Agriculture for Beginners

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AGRICULTURE FOR
BEGINNERS

BY

CHARLES WILLIAM BURKETT

EDITOR OF THE _AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST_
FORMERLY DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
KANSAS STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

FRANK LINCOLN STEVENS

PROFESSOR OF PLANT PATHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
FORMERLY TEACHER OF SCIENCE IN HIGH SCHOOL
COLUMBUS, OHIO

AND

DANIEL HARVEY HILL

FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE OF
AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS

_REVISED EDITION_

GINN AND COMPANY
BOSTON . NEW YORK . CHICAGO . LONDON
ATLANTA . DALLAS . COLUMBUS . SAN FRANCISCO

COPYRIGHT, 1903, 1904, 1914, BY
CHARLES WILLIAM BURKETT, FRANK LINCOLN STEVENS AND DANIEL HARVEY HILL
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
329.7

The Athenaeum Press
GINN AND COMPANY . PROPRIETORS . BOSTON . U.S.A.

[Illustration: GETTING READY FOR WINTER]

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 every year since the book was published. To embody all these
changes and helpful suggestions into a strictly 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
between teaching the child the fundamental principles of farming and
teaching the same child the fundamental truths of arithmetic, geography,
or grammar. They 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.

If they are right in these views, the training must begin in the public
schools. This is true for two 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 every child intended
for the farm should be taught to know and love nature, should be led to
form habits of observation, and should be required to begin a study of
those great laws upon which agriculture 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 majority of our
bread-winners. They must still in ignorance and hopeless drudgery tear
their bread from a reluctant soil.

The authors return hearty thanks to Professor Thomas F. Hunt, University
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.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. THE SOIL

SECTION PAGE

I. ORIGIN OF THE SOIL 1

II. TILLAGE OF THE SOIL 6

III. THE MOISTURE OF THE SOIL 9

IV. HOW THE WATER RISES IN THE SOIL 13

V. DRAINING THE SOIL 14

VI. IMPROVING THE SOIL 17

VII. MANURING THE SOIL 21

CHAPTER II. THE SOIL AND THE PLANT

VIII. ROOTS 25

IX. HOW THE PLANT FEEDS FROM THE SOIL 29

X. ROOT-TUBERCLES 30

XI. THE ROTATION OF CROPS 33

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-POLLINATION 48

XVII. PROPAGATION BY BUDS 51

XVIII. PLANT SEEDING 59

XIX. SELECTING SEED CORN 66

XX. WEEDS 69

XXI. SEED PURITY AND VITALITY 72

CHAPTER IV. HOW TO RAISE A FRUIT TREE

XXII. GRAFTING 78

XXIII. BUDDING 81

XXIV. PLANTING AND PRUNING 83

CHAPTER V. HORTICULTURE

XXV. MARKET-GARDENING 89

XXVI. FLOWER-GARDENING 108

CHAPTER VI. THE DISEASES OF PLANTS

XXVII. THE CAUSE AND NATURE OF PLANT DISEASE 122

XXVIII. YEAST AND BACTERIA 127

XXIX. PREVENTION OF PLANT DISEASE 129

XXX. SOME SPECIAL PLANT DISEASES 130

CHAPTER VII. ORCHARD, GARDEN, AND FIELD INSECTS

XXXI. INSECTS IN GENERAL 144

XXXII. ORCHARD INSECTS 152

XXXIII. GARDEN AND FIELD INSECTS 165

XXXIV. THE COTTON-BOLL WEEVIL 173

CHAPTER VIII. FARM CROPS

XXXV. COTTON 180

XXXVI. TOBACCO 189

XXXVII. WHEAT 192

XXXVIII. CORN 197

XXXIX. PEANUTS 202

XL. SWEET POTATOES 204

XLI. WHITE, OR IRISH, POTATOES 206

XLII. OATS 209

XLIII. RYE 213

XLIV. BARLEY 215

XLV. SUGAR PLANTS 217

XLVI. HEMP AND FLAX 226

XLVII. BUCKWHEAT 229

XLVIII. RICE 231

XLIX. THE TIMBER CROP 232

L. THE FARM GARDEN 235

CHAPTER IX. FEED STUFFS

LI. GRASSES 238

LII. LEGUMES 244

CHAPTER X. DOMESTIC ANIMALS

LIII. HORSES 262

LIV. CATTLE 270

LV. SHEEP 276

LVI. SWINE 279

LVII. FARM POULTRY 282

LVIII. BEE CULTURE 286

LIX. WHY WE FEED ANIMALS 290

CHAPTER XI. FARM DAIRYING

LX. THE DAIRY COW 293

LXI. MILK, CREAM, CHURNING, AND BUTTER 297

LXII. HOW MILK SOURS 302

LXIII. THE BABCOCK MILK-TESTER 304

CHAPTER XII. MISCELLANEOUS

LXIV. GROWING FEED STUFFS ON THE FARM 309

LXV. FARM TOOLS AND MACHINES 313

LXVI. LIMING THE LAND 315

LXVII. BIRDS 318

LXVIII. FARMING ON DRY LAND 323

LXIX. IRRIGATION 326

LXX. LIFE IN THE COUNTRY 330

APPENDIX 339

GLOSSARY 342

INDEX 351

TO THE TEACHER

Teachers sometimes shrink from undertaking the teaching of a simple
textbook on agriculture because they are not familiar with all the
processes of farming. By the same reasoning they might hesitate to teach
arithmetic because they do not know calculus or to teach a primary
history of the United States because they are not versed in all history.
The art of farming is based on the sciences dealing with the growth of
plants and animals. This book presents in a simple way these fundamental
scientific truths and suggests some practices drawn from them. Hence,
even though many teachers may not have plowed or sowed or harvested,
such teachers need not be embarrassed in mastering and heartily
instructing a class in nature's primary laws.

