NOTES ON PERIODICALS AND BOOKS 55. 



(Circular No. 58, Nov., 1910, College of Agriculture, Berkeley, Calif.) 

 This pamphlet of 33 pp. outlines fifty practical exercises. 



"It is hoped that the teacher may find the exercises especially helpfuL 

 as supplementary work in general science, physiology or botany." 



The Irish Homestead makes the following comment: 

 "Nobody ever heard of a famous school book for primary schools. 

 Yet famous books, not school books, have been written for children. 

 'Robinson Crusoe' has lasted for a couple of centuries. 'Alice in Won- 

 derland' has made two generations of children happy. 'The Jungle Book' 

 of Kipling probably stands a better chance of immortality than any prose 

 work written in English during the last century. We could fill column after 

 column with the names of books for children written by great writers, 

 written not for the school but for the leisure hour. There are no famous 

 school books." 



The U. S. Department of Agriculture is devoting increasing atten- 

 tion to the interests of the public schools. Among the recent publications 

 addressed particularly to the schools are the following Farmers' Bulletins : 



No. 423 — Forest Nurseries in Schools. 



No. 408 — School Exercises in Plant Production. 



No. 409— School Lessons on Corn. 



How to Know Some Ohio Trees (Agric. College Extension Bul- 

 lein, Columbus, Ohio, Vol. VI, No. 3, Nos., 1910) is an illustrated pamph- 

 let which will doubtless be in demand by teachers outside of the state 

 in which it is issued. 



Educational Agriculture (Western State Normal School Quarterly, 

 Vol. II, No. 3) by Josiah Main, Dept. of Agric. Education in that insti- 

 tution, is an intensive treatment of a topic of great present-day interest. 

 The author, who had worked several years in this field in other states, has 

 recently gone to Kansas. He presents here a scholarly discussion of his 

 theme. The chapter headings are : limitations of the field as a realm of 

 knowledge; motives; genetic psychology as an aid in organization; the 

 kinaesthetic factor in apperception — reaction and inhibition ; a problem in 

 adjustment — position of the various sciences; formal discipline and its 

 transfer; humanistic science, applied science, and agriculture; agricul- 

 tural arts — habits vs. judgment; collateral or extra-program agriculture; 

 the seasonal order of presentation ; other correlated subjects ; retardation — 

 admission, graduation and accrediting of students; the laboratory; plots 

 and grounds ; agricultural literature. 



In an article on Improvement in Geography Teaching, by Presi- 

 dent W. J. Sutherland, State Normal School, Platteville, Wisconsin, the 

 Journal of Geography for December has the following, which will be 

 suggestive to teachers of nature-study: 



"In general it may be said that the selection of larger and more- 

 pertinent units is fundamental to better results. Units should be larger. 

 Regions should be studied rather than parts of regions in the form of 

 political divisions. Material irrelevant to the life of today should be 

 eliminated. This done, the lesson assignment should assume the form 

 of a problem for solution, an inference to verify, or a principle to 

 develop." 



Agriculture in the Public Schools is a new department in the 

 Town and Country Journal, a semi-monthly published in San Francisco,. 



