Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Janet Blenkinship and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. This file is gratefully uploaded to the PG collection in honor of Distributed Proofreaders having posted over 10,000 ebooks. AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS BY CHARLES WILLIAM BURKETT EDITOR OF THE _AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST_ FORMERLY DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION KANSAS STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE FRANK LINCOLN STEVENS PROFESSOR OF PLANT PATHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FORMERLY TEACHER OF SCIENCE IN HIGH SCHOOL COLUMBUS, OHIO AND DANIEL HARVEY HILL FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF THE NORTH CAROLINA COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS _REVISED EDITION_ GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON . NEW YORK . CHICAGO . LONDON ATLANTA . DALLAS . COLUMBUS . SAN FRANCISCO COPYRIGHT, 1903, 1904, 1914, BY CHARLES WILLIAM BURKETT, FRANK LINCOLN STEVENS AND DANIEL HARVEY HILL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 329.7 The Athenaeum Press GINN AND COMPANY . PROPRIETORS . BOSTON . U.S.A. [Illustration: GETTING READY FOR WINTER] PREFACE Since its first publication "Agriculture for Beginners" has found a welcome in thousands of schools and homes. Naturally many suggestions as to changes, additions, and other improvements have reached its authors. Naturally, too, the authors have busied themselves in devising methods to add to the effectiveness of the book. Some additions have been made almost every year since the book was published. To embody all these changes and helpful suggestions into a strictly unified volume; to add some further topics and sections; to bring all farm practices up to the ideals of to-day; to include the most recent teaching of scientific investigators--these were the objects sought in the thorough revision which has just been given the book. The authors hope and think that the remaking of the book has added to its usefulness and attractiveness. They believe now, as they believed before, that there is no line of separation between the science of agriculture and the practical art of agriculture. They are assured by the success of this book that agriculture is eminently a teachable subject. They see no difference between teaching the child the fundamental principles of farming and teaching the same child the fundamental truths of arithmetic, geography, or grammar. They hold that a youth should be trained for the farm just as carefully as he is trained for any other occupation, and that it is unreasonable to expect him to succeed without training. If they are right in these views, the training must begin in the public schools. This is true for two reasons: