278 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



Elementary Agriculture with Practical Arithmetic, by K. L. Hatch 

 and J. A. Haselwood, is a text-book of agriculture suitable for use in 

 elementary schools, which treats in a brief but logical way of plant 

 and animal production and devotes some space to farm mechanics 

 and economics. 



The feature which distinguishes this text-book from any other that 

 has appeared in this country is the nature of the practicums, which 

 consist of problems in agricultural arithmetic. There is a total of 

 274 of these problems, of which there are from 6 to 24 following each 

 chapter and related to the subjects discussed in that chapter. There 

 are also scattered through the text numerous tables taken from the 

 publications of this Department and adapted to the needs of the text- 

 book, as well as numerous references to the bulletins and other publi- 

 cations of this Department. 



How to Teach the Nature Study Course. By J. Dearness. A 

 text-book prepared to aid the teachers of Nova Scotia, Ontario, and 

 Manitoba in presenting the prescribed school courses in nature study 

 and school gardening. 



The Office of Experiment Stations has made two contributions 

 to the literature of elementary agriculture, (1) a bulletin on School 

 Gardens, by B. T. Galloway, containing a report of the school garden 

 work in the District of Columbia, conducted in a cooperative way b^'- 

 this Department and the normal schools of the District, and a report 

 on school gardens in different cities in the United States visited by ]\iiss 

 Susan B. Sipe; and (2) a Yearbook article on the Use of Illustrative 

 Material in Teaching Agriculture in Rural Schools, by D. J. Crosby, 

 in wliich the writer discusses the value of agriculture in rural schools, 

 describes methods employed in teaching this subject in a number of 

 schools, and gives suggestions for a number of simple exercises in 

 elementary agriculture. 



At the re([ucst of a committee appointed at a meeting of the State 

 Teachers' Association and the State Farmers' Institute at Berkeley, 

 Cal., December 26-29, 1905, a suggestive course of nature study and 

 elementary agriculture for the schools of California was prepared by 

 A. C. True and D. J. Crosby, of the Office of Experiment Stations. 

 This course was published in two numbers of the Western Journal of 

 Education, but nearly the whole issue of the first number was des- 

 troyed by fire at the time of the earth(|uakc in San Francisco. For 

 the purpose of making the article available for teachers, therefore, its 

 essential features are given below. 



NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE FOR THE ELEMENTARY 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



At the joint meeting of the State Teacliers' Association and (he 

 State Farmers' Institute held at Berkeley, December 26-29, 190."), one 

 of the writers of lliis article presented some of ihe i-easons "wii}^ the 



