WATER. 109 



from dust. Organic matter will bleach out the pink color and 

 usually settle to the bottom. Nessler's test for ammonia in 

 water is described in nearly every text-book on chemistry. 



A certain farmer of the writer's acquaintance had always 

 watered his horses and large herds of dairy cows at a pond 

 not very distant from his stables. In an unusually dry season 

 the pond failed, and he had to drive his stock a mile or more 

 to a river. Shortly after his cows began to drink the purer 

 water he observed a marked improvement in the milk and 

 butter. This fact convinced him of the value of good water 

 for the farm animals. He drained off the pond, dug an 

 expensive well, and had a windmill erected to pump the water 

 for his stock. 



Pages 171 to 182 of "Public School Nature Study" 

 give a series of good lessons on Convection, Evaporation, 

 Condensation, Clouds, Dew, etc. 



Water is taken in the preceding paragraphs as a sample of 

 a series of lessons on common objects by the Nature Study 

 method. 



Observation and experiment, investigation and experience, 

 now one and then another, are to be exercised so far as possible 

 at every step. Information outside of the pupils' means of 

 acquiring it by investigation may be given to prepare the way 

 for steps that they can investigate. Looked at from the science 

 side these are studies in physics and chemistry, geography and 

 hygiene, agriculture and domestic science; from the Nature 

 Study side, water is simply an interesting and important object 

 in the child's environment. 1 The teacher seizes upon and uses 

 the points of interest to the child and those capable of 

 practical applications in the home life. Not all these lessons 



1 Nature, as she thrusts herself upon the attention of children, is neither classified 

 nor bookish. Nature shows herself as an interesting collection of physical realities, 

 and it is only little by little that children discover and recognize the threads of 

 system running through these.— McMurry's "Special Methods on Science," p. 12. 



