Agriculturai. Extension Law. 331 



tinder the auspices of the New York Committee for the Promo- 

 tion of Agriculture. This resulted in a virtual union of the 

 forces in the two parts of the State, and when the people asked 

 the Legislature again during the last winter for an appropriation, 

 the Committee for the Promotion of Agriculture lent its influence 

 in behalf of the bill. 



The outgrowth of this work with the schools is that we now 

 consider that the best way in which to reach the pupils and the 

 teachers is by short and sharp observations upon plants, insects 

 and other natural objects, and not by means of definite lectures 

 of stated lengths. This work has already been presented to the 

 teachers at some of their institutes, where it has also met with 

 favor and it has received the commendation of the Superintendent 

 of Public Instruction and other persons in authority. // will, of 

 course^ be futile to attempt to instruct the children of the State in 

 nature-study by means of instructors from Cornell University . We 

 therefore conceive that the real work to be done is to instruct the 

 teachers in the Tnethods of imparting this instruction. It was with 

 this thought that we began a series of teachers' leaflets and 

 we purpose to present the work at the teachers' institutes and 

 eventually, perhaps, in the Normal Schools and training classes 

 of the State. So far as the present outlook is concerned, it is per- 

 haps not too much to say that we believe that this movement, 

 directed towards the young people of the rural communities, is 

 the most important one which has developed in agriculture since 

 the consumation of the experiment station idea. 



Instruction by means of correspondence has been an outgrowth 

 of the last year and has not yet been carried to sufl&cient maturity 

 to enable us to judge of its full merit and promise. However,, 

 there were about 1,600 readers upon our lists at the close 

 of the first three months, and there is no doubt but 

 that a vigorous agitation of the question during another 

 winter will at least quadruple our present list. It is 

 the plan in this reading course to set the farmers to reading upon 

 certain definite subjects which are assigned to them, and then to 

 make them think upon those subjects by periodical questioning* 

 At the present time the texts which have been used are our Bull- 

 etin 119 upon the Texture of the Soil, and Bulletin 120 upon the 



