The Silent Readers Part 31

_Chemistry._--The application of chemistry to soils, plants, and fertilizers lies at the foundation of scientific agriculture. The farmer can now learn from the nearest agricultural experiment station what fertilizer is best suited to his soil and what crops he can grow with greatest success. Agricultural chemistry is now applied to the study of soils, of plant food and of fertilizers wherever there is an agricultural college.

_Education._--Not many years ago the average farmer was glad to express his contempt for what he styled "book farming". Happily, that day is past, and agricultural education (see subheading, below) now occupies an important position in the educational systems of all civilized countries. In the United States and Canada the demand for graduates from agricultural colleges and high schools is greater than these inst.i.tutions are able to supply. Furthermore, the outlook for supervisors and teachers of agriculture is so promising that young men from the city const.i.tute no inconsiderable portion of the student body of these inst.i.tutions. This is the beginning of a right sort of movement from the city to the country, and it is increasing.

_Scientific Agriculture._--All the foregoing movements have combined to make agriculture a science as well as an art. The influence of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations extends to the remotest regions, and everywhere the trained scientist is helping the farmer to solve his problems and to make his farm more profitable. No longer can the old hit-or-miss methods maintain themselves in compet.i.tion with the scientific methods of the "new agriculture", which in the near future will not only render productive vast areas still barren, but also reclaim the so-called "worn-out farms" and repopulate with prosperous families those which have been abandoned.

_Prevention of Disease._--The application of scientific methods to the study of those diseases of plants and animals which are ever robbing the farmer of his profits const.i.tutes one of the most important contributions of science to agriculture, and is saving annually millions of dollars to the farmers. While not all of these diseases are conquered, many of them have been; the ravages of others have been checked, and new victories are gained each year.

_Insect Pests._--What has been said about the study of disease applies with equal force to the study of destructive insects. These pests also deprive the farmer of a portion of his income every season, and, now and then, they destroy his crop altogether. Through the discoveries made by the Department of Agriculture at Was.h.i.+ngton and in Canada by the same department of government, and at the various experiment stations, we are now able to deal successfully with these pests on the American continent.

BRANCHES.--Agriculture is so widely extended over the earth and so varied in its industries that it is naturally divided into a number of branches. While many farmers are interested in several of these branches, each gives special attention to one or two. The farmer in the corn belt, for instance, makes corn the chief product of his land, but he must give enough attention to growing other crops and to dairying to produce sufficient food for his family and live stock, unless he would purchase this food at an expense considerably greater than would be required to raise it. Likewise, the dairy husbandman must raise most of the feed for his herd to make his business profitable.

The following are the chief branches of agriculture in America:

_Raising Cereals._--In some regions the soil and climate are especially suited to raising cereals. For instance, Canada, Minnesota and North Dakota are adapted to raising spring wheat, and this const.i.tutes their chief crop. On the other hand, Kansas is especially suited to raising winter wheat. Illinois and Iowa are the great corn states, because of the particular adaptation of the soil and climate of the corn belt to the production of this cereal. The growing of cereals is more widely extended than any other branch of agriculture.

_Other Crops._--In some of the Northern states having a cool climate and in Southern Canada, flax is extensively grown on new soil. Potatoes are also successful in these regions. Oats is an extensive crop throughout the northern half of the United States and in most of the Canadian provinces. In Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, and a number of the other Southern states, cotton const.i.tutes the chief source of revenue. Fodder crops, including corn for ensilage, clover, timothy and alfalfa, are also of great importance in those localities where live stock is raised or dairying is the chief line of agricultural industry.

_Horticulture._--Horticulture is that branch of agriculture which includes the raising of flowers, garden vegetables, and fruit. The growing of vegetables and other garden produce for market is usually called _truck farming_, and this branch of horticulture is very common near large cities and in those localities where soil and climate admit of raising two or more crops a year. The raising of fruit is probably the most extensive branch of horticulture, particularly in those regions which depend upon irrigation for their supply of water. All forms of horticulture are intensified farming--that is, the thorough cultivation of small tracts of land that is highly fertilized.

_Live Stock._--Some localities are especially adapted to raising live stock. Iowa and Illinois, for instance raise large numbers of hogs, which are fattened on corn. Iowa also raises beef cattle. Kentucky is noted for its fine horses; Montana, Wyoming, and several other states contain extensive grazing lands where thousands of sheep find pasturage, and in Texas beef cattle are raised in large numbers.

