74 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



leg^e of Agriculture. We have great faith 

 in the ultimate effect and result of this 

 Farmers' Reading- Course movement, whose 

 central idea is to educate the farmer rather 

 than to give him more information. We 

 are glad to say that the movement is in- 

 creasingly popular among the farmers of the 

 State. Beginning with a membership of 

 some fifteen hundred in 1897, it has grown 

 till it now reaches in round numbers twenty 

 thousand. Another cheering feature of the 

 work rests in the fact, that among our 

 readers we have a large following of the 

 younger men of the country. The direct 

 result of this work is to improve methods of 

 farming, and to awaken a desire for more 

 wisdom, which may culminate in some in- 

 stances in a decision to complete the reading 

 course by taking the winter course in agri- 

 culture offered by Cornell University. This 

 we look upon as the ideal method of finish- 

 ng the correspondence course. 



The N.ature Study Movement. — The Na- 

 ture Study movement is so well understood, 

 and has become so phenomenally popular in 

 recent years, that very little need be said on 

 that subject at this time. It is a pleasure, 

 however, for me to have this opportunity of 

 bearing testimony to the zeal, enthusiasm 

 and perseverance of the members of the 

 staff of Agriculture at Cornell, led by Prof. 

 Bailey, who have had the work in hand, and 

 who have given unselfishly and unstintingly 

 of their time and energy for its furtherance. 



This movement had its germ in the thought 

 that the place to remedy the fundamental 

 difficulty of agriculture, as relating to the 

 schools, was in the rural and city schools 

 with the younger children. To ascertain 

 the attitude of children and the teachers to- 

 ward the movement, at the beginning, a 

 number of schools were visited by instruc- 

 tors of the University. These visits and 

 talks disclosed a keen desire on the part of 

 the majority of the children and a number 

 of the teachers for a closer touch with thing-s 



natural. Especially was this desire shown 

 by the children. These early visits also dis- 

 closed the fact that one of the first things to 

 be done was to educate the teacher, and 

 here was the real work of the University. 

 This has been accomplished in part by the 

 publication of Nature Study leaflets, con- 

 taining suggestive outlines of suitable topics 

 for Nature Study illustration. These leaf- 

 lets were at first issued irregularly. As the 

 work increased and became systematized, it 

 was decided to send them out at regular in- 

 tervals throughout the year. They are now 

 published quarterly, and are issued in an 

 edition of thirty thousand. 



Perhaps one of the most unique, and pos- 

 sibly most important divisions of the nature 

 study work is the Junior Naturalist's Cor- 

 respondence School. In this school there 

 are marshalled a great army of little ones. 

 They are grouped in clubs called Junior 

 Naturalists' Clubs, and are scattered not 

 only throughout the State, but throughout 

 the United States. They have even crossed 

 the waters and are found in Europe and 

 Asia. The club is organized by the teacher. 

 When properly organized each club receives 

 a charter from the Bureau of Nature Study. 

 The Junior Naturalist is a small monthly 

 publication devoted to child nature study 

 topics. Each member of every club receives 

 a copy. There are no money dues connec- 

 ted with these clubs, but still there are 

 dues. These consist of personal comments 

 by the children of each member on the Na- 

 turalist or upon any other natural object 

 which may have caught their attention dur- 

 ing the month. The clubs are organized 

 for one year, and are disbanded at the end 

 of the school year. To illustrate the popu- 

 larity of the movement I need only say that 

 since September ist, 1900, when the new 

 school year was again taken up, seven hun- 

 dred and fifty clubs have been organized, 

 containing a combined membership of over 

 thirty thousand children. There is no ques- 



