Hunnicutt's agriculture for the common schools

Preface

The suhject of Agnculture is receiving much attenlioii at the present hy e(hicators in all parts of the workl, and is l)eini>' incorporated into all of our school curricula. In order to meet the increasing demands for information on the subject, teachers are being forced to give time and attention to it in order to give the instruction in a subject that is required l\v law in most of the States. It is important therefore that a text book on the elementary principles of Agriculture should have timely suggestions on how to teach and use material for teaching the subject as well as to contain a great mass of information. Most of us can. give information on agricultural topics, but there are a very few who can successfully tell how to teach it and make a book interesting enough to attract pupils to the study. Most of them study it because they are required to do so, as many of our teachers are teaching it. This ought not so to be. It is an interesting as well as a useful study, and the author of a text should prove this beyond the questioning of the most pedantic teacher.

The first requisite for such a text it seems should be an easy familiar style, short i)ithy paragraphs, and conversational suggestions. The book should talk with the teacher and pupils — figuratively speaking — rather than contain long discourses on Agricultural subjects. Every chapter in such a book should make the teacher wish to

Vi PREFACE

have pupils experiment with plants and the soil, or animals, and then suggest just how such experiments can be conducted in any school, with a minimum cost, but with the one purpose of developing the subject as a trade, profession or art, worthy of the best talent in the land.

Hunnicutt's Agriculture for the Common Schools, written by Dr. J. B. Hunnicutt, is a pioneer in its particular field, and is well known to thousands of farmers and teachers in the Southern States. It was prepared with a view to its use by farmers and general readers as well as schools; special attention was given to an exposition rather than a presentation of the subject; more information about the problems of the farm and the farmer, and less attention to methods of presentation of the subject to the young mind. The book is a classic on account of its pure diction and plain simple Anglo-Saxon words and is worthy of a place in any library. The author had be^n a public speaker for many years and had developed a style that is quite pleasing.

The present edition of the book is almost entirely re-written, with a view to giving definite instruction on class-room work in Agriculture, to indicate how and where to find material with which to teach the subject, and lastly how to use this material to the best advantage. Most of the elementary books and many of the advanced treatises on the su})ject of Agriculture have been consulted, for which acknowledgments are here made. R. J. H. DELf)ACH.

Athens, Ga., 1913.

Introduction

Plow deep and on a level.

In peace and plenty revel.

That is science as well as rhyme. Pulverize the soil and get pay for your toil. The farmer feeds and clothes the millions. To help him do this with pleasure and profit is the mission of this little book. Every farmer in the South should have this helper at hand and learn to take more pride in being a farmer.

The first thing, except one, that we remember in this world, we shouldered our hoe and marched off to the cotton field. So we were taught to plow and to hoe, to reap and to mow, and always keep up with our row. Through life we have continued to study soil and plants. We have found pleasure and profit in learning how to make the soil grow good crops.

Now, in response to a thousand requests, we have tried to tell how to do this.

But if farming ever reaches the place among other callings which it should have, it will be when we have taught our children its beaut}^ and its rank in the schoolroom. Agriculture should be taught in every school.

We have made it so simple that any teacher can use this book, even if entirely ignorant of the principles of Agriculture or the practices of farming.

We tliink the student who has studied this book will see the world with different eyes.

City life has been absorbing the brain and beauty of the country. And it needs it. But we

VIII INTRODUCTION

can not afford to spare so much of our young manhood and womanhood as we have been doing. We must keep the young folks on the farm.

Many books have been written on Agriculture, but they are all more or less treatises on botany and agricultural chemistry. We have avoided this channel. While we adhere strictly to scientific truth, we have used plain language. Technical terms have been left out. We have tried to write so that every child could understand. How we have succeeded we must leave you to judge. Industrial education is the demand of the day. Agriculture is the largest and most important of the industries. Heretofore it has been at the bottom. Let us now see that it is placed at the top. To do this, we must educate the farmers.

The world will respect brain. If we make ourselves the equals in intellect of those in other callings, then we will be as much respected, and not until then.

We need as much skill to grow plants as does the physician to heal the sick, or the lawyer to clear criminals.

It takes as much brain to run a four-horse farm as to run a bank or a railroad. The farmer carries all.

And can not buy, Then the merchant's goods

On his shelf must lie.

And has nothing to sell, Then the banker's account

Ceases to swell.

INTRODUCTION IX

And has nothing to ship, The railway train

Makes an empty trip.

Hasn't the money he ought, Then the lawyer's fee

Drops down a naught.

