The Library of Work and Play: Gardening and Farming. | Page 8

the
scientific way of going at it. I was able to get a little soil from our
future garden plot, and I'll find out right now if it's acid." Albert opened
a small box which was full of soil that looked quite clayey. He wet a
piece of litmus and buried it in the soil.
"We'll have to leave this a few minutes, and I'll finish what I have to
say. If soil is very acid it has to be changed back again."
"Back again to what?" asked Jack.
"Why, back again, so it isn't acid," Albert continued, decidedly
confused.
"I'll help you a bit," and The Chief came to the rescue, "Get that big
bottle over there, Albert." Albert brought the bottle. In it was a liquid
clear as water.
"Taste it, Peter," and The Chief handed Peter a little in a small glass.
"Why it doesn't taste like much of anything; sort of flat."
"That's it exactly, Peter. It certainly is not an acid, is it?" Peter shook
his head. "It is lime water and does not belong in the acid class, but to
one which is exactly opposite to the acids, the alkalies. Soils ought to
be neither acid nor alkaline, but neutral, as it is called. An alkali will
help make neutral an acid. If the soil is acid it is bad for your crop. Put
a little lime water on the litmus which the acid has turned red."

Albert did this and the boys watched interestedly to see the effect.
"Back again," sang out Jack as the red litmus changed to blue.
"Now from this you see a way to overcome the acid conditions of
Albert's piece of land, if it proves to be acid."
"I see," said Jack, "lime it."
"Exactly! Now see, Albert, if the paper has changed colour."
"My, I should say it had!" and Albert held up the piece of litmus paper,
now quite red from its contact with the soil.
"Well, Albert, it is pretty plain to see what you have to do. Did you find
out the amount of lime to use?"
"In the book I read it said for clay soils 400-2000 pounds per acre."
"I should say," said The Chief, "for that special piece of land use about
20 bushels to the acre."
"How many pounds of lime," asked Jack, "to the bushel?"
"I can answer," grandly went on Albert, "there are 70 pounds to the
bushel. So that makes 1400 pounds."
"Quite a proposition!" said Jay.
"Yes, but your land is only a half acre and so that changes matters a
little. How much is lime a bushel, Jack? Ask your father, will you?"
"I think," said The Chief, "that we'll have to lay a drain pipe through
your land. Anyway I shall come around in early spring and have a look
at it."
"Now Peter, we'll hear from you," Jay announced.
"My work was to find out how long it took different kinds of seeds to
germinate, that is sprout. I took a dozen each of different seeds, put
blotters in dishes, wet the blotters, and placed the seeds on these. I kept
them in a warm place in the dining room. I have made each of you
fellows a copy of the table."
PETER'S GERMINATING TABLE
Beans 5-10 days. Onion 7-10 days. Beets 7-10 " Peas 6-10 " Cabbage
5-10 " Pepper 9-14 " Carrot 12-18 " Radish 3-6 " Celery 10-20 "
Tomato 6-12 " Lettuce 6-8 " Turnip 4-8 "
"I'd like to know what use a germinating table is, anyway?" asked
Albert scornfully.
"Well," Peter replied thoughtfully, "it gives you an exact knowledge of
the time to expect your seedlings to poke up. Now suppose radish came
up in four days. The carrot you had planted didn't come up and after

twelve days, discouraged, you plant more seed. Now two days later the
first carrots you sowed begin to appear. If you had known that it took
carrots from 12 to 18 days to germinate you'd not have made the
mistake of planting again so soon. I think of another reason," went on
Peter warming up to his subject. "Suppose you planted beet seed. You
waited ten days; nothing happened; you wait two more and still no
seedling appears; something is surely wrong and you plant over again."
"What could be wrong," asked Philip.
"The seed might be poor," replied Peter. "George has been testing
seed," said Jay, "and he might tell us about it now, couldn't he, Chief?
It seems to come in here." The Chief nodded.
"I have been finding out whether certain seeds which I happen to have
on hand are worth planting or not. If any of you fellows have seed and
wish to find this out, you can