344 STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY 



will give the plan a good trial, and then by all means let me hear from 

 you, stating any difficulties encountered and noting successes as they occur 

 to teacher or pupils. 



In learning to observej it is a most excellent plan to place two objects 

 side by side in similar position, taking notes of differences and points of 

 resemblance. For this first lesson I have selected beans and peas, because 

 they can be easily obtained and because they are of good size. Let some 

 members of the school make a winter garden, not for the purpose of raising 

 large crops to fill barn or cellar, but for the purpose of study in learning 

 to see accurately many little things. The work of preparation may be 

 divided, but you will need a box or pan about one foot across, nearly filled 

 with three inches of nice garden soil or sand suitable for making mortar; 

 fifty to one hundred common white beans, and the same number of peas 

 of almost any kind. Ten or more beans and ten or more peas may be 

 placed in water over night and then planted about an inch and a half apart 

 each way, and an inch deep. In another part of the same box or in a 

 separate box, five soaked beans and five soaked peas may be left on top of 

 the moist, loose soil, and five of each on soil that has previously been pressed 

 smooth. The seeds placed on top of the soil must be covered with a deep 

 saucer or something of the kind, to prevent them from becoming dry. A 

 little water should be added occasionally that the planted seeds may be kept 

 moist, but not soaking wet. 



While the seeds are slowly begining to grow, each member of the class 

 will carefully compare several dry beans with each other, several that 

 have been softened with each other, the dry beans and the soft beans with 

 each other. In like manner they will study several peas and then com- 

 pare the beans with the peas to discover in what respects they differ from 

 each other and in what respects they resemble each other. 



The suggestions above made with reference to the best way to become a 

 good observer, will not be followed in this, the first bulletin of the kind 

 from the Agricultural College, for fear pupils may become discouraged 

 and not be able to perform creditably what is expected of them. 



For these reasons, a plain statement will be made of some things that 

 can be discovered, and in this way the text and illustrations will serve to 

 prepare young persons for independent work suggested by future bulletins. 



It will be well for you to keep pencil and paper handy for notes, draw- 

 ing and dates, each keeping his own account. 



These are rather small and short white beans now before us. As they 

 rest on the table while I poke then about, you observe that all of them lie 

 on one side, but some are considerably more flattened than others. If we 

 try to find a couple that are an exact match, we fail. They differ in size, 

 color and shape in some respects. The seed-coats of a few are more or 

 less wrinkled, while most of them are very smooth. They are all longer 

 one way than they are the other. Some of the shortest have both ends 

 rounded much alike, while most of them have one end more or less flat- 

 tened, slanting across. There is a little one over there with its back con- 

 siderably rounded. 



)0n one edge is an oval spot more or less sunken, and in the middle of 

 this depression there is a little bunch or scar, and near one end of the 

 scar is a small pimple of a brownish color, and at the opposite end from 

 the scar, if the bean is held in a very strong light, some bright eyes may 

 possibly discover a little hole. 



