CHAPTER FOUR 



FIELD, ORCHARD, AND GARDEN CROPS 

 CROP RAISING 



Principles not Methods. In this chapter you will be told little 

 about special methods of cultivating special crops. These are 

 to be learned by observing and practicing them in connection 

 with the growing crop. Methods vary with season and with soil, 

 as well as with crops : what is right in dry weather, may be wrong 

 in wet; what is beneficial on a sandy soil, may be injurious on 

 clay. Instead, then, of studying special methods, let us look into 

 the principles which underlie crop raising and govern all good 

 and successful farm work. 



Let us first consider briefly our agricultural plants. 



Plant Families. Plants are divided by botanists into families, 

 or orders, which include those of common origin. There are two 

 hundred families of flowering plants, including over a hundred 

 thousand species. A few of these families furnish our crop plants, 

 which have many wild relatives, some of which are poisonous. 

 Our crisp celery is close kin to the poisonous hemlock, the white 

 potato to the deadly nightshade. It is useful to know these kin- 

 ships. While related plants may differ greatly in appearance, 

 they need similar food and care and are subject to the same 

 diseases and insect enemies. 



The grass family is a large and useful one. In it are included 

 sugar cane, sorghum, and the cereals, as well as numerous pasture 



127 



