. Rural School Leaflet. 683 



that we intend to publish this bulletin, and that every school has an 

 opportunity to help other schools in the State by the excellence of its 

 work. We shall offer a prize to each of the ten schools, — either a picture 

 for the schoolroom wall or a book for the reference library, as the class 

 shall decide. 



SUGGESTIONS AS TO EQUIPMENT FOR TEACHING 

 ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE. 



By G. F. Warren. 



Very much can be done in the teaching of elementary agriculture 

 without any special apparatus or equipment ; but more can be done with 

 equipment. This equipment need not be extensive or expensive. Some 

 of the most essential things, as the writer has determined them in his 

 experience, are given in the following notes. 



I. Materials and equipment for teaching agriculture in grades below 



the high school. 



Very little equipment is necessary, but a number of simple pieces of 

 apparatus are desirable. One or more hand lenses of rather high magni- 

 fying power should be procured. Bausch and Lomb Optical Company, 

 Rochester, New York, sell such a lens, No. 6, for 75 cents. Their 

 tripod lens No. QR., costs 30 cents, but I prefer the former. It is 

 also desirable but not so necessary that the school have a cheap balance 

 that will weigh to half ounces or centigrams. Such a balance may be 

 secured for about $5. Spring balances, bottles, jars and other materials, 

 may be brought from home by the pupils when needed. 



Schoolroom. 



Perhaps the most important equipment is a room in which plants 

 can be kept growing for experiments and other laboratory work. If 

 the room freezes so that plants cannot be grown in winter, this type 

 of work will need to be done in the fall and spring. 



School-garden. 



It is also very desirable that there be some open area in the school 

 yard for a school-garden. In rural districts this should not be patterned 

 after the city school-garden, which is the one that is described in the 

 common articles on school-gardens. Children in rural districts have 

 learned a great deal at home and should be given a much more advanced 

 type of school-garden work. The rural school-garden may well become a 

 place for carrying out simple experiments in such questions as the depth 



