fROFESSIONAk- r^ TERMING |--f--''^Ei (3 G e::r T "-T- '■■' ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics Cornell University Cornell University Library S 501.E29 Elements of agriculture; a treatise on pr 3 1924 000 291 843 The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000291843 Elements of Agriculture ■A TREATISE ON PROFESSIONAL FARMING BY CHARLES A. EGGERT, Ph. D. Formerly Professor in [he L'niicrsit) of Iowa WITH INTRODUCTION BY JAS. ATKINSON Editor of Iowa Homestead W. M. WELCH eV COMPANY CHICAGO 342497 Copyright, icio:, by M. WELCH & COMPANY ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The author has based his book largely on his personal experience in the management of a small farm for more than twenty years, though he has repeatedly owned and managed a larger farm. But he is under special obliga- tions, which he gratefully acknowledges, to the labors of many distinguished specialists. At an early age he stud- ied, in Germany, Tiiaer's Principles of Agriculture, one of the fundamental works on the subject; a little later he was initiated into the investigations of Justus Von Lieeig, incorporated in his Letters on Modern Agriculture and his Animal Chemistry. The botan- ist ScHLEiDEN, the physiologist Jaaies Molesciiott, and other distinguished scientists were his teachers at about the same time. He followed up studies of this nature in England, where Mechi and Johnson, in France, where B0USSING-A.ULT carried on work similar to that of Th.\er and LiEBiG. Since then many distinguished writers have popularized and expanded the work of their great prede- cessors. In this country, Orange Judd has been very active and very successful in agricultural and horticul- tural journalism. His successors in the American Agri- culturist and Prairie Farmer have continued his work with eminent success, while many other periodicals, in this country and abroad, have rivaled these in useful and efficient work, the Rural New Yorker in the East, the Iowa Homestead and the Irrigation Age in the West being specially noticeable among them. Among promi- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. nent works on the subject the following may be men- tioned : Terry's Our Farming, jMorton's Nature and Prorerty of Soils, Bailey's Principles of Agricul- ture, King's The Soil, Trs Nature and Management, Henry's Feeds and Feeding, Wiley's Principles and Practice of Agricultural Analysis. To these and others the author is indebted for valuable information, and in addition to these, to man)- excellent articles, lec- tures, etc., contained in the agricultural reports of diiler- ent states. Special acknowledgments are due to the ad- mirable Ye.\rbook published by the Department of Agri- culture under the enlightened and competent direction of the Secretary" of Agriculture, the PIonorable James Wilson, whom the author has had the pleasure and the honor of knowing personally during his long connection with the University of Iowa. For many of the illustrations grateful acknowledgment is here made to the able author of Judging Live Stock, Prof. John A. Cr.\ig; also to several periodicals, to the Curtis Publishing Company, to Messrs. A. Flanagan & Co., Chicago, and especially to the distinguished editor of the Yearbook. PREFACE. Ex-Governor W. D. Hoard said not very long ago: "I know of nothing in the curri- culum of the average country school that tends in any matter whatever to encourage a farmer's boy to be a farmer. On the contrary, very much that is taught therein rather leads him to believe that there is not sufficient scope for his intellect and ambition in agriculture." This remark, is so pertinent that it has been frequently quoted in Farmers' Institutes. It has never been contradicted. It is in order to meet the want pointed out in the remark that the present little volume has been written. The author does not flatter himself to have done the impossible, but he ventures to hope that a careful perusal of his book will have a perceptible influence in modifying the low opinion of many farmers' boys of the value and dignity of their fathers' profession. The book will also answer the purpose of the general reader who is interested in the principal industry of the country, and as a PREFACE. work of ready reference on the various topics of which It treats. To this end it has been provided with a full Index. While success In farming, as in every other pursuit, depends In the first place on such practical work as no book can properly teach, the stimulus of thought and Information, found In appropriate reading and study, will help success by Increasing the mental power of the reader. The Importance of the connection of agriculture with science should be-understood, and likewise- the relation of the farming In- dustry to the other Industries of the nation. The farmer, while his work Is the most Im- portant, is not the only worker; he is the most important member of human society, but not the whole society. Attention has been called to these matters in special chapters. While the author knows perfectly well that on any of the topics he has presented a great deal more might be said than the compass of this work permits, he hopes that his book may help, not only to diflfuse useful knowledge, but to contribute Its share In the education of the rising generation to a noble type of intel- ligent citizenship. mTRODUOTION. TT N excl^arige for the benefits conferred by civilized 11^ society and a stable government, tl^e average man must WOl'k. To shun labor is therefore to go back to the blanket stage, and the educational system that does not fit both[ mind and body for sonie speci- fic duty in life must step down and out. But a distir\ctiori niust be made between work and drudgery, If all are obliged to labor, then clearly the joy of living must be found in one's daily duties. Drudgery is synonymous with ignorance. In early times when soils wei'e rich[, implenients crude, and keen competition unkriown,thei'e was necessarily n\uch drudgery connected with farm life, Muscle ruled in those days, Tl^ere was but little draft upon gray matter. Conditions have undergorje radical changes, however, Soils h^ave hecorqe more or less impover- ished, competition has arisen in every line of produc- tion, ir[sect enemies that prey upon crops have ir^- creased, as well as fungous diseases, — all of wl'[ich but signifies tl^at successful agriculture reguires thie highi- est type of ability, Success uqder present conditioris implies aq intimate knowledge of soils, plants, ar\i- mals, iqsects arjd diseases of aninqals and plants, A mind stored with a kriowiedge of these essentials is fortified against disaster, One may call it science or wl^atever l^e chooses, but this thing is certain that the producer who will combine a knowledge of th[ese things with a fair amount of industry is bound to suc- ceed, In no profession can the outcome be calcu- lated with such mathematical accuracy, T|-[is little volume has been prepared with two ob- jects in mind, In i\\e first place it is the belief of the author that mucli may be done by way of checkiqg the migration of our young people from the farn] to the populated centers, by impartir|g to them more accurate inforiiiation concerniqg the every day affairs of home surroundings. Such ir[forn]ation, iqturn, will tend to convince them that successful farming requires just as brilliaqt taleqts as does any profession or busi- ness, and also that energies intelligently directed along this line are absolutely sure of liberal reward, In the second place, those who are now actively en- gaged in agricultural pursuits have been kept in view, and the volume prepared to suit their requireiT|eqts, In other words, it h[as beeq the inteqtion to make it a sort of handbook on things agricultural, a book to which the producer may turn at all seasons of the year for guidance. Without loading it witl^ tech- nicalities, it has been the endeavor to embody in its teaching the latest discoveries in the science of agriculture. lay 15, 1902, CONTENTS. Frontispiece. Preface 3 ■ Introduction by James Atkinson 5 PART I. THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. CHAPTER. PAGE. I. The Profession of Farming 9 IL The Soil — Formation of Ilumus 15 in. The Soil and Its Fertility 21 IV. Elements and Conditions of Plant Growth 28 V. Drawbacks of Farming 36 VI. The Value of Markets" 43 VII. Pure Air and Pure Water 47 PART II. FIELD CROPS. I. TheRaising and Rotation of FieldCrops.. 59 II. Grain Crops 67 III. Corn 72 IV. Grass, Clover and Hay "]"] V. Root Crops 82 VI. Potatoes 85 VII. The Value of Different Fertilizers. ... 91 VIII. Silos and Ensilage 97 PART III. ANIMALS ON THE FARM. I. The Horse 100 II. The Hog 112 III. Cattle 116 IV. Sheep 121 V. The Dairy 125 VI. Poultry .'. 135 CONTENTS. PART IV. FRUIT. PAGE. I. The Uses of Fruit 141 11. The Apple i44 III. The Cherry, Pear, Pkim and Peach 152 IV. The Grape 154 V. Small Fruit I57 VI. General Remarks 159 PART V. SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. I. Divisions of Science 163 II. The Tests of Science 170 III. The Conservation of Energy 173 IV. Agricultural Chemistry 178 V. Agricultural Physiology 185 VI. Food and Feeding 193 A^TI. Human Food 200 VIII. Entomology, or Insect Life 205 IX. Bees 212 X. Birds 219 PART VI. RURAL SCENERY. I. The Element of Beauty in Farm Life. .233 II. Final Remarks and a Retrospect 248 TIL The Department of Agriculture 256 Appendix. Statistics 261 Appendix. The Item of Waste 264 Index 267 PART I. THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. CHAPTER I. THE PROFESSION OF FARMING. It is now almost fifty years since a bright boy was hoeing weeds in his father's garden. The boy did not Hke his job. He was fond of machinery and wanted to work in a machine shop. He had no idea of being a farmer, and yet he became after a while a very suc- cessful farmer, one whom everyone admired on find- ing out how he had managed to make farming a success on a small worn-out farm. The boy grew up to be a man without ever having lived on a farm. His father had sent him to college, but college work made him sick, and the doctor said, "If the young fel- low does not do something that will keep him in the open air, his life will be in danger." At the age of 22 the young man married. From ignorance, and because he was too trustful, he bought a worthless farm, or one which was generally consid- ered worthless, incurring a debt of more than three thousand dollars. In about twelve years or so he man- 10 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. aged not only to pay off his debt but to make his farm of less than 50 acres pay him a net annual income of over two thousand dollars. He then built a fine house for himself and family and is now one of the men everyone wants to hear at Farmers' Institutes because what he has to say is sensilile and true. He gained this knowledge by working the soil and by thinking. He was 26 when he moved on his farm for which he could not find a tenant who would pay him anything. He had a hard time the first winter and spring to keep his cattle alive. He lost three cows from starvation and una\-()i(la]jle exposure, and a neighbor told him that he had in past years helped to skin as many as ten cows on the same farm in spring that had died be- cause the l)arn was so wretched and the feed so poor. The young man had to live very economically and to work very hard. His farm contained at first 125 acres, but of these only about 30 acres were fit for tillage: some 15 acres, covered with scattering timber, were made useful for cultivation later, so that the total number of acres on the farm that could be turned to any use was 45. The most of this was rather poor land, and onl)^ a few acres could be called good. There were many stumps which had to be removed at con- siderable expense, and many swamps, so called cat- swamps, which caused great trouble until they were drained. This could be done at once, but required much time and labor. Now with all that del)t and the other drawbacks the young man worked on, improving his soil by laying drains of good drain tile, and enriching it by carefully spreading manure on his meadow land and on clover. He raised no crop for which the land had THE PROFESSION OF FARMING. II not been previously enriched by a crop of clover, plowed under after it had been well manured and the manure well spread, and he thus managed to harvest heavy crops of wheat and especially of potatoes. He worked with his head as well as with his hands, and astonished his neighbors by the crops he raised, so that it was generally believed that his land was of ex- traordinary fertility. But in this they were mistaken. It was proved that the most of his land was originally poor rather than rich, and that his success was due to his knowing how to do things in the right way. The name of this successful farmer is T. B. Terry, and his home is near Akron, Ohio. Mr. Terry has demonstrated that farming pays if it is made a pro- fession, and that the professional farmer may succeed where all others fail wretchedly.* No one needs to be told nowadays that, in order to get a thing well done, we must have it done by a specialist. A specialist does a certain thing, or a cer- tain line of work, every day in the year. He does not change about from this to that, but seeks to acquire perfection in the work he understands. We consult a dentist, a lawyer, a preacher for various ailments of mind and body ; we buy our watch from the best watchmaker and our wagon from the best wagon- maker. It does not occur to us to ask our blacksmith to repair our watch, nor our watchmaker our plow, nor do we consult our lawyer about the right way to heaven. It might seem that the rule does not apply to the *Mr. Terry has written an admirable work on agriculture, en- titled "Our Farming," in which he relates his own work and ex- perience. 12 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARJIING. farmer. People will buy tlieir wheat or oats, their potatoes or corn wherever they can be had, be the raiser of these articles a bung-ler or a man of great skill and long experience. They say, these things grow of themselves, if once sown or planted. -The elements take care of them and man has scarcely anything else to do but to guard them from being ruined by careless people, or from being choked by weeds, or trodden down by cattle. In this sense, it may be admitted, any one can be a farmer. But is there, then, no differ- ence between a first-class farmer and a bungler? If we examine what farming really means, we shall see that there is such a difference, and a great one. The bungler lets his land run down so that his crops are poorer frotn year to year. The true farmer raises good crops as a rule, and often succeeds in raising more to the acre than any of his neighbors. The bungler grows poorer, the professional farmer grows steadily in wealth. The farmer is the engineer, so to speak, of a vast machine, his land. The land will bring forth accord- ing to the seed that is in it, but it wears out like any other machine, and as it wears out the weak or miss- ing parts must be repaired or restored. But what are these parts? They are not exactly the same for all crops, but all crops weaken this machine, and the work of restoring worn-out parts should never cease. In another sense the soil may be compared to a bank. It is only what you put into your bank, and what you leave in it, that enriches it and enables you, in due time, to draw from it a heavy interest or dividend. In order to work the soil tools are needed. Experi- ence and good judgment are necessary in the selection THE PROFESSION OF FARMING. I3 of these tools, and in this also the professional or special character of the farmer appears. We might include among these tools the animals used for cultivation, and again others which consume the products of the field and thus reduce them to a smaller bulk before they are sent to market. To do this economically, and with the greatest possible ad- \'antage, again calls for the skill of the specialist, the professional farmer. For these and other reasons we must class the busi- ness of the intelligent farmer among the regular pro- fessions, and for his profession we claim an even greater importance than for any other. From this point of view we may consider somewhat in detail the various branches in which a professional farmer should be proficient. We must assume, of course, that a man who wishes to be a good farmer will a|)Dlv himself early and late to the work he has in hand. Without work and considerable push and energy no amount of mere knowledge of how the thing shouM be done will be of any use in any calling. The proper kind of soil and of the implements needed to work it ; the right kind of stock, cattle, pigs, horses, etc., to be raised or used on it, and a market at a convenient distance ; all these are necessary to enable a farmer to pursue his profession properly. He may have to begin under great discouragements, and it may take him a number of years before he can call e\'en a small farm his own. But if he keeps up cour- age and continues to work and to study, success will come at last, as it has come to many others. There is some general knowledge a farmer needs in common with other men. He must know some- 14 THE BASIS AXD COXDITIOXS OF FARMrNG. thing almut sanitation, that is. liow to prepare a suitable and healthy dwelling for himself and to give shelter and protection to his stock. A farmer need not be a house builder, but he should know the principles that will enable him to put his house in the best position as to drainage and other health conditions, to have an abundant supply of pure water, both for his family and for his stock, and he should know enough of the art of roadmaking to do as much as the finances of his district permit to build the most necessary roads. The progressi\'e farmer should know what is being done in his profession 1iy others, and he should at least know the foundation of the sciences that are of special im- portance to the farm and its products. It will be seen from this that a good farmer must exercise his brain no less than his hands. If he has a well tilled farm and a comfortalile home, he is a little king on his own territory. He is not compelled to inhale the disease-laden air of the city with its clouds of dust and masses of filth. He can breathe the pure health-giving air of the broad country and rej'iice in the feeling of bodily vigor which surpasses all the nerve-e.xciting and weakening amusements of city life. The tilling of the soil changed the feudal- aristocracy of Europe into peaceful members of the State, and to this day the aristocracy of the progressive European states is based on the ownership and cul- tivation of the soil. CHAPTER 11. THE SOIL FORMATION OF IIUMUS. The ancient Greeks had a story of a giant who was the son of the earth. His name was Antaeus. It was said of him that his immense strength was due to his relation to his mother, and that as long as he was in contact with her no one could conquer him. Antaeus was met by Hercules, another of the fabled strong men of antiquity, and the two fought for a long time. Hercules threw Antaeus to the earth again and again, but, strengthened by his mother as he touched her, Antaeus rose every time able to fight more vigorously than before. At last Hercules, finding out the cause of his opponent's strength, lifted him high in the air and there strangled him. The story has often been quoted as illustrating the great truth that the strength of every human being is drawn from the earth, and that those who cultivate the earth or remain in contact with it one way or another, as hunters, herdsmen, farmers and gardeners, are the most vigorous members of the race, the conquerors of the earth. This truth has often been proven in history. As long as the Romans honored agriculture and lived largely on their own land, their hardy men from the country overcame all nations. The time came when agriculture was the business of the slave, when the freemen flocked to the cities. Then came the downfall 15 l6 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. of Rome under tlie irresistible onset of the hardy Germans, who were strangers to city hfe. The herds- men and farmers of Switzerland showed in many a victorious battle what it meant to live in close touch with the soil, the earth, our common mother. The country people of New England resisted manfully the power of England, and the poet points to the scene of their heroic deeds : "Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired a shot heard 'round the world!" If the earth gives us strength we may inquire what its nature is. Geology teaches us the names and the composition of the rocks, that are so to speak the ribs and the backbone of the earth. The soil from which we draw the food on which we live was itself once rock, and all our tillable soil is the product of a slow and long continued process of crumbling to pieces, or disintegration, of the primitive rocks. If we dig deep enough we find below the oldest soil, though often at a very great depth, the same hard rock that we see in the mountain that towers into the clouds. As these rocks differ so differs the nature of the soil which they produce. Sandstone produces sandy soil, the granite and kindred rocks produce clay soil. As the rains wash the crumbled and disintegrated particles down to the lower land, the valleys or plains, they often become mixed. This accounts for soils that are part clay, part sand. How this happens can be best observed wherever there are hills or mountains. On apparently bare rocks we may see a thin crust of vegetable growth called lichen. After a while mosses may follow. In THE SOIL FORMATION OF HUMUS. 17 the shelter of these a seed of grass, or, maybe of a shrub, and sometimes of a tree, may lodge and find sufficient moisture to strike its roots. The thawing and freezing process of ice and water in cracks or inequalities here and there will deepen these into fissures and crevices and afford a chance for a certain amount of moisture to stay and feed the roots that penetrate into them. As these roots gain strength and multiply they will loosen the rock and thus pre- pare a bed of soil which will deepen from year to Fig. I — Rock in the process of disintegration ; vegetation and humlis on top. followed by coarse subsoil, then rock in pieces and finally solid rock. year, from century to century. (Fig. i.) If the rock presents a slope so that the water will not stay on it, the mere action of it on the rock, continued for ages, will dissolve or loosen parts of it. These will be washed down the slope and afford places for chance seeds to germinate and develop, while the finer part of the soil thus produced will be washed down into the valley where a watercourse will receive it and spread it far and wide in consequence of the rise and i8 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. fall of the water, caused by the more or less abundant rains in the changing seasons. Hence it is that the best or most fertile soil is Fig. 2 — Soil formation at the foot of a rocky hillside, (c) por- tion worn away; (l) debris without soil; (2) debris reduced to fine particles and mixed with soil — some vegetation has started; (a) solid rock. found in the lowlands, along the rivers, and often in swamps and bogs. (Fig. 2.) We have seen that in order to obtain any vegetable growth it is necessary THE SOIL FORMATION OF HUMUS. IQ that moisture strikes the soil and stays on it for a while. But if it stays on all the time the vegetable growth we desire is either prevented or at least made difficult. Hence the necessity for drainage, either natural or artificial. Nature insists on steady move- ment : she has placed her curse on stagnation. We have thus far spoken of the general process of soil formation. It remains now to account for the vegetable growth on the primitive elements of the rock. We have mentioned moisture as the necessary condition, and no further proof is needed to support this statement. But all moisture is quick to disappear by evaporation under the efTect of the sunlight and the winds. This is most clearly seen on the steep hillsides, on sandy soils and on land that lies in ridges so as to present as much surface as possible to the rays of the sun and the movement of the air ; but it also appears on level and clayey soil. How then does nature proceed to retain the necessary moisture for plant growth? When we examine the upper layer of wild prairie land that shows its fertility by an abundant growth of grasses and other plants, we shall find it very dark and almost black. What is the cause of this dark color? It is not due to the original soil, for this may be almost pure sand or yellow clay. The observer will say that it is the effect of decayed plant growth. The prairies have produced grass crops for countless cen- turies. As the older plants died off new ones took their place, on top of the decayed or decaying remains of the earlier plants. Gradually the soil grew higher by the accumulations of decayed vegetable matter. We find soils the dark outer layer of which extends 20 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. from 12 to 20 inches in thickness. This black mass of decayed roots, stems and leaves is called humus. Humus has the peculiar quality of retaining moist- ure and with it some of the most essential elements of plant growth. The humble lichens and mosses begin the work of producing humus ; the grasses con- tinue it. After a while all other plants, among them trees of the largest size, grow by means of it and enrich it. The way to renovate worn-out land is therefore to provide the conditions of vegetable growth of some kind and to leave it on and in the soil. If grass seed be sown, or clover, or if the soil be allowed to grow a crop of weeds, or even grain, and the crop is plowed under, the land becomes enriched. The process is called green manuring. CHAPTER III. THE SOIL AND ITS FERTILITY. On the 2d and 3d of May, 1863, was fought the battle of Chancellorsville in Virginia. The victory remained with the Confederate army, chiefly because their best general, Stonewall Jackson, succeeded in surprising a Federal corps which had been ordered to take up a position on the right. Here was found a thick growth of young trees, much underbrush, and enough open space to permit troops to advance. This growth made it possible for an enterprising enemy to come so near the Federal camping ground as to sur- prise the men there resting. Now, why was this ground covered with trees? It used to bring forth heavy crops of tobacco and was of great value. But tobacco is an exhausting crop; that is, it takes from the soil mineral parts which the crop needs, and it takes so much of them that the best soil soon becomes poor unless what has been taken from it is returned to it. This had not been done, and the owners of the land finally abandoned it as worth- less. Then nature began her work. By allowing these trees to grow she commenced her work of re- newal. In course of time the trees, by the shedding of their leaves, produce a layer of rich soil. Their roots draw the mineral matter from the depth of the land as far as they can reach, and a part of it is depos- ited in the leaves. In this way much land was made 21 22 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. fertile in the ages gone by, and this fertiHty can be kept up by careful attention to the needs of the crops, and it can be regained in the same way. In the case of tobacco we note that this plant con- tains an unusually large amount of potash. If we burn up a tobacco plant we find that the ash remaining forms from 15 to 20 per cent fthat is, about one-fifth, or less) of the entire plant. This ash contains a com- pound which is extremely poisonous, called nicotine. The ending inc, or in, stands for some peculiar poison that is found in tobacco, in coffee, tea, cocoa, the bark of the cinchona tree, etc. In the ash of the coffee we find cofifee-ine, written caffdn; tea contains tea-ine, written tliciii; cinchona bark, quinine. Now, unless the soil contains the elements to form this compound (or mixture), tobacco, or coffee, or tea, etc., cannot be grown. What is true of these more or less harm- ful products of the soil is true also of the grains and of any other crops, even weeds. No weed could grow unless the soil contains enough of the mineral parts which are found in the ash of such weed. There is an element called pJwsphorus, which com- bines with that part of the air which is called oxygen, and forms compounds, called phosphides, and in other combinations, phosphates. A soil deficient in phosphates cannot grow wheat or any similar plant. But all the elements needed by any plant are found in the body, or the parts that make up the body, of animals. It is therefore found in the droppings, and more especially in the urine of animals. The bones are rich in phosphates. A careful farmer will save all the manure he can and especially the liquid part, by providing his stock and his horses with litter, gen- THE SOIL AND ITS FERTILITY. 23 erally straw. When this is scarce, sawdust or even dry earth will answer the purpose. By returning all barnyard manure to the soil, the fertility of the latter is maintained, and if lost it may be restored by con- tinuing this work. In order to know what peculiar elements it may be necessary to add to the soil in order to hasten the process of renovation, or to increase the natural fer- tility of the soil, it would be necessary in very special cases to apply to a specialist, that is, to some person who knows chemistry and understands the nature of soils and crops. Such persons are now found at agri- cultural colleges. A practical and careful farmer who knows how to prevent waste in his manure pile will not be obliged to use many special fertilizers. Barnyard manure is a complete fertilizer, as it contains every element of plant life, but sooner or later some special or com- mercial fertilizer will have to Ije added. The necessity of manure will be more fully understood when we consider how large an amount of fertility each crop takes from the soil. If we raise 1,500 pounds of tobacco on an acre, an average crop, the soil will lose 50 pounds of potash, 15 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 70 pounds of nitrogen. As for the nitrogen, there is an immense supply in the air which we breathe. It is a gas and useless for crops unless changed into compounds, called nitrates, as for instance ammonia or saltpeter or soda. Although over 80 per cent of the air is pure nitrogen the soil ma)^ be so greatly in want of nitrates that its fertility is very low and insufficient for the raising of a paying crop. 24 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. All crops need nitrogen. In 20 bushels of wheat, the average raised on an acre of good soil, we find 40 pounds of nitrogen, 18 pounds of potash and 15 pounds of phosphoric acid. Two tons of hay may be raised on an acre of land from which this crop will take 56 pounds of nitrogen, 60 pounds of potash and 14 pounds of phosphoric acid. It is clear that such a drain on these elements of the soil cannot go on for many years without exhausting its fertility. Is there no other way to maintain or restore the fertility of our soils? This question may be answered thus : If we can afford to wait until nature does the work of renova- tion, the fertility would come back after a while. Something would grow on the land. While some weeds cannot thrive, others will. These will run down their roots and bring up mineral matter from l)elow. Rotting on the surface, these weeds will gradually restore the former fertility — if zvc can zvait long enough. But a farmer cannot afford to wait so long. In former times it was the custom to allow one-third of a farm to remain idle, or falhra', in order that it might recover from previous" exhaustion and be ready for the crops of the two following years. But this system has now been discarded by all progressive farmers. Another plan is far better. We have noted that plants need nitrogen, and that there is plenty of nitrogen all around and over us. Wherever the air can go through there is of course ni- trogen, and in a loose and mellow soil, especially if well drained, the air is present everywhere. But how are the roots to get hold of it? Unless changed into a nitrate, this nitrogen is perfectly useless, as useless THE SOIL AND ITS FERTILITY. 25 for instance as for animals and human beings is the mineral and other matter which may be turned into wheat by the wheat plant, but which they cannot use for food until it is changed into grain by the growth of the plant. This leads us to the consideration of the most inter- esting as well as important family of plants, such as clover, peas, beans, alfalfa or lucerne and a few others. .Fig. 3 — Root of a legume showing knots or nodules or tubercles. The name of this family of plants is legumes, and they are spoken of as leguminous plants. In olden times, when our methods of harvesting and threshing were not even thought of, the pods of peas, beans and lentils were picked and gathered by hand. This was expressed by the old Italians or Latins as legere, and the word lego, meaning "I gather," was so changed as to form the adjective leguniinosac, which is Latin for legum- inous. Pull or dig up a clover plant, being careful to save 26' THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. its roots. You will notice here and there on the far spreading roots little wart-like growths, knots or nodules, to which it is customary to give the name of tubercles. (Fig. 3.) These are due to parasitic plants so small as to be invisible to the naked eye. Scientists have given to these little plants the general name of bacteria, but there are many varieties of bac- teria, some living on others, so that we see in these lowest beings the same strife that we find everywhere else in nature. Some bacteria are very hurtful to man, causing or aggravating sores, boils, etc., or at- tacking delicate parts of the body and producing fevers and other diseases. But others are useful, and so are those which form these tubercles on leguminous plants. It has been shown that these tubercles have the ability to draw nitrogen directly from the air and change it into nitrates. I-Ience, by sowing clover and plowing the crop under, we furnish to the soil a large amount of plant food, and thus restore or retain an important part of the elements that make up its fertility. Good farm- ers now raise clover for this very purpose. They take from the land one or two crops of clover hay, then plow under the stubble, when it is found that the roots con- tain enough fertilizing matter to secure the success of some other crops, as wheat, corn or potatoes. But the better way is to manure a clover field heavily after taking one crop and to plow the next one under. The manure thus stored in the soil, with the clover roots and a part of the green tops, will furnish plant food for several years, and in order to raise several good crops in succession it will now be necessary only to till the soil very thoroughly, and secure good drain- THE SOIL AND ITS FERTILITY. 27 age. Of the necessity and advantage of good tillage and drainage we will speak in another chapter. Soils are mostly classified as sandy, loamy and clayey. But there is a great variety of soils, owing to the fact that the sand, clay, humus and various min- eral matters, such as lime, are found mixed in various proportions in different soils. A farm of lOO acres may contain in one part stiff yellow, or even blue clay ; in another pure sand, in a third black soil, rich in humus; in a fourth a calcareous soil (rich in lime); and possibly an alkaline soil containing an excess of potash or soda. In addition to these there may be some acres of swamp containing muck. Nor is this all, for there may be fields which show a mixture of any or all of these. This is due to the effect of water at the time when the land was forming. The overflow of lakes and rivers accounts for such differences. In New Jersey many farms contain marl beds. Marl is a deposit of lime and other matter which has been found very use- ful for the improvement of barren land. The New Jersey farmer digs down into his marl bed, carries away the valuable contents and enriches his sandy soil so that his land will bear crops that rival or surpass the crops of the Western farmers on their rich black soil of prairie land. CHAPTER IV. ELEMENTS AND CONDITIONS OF PLANT GROWTH. Every plant and every animal body must have a sufficient supply of all the elements which they con- tain in order to grow and make good the inevitable waste. By far the most of these elements are to be had without cost. They are found in the air and in the water of springs, rivers and lakes, and enter the soil through the air, the rains, snow, dew and by irrigation. All human beings as well as all animals breathe out a gas called carbonic acid, which is the most essential food for plants. The plant, on its part, breathes out, by means of its leaves and under the influence of the sunlight, another gas, called oxygen, which all human beings and animals need to sustain life. Animals breathe by their lungs, producing carbonic acid ; plants breathe through their leaves, producing oxygen. This is a beautiful arrangement you will say, and so it is. The growing grass, the leafy woods, the fertile or- chard : all give forth the elements we absolutely need, and we in return breathe out the element that they need and without which they could not exist at all. Water contains two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, which, combined, form a liquid. Oxygen means sour-maker, from its quality to turn milk sour and to produce similar changes in other material. Hydrogen means water generator, as it is the essential part of all water. About one-fifth of the body of air around and 28 CONDITIONS OF PLANT GROWTH. 29 above us, the atmosphere, is oxygen, while two parts of water are pure hydrogen, the rest being oxygen. If we set fire to a lot of straw we find that the straw disappears in a flame and in smoke, leaving behind only a small heap of ashes. The ashes consist of min- eral matter, chiefly silica and potash; the flame and the smoke are made up of carbon, the principal element in carbonic acid (the other being oxygen), and oxygen. Carbon combines with oxygen to form a great variety of vegetation, but under certain circumstances the two will combine so as to form a flame and smoke. The latter contains also the vapors of water, hence hydro- gen and oxygen. Carbon is not a gas like oxygen or hydrogen, but a solid. It may appear as pure coal, as wood, as leaf, flower, stem, fruit ; again it may assume the hardness and brillancy of the dia- mond, or the pleasant form and taste of sugar, or take the form of lard, tallow, oil and butter. All these sub- stances are forms of carbon. Carbon is therefore the most essential part of the plant, and as it and oxygen are always present in the air, and as water is also present and periodically en- ters the soil in the form of rain or dew, it follows that by far the largest part of the elements that make up any plant are gratuitous ; they cost nothing. Another gas which the plant needs, nitrogen, has already been spoken of. It appears in the soil, as has been explained, only in the form of nitrates. They are chiefly needed to form the seeds of plants, and through them the muscles of animals. We say, therefore, that beans, peas and other seeds that we eat are nitrogenous. The nitrogenous elements of food are absolutely required to sustain human and animal life. Sugar and 30 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. fat contain no nitrogen, hence a diet consisting of sugar and fat only, tliougli both may be furnished in abundance, would lead to starvation. Some nitrogen- ous matter is found in other parts of the plant besides the seed. It can be fed to animals in the expectation that the animal will digest the food properly and there- by form its muscular flesh. We eat this flesh and gain muscular strength thereby, while we should starve to death if we had to rely on the supply found in plants apart from their seeds. Some seeds are rich in oil ; that is. they contain more carbon than others ; but all contain nitrogenous matter, and some so much as to come ver}^ near to the value of flesh meats. These are peas, beans, lentils and their varieties. Flaxseed, or linseed, is particularly rich in oil. Corn is rich in starch, that is, carbon ; but it contains nitrogenous matter enough to sustain life, though it is not an ideal food. AA'heat is richer in nitrogenous matter, but this is found chiefly on the outer layers of the kernel, so that the whitest flour is poorest in nitrogenous or flesh-forming material. Feeding the bran and middlings of the wheat to cattle and pigs will produce the needed material in a more 'acceptable form. The parts richest in nitrogenous matter — that is, the bran, etc., of wheat and other grain — consist chiefly of the hulls and outer portions of the grains, which are not readily digestible by the human system. If we sell butter and lard we sell carbon, which is always present and available, hence we do not deprive the land of any fertilizing matter. It retains its for- mer condition. If we sell potatoes we sell largely water, for potatoes contain only a very small part of CONDITIONS OF PLANT GROWTH. 3I nitrog-enous matter. The rest i.s carbon (starch) and water, the latter making up 70 per cent (jf the whole. But such crops as grain of all kinds, peas and lieans and also grass, need a consideraljle proportion of ni- trates. Hence it is that they are more apt to exhaust the soil by continuous cropping. We have already spoken ( in Chapter II ) of the necessity of humus for plant growth. In humus we have all the mineral elements of plants, and this is easily understood when we consider that humus is essentially the result of the decay of plants. It is read- ily known by its dark color; it is that which gives their black color to our prairie soils, and in them, especially along rivers in the so-called bottom-lands, the thick- ness of this black soil is often extraordinary. But con- tinuous cropping and toij shallow plowing, with no change of crops, may practicallv exhaust e\'en these rich soils, or at least deprive them of some of the min- eral elements without which a [)lant cannot V.ye. One principal use of humus is its capacity of holding moisture, but even this may be a drawback on low land toward which the surface water will naturally run. Such land retains the water, so that it sours the soil, or affects it injuriously by the coldness it produces. Such soil is known as muck. 'Muck is often hauled on poor land with good effect. On land not naturally poor, muck may not at times produce any effect what- ever. If muck soils can be underdrained they will generally show an astonishing fertility. Barnyard manure is rich in humus, in fact it turns largely into humus, if allowed to ferment. Moisture and warmth will produce fermentation which is accom- panied by loss of nitrogenous matter, especially am- 32 THE BASIS AXD CONDITIONS OF FARMING. monia, which is evaporated. It is easily recognized by its pungent smell. The fermentation is brought about by little plants such as we find in yeast, invisible to the eye, called fciiiicuts. Dry earth spread on fer- menting manure will catch or absorb this ammonia. Lovers of window plants often gather in the woods the decayed remains of some old tree which contains pure liumus. It has a dark brown color, and looks like mellow soil. If old enough this mass has given off most oi its carbon, or carbonaceous matter : it then is very nearly the same material as ashes, containing most of the mineral elements of the tree. The beginning of the growth of a plant can be read- ilv seen in an acorn or a bean that has started to swell its germ. (Fig. 4.) In the acorn, as in all seeds, the plant has put away a new plant compressed into the smallest possilile space. Moisture and warmth swell the seed, which then breaks open its outer co\'ering or husk. In the bean, for instance, this takes place \'ery readily. W'e then see what looks like t\\-o thick leaves. These separate a little, allowing a little tip, the germ, between them t(T expand likewise and to grow upward. At the same time it develops tinv rLi(.)ts at its base which rapidly grow downward into the soil. As the roots grow and become fibrous, the stalk grows higher, bringing the two leaves above ground, and de\'eloping new and proper leaves. The first two leaf-like growths were not true lea\-es but only bags containing food for the young plant. They wither and drop from the plant when their food supply has been used up. The whole process of growth is therefore an unfold- ing of the seed and a developing of its parts in two directions, upward and downward. In order that it CONDITIONS OF PLANT GROWTH. 