AGR1CULTU JOHN FREDERICK DUGCAR I AGRICULTURE FOR SOUTHERN SCHOOLS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW >ORIC BOSTON CHICAGO ATLANTA SAN FKANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO.. LIMITTO LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TOUONTO AGRICULTURE FOR SOUTHERN SCHOOLS BY JOHN FREDERICK DUGGAR DIRECTOR OF THE ALABAMA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION AND PROFESSOR OF AGRICULTURE IN THE ALABAMA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE Nefo gork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1909 All rights reserved 59683 COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published June. 1908. Reprinted July, August, November, December, 1908; August, November, 1909. Kortoooh }3irt J. 8. Curbing Co. Berwick A Smith Co. Norwood, MM*., U.S.A. PREFACE THIS little book has been written with the hope of supplying the need for an elementary text-book on agri- culture that shall differ from others in having a definite and limited field, the South. While many of the prin- ciples of agriculture are universal, the application of these principles is somewhat local. By limiting the field of a text-book on agriculture to the Southern states, it becomes possible to treat the subject in a concrete way ; to avoid many generalities inseparable from a book intended for use in all latitudes; and to employ as object-lessons only those plants that any teacher or pupil in a Southern school can easily obtain. For example, it is better that a South- ern pupil study the peach bloom fresh from the tree than to read of the flower of some plant rarely found in the orchards or fields in this latitude. The cotton bloom, too, affords a suitable example of how flowers are constructed. This Southern point of view also makes it possible to give fuller, and hence more teachable, treatment to the most widely grown crops of the South. The principal aims that have guided the author in writ- ing this book are these : I. To arouse .the interest of the pupil in nature, and especially in the common plants of the Southern farm, orchard, and garden. vi PREFACE 2. So to present the subject that it may be mastered rather by stimulated observation and quickened thought than by mere memorizing. 3. To make a teachable book, one that will present fewest possible difficulties to a teacher who has had no special training in either the theory or practice of agri- culture. The effort has been made to lead the pupil by easy steps from the known to the less familiar subjects, and from the concrete example to the general law or principle. 4. To make the language simple enough to be readily understood by a pupil in the sixth grade of the common schools, and yet to present the subject with enough system and substance to suit the pupils in the high school. 5. To emphasize, amplify, and illustrate a few princi- ples, which, when understood and practiced, have the power to revolutionize Southern farm practice and to promote the permanent prosperity of the farmer and of the state. The author's experience as a teacher, his long study and practice of agriculture, and his association with chil- dren, lead him to think that all these aims can be real- ized. He must leave to his fellow-teachers of the South the verdict whether this book approaches his cherished ideals. Recognizing the fact that provision has not been made for the special instruction of teachers in agriculture and that many are not familiar with farm practice, he adds this message to all such teachers. You can teach this subject effectively even without this acquaintance with PREFACE vii farm work. Your weakness will become your greatest strength if it cause you to step down in this class from the teacher's desk and to be a comrade with your pupils, a fellow-seeker after the truth that none of us can know completely. Be a leader in raising questions which you need not be ashamed to own that you cannot answer. If you arouse the interest that will make your pupils desire an answer, you arouse in them for the years to come the spirit of inquiry by means of which, as men and women, they will educate themselves. In teaching agriculture, humility is the teacher's proper attitude, and to show it will not forfeit the respect of either pupils or patrons. The thanks of the writer are due to the many friends who have lent a helping hand in this work. Space does not suffice for acknowledgements to all, but special thanks are here tendered to my associates, Dr. W. E. Hinds, for the sections on insects, and Professor R. S. Mackintosh, for numerous photographs and for critical reading of the chapters on horticulture ; to Miss F. E. Andrews, and other, lovers of flowers, for the sections on flower garden- ing; to Dr. B. M. Duggar, of Cornell University, for writing the chapter on plant diseases ; to Professor L. N. Duncan for suggestions and photographs for Figs. 2, 136, 139143, and 215; to Miss C. M. Cook for drawings; to the editor, Dr. L. H. Bailey, for many improvements ; and for illustrations, to the United States Department of Agri- culture, and to the Experiment Stations of Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, and Ohio. THE AUTHOR. AUBURN, ALABAMA, January, 1908. CONTENTS PAGB SECTION I. INTRODUCTION i THE PLANT 7-53 Section II. The parts of the flower. Plant families . . 