And hasn't the bills.

Then the doctor

And can not pay, The school teacher's account

Waits another day.

As sometimes fail he must.

The world's business lags

And the wheels o" commerce rust

But if the farmer succeeds.

As succeed he should.

We all look happy

And we all feel good.

For upon our broad shoulders.

All the rest do lie.

And sometimes the pile

Gets very, very high.

Success to the farmer.

Atlanta, Ga., 1903. James B. Hunnicutt.

X INTRODUCTION

List of Apparatus. — In order to teach Agriculture successfully teachers must have certain material with which to carry the lessons home to the students. The best apparatus for this purpose is that which can be made at home and at school, and out of the home-made material. Make whatever you can without buying anything. The following is a suggested list, and it is hoped that most of the material can be secured:

100 feet dressed lumber in sizes 1x3, 1x8, and 2x4. 5 pounds 6d nails. 25 germinating pots, 6 in. at top by 5 in. at bottom — may be made out of lumber. 6 flower pots of size to suit plants — may be made at school. 1 set garden tools, inclufiing small hand plow. 12 soil pans. 6 150mm evaporating dishes.

1 small drying oven. 4 alcohol lamps.

2 thermometers.

3 sixteen ounce bottles with cork stoppers. 1 mortar and pestle, medium size.

1 small geologist's hammer. 12 packages red litmus paper. 12 packages blue litmus paper. 12 ten-inch white crockery plates. 12 plain straight lamp chimneys. 12 common glass tumblers.

2 one-gallon glass pitchers. 10 pipettes, lOcc.

10 cylinder measures, 25cc.

10 cylinder measures, lOOcc.

10 cylinder measures, 500cc.

2 scales, accurate, one measuring from grains to grams, the other tenth ounces up

to ten pounds.

Of course some schools will not be able to get all these utensils, but it may well be said that if the subject is to be taught successfully teachers will naturally resort to such material as found in the above list that they may the more easily impress the various lessons outlined in this little volume.

Contents

Page

Agriculture Man's Chief Pursuit . . - - 1

Agriculture as a Science 4

Chapter I. The Soil

Some Ways of Showing How Soils are Formed. —

Find a large stone or rock and observe the fine sand and small pebbles that lie about it. Brush from the surface of the stone the loose pebbles and gravel. These show the first steps in the formation of soils from rock. Take small rocks into the school room and with a hammer crush them into fine pebbles. Continue this process till there is produced very fine grained sand.

Compare the crushed rock to the fine sand and pebbles newly formed from the larger rocks by natural processes. Do they look the same.'^ What are the differences.^ The gravel made by hammering the rock is usually harder and less brittle than that formed by nature or weathering. This process called weathering is a very important process and to it may be traced the beginnings of a large part of the soil. We should look in our dictionary for the term, also in our cyclopaedias, and learn all we can about it. In fact we should find a convenient sized rock and leave it by the school house, where the rains can fall on it and freeze and thaw, and then see from year to year how the fine pebbles flake off from it as the process of weathering goes on.

We are reasonably certain that when the earth first cooled down there was no soil anywhere, but

12 AGRICTTLTTTRR FOR THE COMMON SCHOOLS

only masses of rock. After countless ages, when the earth got cool enough and began to freeze, the rocks began to flake off and form a crude kind of soil. This was not soil according to our present conception of soil, but it was the beginning of soil. It was the crude material out of which all soil has been made.

By the time plants in great numbers and animals and man appeared on the earth, the outer crust of rocks had rotted and crumbled away and formed what we now call soil and subsoil. Rainwater soaks into the surface of rocks and freezes, thereby flaking off small particles. These particles accumulate through the years into cjuite a mass, and this mass it is that forms the basis of our present soils over the entire face of the earth.

To quote from Bailey's Cyclopaedia of Agriculture: "The soil is not a mere inert mixture. Its parts have shape and size and arrangement, as well as being merely composed of certain substances. xA.ll of these parts have been separately formed, moved, and assorted, and then laid down together as we find them ; and, moreover, they are not even yet at rest, but are always taking new forms and new places and making new partnerships, entailing a never-ending series of mysteries. From the soil all things come; and into it all things at last return ; and yet it is always new and fresh and clean, and always ready for new generations. This soft thin crust of the earth — ^so infinitesimally thin that it cannot be shown in proper scale on any globe or chart — supports all the countless myriads of men and animals and

THE SOIL 13

plants, and has supported them for countless cycles and will continue to support them for other countless cycles, In view of all this achievement, it is not strange that we do not yet know the soil and understand it; and we are in mood to be patient with our shortcomings,"

Chapter II. Formation Of Soils

Soil Formation. — In the former chapter we learned something of the source of soils and had some suggestions of how big is the problem of the study of soils. Now we are to get some idea of how nature actually manufactures soils out of the original rocks of mother earth. Of course we do not know^ all of nature's methods of forming soils. We can observe some of her ways and thereby get acquainted with a few of her secrets.

