Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1914-11-20
AGRICULTURE IN SCHOOLS.
Teachers Can Make Study More Profit
able BY Illustrative Material

able by Illustrative Material
In interesting the schoolboy or
schoolgirl In the study of agriculture
the teacher or parent will find it most
profitable to use Illustrative material
to bring home the lesson in more vivid
form. Some suggestions along these
lines that should be of special interest
to rural schools or further interest in
the education of country boys and girls
have been recently made by the United
States department Of agriculturc
The department suggests that much
more use can be made of charts in the
teaching of Agriculture than is usually
done. They can be used to record
formulas and data which may be want
ed again at some future time. but
which are likely to be lost if placed on
the blackboard. where they may be
erased. Thus plans for the reorganiZa-
ton of farms of the vicinity may be
worked out 10y the pupils and charted
for future reference. schemes for prop
er system of crop rotation on these
farms may also be chartered formulas
for fertilizer compounds or spraying
mixtures may be written on chart
and kept for reference. and drawings
of various kinds may be prepared for
general use
Maps for use in the study of agricul-
ture should be chiefly local in char
acter. For most regions typographical
maps and soil maps may be obtained.
1t will be well also to have map
of the forest land of the locality if pos
sible to obtain one.
By way of illustrating the COM
mercial Importance of farm products
interesting collections can be prepared
to show the various ways in which
these products are utilized in trade.
Thus a series of articles might be pre-
pared to show the products which may
be manufactured from corn, such as
breakfast foods, corn strip, cOrnStarch.
corn oil, corn rubber, commercial foods
for live stock paper made from corn
stalks, cellulOse made from the pth of
the stalks and numerous other articles.
In like manner the uses of other farm
products, such as cotton, oats and
wheat, may he Illustrated.
Nearly every well equipped school
nowadays has facilities for using lam
tern slides to Illustrate special lessons
on various topics. No subject presents
greater possibilities or the use of slides
than agriculture. Slides which will be
of interest to agricultural students can
be purchased from commercial firms or
from other sources, or If the school can
not afford to own set of slides there
are always opportunities to borrow or
rent special sets for temporary use.
Every school in which agriculture is
taught ought to own collection of
pictures to illustrate the work. Photo
graphic prints are. of course, the most
desirable, but when these cannot be OBJ
tanned half tone cuts or line drawings
taken from the pages of agricultural
papers and from similar sources can be
used to advantage. In many schools
either the teacher or some OF the pupils
Will have cameras. and thus original
photographs may be obtained for the
collection. 1t is suggested that these
pictures be mounted on good quality
OF gray cardboard of uniform size
and filed upright. under convenient
classifications indicated by guide cards,
in drawer or letter file. 1t is not ad-
visable to paste pictures of this sort
into bound scrap book. since in this
form they. cannot be so readily used by
the class. 1t will be found that IA good
picture collection will prove to be ex-
ceedingly useful.