The children of the LeConte school 

 Mr. Imrie principal, have an excel- 

 lent set of gardens. 



We visited the Emerson School gar 

 dens lately. Mr. Vergon, the princi- 

 pal has an acre of ground in vege- 

 tables and flowers. Later we will tell 

 you what is taken from the plots. 

 The children have corn about eight 

 feet high, pole beans nearly twen- 

 ty feet high and other plants in 

 proportion. 



Some of the children in the Frank- 

 lin School of Berkeley are going to 

 start gardens at their school. 



The editor will be glad to hear 

 from the gardeners at any time. 

 Tell us what you are doing and the 

 best letters will be published in the 

 "Junior." 



The campus "Garden City" at 

 Berkeley is to be open on Saturdays 

 9 — 12 and Wednesdays 2:15 — 4:30 for 

 the boys and girls from 6 to 16 years 

 of age. 



CHAPTER |. The Soil. 

 Exercises 



All exercises should be performed 

 at school or at home. 



1. Place in a medium sized bottle 

 a small amount of garden soil. Add 

 water until the bottle is nearly filled. 

 Shake well and set aside. 



2. Examine closely samples of clay 

 and sand. Roll each about and feel 

 both. Note the size of the particles. 



3. Secure a sample of garden soil. 

 Note the pieces of decaying leaves 

 and other vegetable matter. Heat 

 over a flame a small tin of garden 

 soil. Note the burning and the odor. 



4. Obtain samples of sand, clay, 

 and garden soil and expose them to 

 the sun for an hour. Which is the 

 warmest; the coldest? 



What Soil Is. 



Do you know what soil is? A 

 great many children and a great 

 many fathers and mothers think soil 

 is merely "dirt". Dirt which can be 

 washed from hands and faces and 

 which seems so much in the way. 

 But soil is more than this. It is 

 filled with little plants and animals, 

 and many wonderful things take 

 place in the soil. It is a great fac- 

 tory and store house where material 

 is made and stored away. Look 

 about you. Where did the iron anc 

 lumber come from which built your 

 desk? The soil. Where did the 

 linen come from which makes the 

 girls' dresses? It comes from the 

 fiber of the flax plant that grows in 

 the soil. From what is glass made? 

 It is made of sand which is part of 

 the soil. Ask your teacher to tell 

 you how linen and glass are made. 

 The soil furnishes all you need to 

 make you comfortable and happy. 



Nearly everything about you came 

 from the soil. Examine them and see 

 if this is not true. You should know 

 more about this soil which includes 

 so much. 



Examine the bottle after completing 

 Exercise 1. The largest and heaviest 

 particles at the bottom are sand. 

 The finest particles just above lying 

 on the sand and floating in the 

 water are clay. The little particles 

 of leaves, twigs, etc., resting on the 

 clay and floating on the surface of 

 the water are humus. Thus soil as 

 a cold dead thing is made of clay, 

 sand and humus, but soil as we wish 

 to know it contains more water, air, 

 little plants and animals and their 

 dead bodies. Estimate the relative 

 amount of sand, humus, and clay. 

 80-100 percent sand means sandy soil. 

 60-80 percent sand means sandy loam 

 40-60 percent sand means loam. 

 20-40 percent sand means clayey loam 

 0-20 percent sand means clay. 



Characteristics of Sand, Clay and Hu- 

 mus. 



The sand particles are the larg- 

 er and they roll about more read- 

 ily than do the clay particles. 



Sand contains little food for plants 

 but it makes soil loose and open so 

 that air and moisture may be ob- 

 tained by plants. Sandy soils plow 

 easily. Sand is heated readily by the 

 sun as you learned through Exercise 

 4, hence it makes soils warm. 



Clay is made of very fine particles. 

 When it is moist it helps to bind 

 sand. Clay is a storehouse for plant 

 food. It is, cold in temperature. 



Humus, which is decayed vegeta- 

 ble matter resembles clay more near- 

 ly than sand in size of particles, 

 warmth, etc. Trees, flowers, and oth- 

 er plants add humus to the soil. Hu- 

 mus is very necessary. It holds 1 sandy 

 soils together and loosens soil 

 containing a great deal of clay. Hu- 

 mus is a food storehouse for plants. 



A brick chimney is made by pil- 

 ing one brick upon one another. Na- 

 ture piles sand particles and clay 

 particles in such a way as to form 

 "chimneys", or tubes, in the soil. 

 The tubes made by the sand are 

 larger than those built by the clay 

 and the humus. The proper name 

 for the soil funnels is capillary tubes. 



QUESTIONS 



1. What is soil? 



2. Which is the heaviest, sand, 

 clay, or humus? 



3. Why are foothill farms usually 

 sandy? Why are there so much clay 

 and humus in valley soil? 



4. Of what use are clay, sand, and 

 humus in soils? 



5. What are capillary tubes? Are 

 the capillary tubes smaller or larger 

 in sand than in clay? 