33 may take place there is required warmth and hglit, though tlie i)lant wih make some growth without the latter. There is no force working on the outside to Fig. 4 — An oak plant starting from the acorn. Fig. 5— A young pea-plant. give their natural shape to the roots, stem, leaves and branches. All these parts were already in the seed ; that is, in the germ attached to the kernel. The kernel 34 THE DASIS AND COXniTIOXS OF FARMIXG. itself, apart from the germ, is simply food for the young plant until its roots begin to ^^■ork. (Fig. 5.) The whole further growth of the plant is mainly in- tended to produce new seed. Many plants, after ripen- ing their seeds, \\-ither and die, as for instance all our regular farm crops, with the exception of grass. They are annuals. A plant that needs two years to perfect seed, and then dies, is called a biennial (two-year plant) : and one that produces seed year after year is called a perennial (lasting for years). The conditions for the growth of a plant may lie therefore summed up as follows : 1. Healthy seed. This means that the germ oi the new plant must he uninjured, and the rest of the seed must have the proper food for the young plant as long as its roots cannot do their work. 2. Warmth and moisture. Under their influence the germ swells and unfolds, so that top, roots, stem, leaves, branches, flower and seed can form in due course of time. 3. Suitable soil. The soil must be porous (loose and open), so that air and \\-ater can reatlily enter and pass throui^^h it. and which contains no elements in- jurious to plant life. 4. Mineral elements. The mineral parts which the plant needs must he in the soil in such a form or com- bination as to enal)le its roots to use them for its growth. 5. Sunlight. The leaves cannot breathe oiit their oxygen without sunlight, and on this breathing out of oxygen depends the healthy growth of the plant and the ultimate production of seed. It is the sunlight that causes the green color of leaves by developing in them CONDITIONS OF PLANT GRO\\'Trl. 35 a certain snlistance to which the name of cliloropliyl, that is, "leaf green," has been given. Tliis interesting subject of plant growth belongs to the Science of Botany; that is, plant knowledge. It in- cludes all plants, both useful and injurious. Agricul- ture deals only with useful plants and looks uixm all others as enemies that must be destroyed. In this sense any plant that grows where it is not needed is a weed. Where plants are crowded, a thin- ning out of those that are not needed is as necessary as weeding. The strawberry plant is remarkable for the abundance of "runners" it sends out. These runners weaken the parent stem and are as injurious as weeds. To the botanist the process is an interesting study ; for the farmer or horticulturist it means labor. CHAPTER V. DRAWBACKS IN FARIIIXG. No traile or profession is without its drawljacks. It would be strange if farming had none. There are in- jurious insects that spoil a part of the crop; there are seasons when it rains too much, and others when it does not rain enough ; at times the ruads are so bad, especial!}' in late winter and early spring, that it is difficult to get on the land or go to to\\'n. Again, there is the absence of neighbors in many localities, so that life is lonesome and offers no variety; many farmers Vive too far from town to market their smaller crops and products, if they have more than they need, such as garden truck, butter, eggs, milk and poultry. E\-ery farmer should do his best to abate these in- jurious or objectionable conditions as much as pos- sible. A freffuent change of crops and clean cultiva- tion will do much to get rid of the insect nuisance. Underdraining and surface draining, providing there are good outlets for the drains that will n(.it choke up with mud, or be filled with water in wet seasons, will secure better roads. The ground will dry out much more quickly, and if the top of the road is so shaped, by plowing, scraping and rolling, as to be high in the center with a good slope toward the sides, and a contin- uous furrow is left on either side for the water to run off, there will be little tr(3uble e\'en in a wet season, while the road will be in first-class condition the rest DRAWBACKS IN FARMING. 37 of the time. Underclraiiiing to secure good common roads is practiced far too little, while yet a very large amount of labor is spent on roads which fails to secure the best result. If all the farmers of the township or of the count)' would work together, well drained roads might soon be the rule instead of the exception. In thickly settled localities it is the aim of every pro- gressive farmer to foster a public sentiment in favor of macadamized roads to be built by the county. AA'her- ever pebbles or other small stones may be had for the hauling or at a slight expense, it is a good thing to haul as many of them as possible for roadways on the farm, as from and to the house and the barn, and also to make passable in bad weather certain parts of the farm over which a good deal of wheeling is done throughout the year. Where soft coal is used cinders should be spread on the road bed wherever needed. The approaches and surroundings of the barn should be especially attended to, because nothing is more dis- couraging for the farmer and his boys or his help than to have to wade in the mud while doing chores. In building more solid roads, such as are known as macadamized (from John L. McAdam, the name of their inventor), it should be understood that thorough rolling of the gravel or small stones is indispensable in order to keep wheels from cutting through. Small stones, not over three inches in diameter, are to he used, as pebbles will not pack well, owing to their smooth surface. Spread a layer of stones, then roll, and spread and roll again until the road bed is thick enough. As the top wears out more stones must he put on, and well rolled to make a smooth surface on which no water can stand. Several farmers should join in 38 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. the expense for a good roller, or it should be furnished by the county. Roads of pure soil that are to be un- derdrained shoukl have a tile drain on either side and a shallow furrow over it. Ditches are not necessary, and are objectionable, as they generally get choked up with weeds. The furrow over the drain must be re- newed as often as it tills up with earth washed into it by rains. The important subject of road making has recently received a great deal of attenti( m. The states of Ohio and Indiana have Ijuilt many hard roads, being favored by a supply of rock and gravel at hand. It is claimed that other western states, not being so fa\-ored, cannot ai^'ord to imitate their example. As the next best substitute the following plan was suggested at an Institute : "The only point for us to consider is how to Iniild a good road witliout rock, sand or graA-el. AA'e uught to ha\'e a system in improving our riiads and adhere to it cldsely. I would suggest the follmving plan : First, grade the roail from fence to fence in a manner that would leave the middle of the road about two feet higher than the outer edges. To do this work I think an engine with a plow and grader would be the Ijest, althdugh it can be done with good teams. All elevations sIkjuUI he cut down, and all depressions be filled as much as possible, making an uniform and eas)- grade. All trees should Ije remo\'cd from the right of way, and l^e planted in future only on the fence line at not less than 100 feet apart, and then only hardy trees such as sugar maple, ash and elm, I )r walnut. The law should lie enforced in regard t(3 hedges and the trimming of ihem, and the roadbed DRAWBACKS IN FARMING. 39 kept SO that the mower can pass over every foot of the ground without cutting hedge brush or wire. "When the grading is completed it should be well harrowed and rolled with a four-horse heavy steel roller, made in three sections, so that it will fit any ground and can be turned easily. The roller is to be used in place of the smoothing grader, especially in the winter m(">nths. It will do good work on rough, partly frozen ground where the grader ciiuld do noth- ing. It should be owned by the township, and he free for any farmer to hitch to when he wanted tcj de- liver his grain to market. Notice of a cold wave com- ing is the time to give the road a round trip with the roller. Next comes the drainage — the most important thing in good roads. Tile can be run only at the outer edge of the roadbed, as a traveled track will not let the water down to the tile. The culverts should be as few as possible and should be made of sewer tile covered deep, and extend clear across the roadbed and be pro- tected Ijy a good stone or brick wall laid in cement at each end. "The road is prepared for the regular visit jection also will have less weight as the vears go liv. This is the century of electricit}'. as the last centurv was that of steam. AA'e mav soon see electric road- DR.WVDACKS IN FARMING. 41 ways, the trolley, the telephone and otlier electrical ap- paratus, connecting- districts now isolated fr(im each other. iVll this is in the future, perhaps in the near 3 W Ti k J:\--"-^:^ wp- 1- future, but it is necessary that public sentiment be aroused among the farmers themselves to hasten the approach of these new aids of civilization and social happiness. 42 THE BASrS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. The general government has largely introduced rural delivery of the mails, and will continue to do so. (Figs. 6 and 7.) This is a great step toward some of u o o w I ti the most important advantages of town life. The out- look for comfort and convenience in farm life is de- cidedly encouraging. CHAPTER VI. THE \'ALUE OF ilARKETS. If all men were farmers great poverty of the entire nation would be unavoidable. Purely agricultural countries are always lowest in civilization and in wealth. Agriculture in such countries cannot rise to the dignity of a scientific pursuit, for there would be no ,incenti\-e to increase production. The farmer needs markets, and this means that there must be people who are not farmers, who will buy what he raises. It is one of the most dangerous mistakes for the farmer to see in the growth of manufacturing industry a menace to agriculture, or to regret that towns and cities grow and wealth accumulates in them. The more pros- perous the manufacturers are, and the wealthier the people who live in cities because of the presence of ^•arious industries there, the more surely will the farmer thrive. It is true that our exports to other countries of agri- cultural products are enormous, far excelling the value of manufactured goods, but the sum total of these ex- ports is after all only a fraction of the total value sold at home.* AVe cannot sell to a market from three to five thousand miles away without loss of profit arising from the cost of transportation. It is true that by con- densing agricultural products into cattle, pigs, horses. *See Statistics of Production and Exports in the Appendix, page 261. 43 44 THE BA5IS AND COXDITIDX.-; OF FARMIXG. etc., the cost of transportation of the raw material, hav and grain, is far less than if these raw materials ■were directly expi^rted ; but e^'cn in that case it is Cirin- siderable. Hence it is that the home market is of such great value to the farmer and that he ought to be heartily in fa\'or of the growth of towns and cities by the help of the manufacturer. Xowhere is agriculture so flourishing, so scientitic and rational, as it is in the states that ha\-e their market^ at hijme. In Xew England the ai'crage vield of grain crops per acre is several bushels higher than in Illinois or Iowa, and in all our Xorthern States much higher than in the Southern. As manufacturing indus- tries increase, towns and cities grow and demand more and a greater varietv of the products of the farm. The farmer can obtain a fair price for AvhatCA'cr he wishes to sell, and the farm becomes more productive because he can afford to restore to the soil the elements oi fer- tility ^^hich the crops take irom it; and althc'Ugh he may not hope to rival the successful manufacturer or merchant in the piling up of wealth, he is sure of a competency and of many blessings which are not found in the city. A young farmer starting into business should pay much attention to the nearness of the market. AMiile stock-raising may be profitable at some distance, mixed farming, or the raising of specialties, like potatoes. etc., will hardly pay him well enough, if the distance from a market be too great. Twenty or fort}" acres near a good market are often found ti? yield more in- come than five times as many at such a distance that the cost of transportation diminishes the profit. For a THE X'ALUE OF IIARKETS. 45 large amount of his produce, especially hay and corn, the farm itself furnishes the best market for the farmer if he feeds these to stock and returns the barnyard manure to the land. In many localities creameries have been established which afford a good market for milk. Cheese factories offer the same advantage. A near market enables the farmer's wife to sell her butter directly to the con- sumers. This is often an important advantage. Many consumers prefer to pay a vmiform price all the year round. This enal)les a good butter maker to dispose of all her butter profitably when prices are low in the sum- mer and fall. The same is true of eggs and poultry. Fresh eggs from the farmer are advertised in the city, but the real article is not always found. Even a small village with a railway station may afford a good mar- ket, if there is a competent agent and shipper. Any surplus in the fruit garden would thus find a market and help to swell the receipts. In a certain sense the family of the farmer furnishes a market for his products, and this is an important item which is often imperfectly understood. All the articles consumed in the house should be credited to the farm. V'ery few keep an account of this kind, but even a superficial estimate must satisfy anyone that a very considerable amount of the profits of farming is rep- resented by the consumption at home. A farmer may make a specialty of raising wheat and corn for seed. Verv great care and much intelligence are required to do this, but the profits are such as to justify the efforts. For such seed there is always a market at home, or at a reasonable distance. On farms where only thorough- 46 THE EAflf AXD COXDITIOX? OF FARMIXG. breds are kept many sales of young stock are etlected at home. Bv co-operation farmers may do much to bring markets nearer to their door. They may build or assist in building an elevator at the nearest railway station for their grain crops, \\hich will enable them to sell the whole to a commission merchant at once and on the spot. Thev may also erect cold storage houses to keep their surplus of eggs and other perishable products oft the market until late fall or winter, \\dien prices are highest. The farmer who seriouslv tries to raise onlv the A^erv best will soon establish a reputation with buyers. Such a farmer will not sell much grain, and no cloz'cr or hay. for these he needs for his stock. But he will sell the best pigs, cattle and sheep in the \"ery best con- dition, never sending to market half fattened or lean stock. He will steadilv improve his stock bv using only thoroughbred sires for breeding purposes, and will take the ^■ery best care of every animal he feeds. A good warm stable need not cost A'erv much, and good care of animals means that thev must not be exposed to the cold and wet for anv length of time. A\'ith such care a farmer will -verv soon get the means of building a better barn, to increase his stock and to improve his land. The certaintv he has of being able to find a good market for all he can produce will make him energetic and persevering. CHAPTER VII PURE AIR AND I'URE WATER. What are the principal products of the farm? Who will deny that they are the human beings upon it, the boys and girls and their parents, and that these are of incomparably more importance than any other product. As this will not be denied, the cjuestion how to pro- vide for the health and comfort of the farmer and his family should be carefully considered, and the best answer possible g'iven to it. There are two things of which a full supply should always be at hand; fresh, pure air; fresh, pure water. These cost nothing, and yet we know from experience that they are not always found in the homes of our farming population. This is proven by the fact that some preventable diseases, like typhoid fever, scarlet fever, measles, and others, are quite as frecjuent in the country as they are in large cities. AA'e might say they are more frecjuent in proportion to the population. In the large cities great attention is paid t(3 the abundant supply of pure water, and the effect of bad air from the soil is counteracted or done away with by sewers and systems of drainage. A poor man who is starting life on a farm cannot always have things as they should be. He must be sat- isfied at first with a poor house that does not give complete shelter from the extremes of the weather. Sometimes he may be forced to live for months in a 47 48 THE BASIS AND CONDITIOXS OF FARMING. tent until he can put up a shanty to provide for his greatest needs, while he raises a crop that will give him ready money. There are many farmers now well off or wealthy who commenced in this way. But the tent and rude dwelling may often be found to furnish jjetter conditions for health than a house that costs many times as much, but has some defect in ventilation. The tent admits a plenty of fresh air; a big house does not always do so. But we need pure air above all other things, for it is by breathing pure air that our lungs rid our blood of its poisonous element, carbonic acid, and thus furnish the first and most im- portant condition of health. If this carbonic acid stays in a house or a room, sickness of some kind, nearly always accompanied by headache, is the neces- sary result. And a house, owing to the difference of the temperature in it and in the soil, draws from the ground on which it is built whatever noxious gas there may be in it or come through it. A house should there- fore be so built that the air in it can be renewed fre- cjuently. This is easy in summer, but often somewhat difficult in winter. The simplest way to supply fresh air is by opening the windows. Even at night some of the windows should be at least partially open. Double windows are excellent in winter because, by raising the inner window, we have it in our power to allow fresh air to stream in through an opening made in the frame of the outer window without causing a direct draft. A constant draft, by chilling a certain part of the body, may cause a serious sickness, and even death, while a uniform cold temperature will cause only discomfort. PURE AIR AND PURE WATER. 49 Poorly built houses admit plenty of fresh air, but there is the objection that this air comes in as a draft. An open fire-place furnishes a first-rate opportunity for good ventilation; but open fires cannot warm our rooms in the cold winters we have in the North. It is hardly necessary to say more about this subject of ventilation, because the matter is now pretty well un- derstood by those who build large houses for others, and a farmer who can afiford to build a large house will of course consult men who understand the busi- ness. Those who live in small houses must do their best to escape the results of drafts on the one hand, and the efi^ects of bad air on the other. We might say as much of furnishing good water to the house, but the case is different. There is a simple way, as has been shown, to provide for fresh air, but to have a constant supply of good water is not so easy. Wherever human beings or any animals live for any length of time the soil is sure to become filled with dangerous gases arising from the filth that gradually accumulates. If you dig a well, you invite all these gases to enter it and poison the water, unless your well is so deep and so well protected as to make this impossible. But it is very hard to say when you are safe in this respect. In a certain farm-house, provided with an apparently good well, typhoid fever was frecjuent. Two children died of it, the rest of the family were more or less sick. The doctors knew no remedy, but finally an old doctor was consulted, who had spent many years in the coun- try and who knew the danger that lurks in impure water. The first thing he said was : "Boil the water you wish to drink. Don't drink any water on the farm 50 THE BASIS AND COXDITIOXS OF FARMIXG. without tirst boiling it." But the people objected. They said, "Our well is far away from the barnyard and the sink into which we throw the slops from the house, how then can its water be bad ? It is a deep well and the water comes up from belo\A'." The doctor asked to be shown the sink. It was about lOO feet from the house. Then he asked for a barrel of salt. This he poured into the sink. It was found on the next day that the water of the well was salty, a clear proof that there was a constant drainage from that sink to the well. AMien this was understood the remedy was applied, and from that time on there were no more cases of typhoid fever in that house. Boiling the water kills the disease germs in it ; but boiled water has a flat and stale taste : it does not refresh like natural water. The cjuestion arises, therefore, how can we supply good natural water for drinking purposes? If the house stands higher than the barnyard, as it should, and the latter is at a good distance from the house, the danger is greatly lessened. And as it is one of the duties of a farmer to save all his barnvard manure, it follows that he should make such pro\-isions as will make it impossible for anv part of that manure to sink into the soil, except when applied to the field. Cemented stalls for all farm animals secure this end perfectly, provided the manure is housed under some cover where no rain will touch it. E\'en ordinary wooden floors, provided the planks are tongued and grooved and put close together to catch all the licpiid, \\ill do \\ell for this purpose. The contents of the stall should then be wheeled to a covered shed. This is better than the cellar under the barn, because in the PURE AIR AND PURE WATER. 5 1 cellar manure is very apt to heat and thereby lose much of its value, besides contaminating the air above where the cattle and horses are. In the shed the manure should be occasionally tramped on during the day by cattle or horses. It has been found that manure well tramped by cattle or horses will not heat, thus retain- ing its full value ; and as no water from without can draw any elements from it, the soil is not contaminated and no injurious gases can go from it to poison any well in the neighborhood. Such a shed may also serve other purposes in case of necessity. It may be used to run wagons, tools or machinery under for which there may not be any other room available at the time. In winter such a shed will be a convenient place for cattle to take some exercise. As for the sink hole, it should not be necessary to have one. The slops should be emptied on the surface of the ground, but never tivicc on the same spot. In this way no filth will accumulate, all being absorbed by the soil or dried out by the sun. When the well is shallow and on lower ground, the following precautions may be taken : Dig a ditch about I J/2 feet wide around the well, at a few feet from it, and not less than 6 feet deep. Fill this with charcoal and sand. In some localities a cistern may be the best thing. It should be made of brick laid in cement, and the inner wall well coated by a man who understands how to handle cement. The work of putting on this coat must be done quickly as the cement soon hardens and is then useless for putting on. One part of cement to four of sand makes a good mixture. The cistern should have a neck which ought to reach above ground and be well covered to prevent rats and other animals 52 THE BASIS AXD COXDITIOXS OF FARMIXG. from falling in. Either in a corner of the cistern, or at one of its sides, or above it, a filter should be put up (a tight barrel will do), filled with clean sand and charcoal in layers. The water from the house roof should go through this filter before it enters the cis- tern. A very excellent cistern was provided with a large filter in the ground built of bricks laid in cement and coated like the cistern. A pipe from the side near the bottom connected it with the cistern. This filter was about five feet deep and six feet in diameter. It was divided into two parts by a brick wall, 4 inches thick; the larger part was filled with charcoal and sand in al- ternate layers. All the roof water as far as needed, ran into this part, and then through the brick wall. The result was water as clean as crystal, fresh and cool, the cistern being over 14 feet deep. In order to get a con- stant supply of air into the water, to prevent it from becoming stale, a chain pump was used. All cisterns must be thorciughlv cleaned once a year. The neck should therefore be wide enough to admit a ladder, on which a man can reach the bottom. After cleaning it, it is desirable to light a fire of good clean material in the bottom of the cistern. This will kill any noxious elements that may have been overlooked in the cleaning. Water for stock should also be as pure and whole- some as possible. AMndmills are now pretty generally used on well appointed farms, which pump the water from a great depth. This water, being cool, may be used for the dairy; it may also be pumped into the house. These arrangements, and particularly how to PURE AIR AND PURE WATER. 53 get the water to the barn as conveniently as possible for the use of stock, need not be discussed here, as the work of putting up such mills is done by people who understand it thoroughly, and their suggestions should be followed. The importance of the subject will justify the addi- tion to this chapter of a few extracts from an address of Professor Arthur N. Talbot on the subject of "Sani- tation for Country Homes." "One test of the eiTect of improved sanitary condi- tions lies in the decreased death rate. The average yearly rate of mortality in the United States is now about 18 per thousand inhabitants. In the cities as a whole it averages 2Ti and the rural districts about 15. As an example of the change in mortality rates may be cited the case of London, whose death rate has been reduced from 80 per thousand in the seventeenth cen- tury to 20 per thousand at the present time. The medium age of the American people has increased by four years in the last century. The introduction of public water supply and sewers into German cities was accompanied by a marked reduction in the death rate, and the improvement in the quality of water supply has generally been followed by decreased mortality. "Certain diseases classed as preventable diseases are caused by infection from outside the individual and are produced or propagated by organic germs or mi- crobes. Local diseases, such as those of the brain and heart and those of the digestive and circulatory sys- tems, and constitutional disease like rheumatism and scrofula are not of this class. Typhoid fever, typhus fever, malarial fever, diphtheria, diarrhoea, cholera, yellow fever, consumption are considered to be propa- 54 THE BASIS AXD COXDITIOXS OF FARillXG. gated by such germs, and several of them are water- borne diseases; that is, are conveyed through the ■ agency of drmking water. About 40 per cent of the deaths in the United States result from causes of a zymotic or infectious character. Sanitary science seeks to decrease this percentage, and ultmiately to render these diseases as infrequent as death from small- pox now is. By so doing, an annual death rate of 20 per thousand will be reduced to about 12 per thousand, and the consequence will be a marked increase in the average age and length of life of the population. "The marked decrease in the mortality rate in the past hundred years is, of course, not due to sanitary science alone. Hygiene, medical science, more widely diffused knowledge, impro\'ed individual conditions, all have been great aids, but by far the greatest portion is due to the improvement in sanitary conditions. As in- dividual cases of decreased death rates due to sanitary reforms may be cited a reduction in the death rate by typhoid fever in Lawrence, ]\Iass., amounting to 90 per cent after the introduction of filtered water, and a similar reduction of 60 per cent in Chicago by the ex- tension of the water tunnels beyond the region of great sewage pollution. A comparison of the typhoid fever mortalit}' of the principal cities of the w^rld shows that those cities having a pure or purified water sup- ply have low typhoid rates, while those whose supply is subject to contamination run very high. Munich, Berlin, Vienna, London and New York range from 2 to 17 per 100,000, while Chicago, St. Louis and Cin- cinnati range from 31 to 50, and Cairo. Egypt, is 135. Statistics, as far as they are available, indicate that the mortality from typhoid fever in rural districts is PURE AIR AND PURE WATER. 55 even as high as that in Chicago and St. Louis and several times as great as may be expected under fair sanitary conditions. Truly, there is room for im- provement in country as well as in city. "It is difficult to fix directly the connection between a polluted water supply and an epidemic of disease like typhoid fever. The identification of the typhoid bacillus in suspected water would be a thousand times worse than the traditional search for the needle in a hay stack. Moreover, an individual may many times throw off an attack of the germs if his system be in an immune condition. Two examples may be cited to show that drinking water may cause an epidemic. "The little Swiss village of Laufen is supplied with water from a spring near the foot of a mountain ridge. No typhoid fever had been known for several years, when an epidemic broke out affecting 17 per cent of the whole population. Six families, which did not use water from the spring, were exempt. It had been known that the irrigation of a meadow on the other side of the ridge affected the volume of the spring, and as upon investigation it was found that a peasant taken sick with typhoid fever in a distant city had returned to his home near this meadow and that the brook in which his clothes and that of two later cases had been washed, and into which the slops from the house had been thrown, had been used to irrigate the meadow, it seemed probable that this was the cause. To prove that the spring was supplied with water from the meadow, several hundred weight of salt was dissolved and poured into a hole in the meadow, and in a few hours the water of the spring supplying the village became very salty. Flour mixed and poured into the 56 THE BASIS AND CONDITIONS OF FARMING. hole gave no trace in the spring, showing that solid particles were filtered out. "In Plymouth, Pa., then a town of 8,00c, within a period of a few weeks in 1885, there were more than 1,000 cases and 100 deaths from typhoid fever. It was found that the following conditions existed : Dur- ing the previous hard winter the hydrant water had been supplied from the Susquehanna river, but with the spring floods the supply was taken from the usual source, a mountain brook. A man coming from Phila- delphia sick with typhoid fever was cared for in a house near the source of this brook. The waters from the sick room were thrown on the snow on the side hill near the brook. With the general thaw this mass of typhoid refuse was swept into the stream and thence was pumped into the water mains. The typhoid fever cases were confined exclusively to persons using the hydrant water. Those using well water or river water exclusively escaped entirely. "Similarly epidemics of typhoid fever have fre- quently been traced to the use of certain wells, families using city water being free from the disease, and many similar instances may be told of villages and country. An instance in the country, when three-fourths of those engaged in a job of threshing were taken down with typhoid fever, might be cited, and others detailing the fatalities attending tenant after tenant who had used water from a well which must have been contaminated. Nor are such direful effects confined to typhoid fever, or even to water-borne diseases. The full list of com- municable diseases is applicable to country conditions. Malarial fevers, for instance, form a considerable part of country ills. While it is known that the presence PURE AIR AND PURE WATER. 57 of Stagnant water and the upturning of old sod are conditions favorable to its genesis, there are unknown factors in the life history of the malarial germ which it is hoped the future will bring to light. In the mean- time, thoroughly drained and tilled soil and the ab- sence of decaying vegetable matter tend to make im- mune conditions. With these effects in mind, compare the value of life, or even of the expense of sickness, with the cost and the necessary effort required to keep proper sanitary surroundings. "That surface pollution may easily reach shallow wells may be seen from an experience told by a friend of mine living in Urbana. Wishing to utilize a kit which had held fish, he buried the two remaining spoiled fish and the salt and brine from it some fifty feet from a well. The result was that in forty-eight hours the water from the well was so salty it could not be used. Many well waters Cjuickly change their chemical analysis after heavy rains; many are found to be pol- luted by cesspool infiltration. A supposed medicinal spring in this State was proved to be only badly con- taminated ground water."* The subject is of such great importance that the facts here given deserve the serious attention of every one. Questions of the kind here discussed are properly the subject of sanitation. It was a long time before the importance of this science was properly understood, and it is even now far from being generally appreciated by the people at large. This is the reason why still so many die of preventable diseases, like typhoid and malarial fevers. *Annual Report of the Illinois Farmers' Institute. 1900. 64-71. qS THE BASIS AXD COXDITIOXS OF FARMING. As the malarial germs are very apt to enter the house from the cellar, the greatest attention should be paid to a perfectly dry location for the house. This can be secured by laying drain tile directly under the cellar walls and pro\-iding for a good outlet. Cementing the cellar floor, or still better, covering it with a coat of asphaltum, is strongly to be recommended. If vege- tables or fruit are kept in the cellar, it is very desirable to plaster the ceiling of the cellar, and to provide for good ventilation besides. It should be vividly im- pressed on young and old that fresh air is the sovereign remedv wherever there is any attack from malarial poiscm, either in the air or in water, and that in all cases of doubt the water for drinking purposes should be boiled. Good health being the most precious of all gifts, it is the duty of every one to assist in keeping down and destroving filth in everv place. Public sentiment has been arijused on the subject; schools and colleges are teaching the importance of sanitarv measures : the uni- versities are on the lookout for the dangers that lurk in unexpected hiding places, and the leading men of the country everywhere lend their help and co-operation to further the good work, Nevertheless, even in our wealthiest cities filth accumulates in streets and alleys, and an energetic and svstematic fight against the evil is the excepticm rather than the rule. The farmer has an unlimited supplv of fresh air : he is not hampered bv an ignorant mass of voters on his own farm ; the sanitarv measures he ought to applv do not involve an excessive cost: he can, if he earnestly will, secure perfect health conditions for himself and his familv. PART II. FIELD CROPS. CHAPTER I. RAISING AND ROTATION OF FIELD CROPS. The tillable surface of an acre of soil, unless either very barren or unusually fertile, contains about 3,000 pounds of nitrogen, 5,000 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 6,000 pounds of potash, in a form available for plant growth. It is these elements, to which should be added black humus, the value of which consists largely in its capacity of retaining moisture, that con- stitute a large part of the farmer's capital ; it is these which he really sells when he disposes of his crops. He actually sells in farm produce a part of his soil. Hence the necessity of preparing worn-out lands for a crop by proper manuring, and by economizing the fertile elements in the soil by a change of crops. In a ton of wheat the farmer sells 38 pounds of ni- trogen, 19 of phosphoric acid, and 13 of potash, and these amounts are lost from the soil. In a ton of milk, on the other hand, his soil loses only about 12 pounds of nitrogen, 4^ pounds of phos- phoric acid, and 3^ pounds of potash. Hence, other circumstances, such as markets, roads, 59 ■Pre another rain ci:'m.=s on. It goes far tci pre\"ent wasteful washing of the soil, during RAISING AND ROTATION OF FIELD CROPS. 65 rainy periods or by heavy rains, and as it keeps the soil dry enough to aljsorb water nearly all of the time, it furnishes to the roots of the growing crop the best pos- sible conditions for growth. The roots will run deeper and feed the plant on top better, so that heavy crops are the result. Good tillage and perfect drainage take the place of manuring to some extent. They make available a greater depth of soil for the growing crop, so that the roots reach further down for material that is deficient near the surface. A good judge''' of the subject has said ; "Had I to take my choice between a given quantity of manure, and tillage imjilements such as we had twen- ty or twenty-five years ago, on most farms, and one- half the quantity of manure and the best tillage tools of the day, I would choose the latter for my farm. We can turn and stir and tear up and pulverize in a way now that was not possible when I began farming." Prof. L P. Roberts says in the "Rural New Yorker" : "We do not half estimate the value of culture. There are vast stores of fertility in our soils if we will only bring them out and render them available by thorough and persistent culture. Good agriculture means, first, culture, and second, careful conservation of farm manures. To these add commercial fertilizers." The rotation of crops also tends to prevent waste of fertilizing matter that is not used by the crops, but evaporates in the air. Wherever the same cro]"is ha\'e been raised for a number of years in succession the loss of nitrates in the soil, and also of other elements. *Mr. Terry in his book, "Our Farming 66 FIELD CROPS. is very much greater than what the crops actually take away. It has been stated by the Agricultural Experi- ment Station of the University of Minnesota that in that state the loss by continuous wheat raising of nitro- gen that did not enter the wheat plant at all, was 146;^ pounds per acre. The wheat itself took up only 24^ pounds. When wheat is grown in rotation with clover no such loss occurs ; on the contrary, the gain in the soil of nitrogen far exceeds that lost or carried away by the wheat crops. The continuous cotton and tobacco growing in the Southern states shows like results. The lesson is so startling that no doubt can remain as to the value, nay, the necessity, of a rotation of crops, and that one of these crops must be of leguminous plants: clo- ver, alfalfa, the soja bean, cow pea, or the regular field bean and field pea. CHAPTER II. GRAIN CROFS. All grain crops do best on new or virgin soil. When our prairies were first turned into fields the first crop of wheat would generally average over 30 Ijushels. After a number of crops were taken from the same field, the average yield of wheat per acre would be only 15, 12 and finally less than 10 bushels. The rea- son was that the soil had been gradually robbed of its fertility. A wheat crop requires for every 20 bushels 40 pounds of nitrogen, 18 pounds of potash and 15 pounds of phosphoric acid. If any of the nitrates or mineral elements in the soil prove insufficient for the full development of the wheat plant the crops neces- sarily become lighter. Hence the modern practice of raising wheat on clover soil or on soil that has been used for some time as meadow land or pasturage. Clover is superior for this purpose to grass because its roots run deeper, and particularly, as was explained in a previous chapter, as these roots gather nitrogen from the air and thus restore the nitrogenous elements of the humus. In many localities winter wheat can be successfully raised, in others the young plants v^dll be destroyed in the spring by the sudden freezing and thawing of the ground. Land for winter wheat should be plowed in August or September, and the seed sown in September in order that the young plants may gain sufficient strength to G7 68 FIELD CROPS. pass safely through the winter. As there can be no after cuhivation it is very important to prepare the soil well and to make sure that the weeds do not get the upper hand. It is therefore often best to raise a crop of corn or potatoes after breaking up the clover or grass soil, because these crops favor the killing of weeds. The ground should be gone over several times with a disk harrow, then thoroughly rolled, and finally a smoothing harrow should be used until all the soil is Jhoroughly mellow. There must be no clods, hence avoid cultivating or plowing directly after a rain, while the ground is wet. These remarks apply also to spring wheat which should be sown as early in spring as the fields can be put into proper condition. Seeding is now generallv done by drills. These secure a more even stand and place the seed at a more uniform depth. As in the case of corn and other crops, it is \-ery important to sow only the best kind of wheat suitable to the locality, and further, to sow only clean seed. Carelessness in the selection of good and clean seed is sure to entail loss, for every weed grown deprives a wheat plant of necessary food and moisture. It is also best to obtain seed from a more northern region. Such seed will grow a little more slo\\lv and thus secure a better filling out of the kernel. The raising of seed ^\■heat may be made quite profitable as its market price is generally more than double that of the ordinary wheat, but in order to succeed in it the greatest care must be bestowed on keeping out weeds, and if the fanning-mill does not separate the weed-seed perfectly fr( im the grain, it may be necessary to hand-pick the wheat before sowing ijr drilling it. The more care is GRAIM CROPS. 6g given to obtain perfect cleanliness from weed-seed the greater will be the profits of the business. In order to secure a good crop of winter wheat it has been found necessary in many localities to cover the field with straw, either directly after sowing in the fall or during the winter months before thawing sets in. This involves a great deal of labor, as it must be carefully done. If the straw is put on directlv after sowing the young plants pushing through it will hold it in place from the wind, which otherwise greatly in- terferes. The quantity of seed required for an acre varies with the fertility of the soil. The more fertile the soil the less seed is required, from 4 to 5 pecks being considered sufficient on the liest soil, if put in early. If sown late it may be advisable to sow a peck or more per acre, in order to make good the loss in weight and in the size of the ears by a larger number of stalks. Sow- ing from 6 to 7 pecks on very good land would cause much of the crop to lodge. There is also a difference in the varieties as to the size of the kernels ; small wheat would not require so many pecks. The harvesting of the crop used to be a very serious job, but the labor is now much reduced by the use of the binder. AAdieat may be cut when it is in the dough state, that is when the kernels easily yield to the pres- sure of the fingers. Cut then, they will ripen perfectly afterwards. Wheat may be cut when dead ripe, but this will spoil the shape of the sheaves. Their tops will hang over to the sides instead of standing up straight, and it ^\•ill therefore be more difficult to dry them after a rain while they are in the shocks. Ten sheaves may be put in a shock ; more will not dry out yo FIELD CROPS. well after a rain. It has been reccimmended to put S or 9 btuidles in the base and two iov caps. Put the first cap sheaf \\-ith its head to' the south, the other with its head to the nijrth, because most of otn- winds blow from these directions and the caps will thus lie more firmly. These caps should be broken in the middle, rj it mereh- lient. in order to make them rest more securely. The lireaking can he done bv taking a few straws at a time. E\"erv precaution shoiuld be taken to enalile these bundles to drv nut well, f^r some sea- sons are S'j \\"et that it is uijt easv to sa\"e the whole crcip. Wheat is one i^'f the crops it di:'es not pav ti.i raise" while prices are Iriw.and it seemsthat prices must neces- sarilv be low as there is so much ccimpetition from the new land in C(Tuntries like Argentina, Russia, the Dan- ube provinces and states, and India. Toi raise wheat and ship it aliri^ad might almrKt be called a waA' to impo\'erish ourseh'es. as thi-; takes awav tlie fertility I'f the sciil. Tri restca'C it is a ditticult and expensive undertaking. Onh- A-erA* gorul prices, such as wiU en- able the farmers to buv fertilizers, can justify this practice. \\ hat is true abcait sowing and harvesting wheat is al:^i> true abr.ut iither grains, oats, barley and rve. Bar- ley is used liy brewers and also as food fi^r sti 'ck. F' ir the use cif the brewer it must he oi a bright cob^r, and well filled. Such barkw will S]iri 'Ut earh" and produce the lualt out of \\duch beer is made. The twri-rov.