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(2) reservoir for water; (3) holder of heat necessary for germination of seeds and growth of plants ; (4) home for germs, &c, necessary for plant-development. VI. The soil and soil-moisture : Origin -T>f soil-water, how is it held, how utilized by plant, how removed from soil; drainage ; need for drainage. Part II. —VII. Plant-food : Substances found in plants ; essential and non-essential substances ; sources whence derived —(1) the air, (2) the soil. VIII. Air-derived foods : Oxygen, carbon-dioxide, nitrogen ; preparation and properties of these elements ; importance to plant-life ; part of plant whose duty it is to obtain these foods. IX. Soil-derived foods: Nitrogen—preparation, properties, and importance ; hydrogen — from water in soil; mineral foods — potash, calcium, phosphorus. X. Fertile and infertile soils : Infertility due to absence of plant-foods, generally one jor more of following —Nitrogen, calcium, potassium, phosphorus. XI. Improvement of soils : (1) Cultivation, &c. ; (2) manures —green, farmyard, artificial. Artificial manures —slow and quick acting ; how and when applied ; kinds to use. XII. Plant pests : Insects, fungi, bacteria. Remedies ; preventatives in common use. This course of instruction was issued two years ago by the Board for the guidance of teachers. It is intended to be suggestive, and the teachers are allowed and encouraged to modify it if school environment so demanded. Saturday classes were held at various centres throughout the district, and the work here outlined was covered, by the agricultural instructors. It will be noticed by perusing the first part of the course that the work deals only with the plant, the soil, moisture, and the relationship between these three. A. certain amount of this will have already been covered as nature-study in the lower standards, but as the pupil of the upper standards will be actually at work in the schoolgarden he will have an opportunity of applying the knowledge gained lower down the schools. Part II of the course deals with plant-foods, both soil- and air-derived. The gases important to plant-life are prepared so that the pupils could obtain an idea of their properties. Simple experiments showed the importance of these gases to the plant. Seeds placed in a jar of oxygen germinated more rapidly than others in a jar of air, whilst others in a jar of nitrogen failed to grow. A jar of oxygen in which seeds had grown was found to contain carbonic dioxide, showing that the seeds were alive, and had the power to use up oxygen like animals. The work outlined in this course may be given most appropriately during th,e last two years in the primary school. The time to be devoted to the course will necessarily vary in the different schools, but on an average not less than one hour a week will be required to make the course effective. A text-book is not necessary. The instruction in the class-room should be supplemented with simple experiments with soils, plants, and animals similar to those outlined earlier in this report. Every effort should be made to connect the class-room instruction with the outdoor work at school, at home, and on the neighbouring farms. Where possible excursions should be made to farms, orchards, dairies, and factories, and the children should be encouraged to record their observations at the time and afterwards embody them in essays. Emphasis is here laid on the fact that no attempt is made at attempting to teach primaryschool children practical farming. School farms are based wholly on a wrong principle, and schoolgardens, though healthful and pleasurable, are merely adjuncts to the science course in elementary agriculture. It is now agreed by all authorities that mere information in regard to the facts of science constitutes only a part —and a small part —of the function that science should exercise in preparing a boy for starting out in life. The instruction must be directed to the cultivation of regular habits of thought to the scientific method. To accomplish this it becomes essential that the pupil, under careful guidance, should discover as far as possible all facts for himself. Unless this spirit of selfreliance and self-inquiry is encouraged and developed, the agricultural work, however good it appears to the onlooker, judged from an educational standpoint, is valueless. Practical Work. The School-garden. —The size of the garden and the number of separate plots will depend on the amount of land available and on the number of pupils. With a few exceptions no difficulty has been experienced in obtaining the minimum area of land needed for primary agricultural work. Two types of gardens are common throughout the district. The dimensions of a typical garden in a small school are 66 ft. by 38 ft. It contains four central plots each 22 ft. by 11 ft., and four borders each 5 ft. wide. If flowers are cultivated the garden would be quite large enough for 16 to 20 pupils. One border is used for grass-plots, the others are used as seed-beds, beds for striking cuttings, compost heap, &c. The main paths are 3 ft. wide, and the paths between the plots 2 ft. wide. If preferred, the four borders could be used for ornamental purposes, and this portion of the work (flower-growing) could be undertaken by the girls. For larger schools the dimensions of the garden should be about 92 ft. by 64 ft. In addition to four borders 5 ft. wide, there should be twelve central plots arranged in two parallel rows, with a central path 4 ft. wide between them. The practical garden-work for 1910 dealt specially with the cultivation of different vegetables and a few farm crops such as swedes, mangels, and maize. The children were required to keep special notebooks in which they recorded observations on the preparation of the soil, planting of the seed, germination, growth, and development of the different parts of the plant (especially the parts of economic value), maturity, and harvesting. In order to make use of the knowledge already gained by the pupils it was thought advisable for the schools throughout the district to carry out simple experiments with manures. With a few exceptions all classes conducted similar experiments. The work undertaken was outlined and discussed by the instructors at the Saturday classes for teachers. Here it was pointed out by the instructors that the minimum amount of plant-food added to the soil by manures which would produce any result on a crop was : Nitrogen in the form of nitrates, 10 lb. per acre ; potash in the form of dipotassic oxide, 20 lb. per acre ; phosphorus as phosphorus pentoxide or anhydride, 15 lb. per acre. The manures used in the school experiments were nitrate of soda,