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ITHE BOOK. SHELF 



The Teaching of Science in the Elementary School. Gilbert H. Trafton, Instruc- 

 tor in Science at the State Normal School, Mankato, Minn. Houghton 

 Mifflin Co. 288 pp. $1.30 net. 



Professor Trafton is quite in the habit of writing excellent and most helpful 

 books for teachers and this latest from his pen is no exception to the rule. 

 It is not long since he gave us for The Nature-Study Rev iew a most excel- 

 lent and practical outline for teaching nature-study in the grades; in the 

 present volume he has enlarged the plan and has given outlines for all elemen- 

 tary science work. As we glance at the pages we are impressed by the practi- 

 cal, specific help given for the teaching of all the phases of the subjects; the 

 point of attack and the methods and the materials are all there, stated clearly 

 and interestingly. This is surely a volume which should be on the desk of 

 every alive and up-to-date teacher. 



The book is divided into parts dealing with the various sciences. Part I 

 is given to the Pedagogy of Science Instruction, with chapters on The Content 

 and Place of Science, Aims of Science Teaching, Materials and Correlation, 

 Motivation and Methods of Science Teaching. Part II — Biological Science 

 deals with teaching children about birds, insects, trees, flowers, seed dispersal, 

 flowerless plants, pets and domesticated animals. Part III — Agricultural 

 Science has to do with gardening and weeds. Part IV — Hygiene, considers 

 The Principles underlying the Teaching of Hygiene and Teaching Hygiene 

 through Experiments. Part V — Physical Science deals with physics and 

 chemistry, the study of weather and sky. Part VI — concludes the book 

 with a detailed outline of Science Teaching by Topics and Problems arranged 

 according to grades and seasons. 



Manual of Tree Diseases. W. Howard Rankin, A.B., Ph.D., Assistant Profes- 

 sor of Plant Pathology, New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell 

 University. The Macmillan Company, New York. 398 pp., illustrated. 

 $2.00. 

 This timely book accomplishes its aim of bringing to those interested in 

 trees a discussion of diseases of trees and suggested methods of control for those 

 most studied. Enormous losses annually occur in our large tracts of forests 

 on which we are dependant for our timber supplies; and methods of controlling 

 diseases have not yet begun to operate appreciably in reducing losses because 

 the owners have been slow to adopt the fundamentals of scientific forest 

 practice. The tree owner must understand the nature of parasites causing 

 diseases, the appearance of the symptoms they produce and many other facts 

 before he can intelligently and effectively attempt their control. This volume 



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