I From the collection of the Prepnger h ibrary P v t San Francisco, California 2007 AGRICULTURE FOR SOUTHERN SCHOOLS I HE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lm TORONTO AGRICULTURE FOR SOUTHERN SCHOOLS BY JOHN FREDERICK DUGGAR DIRECTOR OF THE ALABAMA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION AND PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE IN THE ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921 All righi* reserved Copyright, 1908, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1908. Reprinted July, August, November, December, 1908; August, Novem- ber, 1909; August, 1910; July, October, 1911; January, August, 1912. July 1913. December, 1913. June, 1914. PREFACE THIS little book has been written with the hope of supplying the need for an elementary text-book on agri- culture that shall differ from others in having a definite and limited field, — the South. While many of the prin- ciples of agriculture are universal, the application of these principles is somewhat local. By limiting the field of a text-book on agriculture to the Southern states, it becomes possible to treat the subject in a concrete way; to avoid many generalities inseparable from a book intended for use in all latitudes; and to employ as object-lessons only those plants that any teacher or pupil in a Southern school can easily obtain. For example, it is better that a South- ern pupil study the peach bloom fresh from the tree than to read of the flower of some plant rarely found in the orchards or fields in this latitudeo The cotton bloom, too, affords a suitable example of how flowers are constructed. This Southern point of view also makes it possible to give fuller, and hence more teachable, treatment to the most widely grown crops of the South. The principal aims that have guided the author in writ- ing this book are these : — i. To arouse the interest of the pupil in nature, and especially in the common plants of the Southern farm, orchard, and garden. vi PREFACE 2. So to present the subject that it may be mastered rather by stimulated observation and quickened thought than by mere memorizing. 3. To make a teachable book, — one that will present fewest passible difficulties to a teacher who has had no special training in either the theory or practice of agri- culture. The effort has been made to lead the pupil by easy steps from the known to the less familiar subjects, and from the concrete example to the general law or principle. 4. To make the language simple enough to be readily understood by a pupil in the sixth grade of the common schools, and yet to present the subject with enough system and substance to suit the pupils in the high school. 5. To emphasize, amplify, and illustrate a few princi- ples, which, when understood and practiced, have the power to revolutionize Southern farm practice and to promote the permanent prosperity of the farmer and of the state. The author's experience as a teacher, his long study and practice of agriculture, and his association with chil- dren, lead him to think that all these aims can be real- ized. He must leave to his fellow-teachers of the South the verdict whether this book approaches his cherished ideals. Recognizing the fact that provision has not been made for the special instruction of teachers in agriculture and that many are not familiar with farm practice, he adds this message to all such teachers. You can teach this subject effectively even without this acquaintance with PREFACE vil farm work. Your weakness will become your greatest strength if it cause you to step down in this class from the teacher's desk and to be a comrade with your pupils, — a fellow-seeker after the truth that none of us can know completely. Be a leader in raising questions which you need not be ashamed to own that you cannot answer. If you arouse the interest that will make your pupils desire an answer, you arouse in them for the years to come the spirit of inquiry by means of which, as men and women, they will educate themselves. In teaching agriculture, humility is the teacher's proper attitude, and to show it will not forfeit the respect of either pupils or patrons. The thanks of the writer are due to the many friends who have lent a helping hand in this work. Space does not suffice for acknowledgements to all, but special thanks are here tendered to my associates, Dr. W. E. Hinds, for the sections on insects, and Professor R. S. Mackintosh, for numerous photographs and for critical reading of the chapters on horticulture ; to Miss F. E. Andrews, and other lovers of flowers, for the sections on flower garden- ing; to Dr. B. M. Duggar, of Cornell University, for writing the chapter on plant diseases ; to Professor L. N. Duncan for suggestions and photographs for Figs. 2, 136, 139-14^, and 215; to Miss C. M. Cook for drawings; to the editor. Dr. L. H. Bailey, for many improvements ; and fc>f illustrations, to the United States Department of Agri- culture, and to the Experiment Stations of Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota^ Missouri, New York, and Ohio. THE AUTHOR. AUBURN, ALABAMA, January, 1908. CONTENTS PAGE SECTION I. INTRODUCTION 1 THE PLANT 7-53 Section II. The parts of the flower. Plant families . 