A CHAT WITH THE READER. 



/. 



HIS issue is intended to complete the publication 



p^:|!v of the Nature-Study Quarterly and the Teachers' 

 Leaflets. It is an opportune time, therefore, to 

 have a contidential chat with the reader. 



Why the Publication Ceases. 



We cease the publication of this Quarterly because we feel that 

 we now have suflicient Leaflets to enable us to prosecute our mis- 

 sion with efliciency, and because we desire to utilize our funds and 

 energies to intensify the work that is now in progress. We began 

 the publication of the Leaflets because we had no literature that 

 seemed to be adapted to our needs. It has never been our purpose 

 to continue the publication of Leaflets indefinitely. We w^anted 

 to make a sulflcient number to cover a fairly wide range of subjects, 

 and thereby to suggest useful topics and live methods for the needs 

 of teachers in all parts of the State and under various conditions. 

 These publications, begun in 1896, now comprise lessons on about 

 30 topics. These topics are suflicient in number to enable any 

 teacher to choose lessons for a year's W'Ork, or to suggest a-elated 

 lines of inquiry. These Leaflets are to be kept in print. They 

 are a part of our working capital. The more they are used the 

 more useful they will be. Every year the teacher has new pupils. 

 It is easier for the teacher to instruct in the old and familiar topics 

 than to feel that he is obliged to take up new ones each year. We 

 hope that many new topics will be taken up, for a novel subject 

 often renews the zeal of the teacher ; but the teacher who can 

 use these Leaflets can easily work out other subjects for himself, 

 and we shall be glad to help him with personal suggestions. We 

 fear that to continue to publish Leaflets would be to dissipate our 

 efforts rather than to centralize and intensify them. 



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