Farmers^ Week in Agricultural College. 79 



an observation hive with glass sides, and keep a cover over it. If yon 

 try to keep it in the light the bees Avill pnt a coating on the glass and 

 then you cannot see them working. Perhaps it would be well to leave 

 the glass sides of the hive uncovered and allow the bees to cover the 

 glass wnth wax, to show the pupils that they do not care to have their 

 operations looked into all the time and so put up a curtain around 

 their home. If you can keep boys and girls away from such a bee- 

 hive you can do better than I. Get hold of those careless boys, talk 

 to them about the queen bee and the drones that they see before them. 

 They will soon become interested and will begin to ask cpiestions. They 

 will want to know what that big bee is and the teacher will tell them 

 it is a drone; they will want to know what a drone is and will learn 

 something that will be valuable to them — not to be drones in life. 

 They will ask about the c^ueen bee and the workers. A lesson will be 

 learned by looking ; and the lessons that we learn by looking and watch- 

 ing and hearing we learn thoroughly. I advocate the placing of a bee- 

 hive in a school room for another reason : because the bees have learned 

 to live and act better than some human beings. They are the nicest, 

 cleanest housekeepers on earth. They manage to work together in the 

 same colony without quarreling, while we often have envious and 

 troublesome times. Those bees may teach the boys and girls another 

 lesson, and that is this : "When a bee stings any one it does it in de- 

 fense of its home, that it loses its life when it does so ; and when a boy 

 learns that he learns something that is worth while. 



In all this work of teaching agriculture, the teacher's inventive 

 ability and personality will count for a great deal in the future lives 

 and work of the pupils. I believe that this is an argument for select- 

 ing teachers who have the right personality. I know that in some 

 states (but not in Missouri, I hope) teachers are selected because they 

 are relatives of county school officers ; that sometimes they are se- 

 lected because they have a political pull ; sometimes because they de- 

 sire to draw a salary and don't care much what they do for it. 



This matter of personality is emphasized time and time again. 

 I have heard of many cases where parents have remarked, "We had 

 a teacher last year who taught well and got the boys interested; we 

 wanted to keep her this year but we couldn't. She is going to col- 

 lege." I have heard of many cases where the teacher's personality 

 was the cause of her gaining an increase in salaiy. And so in many 

 ways this matter of personality is emphasized, and I believe that school 

 officers, county officers, and others who have charge of our schools, 

 will have to come to the point where they will pay more attention 

 to the character and ability, and particularly to those qualities which 

 make up good personality in a teacher. 



