The Soil

Did any one ever explain to you how important water is to the soil, or tell you why it is so important .'' Often, as you know, crops entirely fail because there is not enough water in the soil for the plants to drink. How necessar}' is it, then, that the soil be kept in the best possible condition to catch and hold enough water to carr\' the plant through dr}-, hot spells ! Perhaps you are ready to ask, " How does the mouthless plant drink its stored-up water ? "

The plant gets all its water through its roots. You have seen the tiny thread-like roots of a plant spreading all about in fine soil; they are down in the ground taking up plant food and water for the stalk and leaves above. The water, carrying plant food with it, rises in a simple but peculiar way through the roots and stems.

The plants use the food for building new tissue, that is, for growth. The water passes out through the leaves into the air. When the summers are dry and hot and there is lO but little water in the soil, the leaves shrink up. This is simpU' a method they have of keeping the water from passing too rapidly off into the air. I am sure you have seen the corn blades all shriveled on ver\- hot days. This shrinkage is nature's way of diminishing the current of water that is steadily passing through the plant.

A thrifty farmer will tr)- to keep his soil in such good condition that it will have a supply of water in it for growing crops when dr)- and hot weather comes. He can do this by deep plowing, by subsoiling, by adding any kind of decaying vegetable matter to the soil, and by growing crops that can be tilled frequently.

The soil is a great storehouse for moisture. After the clouds have emptied their waters into this storehouse, the water of the soil comes to the surface, where it is evaporated into the air. The water comes to the surface in just the same way that oil rises in a lamp-wick. This rising of the water is called capillarity.

It is necessar)- to understand what is meant by this big word. If into a pan of water you dip a glass tube, the water inside the tube rises above the level of the water in the pan. The smaller the tube the higher will the water rise. The greater rise inside is perhaps due to the fact that the glass attracts the particles of water more than the particles of water attract one another. Now apply this principle to the soil.

The soil particles have small spaces between them, and the spaces act just as the tube does. When the water at the surface is carried away by drying winds and warmth, the water

Fig. 5. Ax Enlarged View of a Section of Moist Soil, showing Air Spaces and Soil Particles deeper in the soil rises through the soil spaces. In this way water is brought from its soil storehouse as plants need it.

Of course when the underground water reaches the surface it evaporates. If we want to keep it for our crops, we must prepare a trap to hold it. Nature has shown us how this can be done. Pick up a plank as it lies on the ground. Under the plank the soil is wet, while the soil not covered by the

Fig. 7. Apparatus for testing the Holding of Water by Different Soils

plank is dr}-. Why ? Capillarit}- brought the water to the surface, and the plank, b\- keeping away wind and warmth, acted as a trap to hold the moisture. Now of course a farmer cannot set a trap of planks over his fields, but he can make a trap of dry earth, and that will do just as well.

When a crop like corn or cotton or potatoes is cultivated, the fine, loose dirt stirred by the cultivating-plow will make a mulch that ser\-es to keep water in the soil in the same way that the plank kept moisture under it. The mulch also helps to absorb the rains and prevents the water from running off the surface. Frequent cultivation, then, is one of the best possible ways of saving moisture. Hence the farmer who most frequently stirs his soil in the growing season, and especially in seasons of drought, reaps, other things being equal, a more abundant harvest than if tillage were neglected.

1 . Why is the soil wet under a board or under straw ?

2. Will a soil that is fine and compact produce better crops than one that is loose and cloddy ? Why ?

3. Since the water which a plant uses comes through the roots, can the morning dew afford any assistance ?

4. Why are weeds objectionable in a growing crop ?

5. Why does the farmer cultivate growing com and cotton?

Section IV. How The Water Rises IX The Soil

When the hot. dn.- days of summer come, the soil depends upon the subsoil, or undersoil, for the moisture that it must furnish its growing plants. The water was stored in the soil during the fall, winter, and spring months when there was plenty of rain.

If you dig down into the soil when everything is dr\- and hot, you will soon reach a cool, moist undersoil. The moisture

increases as vou dig

J . ', ., Fig. 8. Using Lamp-Chimnevs to show

deeper mto the soil. ^„^ c^ ^^ „. ^

^ THE Rise of u ater in Soil

Now the roots of plants go down into the soil for this moisture, because they need the water to carr\- the plant food up into the stems and leaves.

You can see how the water rises in the soil by performing a simple experiment.

Take a lamp-chimney and fill it with fine, drj' dirt. The dirt from a road or a field will do. Tie over the smaller end of the lamp-chimney a piece of cloth or a pocket handkerchief, and place this end in a shallow pan of water. If the soil in the lamp-chimney is clay and well packed, the water will quickly rise to the top.

