CHAPTER XXVIII 



COLLECTING AND PRESERVING SPECIMENS FOR CABINETS OR EXHI- 

 BITION. PERFUMERY. LABELS 



EVERY good farm establishment should have a room or a cabinet 

 in which the museum materials of the particular farm are collected, 

 soils, minerals, plants, insects, curiosities, and the like. 



Collecting and Storing Samples of Soil (Fippin) 



The farmer should know his soil. The collecting of soils and 

 their preservation and study has been a source of much interest to 

 some persons, quite as much as the collecting of seeds, plants, or 

 souvenirs. To secure samples that fairly represent a particular soil- 

 formation or soil-region requires much care in selection. Soils usually 

 vary greatly from point to point. They also vary at different depths. 

 Usually the top soil is more rich in organic matter than the subsoil. 

 It is therefore best to take small samples from a number of points 

 in an area of a few square rods and mix them together, and preserve 

 the desired sample from this composite lot. 



Some arbitrary depth must be chosen, and one foot is best on the 

 average. Since the subsoil is also of great importance, it is desirable 

 to have a sample taken from one to two feet in the same holes as the 

 top soil. A common wood auger one and one-half inches in diameter 

 with a handle sufficient to make a total length of thirty-six, with an 

 eight-inch pipe cross bar at the top, is most convenient for collecting 

 samples in soils that are not excessively stony. The stem may be 

 made in sections, connecting by means of milled threads. 



Before being finally stored, the soil samples should be thoroughly 

 dried on a piece of paper in the air. Collection should not be made 

 when the soil is so wet as to puddle, and the sample would preferably 

 not be pulverized after drying. 



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