Rural School Leaflet, 



917 



but we can write to your club. So form a club! It is easy. Your 

 teacher will tell you how to do this, or if you will look up the Cornell 

 Rural School Leaflets for last spring, they will tell you how to go about it. 

 As soon as you have formed the club and have elected your secretary, 

 send us the names of your officers. 



The Farm Boys' Clubs are made up of farm boys who are interested 

 in horses and cows, meadows and farm crops whether they are going to 

 be farmers or not when they grow up. We want you to learn more about 

 these things. Have you farm boys in the club ever been to a Grange 

 meeting or a Farmers' Institute? If so, you have probably heard a 

 good deal said about fertilizers. You may remember hearing the words 

 nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, for these are the three kinds of 

 plant food that we have to apply to the soil for the plant. Some soils 

 need more of one of these kinds of plant food than others do. We want 

 the Farm Boys' Club during November to find out what kind of ferti- 

 lizer is most needed on the soils of their own farms. 



In order to do this you will want to experiment a bit. This is an easy 

 thing to do, and you will like to do it. All you will need are: five tin 

 cans, a hammer, a nail, enough soil to fill the cans, a few handsful of 

 wheat, some nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. You can find this 

 nitrogen in nitrate of soda. If you will get all the other things, we will 

 send you enough of the three kinds of fertilizers. To get this, all that 

 will be required of you is an order signed by the president and secretary 

 of your club. If you have not already done so, you ought to organize 

 a club at once. 



Now, for the experiment. Take five tin cans and punch eight or ten 

 holes in the bottom of each with the hammer and nail. Fill each can 

 with the same kind of soil. Then put your fertilizers in the cans accord- 

 ing to these directions: 



In can No. i — put no fertilizer. 



In can No. 2 — put one-half teaspoonful of the nitrate of soda. 



In can No. 3 — put one teaspoonful of acid phosphoric. 



In can No. 4 — put one-fourth teaspooonful of potash. 



In can No. 5 — put a mixture of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. 



Dig the fertilizers thoroughly into the soil. It is better to take the 

 soil out of the can to do this. Next sow a dozen grains of wheat in the 

 top of each can, covering them with about one-quarter inch of soil. Do 

 not let the soil dry out. Keep a careful watch of this experiment. See 

 in which can the wheat starts up first. Judge from the later growth and 

 the greenness of the wheat plants what sort of fertilizer is most needed 



