DAVIS] INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE 7 



"Home-made apparatus. Corn tree for curing corn, corn testers. We 

 add five per cent to standing in agriculture if pupil has made and used 

 apparatus at home." 



Agriculture deals with growing things. Field study, in which 

 pupils may learn of these things, first-hand — by direct observa- 

 tion — is quite as important as is apparatus to demonstrate cer- 

 tain principles of agricultural science. In spite of the difificulties 

 of this kind of teaching in the rural schools the successful teacher 

 manages somehow to make more or less use of this method. 

 Of the 142 teachers replying to this question (5), 131 did some 

 field work ranging from a few hours in the spring months to 

 five hours a week during the school year. Many used the time 

 before school opened or after school closed, or recess and noon 

 periods. The following are some methods used : 



"The element of time is our gravest problem as the enthusiasm is 

 so great that w^e could w^ork out most any scheme 'if v^e had time.' We 

 have one-half hour per v^^eek regularly for gardening, but many noon 

 and recess hours are gladly — voluntarily given.. We have so far not found 

 time for other outside lessons." 



"Have made the garden the unifying center for agricultural nature- 

 study. Birds, insects, etc., have been studied as they touched the lives 

 of the children. Two hours a v^eek." 



"Very few school excursions were taken. Most of the pupils- lived 

 on farms, and by aid of some of the parents we were able to complete 

 what we undertook." 



"The greatest part of the work is done at home through the en- 

 thusiastic leadership of the schools. Home gardens, acre yield of corn, 

 potato growing, dragging roads, etc." 



"Excursions are frequently made to some nearby field or fields to 

 study the soil, effect of moisture, manures and heat upon the plant and 

 soil, harvesting and condition of plants." 



Another phase of agricultural instruction that teachers often 

 find difficult to handle is animal husbandry. Yet farm animals 

 stood second in the list of topics reported upon as being successful- 

 ly taught. Of the ninety-nine teachers who made use of this sub- 

 ject in their schools, seventy-one indicated how they did it : six- 

 teen at school having animals brought there, twenty-nine by hav- 

 ing the children make certain studies at home and reporting at 

 school, twenty-six through demonstrations by teachers at various 

 farms, nineteen by means of pictures and reading to be verified 

 at home, and two by demonstrations at fairs. The details of 

 some of the methods used are as follows : 



"After a suitable introduction the class is taken to the animal or the 

 animal to the class, just as seemed handiest." 



"All the home animals are judged and tested." 