7 Section III. Pollination 12 Section IV. Germination of seeds 21 Section V. Water for the plant 28 Section VI. How plants get food from soil and air . .32 Section VII. How plants are propagated . . . . * 38 Section VIII. Improvement of plants 46 THE SOIL 54-85 Section IX. How the soil was formed. Kinds of soil . . 54 Section X. Suiting the crop to the soil 61 Section XI. Moisture in the soil 65 Section XII. Preparation and cultivation of the soil . . 70 Section XIII. Terracing and draining .... 74 Section XIV. How the soil becomes poor . . .82 FERTILIZING MATERIALS AND FERTILIZERS . . . 86-115 Section XV. How trees and leguminous plants improve the sott 86 Section XVI. Barnyard manure • 93 Section XVII. Commercial fertilizers 97 Section XVIII. Calculating fertilizer formulas . . . 102 Section XIX. Suiting the fertilizers to the soil . . .108 Section XX. Lime 112 FARM CROPS . 116-181 Section XXI. Rotation of crops 116 Section XXII. Corn 123 Section XXIII. Selecting or judging seed-corn . . . 129 Section XXIV. Wheat, oats, rye, and barley . . .136 is X .CONTENTS Section XXV. Cotton ' . , ^44 Section XXVI. Sugarcane 154 ff^tion XXVII. Sweet potatoes 162 Section XXVIII. Peanuts and watermelons . . . 165 Section XXIX. Legumes and inoculation . . . .168 Section XXX. Some forage plants 174 Section XXXI. Weeds 182 Section XXXII. The vegetable garden . . . .185 FLOWERS 192-202 Section XXXIII. Planning the flower garden . . . 192 Section XXXIV. Growing flowers 197 FOREST AND FRUIT TREES . . . . . . . 203-224 Section XXXV. Forest trees 203 Section XXXVI. Forest trees (Continued) . . , ,208 Section XXXVII. Fruits . .' 215 DISEASES OF PLANTS. GERMS IN THE SOIL . . . 225-245 Section XXXVIII. The causes of diseases of plants . . 225 Section XXXIX. Some diseases of fruits .... 229 Section XL. Diseases of oats and whea't .... 233 Section XLI. Diseases of Irish and sweet potatoes . . 236 Section XLII. Diseases of cotton ..... 238 Section XLIII. Germs in the soil ..... 244 IVSECTS . . 246-280 Section XLIV. What an insect tt ..... 246 Section XLV. How insects grow 249 Section XLVI. How insects feed 253 Section XLVI1. Insect enemies of the farmer . . . 257 Section XLVII1. The Mexican cotton-boll weevil . . 264 Section XLIX. Insects and health ... . . . 272 Section L. The honeybee • . 277 FARM LIVE-STOCK • • 281-313 Section LI. Improvement of live-stock » « « • 2ol Section LIL Horses . . . • * « 384 Section L1IL ' Beefcatfc* . o sc CONTENTS xi PAGE Section LIV. Dairy cattle ....... 295 Section LV. Sheep . . . . . , . . . 299 Section LVI. Swine 303 Section LVII. The management of poultry . . . 306 Section LVIII. Breeds and varieties of chickens . . . 310 FEEDING LIVE-STOCK . , 314-322 Section LIX Principles of feeding animals . . . .314 Section LX. Calculating rations for live-stock . . .318 DAIRYING 323-329 Section LXI. The production and care of milk . . . 323 Section LXII. Making butter 326 MISCELLANEOUS 0 330-340 Section LXIII. The cattle tick 330 Section LXIV. Farm implements and machinery . . 3^33 Section LXV. Earth roads 338 APPENDIX i-vii Fertilizer equivalents ........ i Some fertilizer formulas ........ i To destroy insects iii To prevent or decrease diseases of plants . . . . iv To measure grain approximately . . . . . iv Dimensions of one acre ........ v State Agricultural Experiment Stations v School gardens ... o • . . . vf INDEX . ..... . ix-xiv AGRICULTURE FOR SOUTHERN SCHOOLS SECTION 1. INTRODUCTION We all enjoy a trip to a part of the country in which we have never been. It is the newness of all we see Photo by R. 8. Mackintosh FIG. l.