ject for compositions, which are now required in most departments of the public schools. By correlating with composition and drawing work, the objection of an added study was removed.

It is believed that a study of the more common and familiar objects of nature leads directly to a better understanding of those laws and phenomena which are the very foundation of improved agriculture. In the hands of the skillful teacher the leaflets may be used to impart valuable lessons in nature history and in the conservation of energy as applied to rural affairs, and may, in some cases, serve to interest teacher and pupil in the economics of agriculture. Briefly stated, it is hoped that such instruction will lead logically and naturally to a greater love for rural affairs and a more rational understanding of them among the old and young both in city and in country.

Eight leaflets in all have been published, electrotyped, and republished on the following subjects:

No. 1. How a Squash Plant Gets Out of the Seed. (Four editions.)

No. 2. How a Candle Burns. (Three editions.)

No. 3. Four Apple Twigs. (Five editions.)

No. 4. A Children's Garden.

No. 5. Some Tent-Makers.

(Six editions.)

(Four editions.)

No. 6. What is Nature-Study. (Four editions.)

No. 7. Hints on Making Collections of Insects. (Two editions.)

No. 8. The Leaves and Acorns of Our Common Oaks. (Two editions.)

The demand for these leaflets is so great that other editions will be required in the near future. The work in Nature-Study has passed the experimental stage; the demand for it is far beyond our facilities for carrying it forward.

This educational work in agriculture divides itself naturally into six divisions: Nature-study; schools of agriculture and horticulture; dairy instruction; lectures on special subjects, such as the sugar-beet industry; a course of reading and instruction for farmers; publications,

There are many principles of agriculture which are well understood by the scientist but which are not familiar to the farmer. It is proposed to secure the cooperation of progressive agriculturists in the endeavor to learn how best to fit these principles into practice.

It is impossible to sharply separate these various activities, as one often overlaps the other. Suffice it to say, that more than seven hundred lessons and lectures have been given throughout the State by persons selected on account of their special fitness for the work in hand.

Thirty thousand teachers are enrolled on our lists and have received leaflets, and many have attended the lectures explaining the methods of presenting naturestudy work in the schools. Sixteen thousand school children have received those leaflets which are especially adapted to their needs. Two thousand five hundred young farmers are enrolled in the agricultural reading course. These are assisted from time to time by means of printed circulars which give directions and assistance to the farmer in carrying on his studies at home. From time to time question papers are sent out for the purpose of giving opportunity to the farmer to make known his needs that they may be more fully understood and mot. The location of nature-study centers is shown in the diagram.

It is believed that the benefits derived from carrying the experimental work beyond the limits of the station grounds are very great. First, the data obtained are valuable. In some cases they are much more valuable than could possibly hə obtained from experiments conducted at the station. In corroboration of this statement, reference is made to the bulletin on sugar beets, already mentioned. Second, the station is brought into closer touch with the farmers. Meeting them on their own farms, the station workers become better acquainted with their

time, this is the most important consideration. There are many questions affected by soil and climate that must be decided for each locality individually, and the greatest hindrance is the want of trained experimenters to take up the work. It is hoped and believed that we shall find in various localities in the State intelligent and public-spirited farmers who, for the benefits to be derived by themselves and their fellows, will be willing to cooperate with the station in this work.

The educational work which had already been done prior to April, 1897, by

CHAUT

CATT

Տաւ

ULSTER

peculiar surroundings and needs, and can offer more appropriate assistance than they otherwise could do. On the other hand, the farmers learn better how the station can help them and how to avail themselves of that help. Third, the experiments serve as object lessons to the farmers. As such they impress themselves upon a large class of farmers that would give little heed to a printed description of experiments conducted at the station. Fourth, the experiments have a high educational value for the farmers performing them.

Perhaps, at the present

Showing where meetings have been held and schools visited in the advancement of nature study work.

