AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 85 



does a Candle Burn?" We see candles burning, we see that a 

 candle is made of tallow, and a wick. When we apply a match 

 we see the flame. We see all those things, and yet many of us 

 in seeing do not see after all. I sometimes fear that is one of 

 the troubles with us. We go through the world seeing and yet 

 we do not see. In that leaflet many things were explained in 

 relation to the candle, what made it burn, how it burned, etc. 1 

 remember one question which was asked, — Was there anything 

 else burned besides the candle and the wick? This, of course, 

 led the children to look about. They found that if they put a 

 candle inside a lamp chimney and placed it flat on the table or 

 floor and covered the top, the candle would go out. Why was 

 that ? They performed other experiments, in some of which the 

 candle would go out, and in others burn more brightly. And 

 under careful guidance they worked around to the point that 

 there was something in the air necessary for the candle to burn. 

 They found that that element in the air was oxygen. If the 

 oxygen burned it helped the candle to burn. They found that 

 one of the results was carbonic acid, and that led to the study of 

 carbonic acid. After the wick burned it became black. This 

 led the children to the study of carbon, something in which all 

 farmers are interested. This method of instruction appealed to 

 the children. Although they had seen hundreds of candles burn- 

 ing, they had never though much about it before. They were 

 led to observe, and that is one of the most important features of 

 education. I saw a picture the other day of some men standing 

 by some machines, and each man had a hen under his arm and 

 had her head tipped up and was applying food to the machine 

 and cramming the hen. Some have thought education was 

 secured in a manner similar to that ; the children go to school and 

 a certain amount of knowledge is turned into them, and then they 

 are fitted to go out and do business. That is the old idea but it 

 is passing away. While we need knowledge and must have it, 

 education means development, it means growth, it means train- 

 ing. This way of taking up nature studies in New York proved 

 a success, and hundreds of those schools have become interested 

 in the work. Those children have become indirectly interested 

 in agriculture through the introduction of nature studies in this 

 manner. Other states have followed in the same line of work. 