— AWAITING DISCOVERY T)oes the showy part of the petals consist of dogwood or of whitened leaves? that excites our curiosity and interest. Would it not be delightful if we could constantly make discoveries of new 2 AGRICULTURE things about the very places where we live, and so find the same interest and pleasure that a trip affords us? Some persons have learned to do this. They make dis- coveries on any day that they spend in the woods or fields. They find flowers that they have not noticed before ; they learn which wild plants and weeds are kin to useful plants that they know ; they observe how plants- provide for their seed to be carried 'by wind, or water, or birds, or by large animals to other parts of the field or pasture. They learn new facts about animals and brooks and the whole out-of-doors. If we try to observe the plants that grow in our woods, or field, or garden, or orchard, we shall always be making interesting discoveries and gaining new plant friends. There is not only delight in collecting the wild flowers and in observing the trees, but there is also pleasure and profit in learning the nature and habits of our cultivated plants. We will know better how to prune a peach tree, an apple tree, or a grape-vine if we observe whether the fruit is borne on new branches or on those one or two years old. Notice this and tell the teacher what you observe. We shall be able to select better seed corn if we learn which shape of ear or of kernel is found in the most productive varieties. Agriculture deals with such ques- tions as these. A study of agriculture should enable pupils to under stand better the common plants and animals of the farm and cause them to take more interest in them. A book like this can give only a few of the most important principles of plant and animal growth. A knowledge of these INTRODUCTION should help one to observe and to form conclusions about the best way to select, feed, and cultivate plants and to FIG. 2. — COTTON, THE PRINCIPAL SALE CROP OP THE SOUTH care for animals so that farming may be made more inter- jesting and more profitable. 4 AGRICULTURE Agriculture is the practice of producing useful plants and animals. It is based on physiology, botany, chemis- try, and other natural sciences. It is also an art because success in agriculture requires skill and experience and business methods. In agricultural books, papers, and pamphlets is recorded much of the experience of the best farmers. In studying agriculture we shall learn some- thing about flowers, fruits, vegetables, and animals, as well as about crops that grow in the fields. Reasons for studying agriculture. — Agriculture is worthy of our most earnest study. It is the industry that furnishes food to all mankind and on which many arts and industries are built. Its study teaches us how plants feed, grow, and multiply; how man may take common plants and greatly increase their productiveness, beauty, or hardi- ness ; how he may rear animals ; how a farmer may make his poor soil rich, his scant crops bountiful, and his life and the life of his family full of comfort and pleasure. Surely, it is worth while to learn how to make the crops larger, the farm animals more useful and profitable ; how to make the garden and orchard yield a continuous supply of vegetables and fruits ; and how to beautify the grounds around the home and the school. It is worth y hile, too, for all of us to know how to pro- tect our plants from disease and how to conquer our insect foes. If blights, smuts, and mildews destroy the crops of field, orchard, or garden, knowledge suggests ways of preventing or destroying them. If caterpillars, bugs, weevils, and a host of other insect pests strip bare the growing crops and despoil the stored grain, knowledge INTRODUCTION 5 Df their lives and habits is the weapon with which man conquers them. Wherever farming has proved to be profitable, we may expect to find good roads, good schools, churches, libraries, telephones, and much else that helps to make life in the country pleasant and attractive. Even a child may do his part in bringing these things to pass. Some of the agri- Courtesy Ky. Expt. Statioa FIG. 3. — AN EXAMPLE OF HOW KNOWLEDGE PAYS Above, the. yield of apples from one tree sprayed to prevent rot ; below, the yield of a similar tree not thus protected. culture that he learns at school he can promptly make use of at home. Still more of it will be helpful to him in later years if he becomes a farmer. Best of all, the study of agriculture should eiiable him to find a keener pleasure in observing the ways of plants and animals, and thus enrich his entire life, whatever may be his future occupation. Even from this book we may learn how to make the soil richer year by year. If we should remember only this, and forget all else, we should be able to help our neighbor- hood and our country as well as ourselves. He serves his 6 AGRICULTURE country well who transforms a poor and unprofitable soil into a fertile and wealth-producing farm. He serves it also who aids in introducing a better class of live-stock or in producing better milk