428 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [11:9— Dec, 1915 



9. Seventh Grade Boys. 



a. Group work. 



b. Cereals: several varieties of com, 



wheat, rye, oats. 



Few of the pupils of the Practice school spend the summer in 

 Trenton, so they are not organized to do summer work. One of 

 the caretakers of the grounds spends a few hours in the garden 

 during the summer, tying up the plants which need it and keeping 

 the weeds from predominating. The fall garden, with all of its 

 defects as a garden, is a storehouse of nature-study material that is 

 practical and concrete. 



Some of the topics which are studied are : seed dispersal, weeds, 

 plant propagation, insects and m^ethods of controlling them. 

 Among the harm^ful insects are potato "bug," cabbage "worm," 

 parsley "worm," tomato "worm," corn "worm," squash bug and 

 plant lice. Useful insects are illustrated by the work of the lady 

 bird beetle and ichneumon flies, the latter being found on the 

 torn ato worm and cabbage worm . 



There are m.any things to do — crops are harvested, seeds 

 gathered; some plants are taken indoors, as the cotton, with the 

 hope that it will comiplete its cycle, sweet alyssum and petunia 

 for window boxes ; the flax is gathered and piled up so that it may 

 decay thus freeing the fiber; brooms are made from the broom 

 corn. 



The grades all plant bulbs in the fall but the bulb beds are not in 

 this plot so that is another story. 



It is obvious that every Normal student does not actually plant, 

 care for, and harvest vegetables and flowers but she might do 

 that for a lifetime without any knowledge of or ability to teach 

 the processes involved, while if she cannot get both theory and 

 practice from this garden work she may as well, — to quote 

 Arnold Bennett, "Curl up and expire for the root of the matter is 

 not in her." 



Editorial 



We are living in the miidst of an educational revolution. Ten 

 years ago the report of the Commissioner of Education (1904) con- 

 tained scarcely one per cent, of subject matter with vocational 



