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avaLsaNOY GNVIONY MAN GIO NV

NATURE STUDY AND
LIFE

BY

CLIFTON F. HODGE, Pu.D.

Assistant Professor in Clark University. Member of: The American Physiological
Society, Society of American Naturalists, Massachusetts Forestry Association,
American Forestry Association, Board of Directors of the Massa-
chusetts Audubon Society, American Ornithologists’ Union

Hife is response to the order of JPature
W. K. Brooks

GINN & COMPANY

BOSTON - NEW YORK - CHICAGO - LONDON

ENTERED AT STATIONERS’ HALL

CopyRIGHT, 1902

By CLIFTON F. HODGE

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

514-4

The Atheneum Press

GINN & COMPANY. PRO-
PRIETORS - BOSTON - U.S.A.

TO

NELSON WELLINGTON HODGE

MY FATHER,
WHO GAVE ME MY FIRST
ANIMALS AND PETS, MY FIRST GARDEN
PLOT AND LITTLE FARM, WHO LEFT THE
BIG OAK UNCUT
FOR ITS BEAUTY
AND THE WILD PRAIRIE UNPLOWED
FOR ITS WILD FLOWERS, WHO SET
THE ELM TREE BY THE
PORCH AND THE
RED MOSS
ROSE
IN THE OLD HOME
GARDEN

PREFACE

Tue field which this book essays to enter has ever
spread out before me like an enchanted country. The
possibilities and resources of life, dissolving in changes
forever fresh and new, the infinite variety of mechanism,
device, and story, the display of beauty on every side that
baffles expression by pen or brush, have always seemed to
me the natural matrix for the highest development of the
child’s mind and soul. Weare beginning to use fruitfully
in our education the legends and myths of the past, but the
fundamental conceptions of these lie in the life and nature
about us. All this is the work of the Infinite Enchanter
of the Universe, and forms a realm of real magic, of which
human myth and fairy tale are after all but the passing
shadow. This was the world of keenest interests, delights,
and sufferings of my boyhood, the common ground out of
which my interests in special problems of science have
grown, the world to which I instinctively turn from the
fatigue and technicality of special work for rejuvenation
and refreshment and find that its delights do not grow old.

The more I study the problem, the more it seems to me
that this side of nature is the sheet anchor of elementary
education, all the more necessary as modern life tends to
drift away from nature into artificialities of every sort.
Recent developments of the sciences have completely daz-

zled our modern education with their bewildering array
vii

viii PREFACE

of newly discovered facts, and the temptation has proved
irresistible to introduce their technicalities into the ele-
mentary curriculum. But the childhood of the race was
very long, and we should not wish to force its period, brief
at best, in the life of the individual. The weathering of
rock and the formation of soil afford interesting lessons
in modern geology; but men dug and planted, and estab-
lished fruitful relations with Mother Earth thousands of
years before geology was even dreamed of. So with com-
bustion and the various forms of water: why not let chil-
dren wonder about them for a few years, and then come
with interest keen and fresh to their study in the chem-
istry and physics of the high school or the college? By
leaving out everything else, however, I do not wish to
insinuate that the study of living things is all of nature
study. But other sides of nature are so fully represented
in plans for nature-study courses now before the public,
—TI am tempted to say so much too fully represented —
that my conscience is perfectly clear in leaving them to
shift for themselves.

Many recent books presenting courses of nature study
have divided the lessons according to the seasons and
terms of the school year. This form is doubtless of serv-
ice to some teachers. I have not been able to adopt
it, however, for two reasons: Nature’s changes were not
arranged according to our school courses, and the pre-
dominant importance of subject-matter precludes such
cramped and formal treatment ; my purpose is to bring
nature into relation to child life rather than to school life,
to make it a continuous source of delight, profit, and
highest education rather than a formal school task. I

PREFACE ix

have sought to obviate this difficulty in arrangement by
a somewhat detailed grade plan in which topics are sug-
gested for the grade best adapted for their pursuit. A
full cross-reference index will also assist in a similar way.

