iv AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS If they are right in these views, the training must begin in the public schools. This is true for two reasons : 1. It is universally admitted that aptitudes are devel- oped, tastes acquired, and life habits formed during the years that a child is in the public school. Hence, during these important years every child intended for the farm should be taught to know and love nature, should be led to form habits of observation, and should be required to begin a study of those great laws upon which agriculture is based. A training like this goes far toward making his life-work profitable and delightful. 2. Most boys and girls reared on a farm get no educa- tional training except that given in the public schools. If, then, the truths that unlock the doors of nature are not taught in the public schools, nature and nature’s laws will always be hid in night to a majority of our bread-winners. They must still in ignorance and hopeless drudgery tear their bread from a reluctant soil. The authors return hearty thanks to Professor Thomas F. Hunt, University of California; Professor Augustine D. Selby, Ohio Experiment Station ; Professor W. F. Massey, horticulturist and agricultural writer ; and Professor Franklin Sherman, Jr., State Entomologist of North Carolina, for aid in proofreading and in the preparation of some of the material.