-ed A'arietv requires mnre time fnr riiiening than the friur- riiwed or six-n i\\ed, the latter ripening m^st quickly. Rye can be sown both in the fall and in the spring. GRAIN CROPS. 7^ It will produce fair crops even on poor soil. In Russia, Germany and Scandinavia rye is extensively grown for bread, as wheat is an uncertain crop. Oats produce very heav)^ crops on rich soils, but they grow well enough on poor soil and can be grown much farther north than either wheat or barley. Corn is our principal crop and deserves a chapter for itself. There are a number of other field crops which in some localities prove profitable, and which may receive mention here. Tobacco is one of these. It requires extra care in curing and the crop is very exhaustive of the mineral elements in the soil. Buckwheat may be sown as a so-called "catch-crop." Its roots are short, and fair crops can be raised on poor soil as the plant draws its nutriment largely from the air. Buckwheat answers well as green manure for plowing under. Flax is an important crop. It is an annual and grows to the height of alxjut two feet, \\nien in blos- som it is easily knciwn by its bluish flowers. The seed is called linseed or flaxseed, the former name being formed from the Latin or botanical name lininii, the latter from the Saxon flax. Linseed oil is an important article of mantifacture and in this country the crop is mainly raised for this purpose. Linseed oil cake, made of the ground seed after the oil has been pressed out, is one of the very best foods for stock. The stalk of the plant furnishes a fibre which is the material for linen. Cotton, and other special southern crops, cannot here receive any attention, as their importance requires a more extensive treatment than is consistent with the limited scope of this book. CHAPTER III. CORN. In 1 89 1 the United States produced its largest crop of corn — two thousand millions of bushels. A railroad car will hold 600 bushels, and a train of such cars, sufficient to hold the entire crop, would have extended around the entire globe. The crop was raised on 96,- 000.000 acres. This proves that a large portion was raised on land not naturallv fitted for corn, for the total area c^if land in this country fit to produce j^aying crops of C'^rn is onlv 47.000,000 acres. The average yield per acre of this immense cr(ip was not quite 21 bushels, but as in the true corn region a yield of 40 bushels and over is the rule rather than the exception, it follows that millions of acres must have yielded much less than 20 bushels per acre, and that hence very many farmers either made nothing out of their crops or lost by them. It has been shown again and again that on land adapted to corn culture and kept up to the proper degree of fertility, it is pos- silile to raise from 80 to 90 bushels per acre. There are 3,488 hills of corn to the acre, if planted in the customary way. These ought to average two stalks each, or 6.976 stalks, each producing a large and well-filled ear. or an average of 90 bushels per acre. With very nch manuring and regular garden culture it is claimed that an acre may yield 240 bushels. Reports at Farmers' Institutes ha\'e shriwn that 32 CORN. 73 to 34 bushels per acre is often the average yield of corn the ears of which, on the average, are only 4^ inches long. But ears of the same variety of corn might be grown 15 to 16 inches long, thereby trebling the total yield. How can this be done? Suppose that we plant corn with a first class planter on mellow land that was seeded down to clover and was plowed under in the fall. AVe choose our seed corn with great care, rejecting the tips and also the first rows of the thick end. Directly after planting, the entire field should be gone over with a good harrow and, in order both to keep the soil mellow and to kill weeds, this harrowing should be repeated. It will do no harm even after some of the corn has come up, the advantage to the growing crops, from thoroughly mellowing and pulverizing the soil, being so great that the work will pay even if a few of the small plants should suflfer in- jury. After the rows show and the young plants de- velop and extend their roots near the surface, great care must be taken not to break or otherwise injure these roots, hence cultivation should be shallow, though it may be at first tolerably deep toward the center of the row. Care should also be taken not to produce ridges. The ground should be as level as possible. The implements now in use are well adapted to this kind of work, but the one who uses them must know what he is about and, if necessary, make such a change in the position of the teeth of the cultivator or harrow as to be able to do his work thoroughly and without injury to the roots. Rains beating on the surface will harden the latter, and the sun will bake the soil so as to exclude the air. Hence as soon as possible after a rain the cultivator 74 FIELD CROPS. should be run between the rows. It is very essential not to postpone this work, for if done too late the ground will break up in clods, or be so hard that the teeth of the culti\'ator cannot enter it. If set deep thev will injure the roots on the strength of which the success of the crop depends. Remember that if we can give to each ear that grows its full natural length, we may obtain a crop that is from 10 ti:> 50 per cent heavier than it would be if our work was careless. Ccintinual cultivation -will be the very Ijest remedy against drouth. There is always a large quantity of moisture in the air, as anv (me knows who has walked in the dewv grass on a summer morning. This moisture will enter the soil with the air. and as the lower soil is naturally cooler than the air, the water will separate frrtm this air exactlv as the water that forms the dew separates from the air that rests on the ground after it has been cooled off during the night. .\t the same time the mellow top laver of the culti^'ated scnl forms a mulch, a protection from the heat cif the sun, and thus fa\-cirs the grciwth of the rijots. These can there- fore do their peculiar work of pumping water frc^m the siiil and sending it. with the mineral elements dis- soh'ed in it. to everv part oi the plant. In some jjarts of the \\est the practice obtains of planting the ccirn in furrows, which are gradually filled in as the plants grow up. This process is known as "listing." It secures strong roots and hence good crops, but is ncit practicable nn heavv clav soils. The injurv to crops bv miming the culti\"ator too deep has been shown by careful experiments. It was CORN. 75 found tliat by root-prunins^ growing corn to the depth of 2 inches a row would yield 144 ears weighing 63^ pounds. Another experiment shows that where the root-pruning was 6 inches deep the number of ears \\as 123 and their weight ^^8}^ pounds, A\'hile without any pruning there were 132 ears which weighed 60^ pounds. At 4 inches the pruned corn showed 116 ears weighing 51 pounds, the unpruned 146 ears, weighing 63 /4 pounds. We conclude therefore that corn should not he cul- tivated so as to injure any of the roots. But cultivation must be given in order to kill the weeds, and as it, is very necessary to provide for a layer of several inches of loose and mellow soil to act as a mulch and thus keep in the moisture needed by the roots, it will require very careful work to secure these results. All depends on getting ahead of the weeds. This may be done by deep cultivation, as long as the plants are very small, following on several harrowings before the plants show above the surface; and by shallow cultivation later, as soon as possible after a rain, before the forma- tion of a crust. Shallow cultivation should then be continued until the corn is high enough to shade the ground. At the Illinois State Fair of 1898 the highest pre- mium was given for a crop of corn of 180 13-70 bush- els, the product of one acre. It was raised on compar- atively new and very rich land. Two crops of wheat had been taken from it, then it was sown in clover which was allowed to stand three years, and pastured with cattle and sheep. It was broken early in the spring, thoroughly pulverized and prepared in the most 76 FIELD CROPS. perfect manner. Soil, naturally as good and equally as rich as this, if continually cropped with corn, would scarcely produce 25 bushels an acre. This has been proven by careful experiment. According to the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture (1900), recent experiments at several Agricultural Experiment Stations seem to prove that no difference in the quality or yield has been found "when the grain from either end of the ear is used for seed. Great importance is attached to the rule of selecting seed corn only from such stalks as bear two good ears. As all our improved varieties are due to careful selec- tion of seed, the importance of using extra care and the best judgment in selecting seed corn, or any other grain for seed, must be apparent to every one. CHAPTER IV. GRASS, CLOVER AND HAY. "All flesh is grass," says an old and sacred authority. It is the particular food of the cattle and other stock, and wherever stock raising is the principal business, grass is the principal crop on the farm. But to sell hay from the farm is to rob the soil of its fertility with little chance of adec[uate return. The crops will be- come lighter, and finally it will be found absolutely necessary to apply commercial fertilizers. It is an expensive and slow undertaking to restore fertility where it has once been lost. Hence it is the object of the intelligent farmer to combine cattle breeding with field and meadow culture. Feeding the hay to stock on the farm saves the most valuable part of the crop for manure, while at the same time the cattle sold bring in mone}' enough to pay a good profit and make good the loss of so much of the fer- tility of the soil as is carried away in the bones and the fleshy part of the stock. Some land is especially adapted to grass crops, much of it to pasturage. Kentucky blue-grass is the best for pastures : timothy, which should always be mixed with clover, is the best for hay. If then from time to time the hay or meadow grass-land be plowed up for a rota- tion of other crops, the last of which to be clover, a farmer will have reason to be satisfied with the results. We must bear in mind that clover crops answer far 77 78 FIELD CROrS. better for the purpose of preparing the soil for a rota- tion of other crops than timothy. It is a fact that clu- ver collects nitrogen, timotliy eats it. Tiniinthy is not a reno^"ating crop like clover, though it answers a good purpose in anv system of rotation of crops. For pastures it is recommended as advisable to sou- one bushel of blue-grass per acre on good soil the first week of [March, or somewhat earlier if possible. Tim- othy should be sown alone early in the fall, from lo to 12 pounds to the acre. Early in the spring from 6 to 8 pounds of clover seed should be added. Timothy may also be sown with winter wheat in the fall. 8 to lO pounds to the acre. Some sow timothy with spring wheat, but the practice cannot be recommended. Pas- tures once established should be maintained as long as possible. It takes time to estaljlish a good sod on pastures. Where there are trees, orchard-grass, as it does well in partial shade, mav be sown with the blue- grass. All seeding must be done on well prepared soil. Scattering the seed on unculti\'ated soil is for the most part sheer waste of time, labor and seed. In oiu' northwestern states, especiallv in Iowa. Ne- braska. ]^Iinnesota and parts of Illinois. Wisconsin and Indiana, the successful sowing of grass seed requires the use of the harrow far more than in states farther east. The seed should be harrowed in, the same as wheat and oats when these are sown by hand. This is on acc'iunt of the drv ^^"inds and the general drvness of the atmosphere which prevail at the time when this sowing takes place. INIanv successful farmers have given it as their opinion, based on experience, that fail- ures are frequently due to a disregard of this fact. GRASS, CI.O\EK AMU HAY. 79 The hay crop requires particular care. It sh(iuld l^e housed hefore a rain can injure it. Our present im- plements for cutting and gathering the crop on the lield enahle us to do this, except in unusual seasons. Wlrere hay has to l^e put up in ricks, a skillful hand is re(|uired to place it so that the rain cannot enter on any side. The center should be well tramped and the top laid in with special care to secure a go<;)d \\'ater shed. Hay ropes to which stones or hea\-y pieces of wood may be attached, should be laid on the top to prevent heavy winds from blowing it off. Manure can he applied to grass-land and clover in the most efficient way by means of the spreader. Care should be taken to have the machine in good order, and well cleaned and oiled before using, as it is hard on the horses. If the barnvard manure he hauled from a covered shed, where it has been tramped solid by the cattle, one man ought to stav at the shed for the pur- pose of loosening the mass with a fork, while the other should keep hauling and spreading. A good spreader will distribute the maniu'e evenl_y over the \\diole field. The practice of piling up manure in small or large heaps in the field is apt to produce heat and conse(|uent loss. It is best to spread it as soon as possible on the gro\\-ing grass or clover. The effect on the crops will then be very satisfactory and last for se\'eral years, benefiting other crops that are raised in- rotation. If clover is cut for its seed the cutting should not begin imtil the seed is fully ripe. If cut sooner the crop must be left on the ground until the seed has had time to ripen perfectly. Unless these precautions are taken the value of the seed will be greatly injured, 80 FIELD CROPS. and the price obtained in market will not be satisfac- tory. Where seed is the main object, the \-alue of the plant for hay is greatly diminished. As a rule the leaves drop and thus the greater part of the feed value of the hav is lost. This can lie aA'oided in part, as can also the loss of o\"er ripe seed, b}- cutting \-erv early in the morning while the lield is wet with dew. A crop of ckn'er hav requires great care in the curing while in the held. It must lie thoTiiughlv dry when hauled ; and as its succulent stalks do not dry ciuickly, and the dense mass I'f its ^ines and lea\'es du not allnw the sun to reach every part after cutting, frequent turning and spreading are necessarv. recjuiring time and expense. In spite of these drawliacks. few pro- gressive farmers will refuse tii undergiii the trouble of raising griod clover hay. fur its n(Durishing A^alue is such that all stuck is greatb- lienefited bv it. e\'en horses, thcaigh with them it mav lie necessarv to mc'isten the hay with a sprinkler before feeding, to avoid irritations of their lireathing apjiaratus hv the dust that is generally found in the hay. C'l 'wpeas are preferred bv nlan^• to cl'.i\-er iov quick returns. The late varieties, if si^'wn in Mav. mav lie cut f(;>r hay. and the roots will furnish new growth for a good [lasture in the fall. If turned under the roots will furnish a large supply of humus for future use. The earlier ^'arieties of the cnvpea mav be sown in corn the last of June. • They will ripen and make good pasturage for sheep (/ir hogs. Thev can also be sown with a wheat drill at the rate of three-riuarters of a bushel per acre after the grain crijp has been removed. There will be a good growth which will amply pay for GRASS, CLOVER AND HAY. 8 1 the trouble and expense, both in respect to the fertihz- ing effect and to the shading of the ground during the fierce heat of July and August. For the same rea- son cowpeas will do well in an orchard if sown after cultivation has stopped. The total production of our meadow lands in hay amounts to 50,110,906 tons, but this would not feed our horses, cattle, sheep, etc., for more than one-third of a year. The other two-thirds of fodder required must therefore come from other sources, from our pas- ture and grazing lands. A variety of nutritive grasses grows on the arid lands of the west, and the value of these and others cannot be easily estimated. Special investigations are being made by the Agricultural De- partment in Washington in regard to all these various grasses and their value for stock. CHAPTER V. ROOT CROPS. Root crops are rarely a principal crop for Western farmers. Turnips are frequently sown in cornfields, after cultivation has been stopped, and a good yield is often obtained if the weather is fa\-orable. Carrots are rather a garden crop. They should be sown in rows and thinned out. All root crops require a rich, well-drained and deep soil and thorough cultivation. The most important is the beet root, which is now being extensively raised in some sections for the production of sugar. Sugar beets are set out \\ hen the plants are yet small, and cultivated the same as cabbages. AMiere the soil is not friable and deep, the growth oi the root is apt to he irregular and the yield in saccharine ( sugary ) matter insuffi- cient. The sugar beet, the same as r.ther roots, consists mainly of water and carbon, hence it does not draw much fertility from the soil. As only the sugar is ex- tracted, ;'. c, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, there is abso- lutely no loss in fertilizing matter, provided all the other parts are restored to the land. This makes it one of the most desirable crops for the farmer, except for the fact that the setting out of the young plants and their subsequent culti\'ation re- quire a great deal of labor. A\'here the beets can be 82 ROOT CROPS. 83 taken directly to a sugar factory, without shipping, the crop is a pruiitaljle one. In cuhivating the sugar beet, great care must be had to keep the roots completely covered with earth, as any exposure to the light and air will diminish the sugar in them. Originally, this beet was small and contained very little sugar. By a process of careful selection the best seed only was used in a series of crops until the present sugar beet was obtained. This process is of universal application and just as applicable to other plants. New varieties of beet roots are produced even now by this process. The manufacture of beet root sugar has assumed enormous proportions in Germany. Recently the United States have followed the example set by Europe, and accordingl}' we find large factories in many states, even as far west as Utah and California. This industry seems to be threatened by the free, fir partially free, import of cane sugar from Cuba, the Philippine Islands and Puerto Rico. It is lielieved, though, that the steadily increasing consumption of sugar in this country will avert the danger, enable the manufacturer to get a fair price for his product, and to buy from the farmer all the raw material in the shape of sugar beets that he may choose to produce. Turnips, carrots, beets, etc., are biennials. They complete their root growth the first year and run up a seed stalk the second. In the growth of this stalk, and in the production of seed, the solid parts of the root are consumed, so that the latter presents at the end of the second year a thin and fibrous appearance. Roots grow vigorously in the fall, when the moist 84 FIELD CROPS. weather enables them to draw on the nitrates which were formed in the soil in late summer. Root crops require heavy manuring, except on new land. They need a great deal of mineral matter for their large leaves and the outer coating of the roots. It is, therefore, \ery important that these parts should be returned to the soil. The roots commonly raised belong to different fam- ilies. The carrot belongs to the same family with pars- nip and celery, the umbrella-shaped, or umbcUifcrac, so called from the form in which their blossoms appear. The turnip belongs to the family called crucifcrac, to which also belong the cabbage, rape, radish, mustard, wild and cultivated, wild flax, and the flowers candy- tuft and stocks. The beet root and the mangel-wurzel {root of i^'ant or famine, because it proved a blessing during a famine in Germany) belong to the goose-foot family (Beta cicla). ]\Iangels grow enormously on rich soils and are raised by many farmers for stock. CHAPTER VI. POTATOES. When the English navigator, Francis Drake, first sent potatoes from America to England, such was the ignorance concerning this article of food that the friend who received the potatoes and raised a small crop from them had the berries growing on the top prepared for a new dish and threw away the tubers, that is, the potatoes. ■ Potatoes are a root crop, differing from other root crops in that they grow from the roots. Such growths have the general name of tubercles, and hence we often hear the potato spoken of as the useful tuber. While the potato has but little value as a food for strength, it is universally relished as an important part of our regular diet. Hence the consumption of pota- toes is enormous and their cultivation one of the prominent objects of farming. Near good markets, and especially within a reason- able distance of the very large cities, potatoes are a valuable crop. They contain so much water, and so little of nitrogenous matter, that they do not remove much fertility from the soil. They require a rich, deep soil ; one underdrained, especially if it contains a cer- tain amount of clay, being the most productive. A crop of potatoes may follow directly after clo- ver. As they require the very best cultivation and lea^•e the land in excellent condition, they may be 86 FIELD CROPS. profitably followed by wheat. An objection some- times nrged against this plan is that if clover sod is manured in the fall and plowed in the spring, the potatoes grown on such land are apt to be attacked by scab. For this reason it is recommended to follow clover closely by corn and to let potatoes come after corn. ]\Ianure may be spread in the fall and the ground sown to rye, which should be plowed up in the spring to make way for the corn or other crops. No further manuring would be necessary for the potato crop the next year. Land for potatoes should be plowed early in the fall in order to kill the wire -worms and grubs in the soil, and while the land is vet moist. This plan, how- ever, interferes with a corn crop, as the ciirn occupies the ground till late in the fall, unless it is cut and hauled frcim the field early. The regular plow may be followed liv a sub-soil plow, which will stir the ground to a depth of some lo or 12 inches without bringing up the sub-soil. One advantage in plowing up clover sod for potat<:ies is in its being naturally mellow, thus making further preparation easy. Such preparation must be thorough, Init plowing after clover requires only one g'^'ing over the ground with the smoothing harrow, on which a plank should be laid to enable the driver to stand on it. This harrowing must be done before the soil has had time to become very dry, or else after a shower, allowing time for the surface mciisture to disappear. For c'ay land the disk harrow is cmisidered a better tool. It should be followed by the roller to secure the finest tillage before planting.- There must be no clods, all the soil must be mellow, easiiv crumbling t' j the touch. POTATOES. 87 Potatoes should be planted in rows three feet apart (some recommend a shorter distance), and about 20 inches apart in the rows. Pieces with one eye are as good as whole potatoes, if not better. Choose only sound and well grown potatoes, not necessarily the largest, but do not plant the small ones. Like pro- duces like, and fair-sized potatoes of even size sell bet- ter than a mixture of very large and very small ones. It is important to guard against scab. This is due to tiny germs, invisible to the naked eye, that may har- bor in the vessels, boxes, baskets, etc., in which the potatoes are hauled. Not only all seed potatoes should be washed in a solution of corrosive sublimate (one part in a thousand parts of water), but also every article in which they are carried and hauled. There must not be the slightest amount of dirt on any of these because dirt is the favorite hiding place of these germs. Where potatoes have been raised before, it may happen that these germs are in the soil. In such a case the safe way to do is to select a field that has not yet borne potatoes. Buying seed potatoes from a distance may introduce scab germs. They may even be found in the planter, and for greater safety it may be desirable to thorougiy clean and wash this instru- ment some days before it is to be used. If this is postponed until planting time, the probability is that it will not be done well. After planting, cultivation must be kept up in order to get ahead of weeds and to secure that fine tilth which is as important as the proper manure for the success of the crops. When the ridges can be seen, as they can when a planter has been used, a horse 66 FIELD CROPS. may be used to cultivate deeply between the rows. After this a Thomas harrow or other good instrument should be used with two horses, which must be kept between the rows. One of the most successful potato growers in the country, ^Ir. Terry, recommends a Thomas harro\v having seventy-two round steel teeth slanting back- wards and taking a sweep of about lo feet. He har- rows only three rows at a time, lapping the rest of the width. After such a harro\\-ing, it is well to roll the ground, if the weather is dry. But if rain threatens, this rolling should be omitted, because the soil would be more benefited by a rain if loose than if closely packed. If time permits, it would be advisable, in order to secure the highly desirable fineness of the soil, to roll and again harr(jw, and even to repeat this several times. After a rain there should always be another harrowing, as soon as the ground is workable, to pre\"ent the forming of a crrist. Sometimes it may be that the rain threatens while the weather is hot enough to kill weeds. It is then best to keep on har- rowing, for one cannot tell whether there may not be rainy weather for some time, making it difficult to get ahead of the weeds. As long' as the groimd is dry, harrowing can do no harm, but will greatlv help to destroy the weeds. Finally a crosswise harrow- ing should destroy all ridges and leave the field clear of weeds. After the plants come up no more harrowing should be done; yet slightly covering a young plant will not hurt it. Howe\'er, great care should be taken that no soil is removed from a plant, as it would surely be injured. POTATOES. 89 Three harrowings before the plants start will be enough, as a rule. The work can be done quickly, hence there will be time enough. When the rows show, cultivation must be continued by means of a one-horse weeder; one that harrows only two rows at once is very useful, provided the ground is dry. If packed by rain a cultivator should be run first, fol- lowed by a weeder. In order that the latter may be beneficial, the soil should be just right for thorough work; not too dry, for then the weeder cannot take hold; nor too wet, for in that cast it will clog. The proper selection and use of the necessary tools is important. Hilhng the plants is not recommended ; the ground should remain level ; but it is desirable to throw an inch or so of soil under the plants from each side. This will check weeds ready to start, and prevent the roots from becoming exposed to the sun- light.- The throwing of so much of the soil can be effected by a sod shovel put on a small horse hoe. Whatever weeds remain after careful horse cultiva- tion must be destroyed by hand weeding. No weeds should be allowed to go to seed under any consider- ation, if a paying crop of potatoes is desired. The Colorado beetle, commonly known as the "po- tato bug," causes much trouble, though the pest seems to be on the decrease in many localities. The use of a shallow pan and paddle has been recommended where hand picking is used. Going through the rows you strike each bush with the paddle and let the beetles and their young drop into the pan. Beginning very early to pick by hand will prevent the laying of eggs, and therefore there will be a smaller crop of the pest. 90 FIELD CROPS. It is best to begin with the outside rows, where the beetles are apt to settle when they arrive from other fields. Where the beetles are too numerous the plants may be sprinkled with a mixture of Paris green and water. Great care must, of course, be taken to pre- vent accidents, liecause Paris green, and also London Purple, often used in its stead, contain arsenic, a vio- lent poison. Careless spraving with too strong a mix- ture will injure the vines. The harvesting of a large crop of potatoes is now generally done bv a machine. Hand-digging, if done bv one who understands the work, is preferable when the crop is not very large. Keeping potatoes for seed requires a good deal of care. They must be kept at a low temperature to pre- ^"ent sprouting. For ordinarv storing, in order to keep as much as possible the natural flavor of the potato, boxes or barrels shc>uld be used, and the potatoes should be well covered to keep out air and light. Special root cellars, perfectlv dark, with ar- rangements to keep the temperature low bv allowing currents of cold air between the piles ( for which pur- pose narrow boards nailed together so as to form a pipe may be used), and cold storage houses especially built for the purpose furnish the best means for keep- ing potatoes. An increase of cold storage houses for general use is much to be desired. CHAPTER VII. VALUE OF DIFFERENT FERTILIZERS. Every crop takes from the soil, as we have seen, a certain amount of mineral matter. Though the soil may be naturally rich in such matter, yet by continu- ous cropping the available part will become exhausted, and it is not always possible to make the rest useful for the crops, that is, soluble, so that the roots can absorb it. Drainage and cultivation will do much, a proper rotation of crops will help greatly, but there often comes a time when additional and special fertil- izers are absolutely required to make certain kinds of farming pay. Barnyard manure is, of course, a perfect fertilizer and should always be saved and ap- plied with the greatest care. But while it restores the fertile elements used on the farm it cannot make good the loss that comes from the cattle sold, nor from any other product that is sent to market. Some crops require more fertilizing elements of a special kind than others, and this again makes a special supply necessary. Let us remember that the products of carbon, hy- drogen, and oxygen, the stalks and leaves of grain, and the greater part of all root crops and of potatoes cost nothing, for these elements are in the air and enter the soil without difficulty. All starchy or wooden matter belong to this kind of products, and as starch turns into fat in the body of the animal, the 91 92 FIELD CROPS. fatty part of any animal takes nothing or scarcely anything from the soil. The greater part of an ani- mal is water. The same is true of all green crops, and of roots and potatoes. It is only the remainder, the nitrogenous and mineral elements that need to be considered. In a ton of the following products the fertilizing elements were found to be in : Butter $ .48 Potatoes 2.02 Milk 2.80 Fat pigs 6.92 Wheat 7.09 Fat sheep 8.14 Fat calves 10.55 Fat oxen 11.80 Cheese 20.83 That is, in 2,000 pounds of butter there is only 48 cents worth of the fertility of the soil ; all the rest is carbon and water. In the case of potatoes, 2,000 pounds take only $2.02 worth of mineral matter, the rest being carbon and water. Cheese, takes the larg- est amount of fertilizers from the soil, but as it com- mands a good price, the fertilizer may be bought and yet leave a large profit. The following table was prepared by the Geneva ( N. Y. ) Experimental Station, and though based on prices for produce in a certain localitv and for a cer- tain year, it is relatively correct e\-erywhere. The value of the fertilizing element in the following prod- ucts, based on the price of fertilizers in the. market, was found to be as follows : VALUE OF DIFFERENT FERTILIZERS. 93 In a ton of cotton seed meal $28.60 In a ton of linseed meal 21.42 In a ton of wheat bran 1 1-65 In a ton of clover hay 8.20 In a ton of crushed oats 8. 1 7 In a ton of corn meal 6.31 In a ton of timothy 5.48 In a ton of oat straw 2.58 In a ton of wheat straw 2.21 Hence, if stock is fed largely with the first seven articles, the manure obtained will almost restore the fertility taken from the soil in the production of cheese, and allow the farmer to take heavy crops of roots and potatoes at the proper time in the rotation of crops besides. The great value of cotton seed meal and linseed meal is becoming more and more appre- ciated, though not yet so much in the west as in the east, and in Europe more than here. This is because farmers are rapidly learning to understand that loss in fertilizing matter by the sale of stock, cheese, etc., cannot be fully made good by fertilizers produced on the farm. The value of clover hay is very great and as clover has the further good effect of supplying the soil with nitrogenous matter, its value can hardly be over- estimated. It will be seen that to sell timothy hay at $6.00 a ton, when the average yield per acre is less than 2^ tons, yields but a small profit, if the loss in fertilizing elements ht taken into account. For, according to the foregoing table, 23/ tons would take from the soiU$i3.70, while the price obtained for the hay would be only $15.00, leaving a profit of $1.30 per acre, provided each acre averages 2)4 tons. On the 94 FIELD CROPS. Other hand, if the crop be potatoes, and the farmer raises 6 tons to the acre, as he can if his land was in tlie best condition \vlien planted, he will lose in fer- tilizers $12.12, but will obtain for his crop even at the low price of about 25 cents a bushel, $50.00; or, let us say at SS.oo a ton, $48.00, which will leave a profit of $35.88 per acre, less cost of cultivation, $6.00, $29.88. In the case of the hay, if allowance be made for expense of culti\-ation, of cutting, curing and gathering the hav in, there would be a considerable loss. Hence the importance of feeding hav, corn and straw on the farm, and "also of alternating with root crops and potatoes, in order to make farming pay and keeping and increasing the fertilitv of the soil. In raising stock for market, it should be remembered that the more fat your animals carrv the more profit- ble they are, fijr this fact takes no fertilitv from vour sijil. On the other hand, the b(?nes, muscles, horns and hides contain a considerable amount of fertilizing ele- ments, especially nitrates and phosphates. On many farms it has been fnund that the profit to be derived from fat stijck is exclusively in the manure. B^• put- ting this manure on the land hea^-ier crops can be raised, and the \-alue of the farm increased propor- tionately. Large quantities of guano ( the excrements and re- mains of birds in the tropics), of saltpeter from Chili, which is a nitrate, and of seaweed on the Atlantic coast, are used to aid farms that need nitrates in their soils. Xitrates being soluble are easily washed from the soil. In the places where guano is found it raiils ver\- rarely, hence the nitrates are retained, and this is the principal \-.\LUE OF DIFFERENT FERTILIZERS. 95 reason why it is so valuable. It needs close calcula- tion as to the market price of these, and of the crops intended to be raised, in order to decide whether their use is profitable or not, but there is no question about this use becoming more general from year to year. Considering the extreme importance of fertilizers it is a fact greatly to be regretted that so much of our farm manure is allowed to go to waste. The loss from neglect and waste of this important material has been estimated to be as much as one-half its money value. The Missouri Experiment Station made a careful estimate, a few years ago, of the value of the farm manure in that State, and found it to be in the neigh- borhood of one hundred and fifty million dollars a year. It was believed that one-half of this amount goes to waste. There are circumstances which make it impossible for a hard working beginner to save all his barnyard manure under a shed. He is compelled to expose it to the elements, but he can, nevertheless, do much to save the greater part. The important fact should be borne in mind that dry earth, dust, will absorb and jireserve the ammonia which evaporates from the ma- nure. Using the fine dust of the roadside, and when this is not available, scraping the surface earth from any plowed field for the purpose, will enable the farmer to prevent much loss from rain and leaching. The manure should be piled up in layers of about a foot thick, each layer to be separated from the next by a lot of dry earth, and well beaten with the back of the spade in such a way that the surface slants in all direc- tions. This will allow the rain water to run off quickly. It is also desirable to prepare the ground on which the 96 FIELD CROPS. manure pile is to be built. Dig down a foot or two until you reach clay. A\"ith the help of some water tamp the ground well, vising a small post with a smooth headpiece, or any similar tool, so that the surface gets as firm as possible. It will then be almost watertight. Fill in with manure, beating and tramping it down well, and add dry earth as before stated. In this way a large square pile may be put up that will lose but little of its fertilizing value, if not allowed to stay too long. It mav not be out of place here to call attention to the enormous waste of fertilizing material in our cities. .j\Iost of these actually lose untold millions in the ^"alue of the sewage which they allow to flow into rivers and lakes, or into the sea. The drainage canal, which was built to carry oft' the sewage of the city of Chicago, is undoubtedly a wonderful work, but the avowed pur- pose for which it was built would have been attained with an outlay of money probably not larger than the cost of this stupendous canal, if the sewage had been led into large reservoirs outside the city, whence it might have been pumped for irrigation purposes. The city of Berlin, with its larger population, does this, and the city of Paris, after studying the Berlin system, is about to adopt it and has already adopted it in part. Berlin aft'orded one of the most unpromising chances for the success of such an undertaking, the city and surrounding country being almost on a dead level, the ground very sandy and difficult to handle on account of much moisture that quickly accumulates in the lower strata. An enormous area of waste land, con- sisting only of sand, has been changed into soil of the most surprising fertility. CHAPTER VIII. SILOS AND ENSILAGE. The word "silo" means pit. The early Mexicans used to keep their grain in pits, from a lack of build- ings on the ground. "En-sil(o)-age" means putting into a pit. But the modern sense of the term has changed. The first practice of ensilage, in the modern sense, oc- curred in Germany. It was soon taken up in Bel- gium and France. A publication in Paris, which ap- peared in 1877, made the subject generally known in this country, though the American Agriculturist had called attention to it as early as March, 1874. Ensilage is the practice of keeping fodder in a pit by tramping and otherwise pressing it thoroughly, so as to keep out the air, and by covering it carefully for the same purpose. The oxygen of the air (the word as explained before means sour-maker) brings on fermentation, which would soon end in decay. Hence the necessity of ex- cluding it. To build such a pit, or silo, involves labor and ex- pense, and thus far the method has been adopted only by the more wealthy farmers. In order to be thor- oughly satisfactory and permanent it should be built of stone or brick laid in cement. Great care should be taken to have a well cemented floor; over the top 97 g8 FIELD CROPS. there should be a roof to keep the water oft, and drains should be laid which will take a^^"av any surface water. A tile drain near the bottom of the silo may be necessary in most localities. At first only corn fodder, cut fine, was put into silos. Salt was used to preser^-e the corn and the process re- sembled that of making sourkrout ; that is, of cab- bage sliced fine, put into a barrel and then pressed down by weights. The cabbage ferments slightly and its own juice soon accumulates at the top to keep out the air. At present, howe^ er. the object is to pre- vent all fermentation and to keep the fodder as nearly as pcissibie in its natural condition. It has been often claimed that fodder of any kind put up in silos has a larger feeding value than if fed dry. Cows, used to ensilage and then returned to pasture, ha\-e been known to shrink as much as 20 per cent in their milk in a few davs. Silos are claimed to be more profitable than pastures, the latter being advisable onlv where land is \'ery cheap. In building a sILt of planks and boards it is necessary to pro\-ide a good bottcni in order to keep the rats out. Use the best kind of cement for a floor. There must be no water around it. Lay drain tile outside to keep away all surface water. The walls should be of matched boards, the roofing may be cheap or expeusi^■e, but it should keep rain or snow out. In Illinois a round silo 20 feet in diameter, 38 feet deep, according to a good authority,* can be built for $300.00 and will contain 250 tons of ensilage. Grain cut for ensilage should be in the closing seed, or just as it begins to close. If put in too early, when *:Mr. H. B. Gurler, of Dekalb. SILOS AND ENSILAGE. 99 just tasseled, it is nine-tenths water. It costs from 50 to 60 cents to put in a ton of green hay. After the grain, corn, etc., has been put into the silo and well tramped down, enough water should be put on top to cOA-er the mass completely. This is to give it sufficient weight to pack and to exclude the air. If not properly packed it will get mouldy. In filling the silo the mass should be frecjuently tramped. If cut fine the packing of the fodder will be more close, and the result more satisfactory. Why ensilage produces such good results is a dis- puted Cjuestion. It is probably due to its being more succulent than hay. The animal can digest such food more readily, and it will eat and assimilate more of it in that condition. If well handled ensilage has no bad effect on the butter made from the milk of cows fed on it. It is often claimed that the finest flavor of butter can be most surely obtained by ensilage. If ensilage is to be largely used it is important to keep the land in good condition. The crops should be heavy to make the expense of handling as low as pos- sible. Poor land cannot produce large crops unless it is well manured, and light crops increase the ex- pense per ton on account of the extra labor. PART III. ANIMALS ON THE FARM. CHAPTER I. THE HORSE. It will be some time before electrical power can take the place of the horse on the farm, though steam plowing has been practiced in Europe and some parts of the east for years. Xor is it likely that even with the general introduction of steam and electrical power the horse will be altogether displaced. It is a fair estimate to put the sum tcital of horses in this covm- try at not less than 15,000,000. ^lost of these are used on farms. A\']iile the farmer need not be a breeder of fast horses, it is as much his business, if he can afford it, to breed the kind of horses he needs on the farm as to do the same fi:ir his cattle. There are se^'eral Ijreeds more or less adapted to the farm. The Clydcsiialc. of English breed, and the Pcrclicron, French, are types of the best and heaviest draft luirses. The Haiiible- toiihvi and Clcz'claud are tvpes of lighter and more active horses, especially well adapted to carriages. ^luch depends on the lay of the land, the nature of the roads and the amotmt of hauling, in determining 100 Rosa BonheuFo Type of a Fine Horse- 101 102 ANIMALS ON THE FARM. the choice of the kind of horse most useful for a given locality. A good sire of established reputation should be chosen. The mare should be of a gentle disposi- tion, with ample girth of body, sound legs, a broad forehead, clear eyes and a good, rapid gait. If horses are raised for sale it may be laid down as a rule that large horses alone should be produced, as they fetch the best prices. To compete Avith breeders of fast horses is not the business of the average farmer, al- though where the attempt is seriously made it may prove very profitable. In buying a horse one should look well at the head and the teeth, but more particularly at the legs of the animal. The hoofs should be perfect. There should be no sign of weakness in the legs, as there would be if the horse, standing still, puts one front hoof before the other. A horse very long in the body is apt to be fast, but may not be enduring. For the farmer's work a more compact horse would be preferable. The out- line from the back to the dock (back of the croup) should be as nearly straight as possible. The thighs and haunches should be muscular and full. AVidth of the forehead and a clear eye indicate intelligence, and a good bodily constitution. The age of a horse can be told from the teeth, but minute details are hardly in place here. Examine the front teeth of colts and young horses and compare these with older horses whose age is well known. Facil- ities to do so are so frecjuent, and mere descriptions are so apt to be misunderstood, that personal inspec- tion is by far the better plan. The horse has a small stomach and therefore needs THE HORSE. I03 to feed oftener than cattle ; but overfeeding should be avoided. Instead of corn, oats should he fed more generally, especially in the summer. Clover hay should be moistened before feeding.