March 1, 1902 | Supplement to the ^'Tropical Agriculturist.^' 
University, may prove a graud success and be 
of very great benefit to farmers' children. The 
element of education which is at present most 
lacking in our common schools is the training 
of the powers of observation. The children lieed 
above all things else to be taught to observe 
carefully and correctly, and to state their obser- 
vations in clear and terse language. The ordi- 
iiiiry child, whether on the farm or in the town, 
actually sees comparatively little in the world 
about him. The wonders of the trees and plants 
in park or meadow, of birds and insects flying 
about the house, float like shadowy visions 
before his eyes. ' Seeing, he sees not.' He needs 
a teacher who can open his eyes and fix his 
mind on the relalities among which his daily 
life is passed. This accurate observation of 
natural objects and facts is the only foundation 
on which scientific attainments diu rest. The 
scientist is chiefly a man who sees better than 
his fellow men, But it is also a great help 
ill practical life. Many farmers acquire much 
of this power by their own unaided efforts. And 
these are the very men who most regret that 
they did not have in early life the help of a 
trained teacher. The farmer's child lives where 
he has the best opportunity for such training. 
It would benefit him in the practice of his art, 
and it would add au interest to his life which 
would do much to wean him from a desire to 
leave the farm for the turmoil and uncertain 
struggles of the town. With proper provision 
for the training of teachers in normal and other 
schools, it would be entirely feasible to have 
this nature teaching in all our common schools 
within a few years. It is such teaching that 
the child-mind craves. With it the school becomes 
a delightful place and the teacher an angel of 
light. The leaflets which the College of Agricul- 
ture of Cornell University is issuiug show how 
vitally this nature teaching may be made to 
affect agriculture, though it is not in itself the 
teaching of agriculture. In one leaflet the teacher 
is instructed to have the children plant squash 
seeds, dig some of them up at intervals to learn 
how the seeds germinate, and watch what happens 
to the little plants as they push their way up 
through the soil and unfold their stems and 
leaves in the air. Four apple twigs form the 
subject of some other lessons, and it is wonder- 
ful! how much a child can learn about the way 
trees go from such simple materials. At another 
time the children are encouraged to plant little 
gardens and carefully watch some of the things 
which grow in them. Or they study some insect 
which J reys upon fruit or make collections of 
the insects about their homes, or watch them 
to see whether they are doing things good or 
bad for the farmer. 
" Is it not likely that a child who is thus 
taught will soon begin to see a new value and 
dignity in farm life, and to be less envious of 
the boy or girl who is shut up within the 
narrow confines of city streets most of the year ? 
And if the farmer's boy learns how to accurately 
observe the processes of nature with which farm 
practice deals and the foes with which agricul- 
ture has to contend, are not the chances vastly 
increased that he will be successful in managing 
nature so as to get the greatest favours from 
this coy mistress of his life and fortune ? " 
Commenting on the above the Agricultural 
Gazette of Now South Wales says : — 
In Canada the question has excited the.liveliest 
interest among the Farmers' Institute and Depart- 
mental authorities. In expressing his opinion of 
the idea of nature] teaching, the Director of 
Teachers' Institutes {^lr. W. Iloustou. m.A.) 
says that very little consideration is necessury to 
show that of all forms of " nature study " agri- 
culture is the best for stimulating a spirit of 
intelligent inquiry in the minds of children. The 
pupil cannot be made " learned " in tlie scientific 
sense, but he can secure a wide and useful 
acquaintance with the theory of agriculture, if 
his teachers know how to put him in possession 
of it. Mr. Houston inclines to the opinion that 
so far as imparting elementary instruction is con- 
cerned, the lack of systematic training in agri- 
cultural subjects is not likely to prove a very 
formidable obstacle in the way of teachers. 
Indeed, on every side there is evidence of a 
desire on the part of school-teachers to encourage 
the cliilderen in the study of agricultural mat- 
ters, and despite the difficulties that seems to 
be in the way of anything like a definite and 
comprehensive scheme of elementary agricultural 
instruction in the State schools (such, for instance, 
as that of France, where instruction in agri- 
culture is compulsory at every primary school), 
there is every prospect of good work in this 
direction being effected. The field of agricul- 
ture is so wide that both teacher and pupil 
may find relief in the diversity of subjects, and, 
as Mr. Guthrie pointed out when writing on 
this subject some time ago, it is in " training 
in scientific method, in habits of exact obser 
vation and careful reasoning, rather than the 
amassing of facts and theories that best results 
can be attained." 
THE CHOCHO [SECHIUM EDULE]. 
The Government Botanist at the Cape con- 
tributes an interesting account of the Christo- 
phine or Chayote, a vegetable familiar enough 
in Ceylon, more especially the Central Province, 
under the name of ''Chocho." According to a 
reliable authority the last name is the correct 
one, and "Chayote "is only a nigger conception 
of it. Chocho, described as "a squash which is 
not exactly a squash but something far better," 
has apparently established itself as a standard 
vegetable in America and even in Europe, for 
we read of Algeria already forwarding hundreds 
of tons of the fruits to Paris and London as 
a special winter vegetable; while it has begun 
to become popular in the Southern Colonies, 
Referring to the shyness among people to accept 
a new vegetable, Mr. MacOwan quaintly ex- 
plains the condition of mind thus : I dare 
say if we had on record the primssval history 
of the Cabbage or of the Turnip we should 
lind that; the man who first grew and ate these 