and butter. EXERCISE. — Secure a small notebook with a back that will not easily break. Tie to it a pencil. Use this for your agricultural exercises, and for no other purpose. Before the end of the session this little note- book will be more interesting to you than any printed book, — and you will be an author. As you study this chapter, write in your notebook a numbered list of the plants you know. Write down the names of all the field crops cultivated near your home. Opposite each write all of its uses. Like- wise write a list of the names and uses of as many kinds as you can of farm animals and poultry. NOTE TO THE TEACHER. — Question pupils on the text of every chapter. Encourage answers in the language of the child rather than in the exact language of the book. Grade pupils as much on the exercises at the end of each chapter, and on independent observation, as on the text. By grades or other means stimulate the pupils to bring to the class in agriculture object lessons appropriate to the subject in hand. Require notebooks jmd examine these often. You will be helped in teaching agriculture by having at hand " Exercises in Elementary Agri- culture ; Plant Production," by Dick ]. Crosby. This bulletin is sent free (on application) by the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Procure bulletins from the Experiment Station in your own state. SECTION II. THE PARTS OF THE FLOWER. PLANT FAMILIES THE chief effort of the plant is to produce seed. A flower must be formed before the seed can be produced. Its beautiful colors, its nectar, and its delicious perfume are means to attract insects whose help it may require in making seed. Mustard flower. — As our first example, we may inquire what are the parts of a mustard flower (Fig. 4). In the FIG. 4. — FLOWER OF MUSTARD FIG. 5. — DETAILS OF PART OF MUSTARD FLOWER center of this flower is a column, at the top of which is a rounded knob (V?, Fig. 5). The whole central column is called the pistil. Its important parts are the ovule case, near the base, in which the seeds develop ; and the stigma, or knob at the top. In some plants the stigma is divided into several parts. The surface of a full-grown stigma is sticky or rough, so that pollen, which is the yellow dust of the flower, may stick to it. The ovule case, or ovary, S AGRICULTURE contains little, immature, seed-like bodies, called ovules. Each ovule may become a seed. But before an ovule can change into a seed, it must be fertilized; that is, a grain of pollen must fall upon the stigma and grow down into the ovule, after which the latter becomes a seed. In a circle just outside of the pistil are a number of slender stalks (six on the mustard flower) called the stamens (1,4, Fig. 5). The most important part of a stamen is the cap at the top. This is the anther, or pollen case. When the anther is mature, it bursts and frees a yellow powder, called pollen. FIG. 6. — A PISTIL Soon after this powder or pollen is shed, the stamen, now useless, dies. The pollen must be carried by insects or wind or otherwise to the sticky or rough surface of the stigma in the same or in a different flower. If pollen is not brought to the stigma, no seeds develop. In a layer just outside of the stamens is the bright- colored part of the flower (2, Fig. 5). This is called the corolla. In many plants, as in the mustard, it is divided into a number of distinct pieces, each being really a colored leaf, called a petal. Fig. 4 shows that there are four petals in the mustard flower. In a layer just outside of these are the green parts of the flower, called sepals (3, Fig. 5). Let us see whether most flowers have their parts arranged in the same order, the pistil in the center, the stamens around the pistil, the petals next to these, and outside of all, the sepals. Peach blossom. — The peach blossom has this same THE PARTS OF THE FLOWER arrangement (Fig. 7). It has one undivided pistil. This is the part that a fruit grower examines after a frost, for he knows that if the pistils are killed there will be no peaches. Notice that there are numerous stamens; that there are five petals; and that there are five sepals, grown together. Apple blossom. — The apple blossom (Fig. 8) is very much like that of the peach, but its pistil is divided into five parts. Like the peach it has five petals and five sepals. In all the examples given above, there has been the same number of petals as of sepals. This is often true. Cotton flower. — The cotton bloom is formed on the plan of fives (Fig. 9). There are five showy petals, and also five short sepals. These last are grown together and form a shallow cup, which incloses