546 Agricu-ltural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



to introduce such teaching as a part of the district school work. 

 The instructor would first explain the reason for his coming 

 and give the school to understand that no new text-books were 

 for sale and that no new classes were to be required at the hands 

 of the teacher. He then ordinarily took up some simple object 

 lesson. It might be in one place a stalk of corn which he had 

 in his hand and the process of growth of which he would explain 

 from seed to harvest; it might be in another case the germination 

 of a bean or a pumpkin seed; it might be in another case the 

 habits or structure of a potato bug or some other insect; it 

 might be, again, the reasons why there were knots and knot 

 holes in the woodwork in tbe school-house; it might be a very 

 elementary talk upon the different plant foods which are in the 

 soil ; it might be in other cases a very brief sketch, with charts, 

 of some fungus; and so on. These exercises were uniformly well 

 received by both the pupils and the teachers and this work has, 

 I think, awakened more inspiration in the minds of our instruc- 

 tors than any other attempt which we have yet made to reach 

 the people. The teachers in the schools have without exception 

 expressed themselves as willing and desirous of taking up some 

 such simple exercises as a rest for the pupils two or three times 

 a week, if only they themselves could be instructed in the proper 

 methods of carrying on the work. In order to afford this instruc- 

 tion to the teachers, we are now proposing to issue a series of 

 experimental leaflets on object lessons and place these in the 

 hands of the teachers. 



There is no doubt of the necessity for work of this kind with 

 the children. The love or antipathy of the farm is engendered 

 at a very early age in the minds of the young. This has been 

 demonstrated in these October meetings when we have asked 

 those children who live on farms and who still desire to do so 

 to raise their hands, and we almost uniformly find that the num- 

 ber who desire to live on farms is far less than those who actu- 

 ally do live on them. With these children, ranging from six to 

 fifteen years of age, the question of pecuniary profits upon the 

 farm has appealed very little, but they are influenced directly 



