692 EXPEEIMENT STATION EECORD. 



The new course is based upon the 7-year elementary school, and extends 

 through four years with gi-aduation with 16 units. The major part of the work 

 is still vocational, preparing the boy for his life worli on the farm, but with an 

 academic training that will prepare for higher education institutions. There 

 has been adde<l to the curriculum as optional work three hours a week for the 

 last two years of the course, to be devoted to the definite training of teachers. 



Report of agriculture in the high, schools of Michigan, W. H. French 

 (Mich. Agr. Col., Dcpt. Agr. Ed. Bui. 15 (1915), pp. 16, figs. i6).— This report 

 gives a statistical summary of agricultural instruction in the high schools of 

 Michigan ; a statement concerning agriculture in the city schools, the use of land, 

 home project.s, school and home gardens, special schools of agriculture, and 

 effects of agricultural instruction ; general recommendations for the improve- 

 ment of the work ; and a list of the high schools and teachers giving instruction 

 in agiiculture in 1915-16. 



It is shown that during the past year 40 high schools offered one unit of 

 agricultural work in each grade, in charge of special instructors who were 

 graduates of an agricultural college and were employed for 12 months in the 

 year. Twenty-five other high schools have given from one-half to one year 

 of instruction in agriculture either by the teacher of science or the superin- 

 tendent of schools. The agricultural courses were attended by 1,500 young 

 men and 400 young women, the latter, for the most part, taking the courses in 

 horticulture and dairying. Fifteen of the schools have land for demonstration 

 purposes, ranging from one-fifrh of an acre to 18 acres, and 21 have special 

 agricultural laboratories well e<iuippo<l with si»ecial apparatus. 



Report of Alnarp Agricultural and Dairy Institute and of Alnarp Agri- 

 cultural School and Farm, 1913 (licr. Vcrks. Alnarps Lantbr. och ilcjeri 

 Imt.. 1913, pp. 97+29, pi. 1, figs. 6). — This 5s a report on the activities of this 

 institution for 1013. 



[Training teachers to teach nature study] (Xaturc-Study Rev., 11 (1915), 

 Xo. 9, pp. S9S-J,02, -}72-.i/<S). — Tills luunber includes the following articles on 

 the training of teachers of nature study : Training Teachers to Teach Nature 

 Study, by Alice J. I'atterson, in which a method course, including a study of 

 material and children, is discussed for prospective teachers; Training to Teach 

 Nature Study in Ontario, by John Dearness, describing the work in the normal 

 schools of Ontario ; Subject Matter Versus ^lethod in the Normal School, by 

 G. H. Trafton, holding that a course in nature study in the normal schools 

 should treat both of subject matter and of method, with special emphasis 

 on the latter; and Course in Nature Study with Prospective Teachers, by F. T. 

 Ullrich, in which are considered some of the problems involved in the proper 

 organization of a course in nature study for teachers, viz, imparting to 

 .students a knowletlge of materials of the subject, an appreciation of its aims 

 and purposes, the principles that underlie its organization, and the best methods 

 of presentation. 



College freshmen as an index of the progress of nature study, .1. G. Need- 

 ham (Xatiirc-Studii h'cr., 11 (1915). Xn. 9. pp. ^QS. .',09).— The author calls at- 

 tention to several difficulties encountered in giving the natural history course 

 required of freshmen during their first term at the New York State College of 

 Agriculture for the purpose of partially overcoming the inability of students 

 to trust their own eyes or to see the thing itself. These difficulties, consisting 

 of a notion on the part of students that a field trip is a picnic and the written 

 record of the work, like the examination paper, an end in itself, and of a 

 desire to avoid wasting any time on things of no commercial value, are gener- 

 ally being eliminated by the nature study movement in the schools. 