the base of the boll. The three large green parts that form the square are not sepals, but bracts, or leaf -like extra parts. You also find bracts around some Photo by R. S. Mackintosh Fro. 7. — PEACH BLOOMS FIG. 8. — FLOWERS OF THE APPLE 10 AGRICULTURE Fio. 9. — SECTION OF COTTON BLOOM other flowers, for example, around the strawberry blossom and the head of the sunflower. There are usually four or five divisions of the pistil in the cotton bloom. From the number of these you will find that you can foretell how many locks of cotton there will be in any boll ; for there will be just as many locks in the boll as there are divisions of the pistil. The stamens in the cotton bloom are numerous. Their lower parts or stalks grow together to form a tube sur- rounding the pistil. Plant families. — Plants that produce blooms are divided into more than two hundred families. A family of plants generally includes the kinds that form their flowers in the same general way. For example, the Bean family in- cludes the garden pea, the sweet-pea, the field or cowpea, the locust tree, all kinds of clovers, and many others. If you will pick from a clover head a single tiny flower, you will see that its parts have the same general shape and arrangement as the large flowers of the garden pea, of the cowpea, or of the beautiful sweet-pea. Perhaps you can find out what resemblances there are between the flowers of the blackberry, the strawberry, the apple, the pear, the peach, the plum, and the wild rose. These all belong to the very large Rose family, which includes most of our fruits and berries. THE PARTS OF THE FLOWER II It will be easy for you to find scores of plants that be- !ong to the immense family of the Grasses. After carefully examining several well-known grasses, like crab grass, examine plants of corn and oats and see how many resemblances to grasses you find in these useful crop plants. These and other grains are grasses (Fig. 10). EXERCISE. — In every large flower you find, point out (i) the pistil, (2) the stamens, (3) the petals, and (4) the sepals. Find the pollen in all the flowers you examine. Does it show in young flower-buds ? Why is there little or no pollen in flowers that are nearly ready to wither or drop? Collect all the cultivated and wild plants that you can find having blossoms shaped like those of the sweet-pea or bean. In your note- book write the names of all these pea-like plants that you know. Leave a long blank space and keep adding to this list all through the season. Examine every kind of plant that you have ever heard called a clover to see blossoms have the shape of a pea or sweet-pea bloom. NOTE TO THE TEACHER. — Devote as much time as possible to having pupils point out the parts of each flower that may be brought to the class. Have them place in separate piles (i) all the pea-like flowers, (2) all the flowers that seem to them kin to the roses and blackberries, and (3) all the grasses. Probably one or two reviews of this chapter must be given so as to afford time for examination of every flower that is brought in. FIG. 10. — OAT FLOWEI OPENED TO SHOW SlA, MENS (s), AND STIGMA* (st), ENLARGED. (Aftei Roberts and Freeman.) whether its separate SECTION III. POLLINATION WHILE you have been learning the names of the differ- ent parts of the flowers, you have perhaps been thinking about the uses of each part. The sepals and petals serve to protect the more important parts inside. For example, the peach sepals and petals while still folded together in the bud keep the pistil from being killed by slight frosts in the early spring ; thus the peach crop is sometimes saved. That the stamens and pistils, however, are more important than the sepals and petals can be proved by care- fully removing all of the petals from a flower of cotton or from a peach blossom. In spite of this injury, a boll or a peach will form if pollen is applied to the stigma. Flowers without petals. — Since the flower makes seed or fruit by means of the stamens and pistil alone, these two parts are called the necessary or essential parts. The flowers of many plants have no showy sepals and petals. The sepals and the petals are not strictly necessary. When you see the flowers of corn and wheat you may not think of them as flowers, because they have no gay colors. The bees and other insects do not often visit such flowers. Function or use of the pistil. — The pistil is the part of a flower that develops into the seed-case or fruit. In its 12 POLLINATION base it contains the tiny ovules which may develop into seeds. There will be no fruit or seed formed if the pistil is destroyed. Function or use of