284 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [4:9-1)110,1908 



was a proclamation appointing Friday, November 6, as Corn 

 Carnival Day in all the country schools of the State, and Friday, 

 November 13, as Corn Exhibition Day, to be held, if possible, in 

 the office of the county superintendent of each county. With the 

 opportunity which he has of viewing the work of the entire State 

 his paper estimating present conditions is of much interest. 

 Dean Davenport has been attracting much attention of late 

 through his masterly addresses on the subject of industrial educa- 

 tion and education for efficiency. His views on the subject of 

 special agricultural high schools are well known. His statement 

 of values in nature-study and agriculture should be especially 

 suggestive to all workers in these fields. 



In company with a county superintendent the writer has 

 recently visited a number of one-room rural schools. Driving an 

 automobile which over fair roads made a mile in two minutes we 

 were able to enter seven schools during the day and to witness 

 actual work in three of them. With about 150 such schools 

 scattered over a large county, with endless details of office work 

 to attend to, to say nothing of the graded schools of the county, 

 the personal visitation of the isolated school by the county 

 superintendent is at best infrequent. In fact, a visit from any- 

 one is a rare event. Many directors never visit the school. The 

 only assistance or guidance afforded the inexperienced and un- 

 trained teacher (whose name is legion) is found in the few hurried 

 words of the visiting county superintendent. The service ren- 

 dered by this official, devoted to his calling and the possibilities 

 for good in the way of correction, counsel, admonition or en- 

 couragement can scarcely be overestimated. 



A number of county superintendents of Illinois who are known 

 to be actively interested in the problems of the rural school were 

 asked to contribute brief statements of the situation in nature- 

 study and agriculture in their respective territories. Some failed 

 to reply, but the following may be taken as typical : 



Co. Supt. Cyrus Grove, of Stephenson County, writes: "In an 

 elementary way we have been endeavoring to study nature 

 instead of studying about nature. Agriculture in the schools is 

 no longer a vague hope, but a present reality. Nature's practical 

 book has remained sealed only too long." He directs his teach- 

 ers to do as a minimum the work in agriculture as outlined in the 

 State course of study. In the semi-annual examinations given 



