The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-04-23

bulbs planted in the fall make almost
as early reminders of spring as the
hepatica or the ambitious crOcus that
laughs at a snow bank. The hya
cinth bulb is interesting from the
moment it peeps through the ground,
and it's flowers are satisfactory, too,
because they last longer than those
of most other early boomers.
The gathering of seeds from all
trees, shrubs and plants should be
encouraged. If all the seeds be
saved, pupils whose parents have
not encouraged flower culture may
be induced to make little flower
gardens at homes and incidentally to
take pride in the appearance of the
yard.
LESSONS IN FORESTRY.
Young people attending the coun-
try school would soon learn the
anne of all the trees indigenous
to the neighborhood. If the pupils
would gather the seeds of the trees
at different seasons when they are
ripe, the teacher would have an OBJ
j~ect-lesson to assist her in conduct.
ing nature studies. Methods of pre-
serving the seeds through the win
ter and the habits of growth of the
different varieties would be studied
with intense interest and never for
gotten. AS the pupils visited new
neighborhOods and new countries,
their early forestry lessons would
be valuable in enabling them to add
to their knowledge of sylviculture.
The great life-work of Senator
Morrill, of Vermont, assisted by
other ~far-seeing American states
was the endowment of institutions
in each State in the Union, where
the sons and daughters of Ameri-
lean farmers could study the sciences
that relate to agriculture and dOmes-
tic economy. A great question, how
ever, is the proper preparation of
young country people for entering
these agricultural colleges. The
preparation must be given by the
country school-teacher, and the
query presents itself, "How shall the
teacher be fitted for this work?"
In most of our States we have
normal schools for teachers, yet
some of our State agricultural col
leges have not succeeded simply be-
cause the instructors had been edu-
Gated in institutions that gave them
too little of the science relating to
agriculture. Progress is being made
the student of soils, plants and AMI
mails is finding his place in the class
room but the giving of direction
and bent toward the agricultural
college must begin with the farmers
children in the country schOol-house,
and to this end we should have oh
j~ect-lessons on the school-house
grounds.
The dry ranges of the great West
ri being rapidly destroyed by inju-
diciOus grazing. The beautiful val
legs of the mountain states are being
rendered barren by the unwise appli-
cation of water. The great wheat
fields from the Missouri River to the
Pacific Ocean T losing their fertil-
ity, and the grains are losing their
heterogeneous content by continual
robbery of the soil. Summer fal-
lowing and the sowing of one crop
in two years are becoming univer-
sal.
The young farmer attending the
district school could readily be taught
what a plant gets from the soil and
what it gets from the air. The sew
eral grasses could be planted, and
their Office in filling the soil with
humus, enabling the soil to retain
misture, could be explained. The
legumes-peas, beans, clover aud al
falfa-could be grown in the school
house yard, and during recess or at
the loon hour the teacher could in
terest the students by digging up a
young pea or clover root and show
ing the nOdules, whose Office it is to
bring the free nitrogen from the at
mosphere and fix it in the soil. The
would see that some relation
exists between the size of the nodule
and the fruit of the legume. AS a
plant grows older and blooms and
seeds begin to form, the matter
found in the nodules rises in the
plant to help make seeds, leaving
the nodules like old egg-sheIls from
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