BOOK REVIEWS 85 



patiate to your pupils on the beauty of nature." Most of us should 

 be cautioned, I fear, before acting upon this advice, for it is dan- 

 gerous ground. 



The chapter on correlation is good. The world about us is 

 worthy of study in its own right. ' There is danger of correlating 

 nature-study until it is annihilated," yet there are lines of intersec- 

 tion that should be followed into other fields. " Correlate manual 

 training with nature-study interests and see how the whole child- 

 life wakens up. You wake him up to one thing and he is awake 

 to all." 



The author's sense of humor is not lacking and many of his 

 points are made by the reductio ad absurdum method. The book- 

 is written in an interesting style, and will doubtless stimulate 

 many readers to a greater interest in direct study of natural things. 



Fred L. Charles. 

 Illinois State Normal School, 

 De Kalb, 111. 



First Principles of Agriculture. By E. S. Goff and D. D. Mayne. 

 X. Y., American Book Company. Pp. 248, illustrated, eight 

 colored plates. 80 cents. 



This little book, intended for use in the rural schools, is another 

 evidence of the growing tendency to emphasize the practical ele- 

 ment in education, to connect the school life of a child with its 

 home life and daily environment. Written as a text-book for 

 " pupils in the upper form of the rural school," it is an endeavor 

 " to make the farm a center of interest and its industries, its 

 economies, and its science the subjects of thought and study." 



The book consists of a series of brief reading lessons on soils, 

 plants and various horticultural operations, insects, dairying and 

 animal husbandry. The earlier subjects are illustrated by simple 

 experiments, the directions for which are given at the beginning 

 of each lesson, while at the end of each is a summary of the chief 

 points covered. The book is illustrated, containing several appeals 

 to the popular taste in the way of colored plates. 



For those schools in which a good course in nature-study ex- 

 tending through the earlier years already exists, this book, dealing 

 as a large part of it does with some of the simpler facts of plant 

 and animal life, would seem to be superfluous, since it is not 

 written or arranged in such a way as to be of much use in such an 



