280 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



with the old ones that they will be no longer regarded as interlopers, 

 but rather as boon companions and helpers. ^leanwhile we should 

 present the most reasonable scheme for the introduction of the new 

 subjects and seek to avoid all unnecessary fi'iction in establishing their 

 relations with old subjects. 



Scarcely anybody denies of doubts that both agriculture and agri- 

 cultural people would be greatly benefited if nature study and the 

 elements of agriculture were taught efficiently in public schools, espe- 

 cially all schools attended by country pupils. Moreover, those stu- 

 dents of education who have taken the trouble to familiarize them- 

 selves with rural conditions, and those particularly who have had 

 actual experience in teaching nature study and agriculture, are prac- 

 tically agreed that for rural school pupils these subjects possess marked 

 educational value. 



It is not necessary, or even desirable, for country pupils to isolate 

 themselves entirely from country things for six hours a day for one 

 hundred and sixty days in a year for eight or ten years in order to 

 prepare for life in the country. On the contrary, as Professor Hanus, 

 of Harvard University, has so well said, "the only real preparation for 

 life's duties, opportunities, and privileges is participation in them so 

 far as they can be rendered intelligible, interesting, and accessible to 

 children and youth of school age ; and hence the first duty of all educa- 

 tion is to provide tliis participation as fully and freely as possible." 



With reference to nature study and agriculture in the public schools, 

 then, the question is not so much one of desirability as of feasibility. 

 Is it practicable, considering the present condition of country schools, 

 to teach these subjects? ]\Iany writers and speakers are ready to say 

 no, and to produce evidence and elaborate arguments in support of 

 their contention; but all of their evidence and arguments are of no 

 more avail in this connection than was the alibi established by the 

 lawyer defending a man accused of stealing a pair of trousers. By 

 means of the sworn testimony of several witnesses, supported by skill- 

 ful arguments, he had established an alibi which seemed to be impreg- 

 nable until counsel for the prosecution brought out the fact that the 

 prisoner at the bar was at that moment wearing the stolen trousers. 

 Many teachers, though by no means as many as we might wish, have 

 alread}^ taught nature study and agriculture with sufficient success to 

 warrant the conclusion that the obstacles are far from insurmountable. 



In overcoming these obstacles one of the most pressing needs is the 

 preparation of more teachers; another is the preparation of courses of 

 study sufficiently simple to be of immediate ser\'ice to untrained teach- 

 ers who desire to take up a little work along this line, and yet based 

 upon sound pedagogic principles and sufficiently elastic to serve as a 

 foundation for more satisfactory courses later on. It is our present 

 purpose to set forth in a general way the topics which might be 