Collect several smooth and several angular rocks for a school-room museum. Can we not imagine that all were rough and angular at one time.^ What changed them into smooth stones.^ Generally this change is brought about by the action of moving water, moving ice, and in some places to some extent by moving atmosphere or wind laden with fine sand or dust. Moving water and ice aid mostly in reducing rock to soil.

Perhaps the most active agents now known in the formation of soils are as follows:

1. Moving water.

2. Ice.

3. Weathering, (in which process ice also plays the best part).

4. Winds.

5. Living animals.

6. Living plants.

7. Decaying animals and plants.

8. Acids and gases.

It is not necessary to discuss these agencies

FORMATION OF SOILS 15

here. We only need to think about them, and prepare to make further study of tliem when the time is ripe for it. We should, however, make some observations on a few of them.

Relation of Decaying Animals and Plants to Soils. — Whatever of organic matter there is in the soil must have come from decaying animals and plants, and as this is a very necessary ingredient, we should give special attention to this division of the subject and learn how to increase the organic matter in our soils in order to make better crops and larger yields. Another chapter will be devoted entirely to this subject.

Relation of Living Animals and Plants to Soil Formation. — Earthworms can be observed almost any time in spring and summer, depositing their worm-shaped piles of earth and thereby renewing the surface soil. They enrich the soil by increasing the nitrogen content, and perhaps change the chemical composition otherwise. Other animals to be mentioned in this connection are ants, moles, and other burrowing animals. How do these help to form soil.^

Examine the roots of growing plants, especially those that grow on or about rock. It will be observed that they pierce the rocks and help to break them down and form soil. Plants also produce acids to some extent which aid in reducing rock. The living bacteria of the soil, which are so small that they cannot be seen without being magnified many times, are wonderfully active in reducing all kinds of decaying matter to soil, and making it available for use by growing plants.

Chapter III. Soil Elements

What is an Element? — An element is a substance that cannot be or has not been divided into two or more simpler substances. Gold is an element because it cannot be divided into simpler substances. Silver, iron, copper, and the like are elements for the same reason. There are as many as seventy-five of these simple elements that cannot be divided into two or more substances, and the various combinations of two or more of them into compounds make up the whole of nature as we see it.

Gi^owing tilings differ from each other only in this one essential fact, that they have slightly different combinations of elements that go into their making. The soil is the storehouse for much of the material that goes to make plants, and plants differ from animals in that they can make living matter out of these simple elements in the soil. What a wonderful law it is under the operation of wdiich several of these elements — such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, and several others — can combine under certain conditions and make a cotton plant, and then under certain other conditions make a corn plant ! This world of nature that surrounds us is filled with such wonders and we shall find it exceedingly fascinating to make little excursions into that fairy-land of science that is sometimes called Agriculture.

The essential elements of the soil, so far as they are useful to man and subserve his purposes

SOIL ELEMENTS 17

in the production of useful plants, are those named above: Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium,

oxygen, hydrogen, car})on, iron, calcium, and a few others of less importance. A soil in order to l)e considered good must have all these in sufficient quantities to afford the plant ample food supply, as all of them except carbon must come through the root system to all parts of the plant. We shall learn later how carbon is supplied to the plant.

All but three of these elements are always found in sufficient quantities in the soil and do not have to be supplied by man. The three about which man should be most concerned are nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus as they have to be supplied constantly to almost all soils. Another element that must be supplied to most soils from time to time is calcium which is usually applied in the form of lime. Much more will be said about these elements and how best to secure and apply them, in connection with fertilizers and manures.

We thus see that the soil is not a very simple thing to be easily understood without much study. It is a mixture of many compounds of many elementary substances, and through many years of adjustment has become exactly suited to the growth of plants. Perhaps the plants too have done their part in adjusting themselves to the soil in which ihey grow. This mutual relationship between the soil and the organic life that grows in it is one of the best illustrations that can be cited of the wonderful power of adaptation in nature.

