THE AGRICULTURAL PHASE 67 



cultural or economic topics. The answer is that 

 we take subjects that teachers will use. We 

 should like, for example, to give more attention 

 to insect subjects, but it is difficult to induce 

 teachers to work with them. If distinctly agri- 

 cultural topics alone were used, the movement 

 would have very little following and influence. 

 Moreover, it is not our purpose to teach technical 

 agriculture in the common schools, but to incul- 

 cate the habit of observing, to suggest work that 

 has distinct application to the conditions in which 

 the child lives, to inspire enthusiasm for country 

 life, to aid in home-making, and to encourage 

 a general movement toward the soil. These 

 matters cannot be forced. In every effort by 

 every member of the extension staff, the better- 

 ment of agricultural conditions has been the 

 guiding impulse, however remote from that pur- 

 pose it may have seemed to the casual observer. 

 "We have found by long experience that it 

 is unwise to give too much condensed subject- 

 matter. The individual teacher can give subject- 

 matter in detail because personal knowledge and 

 enthusiasm can be applied. But in general corre- 

 spondence and propagandist work this cannot be 

 done. With the Junior Naturalists, for example, 

 the first impulse is to inspire enthusiasm for some bit 

 of work which we hope to take up. This enthusi- 

 asm is awakened largely by the organization of 

 clubs and by the personal correspondence that is 

 conducted between the Bureau and these clubs 

 and their members. It is the desire, however, 



