690 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



instruction, the enii)Ioynient of better paid teachers, and a more complete eciuip- 

 iment of school buildings." 



The resolutions were fully discussed in conference, then unanimously adopted, 

 and a committee appointed to present them to the premier. 



Teaching agriculture in the common schools (Ann. Rpt. Nehr. Bd. Agr., 

 J905, pp. 30-'i3). — Tills report embodies the replies received by the secretary of 

 the State Board of Agriculture of Nebraska to a circular letter sent to educa- 

 tional institutions in the State making inquiry concerning the nature and extent 

 'Of instruction in agriculture given to teachers during 1905. Such insti'uction is 

 ■given in the State University in a special G weeks" summer session for teachers, 

 in the State Normal School at Peru during 18 weeks for all students, in the 

 State Normal School at Kearne.v, in the Nebraska Normal College at Wayne in 

 50 recitations and 25 hours of exiterimental work, in the Fremont College at 

 T'remont, 5 hours a week, in Grand Island College at Grand Island, 5 hours a 

 week, in York College at York, .3 licurs a week for one term, in the 5 State 

 junior normal schools at Alliance, Holdrege, McCook, North Platte, and Valen- 

 tine, and in alwut 50 high schools of the State which include normal courses 

 in their work. 



The report also contains a letter from the State Superintendent of Public 

 Instruction, in which a review of progress made in teaching elementary agri- 

 culture in the puolic schools in 1905 is gi^'en. Among the features of this 

 progress have been teachers' reading circle work in agriculture, summer school 

 instruction in agriculture in the State junior normals, and normal training in 

 agriculture in high schools. 



School gardening has also received attention and much interest has been 

 aroused by means of county and State corn growing and cooking contests carried 

 on through 2 State organizations known as the Nebraska Boys' Agricultural 

 Association and the Nebraska Girls' Domestic Science Association, as well as 

 through a number of county associations of similar stamp. 



The place of nature study, school gardens, and agriculture in our school 

 system, J. R. Jewell (Reprint from Peday. Seminar!/, 13 (1906). pp. 213- 

 292). — The writer reviews briefly the progress in the introduction of nature 

 study, school gardens, and agriculture into the public schools of this country, 

 and comments on the importance of this «ork. He shows that the agricultural 

 ^colleges have been largely engaged in preparing leaders in agricuitui'al educa- 

 tion and research, and that the preparation of an intelligent farm population 

 must be taken up by schools of lower grade. The introduction of agriculture 

 Into these schools would, in his opinion, result in pupils remaining in school 

 longer, as they have been clone in France and Belgium, and he argues from 

 figures of increased corn production in Iowa, increased income for bacon, butter, 

 and eggs in Denmark, and for butter in Ontario that such instruction would 

 result in material benefit to the farmers. He also argues that with the intro- 

 duction of nature study, school gardens, and elementary agriculture, a better 

 ethical condition among pupils would attain, as has been shown by reports 

 from police officers and courts in New Y'ork, Philadelphia, Cleveland, and 

 Dayton. He thinks that education along these lines would set the tide of popu- 

 lation distinctly towai'd the country, help to solve the labor problem on he farm, 

 and gi'eatly enhance rural social conditions. 



Progress of nature study in California, B. M. Davis (Nature-Study Rev., 

 2 (1906). A'o. 8. pp. 257-265). — The early history of the nature-study movement 

 in California is outlined ; also the more recent progress and tendencies of this' 

 movement and the factors and influences now contributing to the advancement 

 of it. Among the more important of the factors mentioned are Stanford Uni- 