pollen. — The part of the stamen that is most important is the pollen or plant ». dust. This is a fine powder and is set free by the opening of the little pollen case, or anther, at the tip end of the stamen. Pollen must adhere to and grow into the pistil and enter the ovule be- fore seed contained in the pistil can develop. You may learn the im- portance of the pollen to the plant by carefully picking off all the sta- mens of a nearly open flower bud of cotton or peach or other plant. Then tie a small paper sack over the injured bloom to keep the pollen of other flowers from being brought in by wind or insects. In a few days you will find that the pistil to which no pollen can gain access does not grow, % , but generally dies and falls. If it lives it produces no perfect seed. At the same time, other pistils, on whose stigmas you have noticed tiny grains adhering, will be growing (Figs. 12, 13, 14). If you tie a paper bag tightly over a young corn ear FIG. ii. — PISTIL AND STAMENS (TULIP) FIG. 12. — TOBACCO FLOWER AGRICULTURE before the silks show, and keep it there, no grains will form on that cob. This is because no pollen falls on the silks, which are the pistils of an ear of corn. For the same reason, if you cut the young silks from one side of an ear shoot, no grains will grow on that side. Every silk is connected with a grain space on the cob, and if that silk FIG. 13. — SOUND AND GOOD TO- BACCO SEED WHERE THERE WAS AN ABUNDANCE OP POLLEN APPLIED FIG. 14. — CHAFF, INSTEAD OP TOBACCO SEED, WHERE NO POLLEN WAS ALLOWED TO REACH THE STIGMA catches no pollen, a vacant grain space is left on the cob where this silk arises. Pollen does not cause fruit or seed to grow or be pro- duced unless the plant that bore it is of the same kind as, or closely related to, the plant on whose pistil it is placed. Thus peach pollen is useless on apple blossoms. The pol- len may come from the same flower of which the pistil is a part, from another flower of the same plant, or from a different plant. POLLINATION 15 Self -pollinated plants. — In the flowers of wheat, oats, and peas, the pistil is usually pollinated by the pollen that is produced in the same flower. Such plants are said to be self-pollinated. Self-pollinated plants do not mix with other kinds in the field. Cross-pollinated plants. — On the other hand, the pistils of some kinds of plants generally receive pollen that grows on a different plant. Such plants are said to be cross- pollinated. If a farmer grows a white and a yellow variety of corn side by side, these will be mixed in a few years. This is because the light pollen dust from one kind is carried by the wind to the silks of the other kind. Many a boy has had his patch of popcorn ruined by planting it near field corn that bloomed at the same time as the popcorn. You have perhaps noticed the pollen of corn as it was carried by the wind, like fine dust. You have probably also noticed in the spring clouds of yellow- ish dust blown from the pine trees. This dust is light pollen carried by the wind. How insects help the flowers to form seed. — Some plants have heavy pollen, which the wind cannot so easily carry. Cotton is one of these. Such plants generally have gayly colored petals that attract the insects. Even children like to taste nectar by touching the tongue to a blossom of honeysuckle after its petals are removed. The flower of- fers nectar to insects and in return the insects usually bring pollen from a blossom of the same kind and place this on the pistil. If we notice a bee as it enters a flower, we observe that much yellow dust adheres to its body. This is pollen that it rubs against while visiting other I<5 AGRICULTURE flowers. While it is in the blossoms, it usually happens to brush against the sticky or rough stigma, which catches some of the pollen it brings. It is interesting to watch the movements of the i*\sects when they are thus helping the flower to form seed. . Gardeners who grow tomatoes in the greenhouse col- lect the pollen and place it on the flowers by using a brush (Fig. 15). If they fail to do s,o, they get very few Courtesy Mfch. Expt. StaHAa FIG. 15. — POLLINATION OF TOMATOES The two on the right grew from pistils abundantly supplied with pollen; the two on the left from pistils receiving but little pollen. tomatoes. If there were many large insects in the green- house, they might not need to take this trouble. We do not need to practice this hand pollination when tomatoes are grown in the garden, for then insects might do this useful work instead of human hands. In one locality the fruit-growers thought that bees were injuring their ripe fruits, and