7 Section III. Pollination . . . . .12 Section IV. Germination of seeds . . . . 21 Section V. Water for the plant 28 Section VI. How plants get food from soil and air . . 32 Section VII. How plants are propagated . . . 38 Section VIII. Improvement of plants 46 THE SOIL 54-85 Section IX. How the soil was formed. Kinds of soil . . 54 Section X. Suiting the crop to the soil . . . .61 Section XI. Moisture in the soil 65 Section XII. Preparation and cultivation of the soil . . 70 Section XIII. Terracing and draining .... 74 Section XIV. How the soil becomes poor . . . .82 FERTILIZING MATERIALS AND FERTILIZERS . . . 86-115 Section XV. How trees and leguminous plants improve the soil 86 Section XVI. Barnyard manure 93 Section XVII. Commercial fertilizers ..... 97 Section XVIII. Calculating fertilizer formulas . . . 102 Section XIX. Suiting the fertilizers to the soil . . . 108 Section XX. Lime ........ 112 FARM CROPS . . . ... . . . 116-181 Section XXI. Rotation of crops 116 Section XXII. Corn . . . '. ... .123 Section XXIII. Selecting or judging seed-corn . . . 129 Section XXIV. Wheat, oats, rye, and barley . . . 136 ix (.ONI I.MS Section XXVII. Sweet potatoes .... . 162 Section XXVIII. Peanuts and watermelons . . 165 Section XXIX. Legumes and inoculation . . 168 Section XXX. Some forage plants . 174 Section XXXI. Weeds . 182 Section XXXII. The vegetable garden . . 185 FLOWERS ...',--. *.'\> ... 192-202 Section XXXIII. Planning the flower garden . 192 Section XXXIV. Growing flowers . 197 FOREST AND FRUIT TREES 203-224 Section XXXV. Forest trees 203 Section XXXVI. Forest trees (Continued) . . . .208 Section XXXVII. Fruits 215 DISEASES OF PLANTS. GERMS IN THE SOIL . . . 225-245 Section XXXVIII. The causes of diseases of plants . . 225 Section XXXIX. Some diseases of fruits .... 229 Section XL. Diseases of oats and wheat .... 233 Section X LI. Diseases of Irish and sweet potatoes . . 236 Section X LI I. Diseases of cotton 238 Section XLI1I. Germs in the soil 244 INSECTS 246-280 Section XLIV. What an insect is 246 Section XLV. How insects grow 249 Section XLVI. How insects feed 253 Section XLVI I. Insect enemies of the farmer . . . 257 Section XLVIII. The Mexican cotton-boll weevil . . 264 Section XLIX. Insects and health 272 Section L. The honeybee 277 FARM LIVE-STOCK ........ 281-313 Section LI. Improvement of live-stock .... 281 Section LI I. Horses ........ 284 Section LII I. Beef cattle 290 CONTENTS xi PACK Section LV. Sheep Section LVI. Swine . . . . . Section LVII. The management of poultry Section LVI II. Breeds and varieties of chickens . . 299 33 306 - 3' FEEDING LIVE-STOCK . . . . . ... . 314-322 Section LIX. Principles of feeding animals . Section LX. Calculating rations for live-stock 3'4 . .318 DAIRYING . . \ .... 323-329 Section LXI. The production and care of milk . Section LXII. Making butter . . ... 323 . 326 MISCELLANEOUS 330-340 Section LXIII. The cattle tick .... Section LXIV. Farm implements and machinery Section LXV. Earth roads . . . . 330 333 338 APPENDIX i-vii Fertilizer equivalents i Some fertilizer formulas ....... i To destroy insects iii To prevent or decrease diseases of plants . . . . iv To measure grain approximately ..... iv Dimensions of one acre ....... v State Agricultural Experiment Stations . . . . v School gardens vi INDEX . . . ix-xiv AGRICULTURE FOR SOUTHERN SCHOOLS SECTION I. INTRODUCTION WE all enjoy a trip to a part of the country in which we have never been. It is the newness of all we see Photo by R. S. Mackintosh FIG. i. AWAITING DISCOVERY Does the showy part of the dogwood consist of petals or of whitened leaves ? that excites our curiosity and interest. Would it not be delightful if we could constantly make discoveries of new 2 AGRICULTURE things about the very places where we live, and so find the same interest and pleasure that a trip affords us? Some persons have learned to do this. They make dis- coveries on any day that they spend in the woods or fields. They find flowers that they have not noticed before; they learn which wild plants and weeds are kin to useful plants