The illustrations have been selected to express the
relation of man, especially the relation of the child, to
nature; and since spontaneous activity is fundamental
to my plan of nature study, the majority of them are
intended to suggest ways and means of doing something.
To those who have contributed pictures, notably Charles
Irving Rice, J. Chauncey Lyford, Myron W. Stickney,
Charles L. Goodrich, The National Cash Register Com-
pany, Henry Lincoln Clapp, M. V. Slingerland, Miss
Katherine E. Dolbear, and Miss Jessie G. Whiting, I wish
to express my sincere thanks. Acknowledgment usually
accompanies the illustration, but the picture of a deer in
the velvet (p. 15) should be accredited to Mr. Rice. The
photograph of the mosquitoes (p. 89) and the portrait of
a young wood thrush (p. 345) are by Mr. Stickney.
Figs. 121, 123, 125, 131, and 135, together with most
of the data from which the bird-food chart (p. 323)
was constructed, are contributed by Miss Helen A. Ball.
The other line drawings, with exception of 20 d, 22, 25,
35 4, 71, 160, 161, 178, 193, 194, 195, were made under
my direction by Mrs. Helen Davis Burgess. The photo-
graphs not otherwise accredited are by the author.

This book could never have been written, in anything
like its present form at least, until its various suggestions
had been given the test of actual school work. Miss
Mary C. Henry, principal of the Upsala Street School of
Worcester, Mass., has not only done this, but in addition

x: PREFACE

has contributed many and valuable suggestions, notably
with reference to the grade plan, to the school garden, and
to the problem of cleanliness of the schoolroom. Thus to
Miss Henry and the teachers in the Upsala Street School
the book owes much of its definite character. To Pro-
fessor Brooks, of the Johns Hopkins University, I am
also under obligations for counsel as to the general plan
of the work. For help in final revision of the text and
proofs and preparation of the illustrations I am under
great obligations to Mr. Lyford, and for assistance with
the proof I wish to express my indebtedness to Miss
Henry, Miss Dolbear, and Mr. Stickney.

Finally, I acknowledge my debt to Clark University for
opportunity, and to Dr. G. Stanley Hall for suggestions
which called my attention to nature study. The further
I went, the more it seemed to me that the sources from
which must flow the future development of science in
this country all lie in the quality of the work done in the
public schools. In freshness, in lively interest, in origi-
nality, nothing equals a child; and it has long been con-
ceded that at no time is progress in learning so rapid as
during the first three or four years of life. The secret
of this, it has seemed to me, lies in the fact that touch
with nature at first hand, original research, if you please,
is the very breath of mental life. How may this splendid
growth process of infancy be prolonged through life? The
best answer to the question that I am at present able
to offer is the book itself.

C. F. HODGE.

CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS.,
January 21, 1902

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION BY Dr. G. STANLEY HALL

CHAPTER
I.
II.
III.

THE POINT OF VIEW

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY

CHILDREN’S ANIMALS AND PETS

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD

LESSONS WITH PLANTS

ELEMENTARY BOTANY

GARDEN STUDIES, — HOME AND SCHOOL GARDENS

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY OF CHILDREN

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY (Continued), — GAR-
DEN FRUITS

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN

GARDEN INSECTS (Continued)

BENEFICIAL INSECTS, —THE HONEYBEE

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS, —THE COMMON TOAD .

COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS

Our Common BIRDS

Tue Bird CENSUS AND Foop CHART

PRACTICAL DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD

BIRDS
xi

102

I2I

139

147
155
181
202
228
246
274
295
305
319

327

xii

CHAPTER

XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.

XXV.
XXXVI.
XXVII.

XXVIII.

INDEX

CONTENTS

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY (Continued )

AQUARIA, —THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND MAN-
AGEMENT.

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS

FLOWERLESS PLANTS.

FLOWERLESS PLANTS (Continued), — MOULDS,
MILDEwWS, YEAST, BACTERIA

THE GRADE PLAN

Pace
347
365
379

393
405
435

457
478

497

INTRODUCTION

For this book I have no hesitation in predicting a most
wholesome, widespread, and immediate influence upon
primary and grammar school grades of education in this
country. Noone has gone so far toward solving the burn-
ing question of nature teaching, and to every instructor
in these subjects this volume will be not only instructive
but inspiring.

Unlike the authors of most of the many nature-study
manuals now current, Professor Hodge has been for some
years the head of a University Department, is a specialist
in two or more of the fields of biology, and has made original
contributions of value to the sum of human knowledge.
His mind thus moves with independence, authority, and
unusual command of the resources in the field here treated.

