=Experiments in Nature Study.=--Some very interesting features of school children's Nature study--not the teaching of science, but the seeing and understanding of the common objects of the external world--are illustrated in a report of Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, from incidents of school life in some of the New York schools. The children in the sixth grade of one of the schools of Saratoga Springs provided themselves with eggshells filled with earth and sown with wheat. "The botanical side was made a lesson well flavored with active interest. The pride of ownership and a plant coming from a spoonful of earth had the charm of a creation all the pupil's own, and it was much more real to study the thing itself than to read about it and make a recitation." Geographical applications were made by tracing the introduction and extension and transportation of the crop, and by means of the exchange of correspondence the wheat belt could be traced and plotted in every State of the Union. The children of Corning gathered seeds and divided them into classes as indicated by the means of travel with which they are provided. A small boy felt himself a profound investigator when he discovered the advantage some seeds have in being able to float and ride on the water. It required no hard drill to learn the names. The summer planting of flowers by the children of Jamestown resulted in a flower show in the fall. Many children took the tent caterpillar, reared it from the eggs, and learned all about its metamorphoses. "Nature study can be made elastic. In the kindergarten it can be idealized so as to approach a fairy story. It can be intensified so that in the high school it will have all the solidity of pure science." The best proof that the idea is bearing fruit is that teachers are asking for definite instruction on the subject, and a course has been provided for them. The study should be so informal as not to admit of systematic examination.