By filling three or four lamp-chimneys with as many different soils, the pupil will see that the water rises more slowly in some than in others.

Now take the water pan away, and the water in the lamp-chimneys will gradually evaporate. Study for a few days the effect of evaporation on the several soils.

Section V. Draining The Soil

A wise man was once asked, "What is the most valuable improvement ever made in agriculture?" He answered, " Drainage." Often soils unfit for crop-production because they contain too much water are by drainage rendered the most valuable of farming lands.

Drainage benefits land in the following ways :

1. It deepens the subsoil by removing unnecessary water from the spaces between the soil particles. This admits air. Then the oxygen which is in the air, by aiding decay, prepares plant food for vegetation.

2. It makes the surface soil, or topsoil, deeper. It stands to reason that the deeper the soil the more plant food becomes available for plant use.

3. It improves the texture of the soil. Wet soil is sticky. Drainage makes this sticky soil crumble and fall apart.

4. It prevents \\-ashing.

5. It increases the porosit)- of soils and permits roots to go deeper into the soil for food and moisture.

6. It increases the warmth of the soil.

7. It oermits earlier working in spring and after rains.

Fig. 9. Laying .\ Tile Dr.\ix

8. It favors the growth of germs which change the unavailable nitrogen of the soil into nitrates ; that is, into the form of nitrogen most useful to plants.

9. It enables plants to resist drought better because the roots go into the ground deeper early in the season.

A soil that is hard and wet will not grow good crops. The nitrogen-gathering crops will store the greatest quantit}- of nitrogen in the soil when the soil is open to the free i6 circulation of the air. These \:aluable crops cannot do this when the soil is wet and cold.

Sandy soils vi"ith sand}' subsoils do not often need drainage ; such soils are natiu^ally drained. With claj' soils it is different. It is ven* important to remove the stagnant water in them and to let the air in.

\\'hen land has been properly drained the other steps in improvement are easily taken. After soil has been dried and

Fig. io. A Tile ix Posmox mellowed by proper drainage, then commercial fertilizers, barnyard manure, cowpeas, and clover can most readily do their great work of impro\ing the texture of the soil and of making it fitter for plant growth.

Tile Drains. Tile drains are the best and cheapest that can be used. It would not be too strong to say that draining by tiles is the most perfect drainage. Thousands of practical tests in this countn,^ have proved the superiorit\- of tile draining for the foUovi-ing reasons :

1 . Good tile drains properly laid last for years and do not fill up.

2. They furnish the cheapest possible means of removing too much water from the soil.

3. They are out of reach of all cultivating tools.

4. Surface water in filtering through the tiles leaves its nutritious elements for plant growth.

EXPERIMENTS

To show the Efiect of Drainage. Take two tomato cans and fill both with the same kind of soil. Punch several holes in the bottom of one to drain the soil above and to admit air circulation. Leave the other unpunctured. Plant seeds of any kind in both cans and keep in a warm place. Add every third day equal quantities of water. Let seeds grow in both cans and observe the difference in growth for two or three weeks.

To show the Effect of Air in Soils. Take two tomato cans ; fill one with soil that is loose and warm, and the other \\-ith wet clay or muck from a swampy field. Plant a few seeds of the same kind in each and observe how much better the dr}*, warm, open soil is for growing farm crops.

Section VI. Improving The Soil

We hear a great deal about the exhaustion or wearing out of the soil. Many uncomfortable people are always declaring that our lands will no longer produce profitable crops, and hence that farming will no longer pav.

Now it is true, unfortunately, that much land has been robbed of its fertility, and, because this is true, we should be most deeply interested in ever)thing that leads to the improvement of our soils.

When our countn,' was first discovered and trees were growing ever\where, we had virgin soils, or new soils that iS xeae rich and jHoductive because they were filled with vegetable matter and plant food. There are not many virgin soils now because the trees have been cut from the best lands, and these lands have been :^rmed so carelessly that the vegetable matter and available plant f c-.od have been laigeH" used up. Xow that fresh land is scarce it is ver\' oecessaiy to restore fertility' to these exhausted lands. \\'hat are some of the wa}-s in which this can be done ?

There are several things to be done in tning to reclaim wMn-out land. One of the first of these is to till the land wdL Many of you may have heard the stor\' of the dying father who called his sons about him and whispered feebly, " Thoe is great treasure hidden in the garden." The sons could hardly wait to bun- their dead father before, thud, thud, thud, their picks were going in the garden. Day after day they dug ; they dug deep ; they dug wide. Not a foot of the crop-worn garden escaped the probing of the pick as the sons feverishly searched for the expected treasure. But no treasure was found. Their work seemed entirely useless.