later we will dig it up, when we shall most likely find a condition something like that in Fig. 13. It will be seen that the marks E, C, B, are practically the same distance apart as before and they are also the same distance from the peg, AA. The point of the root is no longer at DD, however, but has grown on to F. The root, therefore, has grown almost wholly in the end portion.

Now let us make a similar experiment with the stem or stalk. We will mark a young stem, as at A in Fig. 14; but the next day we shall find that these marks are farther apart than when we made them (B, Fig. 14). The marks have all raised themselves above the ground as the plant has grown. The stem, therefore, has grown between the joints rather than from the tip. The stem usually grows most rapidly, at any given time, at the upper or younger portion of the joint (or internode); and the joint soon reaches the limit of its growth and becomes stationary, and a new one grows out above it.

Natural science consists in two things-seeing what you look at, and drawing proper conclusions from what you see.

Respecting the general necessity and requirements for such reading course, I submit the following report from Mr. John W. Spencer, who has been intimately associated with this district school work and who is at the present time aiding us in conducting a correspondence instruction:

"As you well know, a reading course for farmers on agricultural topics, after the plan of the Chautauqua course, has long been a cherished plan of mine, and when you asked me to go with Mr. Geo. T. Powell during the month of October, I gladly accepted, for it seemed to be a good opportunity to test the practicability of the idea. I still think it a good one, but the month's experience has shown me another plan more expedient for the time and giving more lasting and practical results. I do not suggest the abandonment of the plan for a reading course, but that it be held in abeyance as a sequel to a second plan, which is this: That the College of Agriculture of Cornell University prepare papers for teachers in our common schools qualifying them to develop the powers of observation of pupils on subjects pertaining to the field, forest and household. For instance, give each child a piece of bread and the teacher draw out everything appealing to the child's eye. The teacher could supplement many points the child failed to observe. Then begin an inquiry as to why such and such points come to be so,-begin

a study of the cause. The study into the cause of the perosity of the bread could be made to lead, step by step, to the whole chemistry of baking, and from that to starch and its frequency and great importance.

"I do not suggest that these exercises be made an added recitation, but a rest exercise of twenty minutes for once or twice each week. A clever teacher can give such subjects a wide range of adaptability from primary to nearly the highest grade. Themes can be made of some of the most familiar subjects involving chemistry, insect, plant life, and geology, arousing observation and a spirit of inquiry as to cause. It is not the superstructure that I think this plan would build, but the foundations for the superstructure, which is most important. Introduced into the schools, there would be a double benefit,-first upon the child, and then when he went home and talked about it with his parents they too would unconsciously become pupils. This last may seem merely incidental but I am sure that the aggregate results will be immense. It takes only five to eight years to raise a crop of boys and girls to the point where the majority of them are thinking of their qualification of getting their own living, and their preparation will be vastly enhanced, particularly for farm life, if they have developed an inquiring spirit to know the why of things.

"During the month of October I visited, either alone or with Mr. Powell, forty-two schools, representing an attendance of 4,687 pupils, located in the counties of Chautauqua, Erie, Niagara, Monroe, Livingston, Ontario, Steuben, Oswego, Jefferson and Oneida, and the schools have ranged from the brick temple of one thousand pupils to the little school-house of eleven. The children everywhere are alike,-all eager for instruction, and so are the teachers, except some with only one or two years' experi ence, who feel a lack of preparation and fear that they might not do the proper thing, but when assured that the plan of observation exercises was to reach the children only by fully equipping the teacher, all hesitation was banished. Not a single teacher has made an objection to the plan.

"In conclusion, I would suggest that your department prepare observation exercises in the spirit of the foregoing remarks. To schools employing the highest grade teachers, no solicitation will be necessary more than to present the literature. To the hamlet and district schools an exemplification of the work to the pupils will promote its adoption. I would advise pushing this last industriously during the present winter, depending for its future spread upon the popularity given by those schools visited this winter and by working through such centers as teachers' institutes in the next school year."

