NATURE-STUDY AND ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE IN 

 THE COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



By M. H. CRUMP, C E., 

 Bowling Green, Ky. 



Fifteen years practical work and observation has convinced 

 the writer that the rural school-house offers a splendid field for 

 the introduction of real nature-study. 



The really serious difficulty is to find the teacher who is com- 

 petent, sincerely in earnest and studiously willing. Such a 

 teacher will not only know things when seen but will be able to 

 put her information to practical use by doing. , The children will 

 learn by doing, seeing and hearing and will carry information into 

 their homes, where it may be of great practical use. The rapidly 

 increasing demand for such practical instruction will certainly 

 produce the supply and many normal schools are already doing 

 much along this line. The time is not far distant when every 

 village as well as country school will have a teacher competent 

 to give practical instruction in agriculture. 



More than seventy per cent, of the people of the South Atlantic, 

 Mississippi Valley and Western States are engaged in agricultural 

 or similar pursuits; and it is very essential that the children of 

 this teeming population be trained to remain on the farm and to 

 practice intensive rather than extensive farming. With success- 

 ful farming will come a real love for the vocation and a consequent 

 lack of desire to flock to the cities and towns. 



The successful teacher in the rural district has a splendid oppor- 

 tunity to lead the children along such w^holesome, practical lines 

 as will make that, best of all human products, a good citizen. 



How many of your friends and acquaintances can tell you the 

 names of trees, plants, birds, stones, insects or soils which con- 

 stantly surround them? Why such lack of agreeable and fre- 

 quently practical information? It is because nature-study has 

 been the privilege of the few instead of the many. The material 

 for such study is at the very door of the school-house. The 

 simple request of each child to bring a handful of earth from the 

 garden or field will furnish material for days. The physical, 

 chemical and geological conditions of each soil can be carefully 

 pointed out and explained so that a ten-year-old child can soon 



146 



