Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904

[Transcriber's Note:

Italicized text indicated by underscores.

12-3/4 represents whole and fractional parts of numbers.]




  CORNELL

  NATURE-STUDY LEAFLETS

  BEING A SELECTION, WITH REVISION, FROM THE
  TEACHERS' LEAFLETS, HOME NATURE-STUDY
  LESSONS, JUNIOR NATURALIST MONTHLIES AND
  OTHER PUBLICATIONS FROM THE COLLEGE OF
  AGRICULTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N.Y.,
  1896-1904

  STATE OF NEW YORK--DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

  NATURE-STUDY BULLETIN NO. 1

  [Illustration]

  ALBANY
  J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS
  1904




  LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.


  COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE,
  CORNELL UNIVERSITY,
  ITHACA, N. Y.

  Hon. C. A. WIETING,
  _Commissioner of Agriculture_,
  Albany, N. Y.:

SIR.--I submit herewith as a part of the Annual Report of 1903 a number
of the nature-study publications for reprinting. Most of these
publications are out of print and the call for them still continues.
These publications have practically all arisen under your supervision,
and under the directorship of Professor I. P. Roberts.

Nature-study work should begin in the primary grades. It is a
fundamental educational process, because it begins with the concrete and
simple, develops the power of observation, relates the child to its
environment, develops sympathy for the common and the near-at-hand. By
the time the child has arrived at the fifth or sixth grade he should be
well prepared for specific work in the modern environmental geography,
in the industries, or in other exacter common-life subjects.
Nature-study is a necessary foundation for the best work in biology,
physiography and agriculture. Since it is content work, it is also
equally important as a preparation in all expression work, as in
English, number and reading. In most present-day rural schools it may
well continue through the eighth grade; and, if well taught, it may even
take the place very profitably of some of the "science" of some of the
higher schools. Its particular sphere, however, in a well-developed
school, is below the sixth grade, possibly below the fifth. But even if
the term nature-study ceases at the fifth or sixth grade, the
nature-study method will persist throughout the school course,--the
method of dealing first-hand and in their natural setting with objects,
phenomena and affairs, and of proceeding from the simple and undissected
to the complex and remote.

The reader should bear in mind that the College of Agriculture has no
organic connection with the public school system of New York State, and
that its nature-study work is a propaganda. From first to last the
College has been fortunate in having the sympathy, aid, and approval of
the State Department of Public Instruction, and now of the new Education
Department. The time is now near at hand when nature-study will be
adequately recognized in the school system of the State, and then the
nature-study work of the College of Agriculture may take new form.

In these reprinted leaflets the reader will find many methods of
presentation of a great variety of subject-matter. A wide range has
purposely been included, in the hope that any interested teacher may
find at least one or two leaflets that will be suggestive in his own
work. Our own ideas as to what is a valuable leaflet have changed
greatly since the work was begun; and it is to be expected that they
will continue to change with the progress of the work and the
development of the schools. It would be an interesting review if we were
to summarize our own experiences with our own work. The leaflet that is
most praised by the critics may be the least useful in practice. The
greatest danger is that of making the work too complete, too rigid and
too formidable.

L. H. BAILEY,

_Director College of Agriculture._




CONTENTS.


  PART I. TEACHERS' LEAFLETS.

  Leaflet.                                                        Page.

  The Schoolhouse                                                     9
  L. H. Bailey.

  I. What is Nature-Study?                                           11
  L. H. Bailey.

  II. The Nature-Study Movement                                      21
  L. H. Bailey.

  III. An Appeal to the Teachers of New York State                   31
  L. H. Bailey.

  IV. What Is Agricultural Education?                                45
  L. H. Bailey.

  V. Suggestions for Nature Study Work                               55
  Anna Botsford Comstock.

  VI. A Summer Shower                                                81
  Ralph S. Tarr.

  VII. A Snow Storm                                                  93
  Anna Botsford Comstock.

  VIII. A Handful of Soil: What It Is                                99
  Ralph S. Tarr.

  IX. A Handful of Soil: What It Does                               115
  L. A. Clinton.

  X. The Brook                                                      125
  J. O.