1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



45 



twigs whereon they are deposited with shears. 



The course adopted by several European gov- 

 ernments in reference to the destruction of nox- 

 ious insects, based as it is on sound scientific and 

 natural principles, and having the greatest good of 

 the public in view, is certainly most commenda- 

 ble. If Massachusetts would offer a liberal boun- 

 ty for all the eggs of the tent caterpillars, sent in 

 to some designated place or officer, perhaps a dol- 

 lar or two per quart, or enough to give a hand- 

 some remuneration for collecting, we should soon 

 see a marked diminution in the numbers of this 

 destructive insect, and corresponding good result- 

 ing to the general public, as well as to the fruit- 

 growers. Children might, gather them with ease 

 from the wild cherry shrubs in the thickets and 

 woods and by the roadsides ; and if properly re- 

 warded would do it with as much interest as 

 though they were blueberries. It is evident that 

 if this course were to be adopted by the New 

 England States generally, and followed for a se- 

 ries of years, these insects would be here no long- 

 er in such destructive abundance. J. A. A. 



Springfield, Dec. 8, 1863. 



For the New England Farmer. 



MATTJRAXi SCIENCE IN COMMON 

 SCHOOLS. 



How can the Study or the Reading of Lessons upon the Ele- 

 of Natural Science find a place in the Common Schools of 

 New England ? 



Very many people are willing to admit that some- 

 thing of the study of the elementary facts and prin- 

 ciples of natural science might be very pleasantly 

 and profitably introduced into the common schools, 

 if there were any room for them. But, they say, 

 there are too many things studied in the schools 

 now ; even these are not well enough learned ; and 

 to introduce a new study would be absurd ; it would 

 be like pouring more into a vessel already too 

 full. 



Let us see. I advise every parent who is anx- 

 ious for the best education of his children, to ex- 

 amine carefully the text books in arithmetic which 

 are now used ; to consider the immensely numer- 

 ous questions which are to be ciphered out and an- 

 swered, and the rules which are to be committed to 

 memory. I think he will be obliged to conclude 

 that there are vastly too many — four or five times 

 too many-— questions to be solved. I think he 

 will be obliged to admit that many of those ques- 

 tions are useless, some of them absurdly use- 

 less, — such as will never be likely to occur in the 

 business of life in this world, and some of them 

 such as could hardly ever occur in any conceiva- 

 ble world. 



The object of studying arithmetic ought to be to 

 qualify the learner to answer correctly and speed- 

 ily the questions likely to occur in the transac- 

 tions of common life. This ought to be done 

 thoroughly, much *more perfectly than it is often 

 now done. But to do this would, if a proper se- 

 lection of questions and rules were made, require 

 not one-fifth part of the time nor one-tenth part 

 of the study which are commonly devoted to this 

 branch. Ask any man of business, How much of 

 the arithmetic you studied in school did you re- 

 member twenty years after you left school ? How 

 much of it have you ever found applicable to your 

 business ? I am willing to leave the decision of 

 the question, How mv.ch is necessary? to the an- 



swers that will be given to these two questions by 

 the great majority of men of business. 



It is a striking fact, most pertinent to this in- 

 quiry, that the text-books in arithmetic used as in- 

 troductory to the highest courses of mathematics 

 in the best scientific schools in the world, the 

 French, the German and the English, are not one- 

 tenth part so long, and would not require one- 

 tenth part of the time to master them, as are the 

 text books and the time devoted to them in most 

 of the common schools in New England. And 

 yet, in the Polytechnic school in Paris, and in the 

 similar institutions in London and in Berlin, ad- 

 mirable mathematicians are made, notwithstand- 

 ing the brevity of the introductory course in 

 arithmetic. 



I say then that, by making a proper selection of 

 the things required to be done in arithmetic, in our 

 schools, four-fifths of the time now devoted to it 

 might be saved, and yet the essential part be much 

 better done than it now is, and children be made 

 better reckoners. 



I wouli not divert from mathematics, in some 

 form, all of the time thus saved. On the con- 

 trary, I believe that geometry should be studied 

 in school by all who can possibly have that privi- 

 lege given them. I would have it studied as the 

 best foundation possible for exact knowledge of 

 form and magnitude, as giving, better than any- 

 thing else can, an idea of the way in which men 

 have obtained the knowledge of astronomy and 

 the other sciences of distance, and also as furnish- 

 ing the most faultless specimens that can be fur- 

 nished of perfectly exact reasoning, of the applica- 

 tion of the severest and most rigorous logic. This 

 study is an admirable preparation for accurate 

 thinking, upon all subjects. It has been introduced 

 in some schools ; it ought to be, in all ; and it 

 might be, and yet leave unexpended a good deal 

 of the time that would be saved by a more judi- 

 cious arrangement of the lessons in arithmetic. 



I would have the parent extend to the study of 

 algebra the same inquiries which I have suggest- 

 ed in regard to arithmetic. What is to be the use 

 of so much of it ? 



The favorite answer of the advocates of exces- 

 sive attention to arithmetic and algebra is that it 

 is an excellent discipline to the mind. I admit 

 that the elements of both are a most useful study. 

 I have never been in a school where too much at- 

 tention was paid to mental arithmetic ; and the 

 most useful part of algebra is the mental opera- 

 tion required to put a question into an equation. 

 But, when once understood, the solution is al- 

 most entirely mechanical, a statement the truth of 

 which is proved by the fact that the most difficult 

 operations in arithmetic and algebra are perform- 

 ed, most rapidly and with unerring exactness, by 

 Babbage's machine. Indeed, Prof. Pierce, a com- 

 petent witness, states that many of the longest 

 and most operose of these operations can be per- 

 fectly performed, and the results printed, by the 

 machine, far more rapidly than they can be calcu- 

 lated by the most accomplished mathematician, 

 who, after all, would not be sure of the correct- 

 ness of his conclusion till he had carefully gone 

 over the operation a second time, while the ma- 

 chine, properly worked, never makes a mistake. 

 To perform difficult and complicated operations 

 requires, doubtless, care and patience, but to say 

 that the performance, bv the mind, of operations 



