. Agriculture for southern schools. loss of which is made known by the strong smell ofthe escaping ammonia gas. A covering of soil over thecompost pile would absorb and hold the ammonia ; hencelime in the soil would not do the harm it might whenmixed above the ground with manures or fertilizers. — If possible get a lump of builders lime; weigh it andnotice its size; let water drip slowly on it. Again weigh it and noticeits size. What has happened? At this rate a barrel of quicklime weighing 165 pounds would makehow many pounds of slacked lime ? Note to the Teacher. — It will be wort
. Agriculture for southern schools. loss of which is made known by the strong smell ofthe escaping ammonia gas. A covering of soil over thecompost pile would absorb and hold the ammonia ; hencelime in the soil would not do the harm it might whenmixed above the ground with manures or fertilizers. — If possible get a lump of builders lime; weigh it andnotice its size; let water drip slowly on it. Again weigh it and noticeits size. What has happened? At this rate a barrel of quicklime weighing 165 pounds would makehow many pounds of slacked lime ? Note to the Teacher. — It will be worth while to buy from awholesale druggist a 15-cent bottle of blue litmus paper. Obtain inaddition a bottle of red litmus paper, which is turned blue by pupils test a number of soils with the blue litmus paper, afterwardsshowing to the class the paper used and describing the kind of soilfound, acid, neutral, or alkaline. Test with blue and red litmus allobtainable fertilizers, also salt, soda, various well-waters, Fig. 71.—Well Cultivated and Poorly Tilled Soils. Much Reduced in SizeLime aids in crumbling clods. SECTION XXI. ROTATION OF CROPS Rotation means change in some regular order. Rota-tion of crops is the exact opposite of the growth of thesame crop year after year on the same land. It has beenfound that when one kind of plant is grown year afteryear on the same land, the yield decreases. If a differentkind of crop, peanuts or cowpeas for example, comes inbetween two cotton crops or two wheat crops, the yield ofthe cotton or wheat is greatly increased. The differentcrops ought not only to take time about on any onefield, but should follow each other in a somewhat definiteorder. It is impossible in this limited space to arrangetables showing the best order for all crops on the differentsoils. However, some reasons for rotation are given inthe following pages. Rotation to get rid of weeds. — A corn field generallycontains more grass and weeds than a c
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