_Dairy Husbandry._--Sections of the country having a cool climate, an abundance of pure water, and soil adapted to growing alfalfa and other ensilage crops are suited to dairying, and this branch of agriculture is of great importance in those states.

_Poultry._--The proceeds from the poultry raised in the United States exceed those received from the wheat crop; strange as this statement may seem, the hen is a mighty a.s.set. Some poultry is found on nearly every farm, but there are numerous small farms which are devoted entirely to raising chickens, and when rightly managed, they prove a profitable investment.

--_From "The World Book".

Courtesy of W. F. Quarrie & Co._

CAN YOU DO THIS ONE?

Here is another little nonsense test. Be sure that you do exactly as the test directs.

At the top of your paper copy the longest of these three words: boy, noise, trouble--and then, if there are more than seven letters in the word that you have just written, write the figure 7 underneath the word, but if not, do not write anything but pa.s.s on to the next paragraph.

If you think that Christopher Columbus used an ocean steamer to discover America make three crosses at the bottom of your paper, but if you think he must have used a canoe make only two crosses. Now no matter whether there are five days in the week or not, write five days in the center of your paper, sign your first name below it and hand in your answers.

THE INCHCAPE ROCK

Read the poem through as fast as you can, but not so fast as to fail to get the full meaning. When all have finished, your teacher will ask you to write the story the poem tells.

It will be interesting to keep track of the exact time it takes each of you to read the poem and to see whether those who read it more quickly tell the story better than those who read more slowly.

Can you take in every word without speaking, whispering, or moving your lips?

No stir in the air, no stir in the sea, The s.h.i.+p was as still as she could be, Her sails from heaven received no motion, Her keel was steady in the ocean.

Without either sign or sound of their shock The waves flow over the Inchcape Rock; So little they rose, so little they fell, They did not move the Inchcape Bell.

The good old Abbot of Aberbrothok Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock; On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung, And over the waves its warning rung.

When the Rock was hid by the surges' swell, The mariners heard the warning bell; And then they knew the perilous Rock, And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok.

The sun in heaven was s.h.i.+ning gay, All things were joyful on that day; The sea-birds scream'd as they wheel'd round, And there was joyance in their sound.

The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen A darker speck on the ocean green; Sir Ralph the Rover walk'd his deck, And he fix'd his eye on the darker speck.

He felt the cheering power of spring, It made him whistle, it made him sing; His heart was mirthful to excess, But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.

His eye was on the Inchcape float; Quoth he, "My men, put out the boat, And row me to the Inchcape Rock, And I'll plague the priest of Aberbrothok."

The boat is lower'd, the boatmen row, And to the Inchcape Rock they go; Sir Ralph bent over from the boat, And he cut the bell from the Inchcape float.

Down sunk the bell, with a gurgling sound, The bubbles rose and burst around; Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the Rock Won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothok."

Sir Ralph the Rover sail'd away, He scour'd the seas for many a day; And now grown rich with plundered store, He steers his course for Scotland's sh.o.r.e.

So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky They cannot see the sun on high; The wind hath blown a gale all day, At evening it hath died away.

On the deck the Rover takes his stand, So dark it is they see no land.

Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon, For there is the dawn of the rising moon."

"Can'st hear," said one, "the breakers roar?

For methinks we should be near the sh.o.r.e; Now where we are I cannot tell, But I wish I could hear the Inchcape Bell."

They hear no sound, the swell is strong; Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along, Till the vessel strikes with a s.h.i.+vering shock; Cried they, "It is the Inchcape Rock!"

Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair, He curst himself in his despair; The waves rush in on every side, The s.h.i.+p is sinking beneath the tide.

But even in his dying fear One dreadful sound could the Rover hear, A sound as if with the Inchcape Bell, The fiends below were ringing his knell.

--_Robert Southey._

SOME DEFINITIONS

Such a poem as this one is called a _ballad_. A ballad always tells a story; it is never a very long poem; and it is always a poem of the sort that could be set to music and sung.

Each group of lines in any poem is called a _stanza_, not a verse, as perhaps you have been used to calling it. In this poem you see that there are stanzas of four lines each.