44

Prof. L. H. Bailey, and his associates in horticulture in the western part of the State, inade it possible to secure the cooperation of more than 300 farmers in the investigations in sugar-beet culture and 203 farmers in the experiment with fertilizers. The time has come when the help of the farmers must be secured if valuable investigations are to be conducted which shall be applicable to varied conditions. Climate, soil, environment, and needs are so variel in the State that

-432

MONROE

ONEIDA

GEN

ONT

ONON

L. ERIE

ERIE

SEN

MAD L

CHAUT.

CATT

ALLEG

STEUBEN

CHEN

TOMP

CHEM TIOGA BROOME

30

CLIN

FRANK

ST. LAW

comparatively little help can be given unless the investigations can be conducted in the locality where the help is needed.

DAIRY HUSBANDRY.

Observations in the dairy districts led to the conclusion that this branch of agriculture needed assistance. The theory of making butter and cheese is fairly well understood, but the art, in many cases, was found to be lamentably wanting. To bridge over this gap between science and art, two expert dairymen were em

ployed during the summer, men who not only knew much of the science, but of the art of dairy husbandry as well. These men went from factory to factory, called a few dairymen together, and gave valuable instruction by first teaching the leading principles and then by practically applying them.

INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE IN THE RURAL SCHOOLS OF

FRANCE.

THE FRENCH PROGRAMME.

The conception of making agriculture a subject of instruction in the public schools originated in 1791 in the second legislature of the First Republic-that is to say, during the period called in France "The Revolution." The Second Republic, that of 1848, was unable, in spite of its "good intentions," to do more than the "Revolution" or First Republic had done; its laws were in practice only expressions of good will. During the seventh decade of the present century France experienced an "agriculture crisis" or depression, and in 1867 a great inquiry was made with a view to relieve the situation. Among the questions asked in this effort to obtain a consensus of opinions regarding the deplorable condition of agriculture, the most important national industry, was one which was expressed in these terms: Is the public school course (l'instruction primaire) conducted so as to favor agriculture, and what is its influence upon the choice of a profession? As may well be imagined, a great divergency of opinion is to be observed in turning over the 500 or 600 pages of extracts given by Mr. Inspector Pinet in the work which he so diligently compiled for the students of social science, but Messrs. Prillienx and Schribaux, in an official report, summarize the inquiry thus:

The inquiry bore upon three main points: (1) What instruction [in agriculture] shall be given to male students in the elementary normal schools? (2) What instruction shall be given [in agriculture] in the district [communal] schools? (3) What instruction shall be given to adult persons in special courses which are appropriate to improve agriculture?

The same authorities give, en résumé," the following conclusions as deducible from the replies.

1. Establish, as soon as convenient, a course of agriculture and of horticulture in all the normal schools for men.

2. In order to make the instruction given in these courses uniform (afin de constituer l'unité de ce professorat), let the agricultural colleges be given the mission officially to train teachers for the normal schools, unless it happens that agricultural instruction has been already regularly organized in that section. These teachers should be selected from among the best students of the third year of our normal schools and sent to a school of agriculture, whence, after two or three years, they are to be drawn out to be especially charged as assistants in normal schools, both with instruction in agriculture and, in part, in the ordinary subjects pursued in those schools.

3. Distinguish between rural schools and other elementary schools, so that the usual rural school instruction in summer will permit some agricultural work (s'accorder avec les travaux des champs)."

4. Put the matter to be taught in pedagogic form (une instruction détaille), so as to point out precisely the way (préciser la voie) which the teacher in the rural schools ought to follow hereafter, in teaching agriculture and horticulture, and

L'enseignement de l'agriculture dans les écoles normales d'instituteurs et dans les écoles primaires, par Prillieux, inspecteur général de l'enseignement agricole, et Schribaux, répétiteur à Institut national agronomique.

* L'enseignement primaire en présence de l'enquête agricole, par A. Pinet, inspecteur de l'enseignement primaire, etc.

