Oakes, Belle-Student, Normal School, 32 Port Watson, Cortland, N. Y. O'Brien, Margaret A.-Lower Onslow, Colchester Co., Nova Scotia, Canada. Parsons, Marion-Student, Normal School, 55 Greenbush St., Cortland, N. Y. Petrie, Edith K-Student, Normal School, 81 Lincoln Ave., Cortland, N. Y. Randall, Grace M.-Student, Normal School, 5 Owego St., Cortland, N. Y. Randall, John L.-Director of Nature-Study and School Gardening, Pittsburgh Playground Association, 707 Lyceum Bldg., Pittsburgh, Pa Reynolds, Carrie B.-Student, Normal School, Mr. Robert Otto, Clayton Ave., Cortland, N. Y. Robinson, Mrs. Mary E. -Pincipal Baden School, Halls Ferry Road and Rogers, E. Charlotte-Teacher of Biology, 43 Eastern Ave., Lynn, Mass. Sanders, E. A.- Teacher of Botany, Steele High School, Dayton, Ohio. Servis, Ethel M.-Student, Normal School, 40 Greenbush St., Cortland, Seymour, Blanche --Student, Normal School, 146 Main St., Cortland, N. Y. Smith, Ada K.-Teacher, 44 Elm St., Oneonta, N. Y. Smith, Frank-Assoc. Prof. of Zoology, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. Smith, Mrs. F. A.--R. R. No. 2, Nevada, Iowa. Smith, G. D.-Director of Science, State Normal School, Richmond, Kentucky. Spawn, Minnie L.—414 N. Pine Ave., Austin Station, Chicago, Ill. Stevens, Marjorie-Student, Normal School, 26 Clayton Ave., Cortland, N. Y. Stevens, W. J.-Principal Field School, 4043 Juniata St., St. Louis, Mo. Terry, Florence C.-Student, Normal School, 23 No. Church St., Cortland, N. Y. Watson, William Franklin-Prof. of Chemistry and Biology, Furman Univ., Greenville, So. Carolina. Weingart, Amelia-Teacher P. S. 77, Manhattan (2041 Seventh Ave.). Weeks, Charles Rozell—Prof. Agriculture Dept., Nebraska State Normal School, Peru, Nebr. Wood, Agnes-Student, Normal School, 32 W. Court St., Cortland, N. Y. Woodin, Lulu M.-Student, Normal School, R. D. 2, Box 9, Cortland, N. Y. Zvirin, Dora-Student, Normal School, 76 Railroad St., Cortland, N. Y. BENJ. M. DAVIS Miami University, Oxford, O. One evidence of the growing interest in agricultural education in the public schools is the number of text-books on elementary agriculture that have appeared in recent years. Most of these books are informational in character. All important phases of the subject are generally presented in simple language easily within the grasp of the pupil. It is assumed that the pupil has had concrete experiences in agricultural matters, and that the text will help him to interpret these experiences. There is a minimum of effort required of the pupil to find out things for himself. Questions, when given at the end of each chapter, are usually a summary of the text and test the memory rather than ability to interpret. Sometimes experiments are introduced, either in the text or at the end of a chapter. Conclusions to be drawn from these experiments are either so implied in the text or so obvious that the experiments become merely concrete examples or illustrations of discussions in the text. Books of this kind are easily adapted to the prevailing recitation method and consequently are in extensive use. The Superintendent of Public Instruction of one State, where teaching elementary agriculture is required, advises teachers to use the adopted book on agriculture as a reader. It is quite likely that the practice of using the text as a reader obtains in other places. Several books have appeared in which the experiment predominates. Here problems and some suggestions as to procedure are given. The pupil is expected to find answers by means of his own investigations. He is supposed to learn how to find out things for himself. This method doesn't fit in very well with prevailing methods of teaching, for not many of the teachers, themselves, have had the benefit of laboratory training, and therefore, know very little of any other than the book method of learning or teaching. After agriculture has been taught as a laboratory science for awhile in our rural high schools and country training schools and when graduates of these schools become teachers in rural elementary schools, books of the experimental type will no doubt have a greater demand. Another type is the text-book in which agriculture is correlated with arithmetic. Problems for the exercise and illus tration of various arithmetical principles relate to agricultural affairs. This is in accord with some of the recent tendencies of mathematical teaching where attempts have been made to reorganize the subject by omitting many of the traditional features, and by presenting the essentials of the subject closely associated with its application to things of every day life. A fourth type has to do with secondary schools. Good instruction in agriculture in high schools is probably the most important phase of agricultural education yet to be developed. This is important for several reasons, but chiefly because of the reaction on the elementary schools. Teachers in the elementary schools in rural communities are being recruited more and more from rural high schools. In some states seventy per cent of the present teaching force have no more than a grammar school education. The per cent of teachers with this small preparation for teaching is, taking our country at large, much higher than any of us likes to contemplate. It is to the new teachers who are to have at least a high school education that we must look to carry agricultural education into the rural elementary schools. A good text-book, with well selected experiments, although alone not sufficient, is, nevertheless quite essential to any general introduction and efficient agricultural instruction in rural high schools. Among the text-books reviewed will be found good examples of each of the four types that have been described. Other reviews will follow in later numbers of this magazine. The editor of this department will be glad to give notices of the new books as they appear. Review of Books on Agriculture. One Hundred Lessons in Elementary Agriculture. By A. W. Nolan. Morgantown, W. Va. Acme Pub. Co., 1908. This very useful book aims to give suggestive subject-matter and methods upon which the teacher may build from his own initiative. The wide range of topics included in the hundred lessons touches all important phases of agricultural problems. Soils, seeds, gardens, trees, crops, insects, weeds, poultry, foods, birds, machinery, rural civics and economics-these suggested by