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, 
