SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 



1. Discuss with pupils the topic assigned for study in the text-book, so as t< 

 excite their interest. 



2. Collect beforehand materials needed for experiments to illustrate each topic 



3. Ask pupils to perform experiments and bring specimens to illustrate the sub 

 ject under discussion. 



4. Encourage pupils to observe good and bad methods of farming; make witl 

 them excursions to observe special crops and methods. 



5. Have a school garden and make use of it for experiment and illustration 

 Each child should work in the garden, and if possible each one should have a plo 

 for the care of which he is responsible. 



6. Write to your State Agricultural Experiment Station for information am 

 bulletins, and to the Department of Agriculture for bulletins and seeds. 



7. In addition to the text-book, each pupil should have a notebook, in whicl 

 he keeps a neat pen-and-ink record of experiments, of work in school garden, anc 

 of supplementary work and reading. 



8. Each pupil should have also a drawing book, a hard pencil, a soft pencil, anc 

 an eraser. He should illustrate each topic as fully as possible with copies from pic 

 tures and with drawings from objects. This exercise teaches habits of careful anc 

 accurate observation. 



9. For work in the garden, each child needs a light hoe and a ten- or twelve 

 tooth rake, and a string with which to lay off straight rows. 



10. In performing experiments to illustrate the text, the teacher will find the follow 

 ing articles useful: an alcohol lamp, three straight lamp chimneys, three small glasi 

 tubes of different sizes, a set of iron soil sieves, two grain sieves, a dozen six-inch flowei 

 pots with saucers, three thermometers, an eight-ounce graduated glass^ blue litmui 

 paper, a dozen heavy glass tumblers, a dozen large-mouth bottles, seeds and cutting! 

 of common plants, a collection of crop plants and weeds and insects, and the fev 

 chemicals mentioned in the text. If these articles are unavailable, the teacher neec 

 not be discouraged. Common seeds and plants, some bottles, wooden and pasteboarc 

 boxes, and old tin cans furnish material for interesting experiments. 



