APPENDIX 367 



SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS 



A great many teachers imagine that instruction in agriculture cannot 

 be given without a large laboratory and expensive equipment, but this is 

 far from the truth. 



Much of the material needed is inexpensive, and many of the exercises 

 are so simple that even the untrained teacher in the one-room rural school 

 need have no hesitation in undertaking such work. The materials absolutely 

 essential are as follows: two dozen tomato cans, half a dozen lard pails, 

 a few baking-powder cans, a number of empty bottles, a few cigar boxes, 

 a collection of typical soils, such as common clay, sand, and loam, and a 

 few farm and garden crop seeds. Many other things of this kind may be 

 added to our equipment at little or no cost. To this we may add by pur- 

 chase an 8-ounce graduate, costing 10 cents; four dairy thermometers at 

 60 cents; six student's lamp chimneys, 30 cents; 100 5-inch filter papers, 

 15 cents; a pint glass funnel, 15 cents; a 4-bottle Babcock milk tester, 

 with test bottles, pipette acid measure, and acid for tests, $5; an alcohol 

 lamp, 25 cents; a kitchen scale with dial which will register from one ounce 

 to twenty-four pounds, 90 cents; twelve ordinary glass tumblers, 50 cents; 

 one dozen Mason fruit jars, $1; a small quantity of litmus paper; a few 

 ordinary China plates; pie tins; ten yards cheese cloth; a few lamp wicks; 

 a few pieces of window glass and our outfit is practically complete, and 

 all at a cost slightly exceeding $10. 



Superintendent Guy M. Lisk of Alva, Oklahoma, offers a valuable agricul- 

 ture cabinet for $25 which contains sufficient apparatus for all ordinary 

 purposes. 



With such an equipment we are prepared to determine the comparative 

 temperature, weight, acidity, alkalinity, porosity, capillarity, and fertility 

 of different soils; to test their water-holding capacity and readiness with 

 which they may be drained, and to show the effect of cultivation, mulching, 

 and puddling on the moisture content and physical condition of different 

 soils. Much of your work may be of such a practical character that it 

 would be of immediate benefit to the agriculture of the community, such as 

 testing seeds for vitality; milk and cream for butter fat; treating oats and 

 wheat for smut, and potatoes for scab; spraying plants for insect pests; mak- 

 ing plans for farm buildings, roads, walks, etc. Such work could be done 

 largely by the pupils at school or on different farms on Saturdays, if no other 

 time was convenient for the purpose. This would be educational and at the 

 same time would make the farmers feel that they were getting some im- 

 mediate tangible return on the taxes paid for the support of the school. 



Then, aside from its practical value, agriculture may be made an aid to 

 other school work in many ways. Mathematics will be applied in the use of 

 weights and measures, while the principles of percentage and proportion 

 will enter into the solution of nearly every problem in soils. Composition 

 will lose some of its bad flavor and spelling will no longer be distasteful 



