vii 



placed in the bands oi'any except the older 

 pupils' who have already received oral instruc- 

 tion on the subjects dealt with. 



The following suggestions, to those likely 

 to use the book, are offered by Mr. Watts : 



"In work of this kind some skill and judge- 

 ment are required to adjust matters so that the 

 teaching shall be so distributed as to proceed 

 in an even manner from week to week, and 

 also that there shall be no unnecessary delays, 

 as may arise from waiting for some experiment 

 or demonstration to mature. 



"To this end it does not seem desirable to 

 regard the text-book as offering a course to be 

 gone through in exactly the order in which its 

 chapters are arranged. It will, for instance, 

 be found desirable, I believe, to deal with a 

 considerable part of chapter V, treating of 

 the nature and properties of soil, along with 

 the chapters dealing with plant life and growth, 

 thus filling in those gaps in time which will 

 ;ni>e while the seeds and plants under 

 observation are growing. Similarly the chap- 

 ters dealing with weeds and with insects 

 are intended to be suggestive of general work 

 along these lines ; w r ork which may be con- 

 tinuously carried on at the same time as 



