682 Rural School Leaflet. 



tion in the management of school-gardens will be given through these 

 Leaflets, both from the point of view of workers at Cornell and those 

 who have established school-gardens in other parts of the country. 



From time to time we shall publish accounts of men who have been 

 successful in the different . lines of farming. In every way possible 

 the outlook to a life-work on the farm will be placed before the children 

 in a way to dignify it and to give it its proper place in the work of 

 the world. 



In order that we may meet the needs of teachers in rural schools and 

 others interested in country life, we must have our methods of commu- 

 nication well organized. We shall, therefore, ask each teacher who 

 desires the Cornell Rural School Leaflet to fill out the blanks 

 which we shall send, asking for the full name of the teacher and of 

 each pupil in the class. We shall ask pupils to prepare each month a 

 composition on some one of the subjects in the Leaflet. These compo- 

 sitions may be mailed to us at once, or kept until the end of the year 

 when we shall ask to have them sent to the University. We do not want 

 the compositions to be corrected by the teacher, and we hope that there 

 will be no feeling that the work will be open to criticism as to scholarship. 

 We should like any letters, compositions, or reports on the work done 

 m the schoolroom that we may obtain from them suggestions for future 

 work. Every thoughtful teacher realizes that the agricultural interests 

 could be greatly increased if persons living on farms were educated 

 along their lines of work. It is the right of every child educated in a 

 rural community to know the possibilities that lie in intelligent work on 

 the farm. We hope, therefore, that by means of direct communication 

 with the University the children in New York State will be helped to 

 realize the meaning of agricultural education, and to learn how strong 

 and far-reaching intelligent farm work is. If every teacher in the village 

 or rural school would encourage children in the actual study of even 

 one subject pertaining to agriculture each month, it would accomplish 

 much in the right direction, and would not consume a great deal of time. 

 If the children make a report for us they will gain by two means: (i) 

 in organizing their ideas for a letter or composition, they fix their knowl- 

 edge of the subject; (2) they are unconsciously acquiring the habit of 

 turning to specialists for information which they cannot secure from 

 their schoolbooks. 



We are hoping in the fall of 1908 to issue a bulletin giving a full 

 report of agricultural education in ten rural schools in New York State. 

 The material for this bulletin will be taken from the reports of work 

 sent to us from schools in which such work has been conducted. It 

 might be an incentive to greater industry if the children were to know 



