7° THE NATURE-STUD Y KE VIE W [ 4 ■ j-mar., .908 



the new light of scientific truth. Drudgery is elevated to the high 

 plane of work, where cause is sought for the result, or where 

 results may reasonably be expected from known causes; where 

 the production is not of itself a standard of value, but where the 

 efficiency, skillfulness, and joy of the husbandman are the true 

 measures of the value of industrial education. Such courses are 

 conducive to producing enterprising citizens — they see more in 

 the pleasures of life ; the lawns, the country road, the little church 

 and the rural school, all show the touch of an aroused interest. 

 Contributions to public organizations are more liberal — especially 

 to the school where there are teachers who know the needs of the 

 farmer and who seek to offer as much for utility as for the enrich- 

 ment of life. 



As to the utilitarian value to be placed on agricultural courses 

 in high schools, many specific results might be mentioned; but, 

 in a limited territory, the writer has especially observed a new 

 interest in the question as to how the productive power of the soil 

 may be maintained, and how an increase in the yield of cereals 

 and fruits can be secured. Work benches, milk testers, and 

 germination outfits are not infrequently found in the same room 

 with the air pump, electrical apparatus, and the microscope. 



The attendance at the township and village high school has 

 increased; a new field for education has dignified farm work, and 

 many a country boy and girl now in the elementary grades is look- 

 ing forward to the work in the high school to prepare for their life 

 work on the farm. A country high-school course that is not too 

 intensely agricultural offers quite as much, if not more, material 

 than does any other school to prepare for any calling in life. 



The function of industrial courses must be to answer to the call 

 of the millions who labor with both hand and mind in preparing 

 the individual to be an active citizen-artisan ; and the measure 

 of their value must, in a degree, be determined by the character 

 of the man and by the product of his hand. 



