Agriculture for Beginners

Agriculture for Beginners, by

Charles William Burkett and Frank Lincoln Stevens and Daniel Harvey
Hill This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
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Title: Agriculture for Beginners Revised Edition
Author: Charles William Burkett Frank Lincoln Stevens Daniel Harvey
Hill
Release Date: March 8, 2007 [EBook #20772]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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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 Athenæum 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