* In training a horse adhere to this rule : Teach only one thing at a time, laut do not give up until it is lucll understood. To accustom the horse to the bit, hold the lines stiff, -cuitlioiit jerking, after you have put the bridle on, and keep them so until he arches his neck, puts down his head and begins to champ the bit. This lesson is very important and should be well taught. Jerking a horse's mouth and unduly pulling the lines should be avoided. The horse should remain sensitive to the tr)uch and keep the head down by arching the neck. Excessive checking up a horse, forcing his nose to be on a line with the driver's head, is not only a cruel, but also a very foolish practice. The horse does not look at his best that way, and is apt to become hard in the mouth, a great fault. It is best to put a young horse alongside an old one when teaching him to pull. The load should be very light at first. It will soon acquire the habit of pulling a heavier load. Great gentleness is necessary, but any vicious attempt may be at once punished with the whip. A slight application will suffice. Cruelty will defeat the object. After driving a young horse a few times in double harness he may be tried alone, hitched to a light vehicle. With ordinary patience any one will suc- ceed in getting good results. When the young horse is put into the field it will *See page 80. 104 ANIMALS ON THE FARM. Fig. 10 — The External Parts of the Horse. 1. Face. 2. Forehead. 3. Ears. 4. Muzzle. 0. Cheek or fowl. 6. Poll. 7. Tbroat. 8. Carotid. 0. Neck. 10. Crest. 11. Jugrular Channel or Furrow 12. Breast. 13. Withers. 14. Back. in. Eihs. IG. Girth. 17. Loins. 18. Croup. 10. Dock. 20. Flank. 21. Belly. 22. Point of shoulder. 23. Elbow. 24. Forearm. 25. Knee. 20. Canon or shank. 27. Fetlock jo int. 28. Pastern. 29. Coronet. 30. Foot. 31. Ergot and fetlock 32. Haunch. 33. Thigh. 34. Stifle. 3.5. Buttock. 30. Leg. 37. Hock. 38. Canon or shank. 39. Fetlock joint. 40. Ergot ant fetlock 41. Pastern. 42. Coronet. 43. Foot. 44. Lower thigh. 45. Point of hock. THE HORSE. 105 take a little time before he knows what is expected of him, but persistency and patience on the part of the driver will soon overcome its natural awkwardness. If a horse balks the best thing to do is to let him stand until he concludes that balking is tiresome. Striking the horse, or unhitching him, will only per- petuate the evil. Balky horses are almost invariably made so by thoughtless or rough drivers. You can teach a horse to be useful and trustworthy ; but remem- ber, it will not do to teach anyth.ing new until the pre- vious lesson has been well learned. The same rule applies to children. The height of horses is expressed in hands. A horse 13 hands high or less is a pony; one 16 hands high is large. From 15 to i5>-2 hands is a good height for a farmer's horse, but if horses are raised for sale those 16 hands high will bring the highest prices, other things being equal. In the accompanying illus- trations the first shows the out- line of a well-shaped horse fit to do good service on the farm and on the road. The names of its different parts are indi- cated by figures. The other illustration shows the composition of the hoof, all B- The lower pastern. the parts being named and numbered. Fig II- Tlie Foot of the Horse. A. The pastern. navicular bone. I). The coffin bune. K. The wall of the hoof — the part on wbicb the shoe is nailed. lO^ AXIMALS OX THE FARM. The two following illustrations show a well trained horse of a superior breed. Horses that have been kept inactive in a warm stable for some time are verv sensitive to cold winds. These will do no harm as long as the horse is in motion, but Allerton, one of the finest American Stud Horses, that made a mile in 2. :09'4. the danger begins when it stands at rest. The horse is liable to attacks of colic, particularly after hard work on the road or in the field, when it is exposed to a draught, or made to> coijI off in an exposed place. Little or nothing can be done by medicine in such a case. The best treatment is a wet pack. A cloth or blanket THE HORSE. 107 dipped in cold water, wrung out and folded several times, should be placed on its belly and well covered with one or two dry blankets, which should be securely strapped on to prevent slipping off as the horse throws The same horse, when three years old, with a record of 2:12. itself. The application will soon produce warmth at the parts covered and thus relieve the pain. Heat may be applied by hot blankets, but this method is apt to make the animal tender and more liable to a repetition of the attack. The essential point is that I08 AXIMALS OX THE FARM. heat, in one form or another, outwardly applied, is the specific remedy for colic. The horse should be placed where no draught can strike it, but where the ventila- tion is good. To turn a horse into a pasture, after a drive, may often bring on colic. It is safer to rub it down well and allow it to cool off in a sheltered place before it is turned loose. Even on a summer's night the cool breezes may affect injurioush' the bowels of a horse that is turned loose before it has had time to cool off in its stall. In extreme cases of colic it mav be necessarv to ad- minister an injection of warm water and soap, but this should be undertaken by some experienced person, or by a veterinary surgeon. If medicine must be given the most convenient way is to mix it in some liquid, take hold of the animal's tongue and pour the liquid down its throat from a bot- tle." Overdriving and quick cooling oft' may bring on stiffening of the joints of the horse's legs, especially the forelegs. It is a safe rule, when a horse has been hard dri\-en, to give its legs a thorough rubbing down with a wisp of hay or straw, and keep it in a warm stable for several hours. This rubbing process should be con- tinued for not less than ten minutes, fifteen or twenty minutes would be better. The process may have to be repeated if the case is a severe one. Starting in the center of the sole of the foot, and run- ning back to the heel, fork-shaped, there is an elastic horny part, the frog, on the healthy condition of which the free and elastic mo\ement of the feet depends. THE HORSE. 109 For ordinary farm work horses rarely need shoes, but if they are used on the road shoes may become a neces- sity. Good blacksmiths are now found everywhere — none but a good one should be employed. The danger from not shoeing at all is not so great as from im- proper shoeing. Saddle Stallion MONTE CRISTO, of Kentucky. A Prize Winner. The shoes should not be kept on the horse's feet too long, as they interfere with the growth of the horny matter of the hoof and may injure it by crowding. This is particularly imiDortant in the case of young horses. no AXIMALS OX THE FARM. If a horse gets hurt so that a wound or a sweHing is the result, the parts should be well bathed and cleaned. In the absence of anything more suitable strong soapsuds may be used. But it is better to be provided with some disinfectant like borax ( in the Morgan Horse HILLSIDE. form of boracic acid ) and carbonate of soda. One- half pound of each in a gallon of water will make a good cleansing mixture. Carbolic acid may answer as well or better, but it must be greatly diluted, a five per cent solution being as strong as it is safe to employ. Frequent applications are necessary. THE HORSE. Ill Large wounds should be sewed up by a veterinary surgeon. It goes without saying tliat the general rules of feeding and cleaning apply to the horse. It should be fed with great regularity, and receive a thorough currying and brushing every day. Very old horses should have their oats or other feed steeped in hot water for from ten to twelve hours. In this way they may be kept in good condition for a long time and prove serviceable for all ordinary work. CHAPTER II. THE HOG. An enthusiastic breeder has called the hog "the sheet anchcir of our prosperity." A\'e may say that the hog is the best agent to convert our immense and bulky crops into a less bulky form, and to enable the farmer to market his corn in this form with hut a small ex- pense for transportation. The corn converted into hogs has the advantage that it can be driven to the market, whereas the corn in the ear, or shelled, must be hauled n:anv miles and loaded and unloaded at a great sacrifice of time. And last, nc't least, while a thc'usand pounds of corn sold in its original form will take from the farm a large am^^unt of fertilizing matter, the same quar.titv, put into a hog, will remi:i\"e scarcely one-fifth as much. The hog makes more weight of body out of a given quantity of feed than cattle or sheep. This is due to its mucli longer intestines, as long as those of cattle, which makes possiljle a more perfect absorption of all nutri- tive elements. It is easih" raised and need not l>e kept o\'er winter ( except the breeding animals, of ccairse) if the proper treatment has been given to it throughout the time from IMarch to November or December, Pigs shc'uld be farrowed earlv in ]\Iarch and weaned in June when thev mav be turned into a clo\-er pas- ture, the cheapest f':iod for thein at the time, and on which thev thrive best. As sucklings thev should U2 THE HOG. 113 have sweet skimmed milk with wheat middlings. Some ground corn, and finally corn in the ear, may be added later on. While feeding on clover the young pigs should also be given some of the slop they were fed on at first, and as much corn as they will eat up clean. With such a variety of food they will make muscle fast and grow to a good size. Anything that will make their food more digestible, as soaking the corn feed from twelve to eighteen hours or longer, will be a sav- ing in the long run. Good shade and good water must be furnished whenever needed. AA'hen from 7 to 8 months old they will have attained, under such treat- ment, a weight of from 200 to 250 pounds, and com- mand the highest price in the market. Too much corn should not be given at first, but rather a variety of food, slop, middlings, oats and rye in combination. In this way their health is more apt to remain good. As cooler weather approaches corn may lie more alnmd- antly fed, and in the last months it may he the only feed. Clover may be relied on as an almost exclusive feed until the time of special fattening. The experiment has been repeatedly made of limiting young pigs during the summer to red clover alone, then gradually feed- ing on corn, with the most satisfactory results. The reason for this lies in the fact that the starch so abund- ant in corn produces fat, and that in the warm season an over supply of fat is too heating. AA'hen colder weather comes the system needs a larger part of the fat to supply warmth to the body by the more liberal supply of oxygen due to the more energetic breathing. In this way the danger of an over supply of fat is 114 ANIMALS OX THE FARM. avoided. Such pigs keep in better health and are less liable to succumb to cholera. Xew corn is not to be recommended. It has a tend- ency to injure the digestion of the hog. and some think it produces hog cholera. If great weight is desired the hogs may be kept through the winter and spring, btit it is a question whether the food they need during the cold season may not seriously diminish the profits which early fattening will secure. If hog cholera ap- SHOULDER;' ^ ■%^^ Jf /^BACK ■ 'A mr-'^if^ — Carca~5 of a fat hoe: showing the division commonly made and the relatne prices of the various parts in Chicago market. pears, nothing is more necessary than at once to sepa- rate all animals that are undoubtedly well from the sick ones and give them another place. If the sick ones are separated and removed to another place, there is danger of carrying the disease germs to other parts of the farm. The well ones should be put into a grass lijt, at sc'me 80 rods' distance from their former place, and great attention given to cleanliness. The sleeping place should be cleaned everv dav, and air-slacked lime and carbolic acid and water used to disinfect it. Corn should not be fed, but oil meal, oats and middlings should take its place. THE HOG. "5 Hogs should have access to a mixture of ashes and salt, which seems to he beneficial in preserving their health. In raising hogs, as in raising other stock, the pro- gressive farmer will take care that he keeps only the best breeds. His object is to change the raw product of his farm into pork with as little loss as possible. It has been found that to do so most successfully requires breeds like the Chester White, of Pennsylvania, the Poland-China, of Ohio, the Duroc or Jersey Red, of New Jersey, the Yorkshire, derived from the large white swine of England, the Black Suffolk and the Berkshire, which we also got from England. The Berkshire is by many considered the most profitable. 1 j ' ' , 1 "i • ! ,^ - ■' ■^ "l " * 1 I , j -r 5. ^ 5l si^^v ^^^w^\ "^ D^n^Hi^HK^'^i J^Ih -^ *i* ' '■^l^^ -';:^^^^\jt^^^^/3t^K^^K^S^f^EfSL "9 i " -icas^BSSlwi^- A Tail-Piece. CHAPTER III. CATTLE, Our cattle industry is of immense importance. Cat- tle are kept for two principal purposes, to produce beef and to furnish milk. Ditterent breeds will do either the one or the other in a superior way. Beef cattle are square built, heavy in the haunches, very full in the breast. The best varieties came originally from Eng- land, as the Shorthorn, or Durham, the Hereford, the Aberdeen-Angus of Scotland and the Galloway. Dairy cattle are thinner in front, not so square built, but show Fig. 13 — Hereford Cattle. Three Prize Winner;. great size of the udder. The best varieties are : The Jersey, from the island of Jersey, near the north coast of France : the Guernsey, from the island of that name, near Jersey, and the Ayrshire, from Ayrshire, in Scot- 116 CATTLE. "7 Fig. 14— Models of Beef Catlle. 1. Month. 17. Shoulder Point. 3::. Plates. 2. Nostrils. IS. Shoulder Vein. 31. Rumps. 3. Lips. 19. Elbows. 3r,. Hips. 4. Muzzle. 20. Arm. 30. Thighs. 5. Face. 21. Knees. 37. tlocks. G. Eyes. 22 Shanks. 38. Hind Leg. 7. Cheeks. 23.' Hoofs. 39. Brisket. 8. Jaws. 24. Crops. 40. Bosom. n. Forehead. 26. Fore Flank. 41, Chest. 10. Poll. 26. Fore Ribs. 42. Loin. 11. Horns. 27 Mid Ribs. 43. Hooks. iii. Ears. 28! Hinder Ribs. 44. Purse. i;{. Neck. 29. Barrel. 45. Twist. 14. Throat. 30. Belly. 40. Pin Bones. 15. Dewlap. 31. Spine or Back. 47. Tall Head. 10 Shoulders. 32. Flank. 48. Tail. ii8 AXIMALS OX THE FARM. land. AA'lien butter is the main object, the pure Jersey is generally considered superior to all others. A breed which yields much milk, though not of a superior grade for butter, and is at the same time capable of producing much beef, is the Holstein, or Dutch Friesian, from the northwestern coast of Germany. Fig. i; — Best Type of Dairy Cattle. As in the case of hogs, the advantage of raising cat- tle is in thus saving the cost of moving bulky farm crops to the market. Fed to cattle, the farmer's grain and hay will walk to the market. As the manure stays on the farm, the loss to the soil is not so great and there is of course profit in the beef and dairy products. CATTLE. 119 Cows, to give the best results, must be treated with great patience and kindness. A rude word, a kick or a blow is a loss to the farmer, for it is only tht perfect- ly contented cow that yields her best in milk and butter. Regularity of feeding is of importance with all ani- mals, Init more particularly with cattle. Hence, the business is very confining if it is to be made profitable. Perfect cleanliness is of great importance. It pays to curry cattle as well as horses. Their stalls should be regularly supplied with clean straw. This also saves the droppings and the liquid manure, which is of great value. Cattle have no upper front teeth. They tear the grass by means of their tongue and the lower teeth. Ficr. i6a — Red Polled Cow. A Prize Winner 120 AXIMALS OX THE FARM. This is the reason why they do not crop a pasture so closely as horses will. Their four stomachs enable them to take a great quantity of food at a time. This is returned to the mouth and chewed again, an act known as "chewing the cud." As horns are not of any use it is the custom of many farmers to dehorn their young stock. It must be done quickly and with care, to avoid injury to a deli- cate part of the head. There are some breeds of horn- less cattle which are now pretty common in this coun- try. They are called "Polled Cattle," such as the "Polled Angus" and the "Red Polls." Fig. i6b — Shorthorn Bull Cupbearer, a leading Prize Winner. CHAPTER IV. SHEEP. Sheep are raised for their wool and also for their flesh, which has the name of mutton, from the French word for sheep. They need a dry place to sleep, and prefer upland and hills for feeding. There are a large The market classifications of wool. In the plate on the left hand samples of clothing wool are shown. A clothing wool has a fiber up to two inches in length that is sound ; if the fiber is over this length and is unsound it becomes a clothing because of this fact. The sample shown on the extreme left of this plate is long enough to be a Delaine, but it was unsound at the place where the fiber shows an irregular crimp. The two samples shown in the center plate are fine and medium Delaines. The fiber in these instances is sound, fine and from two to three inches long. The three samples in the plate to the right are combing wool ; they range from three inches upward in length and are also sound. The shorter sample is medium combing, the center sample is coarse combing, and the third sample on the right hand is the coarsest kind, known as braid combing. 122 AXIMALJ OX THE FARM. number oi breeds. Tlie best for tine wool are the Me- rino; for medium wool, the Southdown, Shropshire, Hampshire, and several others ; for coarse wool, the Leicester. Lincoln and Cotswold. The ^lerino pays liest wb.en a protecti\-e tariff keeps out the cheap wools ' 'f Scauh America and Australia. Xij American farm- er can afford to raise ^\■ool in competition with the peo- ple of these parts of the world. Sheep recjuire particu- lar attentir.n at the time when the lambs are dropped. It is important to watch the latter that they may not strav fr^">m their mothers during the first days of their life. A ewe will not own its lamb after an absence of a dav or two. Imported Shropshire Ewe Lambs. SHEEP. 123 The sheep is a hardy animal and not much suljject to disease, unless exposed to moisture. It endures cold well, but must be provided with a dry stable. Some 't >^ ■■••.■■'*< '^' " A.; ■• ^ » Jm w * ■ ^sxTT^- -:i * •'A igg^ -^^^ HH^^i y ^^^HHi^. ^ 1 §^^^^M^^^^M Hampshire Down Sheep. succulent food, beets, turnips, etc., is desirable, espe- cially in the winter, Init it thrives well on the same feed that is suitable for a cow. 124 AXIMALS ON THE FARM. A Lincoln Sheep. A Prize Winner. The importance of breeding only thoroughbreds holds good of sheep as it does of any other stock. It is a great mistake to suppose that Ijy mixing breeds the good qualities of each will appear in the offspring. It is just as likely that the bad qualities appear. New races are produced by in-and-in breeding, but it re- quires great experience, much time and necessarily much money to repeat in this line what others have already done for us. Therefore the rule should be : Breed only frijm pure stijck. If you wish to improve the stock you have, use onlv thoroughbred sires, and alwa3's the same breed. In this direction lies success. CHAPTER V. THE DAIRY. The cow is, in a certain sense, a machine to produce milk, and tlu'ough the milk, butter and cheese. As a machine she ought to be of the most approved kind. There are still many poor cows in the country. Any cow that is not able to yield 300 lbs. of butter, or an equivalent, during the year, may be put down as un- profitable. Poor cows eat up the profit yielded by the others. A cow that eats more than her milk is worth is jok- ingly called a boarder. This fault often exists where it is not suspected ; but it is no longer excusable. Milk is now tested by an instrument called the lactometer, which shows the proportion of cream. At a well- known creamery it was found that during the month of November the patron whose milk showed the high- est proportion of cream received $1.42 per hundred pounds of milk. The patron whose milk showed the lowest proportion recei\'ed only 89 cents, a difference of 53 cents per hundred pounds. In December the difference was $1.59 for the high- est, 99 cents for the lowest, a difference of 60 cents. The milk of different breeds has been accurately tested at the agricultural stations of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and other states, and a great wak- ing up among the farming population has been the con- sequence. But these experiments have also shown that 126 126 ANIMALS OX THE FARM. the best results cannot be obtained unless some neces- sary conditions are complied with. In order to make a good cow do her best she needs (i) suitable food at regular hours; (2) good water to drink; (3) a warm and comfortable stable during the cold season and shade and good pasture in the A\\'irm ; ('4) kind treatment. "Treat a cow as you would a lady" is the rule of a successful dairy farmer. On each of these points a great deal might be said or written, but it is perhaps sufficient here to remind A MODEL DAIRY COW. Jer.^eyCnw DOLLY'S A'ALEXTIXE. Yearly test, made by Kentucky Experiment Station, 679.5 pounds butter. THE DAIRY. 127 tlie reader tliat the object is to turn as much feed as possible into as much good milk, butter or cheese as possible. This is the object, and whoever wishes to gain this object must not fail to apply the means to obtain it. But this is not all. The milk, butter, cheese produced must be palatable, inviting and salable, and ANOTHER MODEL DAIRY COW, to that end it is necessary that the greatest care be exercised in the matter of cleanliness and in the proper observation of certain rules. Boiling water should be freely used for the cleaning of pails, cans, separators and churns after every use of them. Cold water is needed for other purposes. The use of the separator, a machine which separates the cream from the milk. 128 ANIMALS ON THE FARM. is Strongly recommended. It leaves both cream and skim milk sweet. The former commands the highest price in the market. The latter can be used for feed- ing pigs, as it contains the most valuable parts for feed- ing purposes and is greatly superior to sour milk; it may also be used in the household for the preparation of various dishes. If set in cans or pans the cream will rise and may then be taken off. But by this time the milk will frequently be found to have soured. The souring is due to the change of the soluble sugar ele- ment in the milk into an acid which has received the name of lactic acid ( acid of milk) , from the Latin word lac, which means milk. A part of this acid enters into the cream so that this also will be sour. Its effect on the casein or curd in the milk is to harden this into an insoluble sulistance, the process being known as curdling. This souring process is due to very minute plants called ferments, such as are also found in yeast. They increase verv fast and produce changes in the substance in which they are found, in bread dough, in the milk, in cheese, and in others. They are always present and ready to settle upon any object that is not perfectly clean, and, if there be moderate warmth and moisture, the}' develop with fabulous rapidity. A milk pail, not cleaned after use, will be infested by large numbers if it is allowed to stay uncleaned for a few hours. They are the cause of the bad taste of many liquids after they ha^-e stood a while exposed to the air, of milk, wine, beer and the like. Cold will check their growth, hence cold water is necessary in butter- making and in the dairy generallv. AMiether to use shallow or deep pans or cans must THE DAIRY. 129 depend on circumstances. If the cans can be kept in flowing water of a temperature of from 40 to 50 de- grees for rather more than 12 hours, good results will, be obtained with deep cans. Shallow setting recjuires a room well ^•entilated, the temperature of which is 60 degrees or less. It should never be higher. The churn used for making butter of cream thus collected will not do for fresh and sweet cream. A special machine, called an extractor, is used for this purpose. The cream obtained by setting in cans should have a certain qual- ity, it should be ripe. This again is produced by fer- ments. It requires care and experience to know when the cream is just fit for churning. To arrest fermen- tation it may be first warmed to 140 degrees Fahren- heit for a few minutes. This will kill the ferments, and the milk or cream will be pasteurized. The name is given to the process in honor of the celebrated chem- ist, Pasteur, who studied subjects of this character for a long time and suggested the best remedies. In that case the proper ferment must be added to ripen the cream, and in this way butter-making is remo\'ed from the haphazard condition and placed under the control of the buttermaker. The particles or globules of fat in the milk, which form the cream, are not transparent, and being lighter than water they rise to the top. These globules differ in size in different kinds of milk, though they are al- ways so small that a microscope of great power is re- quired to see them. Large globules will rise more rapidly than small ones. Milk that contains mostly large globules of fat will suit best where butter is the 130 ANIMALS OX THE FARM. object. For cheesemaking the milk with small globules is suitable. Whether there are more or less of such globules in the milk can be ascertained by an instrument called the lactoscope. which enables us to determine how much water must be added to the milk to make it transparent. While there is great ditterence in the milk of dif- ferent breeds, it is a rule well understood by good man- agers that the milk richest in cream is in the ''strip- pings." A cow should be milked completely; no milk should be left in her udder when the milking is done. Careful milking will gradually increase the yield, pro- A'ided the feeding is properly attended to. Fig. 17 — A Jersey Cow. THE DAIRY. 131 The churn separates the butter from the cream. As soon as the little grains of butter appear the churn- ing should stop for a few minutes to allow these grains to come together, and finally the buttermilk is drawn off. The butter is then washed in cold water and worked in such a way as to free it from all traces of buttermilk. Too much working destroys its fine cjual- ity and may make it oily. Salt is added for its keep- ing qualities. It attracts the moisture in the butter Fig. 18 — A pair of Holstein Calves bred by the Iowa Agricultural College. and thereby prevents spoiling from the buttermilk it may still retain. If any other element than pure but- ter be left in the mass, such as sugar, or lactose, or casein, the ferments will soon be at work and make the butter rancid. It is now a pretty general custom of farmers to send their milk to a large dairy or butter factory of which there are now a great number. These factories weigh 132 AXIMALS OX THE FARM. the milk they receive and pay by weight iiistead of measure. This is proper, and it encourages the rais- ing of cows that give rich milk rather than much milk. The best breed for the production of butter is the Jer- sey. The greatest milker is the Holstein, and its yield in butter, with proper feeding, is claimed to be satis- factory. yiilk also contains the element which produces mus- cle. This is called casein. Like all muscle formers casein is essentially nitrogen, as is also albumen, found in the white of the egg and also in milk. Casein and albumen combine with the fat of the milk in making cheese, which therefore contains these elements along with water and some mineral matter. The following table will show how these elements are grouped in a hundred pounds of milk, butter and cheese, Casein and Water. Fat. Albumen. Sugar. Ash. \A'hole milk .... 87. o 4.0 t,.^ 4.S 0.7 Skim milk 90.0 0.5 3.0 5.0 0.7 Butter 10. o 86.5 i.o 0.5 2.0 Cheese 35.0 33.0 28.0 0.0 4.0 Cheese-making is a particular business which must be specially learned to be .successful. Fresh cheese or curd cheese is simply milk curdled and deprived of a part of its water. Cheese-making begins with causing the milk to curdle and its fat to join in one mass with the casein. This is done by means of rennet, an ex- tract taken from the calf's stomach. The water is then poured off. This fluid contains the sugar of the milk, and srmie of the other elements. It is called whev. and while fresh will answer a good purpose as THE DAIRY. 133 a drink for pigs. The curdled mass is properly salted and run through a mill. It is then put up in packages and taken to the curing room, which is kept at a warm temperature. Now a variety of ferments begin their work in the cheese and finally give it the peculiar flavor which makes it acceptable to consumers. Cheese contains more muscle-forming elements than any other food. These elements, albumen, casein, etc., are sometimes embraced in the title of "proteins." Lean meat comes next to cheese in this respect, and the legumes (beans, peas, lentils) follow closely. But cheese is not easily digested, which detracts from its value as a general food. We have called attention to the necessity of cleanli- ness. This is understood bythe dairyman when he filters all milk as quickly as drawn from the udder through fine cotton cloth. Clean cheesecloth or some suitable paper should be used in which to wrap the butter be- fore it is offered for sale. It is not enough to do every part of the work neatly; there should also be the out- ward appearance to give the impression of perfect cleanliness and neatness. Butter, well made and nicely packed, will command a price sufficiently higher than that paid for the common article to offer a strong in- ducement for the extra trouble. As so much depends on the cow, a few words as to the kind of feed for cows must be added. There is nothing better than clover- hay, cut in the blossom and well cured, though any other well-cured hay will do quite well. As a rule hay is cut too late. The grass should be cut when it is in bloom. It then contains the largest proportion of foodstuff in its stalks, and especially in its leaves or 134 ANIMALS ON THE FARM. blades. Middlings and bran are first-rate, but a change now and then is always advisable to keep up the appe- tite. Corn is too heating in summer, but will do very well in winter, especially if first ground and mixed with bran or middling. The animals ought not to have their mangers full all the time. A period of rest is necessary, but whenever feeding takes place it should be at the same hour, if possible at the same minute. And so with watering. In the winter the water should have the chill taken ofT. Warmth saves food and increases its effect. Keep your cows contented, avoid everything that may cause rest- lessness or irritation. Unless you are very gentle the business does not pay. CHAPTER VI. POULTRY. The "American Hen" is a very useful bird, as every- one knows. But everyone does not know how useful she really is. The poultry business of the country has assumed enormous proportions. The facilities for sending eggs, poultry and fowl to a good market have been vastly increased, and in many parts of the country there are now cold storage houses which keep eggs in good condition for a considerable time. The result is that poultry raising has become a profitable industry. Among the advantages and improvements gained the poultry raiser will readily count the incubator. This instrument is now made in such satisfactory shapes and conditions that one may count on nearly every sound and fertilized egg to be hatched by it. The incubator enables us to hatch our first chicks any time from January to March and to get them to market in good condition while prices are yet high. Chicks raised late in April or during May must be extra well fed to make them nearly as profitable. But it is not the busi- ness of the regular farmer to make a specialty of poul- try. He raises as many chickens as he can for the pur- pose of having fresh eggs and fried or roast chicken on his own table and only sells what he cannot thus use. Chickens are unwelcome in the garden, hence either the chicken yard or else the garden must have a tight fence around it. They also injure the grapes and take 135 136 ANIMALS OX THE FARM. some of the small fruit. It is therefore not always possible to allow them to run free at all times. The place chosen for a chicken yard should have good drainage ; it should be naturally dry. House your chickens in a house as warm as you can afford to build. If built of boards, use building felt or tar paper or double walls to keep out the cold. The south side should be all windows. A door ma}- be at the east side. Put a layer of dust (that gathered on the road when the weather is very hot will do first-rate) about a foot thick on the bare floor, and renew it as often as it be- comes foul. Breed only ptire stock. If you have any scrub stock dispose of it at once. Buy a setting of eggs from a reliable person, or several settings if you like. A quicker way is to procure a trio of birds of a desirable pure bred kind. If you don't wish to sacri- fice the stock you have, kill all the roosters of the non- descript varieties and breed your hens to a pure bred male of the desired variety. This will give you in a few years a superior race of fowls. Some believe that the best breed thus far produced for the purpose of getting both chickens and eggs is the White Wyandotte. Next to this stands the Plymouth Rock, and some may rank it higher. If the object is to have eggs in winter and to raise very fat, showy and heavy chickens, the Asiatic breeds. White Brahma, Cochin China, etc., are the most desirable. Merely for eggs the Mediterranean breeds do best — the Leghorn, Black Spanish, etc. — but these breeds are so small that there is little or no profit in selling the birds. As it does not pay to keep hens beyond the second year, and as one-half of the chicks are males, which must be disposed of in the first year, it follows POULTRY. 137 that, unless eggs sell for a high price all the year round, it is better to keep a heavier kind. From the most recent experience of practical poultry raisers we gather that the results obtained from the incubator are not so extraordinary as is sometimes claimed. One-half the number of good strong chicks of the total of eggs placed in a machine is considered a good average, and this is no more than may be ob- tained where a good many hens are employed. The loss by infertile eggs is from 25 to 40 per cent in winter, and from 10 to 15 per cent in spring months. While the incubator and brooder are necessary aids to the professional poultry man, they cannot be recom- mended for use by the farmer. Among the reasons why the White Wyandotte is preferred by many as the best general purpose fowl, the following are mentioned : The fowls of this breed mature a month earlier than the Plymouth Rock, have more breast meat ; in fact, are fat, plump and ready for the table any time after they are twelve weeks of age. They should then weigh at least three pounds, and with good care will gain a pound per month, up to six or seven months of age. For eggs alone the year round it is now claimed that the most profitable are the Minorcas. They are one to two pounds heavier than the Leghorns and la}^ eggs one-third larger. They are considered just as hardy and prolific as the Leghorns. Chicks need no food the first twenty-four hours. They should then be fed coarsely ground wheat, mixed with one part of cornmeal, cooked and moistened with milk. Cooked cornbread and milk will be even better, especially if early fattening is aimed at. 138 ANIMALS OX THE FARM. Use a trough for feeding. This should have an up- right board at the back in order to prevent the chicks from fouHng the food with their feet. An abundance of fresh water is important, and there should be a supply of some kind of grit always within reach of the chicks. As in all other cases, the best results are ob- tained with regular and proper feeding. Where circumstances are favorable, turkeys are the best paying birds to raise. The bronze turkey is rec- ommended. Keep only the most promising young birds for breeding purposes. The male should be at least one year old, but two years is better. These pre- cautions are necessary to secure hardv poults, the risk from the loss of young birds being very great. The voung poults need close attention during the first few weeks. They must be protected from vermin and from cold and wet weather. They should have wheat bread soaked in milk twice a day at very regular hours for the first week. Onions or clover finely chopped are valuable additions. Later the feed should consist of a bread made of ground wheat and cornmeal in equal proportions, mixed with sour milk and soda and well baked. Curds may also be fed, and sweet milk is always safe. As soon as thev "shoot the red" — that is, show the red growth about the neck — they may be allowed freedom to seek their favorite food, insects. They may wander far from the place, and in order to secure their return it is necessary to feed them at home at least once a day, in the evening. If this be done regularly they will not fail to put in an appearance. Sometimes, however, it may be necessary to feed them twice a day. All young turkeys should be marked POULTRY. 139 with a marker (the cost is 25 cents), in order to pre- vent loss from mixing with other tiocks. Ducks are very desirable. The White Pekin are preferred, as they are large and hardy, and on account of their white feathers, which bring a good price in the market. They are easily kept in any low shed and grow well without water for swimming. They should be well fed, as they will grow to a good size in from five to six weeks and can be then sold at a good price. Fowls for marketing should always be well fattened in order to bring the best price. They should be kept in close, somewhat darkened quarters, which must be kept scrupulously clean. They should be provided with charcoal and with as much rich food as they will eat up clean. Feed three times a day. Corn should be the main feed, but a mess of bran or ground soja beans with milk, fed once a day, will furnish a desir- able variety. Chickens and other poultry are often greatly troubled with lice. Coal oil is probably the best rem- edy. Their roosting poles should be kept clean and often washed with coal oil. The dust bed in the chicken house and wood ashes outside will help to subdue the nuisance. The roosting poles should be all on the same level. For nests boxes may be used, each one marked with a peculiar color to induce the hens to use always the same box. Conveniences for access to these nests easily suggest themselves. Much can be learned from successful breeders by visiting their poultry yards. If a chicken cholera or any other infectious disease kills a fowl, it should be at once buried out of sight and possible reach to prevent the spreading of disease germs. Destruction by fire would be even safer. 140 AXIMALS OX THE FARM. A\'e have mentioned the White AA^'AXDotte as the best general purpose chicken, but as there may be a difference of opinion on the subject we will quote what the American Agriculturist said a few years ago about this breed : "All varieties of W'yandottes are of great practical worth, but the white variety is accepted everywhere as being the practical fowl par excellence. It is being adopted by the great market poultry men more universally than any other fowl. Its white plum- age makes it dress off in a very handsome shape, while its dressed shape is almost ideal for market purposes." A successful poultry raiser, Mrs. Carter, of Ham- mond, 111., lays down the following rules for the care of poultry ; "A good insect powder should be plentifully used in the nests of setting hens once each week. The coops should be painted with coal oil, black oil. turpentine and carbolic acid once every ten days, also the roosts of the poultry houses should be kept well painted with liquid lice-killer, composed of two gallons of coal oil, one half gallon of turpentine, one gallon of black machme oil and one-half gallon of crude carbolic acid. "Give regular feed and water. Always feed grown fowls corn at night. Feed some bran, corn-meal and shorts well mixed with warm water first at morning in cold weather. Put sheaf oats and wheat in the scratching shed every da_y in the winter time. In the fall put away sheaf oats to feed to the chickens in the winter time. ■ "Sell all hens before the first of January that are two years old. "Feed parched corn once a week in winter. If pos- sible have a patch of sunflowers for the fowls to run to in summer. "Keep feed always where the young chicks can get it ; millet seed is the best for growing chickens. PART IV. FRUIT. CHAPTER I. THE USES OF FRUIT. To be a farmer and not to have fruit and vegetables in abundance is to deprive one's self of one of the great- est pri\'ileges of country life, and of the best means to secure health and enjoyment on the farm. A baked or raw apple is a more suitable article of dessert than a piece of pie. Cherries, plums, grapes, strawberries, raspl:)erries, blackberries and even gooseberries and currants are delightful in their season and may be canned for use later. The farmer ought to have the best of everything that his farm can produce, for the good of his family and for himself. And why should he not ? Why is it that so many farmers seem to look upon salt pork and potatoes as the all-sufficient articles of diet the year around? How many farmers' wives, in order to have some variety on their tables, gather and preserve the harsh and woody crab apples of the woods? It is all very well to pick the wild plum, which in some localities makes very fine eating, and also the wild strawberry and the wild grape, but how much superior are the cultivated varieties ! Plant the 141 142 FRUIT. early Richmond cherry. There is nothing nicer to eat fresh from the tree, provided the cherries are thoroug-hly ripe. And what a splendid fruit it is to put up in glass jars, so refreshing, so nice to eat, so handy when there is company for supper, and so healthful at all times ! Almost as much can be said of the humble gooseberry. Of plums we can raise the j\Iiner and the \\'ild Goose varieties in most of the States, though destructive insects may destroy all oth- ers. Pears succeed here and there, but the fireblight is their terrible enemy. So do peaches in favorable years when spring is late and winter has not been too se\-ere. Grapes do well with proper attention to pruning. But the apple, in some of its many varieties, can be raised almost anywhere in all our States, and what is there better than well prepared apple butter or a de- licious baked apple? There are few farms that have not some specially well adapted soil to raise straw- berries, and who that has ever eaten strawberries fresh from the vines, and, perhaps, if such be his taste, with some of the rich cream that the farm can give, would want to be without a strawberry bed ? After these berries come the raspberries, and finally blackberries, so that, if only a few kinds of fruit should succeed, there are enough varieties of delicious fruit to supply the farmer's table the year around. A successful fruit raiser, Mr. Dunlop, once said at one of our farmers' institutes : "The farmer who fails to take advantage of his opportunities in this line fails utterly to appre- ciate what a life upon the farm means, and ought to move to a coal-mining town and go to work in the THE USliS OF FRUIT. I43 mines. The grass, the trees, the sunshine, the vege- tables of tlie garden, the fruit of the orchard are all wasted on him. Believing that salt pork and pota- toes are 'more fillin',' he has no time to \yaste upon a fruit and vegetable garden. Should the children be- come sick on such a diet he has recourse to the bottle of patent medicine, and when through their perversity, or lack of appreciation of life upon such a farm, the sons and daughters seek the city, he wonders why the children leave the farm." A boy used early to fruit is not apt to learn to relish alcoholic drinks, fruit eating being a natural antidote for that depraved appetite. The effect on the body is extremely wholesome. For some kinds of sickness apples and grapes are specifics. Extensive fruit culture is not the proper business of the farmer, but this is no reason why the farm should not produce all the fruit and vegetables the people on it can consume. CHAPTER II. THE APPLE. For apples a northern slope is preferable, as in such a position the trees do not bloom so soon, and thus escape the nijurious effects of late frosts. Plow the ground as for corn ; running a subsoil plow after the first plow will deepen the soil and prove of great ad- ■ vantage to the growing tree. Set vciur trees not less than 30 feet apart, or about 50 to the acre. Late keep- ers should be chosen, with only a few specimens of earlier kinds. Among the latter the Duchess of Olden- burg shijuld have the preference; among the former the Jonathan, W'inesap. Gano, }\Iinkler, and for an extra late keeper that bears well in many localities, the \A'il- low Twig. \\'here\'er it has been kni^wn to do well a few specimens of the Bellfli^wer, our finest apple, may be planted, but it is a late and somewhat sh\' bearer. Of the other varieties, plant onlv such as have been tried in your neighborhood. The Ben Da^-is is widely grown and bears abundantly, but its fruit cannot sat- isf}' anyone who knows what is meant bv a good apple. It is greatly inferior to almost any other apple, but is a good seller on account of its bright red color. As to cultivation, it should be the same as for corn. You cannot profitably raise two crops, one of apples and the other of weeds, grass or whatever else, at the same time and on the same piece of ground. The apple tree Cjuickly extends its roots in every direction. 