PRACTICAL NATURE STUDY AND 

 ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 



PART ONE 

 CHAPTER I 



NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 



Nature study seeks to bring children into intelligent 

 and sympathetic touch with their environment. The en- 

 vironment determines the material that is selected for the 

 lessons. In an agricultural community, for example, the 

 lessons must be primarily agricultural. In no other way 

 can nature study fulfill its mission. It makes no difference 

 whether we call it elementary agriculture or agricultural 

 nature study; it is the same thing and should be so under- 

 stood. It is study of plants and animals, of soils and 

 weather, of natural forces and phenomena, of the inter- 

 relations and interdependence of natural objects, of the 

 relation of all these to man, and of man's power in controll- 

 ing them and making them work for his good. 



The idea appears to be prevalent in some quarters that 

 nature study is one thing and that elementary agriculture is 

 another, and that the two are somewhat antagonistic. In 

 fact this idea has gone far enough to elicit from one in- 

 fluential quarter the statement, in effect, that " nature study 