that they know ; they observe how plants provide for their seed to be carried by wind, or water, or birds, or by large animals to other parts of the field or pasture. They learn new facts about animals and brooks and the whole out-of-doors. If we try to observe the plants that grow in our woods, or field, or garden, or orchard, we shall always be making interesting discoveries and gaining new plant friends. There is not only delight in collecting the wild flowers and in observing the trees, but there is also pleasure and profit in learning the nature and habits of our cultivated plants. We will know better how to prune a peach tree, an apple tree, or a grape-vine if we observe whether the fruit is borne on new branches or on those one or two years old. Notice this and tell the teacher what you observe. We shall be able to select better seed corn if we learn which shape of ear or of kernel is found in the most productive varieties. Agriculture deals with such ques- tions as these. A study of agriculture should enable pupils to under- stand better the common plants and animals of the farm and cause them to take more interest in them. A book like this can give only a few of the most important principles of plant and animal growth. A knowledge of these INTRODUCTION should help one to observe and to form conclusions about the best way to select, feed, and cultivate plants and to FIG. a. COTTON, THE PRINCIPAL SALE CROP OF THE SOUTH care for animals so that farming may be made more inter- esting and more profitable. 4 AGRICULTURE Agriculture is the practice of producing useful plants and animals. It is based on physiology, botany, chemis- try, and other natural sciences. It is also an art because success in agriculture requires skill and experience and business methods. In agricultural books, papers, and pamphlets is recorded much of the experience of the best farmers. In studying agriculture we shall learn some- thing about flowers, fruits, vegetables, and animals, as well as about crops that grow in the fields. Reasons for studying agriculture. Agriculture is worthy of our most earnest study. It is the industry that furnishes food to all mankind and on which many arts and industries are built. Its study teaches us how plants feed, grow, and multiply ; how man may take common plants and greatly increase their productiveness, beauty, or hardi- ness ; how he may rear animals ; how a farmer may make his poor soil rich, his scant crops bountiful, and his life and the life of his family full of comfort and pleasure. Surely, it is worth while to learn how to make the crops larger, the farm animals more useful and profitable ; how to make the garden and orchard yield a continuous supply of vegetables and fruits ; and how to beautify the grounds around the home and the school. It is worth while, too, for all of us to know how to pro- tect our plants from disease and how to conquer our insect foes. If blights, smuts, and mildews destroy the crops of field, orchard, or garden, knowledge suggests ways of preventing or destroying them. If caterpillars, bugs, weevils, and a host of other insect pests strip bare the growing crops and despoil the stored grain, knowledge INTRODUCTION 5 of their lives and habits is the weapon with which man x conquers them. Wherever farming has proved to be profitable, we may expect to find good roads, good schools, churches, libraries, telephones, and much else that helps to make life in the country pleasant and attractive. Even a child may do his part in bringing these things to pass. Some of the agri- Courtesy Ky. Es.pt. Station FIG. 3. AN EXAMPLE OF HOW KNOWLEDGE PAYS Above, the yield of apples from one tree sprayed to prevent rot ; below, the yield of a similar tree not thus protected. culture that he learns at school he can promptly make use of at home. Still more of it will be helpful to him in later years if he becomes a farmer. Best of all, the study of agriculture should enable him to find a keener pleasure in observing the ways of plants and animals, and thus enrich his entire life, whatever may be his future occupation. Even from this book we may learn how to make the soil richer year by year. If we should remember only this, and forget all else, we should be able to help our neighbor- hood and our country as well as ourselves. He serves his 6 AGRICULTURE country well who transforms a poor and unprofitable soil into a fertile and wealth-producing farm. He serves it also who aids in introducing a better class of live-stock or in producing better milk and butter. EXERCISE. Secure a small notebook with a hack that will not easily break. Tic to it a pencil. Use this for your agricultural exercises, and for no other