stebbins] CORRELA TIOX /X ATA TORE-STUDY x 55 



trees and by the time the normal department proper is entered 

 thev may pick fruit from their trees. 



When insects appear on the trees war is waged against them. 

 The past year brought the unwelcome woolly aphids to the apple 

 trees. The fight was a serious one and the trees were sorely 

 wounded ere the aphides were routed. 



Little is done with insect life until the children come in 1 

 relation with it. As the plants develop, the children meet insect 

 pests face to face. The cabbage leaves are eaten by the lar\ 

 the cabbage butterflies, the tomato vines suffer from tomato 

 "worms," and the pupils realize that to save their plants they 

 must destroy the pests. Thus the study of insects becomes vital 

 to the children. 



Insects are studied from four points of view. 1. Are they 

 harmful ? What is their life history and if harmful in which stage 

 can they be reached most readily with insecticides or other means 

 of killing"' 3. In this stage, do they obtain their food by suck- 

 ing or chewing? 4. How can they be destroyed? 



In the study and control of such an insect as the woolly aphis, 

 the pupils are brought in contact with many forces. There are 

 the forces brought into use in the working of the spray engine; 

 in the preparation of the spray chemicals, among many others. 



We have one class quite well versed in insect and fungus spray- 

 ing. It acts as a demonstrating class for our patrons. Upon a 

 call to the department this group visits, studies and treats what- 

 ever pest it may meet. 



During the fall term, particularly, experiments are performed 

 to point out and to bring the pupils into close touch with the 

 forces and principles working in and with the soil. In the spring, 

 each class has one or more experimental plots to determine further 

 principles in agriculture. The school garden should teach the 

 community the value of intensive gardening. Again chemistry, 

 physics, etc.. play their parts. 



For many years after graduation from a good high school. 

 capillary action meant to the writer a glass tube containing a 

 column of water with a concave surface; acids were fluids that 

 colored litmus paper. Such unnatural selection or isolation of 

 forces from their working ground cannot be too strongly con- 

 demned . The true science method is coming to be the study of all 

 the correlated forces working upon some particular object 



