Agriculture for Beginners

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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 with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
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
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 Athen?um 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.