144 THE APPLE. 145 While the trees are very young, from one to at most five years after planting, crops of potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage or small fruit may be raised between the rows at some distance from the trees. Later on a good disk harrow, followed by a smoothing harrow, should be persistently used to keep the soil in a mellow condition, thus preparing the same kind of earth mulch that is so useful for corn. Under no circumstances allow grass to grow in the orchard. It is not objectionable, and possibly useful, to sow clover late in summer, but on condition that the crop be plowed under early in the spring. Soja beans, or cow peas, being of surer growth, may be sown instead of clover. Great care must be taken not to injure the roots of the trees during cultivation. The roots are apt to be near the surface in good soil. It has been suggested that rather deep plowing be- tween the rows from the very beginning will force the roots to form at a greater depth ; but once they are formed any injury to them means loss to the tree and to the owner. In order to be able to run a plow as near as pos- sible to the trunks of the trees, it is necessary that the trees be trimmed up several feet, so as to enable a horse to pass. The objection is that trees do better if their branches start near the ground, hence a middle course will probably answer best. Cultivation ought to stop early in August in order to avoid a late growth that might be hurt by the cold of the winter. As all cultivation should come as near to the trunks of the trees as possible, the harness should be without hames and singletrees. Sometimes 146 FRUIT. it may be advisable to apply a mulch of some kind to prevent grass and weeds from growing near the trunks. Grass may be taken from meadows near by and spread as a mulch for this purpose. As to the age of trees to be planted, it is now pretty generally agreed that trees three years old gi\"e the best satisfaction. Older trees should n^jt be planted, but trees two vears old will do verv well. The trees are generally greatly mutilated in their roots when they come from the nursery. The tops should therefore be shortened in hv cutting off enough to match the size of the roots. All pruning should be done either before the sap begins t'l mLi\"e in the spring, cir when it is c — . Fig. 19 — A Section of an Apple. A. The seeds. C. The calyx end. E. The core lor seed box). T. The pulp. Fig. 20 — Section of an Apple Blossom, showing how the apple begin; to form. descending after the terminal buds ha^'e formed. If old trees are pruned, it will be necessary to cover ex- posed surfaces with grafting wax or paint, to prevent evaporation. When an orchard is set out it is advisable to mark the ^•arieties on a map, as tlie wooden laliels on the tree will drop oft and the names will be forgotten bv the time the tirst fruit is produced. THE APPLE. 147 The trees should be pruned so as to give them an open head by cutting out central branches that would, in growing up, make a dense mass of top growth. Aim at having the main limbs spreading, and rub or prune off all water sprouts as soon as they appear. By this name we call those quick growing, succulent shoots that start directly from a big limb or the trunk. Apples, to keep well, should be hand-picked, packed in barrels and kept in a cool place where frost cannot hurt them. The apple has many enemies, the most serious ones being the "borer" and the "codling" moth. The former is a beetle that lays an egg in the trunk near the surface. A grub develops and burrows under the bark in a circling movement. If there are several of them they will often break the connection between the bark above it and the bark below so that the tree must die. Frequent examination and cutting out (the use of a sharpened wire is recommended) will be nec- essary. A preventive that has been tried with success is to tie a piece of heavy paper, building felt, tar paper or manilla paper, around the trunk (which should have been first carefully examined and thoroughly wasJied with whale oil soap), making sure that it goes down as far as possi- ble and fits it tight. It is of course necessary to repeat this every year, and in time to be ahead of the borer. The codling moth lays its tgg in the calyx of the young apple while the latter has still its up- V Fig. 21 — The Flat- Headed Borer, a the larva; b. the pupa; d. the per- fect beetle. 148 FRUIT. right position. Tl:e grub enters the fruit and works it way to the core, ilany apples so attacked drop. They should be gathered and fed to the pigs to prevent the spread of the pest. The canker worm feeds on leaves and often destroys the greater part of the foliage. Both pan be held in check, if not entirely destroyed, by thorough sprayings with a mixture composed of : Copper sulphate (or bluestone) . . 4 pounds. Fresh lime 4 pounds. ^^'ater 40 pounds. Paris green 4 ounces . Instead of Paris green many use London purple, both containing arsenic. Without the latter the mixt- ure may be applied to prevent the scab on leaf and fruit in the apple, and the rot and other fungous dis- eases in peaches and plums. Suck- ing insects, that injure the tree by sucking the sap of the lea-\-es, etc.. may be killed by spraying with an emulsion of: Hard soap, Yz lb. ( or soft soap, I lb.) Boiling soft water, i gallon. Coal oil. 2 gal- lons. In spraying a force pump should Fig. 22 — The codling moth, a is the burrow; 6, the entrance hole; e, the lan-a; d, the pupa; /, moth at rest; g, moth with wings spread; A, head of larva; j, cocoon containing pupa. THE APPLE. 149 be used and particular care taken to reacn every part of the tree. It requires practice and close attention both in mixing the material and in applying it, to secure the best results, which are such as to pay richly for tlie trouble. The following remarks on "Spraying and Spraying Mixtures," by practical farmers and fruit growers, may be profitably read in connection with what has been said here. BORDEAUX MIXTURE, In order to prepare Bordeaux mixture suspend as many pounds as you need to use of the sulphate in a gunny sack in a barrel containing a gallon of water for each pound of sulphate. The sulphate will be ready for use in a short time and will remain in solu- tion and keep during the summer. The next step is to slack in a long box as many pounds of lime as you have sulphate — you can divide your lime by measuring its surface. Your lime and sulphate is now ready for mixing, but do not mix until you are ready to use it. If you wish to make for- ty gallons of Bordeaux, fill your barrel or tank partly with water, then from your sulphate barrel pour in four gallons, and take from your lime enough to equal four pounds of unslacked lime. Dissolve the lime in a ves- sel of water and pour it off through a strainer Fig. 23 — Canker worm, a, b and c are eggs; e is a mass of eggs;/is a larva dark brown in color. Larvae can drop from tree by silk thread. ISO FRUIT. into your barrel or tank, then add water enough to make forty gallons. When it is thoroughly mixed use as soon as possible. To meet the ra\'ages of the codling moth, use Paris green or London purple, about one pound to 1 50 pounds of water. Spray just before the buds open in the spring with a mixture of one pound of sulphur to tifty gallons of ^^•ater, to destroy any fungijus gr(jwth that mav have started during the warm days of winter, or eggs of insects that may be deposited upon the branches or body of the tree. The next spraying should be dc:ine as soon as the bli issom falls, using Bordeaux mixture fcir blight, and adding to each fiftv gallons of water one-third pound of Paris green or London purple to destroy the worms. Spra}'iiig in same manner should be done in a week or ten tla}"s, then try to get a little poison in blinssom end of each apple. A\'e shcaild try to do our spraying after rather than befijre a rain, and the best results will be obtained by spraA-ing even a fourth time. To make fifteen gallons of an emulsion for the destructiiin oi lice, boil in two gallons of water one P'^und of soap until you ha\-e suds, then add to your suds one gallon of coal oil and mix thoroughly with your pump. AA'hen the oil is well mixed with suds, }-ou can add water to make fifteen gallons. In mixing Paris green the proper way is to use just enough water to make a paste at first. You can then easilv dissohx it. Xever put it into your barrel when it is in powder form. THE APPLE. 151 Spraying should be done thoroughly. Leave noth- ing untouched, from the ground to the topmost twig. Don't be afraid of overdoing it. Where you do your most work you will get the best results. (L. Berry Ford.) "The eggs of the apple tree borer are laid during June and July, and during this period the trunks of the trees should be kept well washed with soft soap, di- luted with a solution of tobacco. "A friend reports that he has, while spraying, thor- oughly wetted the collars and trunks of his trees with the Bordeaux solution and has never found a borer in his orchard. "Twenty peach trees were each wrapped with a leaf of tobacco near the ground, and although in a badly infested locality, were not attacked." (Willard D. Bare.) CHAPTER III. CHERRIES, FEARS AND PLUMS. All of these trees may be planted at a distance of 20 feet by 15 feet apart. The early Richmond cherry is the best. The English IMorello does well for a late sort. Cherries are apt to throw up suckers, hence culti\'ating is not to be recommended except while the tree is young; but the grass or clover that may be allowed to grow between the rows should be frequently cut and used as a mulch. Manure may also be spread, both as a fertilizer and as a mulch. Of pears it is advisable to plant only such as have been tried in the neighborhood and found capable of resisting the attack of the fireblight. If this blight once appears e\'ery branch affected, and if necessary the whole tree, should at once be burned, in order to kill the germs that will spread from the diseased parts to other trees. Dwarf pears — that is, pears grafted or budded on quince stock — have been generally found more Ijlight-proof than the standard varieties. Plums are often a failure on account of a tiny beetle, the curculio, which puts an egg into the skin and then cuts a half-moon shaped mark into the young fruit to prevent the skin from closing up o-\-er the grub, which is soon hatched. This grub eats into the fruit and causes it to drop. Plum trees should stand near the chicken vard, so that the chickens can fre- CHERRIES, PEARS AND PLUMS. 153 quently be allowed to get the fallen fruit and its de- structive enemy. In this way a check is put upon the propagation of the pest. Spraying with the mixture recommended in the case of the codling moth for the apple tree, as soon as blooming ceases and the young Fig. 24 —The plum tree curculio. a, the larva *; d, the pupa; c, the beetle; tf, curculio, natural size, oil young plum. Fie:. ;53— Renrodiicin^ plants by iayeri.ig. A is br.iiicli bdPt over and buried, held down by stake />. New shoms C start up. which arc then cut oif from parent plant at Z>. fruit begins to show, is the best thing to be done. Plum trees suffer also from a species of blight. If this appears the only remedy is to cut out and burn all af- fected parts. Spraying in time with the emulsion of hard soap and coal oil may do much to prevent it. In favored localities the peach is a most desirable fruit. It is easily grown from good stock. CHAPTER IV. GR.\PES. Grapes are a most delicious and healthful fruit. The Concord is still the most populai variety. It furnishes excellent eating when fully ripe. It is too often picked and eaten while yet immature. The Niagara is a superior white grape which has given good satisfaction. The Delaware, small and sweet, does very well, but is liked too well by the robin and catbird. There are many other varieties, but they cannot be depended on for general culti\ation. Plant grapes (one-year-old vines from a good nur- sery are best ) 8 feet apart each way in fertile soil. If the soil is poor it will pay to enrich it, but keep fresh manure from the roots. Grapes grow only on the wood gro\\n the year before, and each bud may pro- duce two clusters. As there are so many buds, it is necessary to prune severelv in order not to weaken or kill the \'ine by overbearing, and to get good-sized clusters. Pruning should be done in the fall, as in the spring it is difficult to do the work before the sap be- gins to move. Train at first to one cane, rubbing ofif all other shoots as they appear. This may be tied to a stake and allowed to grow its full natural length; but nip off the side shoots, leaving, however, a few leaves to prevent the breaking into gro\\'th of the bud at the place where these shoots start. Earlv in September nip off the tips of the cane to insure perfect ripening 154 GRAPES. 155 of the wood, and in October or later cut off fully two- thirds of the cane, leaving one-third to bear fruit the next year. If the growth was not satisfactory no fruit should be expected the year after planting, and but little the year thereafter. The following year cut the cane that has borne fruit down to within two feet or less from the ground, allowing two strong canes to grow; rub or prune off all other shoots. These canes should be cut back in the fall. They will bear fruit the following summer. In order to check the tendency of the vine to send its sap too vigorously upward and develop the top clus- ters at the expense of the lower ones, the bearing canes should be bent and their tips tied below. For this purpose two stakes will be found more satisfactory than one. The vine needs the sunlight, and if tied to one stake there would be too much crowding. If the expense is not an objection, from three to five wires may be drawn along the rows for the bearing canes to grow horizontally on them. The canes should be firmly tied to the wires or stakes to prevent the wind from tearing them loose. Grapes may be protected in winter by laying the canes flat on the ground, holding them fast with clods and then plowing against them on both sides of the row. If there are not many vines the spade alone may be sufficient. Fifty vines, if well grown and kept, may yield from 500 to 1,000 pounds of luscious grapes year after year, more than enough for the average family. Grapevines should have the best chance for sunlight, and the ground should be very perfectly drained. 156 FRUIT. Grape canes of the season may be cut into pieces in autumn, each having an iminjured bud, preserved dur- ing winter in boxes flUed with sand, and stuck into the ground in spring. They will grow for tlie most part the same season and make good plants for plant- ing the next. Growing vines may be layered — that is, a cane is bent to the ground and held there with pegs. From each bud a plant will start. In the fall the cane should be severed from the parent stock and each of the separate growths cut off from the other. These will also make good plants and come into bearing a little sooner than vines grown from cuttings. CHAPTER V. SMALL FRUIT. Strawljerries should be set out m spring, in rows four feet apart and plants eighteen inches to two feet apart in the row. The ground should be as rich as possiljle and in the highest state of culti\'atioiL It is hard to keep the blue grass out of a strawberr}- bed, and as clijse \\'ee(ling by hand would be tedious, it is best to cultivate well between the rows by horsepower, using a pronged hoe in the rows and around the plants ; take off one crop the following year and then plow under the first planting, relying on "runners," which by that time will ha\'e invaded the space between the rows, for the crop of the third year. This process may be re- peated, the original rows being again established, but by this time the grass and weeds will be very annoy- ing, and it may be best to plow under both them and the strawberrv plants and sow clover for a rotation, with A'egetables and again strawberries to follow. During the early part of the season the growth of runners must be checked as much as possible. The best method is to grow each plant in a hill by itself, but few farmers can do this, as it takes too much time to keep the runners down. Raspberries may be planted on any good land. For a few 3'ears the space between the rows of the apple orchard would offer a good opportunity. Each plant 158 FRUIT. should be pruned back to a few shoots and the tips cut off before a crop can grow to secure ripe wood and good sized berries. The fewer shoots the finer and larger the fruit. tis- -5— A strawberry pI.Ttit rcpro- cIuciiiL,' by a " niiincr." Fig. 56 -A strawberry pl;un propt;rly t.et out. The same is true of blackberries. As to choice of varieties of these and all other kinds of fruit, the advice of the nearest nurseryman should be taken, or the reports of the various farmers' institutes may be consulted. In a certain locality certain varieties will give satisfaction, while others may fail. CHAPTER VI. GENERAL REMARKS. Strawberries are either pistillate or hermaphrodite. The blossoms of the former lack the stamens, which bring about fertilization ; the latter have both stamens and pistils. Some of our best varieties of strawberries are pistillate. If such are planted it is necessary to plant with them some of the other kind, otherwise but little, Fig.- 27 —A perfect strawberry blossom having belli pisli s and st:imeijs- Fl£J. 2B .,\n imperfect stt-.lw* lierry blu'isitiu h.-iviii^ ijibliiji, but llul sUiIlle'is. if any, fruit will be produced. The advice of the nurseryman should therefore be taken in all cases of doubt, though inspection will easily enlighten anyone when the plant is in bloom. As for planting trees or vines, the rule should be to dig a hole several times larger and deeper than the root requires, then to throw in part of the dirt taken out, heaping it in the center. On the top of this heap set your tree or vine, taking l6o FRUIT. care to spread out the roots well, after cutting off smoothly any bruised ones. Then fill in with the best soil, using water to settle the ground thoroughly around the roots and make it cling firmly to them. No vine or tree should be set deeper than it was before, nor less deep. After planting, which in the Northwestern States is most safely done in the spring, the ground should be kept from baking by frequent stirring. It is best not to mulch at first, but to allow the sun and the rain to stimulate root growth. Later in the season, when rain is scarce, a mulch of grass free from seed, or briglit straw ma)^ be applied to keep the weeds down. The danger of gathering a lot of weed seed in this way is, however, so great that cultivation is the safer plan. As in the case of apple trees, cultivation ought to stop in August, and then is the time to apply a good mulch. In the case of cherries and plums it has been found that cultivation is less necessary, and may even prove injurious. It will be preferable, therefore, to keep the ground mulched and thus prevent the growth of grass and weeds. If grass or clover has once started it may be as well to mow frequently and leave the stalks on the ground. The cutting must be repeated as often as possible. An important word of caution may yet be necessary. Never allow slops to be emptied near a tree or vine. Keep horses and cattle from your trees and out of your orchard. The salt in slops and in the urine of animals will infallibly ruin the healthiest tree in a short time. Slops should be emptied at difi^erent spots, never twice GENERAL REjMARKS. i6i on the same spot within a 3'ear at least. No harm will be done if this precaution be used. An acre of ground devoted to orchard purposes may be planted with 30 or 35 apple trees, with the addition of 5 cherry trees, 5 pears and 5 plums. Plant your trees as near to the house as possible. This will be appreciated by the female portion of the family, as it will save time and trouble, and also by the male portion when the fruit has been prepared and is presented to them at mealtime. In addition to the fruit garden there should be, .of course, a vegetable garden. Asparagus is a desirable vegetable, requiring but little care, except at planting. A bed should be dug as deep as possible and filled with well rotted manure and rich black soil. The young plants are then planted in rows about two feet apart. They must be kept free from weeds. In the fall it will be well to cover the bed with a coat of manure. This will secure an early crop. The growing plant should not be allowed to bear seed. Cut the tops after the flowering season is over. Tomatoes are a very valuable crop. Plant only the best varieties and provide for a support of the vines. Laths nailed on sticks about two feet above the ground will answer for this purpose. Cucumbers, pumpkins, squashes, melons, etc., should be planted in rich garden soil, but it will be necessary to have your melon bed at a considerable distance from the former vegetables to avoid fertilization from their pollen, which would spoil the melons for eating. The insect enemies of all these vegetables are num- erous and must be fought by hand picking. Birds will destroy many of these insects. No farmer will wish to be without early peas, and a variety of beans, including the Lima bean. 1 62 FRUIT. The directions for planting and cultivating these are found on the papers in which the seed is sold, hence none are given here. Lima and other tall growing- beans need poles to climb on. A supply of such should be provided for in winter or early spring before the regular field work begins. Xo garden will be complete without some sweet corn of the best varieties. To keep the seed from being- spoiled by the field corn, care should be taken to plant it at a distance from the latter. Celery may be readily grown in good soil, but it needs attention when the plant has attained its growth to secure the desired whiteness. The rows must be ^\•ell hilled up on both sides so as to almost cover the entire plant. There are other delicacies which are welcomed on the table and can be raised with but little trouble, such as the oyster plant, cauliflower, Brussel's sprouts, to- gether with the more common spinach, lettuce and several varieties of cabbage. The boys and girls should be encouraged to take an interest in planting these and attending to them, by being allowed to sell what is not needed at home. A part of the garden may be given up to sunflowers, the seed of which is much liked by chickens, and benefits their health. A garden, to be producti\-e and satisfactorv in the choice quality of its vegetables, should be plowed and subsoiled and abundantly manured. If at all possible, an arrangement should be made to supply it readily with water in the dry season. Xarrow boards, nailed together, may be used as troughs or pipes to convey the water from a distance where it is not feasible to use ditches. At the same time it has been found very use- ful to underdrain garden soil. The ground should be kept mellow and not a weed allowed to grow on it. PART V. SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. CHAPTER I. THE DIVISIONS OF SCIENCE. Who has not often looked at the starry sky and ad- mired this grand spectacle ? What a multitude of stars, — all in motion, but none in a hurry, not one keeping the other from following its course through the night and the day, through the weeks, months, years and centuries ! They are so far away that it takes the light of some of them millions of years to reach the earth. For all we know they may have ceased to exist millions of )'ears ago, and yet their light keeps on traveling, and countless human beings are meanwhile born and live and die. And our earth itself is a star, a very little one, it is true, compared with those distant stars each one of which is believed to be a sun around which such small stars as our earth may be circling. Wherever we turn we are in the presence of an astonishing movement. Nothing stands still. The very heavens move. Change is the law of the universe. The study of the movements and changes, not only of the stars, but of all matter, is the work of science. 163 164 SCIEXCE AND AGRICULTURE. ^Matter is indestructible. We cannot create it ; we can only cause the particles of which it consists to change their places and enter into dili'erent combinations. And these particles are exceedingly small — so small that they can be seen only when thousands of millions are joined together. The name for the smallest particle of matter is iiiolcciilc. but a molecule is believed to exist of several distinct parts, each of which is called an afoiii. AA'hat. then, is an atom!" AA'e can only an- swer that it is the smallest thinkable part of an ele- ment. Scientists believe that such atoms are always or mostly in pairs, and they make their calculations of the movements of these atoms on the basis of this belief. In a molecule we have all the elements which we find in the larger mass of any substance. In an atom we have only the smallest part of oiw distinct cloiiciit. Chemistry deals with atomic changes which re- sult in new substances. Physics is riccupied with molecular movements, the molecule itself remaining unchanged. Ho\v are the atoms placed in a molecule or in any part of matter? We know that gold is hea\'y and air is light. If all matter consists of atoms, what makes the diilerence in weight? It is believed to be due to the greater or less distance between the atoms. We mav imagine them to be close together, as in this illustration — : : : — and again wide apart, as in this : The former would represent the gold, the latter the air or anv other light substance. When we examine THE DIVISIONS OF SCIENCE. 165 the sky at night, we find parts of it where the stars are close together, as in the Milky Way, and others where they are far apart. We might see something- similar in the atoms of different substances if our sight were fitted to behold them. As long as the atoms in a molecule stay united there is no chemical change. But molecules may un- dergo many changes of place, and such changes belong to Physics. Water contains in every one of its molecules two parts of the element called hydrogen and one part of oxygen. If we heat water so as to form steam we do not change its molecules, for the steam has all the essential elements that water has, and in the same proportion. All that has changed is the place of the molecules, or, let us rather say, the distance between any two molecules. If we could see their mo^'ements we should find that ihty fly apart as heat is applied. Thus water is changed into steam. When these mole- cules strike a cold surface they come nearer to each other again and appear as water. Hence the produc- tion of steam belongs to the department of physics. If we mix sugar in our coffee the molecules of the sugar are not altered ; they are only separated. But let us burn a quantity of sugar. We now get carbonic acid — that is, a gas which contains the element carbon and the element oxygoi in every one of its molecules. Where is the change? To answer this question we should know the composition of a molecule of sugar. It consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. In the carbonic acid the hydrogen is absent and a part of the oxygen is also gone. Each molecule of sugar l66 SCIEXCE AXD AGRICULTURE. is composed of 44.92 parts of carbon, 6.I1 parts of hydrogen and 48.97 parts of oxygen. In each part of carbonic acid we have '/2.~Tj parts of carbon and 2^.2^ parts of oxygen. There has been a loss of hydrogen and oxygen, the elements wanting having passed into the air of the atmosphere. But as they are still there, we would better speak of their disappearance as a change. This change was due to cliciiiical action. But the chemist, by another process, can separate the three elements of sugar and rctai)! cacli by itself. He can zccigli each part and thus find that tlie three parts Zi'cigh exactly as uiuch. taken together, as did the sugar. If all matter on earth consists of these infinite par- ticles, may not the same be true of the sun and all the other stars? As heat expands matter, making the molecules fly apart, is it not likely that at some time or another, when all matter was in a condition of fiery vapor, there was no sun and no earth ? It is believed that this was so. AA'hen a belief is ex- pressed in scientific terms it is called a theory. At the end of the eighteenth century the German philosopher Kant made known a theory which was afterwards adopted by a French astronomer, La Place, and is known as the nebular theory, or hypothesis. It is about as follows : There was a time when our sun and all its planets, our earth included, were one mass of vapor or gas. In the course of time this mass, in its swift movement around its center, would throw off portions that kept up that movement at a greater or less distance from it, and thus this center became the sun and the parts THE DIVISIONS OF SCIENCE. 167 thrown off the planets, the vvliole making up what is called the solar systoii. After untold ages the earth cooled oft' enough to form a coat of watery vapor around its fiery kernel, and when this kernel hardened on its surface a crust was formed which gradually changed into soil for the growth of plants. Below this crust the former heat continued for a long time, and it is believed to be great enough even now to keep the center in a molten condition. From time to time the pressure of the gases produced within would break the crust, allowing this molten mass to rise and spread over parts of the surface. Thus arose our highest mountains. They are of very hard stone, known as granite, gneiss, etc. From their disinte- gration (crumbling) are derived some of our best soils. The vapor around the earth gradually separated into water and gases, as the crust cooled off more and more, and this water held in solution many minerals ; for in- stance, calcium, which, in combination with oxygen, forms lime. Numerous small animals arose, which, like oysters, snails and mussels, formed a solid cover- ing for themselves from the lime in the water. As they died these shells sank to the bottom and others followed. In this way vast deposits of carbonate of lime, etc. — that is, limestone and clialk — were formed. Most of these animals, were so small that their tiny shells can be detected only through a microscope. Then came various changes. Immense fishes filled the vast sea, and gigantic amphibia (creatures able to live both in the water and on land) the forests of quick-grow- l68 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. ing ferns and other plants that grew to an immense size. These were buried later under vast seas and changed into coal. The age of man came last. From the atomic night to the sunshine of the age of man — what a stupendous change ! This theory has been generally adopted by scientific men, because all scientific investigations (searching) ha\'e strengthened the arguments in support of it. The science that deals with the crust of the earth and its formation is called Geology. Plants and their structure are the subject of the science of Botany; ani- mals the subject of Zoology. Chemistry is needed for a proper understanding of the changes going on in the plant and the animals, and it is no less important in the work of the physicist. The latter teaches us why a well prepared soil, plowed and sul^soiled and tile drained, furnishes the conditions for a healthy and vig- orous growth of field crops. It is because the roots must seek for proper food in the soil. The soil must be porous (open) so as to allow water and watery vapor to enter, and also to arise from the lower part of the soil, holding in solution the necessary minerals and nitrates. Agricttltiira! Physics examines the soil and shows how it was formed from the original moun- tains and the hard crust that at one time covered the earth, even where there were no mountains. Physiology is occupied with the bodily functions of the various living creatures, plants and animals. It is closely dependent on chemistry and physics, and is, in a sense, a part of both botany and zoology. Closelv allied with geolog)- is the science which deals with plants and animals buried in the past, thou- THE DIVISIONS OF SCIENCE. 169 sands or hundreds of thousands of years ago, in the deposits which produced coal, hmestone and other parts of the earth's surface. It is called Paleontology. An important branch of zoology is the science of insect life, Entonology, which is of special interest to the agriculturist and horticulturist. There are a num- ber of other sciences closely connected with part or all of the preceding ones, such as Optics, the science of sight; Mineralogy, the science of minerals; Crystal- lography, of the crystallic forms of minerals; Mete- orology, the science of the weather; the sciences of Hygiene, of Sanitation, and others. It is a tendency of our times to arrive at scientific certainty in every line of pursuit. This is the case in agriculture, which is rapidly becoming a scientific pur- suit, as shown by the work done at our agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and especially in the various departments or bureaus of the Department of Agriculture in Washington. The field of work is large, covering as it does the lines of vegetable and ani- mal industry; the many lines of productive industry carried on by the farmer, the horticulturist, the or- chardist, florist, the truck gardener, poultry breeder, dairy man, horse and cattle breeder and others. CHAPTER II. THE TESTS OF SCIENCE. In the seventeenth century there hved in Flanders a distinguished man by the name of Van Hclmont, who made a great many experiments in order to learn about the nature of plants and animals. He did not know why it was that a small tree would grow big and heavy in the ground where it was planted ; whether it drew its nourishment from the ground or from the air, or from both : and therefore he made the following ex- periment : He took a young willow tree weighing five pounds and planted it in a pot filled with 200 pounds of soil which had first been thoroughly dried in an oven. He placed the pot into the ground, in his garden, cover- ing it in such a way that no dust could collect on it, and using rain water to keep the soil moist. He kept the willow in this pot for five years. Then he took it up and found by weighing it that it had increased to the weight of 169^4 pounds! Whence, then, did the tree get this additional weight? It was impos- sible, so he argued, that anything could have come to it from the air, for rain water only was used, and was not rain water absolutely pure water? Nor could anything have come from the soil, for were not the roots confined in a pot so that no part of the soil of the garden could touch them ? 170 THE TESTS OF SCIENCE. 171 This puzzled a great many people. Some of them repeated the experiment with glared pots (Van Hel- mont had used one that was not glazed) and watered the tree with distilled luater — that is, with water which was chemically pure. And what was the result ? The tree wouldn't groin! It became now clear that the moisture from the garden soil must have entered Van Helmont's unglazed pot, holding in solution nitrates and minerals which the tree needed for its growth. And further, it was found that rain water was not chemically pure ; that it contained some ammonia, a nitrogenous element of great importance for plant growth, and sometimes, especially in the neighbor- hood of cities, also some of the mineral matter needed by plants. Thus the mystery was explained by prop- erly conducted experiments. Such experiments are the test of scientific truth, and it should be noticed that it is only when all experi- ments, provided they were carefully made, confirm such a truth, when none, not a single one, contradicts it, that such a truth is finally accepted as scientifically demonstrated. Hence it is that science, in the true sense, is thor- oughly practical. It is the most practical thing in the world, and those err greatly who make a radical dis- tinction between science and practice. Scientific agri- culture is true agriculture. It is the highest and noblest type of it, provided only it be rightly under- stood. Mistakes are no doubt made even by special- ists. Cases of chemical examination of the soil have been known that led into error, simply because the chemist did not know that some of the elements he 1^2 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. found in the soil were insoluble in the water of the soil. Had he known this he would possibly have rec- ommended, in such a particular case, gypsum to be used on a clover field, salt on wheat and other grains, in order to furnish the necessary conditions of solu- bility. But such mistakes are gradually avoided. For science reaches out farther and farther, so that excep- tional conditions are rarely left unnoticed. We ha\"e spoken of the elements that are found in matter and of their smallest parts — atoms. Xo one has ever seen an atom. But it may be truly said that all our modern science rests upon this theory of atoms, and that this theory is accepted as true simply be- cause all experiments thus far made confirm it, and not one has yet contradicted it. A very impijrtant experiment was made by the French chemist L a v o i s i e r in the latter part of the eighteenth century which shows the importance and the character of a truly scientific test. Until then it was taught in textbooks, and believed to be a fact bv scientific men, that the cause of fire was a substance, a principle, or something which contained the fire, and would burst forth when conditions were favorable. The name of phlogiston was given to this peculiar something, and it was said that all substances contained it, even the flint, as sparks would come from it when struck with a piece of steel. But by this time Priestly, an English chemist, had discovered the gas called oxygen, which forms nearl_y one-fifth of the air we breathe. Lavoisier, wish- ing to find out more about this gas, burned a quantity of wood and carefully sa\'ed and weighed the products THE TESTS OF SCIENCE. I73 of tlie combustion (burning). He found that these products zveighcd Jiwre than the wood he had burned. Whence came the additional weight? He exammed carefully what he had saved, and found that all the elements of the wood were there, and besides them a quantity of oxygen! The additional weight was due to this oxygen, and now it was plain that burning takes place when oxygen combines with carbon, the principal part of wood, under specially favorable circumstances which make possible a very energetic combination of the two elements. When we observe that certain acts are always followed by certain consequences, we are in the presence of a law. A ball thrown towards the sky will fall back to the e.irth, and as it falls its movement will lie quicker the nearer it comes to the earth. If we throw up a feather it will stay in the air much longer. Is there, then, a law for the ball and another for the feather? It was be- lieved that a large mass of lead would fall faster than a small one. The Italian scientist, Galileo, in the sev- enteenth century, proved that this was a mistake. He took bullets, large and small, went up on a high tower and dropped them to the ground. They all came to the ground at the same time. If we take a suitable vessel and place it on a smooth plate of glass to keep out the air, then apply an air pump and pump all the air out of the vessel, a leaden bullet and a feather or piece of paper will fall to the bottom of that vessel with equal rapidity. Why? Be- cause the air no longer hinders the mo\'ement of the feather. The round ball can overcome the effect of the air more easily, but in an airless space (in a 174 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE, z'acuuDi, as it is called) it has no advantage in this re- spect over the feather. This proves the universal truth of the law of falling bodies, the law of gravitation. In this way, then, omitting all details, we see that the scientific observer proceeds to arrive at the truth. He discovers the laws which govern the cliaugcs of matter. The knowledge of these laws is science. What an immensely suggestive and inspiring thought that all the wonderful variety of earthly things, and all that we see in the heavens above : the sparkling diamond, the enduring granite, the towering mountain, the shining gold.- the infinite number of ani- mal and plant forms — nay, the brilliant sun itself and all the glory of the stars — are the outcome of the changes of matter which started in what was at first a ^"ast mass uf vapor, thin as air and probably much thinner, and that they all assume their varied color only for the mind through the human eye ! The atoms of which they consist are invisible, they have no color. It is only as they combine in various proportions that their forms produce the eflrect of color under the influ- ence of light, the rays of which are either reflected (thrown back) or absorbed, according as these forms may make possible or require the one or the other. What a mystery there is in this ! What a power in the human mind that feels this mystery! And how grand beyond all human conception the source of this mystery and of this power ! CHAPTER III. THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. There is in all matter a certain force for which we use the general term of c)icrg\. Force is shown in action; energy may be inactive, and yet exist. It has been proved by close observation and experiment that the- sum total of all the energy in the world never grows less. It is the same all the time. All the natu- ral changes we see (the name phenomena is used for them) are due to the motion of atoms; but what is it that makes these atoms move? In chemistry the term affinity has been used to explain why, for instance, oxygen combines with phosphorus or carbon. Affin- ity means relationship. It is as though these atoms were related and wished to meet. But a word is not an explanation or a reason. All we know is that, no matter what takes place, all phenomena are due to the motion of the smallest particles of matter, and that the energy used or displayed in these movements is always in existence. This is shown in the phenomena of heat. Heat is a mode of motion. Motion produces heat, and heat in its turn produces motion. The energy at work which heats the axle as the wheel turns upon it is ex- actly equal to the heat produced. When this heat en- ters into the air — that is, when the axle cools — it is not lost, but taken up by the air, and used to produce some 175 176 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. effect which is exactly equal, as energy, to the force which was required to produce it.