state; pomological society. 35 



that there should be some systematic plan followed by which 

 there should be the teaching, if not of agriculture itself, of na- 

 ture subjects. That is, the natural sciences should be taught in 

 every public school, with their application made to common 

 life. 



The recommendation was at once accepted and I was au- 

 thorized to put the suggestion into practical operation. I chose 

 the county of Westchester, which is contiguous to New York 

 City, one of the most difficult counties in the State of New York 

 in which to test this line of work in the public schools. I 

 thought the test there, if it should prove successful, would be 

 the strongest and best proof we could have of the value of this 

 kind of teaching. So I arranged with school boards and school 

 superintendents and went all through Westchester County and 

 had instruction given on two or three different topics. For 

 instance, on the soil, and its relation to the prosperity of the 

 school district ; on insects ; on the study of plants. I chose the 

 best teachers that I could get from Cornell University and also 

 from Columbia University of New York City. Assisted by 

 those exceedingly able teachers, I went from school to school, 

 giving only about fifteen or eighteen minute talks upon the sub- 

 ject, explaining to the teachers and to the boys and girls how 

 to study these subjects relating to the life that surrounded them 

 in the country. Now what was the result? Time after time 

 we entered those schools the first impression that struck us was 

 the condition of mental tiredness in that whole school. It was 

 marked that in the midst of a session the teachers were care- 

 worn and tired, every boy and girl in the school looked tired. 

 One of my first observations was that there is a great deal of 

 time spent in our public schools with the present curriculum 

 where teachers and students are mentally and physically ex-. 

 hausted before the end of their session each day. My sugges- 

 tion was this, — not to put new burdens upon teachers, but in 

 the midst of an afternoon session break up the course of study 

 in such manner that fifteen minutes could be given to some 

 nature topic — throw the entire school out of its regular channel 

 of working. Because it is a fact that when mental weariness 

 comes over a boy or a girl, that boy or girl is incapable of doing 

 the best work. The suggestion was to introduce incidental 



