Rural School Education and School-Gardening. 91 



good forms of play. The effort is to encourage games to be played not 

 only in the school yard and about the farm home, but that will open up 

 the way for wholesome competition at country picnics and county fairs. 

 Through the pages of the Rural School Leaflet the Department will en- 

 deavor to help direct the play hours of rural children. 



In brief, it is the purpose of this department to help, in the most all 

 round way, the boys and girls living in the country ; to give suggestions 

 for better knowledge of farm work ; for better reading ; for better forms 

 of amusement in and about the farm home. An effort has been made 

 during the past year to send lecturers to teachers' institutes and other 

 educational meetings. Correspondence is kept up with institute con- 

 ductors, school commissioners, school superintendents and other persons 

 interested in educational matters, that the department may know the point 

 of view of persons who have to do with the public schools of the State. 



School-Gardening. 



A course in School-Gardening is given for the benefit of persons who 

 intend to give instruction in gardening. This consists in actual garden- 

 making with children on school grounds and in the University school 

 gardens. In winter, the work is conducted in the college forcing houses. 

 There were nine students in this course the past year, all of whom expect 

 to teach when they leave college. 



Nature-Study and Elementary Agriculture at the Chautauqua 



Summer School. 



The work done by the New York State ^College of Agriculture at the 

 Chautauqua Summer School was in two departments: first, general 

 nature-study and biology; second, school-gardening and elementary agri- 

 culture. The larger part of the work in school-gardening and agriculture 

 was conducted by Professor C. H. Tuck and Mr. M. P. Jones ; the peda- 

 gogical work in nature-study and biology by Mr. x\rthur Allen and the 

 writer. 



The Chautauqua Institution and the New York State College of Agri- 

 culture for a number of years have co-operated in the nature-study move- 

 ment. This year the College of Agriculture paid the expenses of the 

 writer, and the Chautauqua Institution paid the expenses and salary of 

 her assistant. There were in the classes about 80 students, nearly all of 

 whom studied during the entire course, spending three to four hours a 

 day in nature-study work. In this way, it was possible to send teachers 

 back to their schools with definite subject-matter and methods of pre- 



