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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NOKTK FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Poatofflce as Mail Matter ol
the Seeond Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
cerned. A recognition of the Huerta regime would
have been as ill-advised as unjust. The provisional
government that was set up through the betrayal
and murder of a President who had been constitu
tionally elected, lacked physical as well as moral
support. Huerta is despised by his own countrymen,
at least by the great majority of them. He has lost
I his grip upon the army, to such an extent that troops
sent out to quell an uprising not infrequently go
over in a body to the rebels. His sphere of influence
Twelve months 76#
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Three months ' 20°
The Semi-Weekly Journal Is published on Tuesday
and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for
early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our office. It has a stafi
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mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R- BRAD--
LEY, Circulation Manager.
has rapidly narrowed until now according to mos
accounts, it is limited to the territory immediately
about the capital. The United States could as con
sistently have recognized the revolutionary camps as
it could have recognized the impotent Huerta regime.
Forcible intervention in Mexico has been urged
only by habitual jingoes or by those who have some
selfish interest at stake. There are thoughtful
Americans, to be sure, who feel that conditions across
the Rio Grande cannot continue indefinitely as they
are and that unless the Mexican people free them-
The only traveling representatives we have ara
J. A. Bryan, R. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle. L. H. Kim
brough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only
for money paid to the above named traveling repre
sentatives.
selves of anarchy and establish a responsible govern
ment, the United States will be compelled, in behalf
of civilization itself, to take a firm hand in the
emergency. But those who think thus realize that
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Atlanta, Ga.
Fifty Millions to Move the Crops.
The business virtues of the Wilson administra
tion are strikingly witnessed in Secretary McAdoo’s
plan to transfer from the treasury to the national
banks of the South and the West between twenty-
five and fifty million dollars to facilitate the move
ment of crops and to forestall any serious financial
stringency. The Government thus comes oppor
tunely to the aid of the farmers and hankers in the
great agricultural sections and renders a service of
which the practical value to commerce and industry
at large is almost beyond reckoning.
Harvests of all kinds this year will he unsually
large. The monetary means for handling them must
be proportionately increased. Any attempt on the
part of special interests to contract the money mar-
intervention would be unwise except as a last resort.
If a United States army ever crosses the Southern
border, it will not return for years or decades. Its
presence would be a signal for a united Mexican
uprising and the beginning of campaigns far more
difficult and costly than those which the Philippines
required. The cost would be paid not only In money
and lives, but also in the interruption, if not the fail
ure, of those important economic and political re
forms in which this nation is now engaged. Only
under the highest stress of moral responsibility
could the United States afford to assume such a
burden as intervention in Mexico would impose.
There are hopeful omens that the flimsy Huerta
rule will soon be peacefully supplanted by a new ad
ministration which will be acceptable to all factions
and which can hole -things together at least until the
forthcoming election this autumn. A reform element
in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies plans to submit
to Huerta and to the revolutionists a plan whereby
the former will retire and be succeeded by some non
partisan provisional president. It was thus that the
revolution against the elder Diaz was finlly settled;
and, if an acceptable man can be found, this plan will
doubtless be the simplest and salest way out of the
present difficulties.
Our government is evidently awaiting developments
in that direction. In the meantime, President Wil
son and the State department refuse to be rushed
into any hasty or ill-considered action. They know
more of the Mexican situation than anyone else;
they are handling it to the country’s best interests;
they should be unreservedly trusted by Congress and
the people to work out this delicate problem.
ket when money Is so urgently needed must be
checkmated. Thus alone can business move prosper-
The Medical Practice Bill.
ously forward add the welfare of the country as a
whole be conserved. This vital need the treasury
department will meet by depositing additional funds
djrectly with the banks in those sections where the
demand for money is greatest.
The Wilson-McAdoo policy is in this respect dis
tinctly different from that which has heretofore pre
vailed. In former years, when financial conditions
began to show signs of stringency, the Government
has placed its money mainly in New York banks,
with the result that whatever part of such funds
the South or the West received was secured only on
terms made by those at the tight centers of financial
control. Under this new plan, at once more practical
and morq generous, Government money will be direct
ly available in the crop-producing quarters where it is
primarily needed. It is recalled in this connection
that a year ago Mr. MacVeagh, then secretary of the
treasury, declined to make additional Government de
posits “on the ground that the moderate federal sur
plus funds at that time should be held as a reserve
to be utilized at some possible critical stage.” The
Wilson administration takes the wiser view that the
Government should use every influence at its com
mand to prevent even an incipient stringency; that
a stitch in time will be worth nine when trouble is
actually developing.