purpose. Before the end of the session this little note- book will be more interesting to you than any printed book, and you will be an author. As you study this chapter, write in your notebook a numtered list of the plants you know. Write down the names of all the field crops cultivated near your home. Opposite each write all of its uses. Like- wise write a list of the names and uses of as many kinds as you can of farm animals and poultry. NOTE TO THE TEACHER. Question pupils on the text of every chapter. Encourage answers in the language of the child rather than in the exact language of the book. Grade pupils as much on the exercises at the end of each chapter, and on independent observation, as on the text. By grades or other means stimulate the pupils to bring to the class in agriculture object lessons appropriate to the subject in hand. Require notebooks and examine these often. You will be helped in teaching agriculture by having at hand " Exercises in Elementary Agri- culture ; Plant Production," by Dick J. Crosby. This bulletin is sent free (on application) by the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Procure bulletins from the Experiment Station in your own state. SECTION II. THE PARTS OF THE FLOWER. PLANT FAMILIES THE chief effort of the plant is to produce seed. A flower must be formed before the seed can be produced. Its beautiful colors, its nectar, and its delicious perfume are means to attract insects whose help it may require in making seed. Mustard flower. As our first example, we may inquire what are the parts of a mustard flower (Fig. 4). In the FIG. 4. FLOWER OF FIG. 5. DETAILS OF PART MUSTARD OF MUSTARD FLOWER center of this flower is a column, at the top of which is a rounded knob (o, Fig. 5). The whole central column is called the pistil. Its important parts are the ovule case, near the base, in which the seeds develop ; and the stigma, or knob at the top. In some plants the stigma is divided into several parts. The surface of a full-grown stigma is sticky or rough, so that pollen, which is the yellow dust of the flower, may stick to it. The ovule case, or ovary, 7 8 AGRICULTURE contains little, immature, seed-like bodies, called ovules. Each ovule may become a seed. But before an ovule can change into a seed, it must be fertilized; that is, a grain of pollen must fall upon the stigma and grow down into the ovule, after which the latter becomes a seed. In a circle just outside of the pistil are a number of slender stalks (six on the mustard flower) called the stamens (1,4, Fig. 5 ). The most important part of a stamen is the cap at the top. This is the anther, or pollen case. When the anther is mature, it bursts and frees a yellow powder, called pollen. FIG. 6. A PISTIL Soon after this powder or pollen is shed, the stamen, now useless, dies. The pollen must be carried by insects or wind or otherwise to the sticky or rough surface of the stigma in the same or in a different flower. If pollen is not brought to the stigma, no seeds develop. In a layer just outside of the stamens is the bright- colored part of the flower (2, Fig. 5). This is called the corolla. In many plants, as in the mustard, it is divided into a number of distinct pieces, each being really a colored leaf, called a petal. Fig. 4 shows that there are four petals in the mustard flower. In a layer just outside of these are the green parts of the flower, called sepals (3, Fig. 5). Let us see whether most flowers have their parts arranged in the same order, the pistil in the center, the stamens around the pistil, the petals next to these, and outside of all, the sepals. Peach blossom. The peach blossom has this same THE PARTS OF THE FLOWER arrangement (Fig. 7). It has one undivided pistil. This is the part that a fruit grower examines after a frost, for he knows that if the pistils are killed there will be no peaches. Notice that there are numerous stamens ; that there are five petals ; and that there are five sepals, grown together. Apple blossom. The apple blossom (Fig. 8) is very much like that of the peach, but its pistil is divided into five parts. Like the peach it has five petals and five sepals. In all the examples given above, there has been the same number of petals as of sepals. This is often true. Cotton flower. The cotton bloom is formed on the plan of fives (Fig. 9). There are five showy petals, and also five short sepals. These last are grown together and form a shallow cup, which incloses the base of the boll. The three large green parts that form the square are not sepals, but bracts, or leaf-like extra parts. You also find bracts around some Photo by R. 8. Mackintosh FIG. 7. PEACH BLOOMS FIG. 8. FLOWERS OF THE APPLE 10 AGRICULTURE