This correspondence-instruction is likewise experimental; that is, we are endeavorng at the present time to determine just how it can be carried on under our limitations and for New York State. We have no authority by law to establish a permanent or organic system of reading courses throughout our territory. We have kept the names of the participants in all of our September schools, and we have the names of the teachers and officers in the various rural and village schools which we have visited. In each of these public schools we have requested the teacher to have the pupils write their next compositions upon the subjects which were presented by our instructors, and to forward these compositions to us as samples of the kind and extent of interest which the children may be expected to take in this work. Both teachers and children have responded with surprising readiness, and the correspondence from this source which has already accumulated is large and is an indication that the work can be greatly extended with the most marked benefits. We have also taken the opportunity to write to the various correspondents who have been interested in our work, asking them certain specific questions upon certain bulletins which we have sent them and which have been used as texts in the schools, particularly upon Bulletins 119 and 120 (The Texture of the Soil, and The Moisture of the Soil). This correspondence has been the means of tying together the various agricultural interests of the Fourth Judicial Department and the College of Agriculture of Cornell University, and has resulted in a natural and organic union which, it seems to me, it would be violence to break.

All this work, as I have said, has been experimental,- an attempt to discover the best method of teaching the people in agriculture. We believe that the most efficient means of elevating the ideals and practice of the rural communities are as follows, in approximately the order of fundamental importance: (1) The establishment of nature-study or object-lesson study, combined with field-walks and incidental instruction in the principles of farm-practice in the rural schools; (2) the establishment of correspondence-instruction in connection with reading-courses,

binding together the University, the rural schools, and all rural literary or social societies; (3) itinerant or local experiment and investigation, made chiefly as object-lessons to farmers and not for the purpose, primarily, of discovering scientific facts; (4) the publication of reading bulletins which shall inspire a quickened appreciation of rural life, and which may be used as texts in rural societies and in the reading courses, and which shall prepare the way for the reading of the more extended literature in books; (5) the sending out of special agents as lecturers or teachers, or as investigators of special local difficulties, or as itinerant instructors in the normal schools and before the training classes of the teachers' institutes; (6) the itinerant agricultural school, somewhat after the plan of our horticultural schools, which shall be equipped with the very best teachers and which shall be given as rewards to the most intelligent and energetic communities.

All these agencies, to be most efficient, should be under the direction of a single bureau wholly removed from partisan political influence and intimately associated with investigational work in agriculture. Such a bureau should also have most intimate relations with the Department of Public Instrution, for not only must the public schools be reached, but teachers must be trained. The teachers in our public schools are now of a high grade, and they will quickly seize opportunities to prepare themselves to teach the elements of rural science. There should be facilities placed at the disposal of every normal school in the State, whereby it may receive courses of lectures upon rural subjects from teachers of recognized ability, and teaching-helps, in the way of expository leaflets, should be placed in the hands of every teacher who desires them. All this work of carrying the modern university extension impulse to the country, is too important and too fundamental to be confined to any one particular agricultural interest or to any one district of the State; and it is a work, too, which should be treated as a teaching extension and not as an experiment station extension.

In conclusion, I must say that the farmers, as a whole, are willing and anxious for education. They are difficult to reach

because they have not been well taught, not because they are unwilling to learn. It is astonishing, as one thinks of it, how scant and poor has been the teaching which has even a remote relation to the tilling of the soil; and many of our rural books seem not to have been born of any real sympathy with the farmer or any just appreciation of his environments. Just as soon as our educational methods are adapted to the farmer's needs, and are born of a love of farm life and are inspired with patriotism, will the rural districts begin to rise in irresistible power.

In charge of the scientific and teaching work of the Nixon bill, Cornell University, December 1, 1896.

APPROPRIATIONS.

In conformity with the provisions of section 5 of the Agricul tural Law, I hereby recommend the following appropriations as necessary for the work of the Department of Agriculture, and for the purpose of agriculture generally in the State for the ensuing year:

For the New York State Agricultural Society, for premiums

20,000

For Farmers' Institutes....

20,000

For the distribution of money among Agricultural So

cieties, and the American Institute of the City of New York.....

56,000