AGRICULTURAL EDUCATIOX. 399 



teachers of a.sriculture and of distinct courses rather than Incidental teaching 

 of the subject is strongly emphasized. He favors such courses in the imblic 

 high schools and suggests a working plan for high schools having courses of 

 three and four years. 



Elementary agriculture as a subject of study in the grades, W. R. Hart 

 (Proc. Ann, Conf. Agr. ScL, Amherst, Mass., 2 (1909), pi). lJ,-23).—T\ie author 

 bases the educational value of elementary school agriculture on the demand 

 which it necessarily creates for knowledge of facts and principles from the 

 special sciences, mathematics, and other subjects of study. These advantages 

 and othei's in agricultural study he sums up as consisting of " its concreteness, 

 its imnied lateness, its appeal to motives both present and remote, its power to 

 vitalize facts from other sciences by giving them utility and application, its 

 large use in its initial stages of qualitative elements as oi)posed to quantitative, 

 its universality as a source of material and motive for the application of the 

 formal studies of reading, writing, language, arithmetic, and geography, and its 

 unexampled appeal to the self-hood of the individual to become an independent, 

 self-sustaining, self-reliant unit in the social cosmos, and its esthetic and moral 

 uplift to the soul working in the midst of universal and beneficent laws." 



Relationship of the physical sciences to agriculture. S. R. Haskell {Proc. 

 Ann. Conf. Agr. ScL. Amiicrst. Mass.. 2 (1909), pp. -'/-'/--J9). — This article is a 

 discussion of the indebtedness of agricultural science and practice to chemistry 

 under the leadership of Liebig and to the laws of physics as demonstrated in 

 King's experiments. 



Biological sciences in their relation to agricultural science, E. D. Sander- 

 son {Proc. Ann. Conf. Agr. ScL, Amherst, Mass., 2 {1909), pp. 50-58).— Xn 

 explaiiation of the dependence of successful agriculture on entomology, bac- 

 teriology, physiology, and zoology, with some suggestions on the teaching of 

 these subjects so as to give the agricultural student a " biological attitude " 

 toward his study. 



Nature study and agriculture in rural schools, M. A. Bigelow {Proc. Ann. 

 Conf. Agr. ScL. Amherst, Mass., 2 {1909), pp. 5-13). — The writer sees no con- 

 flict between nature study and school agriculture, but doubts the advisability 

 of substituting the latter for the former in the seventh and eighth grades, on 

 the ground (1) that the scientific principles common to both studies are of more 

 worth than specialized information at that age, and (2) that esthetic appre- 

 ciation of country life is i)referable to commercialized interest. He suggests the 

 term agricultural nature study as indicating the best conception of what should 

 be taught. 



Some connections between school studies and the home and industrial 

 activities, Hannah P. Waterman {Proc. Ann. Conf. Agr. ScL, Amherst, Mass., 

 2 {1909), pp. 2'f-31). — A description of the introduction and development of 

 elementary agricultural and industrial work and its results in the Briggsville 

 Training Department of the State Normal School at North Adams. Mass. Some 

 of these results are summarized as (1) a growing respect for school and per- 

 sonal i)roperty. (2) a greater economy in the use ol materials. (3) increased 

 ingenuity in the use of tools. (4) increased appreciation of the value of learning 

 by experience, (5) a greater respect for the work of parents and better ability 

 to criticise their own work. (6) increased self-respect and charity for the 

 opinions of others. (7) more rapid advancement in the regular work of the 

 school, and (8) a better understanding of and sympathy with school work on 

 the part of the community. 



