NA TURE-STUD Y NEWS 217 



Miss Emilie Yltnker, of the Louiwille Normal School, 

 Chairman of the School Garden Committee of the Womans' 

 Outdoor Art League of that city, spent the summer in Europe 

 making a special study of school gardens in France, Switzerland 

 and Germany. Some report of her trip will appear soon in the 

 Nature-Study Review. 



The College of Agriculture of the University of Cal- 

 ifornia has issued an attractive announcement of the farmers 

 short courses to be given at the University farm, Davis, Cali- 

 fornia, September 26 to November 23. Several different courses 

 are offered. 



The Country Teachers' Association of Illinois held its 

 third annual meeting at Normal, 111., July 14-16. A strong pro- 

 gram was given and a marked rural school uplift will result from 

 this large attendance. Among the speakers were State Supt. 

 Blair, the presidents of the state normal schools, county superin- 

 tendents, rural teachers, and representatives from the College of 

 Agriculture, the Grange and the State Highway Commission. 

 Speakers from outside the state were Dean L. H. Bailey, of 

 Cornell. Pres. K. L. Butterfield, of Amherst, Prof. Ernest 

 Burnham, of the State Normal School, aKlamazoo, Mich. 

 Much of the inspiration of the meeting came from Miss Mabel 

 Carney, of Cheney, Wash., formerly of the Western Illinois 

 State Normal, Macomb, 111. 



Plans were made to call a general conference of rural work- 

 ers next year. Miss Mertis B. Whitaker, Chestnut, III, was 

 elected president for the ensuing year. 



The Graduate School of Agriculture met at Ames 

 Iowa, July 4-29. At a conference on Secondary School Agricul- 

 ture on the evening of July 2y the following program was given: 

 Place of Agriculture in Secondary Schools (Prof. G. F. War- 

 ren, Cornell Univ.); Growth of Agricultural Education in the 

 United States (D. J. Crosby, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture) ; Train- 

 ing of Teachers to give Instruction in Agriculture in Elementary 

 and Secondary Schools (Prof. B. M. Davis, Miami Univ.). 



The "Big Freeze", which affected so materially the vegeta- 

 tion of the upper Mississippi valley in April, interested many ob- 

 servers to note the manner in which the trees would recover 

 from the injury done them. Several members of the American 



