Suuuncr Mcctino-. 137' 



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of elementary agriculture in our common schools — absolutely none. 

 Why the maple-seed has a wing, the grass color, or the nut a shell ; why 

 plants need moisture, warmth and light in order to grow; w^hy the 

 flower has beauty and fragrance; why the leaves wilt in warm, dry 

 weather ; the roots grow in proportion to the tops, and the trunks round 

 and strong ; why grow shade-trees and flowers ; why do some plants need 

 rich soils ; why fruits rot, seeds mould ; why prune, cultivate, treUis ; 

 why do plants deteriorate ; why graft, bud, protect ; why are green fruits 

 sour and ripe fruits palatable; the i^.'hys — the many ivhys can be taught 

 and understood in every district school. 



So can many of the i>.'hats be taught. The teacher can teach what 

 the seeds, bulbs, tubers, leaves, rootlets, fruits, insects, soils, plants and 

 their uses are. She can explain and pupils can learn by observing,, 

 touching and tasting, what multitudes of useful things are, and what 

 their habits and diseases are. This enables pupils to be familiar with 

 things around them, and they know and can talk about what other peo- 

 ple know and speak, and they feel at home wherever their feet press the 

 soil. Children delight in this kind of knowledge. They like to study in 

 this practical way the insects, birds, soils, fruits, seeds, plants and kind- 

 red subjects — object lessons all around them of life and growth. Let 

 us give them a chance. Let us bring them into touch with nature and 

 nature's lessons. Why not teach the needs of the age in which we live 

 instead of ancient geography, the dead languages, mythologies and re- 

 ligions of the long ago? They are the old worn-out Avorking clothes of 

 the race and don't fit now and are out of style. \\\\\ not bring the objects 

 we see around us and \\\U\ which we have to do, into closer fellowship 

 by becoming familiar with their habits, diseases, growth and materials? 

 This is the best of knowledge. The children know but comparatively 

 few of these things even at the time they leaAe the common schools, and 

 they should not go out into the world without this knowledge. 



Our school rooms are not in touch with the living present — the 

 year 1901. Why not know the useful things — things that can be put 

 into practice in every day life? The agricultural world is the world in 

 Avhich we live and work. It feeds us. It clothes us. Through it \ve 

 get our temporal blessings and, when it fails, we starve, we die'. We 

 read how thousands die annually because they do not know those things 

 which unfold a knowledge of nature's resources. 



How very different from one, who does not know, will a man or 

 woman who is familiar with the best varieties of tree, flow'ers and fruits, 

 who knows about the best locations and modes of cultivation, who is ac- 

 quainted with the terms used in agriculture, horticulture and floricul- 

 ture, who can point out the fungus growths and injurious insects — !• 