New as his method essentially is, it is now made public
only after years of careful trial in the public school grades
in Worcester, until its success and effective working in
detail is well assured. Thus it has passed the stage of
experiment and is so matured and approved that, with
slight local adjustments, it can be applied almost any-
where for children of from six or seven to thirteen or
fourteen years of age.

I have also observed the growing appreciation with
which this matter and method have been received by the

representative teachers from nearly every state in the
xiii

xiv INTRODUCTION

Union in the successive sessions of our Summer School,
in which approval has grown to deep interest and hearty
enthusiasm,

Although the author has striven to secure the best
results sought by other nature books, this differs not only
in all respects from some, but in some respects from all,
and chiefly as follows :

It contains a richer and more varied subject-matter.
Instead of elaborate methods applied to a few species, it
presents the essential and salient points about many and
thus avoids the current fault of over-elaborate and over-
methodic treatment, prolonged till interest turns to ennui.

Another principle solidly established and here utilized,
is that interest in life forms precedes that in inanimate
nature for children of the age here in view. Rock forms,
crystals, stars, weather, and seasons are all interesting,
but have their nascent period later, and at this stage pale
before the deep, instinctive love of pets and the fauna
and flora of the immediate environment.

Again, the principle of utility is here often invoked in
a new field, and in a way calculated to advance one of the
chief objects of modern pedagogic endeavor — an increas-
ing unity and solidarity between the school and the home.
The new use of this motive is distinctly national and sure
to appeal to the practical spirit of this country.

The author is a born naturalist, and his love of nature
and children, which is infectious, is not less but more
because he does not forget nature’s uses to man. Believ-
ing profoundly, as I do, in the poetic, sentimental, and
religious appeal which nature makes to the soul, it is
plain that for some years preceding adolescence the

INTRODUCTION XV

normal child can be appealed to on the practical, unsenti-
mental, and utilitarian side of his nature.

Once more, this work is opportune because it stimu-
lates spontaneous, out-of-door interests. It is with abun-
dant reason that we find now on every hand a growing
fear of the effects of excessive confinement, sedentary
attitudes, and institutionalizing influences in the school.
Such work as is here described must tend to salutary
progress in the direction of health.

Lastly, many modern nature books suffer from what
might be called effeminization. This is a book written
by a man and appeals to boys and girls equally.

The time has now happily passed when it is necessary
to urge the importance of the love and study of nature,
or to show how from it have sprung love of art, science,
and religion, or how in the ideal school it will have a cen-
tral place, slowly subordinating most other branches of
study as formal and accessory, while it remains substan-
tial. To know nature and man is the sum of earthly

knowledge.
G. STANLEY HALL.

WORCESTER, Mass., Dec. 3, IgoI.

I shall try to show that life is response to the order of nature... .
Our interest in all branches of science is vital interest. It is only as living
things that we care to know. Life is that which, when joined to mind,
is knowledge, — knowledge in use; and we may be sure that all living
things with minds like ours are conscious of some part of the order
of nature, for the response in which life consists is response to this order.
—W. K. Brooks.

To learn what is true in order to do what is right is the summing up
of the whole duty of man, for all who are not able to satisfy their mental
hunger with the east wind of authority— T. H. Hux.ey.

Nature study is learning those things in nature that are best worth
knowing, to the end of doing those things that make life most worth the
living.

xvi

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

CHAPTER I

THE POINT OF VIEW

And God blessed them, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the
fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it.

Aims and Purposes of a Nature-Study Course. — The heart of
education, as of life itself, is purpose. Through the maze
of infinite variety in form and structure and action that
nature presents to the student on every side, the only
thing that can hold him to definite lines with patience,
persistence, and continuity enough to make his work
amount to something is purpose. Hence, in order to
select intelligently the materials for a successful course,
we need at every step to have the purpose of nature study
clearly before us.

This may be expressed in a brief formula, as: Learning
those things in nature that are best worth knowing, to the
end of doing those things that make life most worth living.

