SUGGESTED PRACTICUMS 



General Hints 



Student, should be required to keep notes on each exercise, a 

 separate sheet being devoted to each practicum. 



Sketches, whenever possible, should be called for and marked ac- 

 cording to the story they tell rather than to any art they reveal. 



In many cases several drawings will be needed to show the various 

 stages of development. Students should, therefore, leave ample space 

 beside the first sketch, so all may be placed together. 



Where time will permit, contests will be found to stimulate interest 

 in the work. Such should be easy to arrange in making cuttings of a 

 certain kind of plant, in potting, making root grafts, in budding, etc. 

 The main points that count in such contests, are accuracy, neatness, 

 speed, number of plants growing at a stated time. 



In making notes of work done, tabular forms will be found help- 

 ful and concise. For instance, with cuttings the following plan is sug- 

 gested by Dr. W. L. Howard of the University of Missouri: 



Record of Cuttings 



Seedage 



1. Sterilising soil. — Secure surface soil from several places where 

 weeds have been seeding freely — fence corners, neglected barnyards, etc. 

 Add fine sweepings of a barn floor to get more seeds. Also add sour 

 and moldy soil, from the greenhouse so as to get damping off fungi, etc. 

 Mix thoroughly and sift out debris. Moisten as if for potting and turn 

 over once daily for a week or more to give seeds a chance to absorb 

 moisture. Divide into two or more lots, one to be steamed, another 

 baked, a third treated with formalin, others to be treated in two or more 

 of these ways but one left without treatment. Provide each student 

 with at least two seed pans, one to contain untreated soil, the others each 

 a sample of soil treated in one or more of the ways suggested. Label 

 the seed pans, place in a warm greenhouse and note the results at stated 

 intervals for say a month. The notes taken may be marked as in an 

 examination. 



2. Botanical classification. — Examine a considerable number of 

 species of seeds to determine which belong to monocots, dicots and poly- 



