306 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
impulse from the schools in Germany, arboriculture has been practiced for a 
long time. In the elementary schools this branch, without being obligatory, 
may be recommended the more, since all’ teachers coming from seminaries 
and normal schools possess gardens, which furnish the necessary means 
for the instruction in horticulture. School gardens are found in great 
number at the present time ; for instance, France possesses nearly fifty 
thousand ; Russia, eighteen thousand ; Austria, nine thousand ; Belgium, 
three thousand five hundred ; Switzerland, two thousand five hundred. 
In the schools with a superior course, instraction in physical and 
natural sciences related to agriculture may be introduced, as is done in 
several countries. The best method for such instruction is that of the 
celebrated French pedagogue René Leblanc—the experimental method. 
The adherents of this method say, that the teacher, without going beyond 
his province, should restrain himself to scientific, fundamental notions that 
are generally not known to farmers, illustrating them by means of easy 
experiments and demonstrations. The things observed, if they are to be 
well understood, must be simple, as must be also the practical experiments, 
To be generalized, they must be made with familiar objects which one 
easily finds everywhere. Lamp-shades, old bottles, corks, pieces of wood 
and iron wire—this is the indispensable material for most experiments. 
For the experimental culture one must have some flower-pots and a little 
mineral fat. There may be added some pipes of glass and chemical 
materials which do not cost much. 
By means of fifty simple experiments, according to the system of M. 
Leblanc, the pupils easily acquire in the course of two years invaluable 
knowledge ; besides, this method develops in them the spirit of observa- 
tion and accustoms them to independent work. The pupils see the whole 
life of a plant displayed before their eyes from the germination to the 
dower and fruit. 
In the winter season the pupils are not occupied in practical agriculture. 
The teacher, having explained to them the nature and the germination of 
she seed, passes over to the first principles of chemistry and physics, and 
explains the properties of the water and the air and the integral parts of 
hese elements which enter into the composition of the plants. Finally, 
ae speaks of combustion, the principal kinds of soil, and the different fats. 
The theoretical knowledge which is given to them in this part of the 
course, is always based upon experiments suited to the age of the children 
who take part themselves in all kinds of manipulations. 
In spring, when the experimental culture begins (of wheat, corn, beans, 
hemp), the pupils listen to the explanations of the process of growth 
in the most common vegetables, grafting, the necessity of the distribution 
of crops, ete. 
In the course of the second year the pupils are obliged to repeat all 
chat has been learned in the first year, together with some notions of the