2 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [10:1— Jan., 1914 



The reason why the new agrictilture is getting such a hold upon 

 our country is, because, for many years the Experiment Stations 

 have been working out the why and how, and the new agriculture 

 is no longer a thumb-rule industry, but is worthy the best thought 

 and training of a man. It seems strange that with this fact so 

 prominently before us, it should have been so neglected in much 

 of our teaching of elementary agriculture, for what the Experiment 

 Stations are doing for the farmers, nature-study does for the child. 



Let us consider just how and why nature-study adds permanency 

 of value and interest to elementary agriculture. Take first the 

 soil, that "sepulcher and the resurrection of all life" as "Uncle 

 John" Spencer reverently called it. There is a series of most 

 interesting lessons on the soil makers, the soil carriers and the 

 kinds of soil; and by the time the child of ten or twelve has 

 mastered these lessons he is far more fit to judge soils than is 

 many a so-called practical farmer. And meanwhile he is getting 

 an interest and a respect for the soil which is the first requisite 

 of a good fanner ; faith in soil without knowledge is a broken reed 

 on which to lean. Knowledge of the kind of soil is the first step 

 to the right treatment of it to set free and supplement the plant 

 food which is there. And there are experiments in growing plants 

 on the different soils without and with supplementary food materials 

 that are as interesting to the child as a continued story. Related 

 with this is developed the story of getting the soil ready for 

 receiving the seed. The reason for breaking up the soil into as 

 fine particles as possible is a nature-study story that should be 

 demonstrated before every child gardener by growing seeds in a 

 glass jar so that the efforts of the rootlets to reach the soil may 

 be a part of his practical, personal knowledge. 



In the testing of seed comes another experimental lesson, a 

 rather advanced lesson, which must lead the child to think why 

 some seeds are better than others. The growth of the yoimg plant 

 first from the "lunch in the seed put up by the mother plant" 

 and the use of the cotyledons can never be understood until made 

 the subject of consecutive nattire-study lessons. 



The form of roots, their growth and function, is especially 

 adapted for nature-study of the garden. Commonly in school 

 gardening the children understand but little of the root systems 

 of their various vegetables. From the brace roots and the shal- 

 low root system of the com to the tap root of the cabbage and the 



