56 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



4. What time of year is it easiest to make willow whistles? Why? 



5. What becomes of a nail that is driven into a tree? Why? 



6. Do farmers in your region grow their own fruit trees? Grape- 

 vines? Currant bushes? Would it pay them to do so? 



7. What seeds are shipped out of your region for seed purpose? 



8. What seeds are shipped into the region? 



9. What bad weeds in your region have come with the seed? 



10. How do the farmers of the region store their seed corn? 



11. Is there any trouble in getting a good stand of corn? Was the 

 stand good this year? Count the stalks in a short row and determine 

 the per cent of a stand. 



12. Which grow most rapidly at first, plants from large seeds like 

 beans or those from small seeds like radishes? 



13. Does the fanning-mill or air-blast separate seeds on the basis of 

 weight or of specific gravity? 



14. How long do some of the more important seeds of your section 

 retain their vitality? (See Appendix, Table 4.) 



15. What are the legal weights per bushel of a few of the more 

 important products in your section? (See Appendix, Table 5.) 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 



11. Spores. 



Materials. Compound microscope, corn smut, oat smut or spores 

 of any other kind. 



Examine the spores (X500). Make drawings of them. How do 

 they produce new plants? 



12. Relation of Habit of Growth of a Grass to its Value for Hay or 



Pasture. 



Field Trip. What are the best pasture grasses in the region? 

 Examine them to see whether they are strongly stoloniferous. The 

 stolon always arises from within the leaf sheath; if it remains there, its 

 growth is intra vaginal. If it breaks through the leaf sheath, it is called 

 extravaginal. Which way do the stolons of these pasture grasses 

 develop? What are the best hay grasses of the region? Examine 

 them in the same manner. 



13. To Make Grafting-wax and Waxed String. 



Materials. One pound resin, one-half pound beeswax, one-fourth 

 pound tallow, one ball of No. 18 knitting cotton. Larger or smaller 

 amounts for classes above or below ten. 



