1905.] DISCUSSION. 245 



and then go out and teach these things? That seemed too 

 slow. Lots of us would be dead before the children would be 

 old enough to teach anything. So would some of our teachers, 

 who we believed were thoroughly equipped for just this sort of 

 work. Should we attempt it in our older classes? Under the 

 best view that could be taken of it, it would be at least two or 

 three years before teachers that we trained could get into the 

 schools and begin to do something. So we said to ourselves, 

 why not test this matter? Why not ask the public school 

 teachers themselves if they will be interested to learn something 

 about feasible methods of teaching practical agriculture? Not 

 technical agriculture, but the simple, every-day practical facts 

 that all ought to know. Not how to hoe or plow, or how to 

 plant and raise crops, but instruction as to the facts of practical 

 agriculture, very much upon the lines that have been indicated 

 here. We determined to try an experiment. We sent out our 

 papers to the teachers of the State, announcing that we had 

 established a summer school devoted to nature study ; and it 

 was to be a summer school made up of teachers actively 

 engaged in the profession. Dr. Mutchler, who gave us the 

 first address this afternoon, had the honor one year ago last 

 summer of teaching over sixty public school teachers who came 

 to our institution to learn what practical agriculture might be 

 taught in the schools, the kind of instruction that could be used 

 successfully now, of individual benefit to the pupils, not ten 

 years hence, or twenty years off, but immediately. Dr. Mutch- 

 ler may not be able to be with us as he has been, because he is 

 a man that is in much demand. The Boston Normal School 

 has been after him, and other schools are after him, but he will 

 be with us in our summer school, ready to infuse into our 

 teachers these principles of practical agriculture. 



I want to say another thing: that the question has been 

 raised as to what we are going to ask these teachers to learn 

 in order to know how to teach these topics. Let me say in 

 explanation that we do not ask anybody to come to our summer 



