EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 691 



motion of country life, rather tlian be the instrument for taking people 

 as rapidly as possible away from the country. 



There must be, and will come a general improvement in the country 

 elementary schools. There must be some regrouping to make them 

 more efficient. We have heard a great deal about the consolidation of 

 schools. Now, there is no magic in that, and I do not think it is a 

 panacea for the ills of our country schools, but it seems to me that in 

 thinking about that we must face the situation as it is. If we could have 

 the ungraded school with forty or fifty scholars, as they used to have it in 

 the old days, and with a well educated man as the teacher of that school, 

 who had the power to inspire his pupils and direct them in useful lines, 

 then we should not need to propose that we re-group our schools, but, 

 actually, we have schools that are so small that it is not possible in that 

 condition to grade them properly, and because they are so small, because 

 the districts are so small from which the children come, it naturally fol- 

 lows that it would be too expensive to bring the best type of teachers into 

 such cases, and whatever sentiment we may have about the old-time 

 country school, that should not, I think, stand in the way of our re- 

 grouping these schools, consolidating them if you will, is order to make 

 them the best kind of schools, and then we can give more attention to- 

 ward making the situation as it already exists in the schools contributory 

 to agriculture and country life. There is no doubt but that the ordinary 

 studies of reading, arthmetic and geography may be so arranged as to be 

 primarily connected with the work and life on the farm, and when that 

 is done we should change the curriculum so as to make much better 

 schools than we have today, and I think that is possible in these days, and 

 bring into our country schools when they are properly reorganized and 

 provided with good teachers a certain element of nature study, and of 

 agriculture, which will be very helpful in instilling the proper spirit in 

 these schools and in turning the attention of the children to the newer 

 ideas in agriculture to the new, progressive agriculture, and leading them 

 to see that in agriculture itself are found many subjects of study which 

 will be useful to them in their future life, and benefit them in many ways. 



I think we should do something to promote the teaching of the ele- 

 ments of agriculture in the public schools and through the association of 

 agricultural colleges and experiment stations, working in harmony with 

 the national experiment station, there has been produced a set of working 

 materials which may be used in elementary schools. I have here a bul- 

 letin which we have just issued, entitled "Experiments in Elementary Ag- 

 riculture." Now, I cannot go into this subject, but I shall be very glad to 

 have you take the number and if you are interested in the matter write 

 to the office of the experiment station for a copy. It is Bulletin 186, of 

 the office of experiment stations, the title being "Exercises in Elementary 

 Agriculture." Now, in this bulletin we have tried to show what may be 

 done with the simplest kind of apparatus, much of which can be made by 

 any boy who can use an ordinary knife, and making the exercises of such 

 character as will be suitable to the common schools. These exercises, I 

 might say, we do not claim any particular originality for. They have 

 been gathered from various sources and most of them have been suc- 

 cessfully used in schools. Now, we do not expect that exercises like that 



