1906] Nature Study No. 39. 195 



course of study there not only developed the intelligence, stimu- 

 lated the imagination, widened the outlook, and gave the students 

 scientific, practical and sympathetic interest in the world about 

 them, but it also made them, as free citizens of a rising nation, 

 take greater interest in civic affairs, and showed them the value of 

 co-eperation and collective action. 



The Macdonald Institute at the Ontario Agricultural College, 

 which stands for Nature-Study, Manual Training, and Domestic 

 Science, as an integral part of the education of every child, 

 should claim much credit for the evangelistic work it has accom- 

 plished during the past four years under the leadership of Mul- 

 drew and McCready. Its class-rooms have been thronged sum- 

 mer and winter by teachers from all parts of Canada anxious to 

 learn more about the things of nature, so that they might bet- 

 ter direct the children how to study the simple commonplace 

 things that lie at their door. 



Directly also, the College, by means of bulletins on many 

 topics of general interest, set the people reading and thinking 

 about the wonderful secrets of nature and the importance of a 

 knowledge of these secrets ; so that when the Nature-Study 

 Movement was started the people were responsive. Indirectly, 

 the Farmers' Institutes, which were really an extension system 

 of the Agricultural College, did much to interest the farmer in 

 improved methods of dealing with the soil, plants and animals, 

 injurious insects and noxious weeds. By means of the Institutes 

 scientific knowledge was popularized and applied to practical 

 agriculture. 



Nature-Study has no better champions and advocates than 

 the staff of the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. Dr. James 

 Fletcher has done as much probably as any man in Canada to 

 further the movement. His public addresses and articles are 

 most admirable and always carry conviction. 



In some counties the Inspectors of Public Schoels encouraged 

 the teachers under their charge to undertake nature work, and 

 brought the matter to the attention of the School Boards of their 

 inspectorate. By appeals and helpful suggestions to teachers the 

 Nature-Study Movement got a start before it was officially recog- 

 nised by the Education Departments. 



