68 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE W u . 3 - HAR ., I9o8 



The new zoology will treat more or less fully of the economic 

 value of animals and insects as well as of their ecology and type- 

 forms. Chemistry as usually taught in small high schools without 

 proper apparatus is of so little value that if a substitution were to 

 be made in the high -school course, zoology should take the place of 

 chemistry. Elementary chemistry alone has so much less to do 

 with the ordinary practice of agriculture than is usually credited 

 to it that, if the elementary work can not be followed by qualita- 

 tive and quantitative analysis, the time spent on it is worth less 

 than that spent upon any other science study in the high school. 

 The subject of plant nutrition does not, for the mass of farmers, 

 necessitate a knowledge of chemistry, but rather of such studies 

 as physics and the biological sciences. The availability of plant 

 food requires a greater knowledge of methods of tillage and culti- 

 vation and of botany, than of chemistry. 



Such subjects as may seem to require a knowledge of chemistry 

 to be applied on the farm or in the kitchen really require little 

 more than the ability to recognize and consider such chemical 

 characteristics of matter as may appeal to the senses, or the 

 phenomena of certain chemical actions. Determining the pres- 

 ence of albumen in milk, carbon in sugar, starch in food; genera- 

 ting carbonic acid gas, and knowing its characteristics; under- 

 standing the effect of salt upon juices in meats ; knowing how to 

 remove grease, fruit, and grass stains and paint or ink from woods 

 and fabrics, are all matters requiring no knowledge of chemical 

 reactions to make them practical. However, it is far better that 

 the teacher who offers such exercises understand enough chemis- 

 try to assist pupils in comprehending simple chemical formula, 

 more or less of the nomenclature of this science, and an occasional 

 reason that comes within the understanding of the class. The 

 subject of elementary chemistry may be taught as a part of an 

 agricultural course, but it is far from being as important as physi- 

 cal geography, botany, zoology or physics. 



Exercises directly related to the mathematical and natural 

 sciences or incidental to the study of them should make up a 

 manual training course. The making of berry boxes, models of 

 gates, and trays for testing seed-corn; graft and bud-setting; 

 grinding tools ; rope splicing and knot tying ; and planning fields 

 and gardens, are exercises more or less closely related to the regu- 

 lar studies. These and similar exercises offer quite as much 



