45^ 



NA TURE 



[March 8, 1900 



altitudes. (3) Drying fruits ; preserving; making fruit syrups ; 

 wine making. This work is planned especially for the girls. 



October and November. — (C) Fruit-lree management, (i) 

 J'lanting trees ; pruning the roots and branches ; watering 

 iiewly-set trees and tying to stakes. (2) Care during the first 

 year; top pruning. (3) Management of old trees — rejuvenating 

 by pruning, grafting and scraping the bark. (4) Diseases of 

 fruit trees and their prevention — knot growths, blights, gum 

 excrescences, and frost injuries. 



December. — (i) Enemies of fruit trees in the vegetable king- 

 dom — mistletoe, mildew, lichens and moss. (2) Animal 

 enemies of fruit trees — rabbit, mole, marmot. 



Jamcary. — June bug ; plum, apple and pear curculios ; 

 wasps ; white butterfly ; woolly aphis ; and winter canker- 

 worm. 



February. — Minerals: soft coal; stone coal; petroleum; 

 clay and its application in the manufacture of pottery and 

 bricks ; table salt. 



March. — Iron, lead, copper, nickel, gold, silver; German 

 coins. 



April and May. — (i) Garden work— laying out plats, spad- 

 ing, manuring, sowing seed, watering plants, hoeing. (2) 

 Vegetables — white and red cabbage, savoy cabbage, lettuce, 

 spinach, carrots and onions. 



June. — {\) Legumes — beans, peas. (2) Asparagus, cucum- 

 bers. (3) Utilisation of vegetables— drying, pickling, making 

 into kraut and preserving. (4) Field work— plowing, harrow- 

 ing, rolling. 



Itily. — Field crops : (i) Cereals— rye, wheat, oats. (2) Pota- 

 toes, beets. (3) Fodder crops — clovers, grasses. 



August. — (ij Necessity of crop rotation and consequent 

 methods of manuring. (2) Weeds in garden and field and 

 their eradication. (3) Animal enemies of plants and their 

 control — field mice, phylloxera, asparagus fly, ground flea. 



September. —(\) Cabbage butterfly, gooseberry measuring 

 worm, pea weevil, army worm. (2) Useful insects : bees, 

 ichneumon fly ; useful mammals — mole, hedgehog. 



October and November. — Plant enemies among the birds—- 

 swallow, nightingale, lark, robin, owls. 



December. — Domestic animals — dogs, cattle, horses, chicken, 

 doves. 

 January, February, and March. — Physiology of man. 

 The whole work of spading the soil, planting, seeding, culti- 

 tivating, pruning and harvesting the crop in this garden, is 

 done entirely by the boys of the sixth, seventh and eighth 

 grades under the direction of the principal, who always works 

 with them. Two hours a week are given to this work during the 

 growing season and at such times as the conditions of the garden 

 may require. • About twenty boys work in the garden at one 

 time, while the remainder of the pupils of the principal's room 

 are having exercises in gymnastics At the time of Mr. Smith's 

 visit to this school a part of the pupils were sowing seed, others 

 were covering them with soil to the required depth, while still 

 others were laying out paths, picking off the dead leaves from 

 flower stems, replanting beds, watering seeds already sown, &c. 

 A few days later the fruits required attention ; wall, espalier, 

 and dwarf fruits require to be summer pruned, the fruits to be 

 thinned, insects to be gathered and destroyed. 



The children use the pruning shears and do the actual pruning, 

 each pupil being given an opportunity to trim some portion of 

 a tree ; but no twig was allowed to be pruned until it was per- 

 fectly clear that that particular twig required pruning, and, in- 

 deed, to be pruned in a particular place which the pupil himself 

 first determined upon. When it comes time for budding each 

 pupil buds trees in the nursery. The fall pruning is always done 

 by the children, and small fruits, vines and shrubs put in order 

 for the winter by wrapping some with straw, laying others on 

 the earth and covering, and the like. 



The garden is intensively farmed and made a source of revenue. 

 The same soil is utilised for two or three crops during the grow- 

 ing season and the produce sold. This gives the pupils an 

 opportunity to learn what crops best form a succession with 

 each other during the season, and also gives them practice in a 

 limited way in preparing and putting up fruits, flowers, and 

 vegetables for the market. 