* We burn coal, heat the water in the steam boiler, and thus move a railroad train, a ship, etc. Here is energy. It comes from the coal, you say. But how did this coal get it? The answer is this : The source of all energy on our earth is the sun. It caused the growth of those masses of vegetation in the dim ages of the past which were afterwards buried under water, pressed together and formed into coal. The force expended while this took place was buried and fixed in the coal. To-day we dig the coal from the depths of the earth and use the force that made it. The energy expended in its production is exactly equal to the energ}' that now comes from the coal, heats the water and drives the train or the ship. Thus wc live not onl\ by the sun that shines to-day, but by tlie sunliglit tliat zvanned the earth niillio)is of years ago! It is the sun that makes the rain and the snow. It acts on the plant, makes it expand and lose part of its moisture. This stimulates the roots. They absorb and send up more moisture and, dissolved in it, the ele- ments the plant needs for its growth. The plant con- denses the energy which called it forth and made it grow into a tree, and returns all it received in the *This was proven, at the beginning of tliis century, in the cannon foinidry of Munich, Germany, by a clever American, a native of ^[assachusetts, who was made a count by the King of Bavaria and is 1-cuown as Count Rumford. THE CONSERVATION OF ENERGY. 1/7 wood of the tree as fuel, or in the wheat as food for the body. There is unceasing movement everywhere, a constant expenditure and storing up of energy in all nature, a most wonderful circle of change and mo- tion, always the same and yet always different ! The discovery of the law of the conservation of energy is one of the most important ever made. On the basis of the experiments of Count Rumford and many other scientific experimenters, J. Robert Mayer, of Heilbronn, Germany, formulated this law as the first discoverer of it. Professor Joule, a Scotch scientist, proved it correct by a series of special and very ingenious experiments. Many other scientific men contributed important work which showed the bearing of this new law on scientific pursuits in physics, astronomy and chemistry. A most interesting book by one of the most thorough British scientists, Professor Tyndall, "Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion," admirably proves and illustrates its working. CHAPTER III. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. All chemical changes in the soil and its products come under the head of Agricultural Chciiiistry. The elements contained in the soil are, in the first place, those found also in the rocks from which all soil was formed by disintegration; secondly, those pro- duced by the decay of vegetation in the product which we call humus, and, finally, those which enter the soil directly from without, as air and water. The air con- sists of about 20 per cent of oxygen, diluted by about 80 per cent of nitrogen. It contains a small percentage of carbonic acid-gas, enough, however, to amount to several thousand tons over each acre of ground. If we burn a plant and weigh the products of this burning, we find that different plants require the same elements, but in varying proportions. There are less than twenty elements which are known to enter into the body of a plant. These are : Oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen (in water), calcium (in lime), phos- phorus, silicon (in sand), magnesium, aluminum, so- dium (in salt), potassium (in ashes), manganese, iron, chlorine, fluorine, sulphur, boron. Aluiiiiituui, calcium, magnesium, manganese are as much metals as iron is. They form compounds with oxygen called oxides. The oxide of calcium is lime, of magnesium, magnesia. Oxygen combines with all the elements named except fluorine. With silicon it forms silica or quartz, from 178 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. I79 which we get sand and pebbles, also the carnehan and jasper stones. Aluminum is the principal element of clay, but not a plant food. Lime and magnesia are plant foods of great importance. The non-metals en- ter more largely into the composition of a plant than the metals. Oxygen, a heavy element, is a gas, but readily com- bines with other elements. Oxygen is the absolutely necessary element to bring on combustion with or without a flame. In combina- tion with other elements it forms nearly one-half in weight of the solid earth, and 8.9 by weight of water. Silicon is not found in a free state, but is frequent as an oxide. It forms an essential part of many minerals. It is that element which gives stiffness to the stems of plants, of corn, wheat, grass, etc. Quartz is a very pure oxide of it; silica contains aluminum. Lime of silicon and magnesium of silicon are also forms of it. Carbon, found perfect in the diamond and in graphite (the substance used in lead pencils), is the principal element in the plant. It is the characteristic element of wood, starch, sugar and all oils and fats. Acted upon by the oxygen of the air, the fat and other parts in the animal body, which contain carbon, are burned. The oxygen forms an oxide with the carbon, and this is breathed out by the lungs as dioxide of carbon. This mingles with the atmosphere and is avail- able for the use of plants, which absorb it and draw it in by means of their leaves. Limestone, marble and dolomite are earbonates, that is, compounds of the metal calcium with carbon. l8o SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. "The influence of the carbonates on the soil is very useful. They favor the process of converting nitro- genous compounds into forms suitable for plant food and exercise a great influence on the physical state of the soil, increasing its capacity for holding water and enabling it to reach easily the roots of plants."* Experiments have proved that plants take the greater part of carbon from the atmosphere. On an acre of the following crops, raised in rotation : potatoes, wheat, clover, oats, it was found that the soil furnished 2,513 pounds, the air 5,031 pounds, the total being 7,544 pounds. Sulphur is found both free and in combination with metals. In gypsum (plaster of Paris) it is combined with oxygen and calcium. Hydrogen is the lightest of elements, and is there- fore chosen as a standard to compare the weight of others. It is entirely colorless, has neither taste nor smell. It is found free only in small portions in some volcanic gases, but the form in which it is most usually found is water, of which it forms 11.3 per cent by weight. It constitutes 74 parts in ammonia which are joined to 26 parts of nitrogen. Chlorine occurs free in small amounts on volcanoes. Its most common combination is with hydrogen, as hydrochloric or nutnotic acid ; with the metals it forms chlorides, and with sodium it combines to form our common salt. Chlorine is found in all plants, but in the soil it is found only in the proportion of .1 per cent. *WiIey. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 10 1 Phospliorus is found only in combinations and is never absent in any natural soil. It is one of the abso- lutely necessary elements in animal and plant food. It is needed in the brain, and constitutes almost all the mineral matter of the bones. In the seeds oi plants it is the principal part of the ash. The importance of phosphorus may be inferred from the fact that cereal crops (wheat, oats, etc.) take from the soil about 20 pounds of phosphorus per acre, grass about 12 pounds. According to an estimate of the agricultural department in Washington, the cereal and grass crops in the United States remove annually from the soil nearly four billions of pounds of phosphorus. As phosphorus is mainly found in bones, the English farmer buys bone meal ( ground bones) freely. British ships have carried the bones of the vast battlefields on which the first Napoleon caused the slaughter of so many men from the shores of Germany to England, for the use of the English farmers. A country that keeps sending abroad heavy crops of wheat, corn, etc., sells a most valuable part of its very soil, that must be re- imported sooner or later if the agriculture of that country is to be maintained in a thriving condition. We have stated before that nitrogen makes up over 80 per cent of the air we breathe (the atmosphere), the remainder being oxygen. The two gases mingle as air, but do not enter into a chemical combination in the atmosphere. In the soil nitrogen is found in nitric acid, a compound of oxygen and nitrogen, and in this form it is taken up by the roots of plants. The process by which nitrogen is changed into available plant food, into nitric acid and nitrates, is called nitrification. l82 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. Humus contains nitrogen. By the action of ferments, tiny plants, invisible to the naked eye, which are smi- ilar to those which exist in yeast, this nitrogen is changed into )iitratcs, for instance nitrate of liuic. But they do this only where the soil is warm and moist \\ithout being sour. The air must circulate through it. Hence the importance of cultivation and draining. The same process goes on in the manure pile. Agricultural chemistry is largely concerned with the measures and means to retain and increase in the soil the stores of available nitrogen. "The importance of nitrogen as a plant food," says Prof. Wiley, the chem- ist of the agricultural department in Washington, D. C, "cannot be too highly estimated. It is as necessary to plant growth and development as water, phosphoric acid and potash, and far more costl}'." The nitrates are easily dissolved in water and there- fore apt to be washed from the soil by rains and the action of water in general. They find their way to the sea, hence the value of seaweed, which is rich in ni- trates, as a manure. Fish are rich in nitrate and are sometimes used for the same purpose. The feathers of birds are very rich in nitrates and the peculiar value of guano is largely due to them. Nitrogen is the valuable part of the albuminoids, that is, the food element which forms the flesh of muscles and is found in peas, beans, meat, etc. It is also the essential element of casein in the milk and cheese, and of gluten, that substance which remains when all the starch has been removed from the flour of wheat, oats, etc. In Chili large deposits of a nitrate, called Cliili salt- AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 183 peter, are found. This saltpeter forms a large article of trade. It is transported very largely to England, but the United States import a considerable quantity, in the neighborhood of 200 million pounds annually, and these imports are increasing. Sodium is found in common salt and in soda. Po- tassium is the essential element of potassa, which we find in potash. Calcium, as already stated, is the essential part of lime. All these are important for plant life and must be in the soil to enable plants to grow. As the crops raised by the farmer contain these ele- ments, it follows that, as he sells his crop, he sells a large part of his land. In a ton of wheat he sells 38 pounds of nitrogen, 19 of phosphoric acid and 13 of potash. Even if he condenses his crops of corn and grass by feeding them to his hogs and cattle, these will, when sold, carry away in their bodies about one- fifth of the material in the crops. Hence the absolute necessity of making good this loss before the land wears out. And it will wear out, even while there are large amounts of these elements in the soil, for the rea- son that it is only the soluble combinations that are useful, and many are not soluble. Barnyard manure alone cannot do all the work of fertilizing, no matter how carefully it is preserved and applied, for it does not contain that part which was sold and left the farm either as hay and corn, or as swine and cattle. The time must therefore come when the farmer will be compelled to buy fertilizers to make good this extra loss. Agricultural chemistry is largely concerned with 184 SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. determining ^vhat elements of fertility are wanted in the soil, and how to apply them. As long as it considers the soil and the atmosphere, chemistry is called inorganic, that is, iiot-orgaiuc; but when it deals with plants and animals and their re- mains, it is called organic. The parts of a plant or animal by which thev grow, and which develop as they grow, are called organs. If we cut across the stem of a plant and apply a magnifying glass, we see a number of cells from which the sap runs out. These cells (resembling little bags) ha\'e thin walls which allow the sap to pass through, which reaches every part of the plant. Organic cJioiiistry is applied to the study of these and all similar phenomena. The force which makes the sap rise in these organs of the plant, tlie cells, is called capillary attraction^ from a word meaning hair, as these cells are joined together so as to form very small passages. But these passages are interrupted by the walls of the cell so that the comparison is not a very good one. The action of the licjuid in the cell in passing through the cell walls is called osmosis; the passing out being called cxos- inosis. the passing in cndostnosis. The same words describe the action of the blood in the small cells of the animal's body. CHAPTER V. AGRICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY. Chemistry is on tlie one hand connected with geol- ogy, and on the other with physiology. All these stand in close relation to agriculture, the object of which is to feed and clothe man. It fulfills its high mission in proportion as it does this permanently and, if not abundantly, at least sufficiently. The improvement of the human race is the ultimate object of all the sciences. Hence the necessity of know- ing the laws that govern man in his efforts to maintain himself in good health. Physiology, and its allied sciences of hygiene and sanitation, treat of these laws. We have already seen that all animals breathe out carbonic acid (or rather di-oxide of carbon). This gas is diffused in the atmosphere, of which it constitutes about the i -2500th part. This is at a rate of sonie six thousand tons over every acre of ground. The plant, on the other hand, under the influence of the sunlight, gives off oxygen through the pores generally found on the under side of the leaves. Oxygen, a heavy gas, is present everywhere, often in combination. Nitrogen dilutes oxygen so as to make it fit to be inhaled by man and animal. But we have learned that in close combination with carbon oxygen causes combustion (burning), and that in this way compounds of carbon are formed, such as carbonic acid, which cause nausea 186 l86 SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. and death if breathed by animals. Now remembering that all fat is essentially carbon (the other part of fat being principally water) we can understand that the oxygen of the air, acting upon the fatty matter in our body, will practically burn up this fat in so far as it is found in the blood. The result is bodily heat, and this explains why in cold weather violent exercise, that makes us take in more air, and consequently more oxy- gen, will create warmth in our bodies. It explains also why in very cold countries, raw oil, tallow and the like are relished as a regular food by the natives. When tallow candles were still in common use it was difficult for the travelers in arctic regions to keep the people from making a meal of them. But it is not only the fat that is used up. With the exception of the bones and the horny matter, every part of the animal body is changed back during life into the elements of which it was made. Xew material is constantly formed, and our bodies and the bodies of animals are thus con- stantly renewed and destroyed in a regular circle of action that has been called the "circulation of life." Food, after it has been chewed and mixed with saliva, passes into the stomach. In the case of cattle this stomach consists of four parts, and cattle chew their food twice, the second time after it has returned to their mouths from the first stomach. From the stomach, where the gastric juice (from gasfcr, mean- ing stomach) has been mixed with it, it passes on to diiterent parts of the intestines, after having received the bile of the liver, a peculiar liquid which acts par- ticularly on the fatty part of food. It is then called chyle. This chyle is a pretty uniform liquid mass, AGRICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY. 187 which is for the most part changed into blood. All along the small intestines tiny bloodvessels, called capillaries, suck it in and convey it to larger vessels, called veins. These veins contain the bad and imper- fect blood. Countless capillaries, meeting other capil- laries that conveyed good blood, receive the worn out and spoiled parts of the body that have gone back into the blood from these other capillaries, and convey them, together with the imperfect blood of the chyle, to the \'eins, and these veins carry all this mass of impure and bad blood to the heart. The heart is a powerful muscle which continually contracts and expands and thereby produces a pumping movement. It consists of four parts, the two upper being called auricles, the two lower ventricles. A partition divides the heart into two halves, the right and the left. Its name is septum. The venal blood is discharged by the veins into the left auricle, which sends it through a valve to the left ventricle. The left ventricle discharges it in- to an artery, a large blood\'essel, which carries it to the lungs. These consist of two parts, the right and the left, each containing many thousands of cells. As the blood spreads through the lungs, it loses its bad element, the carbonic acid, which is breathed out, and receives a new supply of oxygen from the air breathed in. It is then ready to return to the heart, which will pump it into the bloodvessels called arteries, and thus send it into every part of the body. The renewed and healthy blood that comes from the lungs enters the right auricle of the heart, hovn which it flows into the right ventricle and thence int(j the large arteries. These arteries, the same as the veins, end in a mass of capil- i88 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. laries whicli join the other set of capillaries, so that the circle of movement goes right on. and continues as long as the life of the body. This entire circular move- ment requires only one-half of a minute. Fig. :o —The Position' of the Luycs and Heart in the Chest. A. B, C. D— fleart. 2— Pulmonary Artery. R.— Ju^-nlar Vein. E, F— Lunss. .3.— .Vorta. 7.— Winilpi|jc. G.— Diaphragm. 4.— Superior Vena Cava. 8.— Larvn.x. I.— Pulmonary Vein. 0.— Carotid Artery. 9.— Coronary Artery. Illustration : — 29. The heart, lungs and diaphragm. 30. The lungs, windpipe, larynx and bronchial tubes. 31. Chart of the circulation of the blood. It is verv easv to see that a healthv heart and vieor- ous lungs are necessary to secure the best results of this renewal of blood. Full, vigorous breathing will AGRICULTURAL niYSIOLOGY. 189 secure the separation of the carbonic elements from the blood, and the mingling of health giving oxygen with it. The heart must be sound to fulfill its work as the great pump to secure an even flow through the sys- tem. In order that it may act freely and with the The lungs, showing the larynx. A, the windpipe ; B, the bronchial tutes. necessary energy there is needed another muscle, called the midriff or diaphragm, which marks the division between the upper and the lower cavities of the body. It is at the base of the chest, extending across it and bent upward. On its elasticity depends the free action of the heart, and also of the lungs. Ladies wearing ipo SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. Fig. 3' . — The ilEinr and its CArniES. {.Showing lesser and greater circulations.) rt, right auricle; &, right ventricle, communl- catiog through auric ulo-ventiicular opening; c, pulmonary artery, showing branches to each lung; (i, capillary vessels of lesser or pulmonic circulation ; e, pulmonary veins ;/. left auricle, and g, left ventricle, coiniuunicating through left auriculo-ventricular opening; h, aorta; i, arteries ; k, upper vena cava, bringing blood from upper portions of body to right auricle; t, arch of aorta; m, its descending portion; H, arteries of stomach and intestines ; o, capil- laries of intesrioes ; p, portal canal ; q, capil- laries of portal ayttem in liver; r, veins oi" liver; *, lower vena cava, bringing blood lo right auricle from abdomen and Inwcr por- lioiifi. oi" body ; f, capillaries of greater or ■■•;'*- t«mio clrculutioQ. corsets hinder the development and ac- tion of the dia- phragm, and thereby endanger their entire system. But it is not only through the lungs that the waste mate- rial of the body is thrown out or se- creted. What passes into the air by the lungs is material that has no value as a fer- tilizer. It is other- wise with the matter voided in the urine. This liquid contains the most important fertilizer and is therefore the most valuable part of ma- nure. The urine of a cow contains a large percentage of nitrogenous matter, chiefly ammonia, sul- phate of potash, phosphate of lime, carbonates of pot- ash, and of ammonia, and a peculiar sub- AGRICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY. IQI Stance found onh- in the urine, to whicli tlie name of urea lias been given. Tliis also contains nitrogen. The Fig 32 -Eelativk Position of thk Internal Oroans. urine of cows contains 65 per cent of water, that of the horse 94 per cent ; the latter is therefore much less valuable. 192 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. A great many impurities pass through the skin, in summer more than in winter. These cannot of course be used for any purpose, but the fact shows how neces- sary it is to keep the skin clean so that its mihions of Httle openings, pores, may be able to do their work. As cold contracts, these pores are partly shut up in cold \\eather, unless vigorous exercise, developing heat, brings moisture to the skin. But such exercise is at the ex- pense of food, and it is therefore economical to provide warm stables for stock. A sufficient supply of pure air must, however, be fur- nished. All stables should be well \-enti- lated. The matter that passes through the alimentary canal as excrement lacks much of the fertilizing value of urine, but is nevertheless valuable. It contains mostly hard and undigested matter which needs fermenta- tion to become valuable as manure. Fig. 33 -Piaprram showing the action of the diaphragm when one is breathing. A. A. — Diaphragm. CHAPTER VI. FOOD AND FEEDING. Food, whether for man or animal, is divided into three classes: i, iiiiisclc-formcrs (nitrogenous, al- bumenoid, or protein) ; 2, Fat producers {carbo-hy- drates, i. e. compounds of carbon and the elements of water, oxygen and hydrogen), and with these the oils and fat itself; 3, mineral. Water is found in all food. Straw and grass contain a fibrous substance which con- sists of silica and carbon. The minerals, as already stated, are found in the ash when the body is burned. Nitrogenous elements, together with phosphates, are found in the horny part of the body, of the outer skin and the hair with which it is covered, and in the teeth and the bones. The carbo-hydrates are derived from the carbonic acid in the atmosphere through the action of the roots and leaves. The latter absorb carbonic acid directly from the air under the influence of sun- light. The minerals come exclusively from the soil. If we feed to make stock take on as much fat as possible, we rely on the carbo-hydrates, but if we wish for solid meat, nitrogenous food must be furnished. Both are needed and neither could be omitted without serious consequences. The most essential elements of the bones are phos- phoric acid and lime. The two appear in the chemical compound phosphate of lime, which is composed of 100 parts of phosphoric acid and 84.53 o^ lime. Hence food should supply this and also the phosphate of mag- nesia. 193 194 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. \A'e find in loo parts of the ashes of the oat plant, of phosphate of lime 39.3 parts; in 100 parts of wheat straw ashes, of phosphates of lime and magnesia 6.2 parts; in 100 parts of ashes of wheat, of phosphates 44.5; in 100 parts of the ashes of bran, 46.5; in 100 parts of pea straw, 17.5 parts; in 100 parts of the seed of barley, 32.5 ; in 100 parts of the seed of oats, 24. Hence the importance of these for feeding pur- poses, though it must be remarked that phosphate of lime is found in all plants. The chemist calls compounds of this kind salts. Our common table salt is not a salt in the chemical sense, for it consists of two distinct elements, chlorine and sodiurr^, which can be easily separated by the chemist. Chemical salts are combinations of a base (the name given to such substances as lime or the oxide of a metal) and an acid in the chemical sense, that is, compounds like carbonic acid, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, etc. The acid phosplwric acid, joined with the base lime, forms the salt phosphate of lime; sulphuric acid and lime form plaster of Paris (gyp- sum) ; carbonic acid and lime form the salt carbonate of lime, such as chalk, limestone, marble. None of these have much resemblance to our talale salt. All fatty matter needs for its perfect digestion the bile of the liver. The bile contains a base which, acting upon the fat, produces a mixture resembling that produced when wood ashes or potash are combined with fat for the production of soap, In this condition these elements are taken up by the fine hair-like veins, capillaries, that receive the bloodforming elements from the intestines and carry them to the larger veins. FOOD AND FEEDING. IQS The starch in food, such as the soHd bulk of all flour, of potatoes, rice and the like, is first turned into sugar in the process of digestion, and finally into fat. It is then acted upon by the bile and other juices and thus fitted to be absorbed by the capillaries. Starch, sugar, fat, mark the changes of the same materials for which we have the general name carbo-hydrates. Below is a tabular statement of the divisions of food that must be supplied to the body in order that it may grow and repair waste : I. Muscle-Formers. Nitrogenous Food. 1. Albnincnoids, that is, containing albnnicn, a food stuff found in the white of an egg, and also in the lean part of meat, in the nitrogenous parts of seeds, and especially in the legumes — peas, beans, lentils, clover, the cozcpea, the soja bean and alfalfa. 2. Casein, which resembles albumen, but is dis- tinct in so far as it is that part of the milk which cur- dles and thus serves to make cheese. II. Heat-Producers. Carbo-Hydrates, or Carbon- aceous Food. 1. Starch, found in flour, in potatoes, in all the cereals, in grass and hay, also in sago, rice and in all fruits and vegetables. 2. Saccharine (sugar) matter, in honey, fruit, sugar, etc. 3. Fat, found in the fat of animals, in milk, in the oil of seeds, in butter, and partly in cheese. Lin- seed, rape seed, etc., are rich in oil, and also contain much nitrogenous matter, hence they are very valuable for stock. 196 SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. III. ^Minerals. 1. Chlorine. SodiiDii or Xatrinm, in the combination of common salt. 2. Pliosphonis, as phosphate, in the bones, nerves, brain, etc. 3. Sulphur, in the hair, and in horny matter. 4. Iron, in the blood and muscles. 5. Fluorine, in the outer coats of the teeth, the enamel. 6. Calcium, as lime in potash. 7. Potassium, in potash. 8. Mag)iesiu)n, in phosphate of magnesia. This food has for its principal element carbon united with hydrogen: this combination slightly varies as to the amount of either in starch, fat, butter, oil. The following table gives the approximately correct average percentage of organic matter and ash in our common field crops : Carhona- Albuincnoids ceous food, Starch Woody ^[incrals or protein, fat or oil. and sugar, fiber. orasJi. Ifa/i Wheat 12 2 73 2 2 Oats 12 5 60 9 3 Barley 12.5 2 69.5 3 2 Corn 10 5.5 70 2 1.5 Peas 20 2 53 12 2 Bran 15 4 54 9 6 Pasture grass. .4 i 18 9 2.5 65 Meadow hay... 6 2.5 45 29 4.5 Red clover 12 3 39 'J Corn stalks.... 4 i 33 20 2 40 o I 3 Oat straw 4 2.3 42 37 Wheat straw. . . ^.^ 1.3 4.3 38 4 Turnips i 0.2 6.8 i i 90 Potatoes 2 0,1 17.9 I I 90 Corn silage.... 2 i 10 6 i 80 FOOD AND FEEDING. 1 97 Compare with the preceding the food values of the following : Starch Woody Albumcnoids. Fat or oil. and sugar, fiber. Asli. Water. Beef (fat) 15 32 .... 5 48 Mutton 13 38 3 46 Pork II 44 .... .... 2 43 Beans and peas 20 20 ^53 12 2 Milk (whole) .. 3.5 4 **4.8 .... 0.7 87 Milk, skimmed. 3.0 0.5 **s.o .... 0.7 90 Oatmeal 6 7 *67 10 2 8 Cheese 28 33 .... .... 4 35 Butter I 86.5 **o.5 .... 2 10 Notice the high food value in albumenoids of the following: Cheese, 28; beans and peas, 20; beef, 15; mutton, 13; pork, 11. In regard to oatmeal, whole wheat flour, etc.. it is doubtful whether all the albu- menoid part is digestible, much being found in the outer part of the kernel. This is of similar character to that in the bran of wheat, but this bran is not found to be suitable for Inunan digestion. We see that our bodies are built up from the ele- ments around us, gases, invisible to our eyes, forming the greater part of them, and minerals the smallest. But these elements do not feed us directly. Our diges- tive organs are incapable of changing the carbon found so abundantly in nature into human fat, nor any part of the vast mass of nitrogen around us into muscle. These elements and the minerals we need must first be changed by the plant into forms that are digestible by the human and animal body. Nor could we use many plants directly to sustain our life. We could not live on grass and straw, nor on several parts of such plants *Starch. **Sugar. igS SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. as are otherwise acceptable as food, unless we first feed them to animals, and then eat the flesh of these ani- mals. Hence the usefulness of cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and game. To furnish food for mankind is the business of the farmer, but if this business is to vield him a profit, he must know how to raise his crops, and how to fatten his stock in the most economical way. He must avoid waste in feeding, and he must furnish his stock warm and comfortable Cjuarters. In cold weather we walk fast or work to o\-ercome the eft'ects of cold. Our lungs take in more oxvgen and this oxygen burns up more fuel, that is carbon, in our Ijody. This is the rea- son \\hv fat is relished in winter. But if fat is burned up. it is lost as an article of value that has cost material for its formation. Hence, if animals are shivering, a large proportion of the fat they have laid up in their bodies is lost again, and mijre must be supplied by feeding. We use the words assimilate, assimilation (from Latin si)>illc. meaning alike, or similar) to denote the process bv which animals and plants change outside elements into parts of their own body. \A'e say there- fore that each plant or animal is benefited only by that food and so much of it as it can assimilate. In this sense the word digestion has nearly the same meaning if we speak of animals and man. But assimilation is a gradual process, and must not be rushed. Overfeeding is as bad as underfeeding, as it results in loss to the farmer. Animals should have enough to eat, but no more. If they do not eat up their food -clean, less should be given next time. The proper measure, FOOD AND FEEDING. 199 moderation, in such as in all other matters, should be a rule that is applicable both to man and beast. A general inference is the following : As food is useful only in so far as it is digested and taken up into the system, any measure that will help digestion is in so far a saving of food. Hence it is desirable to feed hay and straw chopped fine, to feed grain, bran, mid- dlings, etc., stirred in slightly warmed water, or even after they have been thoroughly boiled or steamed. This is especially desirable for pigs, and in winter. In cold weather a greater amount of food is needed to make fat, solely to be consumed in keeping the body warm. A warm stable will therefore save feed. Chopped food will be more readily acted upon by the saliva and juices of the stomach (gastric juices), hence more easily digested, so that a given cjuantity of hay will go further. If corn stalks are cut fine on a good machine, they would constitute a valuable addition to useful fodder. Ensilage has been found to be more relished and more easily digested than other fodder. CHAPTER VII. HUMAN FOOD. As to the proper preparation of the human food a few rules may be given. \\"e need a due mixture in our food of nitrogenous and carbonaceous elements. Of the former the greater supply is in cheese, about 28 per cent: in meat from 15-20 per cent; and in peas, beans and lentils, about the same. These arti- cles contain at the same time a large proportion of car- bonaceous elements, such as starch, and in the case of cheese and meat, fat, and also the mineral elements needed by the body. They suffice, therefore, for all purposes of nutrition, especially in the case of those who work hard in the open air. In the preparation of meat it should be remembered that the nitrogenous ele- ment is largely in the form of albumen ( the same sub- stance which is found in the white of egg.) Now, in- asmuch as this albumen will harden fcoagulate) when exposed to heat, it has been found that in order to keep the juices inside of the meat, it is necessary to expose meat quickly to a great heat, which will harden the albumen on the outside layers of the meat and thus make a coating ^^hich will keep the other valuable juices within. Hence it is that steak broiled over a bed of bright coals is much more I'uicv than one fried in a skillet. If a skillet must be used it should be made thorough- HUMAN FOOD. 201 ly hot before the steak is put in. An admirable im- provement would be braising, which is done in a braiser. This has a tight-fitting lid with a standing rim ; on this live coals are placed, so that the heat is ipplied to both sides of the meat at once. It follows that a steak should be thick, for the larger the inside the more juice can be preserved. This is of course also true of roasts. In the case of boiled meat, unless broth is the main object, the water used should be boil- ing before the meat is put in, and the pot at once cov- ered with a tight fitting lid. The steam boilers, for cooking purposes, to be had in the tinware stores, are prepared on this principle. Potatoes, carrots, turnips, cabbage, etc., contain very little nutriment, but are liked as an addition to the more substantial food and answer a need of our sys- tem. The same is true of fruit, only nuts being rich in nitrogenous elements. Most of us are apt to eat too much meat. It has been found that a quarter of a pound of meat, or at any rate not more than one-half a pound, a day is sufficient for soldiers, who spend much of their time out of doors. It ought to be enough for anyone. Those who overload their stomachs with rich food are punished in various ways. They fre- quently suffer with gout when they attain mature age, a most painful disease. Bread has been called the staff of life. It is in itself sufficient to sustain life and build up the body, but as the starchy elements prevail in it, a larger portion must be used than is necessary with meat, cheese or the le- gumes. Most of the nitrogenous elements of the grain are in its outer coating, the bran, but bran cannot be 202 SCIEXCE AXD AGRICULTURE. digested by the human system. The bran had better be given to cows or pigs. The milk of the former and the meat of the latter can then be taken into the human system with good effect. r\Iilk, and chiefly cow's milk, is an ideal food, as it contains all the elements of which the body is made in about the same proportion in which they are found in the body. Alilk is largely water, the rest consists of nitrogenous and carbonaceous substances, the former in the form of casein, which is the essential part of cheese, the latter as butter. The mineral matter needed by the human body is also found in the milk. Skimmed milk, being deprived of the fatty element, is excellent for the purpose, as the fat is abundantly sup- plied by other articles of- food. Milk may be used at every meal in place of coffee or tea. Tl'kese two are not specially injurious prepared in a weak form, by merely pouring boiling water on a very little tea or coffee, the latter ground as fine as possible or pulverized, but as a rule thev are regularly boiled, or else allowed to stand until the hot water has drawn out their poisonous ele- ments, the caffein nr thein. If tea or coffee must be used, the rule should be observed of never boiling them. The less material used, the better. Unfortunately the taste of using strong coffee or tea has become so general that it is as difficult to change it as it is to change the taste for liquor. The alcohol in the latter is a poison, hence no one who wishes to keep himself in perfect health can afford to touch it. A melancholy philosopher has said, "These harmful substances seem to have been created to pre- vent the human race from living too long, for if all HUMAN FOOD. 2O3 people lived out their natural lives the earth would soon afford no longer standing room for the race." All feeding, whether of man or animal, should he so regulated as to give the stomach ample time to recover for new work by a period of rest. As to animals, the rule must vary, as the smaller stomachs of the horse and pig recjuire these animals to feed oftener than cat- tle with their four stomachs. In regard to man the best results will be obtained if an interval of not less than four hours between meals be allowed for children, and not less than five hours for adults. In some respects the plant is a model for ' man. Man will crowd everything into his mouth that, for some reason, pleases him. He will poison himself with alcohol and tobacco, and hurt his digestion by drugs, strong spices and unsuitable food. Not so the plant. It is truly wonderful, one of the many mira- cles that we find everywhere in nature, that a plant will select out of material in solution, with which its roots come into contact, only that part of the solution which contains the material it needs, rejecting the other. It will absorb a chemical salt contained in a solution of watef and reject the water, or absorb the water and leave the salt. A solution which contains equal parts of different minerals, all needed by the plant, will be assimilated in such a way that each mineral appears in the plant in different quantities. From a solution of equal parts of sulphate of soda and of muriate (or hydrochlorate) of soda, there were taken up by a plant (bidens cannabina) only 11.7 of the former and 22 parts of the latter. In the case of sulphate of soda and muriate of potash the plant took 204 SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. only 7 of the latter and 12 of the former. There is a lesson of great importance for us in these facts. What the plant does unconsciously, we should do conscious- ly; take up only what is lit for us, for the up-building and preservation of our bodies, and reject all the rest. And might we not probably enlarge this rule by mak- ing it applicable also to our minds and souls? Let us feed our minds only on what is true, let our souls im- bibe only what is good, praiseworthy, noble! In that way we shall grow to the full stature of mind and body for which the Great Architect created us. CHAPTER VIII. ENTOMOLOGY, SCIENCE OF INSECT LIFE. "Insect" means literally, "cut into" or "in sections." Notice, for instance, the wasp. Insects are so called because of their form. A familiar insect is the grass- hopper, another the cricket. All moths, butterflies, beetles, bugs, caterpillars, belong to the class. Some insects are useful, but many are vevy injurious pests. Of the latter we mention the Colorado beetle, or potato bug ; the chinch bug, so destructive to wheat ; the Hessian fly, the army worm, the cutworm — all destructixe to green crops. The pea weevil, or "Pea bug," lays its eggs on the outside of the green pod whence the lar\'a, from the eggs, eats its way into one of the peas on which it lives until it enters the pupa state. Moths, butterflies and nearly all other insects, such as JDces, beetles, flies, etc., develop from the egg by the following stages : From the egg is hatched a caterpillar or grub. This is a \'oracious feeder but changes after a short time, generally several weeks, into a motionless form called pupa, after having surrounded itself with an envelope that resembles a shell. In this condition it may remain all winter. On the approach of warm weather the shell cracks open and the moth or butter- fly comes forth to be soon engaged in laying eggs for another set of caterpillars. 203 2o6 SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. The cutworm is a caterpillar, and so is the army worm. The pupa of a butterfly or other insect is called a chrysalis. The chrysalis of a butterfly is almost always rough and angular, while the pupa of a moth is smooth, oval and more or less silk-like on the outside. The butterily differs from a moth in its feelers, or antennae, which are smooth and threadlike and end in a knob, while those of the moth are generally feath- ered. }vh3ths fly mostly at night, butterflies only in the daytime. The larya of a beetle is called a grub. Among useful insects may be mentioned the ground beetle, which is very destructive to cutworms ; the lady-bird beetle, or "ladybug."' which li\'es on plant lice, and the various parasites that li\'e on plant lice and caterpillars and so destroy them. Insects are divided into seven classes, according: to their \\-ing5. 1. Xer\-e-winged (iicitropfera — ptcra meaning wings ) as ^lav flies. 2. Stra!ght-\\inged ( orthoptcra) . as crickets and grasshoppers. 3. Half winged (hoiiiptcra), as bugs and plant lice. .',. Sheath winged (colcoptcra), as beetles. 5. Scaly winged (Icpidoptcra) , as butterflies and uioths. 6. Two-winged (dipt era), as house flies and mos- quitoes. 7. Transparent winged (hymenoptcra), as ants, bees, sawflies, wasps. ENTOMOLOGY, SCIENCE OF INSECT LIFE. 207 All insects have six legs; moths, butterflies, beetles, bugs, weevils, etc., have four wings. The insect pest is one that often tires the patience of the farmer and gartlener. To guard against the chinch bug a thin streak of tar around the entire field will protect a field that has not yet been attacked. Fig 34 -A ground beetle, onj of the " shcaih wingeLl'' insects, very destructive to cutworms. Fig 35_ — Lri'!y-1)ird Iieetles, or '■ lady-hugs." The straight lines represent the average natural length. These beetles are very destructive to ulaiit lice. Rotation of crops, and the careful destruction of all vegetation on the field, after the crops have been har- vested, will afford no place for the eggs and do much to diminish the evil. Plowing before winter sets in will kill many eggs. There are some destructive in- sects that infest orchards. The a[^p}c borer does much damage to the trunk of apple trees.* It is a glossy and *See page 147. 208 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. greenish .black beetle about half an inch long. It bores into the tree and along under its bark and remains there one or two years. When several borers attack a tree it is apt to be killed ; in all cases it is more or less weak- ened. Good cultivation, by causing an abundant flow of sap, is said to check the borer by drowning it. AVhale oil soap applied to the trunk, after the rough bark has been scraped oft', followed by an application of soft soap early in the season, is said to keep the beetle away from the tree. When the larva is in the tree it must be cut out. The codling vioth (from codling, the name of an apple) is about \ inch across its wings.