9 8 THE NA TURE-STUD Y RE VIE W [s=4-apr., 1909 



desirable to omit the text-book entirely and teach these subjects 

 orally, making them the basis for his education along all lines, and 

 it is possible that this may be done when our educational system 

 has further developed and our educational ideals have more 

 completely changed — when our schools have been "re-directed." 



Practically we cannot afford to wait for such an evolution in 

 methods of teaching to be completed. We must take our schools 

 as they exist today, with all their faults in theory and practice, 

 and attempt to deal reasonably with such means as seem to be 

 available for their improvement. 



Nature-study and agriculture are subjects which promise 

 much for our rural schools. And they should not be treated as 

 merely a new point of view. To the teacher struggling to find 

 her bearings in the chaos of thirty recitations a day, they are more 

 than that ; to the country boy in the typical rural school they are 

 much more than a new point of view. 



THE RELATION OF NATURE-STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 

 IN THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



By F. L. STEVENS 

 N. C. College of A. and M. A., Raleigh, N. C 



[Read at meeting of American Nature-Study Society, Baltimore, Dec. 

 29, 1908.] 



With the thinking teacher, it goes without saying that this 

 relation is and should be a most intimate one. They are triply 

 and inseparably related in country life; in object or function, 

 opportunity or material and in interest. They are related in 

 their object to make for general culture and as well as for good 

 farming. They are related in opportunity and material for the 

 agricultural material affords abundant material for the nature- 

 study. Perhaps most important of all they are related in interest, 

 the interest already active in the child, that does not need even to 

 be awakened. 



Interest appeals to me more than any other educational 

 factor, perhaps because I recognize clearly that it played a domi- 

 nant part in my own education. I studied and I worked because 

 I was interested and for no other reason, though possibl> I ought 

 to be ashamed to say so. Interest always has dominated my 

 activities. It still does. I follow the development of nature- 

 study and agriculture and of botany because of my genuine in- 



