Rural School Leaflet 



1289 



PLANT STUDY 



CORN 



(For special study) 



The Editors 



>EACHERS in rural schools \vill find that the 

 com plant has educational possibilities if 

 one carries to its study the enthusiasm and 

 interest that grow out of field experience. There are 

 few teachers who will be indifferent to this subject if 

 they will prepare themselves to teach it, for the de- 

 velopment of the com plant has had much to do 

 with the historv^ of this country, as well as with its 

 agriculture. Teachers should read the following pages, 

 and make a selection for lessons relating to com. The material on com 

 has been prepared by specialists, and contains facts that will be of real 

 interest to the children as they discover them first-hand under the 

 teacher's direction. 



In the autumn days from some mral schools in the State, classes will 

 start out with the teachers to visit comfields. Under the blue October 

 sky, with dark clouds drifting here and there, the teacher will feel the 

 spirit of the har\^est time, and the children will be in sympathy with it. 

 Between the har\'ested fields, the open road with its autumn roadside 

 flora will be full of interest and of charm. During the trip the teacher 

 may feel like calling the attention of the children to the autimm coloring 

 of trees and plants. While all of the class may not respond to this, there 

 are always some boys and girls who are impressed, and the experience \vill 

 become a part of their joy in Hfe in all the years to come. The ripened 

 grain, the golden pvimpkins, the blues, the greens, the yellows, the reds, 

 the purples of fmit and foliage, and the hazy hillsides in the distance, 

 will be suggestive for new and interesting studies. 



In some fields there will, doubtless, be enough com in condition for 

 study so that many of the points for obser\^ation given on pages 1291 and 

 1292 can be considered. The opportunity to make observations on the 

 plants where they have grown, will greatly increase the value of the 

 information that the children gain. There is, perhaps, no other one plant 

 that is more interesting in its full development than is com. Boys in 

 the country, many of whom will some day ha\'e fields of corn on their 

 own farms, should learn the life history of this plant and the important 

 place it holds in the agriculture of the United States. 



In connection with the study of corn during the early fall, plans should 

 be made for the celebration of Corn Day on Friday, December 3. (See 

 page 1378.) 