3 It would appear that this means that the school hours should be so fixed in summer that the children might be able to work at home on the farm, "so that the children may be exercised in the duties of agriculture or be employed at labor in the great industrial establishments [factorios], where their activity and their bodily strength may be developed." See Bulletin administratif du ministère de l'instruction publique, No. 164, 1867.

further, announce that, after two or three years, questions upon agriculture and the practice of horticulture will be an obligatory part of the examination for obtaining a teacher's certificate.

5. Class the districts (communes) of each county (literally "department") according to the kinds of crops (cultures) which dominate in each, and select, or have written if necessary, for each of these kinds of culture text-books which shall not only be easily understood (clair), but interesting, and, in addition, recommend that these books be adopted in preference to any others, and that all copy-book models, transcribing and dictations, as well as arithmetical problems, have an agricultural application. Finally, send the teachers out into the country, that they may know it understandingly.

6. Compare, by a rigid examination, the different elementary manuals upon agricultural instruction and agricultural reading books and adopt the best, subject to such additions, eliminations, etc., as may be thought necessary. If no book has yet appeared sufficiently good for the purpose, let a prize be offered for one or more of the kind required.

7. Require that a garden or a plat of land (terrain) be annexed to every normal school and every rural elementary school, in order that the teacher may set the elder pupils of the school to experimenting (essayer) with fertilizers, sowing, cultivating (binage, pulverizing the soil), but especially with trimming trees, and choose horticultural operations which have been brought to their attention in their books or written exercises. Further, let the teacher at least once a week take his pupils on an agricultural investigation (promenade), and, finally, place the normal school near a farm, which may or may not belong to the department, but in any case shall afford the students the best examples possible for their imitation.

8. Order that there shall be immediately established in each chief place of the canton or in a central commune agricultural and horticultural conferences, upon which all the teachers of the circumscription must attend. These conferences are to be presided over, both as president and professor, by a man well instructed in agricultural science, and also capable of imparting his knowledge to others. Any cultivator who requests permission may also be admitted to this conference.

9. Recommend to teachers to bring together during the winter evenings. if only once or twice a week, the grown-up people of their communes and give agricultural readings before them, accompanied with explanations and suggestions.

10. Fix upon a general programme or scheme which will serve as a general plan of campaign, to be completed by the particular programme proposed by the agricultural society-as the variety of culture in the different parts of France requires-and supplement it with the detailed instructions upon the methods which the teacher ought to employ, as noted in paragraph 4. Also, let there be sent out at the same time a list of practical exercises, etc.

11. Appoint in each department certain commissions whose members belong to the agricultural society or societies of that department, and, adding to this membership the inspector of schools, let them ascertain the results of the instruction and advise the teachers.

12. Finally, establish annual competitions between the students of the elementary schools and those pupils in the adult classes who are worthy to be admitted, and give each teacher an honorarium, gauged according to the number of prizes obtained by his pupils, the prizes to be awarded by the agricultural committees. Such is the fundamental p'an upon which the Third Republic of France has endeavored to introduce agricultural instruction into rural France, for the Second Empire collapsed in 1870, before an opportunity was given to it to carry out the ideas regarding agricultural education which it had in its last years found itself compelled to solicit. The essential problem of the plan is, the introduction of agricultural instruction having been decided on, to find the pedagogic form in which such instruction shall be given, pedagogic form in each of its featureswhat shall be taught, or programme; how shall it be taught, or method. The first of these falls within the province of the agricultural scientist; the second within that of the pedagogue, especially of that class whose business it is to systematize or, as the original of the above translation expresses the matter, "to constitute the unity of the professorate," or, in English idiom, teach the same thing in the same way everywhere, though apparently teaching local agriculture, a programme, indeed, expedited and enhanced by the intelligent teacher, though held stationary and perhaps deteriorated by mere routine. Let us see how these features of pedagogical form have been handled in France, first confining attention to the form