yo 



NATURE 



[November k*. \^)\i 



The ch.'iptc I i>ii the military applications of cellulose 

 derivatives is limited to eiphty-five pages, but these 

 contain a vast amount of information which, although 

 familiar to those associated with this branch of the 

 subject, is an excellent condensation of information. 



So wide are the applications of cellulose derivatives 

 and so admirably is the subject treated by the author 

 that his two volumes should find a place in every tech- 

 nical and scientific chemist's library, and, further, will 

 prove an invaluable reference book for the larfje 

 number who are regularly employing many of these 

 important bodies in their evervdav work. 



J. S. S. H. 



EDUCATION FOR THE COUNTRY LIFE. 

 The Teaching of Agriculture in the High School. By 

 Garland A. Rricker. Pp. xxv + 202. (New York: 

 The Macmillan Co. ; London : Macmillan and Co., 

 Ltd., 191 1.) Price 4s. 6d. net. 



STUDENTS of rural affairs have long realised that 

 much dissatisfaction exists in country districts 

 with our present system of education. In whatever 

 way it is judged, according to its critics, it has failed ; 

 the children sent out from the country schools are not 

 better fitted for work on the land than their fathers 

 were; on the contrary, they are kept at desk work 

 during the period when it is supposed that their 

 receptive faculties are at the best, and when they 

 would, on the land, most rapidly learn the ways of 

 animals, of plants, and of soils. Even the friends of 

 the .system will concede that it has been evolved with- 

 out any special regard for country requirements, and 

 without taking account of the fundamental differ- 

 ences in habits of thought and in points of view 

 between the dwellers in the town and those in the 

 country. 



More and more it is being realised that the future 

 development of the rural district, or to put it still 

 more widely, of the country civilisation, must run on 

 different lines from that of the city, and experiments 

 are therefore being made to evolve a system of educa- 

 tion that shall train children to lead the life of the 

 country. The experimental scale is largest in the 

 States, as one might expect, and in the book before 

 us Mr. Bricker has collected such of the material as 

 is at present available, thus usefully filling a gap in 

 our education literature. It is, of course, as vet too 

 soon to speak about results, but during the experi- 

 mental period it is useful for educationists to loiow 

 what their American confreres are doing. 



Of the elementary school but little is said. The 

 nature-study idea is for the present the best we have, 

 and has already a copious literature of its own. The 

 work of the elementary schools, according to the 

 author, should confine itself to an elementary study 

 of the common things of the farm, field, and forest. 

 Something of the relative importance of these things 

 to man should be studied and fixed in the mind of 

 the child before he leaves school. It is in the 

 secondary school, or, as it is here called, the high 

 school, that the scholars will take up agriculture as 

 such, but there is no break in the sequence of studies 

 l)ecause agriculture will be looked upon as nature- 

 NO. 2194, VOL. 88] 



study plus utility. But the study of agriculture is t( 

 be an education and not simply a manual training 



"If the essence of true culture is to see the fundfl 

 mental and eternal shining out through the seemingi 

 trivial and transitory, there is no subject betU 

 adapted to provide culture than the subject of agr 

 culture.*' 



To be treated in this broad way, agriculture n 

 quires a larger place in the school curriculum th» 

 the established secondary schools are able or w ■ 

 to give it; hence the necessity for separate agricul 

 schools. Two possible dangers are indir. 

 .specialised schools may emphasise class distin< 

 unworthy of a democratic country; educition 

 makes a strong appeal to economic motives m.t 

 harmful if it places its powerful sanction on 

 seeking ideals. The purely practical man, of C( 

 will ask : Of what use are culture and adornnii 

 the power to earn a livelihood is lacking? But ll 

 must not be the point of view of the agricultur 

 teacher. He must rather insist on the other questior 

 Of what use is the best capacity to make a livir 

 without a corresponding power to make li.''e wot 

 while? and make agriculture a cultural as well as 

 vocational subject. In short, the agricultur 

 secondary school is to be the directive and construct!^ 

 agent of the new rural civilisation that the best mi 

 in the States (and, for that matter, in this count 

 also) are endeavouring to foster. 



A chapter is devoted to the description of schc 

 alreadv established. They are, as one would ea 

 of several types, but in all of them boys and gii 

 are educated together, entering at the age of thirtt 

 or fourteen, and remaining for three or four year 

 Agriculture for the boys and household science f^ 

 the girls form the respective centres of the cours 

 and the education is made as real as possible, 

 the thing itself, whether a horse, a maize seed, or] 

 growing crop, is before the class, and not simply' 

 picture. 



The author then proceeds to a discussion of methc 

 The logical arrangement of subjects followed in 

 college course is not the best for the boy with 

 limited experience and his incomplete and unorgani 

 knowledge. It is necessan,- to adopt a psycholoj 

 arrangement, i.e. a sequence of studies adapted to 

 changing and developing powers of the scholar, 

 the subject generally accords with the instincts 

 the impulses of the average boy is a tremendous 

 and yet, unintelligently directed by the teacher, 

 help may prove a great danger. Into the psyc 

 logical discussions we need not enter. The authc 

 aim is to show that pedagogic principles can 

 should be applied to the teaching of agriculture, 

 that the subject can and should be made cultural 

 well as vocational. 



The book affords a striking illustration of how mi 

 further the Americans have got than we ourseh 

 VVe are only commencing — if indeed we have seriot 

 commenced — to apply the science of education in 

 agricultural teaching. Those who propose to 

 the task will obtain useful help from this book. 



E. J. 



