88 AGRICULTURE 



surface. Poisonous sprays are also used to destroy the 

 young hoppers. 



TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION 



1. If winter wheat has been sown in your neighbor- 

 hood, visit two or more fields and note .(1) whether the 

 seed was sown broadcast or drilled, (2) the direction of 

 the drill rows, and (3) the evenness of the stand. 



2. Make a collection of all the different types of wheat 

 available, and learn to identify them, (1) from the grain, 

 and (2) from the head and straw. 



3. Obtain samples of unthrashed wheat, and search for 

 leaf rust; for stem rust. Compare the heads and kernels 

 on the rusted stalks with those on healthy heads. 



4. Find examples of stinking smut, of loose smut. 

 What is the condition of the straw and grain in each case 

 as compared with healthy plants? 



5. Go out into fields of wheat and oat stubble and 

 look under bunches of straw or rubbish for chinch-bugs. 

 Bring specimens to school and examine them so that you 

 can quickly identify them. 



6. Secure a score-card for wheat, and judge from 

 twenty-five to one hundred grains of wheat. 



7. What is the best method for the testing of wheat 

 for vitality? Look up instructions on the blotter tester 

 and a few of the commercial tray testers. Make a test of 

 one hundred wheat seeds and judge for vitality, dividing 

 the seed after germination into three classes, strong, weak 

 and dead. 



8. How would you keep a record or bookkeeping ac- 

 count of a field of wheat? Make out a debit and credit 

 account covering a season's expenses and receipts with one 

 acre of wheat. (See Farmers' Bulletins, 511 and 572.) 



9. Sketch a map of the United States and locate the 

 wheat producing states and sections. Insert the last cen- 

 sus reports of wheat production for each state. Where are 

 the leading wheat mills of the country? 



