84 THE NATURE-STUDY IDEA 



The beginnings of the new order are seen in 

 the nature-study movement, the establishing of 

 agricultural high schools, the strong agitation for 

 country or district industrial schools, the spread 

 of reading-courses, the rise of pupils' gardens, 

 the general awakening of rural communities. 

 Books and methods are now made for town 

 schools rather than for country schools; the real 

 texts for the rural schools are just now beginning 

 to appear, and they represent a new type of school 

 literature. In the future, the text-book is to 

 have relatively less influence than in the past. 

 We have been living in a text-book and museun 

 age. All this old method is not to be complained 

 of. The fact that so many new subjects and 

 propaganda are coming in shows that we are in 

 the midst of an evolution : we are in the making 

 of progress. 



This new teaching for the farmer is a most 

 attractive field for well-directed effort. We need 

 more teachers for it in the colleges and normal 

 schools and common schools. The teaching in 

 our agricultural colleges should be seized with the 

 missionary spirit, with the desire to send out young 

 persons who care not so much to make professors 

 and experimenters in the great institutions, as to 

 give themselves to spread the gospel of nature-love 

 and of self-respecting resourceful farming through 

 all the colleges and all the public schools. The 

 time is coming quickly when the college or school 

 that wants really to reach the people must teach 

 rural subjects from the human point of view. 