* Its fore wings are gray, its hind wings light brown. The larvae gen- erally enter the young apple from the blossom end while the apple is yet upright, and eat their way to the core. Such apples generally fall before they are ripe, and it is a good practice to feed them to the pigs, in order to get rid of the insect. In the pupa state that insect stays about two weeks. Then the moth comes out and soon a new set of eggs is the result. Spraying the trees with a mixture of Paris green is to be recom- mended, especially while the apples are still turned upward (that is, while their blossom end is above, and the stem below). It is important to spray at the right time, not too early, while the tree is yet in full bloom, nor too late, because then the mischief is done. Spray- ing too earlv will kill the bees that not onlv gather hone}' from the blossoms, but also, by carrying pollen from one blossom to the other, fertilize them. The pear tree slug is a black saw-fly. It has *Se'j pages 14" and 149. ENTOMOLOGY, SCIENCE OF INSECT LIFE. 209 four wings. The female is nearly 1-5 of an inch long. It lays its eggs on the approach of warm weather in June, and these produce the slugs, which are one-half inch long and often longer. They change their skins four or five times while feeding on the leaves. After about four weeks more a new generation of flies will be ready to deposit a new crop of eggs. A kerosene emulsion* should be used for their destruction in June and August. The plum curcnlio is a weevil, dark in color, and 1-5 of an inch in length. In the spring it comes forth from rubbish, hence the necessity of de- stroying all rubbish in the fall. As the young fruit is setting it punches a little hole in it, lays an egg and cuts a moon shaped slit into the skin near the hole. This slit gives the larva a chance to get out of the fruit when it has grown larger and the hole has dis- appeared.! Trees may be jarred to make the damaged fruit fall to the ground. This should be picked up and given to the chickens and pigs. A sheet spread under the tree will collect the curculios, which should then be de- stroyed in a mixture of kerosene and water. Spray- ing with Paris green is recommended. It should be repeated several times after the blossoms have fallen. The tent caterpillar is very destructive to the leaves of the trees. The nests are easily seen and should be destroyed; but this shoukl be done while the caterpil- lars are in the nests. They come out two or three times a day to feed. Spraying with Paris green is the best remedy. *See page 148. tSee page 147. 2IO SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE, The science of Entomology is of comparatively re- cent growth, but it is of great importance. Only re- Fig. 36^— The tent caterpillar, a and (^ are caterpillars on the web, r is a mass of eggs, d is the cocoon containing the chr^'salis or pupa. The female moth is above. cently it was found out that the peculiar fine taste and flavor of the Smyrna fig is due to the action of a tiny insect. After many futile attempts this insect has at ENTOMOLOGY, SCIENCE OF INSECT LIFE. 211 last been introduced into California fig orchards, and some excellent figs have been raised in consequence. Among the useful insects bees deserve our special attention. Of the destructive ones the following illustrations show three more specimens with which we will close this chapter. Fie. 37_ —Bud molh. The larva feeds upon young buds of fruit uees. Fig. JS -Midge and larva. Destructive to clover Fig. 39 -I. Army worin, pupa of saine ; ?. Molh into which it changes ; 3. Chrysalis. Ih'ii, is a cutworm. CHAPTER IX. BEES. Any farmer may have a small stand of bees and all the honey needed for his family. In some seasons an exceptional yield of honey may even enable him to realize a nice little sum of money out of honey sold. Bees are insects and belong to the order of hymcti- optera, their wings being very thin and transparent. Their two pairs of wings are spread in flight in such a way that the inner pair hooks on to the outer. In this way they are enabled to carry a larger load than their size might lead us to expect. A bee has a long tongue which it can twist about easily, and at the end of which there is a brushlike part which it uses to sweep up the juices from the flowers. It puts the sweet juice (or nectar) of the flower into its mouth, whence this nectar passes into a little sack called the honey bag. Bees do not flv home until this bag is full. At the same time each bee gathers the pollen of flowers (pollen or seed dust) on its hairy legs, which have pocket-like depressions on each side. Thus loaded up the bee returns to its home and there puts away the nectar, which by and by changes into honey, and the pollen. Before any honey can be stored, the bees must have cells. These they build of wax, which they make out of honev. Each cell has six sides — we say it is BEES. 213 hexagonal. A little inspection will show that this is the most economical form where a number of such cells are joined, for any other form would yield less room for the material used. Circles would leave open spaces where they meet; squares and triangles would require more material for walls to afford the same amount of inside space. Bee-keepers now help the bees at this work of cell making which keeps the bees from gathering honey while they are engaged in it. They use ordinary bees- wax, which is pressed out into flat sheets showing the beginnings of the future cells. The bees use these as foundations to build on. These foundations are held 'by a square frame which can be easily put into and removed from the hive when the bees have filled the cells with honey. The hive should be a box with such fastenings inside as will enable the beekeeper to hang his foundation frames on them. There should be enough of them to fill the entire box, leaving only space enough for the bees to get around in. Bees go through the same stages of growth as other insects. But they have this peculiarity that all the eggs of a swarm are laid by only one bee, the largest of them, called the queen bee. Only one queen bee can remain in a hive; if there should be two, one must leave. When it does leave a part of the swarm goes with it. The queen bee lays one egg in a cell. This may pro- duce either a so-called zvorker bee, always a female, or a male bee, called drone; and in some cases a queen bee. A swarm may contain some 20,000 or more workers, and from 500 to 1,000 drones. While at 214 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. work laying eggs the queen bee averages some 2,000 a day. The drones are hatched in cehs somewliat larger than those which answer for the worker, and the cells for the queen bees ( there are frequently more than one,) are still larger. A similar difference is in the food. After the egg is laid the bees place a mixture of honey and pollen into the cell, for the use of the larva which hatches in about three days, and then feeds on the food by its sid6 for some six days. It is then ready to go into that stage which is the same for all insects, Fig. 40 — Queen. Fig. 41 — Worker. Fig. 42 — Drone. the pupa stage. (See p. — ) The bees seal up the cell with a thin cover of wax, and in about twelve or fourteen days the worker bee comes out of this cell, ready to join in the common work. Drones require a few days longer, the queen bee a few days less. From the laying of the egg it takes 21 days for the ordinary bee to develop, 24 days for the drone, but only 16 days for the queen bee. The food for the queen bee larva is much richer : it is especially prepared by the bees and has the name of "royal jell}'." Instict guides the bees to prepare for the lack of flowers during winter. Honey is made only while flowers are in full bloom. As long as there are any flowers the work goes steadily on until the hi\'e is well BEES. 215 stored with honey. From 50 to 100 pounds may tlius be produced by an average colony. This is more than the swarm will need, and a part, sometimes the greater part, of this quantity can therefore be removed by the bee keeper. If all the seasons were as favorable as some are, there would hardly be a business yielding more net profit than bee keeping. But this is not the case. Some seasons the supply is very poor, yielding scarcely enough honey to winter the swarm. And then there are frequently cases of disease which cause the loss of large numbers. It is not always possible, at least not for the farmer, to prevent these. For these reasons bee-keeping should not be carried on extensively on a farm. The work is suitable for women, and most people who engage in it find it very fascinating. But a bee-keeper must have a gentle disposition to avoid stings. The bee is provided in the rear end of its abdomen with a sting which consists of two sharp lances. A bee will sting only when provoked and in defense of the swarm, but when it pushes this sting into a person's flesh it drops at the same time into the opening a small quantity of poison. This poison and the sting itself, which remains in the flesh as its shape makes its removal difficult, cause pain, di.'^ziness and somtimes an illness that may continue for a day or longer. It is therefore important to remove the sting one way or another and to neutralize the poison as quickly as possible. For the latter purpose ordinary soda may be used. Persons used to bees are rarely stung, and if stung 2l6 SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. will not mind it much as they soon get used to the poison. It is recommended to be often with the bees, to allow them to settle on one's hand, and even on one's face, without making any hasty motii^ns. The trying time is when the bee-keeper wants to take out honey or examine the hive for queen cells. He must then use a "smoker," a small pair of bellows which keep a rag burning in a tin funnel. The smoke thus produced is blown into the h'we and compels the bees to leave it. Another occasion for stings is at swarming time when the bee-keeper wants to catch the escaping bees. To this end he will throw water upon them, a small pump or syringe is used for the purpose, and the bees will then settle around the queen bee on some object, generally the twig of a tree. After they have had a little rest to quiet down, the whole swarm can be caught in a bag and this bag emptied into a vacant hive. During these operations the bee-keeper should wear o\-er his hat a veil long enough to protect his face and neck. He should also tie up his sleeves, etc.. to prevent bees from creeping into them. \\'ith some practice all this work can be done with little trouble, but in order not to become discouraged, it is well to proceed very cautiouslv at first. A"arious kinds of hives are for sale at reasonable prices. F(:)undations can also be had in most localities. The outlay, once a start has been made, need not be large. The result, in the long run, will amply justify the trouble and the expense. In order to obtain the largest amount of honev BEES. 217 extractors* are used. These extract the hquid honey which may then be put into glass jars and kept like preserves. The combs, that is the cehs in a mass, may then be returned to the hives. This saves the expense of new foundations, and allows the bees to go right along gathering honey. It is important that only Italian bees are used. It is only necessary to have a first-class cjueen of this stock, the rest may be of another kind. In a short while the whole colony will be Italians. There are other varie- ties, but the Italians have given by far the best satis- faction in this country. Honey differs according to the flowers from which it has been gathered. A very choice variety is bass- wood honey, gathered from the blossoms of the bass- wood tree. White clover honey is another fine variety. Buckwheat honey is dark, and the least valuable, though a good honey in itself. When it becomes necessary to move the hives to another place they should be shut up for a day. They may be opened late in the afternoon of the day follow- ing their removal when the bees are not apt to fly away far. This gives them time to recognize their new sur- roundings. In very hot and dry weather the bees feel the need of water. This should be furnished in abundance, but in shallow vessels where they can easily reach it with- out any danger of drowning. Bees may be wintered in a dry cellar. They will do *Extractors are for sale at reasonable rates at all the stores where beekeepers' supplies can be had. They must be made by experts. 2l8 SCI2XCE AXD AGRICULTURE. better out of doors, if the winter is not exceptionally severe, or if they have the protection of buildings, straw stacks, etc.. on the west and north sides. Like manv other insects bees help in, or directly cause, the fertilization of flowers by carrying the pol- len from one plant to the other. They are especially useful in the orchard. The bumble-bee does this for red clover. It has been said that in order to raise clover we must have cats. \\ h\- .•' 'Slice destroy the combs of bumble-bees and thus kill the young brood. As the old bees do not live long, there would soon be no bumble-bees to fertilize the clover blossoms. Cats feed on mice, hence cats are necessary to raise clover. But the same may be said for snakes, owls and other animals that prey on mice. CHAPTER X. BIRDS. Our songbirds and others perform a most important service in keeping down noxious insects of all kinds, but, with few exceptions, they also do some injury. During the fruiting season of raspberries, blackberries, grapes, cherries, the robin, catbird and others live to some extent on fruit. The injury they thus inflict is, howe^-er, of small conse- quence compared with the good they do to the farmer. These birds feed their young on insects, adding only spar- ingly some soft fruit until their stomachs have grown strong enough. The stom- achs of the nestling birds are thin walled and very weak at first, hence unfit to digest any material that is not perfectly soft. Insects At first snails, caterpillars, grubs and spiders are fed, later on beetles and other insects. The food of the bluebird is in the following pro- portion for the nestling and the adult bird, as shown in recent illustrations of the Yearbook of the Depart- ment of Agriculture, D. C, for 1900. 219 Yellow-bellied woodpecker (Sphyrapicus varius). answer for this purpose. 220 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. BELTLES : FR U IT; ; ■: ; in>-=:^^iDOPTE.RA I MiSCLLLANEOUS vHYMENOPTELRA & SNAILS NESTLING ADULT Fig. 43c — Diagram showing proportions of food of the bluebird, young and adult. Our song birds produce on an average two or three broods of three to five nestfings each season. The young birds are fed by the old ones from before sunrise, with but short intermissions, until after sunset. The capacity of the nestlings for food is such that at first they digest more than their own weight of food in a day, making a gain in weight of from 20 to 50 per cent each day. The reports of close observers show that, for instance, a young robin, kept in captivity by Pro- fessor Treadwell, of Boston, Mass., consumed sixty Fig. 43a — Hairy woodpecker (Dryobates viUosus) . BIRDS. 221 earthworms daily. Another observer, Dr. Brewer, of IlUnois, observed the young of a pair of Euro- pean jays and found that they were fed half a mil- lion of caterpillars in a single season. As the nesting period occurs at the very time when agri- cultural work is most ac- tive, the importance of the ^jlH Fig. 43b — Flicker (Colaptcs auratus). food fed to the nestlings by the old birds should make us lenient toward the latter when we find that they share our taste for fine cherries, luscious grapes and the different berries. The wren, especially the house wren, feeds only on insects. There is no more useful bird on the farm, and it should be protected by all means. Dr. S. D. Judd, of the Agricultural Department in Washington, D. C, observed a nest of about three- fourth grown wrens. There were three nestlings, and these were fed by the mother wren no times in four hours, thirty-seven minutes, receiving and consuming during this time 1 1 1 insects and spiders. Among the insects he identified i white grub, i soldier bug, 3 mil- lers, 9 grasshoppers, 15 May flies and 34 caterpillars. The food of the old birds is of a similar kind. The diagrams on page 222, taken from the Yearbook, show the character and relation of food of the house swallow, catbird, wren and others. The usefulness of the swallow has gained for this bird the special protection of several European gov- 222 BIRDS. NESTl-IMi. F13.44-— HDjSE WbEs. ADULT. [1, Cutw.T.rm ; 2, spider ; 3, ^tiak-bug ■, i, May-fly ; 5, weevil ; 6. pra-^shopper.] NC^TLlNiJ. Fi:.46.-Ca.... S-au^o-. AM LV. [1, Weevil ; 2, icbDeumon-fly : o. winged ant ; 4. fly ; 5. dragon-fly ; 6, stink- bug. ] Food of Nestlings and Adults of some Common Birds. [The diagrams show the proportions of the various orders of insects in the food, each order being represented by the insect belonging to it that is most commonly eaten by the bird whose food is shown.] BIRDS. 223 ernments. These diagrams show how very great this usefulness is. Our native sparrows are not looked on with much favor. They belong to the family of song birds, but Fig. 43c — The Bluebird. 224 SCIEXCE AND AGRICULTURE. their song is not of the kind to invite attention, and the adults \i\e ahnost exclusively on seeds and grain. Nevertheless, they are not entirely useless, for as far as known their young are reared exclusively on in- sects. Dr. Judd reports that a parent bird, a so-called Fig. 47 — The Swallow. grasshopper sparrow, was carefully watched at Mar- shall Hall, Md., as she brought food to her four naked young. "Three long-horned grasshoppers, two spe- cies of short-horned grasshoppers, a chrysalis, and an army worm were identified in the parent's bill. Another BIRDS. 225 grasshopper sparrow in the same field, that was carry- ing food to its older and feathered young, was shot. In its beak and mouth were two bugs and two spiders, and in its stomach two of the same species of spiders, a Fig. 48 — The Bobolink. bug, two leaf beetles, a weevil, a cutworm, the jaws of a cricket, some seeds of rib grass, and a grain of wheat. In the stomachs of ten nestlings and fourteen adults collected in Kansas, half of the food of the old birds was found to be grass seed, while that of the young 226 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE, YCUrjG NLSTLING ADULT consisted entirely of in- sects — caterpillars, grass- hoppers and a very few spiders." Equally good reports are given of young chip- ping sparrows. Even the English sparrow, though the adult lives mainly on seed and other vegetable matter, feeds its young an astonishing number of noxious insects. In the following dia- grams of the food of nest- lings some of the princi- pal birds useful to the farmer are represented. "With the exception of doves and pigeons all birds feed their young on some animal diet. Birds that are largely vegeta- rian, such as the crow, crow blackbird, catbird, robin, cedar wax wins: Fig. 49 - Diagram shuwing pro- portion of food of the Bam bwallow, young and adult. [Tfie extraordinan,- usefulness of the swallow has caused several European governments to place it under the special protection of the law.] BIRDS. 227 3 WEEKS AND OLDER ADULT Fig. jo— Diagram sbowlDg proportions of food of American crow {Corvus aTntricaniie). young and adult. NESTLING ADULT Fio. S' —Diagram showing proportions of food oldicbcissel (Spiza amerkana), young and adult 228 SCIENCE AXD AGRICULTURE. NKTLING LESS THAN OHl WEDCOLO ADULT Fic:- 52 — JJiajrau sho^virj^ prof-crtioDs of food of Engliih ffan:"' {Fc.iKr domc:-ticus), young nod adult. MEIARLY FLEDGED ADULT Fii"- ^3r— DiaLTdm Ehowinij froF<'rtion.= of foodof crpw blackbird ( Q-T^f^rjljs 'jtH^ctih Tii^^\ youn™ These diagrams show that the services of the nestling crow blackbird in destroying insect pests, such as cut-worms, May beetles, weevils and grasshoppers far outweigh the loss due to its consumption of com. BIRDS. 229 Fij. 56-CucKOO. ADi'LT. 3. Mftv lieelli' : -I, gnis.'ihoppGr; ."i. cnterpMlar, (j. culworm.l 230 SCIENCE AXD AGRICfLTrRE. and English sparrow mingle fruit or grain in con- stantly increasing quantities with the insects fed to their young, though insects usually remain the chief component of the food until maturity is nearly reached." (Fig. 50-56.) Hairless caterpillars, such as cankerworms, cut worms, and army worms are largely consumed. "Hairy caterpillars are eaten to a certain extent. ^Ir. E. A. Forbush, of ]\Iassacliu- setts. has noted thirteen different species of birds giving tent caterpillars and the caterpillars of the brown-tailed and gypsy moths to their young." In addition to the examples already given, the fol- lowing may be added in proof of the great usefulness of birds. During the outbreak of Rocky ^Mountain locusts in Nebraska ( 1 874-1 877 ) Professor Samuel Aughey saw a long-billed marsh-wren carry thirty locusts to her young in an hour. At this rate, for seven hours a day, a brood would consume 210 locusts per dav, and the passerine birds of the eastern half of Nebraska, allowing only twenty broods to the square mile, would destroy daily 162,771,000 of the pests. The average locust weighs about 15 grains, and is cap- able each dav of consuming its own weight of standing forage crops, corn and wheat.* The locusts eaten by the nestlings would therefore be able to destroy in one dav 174,397 tons of crops, which at Sio per ton would be worth Si, 743. 97."! Another use of birds is the destruction bv certain varieties of incredible quantities of the seed of noxious weeds. The subject is therefore of very great import- *Year Book, U. S. Dept. of .-\griciilturc, for 1894. P- 2.22. tVear Book, U. S. Dept. Agriculture, igoo. p. 436. BIRDS. 231 ance. One young dove which had recently left the nest had in its crop 7,500 seeds of yellow sorrel. Ac- cording to Dr. Sylvester D. Judd, of the U. S. Biologi- cal Survey, from whose article on "The Food of Nestling Birds."'" we have quoted freely, the barn owl is probably the most valuable rat and mouse catcher in the United States. "The screech owl is an abund- ant, widely distributed, harmless little species that de- stroys mice and cjuantities of insect pests." It is par- ticularly useful in destroying May beetles. Even the great horned owl, .so destructive to chick- ens when not carefully housed at night, is useful to the farmer. "In and about a nest containing young of this species were found the remains of 113 common house rats." "Grouse, quail, pheasants, prairie chickens are com- monly credited with being exclusi\'elv vegetarian m diet, but they are mixed feeders and probably nourish their newly hatched chicks principally on insects. Quail and prairie chickens destroy such dreaded pests as cut- worms, army worms, twelve-spotted cucumljer beetles, chinch bugs and Rocky Mountain locusts." It is believed by some ornithologists that the ex- tensive "legalized slaughter of these birds, which in some sections has amounted to practical extermination, is largely responsible for the increased depredations of certain insect pests. /« any cz'cnt, they are of too uiiich value to the fanner to be killed off reeklessly, and whenez'er the sportsman is privileged to shoot them the farmer should demand full compensation." ** *Ye.nr Book. IQOO. p. 431. **Year Book, 1900, p. 432. 232 SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE. An examination of the preceding facts and illustra- tions cannot but impress on every reader the great mi- portance of birds for the farmer and horticulturist. The damage done by some birds to the farmer is scarcely worth mentioning by the side of the benefit they confer. Crows may pull up some corn in the early part of the season, but their consumption of ripened grain later will scarcely be felt as a great evil. The horticulturist is often more seriously injured. The robin, the catbird and the cedar waxwing consume a good deal of small fruit. Prof. F. E. L. Beal found that raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, cherries and service berries formed 70 per cent of the food of the adult robin. But the food of their young consisted almost wholly of insects, only 7 per cent of it being small fruit. The robin is also very destructive to early grapes, especially the Delaware variety, and in years when wild cherries are scarce. As there is generally some work going on in the garden or vineyard, at the time the fruit is ripening, the birds are to some extent deterred from indulging their appetite too freely. ]\Iost of the damage is therefore done very early in the morn- ing before work begins. Scarecrows and other devices help to keep the birds off, but cannot be relied on abso- lutely. Special protection should be given, not only to the swallow, but to the wren. This little bird is ex- clusively insectivorous and consumes an astonishing number of insects. It will gladly avail itself of any nesting place near the house, and as many small boxes as possible (even tin cans will do) should be nailed up at convenient places for its accommodation. PART VI. RURAL SCENERY. CHAPTER I. THE ELEMENT OF BEAUTY IN FARM LIFE. All rationally formed human beings have a craving for the beautiful. Many confuse the terms beautiful and luxury. Luxury makes use of beauty as a servant and therefore never displays beauty at her best. The flowers used to decorate a splendid hall for the enjoy- ment of the very rich are merely material for a pur- pose; they are not themselves the object for which that hall will be visited by hundreds of invited guests. And yet, any one of these flowers, in its original beau- ty, and surrounded by other products of nature, is a spectacle far more wonderful and admirable than the most brilliantly decorated hall with its thousands of flowers and other ornaments. A sunrise in the country may be the most beautiful spectacle imaginable, and the varying aspect of the sky and landscape may at times produce efi^ects which for grandeur, majesty and beauty surpass anything that the human imagination could picture to itself. All that is necessary is that man should open his eyes in the country to the beauty around him. If he 234 RURAL SCENERY. can see properly, he ■will never weary in his admiration of the glorious scenes that unroll before him as the seasons come and go. But while th\s beauty of nature is always appealing to him, it is not all that a man desires to look on in order to satisfy his craving for the beautiful. He wants to see beauty in his home, both outside and in, in his yard, and in all the nearer surroundings of his house. It is not a very difficult matter to make a great and desirable change in the appearance of very many houses in the country. To begin with the house, if it be a frame house, it may be painted to look well in the landscape. The glaring white paint which is often . used for country homes ought to be softened by the admixture of some pigment that will produce a more restful effect. A soft gray, an olive green, or even a rich cream tint looks well at all times, provided it be freshened up from time to time by a new coat of paint. It would be well to give the window panes and doors a different color, one forming an agreeable contrast with the color of the body of the house. A deep red for the sash of the window will generally look well. The frames may be of a darker tint than that of the house, but of the same general color. The door may be treated in the same way, and the cornice likewise. Loud contrasts should be avoided, and it is best never to try an unusual color. The very fact that such a color is rare will make it appear unpleasant, for the eye is best pleased with soft transitions, not with sharp contrasts. The same principle should govern inside painting. Avoid above all dark reds or browns for doors inside. THE ELEMENT OF BEAUTY IN FARM LIFE. 235 Let these and all other wood-work be of a cheerful color. In case of doubt choose a good cream tint ; such a tint never fails to give satisfaction. Whenever pos- sible have the inside walls of your house painted rather than papered. Paper attracts and holds dust, and dust is the abiding place of microbes, those invisible enemies of human health. If paint is considered too expensive, calcimining will do nearly as well, provided it is frecjuently freshened by a new coat. On the floor large rugs rather than carpets nailed down should be the rule. A rug can be taken up, shaken and beaten almost any time, a carpet once nailed down is generally a fixture for the year. Danger from microbes lurks in permanent carpets, and the air in a carpeted room is rarely ever perfectly pure. In the kitchen and dining room well-oiled or well-painted floors should be the rule. Paint makes perfect cleanli- ness possible, and it is generally secured when possible. Whenever carpets are the rule, the sunlight is apt to be shut out by curtains, and with it the most essential condition of good health. "Where the sunlight does not come, the doctor will," is an old Spanish saying. Fresh air and sunlight are the so\'ereign remedies for worn-out people, more important than food, pro- vided there is good water. They are invaluable for children, especially in the winter season. The average housewife has a superstitious reverence for her parlor. No ray of sunlight must enter it, for the sunlight injures the carpet. The windows must be tightly closed, for the draught might displace some of the nicknacks on the center table or the mantel of the fireplace. On the days when it is opened for com- 236 RURAL SCEXERY. paiiy it will be occupied by a solemn procession of guests. The children give it a wide berth, if they can find any other place for their play; but if they enter it the girls are unnaturally stiff and ceremonial, and the boys look as though they had never laughed aloud and it was now too late to learn. On the \\"alls of all the rooms, including the bed rooms, pictures should be hung, nailed on or even pasted. This is the age of cheap and good pictures. Some may be frequently had for the asking from those whii use them for advertising their g^jcds. They do not represent the height of art, but neither are they deficient in some elements of beauty. !Many comic pic- tures should be avoided, ^^l^at you and the children dailv see should be free from any taint, and many comic pictures, especially caricatures, are what rotten apples are in a barrel of good fruit. There are of course exceptions. Good natured fim has its proper place e\'eryv,here, but many of the funnv pictures that are most frequently used do not show this kind of fun. Some of the Chicago dailies frequently furnish with their Sunday editions handsome engravings, often col- ored, \\ hich answer well for wall decoration. From the windows of the dining or sitting room the outlook into the yard and farm should be as pleasing as possible. This brings us to the subject of ornament- ing the grounds near the house. Windbreaks have been and are generallv planted, but as a rule with mj eye to beautv. It is desiralile to have the trees stand in straight rows to facilitate cultivation, but they might so stand and yet produce the effect of a curve or semi-circle. THE ELEMENT OF BEAUTY IN FARM LIFE. 237 Neither woukl cultivation be more difficult, if a variety of trees were planted, instead of only one kind. In front of the trees there might be flowering shrubs, and in front of these a bed or two of flowers. The view from the house at the proper season would be charm- ing, and yet the expense in labor and original cost A Rural Scene would not be greater than it is where stiff rows of windbreaks are planted on the one side and shrubbery and flowerbeds scattered irregularly over the grounds at the other. A good sod of Kentucky blue grass should be the foundation of the lawn. It is true a lawn requires frequent mowing with a lawn mower to pro- duce its best efi^ect, and it is impossible, on the average 238 RURAL SCEXERY. farm, to find the time for its proper care. But if the sod be well established the grass may be cut with a regular grass cutting machine two or three times dur- ing the season and allowed to remain on the ground. The next rain will beat it down and the new grass will soon hide it completely. This is not the best way. but practically the only way for the busy farmer; and the effect, while not such as is produced by a velvety lawn, the result of frecjuent cutting with the lawn mower, is not unsatisfactory. Shade trees near the house should be planted at such a distance that their branches never reach or overhang the house. Their shade is very grateful on the east, south and west sides. Sometimes it mav be desirable to plant a few e^•ergreens on the north side, partly for effect, partly as a protection from the cold winds. A\'hoe\'er can afford it should have evergreens for a windbreak. But they should stand at a considerable distance from deciduous trees, because the latter will spoil their lo(":ks if too near. E^•ergreens need the sunlight as much as any other tree to do their best. If well planted and cared for the}- are a thing of beau- tv to which e\'ery one will render a willing tribute of praise. The most satisfactory, as well as one of the very finest of e^■ergreens is the Xorz^'ov Sf^nicc. In setting out e\-ergreens c.vtrcinc care iiiitsf be taken iiez'cr to expose the roots to the sunlight or air, ez'eii for a iiiin- itte. Their cells contain rrisin \\diich is verv apt to harden, if exposed, thus stopping the circulation of the sap from cell to cell. Ytry small plants give the best satisfaction in the long run, but large trees can be THE ELEiMENT OF DEAUTY IN FARM LIFE. 239 planted if enoiigli of the soil is taken up with the roots to enable the tree to draw the necessary amount of moisture from the ground, and if a good mulch is spread over the surface to prevent the soil from drying out. If due regard be paid to the roots, the planting of an evergreen does not differ from the planting of a deciduous tree. Our "White Pine" is a stately. and beautiful ever- green, but like the Norway spruce it needs plenty of room to develop its full beauty. The "Hemlock" is a graceful and elegant evergreen, but a slower grower than the others mentioned, and sometimes apt to turn brown in parts of its foliage. The Canadian fir re- sembles the Norway spruce, but its leaves are larger and of a deeper green. This fine tree does not seem to be as long lived as the spruce. The "Arbor vitae" is a common favorite, but it looks so dingy in the early part of the season that it should not be planted when the Norway spruce and white pine can be had. Two foreign pines are frequently planted, the Scotcli and the Austrian. Of the two the Austrian is by far the finer tree. The Scotch has a straggling growth and should not be planted near a dwelling. In a rugged part of the farm, on or amid rocks, it may produce a good effect. Do not waste time trying to remove such trees from the woods. Buy your plants from a competent and honest nurseryman. If you buy small plants, set them in rows alongside a fence, if possible, or at least put up a board along the south side of the row to shade the young plants, and lay clean straw or grass between the rows and around the plants. It will pay to water 240 RURAL SCENERY. them thoroughly in a dry summer, and this had better be done in the evening. With these precautions most of the young trees will live and make a good growth the second year. When about JS to 2 feet high tliey may be transphanted to a permanent place. If this is to The Wav to Town. be a windbreak the trees should be planted twenty feet apart in the row, l)reaking j(jints with the second row hv letting this row begin ten feet fr(:'m the begin- ning of the first row. The rows may be twenty feet apart also, but for the sake of an early ei¥ect ten feet may be enough. Thus planted and properly cared for a double row THE ELEMENT OF BEAUTY IN FARM LIFE. 24I of Norway spruce will be a grand sight in from ten to fifteen years. They will look very well much sooner, but as they attain age they develop an air of grandeur and beauty that commands admiration. In good soil a Norway spruce will easily spread from 10 to 15 feet each way in as many years after transplanting. Never cut off or trim the lower branch- es. These should rest on the ground. To trim up an evergreen as one might a deciduous tree is to spoil more than half its beauty. Don't believe those "wise people" who tell you that they don't believe this. Judge for yourself after having seen some fine specimens showing a full natural growth from the ground up. If desired, the windbreak may be made much thicker. Instead of two rows, three or more may be planted with excellent effect. The tall trees will be- come the resort of numerous song birds, and the fam- ily will have the privilege of being c'wakened in the morning by a charming and \'ery original concert of well trained singers. In order to avoid the effect of straight lines, while yet retaining the principle of straight lines for the sake of easy cultivation, the trees may be planted in the way here shown. Each x denotes a tree, and this may be an evergreen or a deciduous tree, provided only the two kinds are ncz'cr mixed. The figure o marks a shrub to be planted in front of deciduous trees only. In planting a grove of deciduous trees for a wind- break, some quick growing tree like the Cottonwood may be planted in the rear. One row of cottonwoods ought to suffice. But as these trees spread their branches very wide, it will be hard for the next row of 2/12 RURAL SCEXERY. trees to hold their own unless they are also of quick growth. Hence the second row and the third should be white maples, also called soft maples. After these might come one or two rows of black walnut or but- ternut trees. These would be appreciated by a grow- ing family, and the black walnut in particular is a fine tree in itself. Trees fof Windbreak. 24 feet + "^ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +0 X + + + + + + +0 + + -[- + + + + o o o ^ ^ ^ V + + O Flower Bed Group of Trees X X Group of Trees + + + Group of Trees A few catalpas, of the hardy kind, should stand in the front, purely for ornament, and also a few hard or sugar jiiaplcs. If to these are added a few crab apple trees of the cultivated kind, and some shrubs like the sitozi'tall, the hydrangea paiiiculafa and a few syringas, the total effect, as the years go by, will be such as to add a very considerable value to the farm and be a THE ELEMENT OF BEAUTY IN FARM LIFE. 243 source of great satisfaction and pleasure to the owner and his family. It is desirable, on account of our long winters, to have some box elders, birches and perhaps a willow or two mixed in with the rest, because these are the earliest trees to show the green in the spring. The cut-leaved birch is a very elegant tree, perfectly hardy and a comparatively quick grower. It might stand hearer the house where its peculiar beauty would be noticed. In its season, and because it comes so early, there is scarcely a finer tree than a cultivated variety of the crab apple. Care must be taken, however, that the borer does not destroy it. If the house faces west or north the front yard would be sufficiently ornamented by the plantations thus far noted, but if the latter are in the rear, the house facing south or east, the front yard still needs attention. Trees for shade at a suitable distance from the house are indispensable. They should be planted irregularly, in groups of three to five, and so that each tree has a chance to develop fully at least on two of its sides. All regularity in planting should be avoided. The trees to be selected are in the order of their orna- mental and other values : The sugar maple, the white maple, the white ash, the box elder or ashleaved maple, the cut-leaved birch, and where the ground is inclined to be moist, and there is no lack of space, the American elm. There is no finer tree than the latter, but it will not do well on very dry soil where the maples flourish. The great feature of the front part of the yard should be the laiun. Do not spoil the effect by dotting it all over with shrubbery. "A few flowerbeds cut from 244 RURAL SCENERY. the sod will look well, if the weeds are kept out and the flowers frequently picked before they are past their prime. But shrubbery belongs to the rear and sides. It may surround the whole yard almost like a hedge, but should not intrude on the lawn proper. ^4 fr- 'jL-^^S^ ^^"*.- ■ ■ .V.*-- "^-sv*-"" -v ■"'-■ '• i i' »'?r? '' '.^^-^^^^bT^^^M^-'^L.^^S^*-.^ yi ^ ~''^^^^HEPK^^^i£i^hfir6s9BMBH^H A Country Road. THE ELEMENT OF BEAUTY IN FARM LIFE. 245 Provide for what has been called the "blind side" of the farm buildings. It is easy to devise some planting which hides all objectionable features and gives the effect of privacy. No special directions are needed and none would cover all cases. The essential thing is a good ivorking plan so that all desirable features of a home may be added from year to year. First the necessary, afterwards the desirable ; but a plan is a good thing and can be worked out in the many hours of enforced leisure wdiich every farmer has, especially in the winter. What has been said here about ornamenting the home grounds may be readily applied to the school house and its yard. Plenty of trees on the west and north ; shade trees wherever needed ; shrubbery in the rear and to hide outhouses; a flower bed or two in front which the children should keep in order, and, where such a thing is possible, a good lawn for a play ground. Where the school is large, grass can- not be expected to resist the tramping of so many little feet, but there are many of the smaller schools that could well afford a good lawn. Every farmer ought to have a small nursery in which he may grow all the young trees and shrubs for the ornamentation of his grounds. Trees a year or two old can be bought cheap, especially evergreens. The nursery rows may run in the direction of the corn rows and receive the same treatment. Some may have time and take pleasure in planting the seed of trees. If fruit trees be thus raised they should be grafted, as fruit trees from the seed are not 246 RURAL SCEXERY. apt to produce the same kind as the one which fur- nished the seed. Xurserymen prefer to graft on the root of apple trees by a process called whip grafting. The piece to be inserted, the scion, should be cut from the tree in early spring while the buds are dormant. The grafting must be done in the stock before growth starts in the spring, ^\'hip or tongue grafting requires that stock and scion be of the same size. Fi^. 5^— Whip or ton^e-graft- ine on root. Used also in Lhe case of small stocks. Fig. 55 -Grafting in cleft or split limb. Used in fche case of large limbs. In very large limbs two scions are inserted on opposite sides of the deft. Grafting larger stock is shown in Fig. 59. When the stock is very large two scions should be inserted. The scion must be cut wedgeshape and one of its sides should exactly match the outside of the stock, so that the layer just underneath the bark of the one connects closely with that of the other. It is along this layer THE ELEMENT OF BEAUTY IN FARM LIFE. 247 that the sap will rise and flow into the new layer, thus changing the nature of the fruit which the tree will bear. For all large grafts a thorough coating with grafting wax is desirable, and may be necessary. •t-ij. An Attractive "Neighborhood Center.' CHAPTER II. FINAL REMARKS AND A RETROSPFXT. Every intelligent farmer should take an interest in the work of the Experiment Station of the Agricul- tural College of his State.* These stations publish peri- odical bulletins containing reports on work in special lines. This work is scientific and accurate and fur- nishes a proof of the appreciation of the farmer's profession by the State, as well as valuable information in regard to all the various branches of farming. A great deal of excellent work is done by the Farm- ers' Institutes. If at all possible, attending these insti- tutes should be the rule with every live farmer. The boys and girls on the farm should attend these, for there is always some part of the work done at these institutes that interests- the young fully as much as the older people, and then there is besides this the addi- tional advantage of becoming mutually accjuainted. A few years ago a member of such an institute. Major E. A. Gilder, of White Hall, 111., furnished a very interesting article on "The Illinois Farmer Then and Now." Instead of Illinois the name of almost any other state might be inserted without changing the value of this article. The retrospect of this veteran farmer is in- teresting to young and old. The older genera- tion of farmers is reminded by it of the hard- ships of their earlier years, and the gradual fruition *We have said nothing of agricultural papers. These should be patronized by every wide-awake farmer, as a matter of course. FINAL REMARKS AND A RETROSPECT. 