536 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Aside from the reporting of definite experiment work, these 

 bulletins have taken the form of surveys of the status of certain 

 industries; and an effort has also been made to give a new flavor 

 to country life by writing upon subjects of floriculture and orna- 

 mental gardening. Whilst it seems to us that the publications 

 have been useful in furthering the work which we have had ini 

 mind, we are nevertheless convinced that an unlimited issue or 

 even a very large number of such expository bulletins would not 

 be proportionately useful at the present time. There are still a; 

 number of horticultural subjects which we desire to treat in this- 

 spirit; but it is evident that the real fundamental work of exten- 

 sion teaching must be prosecuted along other lines in connection^ 

 with publication of a distinctly didactic kind. It may be said,. 

 before leaving this subject, that the entire number of bulletins 

 thus far published under the auspices of the Nixon bill, including 

 the present report, is forty. The experimental and investiga- 

 tional work which is still going forward — of which there is con- 

 siderable — will be reported in forthcoming bulletins. For the 

 present report, it is only necessary to explain the work of direct 

 teaching which we have undertaken during the present year, 

 and to draw certain conclusions from the general work of the 

 Nixon bill. 



2. Experiments in Extension Teaching^ 



During the past season, we have made an especial effort to 

 determine the best methods of reaching the rural communities 

 by means of personal teaching, and our w^ork has fallen inta 

 three general lines. In the first place we have carried forward 

 one month's work of consecutive teaching by means of the 

 horticultural schools which we have heretofore held and which 

 are somewhat fully reported in Bulletin 110; we have made 

 another experiment of a month's duration in teaching nature- 

 study and object lessons in the rural schools of the Fourth 

 Judicial Department; and at the present time, we are endeavor- 

 ing to carry forward the instruction which has been thus begun 

 by means of correspondence and an attempt to establish reading 

 courses in the various school districts and rural organizations. 



