vi AGRONOMY 



and partly because city children are not brought much into 

 contact with farm animals. Animal husbandry may well be 

 taught as a separate course, and, if given in the semester fol- 

 lowing that in which agronomy is given, will afford the pupil 

 a year's continuous work in agriculture. The practical nature 

 of the matter here presented has been proved by several sea- 

 sons' work with classes in a large city high school. No direc- 

 tions for work have been given that have not been tried out 

 with such classes. 



Agronomy differs from the usual botanical course of the 

 high school in that it is largely the practice of an art rather 

 than the study of a science. It seeks to make the student 

 physically proficient as well as mentally alert. Although 

 usually given after a course in botany, it is by nature an 

 excellent introduction to the more technical study, since it 

 enables the student to bring to bear upon it a considerable 

 first-hand knowledge of plants and plant habits. In the high- 

 school curriculum botany may be considered as existing for 

 the sake of the drill it gives in observation and deduction, 

 as well as for the information it affords, and it is therefore 

 proper that it should be based largely upon experiment. In 

 agronomy, however, experiment has a much smaller place. 

 The fundamentals have so long been a matter of common 

 knowledge that they need not be made the subjects for ex- 

 periment, though the possibility of proving any phase of the 

 work by this means should not be overlooked. 



The course in agronomy here presented is designed to 

 cover a half year of work in the laboratory and school garden 

 and to be given in the spring semester. It is essentially an 

 outdoor course in doing things, with the culture, propagation, 

 and amelioration of plants as the central theme. It presup- 

 poses a school garden in which the pupil can carry out the 

 work of cultivating and training plants, and the chief end of 

 the course will be missed if this book is used merely as a 