249 of their efforts to overcome the very great and dis- couraging diificulties that beset them on all sides. Young people will be benefited by the facts pre- sented, as they shovv^ how great has been the progress made, and thus foreshadow the progress yet to come. We often hear people talk of the "good old times." Major Gilder tells us that at that time there were very few stoves for cooking pur- poses. An iron bar swung back and forth in the huge fire-place, on which were hooks to hang the kettles in which the victuals were cooked. Some families had the old Dutch ovens in which the meat was placed and set on the hearthstone before the fire and thus roasted. A few had brick ovens in which they would at one time do a week's baking of bread. Pies and cakes, the modern range, and improved stoves, show the wonderful change that has taken place. In those days the women spun the wool after having it carded, wove it into cloth and generally made their own garments, — there was very little money to buy store clothes. They also knit the stockings, mittens, socks, made the rag carpets, and often did the milking. Such, generally, was the condition of the women in the farm homes at that early date. For recreation and amusement there was the an- nual camp meeting, the husking bee, apple parings, and the dances after the log rollings, brush cuttings, or barn raisings. In such homes were raised the parents of those who are now enjoying the comforts of the modern improve- ments with which we are surrounded today. At that time the improved implements now used & 250 RURAL SCENERY. on the farm were unknown. \Miat was known as the diamond cast steel plow had just come into use and was a great improvement over the old wooden mold- board, for under favorable circumstances it would scour, and thus do much better work. In raising a crop of corn the field was generally all plowed, then marked off with a one-horse plow and was then ready for planting, which was usually done by one person with a horse and plow, marking off the ground, a boy or girl following and dropping the corn in the crotch and usually two men with hoes following and covering the corn. Ten acres was considered a good day's work for such a force. Then came the jumper which dispensed with the hoes. Next the marker, which enabled one hand to make three marks and thus lay oft' thirty acres per day. Then followed the hand planter, dropping and covering two rows at once, and finallv the Brown two-horse planter, which seemed to solve the corn-planting problem, the later splendid implements perfecting the machine by the addition of the sled attachment and the check rower, making the machine almost perfect for planting corn. The evolution of implements for cultivating the crop has been almost as great. The splendid plows, both riding and walking, and the various makes of cultivators have taken the place of the one or two- horse plows. These and the old-fashioned bull-tongue or shovel plow, which in those days were thought much of, are now curious relics of the past. The young farmer of today voould consider his prospect slim of raising a crop if he had to use such imple- ments. FINAL REMARKS AND A RETROSPECT. 25I Wheat was sown broadcast by hand and then har- rowed in. The sickle gave place to the cradle. The cradlers were followed by the binders, and a shocker usually followed two or three binders. It was heavy, laborious work. The pay was usually the equivalent of one bushel of wheat and board per day, which, as a rule, included lunch in the forenoon and afternoon, with a liberal supply of whisky. The crop at that time, when marketed at Alton, 111., usually brought about 37/^ cents per bushel, and thirty bushels made a load. Under favorable circumstances it took three days to make the trip from White Hall. Receiving $11.25 for his load, the farmer felt, of course, like a millionaire. The wheat was tramped out on the barn floor with horses, or beaten out with a flail, — the threshing machine had not yet made its appearance. When it finally came, 300 bushels a day was considered a good day's work with an eight-horse power and a full set of hands. Improvement followed improvement until we have today the wonderful machine with a capacity, under favorable conditions, of from 1,500 to 2,000 bushels per day, cleaning the grain ready for market and stacking the straw. The wheat drill, another great improvement, then made its appearance, making the crop more certain and saving seed. The evolution from the sickle and cradle to the machine of today is, to say the least, as- tonishing. We may say as much for tlie improvements in sav- ing the hay crop. We have now the complete outfit of mower, tedder, loader and stacker, or if put into barns 252 RURAL SCENERY. or sheds, horse hay forks of various descriptions, which elevate the hay to any desired height, where carriers take it along on iron roadways to almost any distance and there dump it. Under present circum- stances there is very little risk, compared with those earl)' days, in saving the crop, while the saving in drudgery is very great. In those days timothy, red top and blue grass pre- dominated ; clover had not then gained the prominence it has since acquired, and its value as a restorer of fer- tility to apparently worn-out soils was unknown. "I remember," says Major Gilder, "that a body of land that had been reclaimed from the timber and been continually cropped with corn and wheat, had become apparently worthless. The crops were so meager that if did not pay to cultivate the ground. Today, ozuing to the clover crops on the same, the land produces heavv crops of both corn and wheat and is very val- uable." Attempts at draining were made, but their value was mostly in paving the way for the present system of tile draining which has done so much to add to the value of the farms. The rich flat lands when thor- oughlv drained, and which in those early davs were considered quite inferior, are today, other things being equal, far the most valuable. "My own experience on one forty acres of flat rich land will give an idea of the benefits to be derived therefrom. One year in the late winter and spring I expended $340 draining the same. It happened to be a very wet spring, but owing to the drains the water got off in a hurry and we raised sixty bushels of corn FINAL REiMARKS AND A RETROSPECT. 253 to the acre and the ground was clean from weeds. My neighbor who had known the land from boyhood told me that he was satisfied that, had not the land been drained, I could not possibly have got over thirty bush- els per acre with a splendid crop of weeds, for we could not have got onto the ground to tend it until the w^eeds had got the start. You can figure the difi:"er- ence it made in the income from the crop. We had 1,200 bushels more corn ofl:' the field, which at 30 cents per bushel would be $360. I had spent $340 in draining it and the work was permanent, and I was ahead $20 the first year, with the field comparatively free from weeds ; it certainly was a good practical ob- ject lesson. "The farmer who has land that needs draining, and who can possilily do it, stands in his own light if he fails to do so. One mistake many of us made in the early days and that was the using of too small tile. When the ground was thoroughlv soaked it took too long for the water to get off. When properly drained the sloughs and draws now dry out and are ready for cultivation before the higher ground. "The old Virginia rail fences enclosed the farms almost uni\'ersall3r. They were followed by the osage orange hedge, which, when properly cared for, I think superior to any other for an outside fence, adding beauty to the landscape without the danger of crip- pling so many horses, as is too often the case with the cheaper though useful wire fences which are now in general use. "The log cabins of the first settlers were gradually giving way to brick and frame dwellings, although yet 254 RURAL SCENERY. quite numerous. Tramps were unknown and the latch string generally hung outside the cabin door. It was customary, too, in those days to ask the guest to take a nip of something stronger than water; now it would be considered quite cheeky to do anything of the kind. There was not near the toleration either in politics or religion that there is at present. The Bap- tists seemed to think there was no hope for those who had not been immersed, and the whig looked askance at the democrat. What a wonderful change has taken place! "In those days you could take your pick out of a farmer's herd of cows for $7 or $8 ; three-year-old steers were worth no more. Now, a person owning a decent milk cow would feel insulted if he or she were offered $30 for the same. They would want $40 or even $50 if the cow were a choice one, and as for steers, they are simply out of sight. One of our wide-awake buyers offered James Stubblefield, one of our promi- nent farmers, $18 a head for spring calves, and not for breeding purposes at that, and he would not take it. How about horses ? Bicycles and electricity had not begun their work ; railroads had not invaded the west, and yet the very best horses did not sell for more than $50 per head, and the inferior ones in propor- tion." As an illustration of the low prices then prevailing the jMajor quotes the sale of seventy-four fat hogs, in 1855 or thereabouts, twenty-one months old, for $340, or an average of a little over $4.50 a head. One and a half cents per pound was the average price of FINAL REMARKS AND A RETROSPECT. 255 hogs. In the case stated the hogs were driven from White Hall to Alton and there sold at a loss. "At that time the neighbors generally joined to- gether and drove their hogs to Alton, and then sold them. Alton was the porkopolis of this section at that time. It took about eight or nine days to make the trip, and sometimes the roads were horrible, and when a hog gave out we had to wade in the mud and load it on the wagon. I remember we had no rubber boots those days; all we had were very inferior cow- hide stogies, which cost $3.75 per pair. Better ones can now be bought for half the money. Compare, if you please, those conditions with our present mode of marketing hogs ; the change, indeed, is very great. The good old times we hear so often mentioned, to my mind, do not loom up so favorably. "Of course there were a few sheep, and plenty of dogs and wolves. There was plenty of game, chiefly deer, prairie chickens and squirrels, also plenty of oppossums, coons and foxes. "We generally had a six months' school, three in the winter and three in the spring and early summer. The teachers were paid by the patrons at a stated sum per scholar for the term, and usually boarded around. Fifteen dollars per month was about their average income in the winter, and some less in the summer. The older children were kept at home to assist their parents in the house or on the farm. "It was no unusual circumstance to find a large part of the family in most of the dwellings shaking with the ague in the fall season, or down with bilious fever, and the latter were generally brought to a close ac- 256 RURAL SCENERY. quaintance with grim death before they took a turn for the better, and then they were generally salivated and almost in a fair condition for a set of false teeth, for those they had were usually in a very loose and shaky condition. It takes something more than bil- ious iever or ague to puzzle our physicians of the pres- ent time." \\'ages were from $7 to $8 a month in 1842-1844, and not much higher for many years afterward. In order to svmi up, let the ]\Iajor mention a few of the farming implements unknown to the farmer of fiftv vears ago, which he, as well as everv other farmer, considers almost indispensable to good modern farming. "First, the self-binder, which makes the work both outdoors and indoors so much lighter ; second, the corn planter and check rower, which enables the farm- er to plant the corn as fast as the ground is plowed, and thus get ahead of the weeds ; third, the ^^•heat drill : fourth, the disk-harrow ; fifth, the iron disk roller, which ought to be on every farm." Truly, we have reason to be thankful for what has been accomplished, and may look forward with con- fidence to such other improvements as will make life on the farm bath profitable and increasingly desirable. Nowhere is the change from former unfavorable conditions more strikingly apparent than in the atten- tion now paid to agriculture and horticulture by the national government. III. Departmext of Agriculture. The Department of Agriculture has developed into one of the most prominent agencies in the ser\-ice THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 257 of the farmer. Its different Bureaus \'ie with each other in their efforts to promote the interests of the most important industry in the country. The Weather Bureau is assisting the farmer in choosing the right time for securing his hay crop. Predictions of changes in the weather prove correct eighty times out of a hundred. Improvements in the service are constantly being made. The Bureau is now experimenting successfully with wireless teleg- raphy. Messages have been sent over fifty miles of rough country. The Bureau of Animal Industry inspects meats for interstate and international trade ; it inspects pork with the microscope for countries requiring such in- spection; it inspects vessels that carry animals to for- eign countries, looking to their adaptability; it inspects imported animals to protect our herds ; it experiments with swine diseases through serum treatment ; it ex- periments with blackleg in cattle through distribution of vaccine, with prospects of eradication, and with sheep scab with like prospects. Dairy Division. Experimental shipments are be- ing made of dairy products across the Atlantic and Pacific and to Cuba and Porto Rico. In the fiscal year 1899, 4,861,994 head of cattle 6,125,095 head of sheep 315,969 head of calves 23,428,996 head of hogs 5,559 head of horses A total of 34,737,613 animals were inspected at time of slaughter; 61,906 258 STATISTICS. were condemned. The meat inspection tag or brand was placed upon 17,177,442 quarters, 343.427 pieces, and 1.554 sacks of beet; 6.050.444 carcasses of sheep, 310,126 carcasses of calves. 1. 138. 507 carcasses of hogs, aiid 653.756 sacks and -(8.485 pieces of pork. The ordinary meat inspection stamp was affixed to 5.584.905 packages containing beef. 24.151 mutton, J07 of veal. 13.122.677 of pork and 602 of horseflesh. Seals were attached to 69.937 '^'^i'* containing in- spected prc'ducts. [Microscopic ixspectiox of Pork. The number of carcasses examined was 999.554. Of these 96.8S per cent were free from tyichiuae. 1.17 per cent contained disintegrating trichinae, and 1.95 per cent living trichinae. The Prevextiox of Tuberculosis. This most destructi\'e disease, which aftlicts man and beast, is very common with cattle and swine. ■Modern investigations show that tuberculosis is pro- duced by a specific germ, the Bacillus Ittbcrciilosis. It is a strictly crmtagious disease. Experience has shown that inspection at the quaran- tine stations, even by the most skillful inspectors, is not reliable. Accortlingly. the tuberculosis test has re- centlv been adopted, and it is hoped that with this more accurate means of diagnosis the .American farmer mav be protected from further importations of this contagion. It has also been decided to place an inspector in Great Britain to test and certify to the animals there bought before shipment. The Experiment Station of the Bureau supplied THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 259 1,500,000 cubic centimeters of blood from antitoxin animals for use in the bio-chemic laboratory in making hog cholera serum. Agricultural Exports. Our total sales of do- mestic farm products to foreign countries during the fiscal years 18Q7-1900 aggregated the enormous sum of $3,186,000,000, or close to $800,000,000 in excess of the export value for the preceding four-year period. In other words: During 1897-1900 we received an average of nearly $200,000,000 a year above the an- nual amount paid us for such products during 1893- 1896. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900, our agricultural exports amounted in value to $844,- 000,000, exceeding all other records except that of 1S98, when a valuation of $859,000,000 was reached. During the past four years the average animal value of farm produce exported was $797,000,000. It was only $598,000,000 for the prior four-year period, 1893-96. The census taken in 1870 showed the number of farmers in this country to have been 2,660,000. In 1890 this number had increased to 4,510,000, and is now in excess of 5,000,000. The arid or desert states of the Far West — Colora- do, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana — have in recent years excelled in farming industry even more than in the mining of gold, silver and other metals. The art of irrigation is still in its infancy, but already its far- reaching effects can be predicted with certainty. There never was a time in the history of the country when the outlook for the energetic and professional farmer was as encouraging as it is now. 26o STATISTICS. The immense importance of the farming interests is understood and appreciated b}- the whole people. Progress has been steady and in every sense remarka- ble, in spite of occasional set-backs. But the times have gone by vrhen any bungler could expect to make enough out of the yet untouched soil of our western prairies to enable him to look with contempt at scien- tific farming. Science rules the day. and our farming industry is rapidly becoming transformed into an art based on the laws discovered by science. One of nature's specialists. APPENDIX. CONDENSED STATISTICS OF A PART OF THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES. I. HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP. An estimate of the Yearbook, A. D. 1900, places the value of our horses, cattle and sheep at $1,829,000,000. The amount of hay produced was over fifty million tons, valued at $445,538,870. This hay would scarcely more than suffice to feed our horses, cattle and sheep during three months of the year. Seventy-five per cent of the hay and forage nec- essary to maintain our stock is furnished by our Pas- tures AND Grazing Lands, which, accordingly rep- resent an annual 3'ielcl of three times the value of our hay crop.- II. CEREALS. Yield in igoo. Bushels. Value. Corn 2,105,102,516 $751,220,034 Wheat 522,229,505 323,515,074 Oats Sop, 125.989 208,669,223 Barley 58,925,833 24,075,271 Rye 23,995,927 12,295,417 III. POTATOES. Yield in 1900 210,926,897 50,722,553 IV. COTTON. The value of this crop for the year 1899- 1900 was $334,847,868. 261 262 APPENDIX. As to the cotton industry the Yearbook says: "There never was a time wlien so many American spindles were in operation, and rarely, if ever, a time when they were so severely taxed to meet the demand for cotton goods." V. HAY. The farm value of the hay crop, Dec. i, 1900, was $445,538,870. The acreage was 39.132.890. and the production 50.110.906 tons. Statistics for other agricultural products of the greatest importance, such as our Dairy Products, Beef, Pork, ^Iuttox, Poultry, etc., are not yet available, but the foregoing samples give a fair idea of the magnitude of the t'jtal production. The industries sustained by our breeders of horses, cattle and sheep have an estimated value of $2,000,- 000,000 (two billion dollars), "industries upon which the \'erv existence of the human race is dependent." AVERAGE YIELD PER ACRE OF CORX, WHEAT, OATS, PO- TATOES AND HAY. The average yield per acre in the different states varied greatlv. The average yield of Corx for the whole country was 2^.Ti bus. per acre. The highest yield per acre was obtained in A'ermont and in Wiscon- sin. 40 bushels. The average yield in Iowa, !Massa- chusetts and Indiana was 38 bushels ; in Illinois and Ohio, ^j bushels : in South Carolina. 7 bushels. The average yield of \\'heat per acre was — BusJilIs. For the whole country 12.29 In Montana 26.6 In \'ermont 23.6 In Texas 18.4 In Kansas 17.7 In Iowa 15.6 In Wisconsin 15.5 In Illinois ■. 13.0 APrENDlX. 263 In Michigan 7.6 In Indiana 5.3 In North Dakota 4.9 The world's production of wheat in 1900 was 2,- 586,025,000 bushels. The production of the U. S. constitutes about 25.4 per cent of this total. The average yield of 0.\ts per acre for the whole country was 29.6 bushels in 1900, against 30.2 bushels in 1899. The highest average was obtained in Bushels. Illinois 38.0 Maine 37.5 Massachusetts 36.8 Iowa 34.0 Wisconsin 32.0 North Carolina 9.5 Tennessee 9.7 Of the marketed crop of 242,850,477 bushels, much over one-half, 133,500,000 bushels, came from Illinois and Iowa. The average export price ranged between 30.2 to 32.3 cents. Potatoes yielded an average of 80.8 bushels in the entire country. The highest average was reached in 1895 with 100.59 bushels. The average for 1900 was in Bushels. Nevada 156 Idaho 136 Montana and Vermont 134 Maine 126 Wisconsin 103 Michigan 97 Missouri 93 Illinois 92 Indiana 83 Iowa 72 (The results in Nevada, Idaho and Montana are due to irrigation.) 264 APPEXDIX. Hay yielded an average of 1.2S tons per acre in the entire countr}-. The a\'erage vield per acre was in Tons. Idaho 2.S0 Utah 2.65 Colorado 2.23 Alabama 1.S5 Iowa 1 .42 Nebraska 1.38 Kansas 1.32 ^Michigan and ^lissouri 1.29 Illinois 1.27 Indiana 1.21 Ohio , 1.06 The heavy crops in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, etc.. are due to irrigation. The hay is for the most part alfalfa, and an a^-erage of two crops is taken from each acre. The Item of Waste. AA'hile these figures show the immense resources of the country, and the importance of its agricultural industries, other figures, showing great and avoidable loss from waste, might be adduced to complete the pic- ture. "The needless wastes upon Illinois farms," says Prof. P. G. Holden, of the University of Illinois, "if sa^'ed, wiuild secure to agriculture profits enjoved by no other profession. The fact is, no other business could survive such tremendous losses as are common in agriculture. "In the great cotton and woolen mills of the east the competition is so close and the margin of profit so small that the difference of one-thirtieth of a cent per yard in the cost of manufacture will prosper one establishment and drive another to the wall. "It is certain that most of these losses are matters APPENDIX. 265 of careless farming, and extend to all the crops and operations of the farm. "Recently I was obliged to drive twenty-four miles across the country, and in this distance counted 200 farm tools and machines housed in the corner of fences, in fields, and in barn yards, representing thousands of dollars. I am told by those who should know that the average life of a binder in Illinois is between three and four years, and I do not wonder that it is so. Here were binders, mowers, road graders, and every kind of farm machines, used but a few days in the year, and left to the ravages of rust and decay the remainder of the time, thus reducing not only their durability, but their efficiency as well. Properly cared for and prop- erly used, the mower and binder, on the average sized farm of 127 acres in Illinois, should do service for eight or ten years." The losses from bad management and improper feeding in Minnesota are not less than $14,000,000 annually, according to Professor Hecker, and the losses from inefficient animals $17,000,000. If we could present in figures the added losses of all the states in waste of fertilizing elements, neglect of animals and machines, carelessness in the selection and treatment of seed, and slovenliness in cultivation, the sum total would surprise and stagger the friend of agriculture. This fact, more, perhaps, than any other, proves the necessity of special training for the farmer's profession. It ought to be a profession, not a make-shift or a care- less experiment. INDEX. A Aberdeen-Angus cattle.... IIC Acid 28, 181, 194 Acorn 32 Acreage of crops 202- 204 Affinity 175 Age of horse. See Horse. Age of man 168 Agricultural chemistry. . . . 178 Agricultural colleges 23, 131, 169 Agricultural experiment .stations 06, 169 Agricultural exports 259 Agricultural papers 248 Agricultural physics 168 Agricultural physiology.. 185 Agricultural products. Ex- ports of, 43. See Ex- ports 259 Agriculture. Department "of 81, 256 Agriculture and Manufac- tures 43 Agriculture and Science. . 35, 171 Agriculturist, American.. 97 Ague 255 Air 26, 40, 48, 178 Albumen 195, 200 Albuminoids 182, 195. 200 Alcohol 202 Alfalfa 25, 195 Alkaline 27 Alton, Illinois 251 Aluminum 178 American Agriculturist.... 97 Ammonia 23, 95, 180 Amphibia 167 Animal Industry 169 Bureau of 257 Annual Plants 34 Annual Reports of Farm- ers' Institutes Antaeus, son of Earth. ... 15 Antennae, Difference of — in moths and butterflies. 206 Antitoxin animal blood.. 258 Appletrees, Planting 144 Apples, Effect of on health 142 How to keep through winter 144 Kind of — to plant. . . . 142, 144 Enemies of 146 Apple tree borer. Flat headed 147, 207, 243 Arbor vitae 239 Argentina 70 Arid States 259 Aristocracy of Europe, Landed 14 Army worm 205, 211 Arsenic in Paris Green 90, 148, 209 Arteries 187 Ashes of Clover 62 Ashes of PhiTits 32, 194 Ashes and Salt for pigs.. 115 Ashleaved Maple. See Box Elder. Ash, White 38, 243 Asparagus 161 Assimilation 198 Atlantic coast 94 Atmosphere 185 Atomic theory 165 Atom 164 Aughey, S., Prof 230 Auricles, right and left. . . 187 Austrian Pine 239 Average yield of crops .... . . -. 73, 77, 262, 264 Ayrshire cattle 116 B Bacillus tuberculosis 258 Bacteria 26 Balky horses 105 268 INDEX. Barley 70, 104. IW, Brahma. White. See Barnyard manure.. 23. 50, 1S3 Chickens. Barr W. D 1-il Braider and Braising 201 Base, in chemistry 104 Bran 30. 93, 194 Beal E. L.. Prot . .' 232 Bread 201 Beans 2.5. 195 Breathing process 48 Beauty. Elements of 233 Brewer, Dr 220 Beehives 216 Bronchial tubes 1S9 Bees 20s. 212 Broun two horse planter. Beestings 215 See Horse planter. Beetles' 205 Buckwheat 71 Beets 82 Budmoth 211 Belgium 97 Bugs 205 Belletlower apple. See Ap- Bumble bees 218 pie. Bureau of Animal Indus- Bcn Davis apjde. See Ap- try 257 pie. Bureaux of the Department Berkshire hog 115 of Agriculture 169, 256 Berlin. Its use of sewage. 96 Bunglers 260 Berlin. Its rate of ty- Butter 30. 30, 45. 192. 195 phoid fever ". . 54 Butterfly 205 Bidens cauiinhiiia 203 Butter and C'^]eese factor- Biennial plants 34 ies 45 Bile ISO Butternut tree 242 Bilious fever 255 Bio-chemie lal'oratory . . . . 259 C Birch, Cutleaved. . . .' 243 Cabbage 201 Birds 220 Caflein 22 Blackberries 141. 15S Cairo. Egypt. Typhoid fe- Black>raiths 109 ver rate in. . .' 54 Black Spani-h chicken. . . 136 Calcimining 235 Black Suffolk hog 115 Calcareous" soils 27 Black walnut..." 242 Calcium .... 167. 178, 183. 196 Blight. Pear, etc 142. 15ii California S3 Blind side of a house.... 245 California fig orchards... 211 Blood 1S7 Calves. Fat 92 Bluebird 219 Canadian Fir 239 Bluegrass 77. 78 Cane Sugar 83 Boarding cows 125 Cankerworm 149 Boliolink 225 Capillaries, in the animal Bone meal 181 body 187 Bones 94. 181.193 Capillary attraction in Bordcau-X mixture 148 plants 184 Bones 94. 181. 193 Carbo-hydrates 193 Borer. Apple tree. See Carbon." 29.178.180. 196 Apple tree borer. Carbonaceous food 195 Boron 178 Carbonates 167. 180. 190 Botany 35. 168 Carbonic acid 28. 185 Bottom lands 31 Carnelian stone 179 Box Elder 243 Carpets 235 INDEX. 269 Carrots 82, Carter, Mrs., on Poultry. . Casein 182, Catalpa Catbird Caterpillar 205, 228, Cattle 30, 34, 110, Cattle, names of parts of. . Cats and Clover Cellmaking of bees Cells of the lungs 184, Cells of plants Cells in honey combs Cemented floors Census, 1870-1900 Cereal crops Chain puni{> Chalk Chancellorsville, Battle of. Change of Crops. See Ro- tation, etc. Charcoal for filters, etc. . . 201 140 105 242 222 230 202 117 218 213 187 184 217 50 250 261 52 167 21 51 5'> Check rower 250 Cheese 45, 132, 105 Chemical action 166 Chemical change 165 Chemical elements... 164 Chemical salts 165 Chemistry 104 Cherries 141 1 52 Cherry. Earlv Richmond or May 152 Cherry. Morello. . . . 152 115 Chicago Dailies 230 Chicago, Death rate of 54 Chicago, Senage and d: ram- age canal 06 Chicago, Typhoid f ever, rates of 54 Chicken coops. Painting of 140 Chickens and Chicks 1 36 Children •^35 Chile saltpeter , .04, 182 Chinch bug 205. 207. 23 1 Chlorides 180 Chlorine. . . . 178, 180, 104, lOfi Chlorophyl . 35 Cholera 53 Chopped food 199 Chrysalis 200 Churn 127, 131 Chyle 186 Cicla. Beta— 84 Cinchona tree 22 Cincinnati, Typhoid fever in ! 54 Circulation of the blood.. 188, li)0 Circulation of life 18() Cisterns 51 Cities, Waste of sewage in 96 Civilization 43 Claylands .....' 27 Cleveland horse 100 Clover 25, 195, 252 Clydesdale horse 100 Coal, origin of 168 Coal oil for lice on chick- ens 139 Cochin China chickens. . . . 136 Codling moth 148, 208 Coffee 22, 202 Cold. Effect of on fer- ments 128 Cold ^yater in the dairy. See Dairy. Coleoptera 206 Colic in horses 10(1 Colorado beetle 89, 205 Color of house 234 Combs of bee cells 217 Combustion 173, 185 Commercial fertilizers.... 65 Commission jMercliant . . . . 46 Comparative talde of ele- ments in milk, butter, etc 92, 197 Concord grape 154 Conditions of plant growth 34 Conditions for health 48 Confederate army 21 Consumption (disease) . . . 53 Consumption, at home of farm products 45 Continuous cropping. Dan- ger of 31 270 INDEX. Cooking in the past Co-operation Corn 30, Corn, Highest average. . . . Corn, New Corn, Largest crop Corn, How to increase crop of Corn, Planting in the past Cornnieal Cornstalks Corrosive sublimate Cotswold sheep. See Sheep. Cotton 66, 71, Cotton industry Cottonseed meal Cottonwood tree Covered shed for manure. Cow, as a boarder Cow, A .Jersey Cow, Best feed for a Cow, Treatment of 119, Cow, Varieties of 12.5, Cow pea 66, 80, 145, Crab Apple Creameries 4.5. Crops, Eotation of,. 59, 61, Crow, The Crow Blackbird Cruciferae Crushed oats Crust of the earth Crystallography Cuba, Cane sugar of Cuckoo Cucumber beetles Cucumbers Cultivation of crops Cultivation of orchards. . . Culture, Importance of... Curculio 152, Curdling of milk Curds Currants Cutworm 249 46 196 262 114 72 73 2.50 93 199 261 262 93 241 79 125 126 120 120 127 195 243 125 288 84 93 167 169 83 229 231 161 30 145 05 209 138 141 205 Dailies, Chicago 236 Dairy, The 52, 131 Dairv cattle IIG Dairy cows 126, 127 Dairy Disision of Depart- ment of Agriculture , . . , 257 Dairy farm 6] Danube States, Grain from 70 Death rate 53 Deep cans for milk. ... 128, 129 Dehorning 120 Delaware grape 332 Department of Agriculture 256 Depth of soil 65 Diamond 29 Diaphragm 188, 189, 192 Diarrhoea 53 Dickcissel 227 Diet 30 Digestible food 30 Digestion 194, 197 Dioxide of Carbon 185 Disease germs 50 Diseases, Local 53 Diptera 200 Diphtheria 53 Disinfectants 110 Disintegration 16 Disk harrow 68 Ditches 33 Dogs 255 Dolomite 179 Double windows 48 Doves 226 Drafts 48 Drake, Francis 85 Drainage 26, 31, 39, 47 Drainage canal 96 Drain Tile, Laving of . . . . 252 Drills ■ 68, 251 Drone 213, 214 Drouth 74 Dry earth 32 Ducks 139 Ducks, White Pekin 139 Duroc hog 115 Durham cattle 216 Dust. See Dry earth. Dutch-Friesian Cattle. See Holstein, E Early Eichmond Cherry. See Cherry. INDEX. 271 Ears of corn, Length of.. 73, 75 Ears of corn. Tip and thick end for seed 76 Ears of corn, Selection of for seed 76 Earth, Dry 32 Eggs 36, 45, 137 Elements of Fertility.... 44 Elements of Plant Growth. 28 Electricity, Century of.. 40 Elevators, Grain 46 Elm 38, 243 Enamel of teeth 196 Endosmosis 184 Energy, Source of 175 Ensilage 97, 199 Cost per ton of 99 Entomology 1C9, 205 Epidemics 55 E.Kcrement 192 Exhaustion of soil 21 Exosmosis 184 Experiment, Scientific... 175 Experiment Stations. See Agricultural Colleges. Experts 43, 259 Extractor (butter) 129 E.xtraetor (honey) 217 Evergreens 238 Ewes and Lambs 122 F Fallow 24 Farmer, The Professional. 198 Farmers' Institutes. .. .57, 248 Farming population .... 47 Farming, Scientific 260 Fat 186 Fat producers 193 Fat stock 94 Feathers 182 Fences 253 Fermentation 31 Ferments 32, 128, 182 Ferns 108 Fertilizers 91, 183 Fertilization in orchard.. 218 Feudal Aristocracy 14 Field crops 59 Fig, Smyrna 210 Filter 51 Filth 58 Fir, Canadian 239 Fireblight 142 Fireplace, Open 49 Fishes 167, 182 Flicker 220 Flax 71 Flaxseed 30 Flies 205 Flour 201 Flowers 237, 244 Fluorine 178, 190 Flesh, Muscular 30 Flesh of animals 198 Florist 109 Food 186 Food steamed for pigs etc. 199 Forbush, E. A 230 Force 175 Ford, L. Berry 151 Formation of Soils 15 Foundation for bee cells.. 213 France 97 Fresh air. Supply of 48 Fruit 141, 195 Fruit versus alcohol 143 G Galileo 173 Galloway cattle 116 Game 255 Gano apple. See Apple. Garden 232 Garden truck 36 Gases 197 Gases, Noxious 48 Gastric juice 180 Geneva (N. Y. ) Experi- ment Station 92 Geology 16, 168, 185 Germans, Tlie — and Rome. 16 Germany 97 Germany, Beet root sugar in ..■ ':. . S3 Germs (of disease) 50, 54 Gilder, E. A., Major 248 Globules of fat in milk. . 129 Gluten 182 Gooseberries 141 Gout 201 272 INDEX. Grafting 246 Grain for ensilage PS Granite 16 Grapes 141, 154, 155 Grass ", 78, 196 Grasses. Nutritive SI Grasshopper 205 Green manure 20, 71 Ground beetle 206, 207 Groups of trees 243 Grouse 232 Growth. Process of 32 Grub 205 Guano 94 Guernsev 116 Gypsum" 172, ISO H Hambletonian (horse) .. 100 Hampshire sheep. See Sheep. Hand Planter 250 Hard Maple. See Sugar ilaple. Harrowing potato and corn ground 73, 86 Harrow, the disk — , the smoothing SO Harvesting: 69 Hav . . . .\ .24, 46. 77. 70, 196, 199. 262 Hay in rick- 79 Hay. Its fertilizing ele- ments 93 Headache 48 Heart, Its parts 188 Heart. Its work 190 Heat, Bodily 186 Heat. A mode of motion. . 175 Hecker. Prof 264 Hemiptera 206 Hemlock fir 239 Hercules 15 Hemlock fir 236 Hereford cattle 116 Hessian fly 205 Hills of corn per acre. See Corn. Hog, Tlie 112. 114. 115 Host cholera 114 "sq Holden, P. G., Prof. . . 264 Holstein cattle 118 Home market 43 45 Honev 212 Homeless cattle. See Pi jlled Cattle. Horns, Value of fertilizing 94 Horse, The 100. 101, 105. 109, 110 Horse, The planter. . . 260 Horses, etc ■■>.(^^>. Horse. Colic of 106 Horse, Food for old. 111 Horse. Wounds of . . . 110 Horticulture ■^3-^ Houses ■^34 Housing of tools and ma- chines ^65 Human beings 47 ''OO Humus 15. 20. 27 , 31. 32 Hvilransea paniculata 242 180 Hvdrosen 38. 17S. 180 HvEriene 54. 169. 185 Hymenoptera .206, 212 Idaho Illinois. Rotation of crops in Illinois State Fair, 1898. . Illinois, Department of Agriculture of the Uni- versity of Illinois and Iowa, Produc- tion of wheat in Immune conditions Implements. Improved . . . Improvement of stock, etc. Incubator . : India Indiana 38. 78. Industries sustained by breeders of horses, cat- tle and sheep Industry. Manufact\irin£r. 263 63 75 264 263 57 249 46 135 70 263 262 43 INDEX. 273 Infection 53 Insects 36, 63, 205, 206 Institutes, Farmers' . . 38, 265 Intestines, The small. ... 187 Iowa 78, 263 Iowa Agricultural College. 131 Iowa and Illinois, Produc- tion of wheat in 263 Iron 178, 196 Irrigation ...96, 259, 263, 264 Italian Bees 217 J Jasper 179 Jay, The 221 Jersey cattle 116 Jersey cow, A 126, 130 Jersey Red hog 115 Jonathan. See Apple. Joule, Prof 177 Judd, S. D 221, 231 Jumper, The 250 K Kansas 262 Kant, I., German thinker. 166 Kernel, Nature of 33 Kerosene, Emulsion of.l47, 209 Kingfisher 229 L Lactic acid 128 Lactometer 125 Lactose 128 Ladybird beetle or Lady bug 206 Land, a machine 12 Land, Parts of — wearing out 12 La Place, French astrono- mer 166 Lard 30 Larva 206 Laryn.x, The • 8 Laufen, Switzerland .... 55 Lavoisier, French chemist. 172 Law in Science 173 Law of gravitation 174 Laws of changes of matter. 174 Lawn 243 Lawrence, Mass., Death rate of 54 Layering 153 Leaves 32 Leghorn Chickens. See Chickens. Legumes 25, 195 Leguminosae 25 Leguminous 25 Leicester sheep. See Sheep. Lentils 30, 195 Lepidoptera 206 Lice in Poultry 139 Lichens 20 Life, Length of 54 Lima bean 161 Lime 103 Limestone 167, 179, 194 Lincoln sheep. See Sheep. Linseed 30, 71, 195 Linseed meal 93 Linseed oil cake 71 Liquid manure 119 Liquor 202 Listing 74 Liver, "The 786 Locusts 230 Log cabin 253 London Purple 90 Losses from wa?te 265 Lucerne 25 Lungs 187, 189 Luxury 233 M MacAdam, J. L 37 Macadamized roads 37 Magnesia 193 Magnesium 178 Mail, Rural delivery of . . 41 Malarial fevers 53 Management of farms.... 40 Manganese 178 Mangelwurzel 63, 84 Manufacturing Industry.. 43 Manure sheds 79 Manure 22, 51, 96 Manure, Green 20 Manure, Waste of 95 Maples 242 274 INDEX. ilarble 170. 104 Munich. Trplioid fever. Mare, Form of 101 rates of. .' ."54 Markets, Value of 4.3 ^Muriatic acid LSO Markets. Home 44 :MuseIes 94 Marble 170. 104 ^luscle formiiis ek-ments Marl 27 ^ 133, 193 Massachusetts 177. 203 Matter, Xature of 104 N ilav beetles 231 Xatioual Govcniinent aud ;Mayer, J. Eohert 177 Agriculture 2.3C :\lea(lo\vlands. Troductiou Xatrium 196 of SI Nebra.ska 230 Meat inspection 2."i'^ Xebnlar theory 100 Meat rations 201 Nestling 219 Medical science .34 Xests and Nesting Places. 232 Medicinal spring 57 Xeuroptera 206 Melons " 101 New England States 44 Merino. See Sheep. Nevada 203 Metals 17S New York, Typhoid fever Meteorology lt;0 in 44 iliehigan " 203 Niagara grape 1.34 Microbes 23.3 Nicotine 22 Middling 3o. 134 Nitrate 23. 24. 00. 94 Midriff' ISO Nitrate of lime 1S2 :Milk 30. 4.3. 50. 02. 05 Nitric acid ' ISl Millet seed for poultry. . . . 140 Nitrification 1?1 Mind 12.3. 132. 202 Nitrogen 23, 00, ISO. ISo Mind. Power of human. . . . 174 Nitrogenoiis elements .... Miner. Phnn. See Plum ■■■ 20, 30, 31, 50 trees. North Dakota 203 Minnesota Experiment Sta- Northern States 44 tion CO, Norway spruce 23S, 241 Minkler apple. See Aiiples. Nursery of trees 240 Mineral matter. . . .21. 32. 34 Nuts 201 Mineralogv' ICO Minerals 103 O Minorcas. See Chickens.. 130 Oats 71, 104, 203 Missouri E-\periment Sta- Oatmeal 107 tion 0.3 Oats, Crushed 03 ilixture for spraying. . . . 147 Oat jtraw 03 Molecule ' 104 Ohio 38 Morello. See Cherries. * Oils 103. 106 ilosses IG Old sod 57 Motion and Heat 175 Optics 109 Mountains 10 R''!'''":}.-. ^,^ Jlontana 202 Movement in nature... 10. 177 Orchardist 109 Orchards, Cultivation of.. 145 Organs and Organic Chem- -^lufk 27, 31 i^itry 1S4 Munich 170 Orthoptera 200 INDEX. 275 Osmosis 184 Plan-Workina; 245 Outlets for drains 30 Planets ....''. 107 Over-driving horses 108 Plant, Tlie — a model 203 Over-feeding 108 Plant, Food of— from the Owl, Screech 231 soil 02 Owl, Horned 231 Plant growth 28 Oxen 02 Plantin'i' trees and vines. . Oxides 178 Plants, ' Useful 3o O.-cygcn . . .22, 28, 34, 178, 185 Plows 250 Plowing 31, 07 F ' Plums " 141, 152, 209 Paint of houses, etc. .234, 235 Plums, Miner 142 Paleontology 109 Plums, Wild Goose 142 Papers. Agricultural .... 248 Plymouth Eock chicken .. . 130 Parasites 200 Plymouth, Penn., Tvphoid Paris Green 90, 148, 209 fever ', 50 Parlor 235 Poison in water 49 Parts of a horse 104 Poisonous elements 48 Parts of a horse's hoof. . . 105 Poland China hog 115 Pasteur 129 Polled Anyns cattle 120 Pasteurize 129 Polled cattle 120 Pastures 77, 190 Pollen 208, 212 Patent medicine 143 Polution, Surface 57 Pathniaster, Olhee of 40 Pores of the skin 192 Peaches 142 Porous soil 34 Pearblight 142 Potash 23, 59, 85, 183 Pears 142, 152 Potassa 183 Pears, Dwarf 142 Potassium 183, 190 Pear tree slug 208 Potato bug. See Colorado Pease 25, 00, 195 ■ beetle .' 205 Peastraw 194 Potato planter 87 Peaweevil 205 Potatoes ..30, 44. 59. 02, Pekin duck. See Ducks. 87, 92, 190, 261 Percheron horse 100 Prairie chickens 231 Perennial 34 Prairie land 19, 32 Perishable products 40 Prices 251, 254 Phenomena 175 Prices, Good 70 Pheasants 231 Priestley 172 Philadelphia 56 Principal products of the Phlogiston 172 farm 47 Phosphate of lime. . . .94, 193 Privacy 245 Phosphate, Phosphorus, Productive farms 10, 44 Phosphorides ...22, ,59, 190 Profession of farming.... Physics 1G4 9, 11, 259 Physics, Agricultural .... 108 Profit in hay 93 Physiology 108 Profit in potatoes 94 Pictures' " 230 Profits of small farms . . 10, 44 Pigeons 220 Protective tariff and wool. Pigs 30. 92 See Wool. Pistillate strawberries 159 Protein 133, 190 276 INDEX. Pruning apple trees 147 Pruning grape vines 154 Poultry 36, 45, 135 Poultry, Breeds of 45 Poultry breeder 1G9 Poultry houses 136 Poults! Feed for. .'. 138 Premiums 75 Pulmonary artery '. 188 Palmomiry vein 188 Pumpkins 101 Pure air and water 47 Q Quail 231 Quartz 178 Queenbee 213, 214 Quinine 22 R Eaihvays 40 Rains, Cultivation after.. 30, 170 Pvantid butter. Cause of.. 128, 131 Eape seed 195 Raspberries 141, 157 Raw material 54 Recreation 249 Red Polls. See Polled Cat- tle 120 Remedies 235 Rennet 132 Renovation of soils.... 21, 20 Reputation with buyers.. 40 Retrospect 248 Rheumatism 53 Rice 195 Ricks, Hav in 79 Roast . . ." 201 Robin 232 Rocks, source of all soil.. 10 Road and Bridge Tax 39 Road-making 30 Road, Substitute for hard. 38 Roads 36 Roberts, Prof. LP 05 Roller, The disk 39 Rollers 38 Romans, The, and agricul- ture 15 Root crops 82 Root cellars 90 Root pruned corn 75 Roots, Formation of 32 Rotation of crops. . .59, 01, 77 Royal Jelly 214 Rugs 235 Rumford, Count 177 Runners of strawberries . . 157, 158 Rural delivery 41 Rural Xew Yorker 65 Rural Sceuerv 233, 237 Russia .' 70 Rye 70 s Saccharine matter 195 Sago 195 St. Louis, Typhoid fever, rates 54 Sales on the farm 40 Saliva 199 Salt or Chlorine-Natrium. 131, 172, 194 Salt for ensilage 98 Salts, Chemical 194 Saltpeter 23, 94, 183 Sand 178 Sandstone 16 Sanitation. .. .14, 54, 109, 185 Sanitation for country homes 53 Scab on potatoes 87 Scarecrows 232 Science 103, 200 Science, Divisions of 103 Scientific Agriculture 43 Scion for grafting 240 Schooling in former years. 255 Schoolhouse 245 Scotch Pine 239 Scrofula 53 Seaweed 182 Seed, Growth of 32 Seed corn and seed wheat 45, 08, 09 Separator (for the dairy) 127 INDrix. 277 Septum 187 Serum for hog cholera . . . 259 Sewage 54 Sewerage 54 Sewers 47, 53 Shade trees 238 Shallow cr deep pans for milk 128 Sheep 121, 202 Sheep, Their varieties and wool 122 Sheep, Fertilizing element in fat 92 Sliocking wheat 69 Shorthorn cattle 116 Shropshire sheep 122 Shrubbery 242 Sickness 48 Silica 29 Silicon 178 Silage 196 Silos, Origin and modern use of 97 Sink holes 50 Skim milk 92 Skin, The 193 Skin, Its pores 192 Sled attachment to Plan- ter 250 Slops, Poured near trees. . 100 Slops, Where to put. . . .50. 51 Slugs 208, 209 Small pint 157 Smallpox 53 Smoker for bees 210 Smyrna figs 210 Snowball 242 Snow 176 Soda 203 Sodium 178, 183, 104, 196 Soft maple. See White Maple. Soft soap for trees 208 Soil, Origin of 17 Soil, Renovation of 21, 26 Soja bean 66, 145, 195 Solar system. The 167 Soluble fertilizers 91, 172 Song birds 219 Source of energy. See Sun. 176 Souring of milk. See Lac- tose. Sour soils 182 Southdown sheep 122 Southern States 44 Sparrow, domestic varie- ties 222, 220 Sparrow, English 228 Specialist • 11, 23 Sportsman 231 Spraying of trees. 147-151, 208 Spraying mixture .... 148-150 Spring wheat 08 Squashe.s 101 Stables, Warm 46 Starch 30, 195 Statistics of export and production 257 Statistics of typhoid rates 54 Steak, How to cook a 200 Steam plowing 100 Stock 46, 193 Stock for grafting 246 Stock farms 63 Stogies 255 Stomach, The 203 Storage houses 90 Storing of apples and po- tatoes 00 Straight-winged insects. See Orthoptera. Straw 20, 194, 199 Straw for winter wheat.. 69 Strawberries 141, 157, 150 Strippings 130 Subsoil 80 Subsoil plow 80 Sugar S3, 105, 105 Sugar beets 82 Sugar maple 38, 242 Sulphate of potash 190 Sulphur 178, ISO, 196 Sun, The 176 Sunflowers 140 Sunlight 34. 193, 235 Susquehanna river 56 Swamps 27 Swarming of bees 216 Swallow, The 222, 226 278 INDEX. Switzerland 16 Syringas 242 T Talbot, A. X 53 Tariff for wool 122 Tax. Road and Bridge. ... 39 Tea 22, 202 Teachers, Former wages of 255 Teleplione 41 Teeth. Enamel of 193 Temperature in buttermak- ing 129 Tenant farmers 61 Tent caterpillar 209, 210 Terry, T. S 11, 65, 88 Tests of Science 170 Texas 262 Thein 22 Thomas harrow 88 Thoroughbreds 45, 46 Threshing and threshing machines 251 Tillage and implements. . . 65 Times, The good old 249 Timothy 77, 93 Tire, Wide 39 Tobacco 21, 66 Toleration 254 Tomatoes 161 Training horses 103 Tramps 254 Transportation, Cost of. . . 43 Treadwell, Prof 220 Trees 38, 239 Transparent -winged insects. See Hynienoptera. Trichina;" in Pork 258 Tubercles 26 Tuberculosis in cattle 258 Tubers 85 Turkeys 138 Turkeys, Bronze 138 Turkeys, Markers for 139 Turnips 63, 82, 196 Two-winged insects. See Diptera. Tyndall, Prof 177 Tj-phoid bacillus 55 Typhoid fever 59 Typhoid fever rates 54 u Umbelliferae 84 Underdraining 36 United States, Beet root sugar in S3 United States Department of Agriculture 256 United States Yearbook of Dept. of Agriculture. . . . 219 Urea 191 Urine 22, 190 Utah 83 Value of Markets 43 Van Helmont 170 Van Vleck 40 Varieties, Production of new 8j Variety of Products 44 Vegetables 161, 195 Veins 187 Venal Blood. See Heart. Ventilation 48, 49 Ventricle. See Heart. Vermont 262 Vienna, Typhoid rates. ... 54 Vineyard ' 232 Virginia 21 Virgin soil 67 w Wages in former years . . . 256 Wall paper 235 Walnut tree 33. 242 Wasp 205 Waste 95, 264 Water 28, 46, 149, 165 Water for stock 52 Watersprouts 147 Weather Bureau 257 Wealth 43 Weeds 63, 68, 87 Weeds on roads 40 Weed seed 230 Wells 49 Western farmer 27 INDEX. 279 Wliale oil soap 208 Winesap apple. See Ap- Wlieat pie 144 24, 30. 5!), 02, OS, 92, l!)(i, 202 Winter wheat 07 \Mieat for seed 45 Wisconsin 78 Wheat straw 0.3 Woodpeckers 220 Wide tire. See Tne. Woody fiber 100 W hite ash 243 Wolves 2.55 White Brahma. See Chick- Wool, Classification of.... 121 ens 136 Women spinning wool .... 249 White Maple 242 Worker bee 213, 214 White Pekin dnck. See Worn-out land 10, 20 Diiek. Wounds and bruises on White Pine 239 horses Ill Whole wheat flour 197 Wren 221, 232 Wild cherries 232 Wyandotte, The White — Wild poose plum. See chicken 130, 140 Plum. Y Willow, Experiment of Yard, Ornamenting the ... 230 growth of 170 Yeast, Ferments of Willow Twig A]>i)le, See 32, 128, 182 Apple 144 Yorkshire hogs. See Hogs. Wiley, Prof 180, 182 Yellow fever 53 Windbreaks 236, 240 Z Windmills 52 Zoology 168 Windpipe 188, 189 Zymotic diseases 54