PLOTTING AND PLANNING 73 



On the other hand, there are students of another type, in 

 whose veins the spirit of adventure runs high. The chance 

 to carry on an experiment plot of their own instantly appeals 

 to them. These plots, since they are to be of so miscellaneous 

 a character, may for convenience be placed a little apart from 

 the main farm. In such an experimental plot some pet theory 

 will be tested, or some phenomenon that has excited curiosity 

 will be hunted down. This is the kind of work that calls out 

 the power of leadership, and of all others this is the place to 

 encourage those who have the smallest germ of scientific 

 interest. 



Some unimaginative person may, half in earnest, call these 

 plots space set apart for whims. That we may not inadver- 

 tently fall into this error ourselves, it is well to remember 

 that the scientific discoveries which constitute the vertebrae 

 of civilized life to-day once originated in what appeared to be 

 the fruitless chase of a foolish notion. Certain it is that 

 excellent people grasp this truth perfectly in theory, only 

 to find that in practice it slips like sand through' their fin- 

 gers. This is more than likely to happen when they are 

 watching, a little impatiently, some of the crude but sincere 

 attempts of children, and want to hurry them. There are 

 plenty of teachers who will testify that some of the experi- 

 ments which at first struck them as most fantastic are the 

 very ones from which a class in the end derived the most 

 solid benefit. The following extract from a boy's exercise 

 book will give a slight notion of the attitude of some seventh- 

 grade boys toward their garden experiments : 



MY PLAN TO RAISE RICE ^ 



The way to raise rice is to have a swampy place and a warm place. 

 In our school garden we had no swampy place, so we had to draw plans 

 of how to keep the ground swampy. My plan was to dig down two feet, 



