chool system, especially in the rural
districts, there is a growing demand for some practical work along with
the regular cultural studies. To the child in the rural schools,
practical knowledge naturally tends toward agriculture. Many of these
boys and girls do not have a chance to pursue studies beyond the grades
and it therefore becomes necessary to introduce some elementary
agriculture into the grades to supply the natural craving of this vast
assemblage of children in the rural schools of our land.

In the search for a study which will give unlimited scope for
independent thought and observation and which will lead the child to
understand better the forces of nature that affect agriculture, nothing
is so readily available and attractive to the child as nature study, an
elementary study of the natural sciences. In fact agriculture is
primarily a course in nature study where we study how plants and animals
struggle for existence.

There is a period in the life of every child when he is especially
susceptible to the "call of the fields;" when he roams through woods or
by shady brooks gathering flowers, fishing for mud-cats and cleaning out
bumble-bees' nests. It is often compared with the life of the savage and
is merely the outward expression of an inward craving for a closer
relation with nature and her creatures. If one can reach a child while
at that age he has a ready listener and an apt pupil. That is the time
to guide and instruct the child along the line of nature study.

The most important questions confronting the average teacher in the
grade schools are: "What material shall I use and how shall I proceed to
direct the child along this line?" First of all use that material which
is most readily available, which is most familiar to the child and
which will attract and hold his attention. There is nothing so readily
available and so generally interesting to both boys and girls as are the
thousands of fluttering, buzzing, hopping and creeping forms of insects.
They are present everywhere, in all seasons and are known to every child
of the city or farm. They are easily observed in the field and can be
kept in confinement for study. Many of them are of the greatest
importance to man; a study of them becomes of special value.

In pursuing a study of nature and her creatures one should go into the
woods and fields as much as possible and study them where they are
found. In this way one can determine how they liv