If teachers realize how much the efficiency, comfort, and happiness of
their pupils will be increased throughout their lives from being taught
to cooeperate with nature and to take advantage of her wonderful laws,
they will eagerly begin this study. They will find also that their
pupils will be actively interested in these studies bearing on their
daily lives, and this interest will be carried over to other subjects.
Whenever you can, take the pupils into the field, the garden, the
orchard, and the dairy. Teach them to make experiments and to learn by
the use of their own eyes and brains. They will, if properly led,
astonish you by their efforts and growth.

You will find in the practical exercises many suggestions as to
experiments that you can make with your class or with individual
members. Do not neglect this first-hand teaching. It will be a delight
to your pupils. In many cases it will be best to finish the experiments
or observational work first, and later turn to the text to amplify the
pupil's knowledge.

Although the book is arranged in logical order, the teacher ought to
feel free to teach any topic in the season best suited to its study.
Omit any chapter or section that does not bear on your crops or does not
deal with conditions in your state.

The United States government and the different state experiment stations
publish hundreds of bulletins on agricultural subjects. These are sent
without cost, on application. It will be very helpful to get such of
these bulletins as bear on the different sections of the book. These
will be valuable additions to your school library. The authors would
like to give a list of these bulletins bearing on each chapter, but it
would soon be out of date, for the bulletins get out of print and are
supplanted by newer ones. However, the United States Department of
Agriculture prints a monthly list of its publications, and each state
experiment station keeps a list of its bulletins. A note to the
Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., or to your own state
experiment station will promptly bring you these lists, and from them
you can select what you need for your school.

AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS

CHAPTER I

THE SOIL

SECTION I. ORIGIN OF THE SOIL

The word _soil_ occurs many times in this little 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 corn, or even naked, water-scarred, and disfigured by man's
neglect, is very different from what it was in its earliest days. 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, 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 (1) heat and cold; (2) water, frost, and ice; (3)
a very 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 many 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 way, 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, observe 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
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.

[Illustration: FIG. 1. ROCK MARKED BY THE SCRAPING OF A GLACIER OVER IT]

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 muddy soil. For ages the moving waters
ground against the rocks. Vast were the waters; vast the number of
years; vast the results.

Glaciers were another soil-producing agent. Glaciers are streams "frozen
and moving 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 vast sheet of ice.
Whatever moisture fell from the sky fell 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 moving masses, carrying rock and frozen earth, ground them
to powder. King thus describes the stately movement of these snow
mountains: "Beneath the bottom of this slowly moving sheet of ice, which
with more or less difficulty 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 _weathering_. Whenever you have
noticed the outside stones of a spring-house, you 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 away 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-wearying activity 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 you now see mosses and lichens grow on the
surface of rocks. The decay 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 _humus_.

[Illustration: FIG. 2. GROUND ROCK AT END OF A GLACIER]

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 deliberation that fills man with awe, the powerful forces of
nature splintered the rocks, crumbled 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 by 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 very
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
yields 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 necessary 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 carrying 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.

[Illustration: FIG. 3. SLOPE TO WATER SHOWS SOIL WEATHERED FROM FACE
OF CLIFF]

If the soil is fertile and if deep plowing has always been done, good
crops will result, other conditions being favorable. If, however, the
tillage is poor, scanty harvests 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 properly deepening it. The
principle of greatest importance in soil-preparation is the gradual
deepening of the soil in order that plant-roots may have more
comfortable homes. If the farmer has been accustomed to plow but four
inches deep, he should adjust the plow so as to turn five inches at the
next plowing, then six, and so on until the seed-bed is nine or ten
inches deep. This gradual deepening will not injure the soil but will
put it quickly in good condition. If to good tillage rotation of crops
be added, the soil will become more fertile with each succeeding year.

[Illustration: FIG. 4. MIXED GRASSES GROWN FOR FORAGE]

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
paying crops are the rule and not the exception.

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

=EXERCISE=

1. What tools are used in tillage?

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

3. Why 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 injury 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 necessary is it, then, that the soil be kept in the best possible
condition to catch and hold enough water to carry the plant through dry,
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
threadlike 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 but little water in the soil, the leaves
shrink up. This is simply 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 very 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 try to keep his soil in such good condition that
it will have a supply of water in it for growing crops when dry 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_.

[Illustration: FIG. 5. AN ENLARGED VIEW OF A SECTION OF MOIST SOIL,
SHOWING AIR SPACES AND SOIL PARTICLES]

It is necessary 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.

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