I04 The Nature-Study Idea 



in the community who is alive to the importance 

 of these new questions. If this person has tact 

 and persistence, he ought to be able to get some- 

 thing started. Here is an opportunity for the 

 young farmer to exert influence and to develop 

 leadership. He should not be impatient if 

 results seem to come slowly. The work is new : 

 it is best that it grow slowly and quietly and 

 prove itself as it goes. Through the grange, 

 reading-club, fruit-growers' society, creamery 

 association, or other organization the sentiment 

 may be encouraged and formulated; a teacher 

 may also be secured who is in sympathy with 

 making the school a real expression of the 

 affairs of the community; the school premises 

 may be put in order and made effective; now 

 and then the pupils may be taken to good farms 

 and be given instruction by the farmer himself; 

 good farmers may be called to the schoolhouse 

 on occasion to explain how they raise potatoes 

 or irrigate their land. A very small start will 

 grow by accretion if the persons who are inter- 

 ested in it do not lose heart; and in five years 



