384 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [11:8— Nov., 1915 



A number of suggestions to help the rural public school teacher 

 in leading his or her pupils to see the direct relation between home 

 life and their school studies are contained in a new publication of 

 the Department of Agriculture. This Bulletin, No. 281, entitled 

 "Correlating Agriculture With the Public School Subjects in the 

 Northern States" contains a plan of work extending from Septem- 

 ber through the fall, winter and spring to the end of June. Under 

 this plan each pupil is encouraged to undertake some home project ; 

 that is to say, some work at home which will extend through a whole 

 season, will be connected with the instruction in agriculture which 

 the pupil receives at school, and a record of the results of which will 

 be faithfully kept and turned in to the teacher at the conclusion of 

 the project. At school the pupil's exercises in arithmetic, spelling, 

 English, geography, etc., are so directed that the value of these 

 subjects in practical life is made clear. For example, in the 

 language lessons, the pupil may be asked to write out the method 

 which he used in testing milk with a Babcock tester, special 

 emphasis being placed upon the need for making the meaning 

 absolutely clear. In the same way the records obtained from cow 

 testing may be used as exercises in arithmetic and the pupil asked 

 to compute the total yield of butter fat, its money value, and the 

 estimated profit from any given dairy herd. 



In the supplement of the bulletin is contained a number of sample 

 score cards designed to assist the teacher in rating agricultural 

 exhibits which the pupils should be encouraged to make. The 

 new bulletin is designed especially for rural school teachers in the 

 northern States. 



Farmers' Institutes More Popular Than Ever 



Number of Meetings and Attendance at Them is Steadily 

 Increasing Each Year. 



Both the number of farmers' institutes held each year and the 

 attendance at these meetings is steadily increasing, according to a 

 report on farmers' institute work which has just been published by 

 the United States Department of Agriculture as Bulletin No. 269. 

 During the fiscal year ending June 30, 19 14, the report states, 

 25,238 of these institutes were held throughout the country, with a 

 total attendance of 3,656,381. This is an increase in attendance 

 of 26 per cent, over that of any previous year. On the other hand, 



