finished descriptions be kept in the student's note-book. They may be written first on temporary sheets, corrected, and afterward copied to permanent sheets for filing, or directly into the note-book, if the instructor sees fit.

2. After the student has had a fairly good drill in the description of apples, he should pass to other fruits. The ideal order would be apple, pear, quince, plum, peach, cherry, grape, raspberry, and strawberry; but these fruits can never be secured fresh from the fields in this order. The exigencies of the season will determine very largely what the order shall be. Before this part of the work is closed, however, the students should be very thoroughly drilled in the description of all the standard fruits which can be had in a fresh state direct from the trees or vines.

3. The student is now prepared to go to the field to study the trees and vines for their systematic characters. He has now on hand a number of descriptions of fruits; let him complete these by adding descriptions of the plants from which the fruits came. This should always be done, if possible, at the season when fruit is maturing, for a fruiting tree

is ten times as interesting as one without the fruit. But whether it can be done at this season or not, it should not be omitted. In these field exercises students should be required to make note of peculiarities of soil, exposure, drainage, etc., which may account for differences in trees or fruit. It is always difficult, with healthy boys of effervescent spirits, to keep a field excursion up to the level of a laboratory exercise or a classroom recitation. The critical condition, however, is that some specific subject of inquiry must be kept before each student. This must be something which he has to find out for himself, not something which is going to be told him very simply by

the instructor in the field.

up.

4. Some unusual fruits should now be taken Persimmons, kumquats, tangerines, or pomegranates can usually be secured through the marketman. Even bananas or tomatoes will answer in a pinch. The student should then be required to form his own descriptive outline for these. If the teacher has sufficient ingenuity and perseverance, these exercises can be made to cover a wide range, and they will then be found to be very instructive. They will greatly broaden the field of the

student's knowledge, and will give him more confidence in himself and in his subject.

5. Finally, this subject should not be left without giving the student an opportunity to describe one or two samples from every class of fruit commonly grown in his neighborhood. To this end cherries may be preserved in formalin, salycilic acid, or other preservative solution; and any other fruits likely to fail during term-time should be kept in stock in the same way. Even strawberries and blackberries can be kept in condition sufficiently sound for this purpose if proper pains are devoted to them. Many teachers of botany and zoology do all their laboratory work with dried or preserved materials; the horticulturist ought not to shrink from an occasional exercise of that sort.

Exercises in Identification

6. Place several well-known varieties on a table, and require the student to name them at sight. Begin with two or three varieties only, but add others rapidly. Apples are naturally best for these exercises, but plums, peaches, grapes, and pears are also valuable where they are available in sufficient numbers.

This exercise is of special value, both pedagogically and pomologically. It should be repeated at frequent intervals, but should not cover more than a few minutes at a tinie. It is best to have a few new varieties on hand every day, and to give the class an exercise of this sort when they first enter the laboratory, after which they may proceed to the regular work of the day.

7. After the students become expert in the recognition of varieties in this way, several samples should be mixed indiscriminately in a basket or on a table, and the students required to separate and name them. The task of sorting out closely related varieties will be found to be altogether different from the simple recognition of the varieties when they are separately displayed, and altogether harder. This exercise, too, should be frequently repeated, with a frequent change of material.

8. It is usually possible, without too great effort, to come within reach of one or two general fruit exhibits. During the fall these can be found in connection with county, district, or state fairs, or at grange field-days, and during the winter at meetings of the hor

ticultural societies. After the students have become thoroughly familiar with standard fruits, they should be given the freedom of some such collection as can be found at a county fair. Here they are likely always to find some specimens incorrectly named and some untrue to type. They will also discover interesting local variations. Every variety in such a collection should be challenged, every name verified or corrected. Here, for the first time, the students should use a book of descriptions, like Downing's, Warder's, or Thomas's, for the verification of varieties. It may be well to require each student to make a complete and fully detailed report of the exhibit, or, if it is large, of certain sections of it.

9. At this stage of the class work the instructor should secure samples of fruit from a distance, in order to show the variations to which varieties are subject in different environments. During peach season it may be possible to get samples from considerable distances; but the one fruit which is naturally the main reliance is the apple. Apples can be secured at almost any time and from any distance. The writer has found it easy and