No. ti. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 491 



r.i'iiig iR'W thiugs, new talks and new ideas, and if you have occasion 

 to illustrate tliem on the board, see that you hold the attention of 

 the audience. 



MK. WALTZ: I have had some experience in teaching, and I found 

 that while the blackboard and chart are excellent aids sometimes to 

 teach arithmetic, that if each person has a pencil and paper and 

 tigures it down by the aid of the instructor, they understand the 

 problem better, and I suppose it would be so with these lecturers in 

 imparting the lessons. There seems to be something in doing the 

 work with the hand. 1 believe the use of the blackboard is a most 

 important factor in our institutes when it is in the hands of a man 

 who. can make figures and letters, who can explain matters, but in 

 the hands of a man who cannot write or make figures it is not very 

 valuable; but to demonstrate the value of fertilizers, I think the 

 lecturer can save the farmers who buy them blindly, hundreds of 

 dollars a year, by simply eliminating unknowni quantities and get- 

 ting at the correct Aaluation of the fertilizers. I believe it is the 

 best thing to use in these discussions. 



PROF. WATTS: I think the value of the blackboard depends on 

 the man behind the chalk. I do not often use the blackboard in my 

 institute work, because I do not know how to use it effectively. Mr. 

 Stout does know how. I have seen him treat the subject of com- 

 mercial fertilizers by the use of the blackboard. If I could come 

 before an audience and draw a large fine head of cabbage, I would 

 do it; but I cannot.. And just as Mr. Lighty has said, the blackboard 

 with a great many lecturers is a nuisance more than a help. They 

 will get the people looking at the blackboard and then go on with 

 their speech, and the people will lose the most important part of 

 the talk. 



ME. SEEDS, of Huntingdon county, thought the blackboard was 

 a good thing, but should be in the hands of a man who knew how 

 tu use it effectively. 



MR. CURE, of Lackawanna county, thought the blackboard was 

 a good thing for institute workers, as it gave the eye the opportunity 

 of lielping to learn the lessons by seeing how it was done, but the 

 speaker should be skillful in its use. 



MR. KAHLER, of Lycoming county, endorsed the thought ex- 

 pressed by Mr. Cure, and thought that the speaker who called for a 

 blackboard was generally the one who knew how to use it. 



SECRETARY MARTIN, Director of Institutes: You will pardon 

 me for just a word on this topic There is no one point probably of 

 greater interest to the farmers of the State than the manner by 



