3
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.
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
CHAPTER II.
THE SOIL AND THE PLANT
VIII. ROOTS 25
IX. HOW THE PLANT FEEDS FROM THE SOIL 29
X. ROOT-TUBERCLES 30
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. SELECTIN
Agriculture for Beginners, page 2
by Charles William Burkett