xxiv Report of the President. 



XX. Department of Rural School Education. 



(a) Throughout the countiy there is a growing appreciation of 

 the educational value of nature study work in school and home 

 gardens. A course was given by the department this year to eight 

 students who desired to prepare themselves for pedagogical work 

 along this line. 



(b) By means of the Cornell Rural School Leaflet published each 

 month during the college year, an effort is made to reach the 

 teachers and farm children in the district schools of the State. 

 Each leaflet, as will be seen by reference to those published with 

 this report^ consists of two parts, one for the teacher and one for 

 the boys and girls. In the teacher's leaflet are suggestions and 

 lessons for schoolroom use relating to country life. The leaflet for 

 boys and girls relates to general outdoor study. The children are 

 encouraged to organize clubs in their home districts and to work 

 together in learning things that would deepen their interest and 

 knowledge of out-of-door life and work. The importance of this 

 work will be realized when it is stated that upward of 70,000 

 children and 6,000 teachers were reached in this way during the 

 year. Effort is made also to keep in touch with the school com- 

 missioners, conductors of institutes, teachers, and grangers through- 

 out the State, so that they may know of the helps that are being 

 sent out for the benefit of farm children. 



XXI. Home Nature-Study Course. 



(a) Sixteen women were registered during the year in the two 

 courses offered at the University for the preparation of nature 

 study teachers for primary and grammar grades. 



(b) During the year there have been published four leaflets of 

 the Home Nature- Study Course containing sixty-five lessons. The 

 object of these leaflets is to instruct the teachers of elementary and 

 rural schools in the subject-matter and methods of nature study. 

 Besides libraries, experiment stations, etc., these leaflets reached 

 between 4,000 and 5,000 teachers. 



It will be observed, therefore, that the activities of the College 

 of Agriculture continue to be maintained along the three well- 

 marked lines of instruction to students who attend the College, ex- 

 tension work among the farmers of the State and their families 

 as well as teachers in the schools, and investigation and experi- 

 mentation both in the laboratories of the College and on selected 