titles of prominent lessons will give some idea of the scope of the course of lessons. Much of it is good nature-study with agricultural materials and some of it is strictly the technical aspect of the science of agriculture. Agriculture for Southern Schools. J. F. Duggar, New York: The Macmillan Co., 19o8, pp. 355. As its title indicates this book is intended especially for Southern schools the adaptation being the use of the best practices and materials of Southern agriculture for illustration. The first part of the book deals with plant growth, including the plant's relation to the soil. The second part deals with crops, including ene.nies (the cotton boll weavil receiving particular attention), animal husbandry, farm machinery. Important reference tables are arranged in an appendix The book is well written and ought to be easily understood by the average grammar-grade child. Elements of Agriculture. W. C. Welborn, New York: The Macmillan Co., 1908 pp. XVI-359. This book is prepared for use in Southern and Western elementary schools. Three phases of the subject are taken up, as follows: Crop production, including the plant and its environment, characteristics of various field crops, soil fertility, etc.; special crops in which the management of each crop is described in detail; animals production, including feeding and ration, care of animals, various kinds of farm animals in detail. An appen dix gives classification of most common economic plants, plant diseases and insect enemies of plants and their remedies, score cards for judging, and a glossary. The book is well adapted for the grades in which it is intended to be used. Elements of Agriculture. G. F. Warren, New York: The Macmillan Co., 1909, pp. XXIV-434. The author has attempted to carry out the suggestions of the Committee on Instruction in Agriculture of the Association of American Colleges and Experiment Stations, and has intended the book to be used in high schools but has made it advanced enough for short college courses. All important phases of agriculture are discussed in the eighteen chapters that make up the body of the book. The text of each chapter is followed by questions, laboratory exercises and collateral reading. A summary of chapter V, The Soil, will illustrate the method of treatment which is typical of each chapter: The soil, sub-topic: what soil is; rock particles, sub-topics: amounts of mineral matter, how size of particles is determined, how soils are named, importance of size of soil particles, relation of size of particles to water, relation of size of soil particles to plant food, relation of size of soil particles to air, size of particles in relation to temperature, size of particles and crop adaptation, the best soils, flocculation; soil water, sub-topics: importance of soil water, movements of water in soil, conservation of moisture, dry-land farming, irrigation, drainage (the last two sub-topics are further subdivided); soil air, sub-topic: importance of soil air; organic matter of the soil, subtopics; the uses of humus, humus of arid and humid soils; life in the soil, sub-topics: importance of soil organisms, soil-bacteria. The chapter is reviewed by means of twenty-four questions. The following is typical: "Where does a fence post rot most rapidly? Why? Fifteen excellent laboratory and field." exercises give concreteness to the text. Ten good references are given in the collateral reading. There is a twenty page appendix containing eighteen useful tables, including apparatus and equipment, agricultural library, addresses of agricultural colleges and experiment stations, seeds, weights and measures, fertilizers, feeding standards nutrients and statistics. The proper use of this book in high schools should, as Dean Bailey says in its preface, “make the teaching of agriculture in the existing high school comparable in extent and thoroughness with the teaching of physics, mathematics, history and literature.” Rural School Agriculture. Charles W. Davis, New York: The Orange, Judd Co., 1907, pp. VII-267. "This book is a manual of exercises covering many phases of agriculture." There are 143 of these exercises, divided as follows: miscellar.eous, plants, soils and fertilizers, corn, wheat and oats, fruits, home grounds, insects and spraying. The exercises follow an uniform plan consisting of name of exercise, time best suited to it, object, material needed, directions (often illustrated by good figures), and questions. An exercise is devoted to each of the common orders of insects. We note that the dragon fly is given as an example of the Neuroptera. Instead of a systematic study of insects this part of the book might be improved by a series of studies on life-histories and activities of some common insects of economic impor tance. On the whole the book is to be commended, and especially for the general plan of having the pupil find out things for himself. First Principles of Soil Fertility. Alfred Vivian, New York: The Orange, Judd Co., 1908, pp. 265. Although the author has intended this book for home reading it should find a place in the library of every school where agriculture is taught. It is divided into four parts: Plant food its nature and source; making potential plant food available; barnyard manure; commercial fertilizers. The subject of barnyard manure is particularly well treated. The manu rial value of various feeding stuffs is discussed at some length and clearly presented. The book is concluded in the several tables on composition of fertilizers and fertilizer constituents. A Practical Arithmetic. F. L. Stevens, Tait Butler, and Mrs. F. L.. Stevens, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909, pp. IX-386. In addition to the usual aims sought in arithmetic texts, the authors have included “teaching of valuable facts by basing the problems of the book upon problems of real life." While many may not concede that "great benefit is derived from the exercise of the reasoning powers and their consequent development," all must agree that a very fine collection of interesting and valuable applications of arithmetic to the affairs of farm life are brought together in this book. Whether or not in using the book the "pupil will unconsciously absorb and retain many valuable facts and principles relating to agricultural practice" remains to be seen for the matter has never been carefully tested in just this way. |