AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTIONS 



303 



inq-, whcrehy through the home ]>rojeet 

 (or in possil)le rare instances the part 

 time employment plan) the student 

 finds motive, a foundation for technol- 

 o,qv and the beginning of type skills. 



c. An extension of the vocational 

 course to include the summer months. 



d. The employment for the full year 

 of a teacher of practical farm experi- 

 ence, agricultural college training, and 

 training in pedagogy or of experience 

 in teaching. 



e. For most such schools a worth 

 w^hile course in agriculture is probably 

 not possible without state aid. Algebra, 

 geometry, Latin, can be taught at a less 

 per capita cost than agriculture, domes- 

 tic science or any other laboratory or 

 "doing" subject. 



4. Much as I believe in agriculture 

 I should heartily oppose a compulsory 

 requirement that it be taught in the 

 public schools. The laws in Ohio, Mis- 

 souri, Michigan and other middle-west- 

 ern states have been mistakes. We 

 shall come to it through evolution rath- 

 er than revolution, I hope. 



engines and machinery and telling 

 some of the wonders accomplished will 

 make a boy able to do the first thing 

 in machine work. 



S. P. Wn.LARD. 



Approves of Agriculture Instruction. 



Colchester, Connecticut. 

 To the Editor: 



I hope to live long enough to see 

 more of this work done in all schools, 

 and to see the course greatly extended 

 in the Academy. This work must be 

 the real stuff — actual work in pruning, 

 grafting, spraying, knowledge of the 

 value of the dififerent spray mixtures, 

 and how to make them, what kind of 

 fertilizers the difl^erent soils need and 

 what fertilizers meet this need, testing 

 of cream, knowledge of poultry and 

 how to judge it, ability to judge cattle, 

 what crops to plant and how to get the 

 best results, canning, cooking, sewing. 

 Oh ! everything that will train the boys 

 and girls to get a living off the soil as 

 the trade and the vocational schools 

 try to train them to get their living in 

 the shops. 



We talk about keeping the country 

 boys on the land but unless there is 

 work of this sort done most of them 

 will continue to drift to the town to 

 earn their daily bread in the shop and 

 the store. It seems to me that so-called 

 nature study is all right but it does not 

 seem to get the child anywhere any 

 more than looking at the pictures of 



Regarding the House Fly, 



BY L. O. HOWARD, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



The recent experiments at Washing- 

 ton have shown that the house fly flies 

 at least a mile under suburban condi- 

 tions. In Texas during the summer it 

 was determined that under rural con- 

 ditions the distance covered is frequent- 

 ly as much as five miles. 



The most accurate observations on 

 the influence of temperature on the 

 adult fly seem to have been made by 

 Donhoff. whose work is referred to in 

 Hewitt's book on the house fly. In 

 these experiments the flies recovered 

 when exposed to a temperature of 

 twenty degrees for three hours, but 

 eighteen degrees for three hours they 

 were destroyed. It therefore seems evi- 

 dent that a temperature of 15 degrees 

 would destroy all adult flies. 



Regarding the way in which the 

 house fly passes the winter, it has been 

 found that in the southern part of the 

 United States there is a more or less 

 continuous deposition of eggs and de- 

 velopment of lavae through the winter. 

 Of course the larval stage is greatly 

 prolonged, being as much in some of 

 the experiments as 115 days. In north- 

 ern localities it is not known with cer- 

 tainty whether it is the adult stage, or 

 the larval or pupal stages which pass 

 the winter. Observations which are 

 now under way will probably clear this 

 matter up. 



THE LENGTHENING DAYS. 



BY CHARLES NEVERS HOLMES, NEWTON, MASS. 



Unwarmin,s;ly the wan sun sets once more 

 And sudden shadows steal o'er vale and 

 hill, 

 A crescent moon is shining out of door, 

 The wintry air becomes a bitter chill. 

 And now again we murmur words of yore: 

 When cold begins to strengthen then 

 days begin to lengthen. 



Yon thin moon gleams above the sunset's 

 ffold. 

 The gloaming conies and goes — the world 

 is still. 

 Some star-gems sparkle over snow-clad 

 wold. 

 The wintry air cuts with a keener chill. 

 And once again we murmur words of old: 

 When days begin to lengthen then cold 

 begins to strengthen. 