Chapter IV. Kinds Of Soil

General Classification. — Soils are classified into the following groups: sandy soils, clayey soils, loamy soils, swamp soils, limestone soils, alkali soils and arid soils; each class being determined by the amount of sand, clay and humus or other ingredients contained therein. These various classes differ in their composition, those containing a large per cent of sand being determined sandy soils, and those containing a large per cent of cla}^ being called clayey soils. Sand soils contain about seventy per cent of sand and clay soils have about the same per cent of clay. Soils which have about one-half clay and one-half sand are called loamy soils. When they have more sand than clay, about sixty per cent sand and forty per cent clay, they are called sandy loams. If they have more clay, about sixty per cent, and less sand, about forty per cent, they are called clay loams. We find, then, sandy, clayey and loamy soils, all varying with the relative quantities of sand and clay entering into their composition. This classification is based entirely upon the mechanical structure of the soil. Sand is the name given to coarse particles and clay the name given to fine particles.

How to Find the Amount of Sand Contained in Soil. — Put in a glass jar about a pint of ordinary soil and fill the jar almost full with water. Shake this well and let stand; the sand will settle at the

KINDS OF SOIL 19

bottom, and the clay next, the coarser particles of clay settling above the finer. This form of experiment should be made on a number of kinds of soil and in this way determine according to the above to what class each soil thus treated belongs. The muddy look of the water is caused by the amount of fine particles of clay held in suspense. If this water were moving, the particles thus held in suspense would go into the rivers and some of it on down into the sea. On top of the water will be found some humus that would also get away and thereby deplete our soils.

By measuring we can calculate about what proportion of clay and sand are contained in the different samples of soil, and in this way tell to what class our several soils belong.

Sandy Soils. — Sandy soils are always easy to work, but are rather poor in plant foods. They do not hold water like the clayey soils, but absorb water rapidly and as rapidly lose it. Sandy soils are best suited to rapidly growing crops. A considerable amount of vegetable matter and commercial fertilizer incorporated into sandy soils makes them yield large crops.

Clayey Soils. — These may be easily recognized by their sticky character. Some claim that 50% of clay in a soil makes it a clay soil, while others claim that 70% of clay is required to make a soil clayey. Clayey soils are usually cold soils and suffer from extremes of rainy and dry seasons. The grasses and cereals do better on them than other crops.

Loamy Soils. — This term is applied to soils with a mixture of sand and clay, and may be divided into sandy loams, containing a low per cent of clay; common, loams, containing a slightly higher per cent of clay; clay loams, containing perhaps as much as 40% of clay; limy loams, containing some lime and a low per cent of clay. Loamy soils are fine for almost any kind of farming and are found chiefly in black prairie belts and river valleys.

■ A W 1

CELERY IS PROFITABLE ON BOTTOM LANDS.

Other classes of soils are the lime soils, swamp soils, alkali soils, and arid and semi-arid soils, and some put another in the list under the name of humid soils where there is a heavy rainfall, or constant overflow of a river. The names applied to these last types of soil suggest what they are, but every school should make an

KINDS OF SOIL 21

effort to get samples of every class of soil here given and keep for class study. This may be done through the aid of Agricultural Colleges and P^xperiment Stations, provided they cannot be secured locally.

Secure locally as many kinds of soil as possible, and measure a pint of each and weigh and record result. Dry out the samples thoroughly in a heating oven or by a fire, and weigh again in order to find the water holding capacity of each. In the next chapter we are to make a study of the water holding capacity of soils, and the best methods of investigating the problem.

to

Chapter V

watp:r holding capacity of soils.

Moisture in Sampks of Field Soils. — One of

the greatest problems in soil physics is a study of the relation of moisture to the texture and treatment of the soil. What the soil contains, and how we cultivate it determine more than anything else what this relation shall be, whether or not it is to be a wholesome relation as regards plant growth.

The securing of a soil with large capacity for absorbing and holding water, yet one permitting the normal growth and development of the roots of plants, — or perhaps a soil that can as well draw the water from below for the use of plants during dry weather — are conditions for which the farmer should strive, and without which he cannot get good results.

In order to get the truth about the amount of moisture contained in our soils suppose we make the following test:

Collect samples of soils from a well cultivated and fertilized field, from sandy loam, and from clayey soil. To collect these samples, secure a two-inch auger with long handle, clear away top loose soil to the depth of about a half inch, and for the surface soil or soil proper, bore down to a depth of about 7, 8, or 9 inches, the depth depending on the usual depth to which the land is plowed. Discard two inches and go to a depth of 16 inches

WATER HOLDING CAPACITY OF SOILS 23

to get a sample of subsurface soil. Discard another two inches and for a sample of subsoil go to a depth of about 35 or 40 inches.

