March 8, 1900] 



NA TURE 



455 



inudating twelve students, as well as demonstrators' private room ! 

 ;uid laboratory. [ 



On the roof there will be a small greenhouse with access from | 

 the junior laboratory. | 



The buildings will be lit throughout with electric light, and ' 

 there will be electric bell and speaking-tube communication 

 between the different private rooms, porter's room, and work- 

 shop. 



The whole of the furniture and fittings have been designed 

 by Professor Harvey Gibson and Mr. F. W. Dixon, the archi- 

 tect, so as to facilitate in every possible way the work both of , 

 students and teachers. \ 



The furniture generally will be of pitch pine, and the cases of > 

 polished Canary wood. The staircase will have solid polished 

 stone steps, and the walls will be plastered and painted. Ex- 

 ternally the buildings will be faced with 2:t-inch Ruabon brick 

 with red sandstone dressings. 



teachers. In this school, as in all others in this province, two 

 hours' instruction weekly in fruit cultui>e, gardening, and general 

 farming during the last two years of the course is required. This 

 has been compulsory by law since 1895. Outline suggestions 

 for this work are sent the principal of the school by the pro- 

 vincial government, as follows : — 



OuTiJNE OF Agricultural Course in the Higher 

 Grades ok Rural Schools in the German Rhine 

 Province. 



First Year, 

 April and May. — (i) Inner structure of plants ; plant cells 

 and tissues and their functions. (2) Outer divisions of plants : 

 {a) The roots — their function in the nourishment of plants by 

 the absorption of mineral matter, as phosphorus, potassium, 

 sodium, iron, chlorine, and water ; {b) the trunk — its branches 



Cro)} ^cctiom 



V... o, Illllilllll 



J L 



J L 



LoNAiTVPiNAL Section. 



Hartley Botanical Laboratories, University College, Liverpool, 



Altogether it may be said that Mr. Hartley's gift will provide 

 University College, Liverpool, with a botanical laboratory 

 worthy to stand alongside of the pathological and physiological 

 laboratories, the recent splendid gift to the College of Mr. 

 Thompson Vates. The building will be taken in hand im- 

 mediately, and will, in all probability, be ready for occupation 

 before the beginning of the autumn term of 1901. 



SCHOOL GARDENS. 



A S attention is being given to the question as to the subjects 

 -^*- which should be taught in rural primary schools, and as 

 the observation of living things under natural conditions is 

 slowly coming to be regarded as an es.sential part of the educa- 

 tion of a child in the country, a description of a course of 

 instruction of this kind, given in a German elementary school, 

 is of interest at the present time. Such an account, by Mr. C. B. 

 Smith, has been published by the U.S. Department of Agri- 

 culture as Circular No 42, and is here summarised. 



The school is situated at Alfter, a village of some 2000 in- 

 habitants, in the German Rhine Province, between Bcjnn and 

 Cologne, and is what is known as a " people's schqol," which 

 is equivalent to our public elementary school. Only the funda- 

 mental branches are taught in these schools, and the whole 

 course is completed in eight years. 



The Alfter common school contains 400 pupils and six 



and buds, the structure oi the cambium, and the occurrence of 

 ring growths. 



June. — ( I ) The leaf ; the nature and function of chlorophyll 

 in the life of the plant and the effect of light on chlorophyll 

 development ; breathing of plants ; nourishment of plants from 

 atmospheric constituents — carbon, nitrogen, oxygen. (2) The 

 blossom and its fertilisation. {3) The fruit ; seeds ; repro- 

 duction of plants by seeds and by division of members. 



July. — (i) The soil and its improvement — lime soil, clay soil, 

 loams, sand. (2) The using up of plant food and its replace- 

 ment by barnyard manure, compost, wood ashes, and indirect 

 manures, as lime and gypsum. (3) Influence of the climate on 

 plants. 



August.— {K) Fruit culture. (i) Planting and nursery 

 management of seedlings. (2) The most important methods 

 of fruit improvement — root and stem grafting and budding with 

 active and dormant buds. (3) Management of improved seed- 

 lings in the nursery — formation of the trunk and top ; trans- 

 planting ; handling of trained trees, especially espalier forms, 

 with reference to their training against schoolhouse walls. 

 (4) Culture of small fruits— gooseberries, currants, raspberries, 

 strawberries and blackberries ; setting grape-vines and their 

 afterculture. 



Siptiinber.—{W^ Fruit utilisation. (l) Ripening of the fruit ; 

 gathering, sorting, and storing winter fruits. (2) Fruit varieties 

 —selection of the more commendable sorts with regard to their 

 suitableness to different climates and soils and at varying 



NO. I5«''4. VOL. 61] 