accordingly made the keepers of bees remove their hives. As a result, the fruit crop de- creased. Then the bees were brought back, and the crop POLLINATION 17 at once increased. If the weather, when fruit trees are in bloom, is so cold or rainy that the bees do not fly from flower to flower, the crop of fruits is usually small. Cross-pollinated plants (those that need to get pollen from other plants of the same kind) can be divided into two classes, first, those whose pollen is carried from one plant to another by wind ; second, those whose pollen is carried by insects. Why strawberries sometimes fail to bear. — A gardener once had a well-worked strawberry bed that showed a mass of leaves and runners, but yielded few berries. This was because he had planted only one variety, and that one variety did not have well - developed stamens. His patch of strawberries would have borne good crops if he had _ FIG. 16.— FLOWER planted every fourth row with another or STRAWBERRY variety having stamens as well as pistils. WITH BOTH PISTILS J AND STAMENS From this you see it pays to know some- thing about how plants are supplied with pollen. Imper- fect varieties of strawberries are called pistillate varieties, because they have pistils only, and the perfect kinds are called staminate or perfect varieties, because they have stamens as well as pistils (Fig. 16). Why the fruit crop sometimes fails. — Even when the flowers contain both stamens and pistils, there is often a failure to produce fruit. This is likely to happen when a single variety of grapes, pears, or apples is planted alone and away from all other varieties of the same fruit. Some varieties of these fruits must get pollen that has 1 8 AGRICULTURE grown on a different variety. The pollen of a Duchess pear, for example, when it falls on the pistils of a Bart- FIG. 17. — BRIGHTON GRAPES, SELF-FERTILIZED lett pear tree will cause fruit to grow ; but generally no pear develops when the pollen from a Duchess tree falls After N. F. State Experimeit Station FIG. 18. — BRIGHTON GRAPES, CROSS-FERTILIZED on the pistils of another Duchess tree. Trees or grape- vines that act thus are said to have pollen that is impo- tent (powerless) on blossoms of the same variety. Im- POLLINATION potent pollen is one of nature's many ways of preventing self-pollination (Figs. 17 and 18). In planting an orchard or vineyard for home use it is a good rule to plant several varieties of apples, several of pears, and several of grapes, so that one variety may supply pollen for the blossoms of the others. Pistils and stamens in different parts of the same plants. — We have called the pistils and the stamens the essential parts of a flower because both are necessary to the forma- tion of the seeds. When one flower bears both stamens and pistil, it is called a perfect jlower. But the pistil and the stamens are not always found in the same flower. In the corn plant, for example, the silks are the pistils, while the stamens from which comes the pollen are found in the tassel, another part of the same plant. Thus you see that in corn the staminate flowers are borne on the top of the plant and the pistillate on the young ears of corn growing on the stalks of the same plant. On a squash, cucum- ber (Fig. 19), or water- melon the pistillate blossom may be known by the little squash or melon which shows below its yellow petals. These blossoms have pistils but no stamens. In other parts of the same plants are staminate blossoms, that have stamens, 'but no pistils and no swollen part. Among other plants having stamens FIG. 19. — CUCUMBER FLOWERS On left, pistillate; on right, staminate. X AGRICULTURE and pistils borne on the same plant, but not in the same flower, are the castor bean, the oak, and the pecan. Pistils and stamens are sometimes on different plants. — * This is the case with hemp, willows, and poplars. EXERCISE. — Tie paper bags or pieces of tough paper snugly around the unopened buds of any kind of plants that may be blooming when you study this lesson. In a week notice whether the pistil is growing and seeds are forming If so, these plants do not need visits from Insects, but are self-pollinated. Notice what flowers are being visited by insects and especially by honey bees. Notice the kind of insect. Watch them to learn whether they brush off any pollen of another flower against the pistil. NOTE TO THE TEACHER. — If a catalogue of some nursery company can be had, examine its list of strawberries and by questioning the pupils learn which of these varieties are grown near the school. Have they fruited well? If not, are they marked in the catalogue as pistil- late