The treasury department’s offer is particularly
noteworthy for its liberal terms. "In order to make
these special deposits ‘available to the banks on se
curities readily within their reach,” says the official
announcement, "the Secretary will accept as security
prime commercial paper, in addition to Government
and high class State, municipal and other bonds.”
Government bonds will be accepted as security at
par; other bonds at seventy-five per cent of their
market value and approved commercial paper at
sixty-five per cent of its face value. The deposits
will be returnable in easy installments and will bear
interest at the rate of two per cent per annum. This
The Medical Practice bill, which has passed the
State Senate by the significant vote of thirty-six to
four and which is expected to come before the House
for final action this week, is a measure of partic
ularly vital importance to every citizen and every
home in Georgia. There is, perhaps, no graver
menace to a people’s welfare than an ignorant or un
principled man in the role of a physician. His ca
pacity for harm is almost unlimited. If he be ig
norant, human life and untold suffering are his sac
rifice. If he be u-pricipled, his opportunities to
swindle the public are greater than those of all other
fakers combined. If he be both ignorant and unprin
cipled, as is sometimes the case, he . is a peril
more deadly than any disease which ever scourged
mankind.
Georgia is today in the tragically unfortunate
position of being virtually without legal protection
against ignorant and unprincipled practitioners. So
antiquated, Indeed, is our iaw in this regard that
eighteen of the thirty-e'ght States which formerly
recognized Georgia medical licenses now refuse to
do so, and among these are our neighboring com
monwealths Alabama and North and South Carolina.
Nor is their ostracism at all surprising when we
reflect that under the Georgia law there is no means
of revoking a physician’s license, however unqual
ified or untrustworthy he may be, and when we re
flect further that our legal requirements of medical
education are so lax and low as to be well-nigh ft
farce. This is not to imply that the representative
medical colleges i Georgia are not conducted on
high standards but the ominous fact remains that
unless a medical college in this State voluntarily
measures up to reputable requirement^ there is no
means of compelling it to Jo so.
Thesp conditions are manifectly unjust and dan
gerous to the public as well as a blot upon the State’s
good name. The> should not be suffered to con
tinue. The purpose of the pending hill is to raise
the educational standard and safeguard the integrity
of the medical profession. It is a bill in the in
terest of human v. elf are and as such it should re
ceive the vote of every member of the House who
values the life and happiness of the people he
represents.
is said to be the first time the Government has ac
cepted commercial paper as security for its deposits.
Certainly, no national administration has ever be
fore come so directly and so liberally to the aid of
agricultural and business needs.
By this seasonable plan every section of the
country will profit out the South will be especially
benefited. The cotton crop will be moved with expe
dition so that the fresh stream- of wealth which it
represents will find their way promptly into all
channels of business, quickening and enriching every
tide of trade. The farmer, the banker, the merchant
will all be helped; and not' only these but the hun
dreds of thousands 01 other men working in divers
fields will be protected. Surely, the present adminis
tration stands for progress; for freedom and for prac
tical service.
A Sane Mexican Policy.
Secretary Bryan’s reassuring statement that the
United States is in no way being pressed by Euro
pean governments to take aggressive action in Mexico
simply confirms the opinion which all sober-minded
people have held. Reports that Germany, England
and other foreign Pcwers had insisted upon a forth
with, decisive policy at Washington and that they
themselves would intervene in the affairs of the
stormy republic, unless this nation did so, were dis
counted from the outset as wild rumors. It is possi
ble, indeed probable, that European interests have
made friendly inquiry as to our attitude toward the
Mexican situation but that they done more is irn
credible.
Carrying Education to the People
There could be no surer evidence of the substan
tial and far-reaching service of the Georgia College
of Agriculture than the large attendance at the
farmers' institutes which the College is conducting
throughout the State. Up to the present time more
than thirty-six thousand farmers have jeen present
at these lectures and demonstrations, about twice
the number recorded during the same period last
year. The audiences have ranged in size from a
hundred and fifty to two thousand people, according
to the population of the district. At Talbotton,
twelve hundred were present anc. at Duluth, in an
entirely different part of the State, the same number.
The State College of Agriculture is thus reaching
the people. It is not merely an institution; it id a
vital, constructive force. It is stimulating and train-
i ing not only the hundreds of young men enrolled
in its immediate student body but also the thousands
of mature farmers who are at work in the fields.
Not only does it offer the opportunities of education
but it also carries those opportunities directly to the
rank and file.