Take these samples all in duplicate from each of the three kinds of soils, also from the three layers of soil, making in all a total number of eighteen samples, and put each in a drying pan, taking care that no water evaporates before the samples are accurately weighed.

^C a — sou..

b HARDPAN.

C POROUS EARTH BELOW.

After they are accurately weighed and records made, place them in a drying oven and heat up to about 212 to 225 degrees F., or a little above the heat required for boiling water. Let the samples remain heated for about 4 or 5 hours, and then remove from the oven and weigh again. The difference between these latter weights and the former will represent the per cent of moisture held in the soils, and will represent the water holding capacity.

A number of students should be working at once in this experiment in order to keep it going properly, and should be carefully directed and tutored in the methods of the work before beginning it. If successfully carried out, it will mean a great deal to them in the way of bringing to their attention the advantage a good soil has over a poor, and will also suggest to them how necessary it is to strive to make poor soils good.

For convenience suppose small outlines for tables be drawn after the following manner:

Sample No.

Wt. of pan

Wt.

of wet soil

Wt.

of dry soil

Difference

% water

Conditions of the Test. — The samples of soil should be handled rapidly after taking them from the ground till they are in the oven or at least in an air tight vessel in order for them to keep the moisture in them till weighed. They should also be weighed as quickly as possible after they are taken out of the oven in order to keep them from absorbing moisture before they are weighed again. Questions that should be stressed are as follows: What kind of weather was it the week before the samples were taken? Were the samples very

WATER HOLDING CAPACITY OF SOILS 25

moist? Which one contained the most water? Which layer contained the most moisture, the top soil, subsurface soil, or subsoil?

Attention should be directed to the reason why the good soil contained the most moisture, namely, that the vegetable matter in it both held water and kept the water in the subsoil from getting away. It must become evident that a soil that is covered with an}^ kind of decaying vegetable matter will hold water better than mere grains of sand or clav or the mixture of the two.

Chapter VI. How Soils Are Made To Hold Water Longest

A Test to be Made on Soils Taken as in Last Chapter. — Secure samples of soils as in last chapter, and weigh immediately before smy moisture has had time to escape. Record these weights, and then spread in a dry place and weigh the same samples every twenty-four hours, and see the difference in the rate of drying of the various samples.

Capillary Moisture. — This is the thin film of moisture around the soil particles and benefits directly the plants, and therefore is of the greatest interest to the farmer. It is the moisture that moves freely through the soil on the principle that water is soaked up in a cloth that is put in the edge of a basin containing water. Soon the cloth will be moist far above the water line. This is done by capillary attraction. So is moisture capillary moisture when it moves freely in the soil through capillary attraction.

Not all of the water film over the soil particles moves, and hence it is not all capillary water. That which does not move is called hygroscopic water, and does growing plants little or no good. This moisture can be driven from the particles only by a high heat, while the capillary moisture will soon evaporate if the soil is exposed to the air. Since it is the capillary moisture that is so important in agriculture, we should make every effort to prepare our soils to hold capillary moisture.

How are we to know if our soils are able to hold capillary moisture.'* The following test will enable

HOW SOILS ARE MADE TO HOLD WATER LONGEST 27

US to tell: Secure samples of soil as in the former chapter, and weigh as quickly as possible before evaporation takes place, and record the weights thus obtained. Spread out the samples in the soil pans and carefully weigh every 24 hours, until the weights become a constant, — that is do not any longer change from day to day. It will be observed that the difference between this loss of capillary moisture and the total moisture content determined in last lesson is the hygroscopic moisture. This latter is not very important; but the capillary moisture which may be obtained by calculating what per cent of loss was incurred by exposing the samples to dry air until the weights have become a constant, is of the greatest importance. Compare the capillary moisture of the various samples, and see how the good soil ranks in this particular. A number of experiments along this line will be of the greatest benefit in classwork, and should cover the greatest possible variety of soils from the poorest to the best.

It will be noticed that any kind of decaying vegetable matter will help to increase the amount of capillary moisture in any soil, and therefore should be used with this truth in mind. Any form of vegetable matter plowed under, even in the form of common hay or grass, helps wonderfully to increase the water holding capacity of the soil, an item that cannot be overlooked in the development of soil. Frequently the size of the crop that is taken from a field is determined by the water holding capacity of the soil and by this alone.