34 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



and worms and beetles, and so on, taking careful note of the most 

 minute detail in plant or living creature. The very pulling up of 

 the growing plants taught us more than what we should have 

 learnt from being told about it. 



Americans, alike Canadians and citizens of the great Republic, 

 have, as observed, discerned how to turn this natural disposition to 

 account. In the very infant school the child that likes is invited and 

 welcomed at the periodical " school fairs " — the word " fair " standing 

 in America for " exhibition " —in which — of course, to the tune of 

 merriment and festal amusements, never leaving palate and stomach 

 out of account — the products of their private plant-raising are 

 shown, judged and awarded prizes according to their several merits. 

 The tending is their own work, at their own choice. But there are 

 advisers to teach and to explain and recommend, whose advice and 

 recommendations are a hundred times more heeded than they would 

 be unaccompanied by active practice. The child prizes the advice 

 given to it, and asks for it. But all the same it feels the result to be 

 that of its own judgment and labour, and it observes it all the 

 more for this sense of having achieved something on its own 

 responsibility. It has acted like a monarch who takes his 

 minister's advice. And the lesson which it has learnt from that 

 minister's advice and from the work of its own hands is precious 

 in its sight, and is not allowed to fade out of remembrance. If the 

 thing is rightly treated, still allowing for full self-determination, 

 it gives the child an insight into the system of nature, and weaves a 

 band of interest in, and affection for, the simple pursuits of country 

 life firmly round its heart. 



" School fairs " are, I believe, a Canadian invention. In any case 

 the system is largely developed, and evidently with good results, in 

 Canada, the province of Ontario apparently taking the lead. 

 " School gardens," such as we likewise possess, are common to both 

 countries, and yield good results. And the Americans think much 

 of " Home-gardens," for which, of course, there are official and 

 experienced masters, and which put the boy or girl cultivating on his 

 or her special mettle. And the Americans also support elementary 

 school teaching of agriculture effected by demonstration work, 

 bringing the practical side of the issue to the front, on the Pesta- 

 lozzian principle of instructing the brain through the eye. 



However, all that is only the beginning. There are the " clubs " 

 for both boys and girls, institutions by which American agricultural 

 authorities rightly set the highest value, because they have proved 

 themselves so remarkably rich in beneficial results. They are, 