This is true service, the sqrt of service that pro
duces results for the individual and the common
wealth as a whole. Surely, an institution that
reaches thirty-six thousand men within a few sum
mer weeks, helping them to solve their problems, en
couraging them in scientific and progressive methods,
organizing them in a great movement that will bless
the State with more varied and abundant harvests—
surely, such an institution merits the public’s heart
iest approval and the Legislature’s generous support.
The course thus far pursued by the administra
tion has been the best possible for everyone con-
Many a man’s cordial handshake is due to the
fact that he needs that dollar in your pocket.
Conserving the Interests
Of the W. & A. Railroad.
If the Legislature is to deal competently with
the future interests of the Western and Atlantic rail
road, it must lose no time in providing for a careful
inquiry into the many far-reaching questions which
this matter involves. To that end there should be
created at the present session of the General Assem
bly a trustworthy commission, empowered to inves
tigate this vital issue in all its bearings, to work
out in detail practical plans and methods and to
submit as promptly as possible a report toat will af
ford a basis for businesslike action. Thus only can the
State be prepared for the numerous and weighty
problems that must be met when the present lease
of the Western and Atlantic expires a little more
than six years Lence.
It need scarcely be said that the duties and pow
ers of such a commission should be delegated only
to men who are unquestionably capable and who are
also unquestionably free from the influence of any
special interest. They should be men seasoned in
experience and judgment and at the same time un
biased by any alliance either actual or sympathetic
with private railroad concerns. Otherwise, the con-
mission would forfeit public confidence and in u.e
very outset its usefulness would be destroyed. There
should be no difficulty, however, in the Legislature
safeguarding this point and in securing the appoint
ment of commissioners who will be at once compe
tent, open-minded and truly representative of the
people’s welfare.
There are three especially important questions
to be determined in, dealing with the future of the
Western and Atlantic. In the first place, whether
the road should again be leased or should be opera
ted by the State, provision must he made for its
improvement and development, in order that its
value to the State may continually increase. Fur
thermore, the terminal areas at Atlanta and Chat
tanooga should be considered with a niew to utiliz
ing, more profitably than now, such land as is not es
sential to railroad purposes. And perhaps most im
portant of all is the question of extending the West
ern and Atlantic to the sea. Each of these matters
demands the painstaking consideration which only
aL able commission, working along definite iines,
can give.
The State’s road should be worth vastly more
fifty years or even ten years hence than it is today.
But if that is to be assured, the road must be stead
ily improved in equipment and in facilities for hand
ling business. The line between Chattanooga and
Atlanta should be double tracked and In every other
respect the property should be kept up to the high
est standard of efficiency so that its earning pow.r
will constantly grot,. Any plan for the re-leasing of
the road should contemplate such improvements,
fo • they are no less important than the question of
the rental price.
Everyone who has given intelligent and disinter
ested study to the Western and Atlantic terminals at
Atlanta and Chattanooga seems agreed that a part
of these lands could be devoted to business purposes
without in any way imparing the value or the rental
of the railroad itself. In Atlanta, for Instance, the
State owns a large tract of central real estate now
used as a switching yard. This land is far too val
uable to be sacrificed to such ends when the State
owns adjacent land that would serve terminal needs
equally as well. It seems clear, therefore, that in re
newing the Western and Atlantic lease the State
should exclude from railway uses .that portion of its
property which extends from the Forsyth street via
duct to Central avenue. This land can be leased for
business development on terms that would be highly
profitable to the State; and, if similar plans are
worked out for the Chattanooga terminals, the State
will thus derive a revenue larger perhaps than that
It now receives from the entire Western and At
lantic lease. It woula have two sources of income—
that from the lease of the railroad proper and that
from the lease of these appurtenant lands—where It
now has hut one; and this could be accomplished, as
we have said, without impairing the service or reduc
ing the rental of the railroad a dollar.
If the Western and Atlantic railroad is to grow in
influence and value it must undoubtedly he extended
to the sea. Otherwise, it will remain merely a local
line, limited in power and earning capacity and
largely at the mercy of competing systems. If
extended to the coast, thereby establishing inde
pendent traffic connections between interior towns
and the advantageous ocean routes to and from the
east, it will be proof against combination to lessen its
value and will become the permanent and natural
arbiter of freight rates in Georgia.
