212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



key note to the revival of the agricultural interest not only 

 in New England, but the entire United States; and I want 

 to comment particularly on a point which the doctor has 

 made, — that the danger of the whole theory of nature 

 study as advertised to be instructed in the public schools 

 lies in just such trash as these text books from which he has 

 given us illustrations to-night. 



It was my privilege to do something in nature work in 

 New York State a few years since. In conducting the 

 farmers' institutes for New York, one special thing which I 

 discussed at every institute held in the State was the posi- 

 tion which the public schools of New York State held in 

 relation to agriculture, and the introduction of nature study 

 in the public schools, the application to be made directly 

 to agricultural life. I was called upon by people interested 

 in educational work in New York City to demonstrate prac- 

 tically the value of nature study in the schools. I chose 

 one county, Westchester, in 1896, to give a practical 

 demonstration of how nature study could be introduced 

 from the practical stand-point. I had the assistance in this 

 experimental introduction in the schools of New York of 

 one of the best teachers at Cornell, Miss Anna B. Corn- 

 stock, and also of Prof. C. C. Curtis of Columbia. While 

 a college professor, he knew just how to reach children, and 

 with this very able support I started this work in the schools 

 of Westchester County. 



We went into the schools, and took fifteen or sixteen 

 minute periods in the study of the plant, the animal or the 

 insect ; and I want to give one illustration, — the presenta- 

 tion of the study of a plant. I took the strawberry as an 

 illustration, and just gave a sketch of this plant, gave some- 

 thing of its habits of growth and some few points in rela- 

 tion to the blossoms upon the plants, and in a very few 

 moments just gave instruction on how to set the strawberry 

 plant and how to deal with it in the soil. At the close of 

 the work in each school I made this offer, to each pupil 

 who would be interested the next spring to pursue the study 

 of the strawberry plant, that, on application made to me by 

 mail, I would send each one half a dozen of the plants ; to 



