82 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



METHODS 



how this line of teaching may be carried out in our schools. One county 

 was chosen in New York State in which this work was introduced in the 

 schools for its practical workings. Two classes of schools were selected 

 — the high schools of the towns, and the rural schools of the country dis- 

 tricts. Work was introduced upon the principle of University Exten- 

 sion. Subjects were chosen, and university instructors were sent out to 

 the schools to give lectures upon the special topics that were of interest 

 to the children living in the community where this school work was being 

 carried on. 



LECTURES WERE GIVEN UPON THE SOIL— 



of what it was composed; the elements of plant food which it contaiiK d, 

 and how these elements could be most readily obtained to supply the 

 needs of the plants which were grown upon it. Lectures were given upon 

 the growth and development of plants^, choosing those that were most 

 familiar and common in the district. For the lower grades, work began 

 with the study of seeds, which were colleced from the most familiar plants 

 in the district, representing the food plants of the garden; of the grains 

 and grasses of the fields, and from these lessons were given in the prin- 

 ciples of germination, the seeds being germinated and the study pursued 

 in observation lessons. This proved of great interest to even the smallest 

 children in the primary gradeg. In the more advanced grades, subjects 

 were chosen in plant study that were of commercial importance. The 

 question was frequently asked if the children in the rural schools take 

 any special interest in the study of plants, and, in order to test the chil- 

 dren upon this point, the strawberry plant was chosen as a special sub- 

 ject in the lessons given before the schools, and, at the conclusion of each 

 lecture the children were notified that if they would be interested in the 

 further study^ upon their application being sent in to me in the following 

 spring, they would receive one-half dozen strawberry plants; and 



THEIR OBLIGATION WAS TO SET OUT THE PLANTS, 



caue for them, study and learn all they could about them, with the fur- 

 ther obligation imposed that they should write an essay or a composition 

 upon what they had learned about these plants, and give it to the teacher 

 of their school. This, perhaps, was the severest test that could be given 

 to children, for if there is one thing that a boy or girl dislikes it is to 

 have to write a composition. It was^, however, very surprising in the 

 following spring of 1896 to find applications coming in in great numbers 

 from these school children from Westchester county, where this instruc- 

 tion had been given. The notice of the offer had been published in the 

 New York City papers, and the children from the graded schools in New 

 York, many of them reading the notice, supposed they were included, and 

 many of these city children made application for the strawberry plants. 

 The local papers throughout the state also copied the notice from the city 

 papers, and school children and teachers from all parts of the state be- 

 gan to make application for the strawberry plants, and over 15,000 plants 

 were sent out to school children in the state for the purpose of study. I 

 have several hundred very interesting letters, and some compositions, 