The principal is accustomed to walk through the garden each 

 morning before school. Should he discover a harmful insect or 

 disease, a specimen is immediately taken to the schoolroom and 

 the nature and work of the injurious agent shown to the pupils 

 and discussed. This enemy is especially hunted for during the 



following work hour, and the children are asked to search the 

 gardens at home for similar insects or diseases. Thus by daily 

 association wiih the garden, daily watching for every new 

 development and daily discussions and explanations, all the 

 phenomena of the garden are encountered and brought to the 

 attention of the pupils before the year's cycle is at an end. 



Occasionally the bees are made the subject of a special lesson 

 in apiculture. One morning a hive swarmed and flew by the 

 school window, alighting on a small tree. The school was 

 taken to observe this phenomena. The queen was found 

 among the mass of clustering bees and was placed in the hive, 

 the workers were gathered and placed with her, and a new 

 colony was formed. Work in the apiary is incidental, but no 

 opportunity is lost to make available anything of an especially 

 instructive nature concerned therewith, and in the nature work 

 the history of bees is considered. 



So likewise flowering plants in the school windows are inci- 

 dentally made a means of instruction. The principal's room 

 contains three windows. These are filled with potted plants. 

 The children (boys) are allowed to tend these flowers, to water 

 them, guard them from insects, remove dead leaves and 

 blossoms, and are permitted to have all the cuttings from the 

 plants, either to take home for themselves or to plant in the 

 school garden. 



Very few of the schools in the Rhine province have such a 

 practical course of agricultural instruction, the tendency being 

 to confine the work to the schoolroom. This is the usual case 

 in British schools, and only in a few districts is the school garden 

 used as a means to interest pupils in nature and instruct th em in 

 some of the principles of husbandry. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCA TIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — The Smith's Prizes are awarded to Mr. J. F. 

 Cameron, of Caius College, for an essay "On molecules con- 

 sidered as electric oscillators," and to Mr. R. W. H. T. Hudson, 

 of St. John's College, for an es.say on "Ordinary differential 

 equations of the second order and their singular solutions." 

 The names are in alphabetical order. Mr. Hudson was Senior 

 Wrangler, and Mr. Cameron bracketed Second Wrangler in the 

 Mathematical Tripos of 1898 ; and they were placed alone in 

 the first division of the First Class in Part H. 1899. 



Mr. J. H. Jeans, of Trinity College, has been elected to the 

 Isaac Newton Studentship in astronomy and physical optics. 

 Mr. Jeans was bracketed Second Wrangler in 1898 



The Council of the Senate report that the Benefaction Fund 

 initiated by the Cambridge University Association now amounts 

 to 55,430/. They suggest that of this sum 35,280/. should be 

 appropriated to buildmgs for the departments of Botany, Law 

 and Medicine, in addition to 8070/. specifically assigned to Law 

 and Medicine by the donors. 



Dr. J. N. Lmgley is to be appointed deputy- professor of 

 Physiology for Sir Michael Foster, M.P., until Michaelmas 

 1901, at a stipend of 300/. a year. 



Mr. F. G. Hofkins, University lecturer in Chemical Physi- 

 ology, was admitted to the degree of M.A. honoris causa on 

 March i. 



NO. 1584. VOL. 61] 



The Council of Bedford College will in June next award 3,n\ 

 additional science scholarship, the " Henry Tate Scholarship," i 

 of the value of 50/. per annum for three years. This scholarship » 

 was endowed by the late Sir Henry Tate, and is to be for the \ 

 first time awarded in science. \ 



In answer to a question asked by Sir Michael Foster in thev 

 House of Commons on Thursday last. Sir J. Gorst said the \ 

 Government is fully alive to the importance of scientific teaching - 

 in secondary schools, and will take care that nothing is done in'' 

 the organisation of the Board of Education to impede its efficiency \ 

 and progress. | 



The policy of the Michigan State Agricultural College, a | 

 report upon which is included in the Report of the Michigan , 

 Board of Agriculture just received, is to educate youths and-! 

 young women for the farm, and to give them such knowledge 5 

 and inspiration along the various lines of agricultural work as ^ 

 will induce them to follow this calling after leaving the College. J 

 When the College was opened forty years ago, many studentslj 



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