568 Home Nature-Study Course. 



each weight separate. Place one after another on a fire shovel and put 

 over hot coals and watch the humus burn out, after which again weigh 

 and determine the loss of weight of each. The loss shows the amount 

 of humus each sample contained. Note if the most fertile soil contained 

 the most humus. 



A SUGGESTION TO THE TEACHER. 



At this point I beg to digress to speak of a particular lesson that I once 

 learned by my failures. Such lessons have happened many times in my life but 

 the one I have in mind has a special significance at this time. 



Once upon a time I gave a teacher the foregoing instruction about the structure 

 of the soils and on the strength of what I had told her she proceeded to start a 

 border garden along the side of the house. It was indeed a sad failure for the 

 reason that when the contractor graded the lawn after the house was completed, 

 he dumped all the rubbish such as broken stone, brick, mortar and some of the 

 stone flour that came from the bottom of the cellar at the particular place where 

 my friend wanted some flowers and vines and climbing roses and bulbs to grow. 

 There was little there but inorganic stuff that had never had life. That which came 

 from the bottom of the cellar was more clay than sand or gravel and when dry 

 was hard and would have been a lid to prevent seeds from getting through to 

 the daylight had there been any power in the soil to have given them an impetus to 

 make growth. The plot had stone from the size of a saucer to an assorted lot of 

 buttons. The chief thing lacking was humus. There was nothing but stone flour 

 and poor texture at that. The remedy would have been first to improve the texture 

 by re-spading and taking out the rougher stone and next by adding' more humus. 

 The latter should have been done by mixing some well rotted stalile fertilizer and 

 then some rotted sods. If some rotted leaves gathered the fall before could have 

 been spaded in with the other additions, the results would have been excellent. 

 All this would have made the soil more friable — if I say mealy you may better 

 understand what I mean. Another important influence was that the humus would 

 hold more moisture and for a longer time. This you cannot fail to appreciate if 

 you have worked out the demonstrations that I have suggested. 



The mistake was mine because of faulty teaching. I had given her the why 

 without the how. 



There was another garden in the same block with about the same original soil 

 conditions that was a credit to its owner, a woman who had spent her life in 

 humble pursuits. She knew how to plant, cultivate and all that, but had no idea 

 ■why she performed the different things. In short she gardened by recipe. I regret 

 to say that far too many expect instructions in that form. The recipe form of 

 teaching is more adapted to cooking when the conditions may be made fairly 

 uniform but such is never the case with plant growth out of doors. Two days 

 may be typical, but I doubt if two were ever exactly alike in all that goes to 

 influence plant growth. Herein lies the advantage of knowing the why as well as 

 the how. The greatest success in plant growth depends on the conjunction of three 

 things, 



Doing The right thing 

 At the right time 

 In the right way. 