Several plans for such an extension have recently
been suggested. The Atlanta, Birmingham and At
lanta railroad is soon to be sold under foreclosure
proceedings. If the State could acquire that line
on advantageous teims, it would have ready at hand
the means of linking its own road to a port. It has
also been proposed that partly through the purchase
of short intervening roads and partly by construct
ing new lines, the State could secure an ocean out
let at St. Marys. These > propositions call for thor
ough inquiry. Like the question of the new lease
that must soon he made and the question of the ter
minal areas at Atlanta and Chattanooga, they should
be submitted to the investigation of a commission
especially detailed to consider this subject in all its
phases. /
The future of the Western and Atlantic road is
the weightiest business problem Georgia has ever
raced. It involves millions of dollars and the vital
interests of the people. It can be solved only through
careful consideration; and solved it must be in the
near future. Let the Legislature look to this great
task without further delay.
Reviving the Dictatorship.
The old Roman practice of naming a dictator
in times of crucial public danger has been revived
in the little republic of Venezuela.
Threatened with a revolution led by the banished
tyrant Castro, wh in defiance of an international
mandate has secretly returned to vex his country,
the Federal Council of Venezuela has authorized
President Gomez to assume dictatorial powers until
the brewing rebellion is crushed. The U jmez govern
ment was constitutionally formed and will doubtless
have the recognition and support of foreign Powers
in general and of the United States in particular.
Indications are that the governors of the several
Venezuelan States will also stand squarely behind
the government. In these circumstances, it would
seem, the Castro uprising will soon be quelled. Cer
tainly, that is the outcome to be hoped for. Castro
is a menace to the welfare of his own country and
to the peace of all Central America.
The Life-Efficiency Expert
BY 3JR. TRANK CRAKE.
(Copyright, 1913. by Frank Crane.)
I
It is the day of efficiency experts. There ar®
skilled men who go to the manufacturing plant or
any other kind of business organization and find out
vhat is the matter why the con
cern is losing money, where the |
waste is, what is the point of \
weakness.
The trouble may lie with „the j
foreman of Department B, or
with the workmen in the yards, .
with neglect* here or careless- j
ness there. The eagle eye of i
the expert sees the flaw, the
boss remedies the evil, and the
factory takes a sudden leap to
ward 16 per cent dividends. It
is a great idea.
It would be a greater idea if j
one knew where we could find ;
an efficiency expert in living,
one who could examine our bodies habits and the in
sides of our minds and souls see where a screw is
loose or where oil is needed, and so advise us how
to readjust our lives and make living to be efficient
and worth while.
For the difficulty with most of us is not poor
health, lack of book-learning, unprofitable business or
harrassing surroundings; it is that we do not under
stand the art of living.
The life-efficiency expert, if there were such ex
isting, might go to the foolish wife and mother who
is worrying herself into her grave and give her a few
hints on values, upon sacrificing the big for the small
things of life, and show her how devoting some time
to her health personal appearance, and the cultivation
of her mind would do more good than to fritter her
whole life-capital away on housecleaning and stocking
darning.
He might go to the commercial traveler and demon
strate to him how high-balls and poker by and by
always get around and clog promotion.
He might go to the successful banker and make
plain to him how a man may be a business success
a^id yet a miserable failure as far as his own life is
concerned.
He might go to the lady who Is a society lady
and point out why, although she reigns in the social
world, she makes wreck and ruin of her domestic
affairs.
He might go to the embittered, to those souls who,
separation and make them to see the obstacle that
threatens disaster to their love, and how to remove
that obstacle.
He might go to the man who is a failure and direct
him how to adjust himself to non-success so as to
make his life even richer than success could make it.
He might go to the embittered, to those souls who,
scorpion-like, sting themselves with their own scorn,
and give them some antidote of common sense that
would bring peace between them and themselves.
He might go to the headstrong, fatuous, egotistic,
and unreasonable and fix the deranged machinery of
their souls.
He might go to the superstitious, the half-insane
faddists, the prejudiced and all who have given them
selves over to some hypnotic nonsense and bring them
back to sanity.
-iut, alas! I fear the life-efficiency expert would
starve. For the last place we look for the thing that
is the matter with us is within ourselves. The uni
versal infatuation of the human iace is that it is outer
things and other folks that always are to blame.
What the fool human being wants is for some
body to change circumstances, not himself.
"The Peace of the Sussex Man"
Much interest has recently been manifested in the
discovery, by Mr. Charles Dawson, of part of the skull
and mandible of an ancient man, near Pilt Down com
mon, Sussex, England. Workmen first found an ob-
ject resembling a coeoanut, which curiosity led them
to break in pieces, and, being unable to aolve the mys
tery, they cast the pieces aside. Later a number of
worked flints were found and laid out by the roadside.
