560 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N. Y. 



later we will dig it up, when we shall most likely find a condi- 

 tion something like that in Fig. 13. It will be seen that the 

 marks E, C, B, are practically the same distance apart as before 

 and they are also the same distance from the peg, AA. The 

 point of the root is no longer at DD, however, but has grown on 

 to F. The root, therefore, has grown almost wholly in the end 

 portion. 



Now let us make a similar experiment with the stem or stalk. 

 We will mark a young stem, as at A in Fig. 14; but the next 

 day we shall find that these marks are farther apart than when 

 we made them (B, Fig. 14). The marks have all raised them- 

 selves above the ground as the plant has grown. The stem, 

 therefore, has grown between the joints rather than from the 

 tip. The stem usually grows most rapidly, at any given time, 

 at the upper or j^ounger portion of the joint (or internode); and 

 the joint soon reaches the limit of its growth and becomes sta- 

 tionary, and a new one grows out above it. 



Natural science consists in two tilings — seeing what you look at, 

 and drawing jproper conclusions from what you see. 



Respecting the general necessity and requirements for such 

 reading course, I submit the following report from Mr. John W. 

 Spencer, who has been intimately associated with this district 

 school v/ork and who is at the present time aiding us in conduct- 

 ing a correspondence instruction : 



"As you well know, a reading course for farmers on agricul- 

 tural topics, after the plan of the Chautauqua course, has long 

 been a cherished jjlan of mine, and when you asked me to go 

 with Mr. Geo. T. Powell during the month of October, I gladly 

 accepted, for it seemed to be a good opportunity to test the 

 practicability of the idea. I still think it a good one, but the 

 month's experience has shown me another plan more expedient 

 for the time and giving more lasting and practical results. I 

 do not suggest the abandonment of the plan for a reading course, 

 but that it be held in abeyance as a setiuol to a second plan, 

 which is this: That the College of Agriculture of Cornell Univer- 

 sity prepare papers for teachers in our common schools qualify- 

 ing them to develop the powers of observation* of i)upils on sub- 

 jects pertaining to the field, forest and household. For instance, 

 give each child a piece of bread and the teacher draw out every- 

 thing appealing to the child's eye. The teacher could supple- 

 ment many points the child failed to observe. Then begin an 

 inquiry as to why such and such points come to be so, — begin 



