inary coarse potato sack
with cow-stable manure and set the sack in the barrel for a few days. A
tap in the bottom of the barrel is most convenient for drawing off the
liquid manure. A little of this will also be found valuable for watering
dahlias, roses, and other garden plants during the summer.

SOIL STUDIES

The classes of soil should be reviewed. Pupils should gather examples
from many places. The samples may be kept in bottles of uniform size and
should include not only the four types but varieties of each, also
various kinds of loam.

EXERCISES AND EXPERIMENTS

SOIL CONSTITUENTS

1. With a sharp spade, cut a piece about twelve inches deep from (1) the
forest floor, (2) an old pasture field. Note character and order of the
layers of soil in (1) leaves, humus, loam, sand, or clay; in (2) grass,
dead grass, humus, loam, sand, or clay. Observe soils shown in railway
cuttings, freshly dug wells, post holes.

2. Note the effect produced on the soil of a field by (1) leaving it a
few years in pasture, (2) ploughing in heavy crops, (3) applying
barn-yard manure. In all these cases vegetable matter is mixed with the
soil.

3. Dry some good leaf-mould. Throw a handful on the surface of some
water. The mineral matter sinks, while the vegetable portion remains
suspended for some time. Try this experiment with gravel, sand, and
clay. Note that the gravel sinks rapidly, the sand less rapidly, and
that the clay takes a long time to settle. If the water be kept in rapid
motion, the finer soils will all remain suspended till motion becomes
slower. Apply this in geography. The bed of a stream will consist of
stones if it be swift, of sand if less swift, and of clay if very slow.
How are alluvial plains formed?

4. Place half an ounce of dry humus on an iron plate or fire-shovel and
heat strongly in a stove. Note that it begins to smoke and a large part
smoulders away to ashes; the mineral portion remains. Weigh the part
left and find what fraction of the humus consisted of vegetable
material.

Try to find the proportion of vegetable matter in each of the following:
loams from various sources, sand, clay, gravel. The last three will show
scarcely any change. This experiment will give rise to some good
arithmetical problems in fractions.

WATER IN SOILS

5. Compare a handful of fresh garden soil with the same soil dried. Note
the glistening of the fresh soil, also its weight and darker colour. The
fresh soil admit