566 • Home Nature-Study Course. 



Do you know leaf mould when you see it? Leaf mould is humus. 

 For identification and a supply go to the woods with a garden trowel. 

 Select some sheltered spot where the wind scattered leaves have found 

 an eddy. Here they have found a resting place for many winters. Brush 

 away the coarse covering and you will find leaf mould immeshed in a 

 net work of roots. It is black and has a velvet like feeling to the touch 

 as compared to gritty sand or rough clay. Take home with you a basket 

 full to demonstrate some of the qualities which it possesses that stone 

 tiour does not. 



LESSON CXXXIV. 



MOISTURE IN SOILS. 



Purpose. — To call attention to the fact that soil with humus in it 

 holds much more moisture than inorganic soil. 



Experiment. — Kiln dry enough humus to fill a flower pot. Also kiln 

 dry a quantity of sand. This may be done in the oven. This will drive 

 out the moisture and put each on equal footing for comparison in 

 weighing. Fill the flower pot full of the leaf mould. Put the same 

 weight of kiln dried sand in another flower pot. Soak each with water 

 until the surplus runs through the hole in the bottom of the flower pot. 

 Let each pot remain for half an hour that all drainage may escape that 

 will, and then weigh each pot again. Make note of the amount of water 

 the sand and the leaf mould can respectively hold as water is held by a 

 sponge. Note what per cent, of its own dry weight the sand can hold, 

 also the leaf mould. See if you can get the leaf mould to approximate 

 200 per cent, of its dry weight. 



LESSON CXXXV. 



CLAY AND SAND. 



Purpose. — To determine which will hold the most water, a clayey 

 soil or humus. 



Repeat the experiment of the previous lesson substituting clay 

 for sand. 



LESSON. 



WATER FLOWS UP MORE READILY IN SOME SOILS THAN OTHERS. 



Purpose. — To show the relative capillary power of sand and humus. 



Experiment. — Fill a lamp chimney with kiln dried leaf mould and 

 another with kiln dried sand. Jar each chimney so that the particles! 

 will lie closely together. More attention must be given the leaf mould 

 in this particular than is given the sand. In fact, the former should be 

 crowded into the lamp chimney to have the same close fit between particles 