Fie. 9. SECTION or COTTON BLOOM other flowers, for example, around the strawberry blossom and the head of the sunflower. There are usually four or five divisions of the pistil in the cotton bloom. From the number of these you will find that you can foretell how many locks of cotton there will be in any boll ; for there will be just as many locks in the boll as there are divisions of the pistil. The stamens in the cotton bloom are numerous. Their lower parts or stalks grow together to form a tube sur- rounding the pistil. Plant families. Plants that produce blooms are divided into more than two hundred families. A family of plants generally includes the kinds that form their flowers in the same general way. For example, the Bean family in- cludes the garden pea, the sweet-pea, the field or cowpea, the locust tree, all kinds of clovers, and many others. If you will pick from a clover head a single tiny flower, you will see that its parts have the same general shape and arrangement as the large flowers of the garden pea, of the cowpea, or of the beautiful sweet-pea. Perhaps you can find out what resemblances there are between the flowers of the blackberry, the strawberry, the apple, the pear, the peach, the plum, and the wild rose. These all belong to the very large Rose family, which includes most of our fruits and berries. THE PARTS OF THE FLOWER II It will be easy for you to find scores of plants that be- long to the immense family of the Grasses. After carefully examining several well-known grasses, like crab grass, examine plants of corn and oats and see how many resemblances to grasses you find in these useful crop plants. These and other grains are grasses (Fig. 10). EXERCISE. In every large flower you find, point out (i) the pistil, (2) the stamens, (3) the petals, and (4) the sepals. Find the pollen in all the flowers you examine. Does it show in young flower-buds ? Why is there little or no pollen in flowers that are nearly ready to wither or drop? Collect all the cultivated and wild plants that you can find having blossoms shaped like those of the sweet-pea or bean. In your note- FlG IO- _ OAT FLOWER| book write the names of all these pea-like plants that you know. Leave a long blank space and keep adding to this list all through the season. Examine every kind of plant that you have ever heard called a clover to see whether its separate blossoms have the shape of a pea or sweet-pea bloom. NOTE TO THE TEACHER. Devote as much time as possible to having pupils point out the parts of each flower that may be brought to the class. Have them place in separate piles (i) all the pea-like flowers, (2) all the flowers that seem to them kin to the roses and blackberries, and (3) all the grasses. Probably one or two reviews of this chapter must be given so as to afford time for examination of every flower that is brought in. OPENED TO SHOW STA- MENS (s), AND STIGMAS (j<), ENLARGED. (After Roberts and Freeman.) SECTION III. POLLINATION WHILE you have been learning the names of the differ- ent parts of the flowers, you have perhaps been thinking about the uses of each part. The sepals and petals serve to protect the more important parts inside. For example, the peach sepals and petals while still folded together in the bud keep the pistil from being killed by slight frosts in the early spring ; thus the peach crop is sometimes saved. That the stamens and pistils, however, are more important than the sepals and petals can be proved by care- fully removing all of the petals from a flower of cotton or from a peach blossom. In spite of this injury, a boll or a peach will form if pollen is applied to the stigma. Flowers without petals. Since the flower makes seed or fruit by means of the stamens and pistil alone, these two parts are called the necessary or essential parts. The flowers of many plants have no showy sepals and petals. The sepals and the petals are not strictly necessary. When you see the flowers of corn and wheat you may not think of them as flowers, because they have no gay colors. The bees and other insects do not often visit such flowers. Function or use of the pistil. The pistil is the part of a flower that develops into the seed-case or fruit. In its ta POLLINATION base it contains the tiny ovules which may develop into seeds. There will be no fruit or seed formed if the pistil is destroyed. Function or use of pollen. The part of the stamen that is most important is the pollen or plant dust. This is a fine powder and is set free by the opening of the little pollen case, or anther, at the tip end of the stamen. Pollen must adhere to and grow into the pistil \i M and enter the ovule be- I fore seed contained in the pistil can develop.