THE AGRICULTURAL PHASE 65 



to verify the facts and to extend his knowledge, 

 to suggest methods of teaching the subjects. 

 They are not texts from which recitations are to 

 be made. Merely as an example of one set of 

 ideals and one method of improving the agri- 

 cultural status, a brief outline of this work may 

 be given. The following extract is from a 

 sketch which I contributed to the Sixth Report 

 of Extension Work (Bulletin 206, Cornell 

 Experiment Station, October, 1902): 



"To create a larger public sentiment in favor 

 of agriculture, to increase the farmer's respect for 

 his own business these are the controlling pur- 

 poses in the general movement that we are carry- 

 ing forward under the title of nature-study. It 

 is not by teaching agriculture directly that this 

 movement can be started. The common schools 

 in New York will not teach agriculture to any 

 extent for the present, and the movement, if it is 

 to arouse a public sentiment, must reach beyond 

 the actual farmers themselves. The agricultural 

 status is much more than an affair of mere farm- 

 ing. The first undertaking, as we conceive the 

 problem, is to awaken an interest in the things 

 with which the farmer lives and has to do, for 

 a man is happy only when he is in sympathy 

 with his environment. To teach observation of 

 common things, therefore, has been the funda- 

 mental means. A name for the movement was 

 necessary. We did not wish to invent a new 

 name or phrase, as it would require too much 

 effort in explanation. Therefore, we chose the 



