224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



to-night because we think it w;as given us from the right 

 stand-point. 



Mr. G. T. Fletcher (Agent, Board of Education). I 

 want to express my satisfaction, as a teacher, in listening 

 to the address of Dr. Hodge. I think there never has been 

 a time in our history when nature study was so important 

 in our schools as it is to-day. As the speaker has said, the 

 original communities in New England were farmers, and 

 the boys and girls were in touch with nature. But there has 

 been that neglect, that the speaker has so well brought out, 

 with reference to encouraging children to raise plants to 

 some purpose. I remember a time back when two boys in 

 one of those homes felt that life was a drudgery, because 

 they had to do a great deal of hard work ; but one day some 

 farmer said, " If you will raise a flock of chickens or a bed 

 of beets, or some good product, they shall be yours," and 

 thus those boys were stimulated to become intelligent, 

 thrifty farmers. In our modern city life a large number of 

 our children are removed in a large measure from touch 

 with the soil ; but still I feel there is hardly a boy or a girl 

 who cannot have certainly a flower pot or a little patch of 

 ground, either at home or in school, where something can 

 be grown, and I have felt inclined to welcome most ear- 

 nestly the introduction of nature study into our schools. 

 But I have oftentimes been disappointed, sometimes dis- 

 couraged and not infrequently disgusted, with the way the 

 Avork has been conducted there through text books such as 

 have been presented here to-night. The text book has its 

 proper use and place, but it is first the study of nature, and 

 then the books may 2,ive to the children some information 

 valuable to them, and something they can understand. I 

 am olad that our colleges and universities have come to 

 realize and to present to the educators of the land the fact 

 that there is something better than books, — and that is 

 human life. We can remember in college in our early days 

 how our education was pursued, and how little there was 

 of natural science ; but to-day the colleges and universities, 

 with their experiment stations, are coming to give us more 

 of the best results coming from the touch of the child with 

 nature. 



