with what is good for boys and girls and the community behind them, 

 not only for the few years they may be in school, but for all the years 

 that they are to live. Some may prefer to call it elementary agriculture ; 

 that is a proper thing- for nature study to be for country people. 



The experimenters are of different classes. Some of them are quite 

 young. One lad in Hastings County who had an experiment last year 

 was only eleven yearse old. In many cases a father and his boys work 

 together; in other' cases they take different experiments. Sometimes it 

 is the mother or the daughters of the house who undertake the work. 

 Teachers should use wise discrimination in advising the undertaking; 

 better not have it undertaken at all than that it should fall into the hands 

 of thoughtless, careless, irresponsible persons. Wherever possible, too, 

 it should be brought into a close connection with the school ; placed near 

 the road so that daily observation of it may be had. If a school can get 

 a piece of land in a neighbor's field and undertake an experiment for 

 itself, so much the better for the children. 



Applications for the announcements on the next year's experiments 

 should be made about Christmas time to the Director of that branch of 

 the work in which one is specially interested. Except that, in the case 

 of forestry, requests for seedling trees will have to be made about mid* 

 summer previous to the spring planting. 



It will be noticed that these outdoor co-operative experiments in 

 agriculture are of a nature with those practised in the science laboratories 

 of school. They differ much in the length of time for working out. They 

 differ more in the vital interests concerned. The mental culture is pro- 

 portionally stronger because of the greater care, observation, and inter- 

 est involved. In our school books we wrote of our work in chemistry 

 or physics under the headings of Experiment, Observation, Conclusion. 

 We did something, that we might see something, that would teach us a 

 lesson. The doing was good for us when we did our best; the seeing 

 was good for us when we saw truly, and the thinking was for the mak- 

 ing of us better then and thereafter. So is it with such work in the farm 

 laboratory. It is disciplinary. It makes all other doing, seeing, and 

 thinking better. 



CO-OPERATIVE EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE. 



In order to acquaint our teachers with the aims, scope and develop- 

 ment of this educational movement, we give Professor Zavitz' report for 

 1905 :— 



"As director of the co-operative experiments in Agriculture, I beg 

 to submit the report of the work conducted throughout Ontario in 1905. 

 I am pleased to state that we have received a larger number of good re- 

 ports during the past year than on any previous occasion. This is what 

 we would naturally expect. The co-operative work of the Experimental 

 Union has long passed its experimental stage. We have a large num- 

 ber of ex-students and others who have conducted experimental work suc- 

 cessfully for eight, ten, and twelve years, and are becoming so trained 