I

2 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

What things are dest worth knowing is indicated in a
fundamental way by the relations toward nature that the
human race has found necessary and valuable to develop ;
and nowhere in literature are these relations expressed
with such force, beauty, and high authority as in the
words at the heading of this chapter. The fundamental
relations to nature of the race, the individual, and the
child have been more fully discussed elsewhere, and it is
necessary only to summarize them here briefly as follows :

Of first importance is the fact that man’s primitive
relations to nature are mainly biological—relations to
animal and plant life.

Subjugation of Animals. — Development of these rela-
tions followed the order of logical necessity. Subjection
must come first if man is to live in safety on the
earth. This great process of subjugation, this hand-
to-hand fight against nature, must have constituted the
main lines of human nature study for thousands, prob-
ably for tens of thousands of years before language
took form and written history began, and it has formed
a large part of the work ever since. And how far have
vermin, weeds, insects, and microbes been brought under
subjection even now? To what extent this phase
of struggle and warfare should enter into a course of
nature study must remain largely a matter for individual
parents and teachers to decide, but that it has played an
important and fundamental réle in development of civili-
zation and formation of human character there can be
no doubt. And it remains as true as ever that character

1“ Foundations of Nature Study,” Zhe Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vi,
No. 4, pp. 536-553; and vol. vii, No. 1, pp. 95-110, No. 2, pp. 208-228.

THE POINT OF VIEW 3

can only be developed by struggle, by active, intelli-
gent, patient overcoming of difficulties, the elements
that achieved success throughout the ancient travail of
the race. It is still “To him that overcometh”; and
nothing can take the place of the hard task in education.
But there need be no reversion to barbarism. In fact, the

Tic. 1. PRIMITIVE GERMAN HOME AND ITS OCCUPATIONS

(From a painting by Joh. Gehrts)

work should all be planned to exert the strongest possible
uplift toward civilization instead.

Dominion over Animals.— The step from abject savagery,
by which a new relation between mankind and nature was
opened up, was domestication of animals. Hitherto life
had been a struggle against all nature, against friends and
foes alike, At this point man first developed intelligence

4 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

enough to distinguish between friends and enemies and
to discover companions and helpers among the animals
about him. The first animal tamed was the dog, which is
still the idol of the child’s heart. Although taming of the
dog antedates all historic records, it is quite probable that
this great advance was made by the plastic fancy of a child,
—that che first animal domesticated was the playfellow of
some savage boy or girl.

Then follows, also before the dawn of authentic history,
domestication of the horse, sheep, goat, horned cattle,
and most of our domesticated birds, and it is sclf-cvident
that the family or tribe first to develop the patience and
intelligence to tame and thus utilize animal helpers must
have rapidly outstripped all rivals in the race for life.

Human races, in fact, may be divided into those that
have and those that have not tamed the horse. In long
struggles small margins of strength are often decisive, but
one “horse power” equals that of five men, from which
we sce what an enormous advantage accrued from domes-
tication of this one animal. Who first tamed and rode a
colt no onc will ever know, but it must have been some
boy, lithe, strong, and daring. Certainly the twelve-year-
old Alexander succeeded better with Bucephalus than the
royal grooms of his father Philip.

The important interest for nature study is the proccss
of domestication, the gaining of “dominion” expressed
in the command, the establishment of helpful rclations,
rather than anything connected with the animal itsclf.
Thus we miss the substance for the shadow when we
attempt to give this kind of education by pictures of ani-
mals; and we also lose the humanizing and educational

THE POINT OF VIEW 5

essence of the process when we substitute the demon-
strational method of the “school animal”’ or the zoélogical
garden for the primitive, normal, natural relation of com-
panionship between the living animal and the child. The
pet animal is thus for the child, as it was for the race,
the key to the door into knowledge and dominion over
all animal life. Domestication of animals in its widest

Fic. 2. Herp or ELx, BLuE MounTAIN FOREST

(Photograph by Charles Irving Rice)

sense (and possibly we should add certain phases of
hunting and fishing) is elementary zoology. Its funda-
mental character and value for education are evinced in
the passion of children for pets; and as in the race, so
in the life of the child, it should be made the most of as
a step toward civilization. This subject will be more
completely developed in a chapter by itself, and will also
form the key to the animal nature study advocated

6 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

throughout the book. But two general considerations
belong in this connection.

