xii Report of the Director. 



The majority of farmers are anxious to secure a better and 

 more extended understanding of their profession. They are 

 difficuh to reach because they had no training in their special 

 occupation while in school, and not because they are unwilling 

 to learn. It is humiliating to look over the courses of study of- 

 fered to farmers' children and see what scant and poor provi- 

 sion has been made for teaching anything which has a direct 

 relation to tilling the soil or for giving any inspiration which 

 might help them to discover the laws which govern the soil, the 

 plant and the animal. This Extension work in Nature Study is 

 as yet an experiment. Its aim is primarily to reach and help the 

 teachers and through them the farmer with the hope and expec- 

 tation that the pupils and their parents will be taught both useful 

 and interesting facts and that they will come to see the need of 

 investigating for themselves. Each farm and each crop has its 

 own problems to be solved, the Experiment Stations can give 

 valuable assistance, but climate, soil plants and conditions vary 

 so widely that the farmer w^ho desires to reach better results 

 must experiment for himself. It is believed that the Extension 

 work has materially assisted in securing the hearty co-operation 

 of more than five hundred farmers in the experiments which 

 are being carried on throughout the State. 



The first object in issuing leaflets on Nature Study is to pro- 

 mote investigation, to arouse enthusiasm, to open the eyes of 

 pupils and parents, in order that the future tillers of the soil 

 may become better acquainted with Nature's laws and modes of 

 action, thereby enabling them to direct Nature's laws so intelli- 

 gently as to produce highest results. 



Until the middle of this century no instruction nor real help 

 had been off"ered to the tillers of the soil, so it is no wonder that 

 the very foundations of scientific, applied and experimental agri- 

 culture are yet to be laid in the schools, or that the term *' Na- 

 ture Study " is selected in order to make agricultural instruction 

 popular. 



Fourteen bulletins embracing three hundred and thirty-three 

 pages have been issued during the last six months on the fol- 

 lowing subjects : 



