Every effort should be made to have the student secure first-hand information. A single visit to an implement store, for instance, will give him more information of real value than hours of recitation about implements which he has never seen or examined. For the same reason frequent field trips to parks, market gardens, nurseries, greenhouses, public gar dens, and the like should be made. These trips should, if possible, be taken in the hours allotted to agronomy in the school day and should be counted as part of the regular work. In many cases the period for this study may come last in the day's program, thus allowing pupils to take as much additional time for the work after school as they desire. There is always a tendency on the part of the teacher to assume more knowledge of familiar things than the student possesses, and for this reason it is well to carry out all the exercises suggested, though at first glance some may appear too simple to be worth while.