Mr. Dawson happening along saw these and was told
of the coeoanut. He recovered the fragments and
pieced them together to find that they formed the
left half of a human skull. Subsequent search suc
ceeded in bringing to light a fragment of the tooth of
a mastodon; various fragments of the teeth of a pre
historic elephant, together with those of a hippopota
mus, a heaver, and an extinct horse; a bit of a large
deer’s antler; and, finally, a fossilized jawbone which
is presumed to belong to the small skull. . . . The
place of this ancient ancestor In the roots of our
family tree may be determined by a study of certain
geological and anthropological factors. . . . The
incompleteness of the Sussex skull renders estimates
of the cranial capacity difficult, but it undoubtedly
falls between slxty-two and sixty-seven cubic inches.
Prof. Keith attempts to reconstruct the whole head
of the Heidelberg man on the basis of facts revealed
by the mandible, and concludes that the cranial ca
pacity was not less than one thousand three hundred
cubic centimeters, or about seventy-eight cubic Inches.
Allowing fer all possible Inaccuracies in these figures,
the man of Sussex shows smaller cranial capacity than
that of any other European remains thus far discov
ered. In this respect he also represents a more prim
itive type of man than any existing race.—Frederick
A. Hodge, in the August number of the North Ameri
can Review.
Quips and Quiddities
“I say, mamma,’ said little Tommy, “is it true that
when you first met papa you had fallen into the water
and he jumped in and saved you?”
“Quite true, my dear,” replied mamma, with a smile.
“Then I wonder if that's why papa won’t allow me
to learn how to swim.’’
• • •
A young woman from the east was conversing with
a Kentuckian about tobacco and tobacco raising.
She was very pretty and a good conversationalist
and the young man from Kentucky was vastly inter
ested in her until she gave him a su.dden shock by an
nouncing:
“I should love to see a tobacco field, especially
when it is just plugging out.’’—Rational Food Maga-’
zine.
| Pointed Paragraphs
Even an empty nead may contain a lot of useless
information.
* * *
It is easier to make friends than it is to hold
them.
• • •
Even the silent man is unable to keep his ignor
ance under cover.
* • •
Anyway, no man ever has occasion to apologize
for doing his duty.
• e •
Ordinarily a woman manages to hold her own—
with the exception of her tongue
THE NEW RURAL SCHOOL
IV.—A STUDY OF CORN.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
Conservative, full-grown farmers who have sneered'
at book farmers have been taught by the Boys’ Corn|
clubs that it pays to mix a little knowledge in with
. the dirt when growing corn—that'
it increases the yield for one
acre from, say, twenty bushels'
to two hundred and twenty. N T ow,
even the most conservative farm
er, even one whose conservatism
is so grounded in kindred ignor
ance that he is unable to readj
and write,^does know how to add
and subtract. He does know the
difference between twenty bush
els and forty bushels and eiahiy
bushels of corn to the acre. It
has long been held to be desira
ble to teach farmers’ children how
to “read and write and cipher,”
why not also teach them how to
grow corn? And why not do it at the same time they
are learning these other things?
• o •
In the three preceding articles on the experimental
rural school at Rock Hill, S. C., it has been shown
how reading and writing and numbers are taught as
an incident to practical everyday affairs, playing and
gardening and cooking. To show how well done is
the main work, the gardening, the teaching of the
science of agriculture, it is better to take a single
plant—corn—and see what the new rural school did
with it. For this study of corn we will take the school
in its second year, when its pupils were more in num
ber. when they were actually farm children, brought
in every day by a wagon from their homos, and taken
back in the same way at night. There will be more
of this second year’s work in later articles. For the 1
present, to the study of corn:
« • •
It began in the winter, began with a study of the'
birthplace and the home of the corn—the soil. We
children felt the soil and when the teacher asked us
about it, we said It was moist. Then she asked us
how much water there was in it. That was a puzzler
for a moment, but one of us had the wit to suggest
weighing it wet and then drying it out and weighing
it again. We took three pounds, and when we had
thoroughly dried it, it weighed but two and three-
fourths of a pound. And the very smallest and young
est of us knew that a quarter of a pound of water
had been driven out. The teacher told us it had evap
orated, and that was a good, new word.
