34

HOW THE LAND IS FARMED.

his side to hold the seed, and he throws a hand-ful at a time, but with such skill, that it falls ex-act-ly on the earth or in the fur-rows. Corn is sown al-so by a ma-chine call-ed a drill.

LESSON VII.

9. SEED NOT TO BE WAST-ED.-It has been. prov-ed that at least one-third of the seed sown might be saved, and much more grown by sow-ing less than we do. To sow seed too thick is a waste of seed, and the pro-duce of the seed is at the same time much less. It has been shown that five millions of pounds ster-ling might be sa-ved to the coun-try by thin sow-ing.

10. WEED-ING.-All kinds of plants should be kept free from weeds, for if they are suf-fer-ed to grow up, the plants will not thrive. Wo-men and boys are set to work to hoe up the weeds with a hoe, and to cut them up by the roots.

11. REAP-ING.-Corn, that is wheat, is cut by the reap-ing hook or sic-kle.

It is made up in-to large bundles call-ed sheaves, and these are set side by side in a row, and form what is call-ed a shock.

12. THRASH-ING.-Corn is thrash-ed by a flail. The flail is a long pole join-ed to a short-er one by skin thongs; with this tool the thrash-er beats the corn till the grains fall out of the ears.

PLANTS GROWN BY THE FARMER.

LESSON VIII

PLANTS GROWN BY THE FARMER.

35

1. There are ma-ny kinds of plants grown for the use of man. Some are grown for food, some for the food of cat-tle, and some for clothes and oth-er uses.

2. The most use-ful of all the tribes of plants are the grass-es. They in-clude not mere-ly the grass we see in mea-dows, but al-so wheat, rye, oats, bar-ley, maize, or In-di-an corn, mil-let, rice, reeds, bam-boos, and sedg-es.

3. Po-ta-toes are grown by the far-mer. They are plant-ed in March and A-pril, and dug up in Sep-tem-ber. Its fruit or ber-ry is of the size of a plum, green at first, but black when ripe. The tu-ber, or root, is the part we eat.

4. Wheat, oats, and bar-ley are sown ei-ther in the Au-tumn or the Spring. Wheat is sometimes sown in the Au-tumn. In Ju-ly and Au-gust they are cut down-oats and rye first, then wheat, and last-ly bar-ley. Rice and maize are on-ly grown in warm coun-tries.

5. Oth-er crops are al-so grown in the fields, such as tur-nips, car-rots, par-snips, peas,

MAIZE.

RICE.

36

PLANTS GROWN BY THE FARMER.

beans, clo-ver, lu-cern, san-foin, buck wheat or brank,

and vetch-es or tares.

6. Beans are sown in March and reap-ed in the Au-tumn. Clo-ver, tares, or vetch-es, are sown in the ear-ly Spring, and cut down in May. Car-rots and par-snips are sown in March; so al-so are peas. Some crops come in soon, and some late in the year. Grass grows wild in all parts of the world. In warm countries it grows ve-ry large and tall. In cold coun-tries it is short and fine. In some pla-ces there are large plains co-ver-ed with grass many hun-dred miles in ex-tent, in which herds of wild bulls, roam a-bout.

7. The grass grown in the mea-dows is the sweet scent-ed ver-nal grass, the mea-dow fox-tail grass. There are ma-ny wild grass-es; one is the wall bar-ley, the head of which boys put up their sleeve, that it may crawl to the shoul-der; an-oth-er is the couch grass, one of the worst weeds in the gar-den.

8. Grass is made in-to ma-ny things. Hous-es are built of the bam-boo. The sedge is made in-to mat-ting. Rice grass is made in-to a kind of cloth; and hats and bon-nets are made of the straw of rye and bar-ley.

9. Oth-er plants are al-so grown by far-mers. Flax is grown for ma-king lin-en. Hemp for ropes and mat-ting. Saf-fron for dye-ing; and Hops for brew-ing.

1. The sheep is ve-ry meek. It does not like to fight. It runs a-way when it hears the bark of a dog. A young sheep is call-ed a lamb. When sheep are full grown, a male sheep is call-ed a ram, and a fe-male an ewe. The flesh of the sheep, when it is dead, is call-ed mut-ton.

2. Sheep live in flocks. They feed on grass in mea-dows, on heaths, on hills, or on mountains, or downs, which are hills near the sea. In win-ter they are fed on tur-nips and oth-er food. The man who takes care of sheep is call-ed a shepherd.

3. The shep-herd loves his sheep, and leads them

to the nice fresh grass to feed. He keeps watch o-ver them at night, puts them into a fold, and guards them with his dog. If one goes a-stray, he hunts after it till he finds it. If he finds it in a ditch, he pulls it out with his crook.

4. Lambs are born in the spring, and when ve-ry young, re-quire great care. The shep-herd has to be with them all night then, to feed them, and to look to their dams. Some shep-herd boys will bring up great num-bers of lambs. I knew one who, from a flock of three hun-dred ewes, on-ly lost two. This was a boy not more than twelve years old. He had a gold med-al giv-en to him for his care, and a pres-ent of mo-ney.

5. In sum-mer sheep are wash-ed in a pond, and when their coats are dry, they are cut off by a pair of shears. This is call-ed shear-ing the sheep. The hair thus cut off the sheep's back is call-ed wool, which is spun into yarn, wove in-to cloth, and made in-to coats, blan-kets, and oth-er things to keep us warm.

6. Young lambs are ve-ry fond of play. They can run a-bout soon af-ter they are born. If they can get near a bank, they will leap and frisk on it, and play a-bout the grass in high glee. It makes the heart glad to see young lambs at play.

7. There are ma-ny kinds of sheep. Those that live in fo-reign coun-tries, as in E-gypt and Spain, have long hair and very large fat tails, which weigh from for-ty to fifty pounds. Oth-er sheep have a long mane, and a dew-lap of fat under the chin.