varieties? Blooms of pumpkins or of any kind of melon make a good subject for examination and discussion in this lesson. The questioning on all lessons should be more to encourage observation and understanding than to measure memory work. FIG. 20. — SECTION LENGTHWISE THROUGH A PISTILLATE SQUASH BLOSSOM o, ovule case; c, base of corolla. SECTION IV. GERMINATION OF SEEDS THE seeds have been called the children of the plant. The parent plant provides the seeds with food enough to serve them until the young plants have formed roots and leaves with which to gather their own food. Food for the young plant. — Let us examine a grain of corn to see how the plant packs up the good things for its- seed children. Soak a few dozen grains of corn in water over night so that for to-morrow's lesson you may be better able to sepa- rate their parts. Outside is the tough coat, which you will remove from the soaked kernels. With a sharp knife ^ you will cut crosswise through a dry FIG. 21.- CROSS-SECTION . ., THROUGH A CORN KER- or soaked kernel, with its groove side NEL Up. YOU will probably be able tO see a, germ; b, hard starch7 first a cream-colored portion or germ kyer.[ f' soft white starchy layer. next to the groove and near the tip of the kernel ; second, a layer of soft white starch ; and third, a harder whitish layer, also made up chiefly oi starch. The germ is the only part of the grain that sprouts. It may be called the baby plant. The two layers of starch and other materials are placed near at hand only to sup- ply the germ with food when it first wakes to begin its 21 AGRICULTURE growth. If it is not too cold, plant several dozen grains of corn either in the ground or in a little box inside a After U. S. Dept. Agr. FIG. 22. — CORN GRAINS PLANTED AT VARIOUS DEPTHS IN A Box WITH GLASS SIDES -window (Fig. 22). Dig up a few of these every day to learn how the young plant grows. Roots grow near the tip end. — The sprouting of seeds is .called germination. When you dig up seeds that have begun to sprout, you find that a little root has started downward, and that a little shoot has grown upward to make the above-ground part of the plant. EXPERIMENT. — Each day the root and shoot become longer. Find whether the root grows only near the tip, or whether all parts -of it lengthen. To learn this, make two marks with India or draw- ing ink or other "fast" color on a white root that is about an inch x>r an inch and a half long. Lay a ruler by the side of the root and make the first mark a quarter of an inch from the tip of the root ; make the Bother mark half an inch nearer the grain. A black thread may be tied GERMINATION OF SEEDS 23 around the root as a marker instead of using drawing ink. Keep the sprouted grain moist by placing it in damp sand or between moist blotting papers kept either in a small tight box or between two saucers. After a day or two measure the distance between the two marks, which you will find to be unchanged. Now measure from the outer mark to- the tip of the root and you will find that this portion has grown rapidly. Roots of all plants increase in length only near the tips. However, if you make measurements of the stems of young plants, you will find that all parts of the young stem, as well as the tip, increase in length until a certain age is- reached. Moisture necessary to make seed sprout. — Did anybody in this class ever plant seed when the ground was dry and when no rain fell soon afterwards ? Did any seed come up ? You can prove that seeds need moisture in order to- germinate, by planting some seeds in two tomato cans in. the window ; keep the soil in one can very dry and in the other barely moist. What happens ? Heat required for germination. — Oats that were sown during very cold weather have sometimes remained un- sprouted for a month. When the sowing was done in. warmer weather, they came up in about one third of that time. Seeds of different plants require very different amounts of heat to wake them and make them sprout or germinate. Seeds of wheat, oats, rye, and barley germinate when the soil is quite cool, and so the farmer sows these crops during the colder part of the year. Corn grains require more heat than oats, but less than the seeds of cotton, cowpeas, or peanuts. A farmer never plants these last crops until the soil has become somewhat warm. 24 AGRICULTURE Sprouting seeds need air. — Corn planted in a field that was afterwards overflowed by a creek for several days failed to come up. It was because the water kept the air -away from the seeds. Three conditions for germination. — We now understand that for a seed to germinate it must have moisture, air,