• • •
Then she showed us something else. She put the
same dried dirt in an iron vessel and set it on the
stove and let it get red-hot. When it was cold again
we weighed it, and we saw it. had lost some more
weight. Was that water, too? No, the water had all
gone* before. So the teacher told us about humus,
that it was “organic matter” in the soil, tiny tyits of
leaves and sticks, and so on. We guessed that it was
the humus that had been burned out of the soil, and wo
now knew that the soil in our garden had water in it
and organic matter in it. But there was more.
• • *
The teacher asked us to look closely and we saw
sand. How like little rooks the grains of sand are!
How were the little rocks made? We rub two rocks
together over a piece of white paper and we see—sand
is made by rubbing rocks. Do we think this could
happen naturally? Rocks rolling down hill, rocks roll
ing on the bottom of a stream, would be rubbed. We
put some stones into a pickle Jar, and pour in water.
It was almost cl e ar in the jar. And then we shook the
bottle hard, and let it settle. Which falls first? Silt,
sand or gravel? Then we went to the mouth of a
little steam just after a rain and there we found silt,
then sand, then gravel, then the stones, Just as in the^
bottle. It was lots of fun, and we learned a great
deaL
• • •
Then we took four lamp chimneys and fastened
them in a frame, and tied netting under the bottom of
each. Into one we put garden soil, into another aand,
another clay and into the last one gravel. We poured
•in water and watched which on© held it longest. And
then we did the same thing with new soils, and put
the ends in water to see which would soak it up the
quickest. Now, we already knew that corn must hav©
water, and must have it all the time in the soil, and
in this way we le&rnod all about what too much sand
or too much clay would do for our garden.
• • •
We put grains of corn between damp sheets of blot
ting paper, and put some in a warm and some \rt a
cold place. We knew it was a joke when the teacher
told us to put some grains in damp sawdust and some
in dry sawdust to see which would come up first, for
we knew that in the dry it never would. We*put some
grains in & tin can filled with soil that had holes
punched in the bottom, and some in a can of soil with
out any holes. We put some grains in damp paper in
the air and some in a tight box.
• • •
The grains of corn that were cold, that were dry,
that were too much soaked in the can without holes,
that had no air, all did not sprout—“germinate” the
teacher taught us to say. But those that had mois
ture, and heat, and air, and not too much moisture,
all began to grow. We took some ears of corn and
tested them for seed—planting five grains from each
ear and numbering the ear so that we could see what
ears would give the best seed. We will remember that
we must do this wnenever w© plant corn, so as to get
the best seed.
• • •
And when the little grains we are watching begin
to grow! What fun it is to mark the tip of the root
and the tip of jthe stalk with a tiny pen-and-ink mark
and then to see next morning how both have glown.
As the grains that were in the blotting paper grew we
drew pictures each day, showing the .bursting grain,
the tiny root and stalk, the radicle and plumule.
• • »
Spring came and we began to think of our corn in
the garden. We must plant far enough apart so as to
give our corn air and sun, but we don’t have to plant
as far apart a» on the farm because we will cultivate
our corn by hand and not with mules. We mark off
the hills one and a half x«-et apart and make them in
rows two feet apart. We are going to put five grains
in each hill, for it is easier to pull up a stalk than to
replant. And then, how many hills in your row?
And how many grains will it take?
• • •
When *our corn is about six inches high we give it
some nitrate of soda fertilizer, for corn must have
food and this kind of food is not in our soil. We find
cut all about when to cultivate the corn, and how to
k *,ep a dust mulch on top of the ground to keep the
uv,der part of the soil from drying out too quickly,
and many, many tilings. / »
m • •
We have enemies. Smut appears. We burn the in
fected stalk to keep It from sheading. Weeds and
grass come up. We study all the different kinds of
weeds and find out how many, many seed they have
and how necessary it is to dig them up by the roots
and get rid of them altogether. We know now that
We must cultivate our corn for three reasons—to loosen
the soil so that the corn can get its food and drink,
to keep a dust mulch so that the water will not all
evaporate, and to kill the weeds and grass that other
wise would steal the food and water from our corn.
* • V
Then we find that weeds are of some good after
all. They make a lazy farmer cultivate his corn when
if there were no weeds he might not take the trouble
to do it just for the sake of making a dust mulch.
The easiest way to manage a husband is to select
one that doesn’t need much managing.
• * *
In case you fail to put your best foot forward
when you have a chance, you may feel like using it
to kick yourself later.
Our corn is in bloom. It has flowers. 4 We find
out that the tassel is one part of the flower and that
the silk is another part, and that without both parts
there will be no corn. There is yellow dust on the
tassel pollen, the teachers tells us. And a grain of
that must fall on every single tiny silk to make a sin
gle grain of corn.