Rural School Leaflet 1039 



will want to buy your own feed and keep a good record of the cost. Then 

 at the end of the year, you will be able to know how much real profit you 

 have made. A large number of boys and girls in central New York are 

 this year starting small bank accounts on the profits of their poultry' plants 

 begun two years ago. 



Editors' note. — Boys and girls should remember that a good way to help 

 toward success in raising poultry is to study the fowl and to acquire skill 

 in understanding and meeting the fowls' needs. It would be interesting 

 every year to have some lessons in the school on the poultry in 3^our 

 neighborhood so that boys and girls might learn something about the differ- 

 ent breeds, the methods of successful poultr\'-raisers, the knowledge that is 

 necessary to make poultry-raising profitable, and the Hke. Perhaps from 

 time to time a hen or a rooster might be brought to school for the study of 

 the different breeds; and when it is there, much interest might be developed 

 in a quest for knowledge of the particular breed. In the teachers' leaflet 

 for last year will be found some lessons that will help boys and girls in 

 their plans for poiiltry-raising. 



SEED STUDY 



Last spring we received a letter from a rural school in Seneca County 

 containing a description of some seed-testing work that the school had been 

 doing. We were greatly pleased because for a long time we have wanted to 

 start this kind of work. To do it well, however, requires a knowledge of 

 farm seeds and of weed seeds and before we publish the letter on seed- 

 testing it seems best to make some suggestions for the study of seeds of 

 various kinds. 



In the November leaflet you remember we suggested making a weed- 

 seed collection, and in each leaflet we shall picture five kinds of weed 

 seeds. (See page 1037.) Every school should begin such a collection and 

 gradually enlarge it, all the while studying the seeds. 



It is also necessary to make a thorough study of the seeds that the 

 farmer sows. While it is comparatively easy to learn to teU the dift'erent 

 kinds of seeds in btilk, how many boys and girls can tell one wheat seed 

 from one rye seed, or from one barley seed? It is even more difficult 

 to learn to know the smaller seeds — seeds of the clovers and grasses. 

 The study of seeds is fascinating work, however, and many boys and 

 girls win become expert in their ability to identify seeds of all kinds. 



Some day each boy and girl should bring a small quantity of a different 

 farm seed to school. Begin at first with the larger seeds, such as oats, 

 rye, wheat, barley, buckwheat, vetch, rape, and the like. Only after these 

 are thoroughly familiar should work be attempted with smaller seeds. At 