At this point introduce an easy codrdination with lan-
guage and writing by asking the children to make a list
of all the animals, wild and tame, that they know. Let
them write “tame” and “wild” in separate columns and
number each as they go along, thus:

NAME OF CHILD

Animals whose Names I know

TAME ANIMALS

1. Dog. 6. Rabbit. 10. Duck.

2. Cat. Birds. 11. Canary.

3. Horse. 7. Hen. Insects.

4. Cow. 8. Turkey. 12, Honeybee, etc.

5. Sheep. 9. Goose. 13. Silkworm

WILD ANIMALS

1. Bison. 12. Wren. Insects.

2. Moose. 13. Chickadee. 21. Milkweed Butterfly.

3. Deer. 14. Eagle, etc. 22. Potato Beetle.

4. Red Squirrel. Snakes. 23. Meal Worm, etc.

5. Gray Squirrel. 15. Garter Snake. Worms.

6. Rat. 16. Green Snake, etc. 24. Earthworm.

7. Mouse, etc. Amphibia. 25. Leech, etc.
Birds. 17. Bullfrog. ; Mollusks.

8. Quail. 18. Wood Frog. 26. Oyster.

g. Partridge. 19. Common Toad, etc. 27. Clam.

to. Robin. Fishes. 28. Snail, etc.t

11. Bluebird. 20. Trout, etc.

1 Ask the children to underline the names of animals about which they know any facts
or a good story. These may be used for oral language lessons, and the teacher can find out
the extent of the children’s knowledge and will thus be able to correct what is false and add
to what is insufficient.

THE POINT OF VIEW 7

A little wholesome rivalry may be permitted as to who
can give the longest list. Copying names is waste of time,
so that this exercise should be given to the class in a way
that shall not allow recourse to books. I have indicated
elementary lines of classification that may be utilized or
wholly disregarded, according to advancement of the class
or preferences of the teacher. They are of some interest
as showing in general that it was found worth while to
domesticate certain kinds of animals, as mammals and
birds, and but few others.

After the class have reached their limit ascertain how
many animals, wild and tame, the longest lists contain,
and then have one of the children copy on the blackboard
the following list.

NuMBERS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF ANIMALS KNOWN

LivinG FossiL
SPECIES SPECIES notes
Backboned Animals (Vertebrates). . . 24,700 2,400 27,100
Sea-squirts (Zumicates) . . 2... . 300 300
Clams, Snails, etc. (AZollusks) . . i 21,320 20,895 42,215
Mollusk-like Animals (A/olluscoidea). . 820 45340 5,160
Insects, Crabs, etc. iis ae, es 209,405 3,570 | 212,975
Worms (Vermes) . . . Bah 26 5,500 200 5,700
Starfishes, etc. ey ioliemsh oe 2,370 3,840 6,210
Jellyfishes, Polyps (Calenterates) . 4 39545 2,680 6,225
One-celled Animals (Protozoa). . . . 4,130 2,000 6,130
Total of all kinds of animals known. | 272,090 39:925 | 312,015

Professor Riley’s estimate of insect species on the earth is 10,000,000.1

1 Any teacher is expected to use only so much of this table as is reasonably intelligible *
to the class. Still the object of using it is dzstznctly to teach how much we donot know.
The scientific names are inserted to aid the teacher. It is not intended that they be taught
to the class.

8 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

These figures may serve to suggest what a little way
human dominion as yet extends over the animal life of the
world and how much remains to be done.!

Somewhat of sadness attaches to the column “fossil
species.” We shall never see any of these alive upon the
earth again. Among their number were the largest and
most powerful animals that the world has ever produced
or will ever see again, the animal kings of creation for
their epochs: the mammoth, a third taller and more than
twice the weight of our elephant; the mastodon, larger
still; the Irish elk, the gigantic, Cervus giganteus, and its
American cousin, C. Americanus,; the largest members
of the deer family, animals that used to square accounts
with antlers that measured eleven feet from tip to tip; an
American lion, /e/s atrox, as large as the Asiatic species;
at least two bisons of enormous size, one with horns that
measured fully ten feet across, — all are past and gone.
Probably man has been responsible for the extermination
of most of the larger species within recent geologic time,
and in the process of subjugation it would seem that he has
been needlessly severe. Men had little use for menageries
then, but now what would we not give to see some of
those wonders of the world in life again!

What is more to the point, extermination of animal
species is now going on, and at a rate never before
equaled. With modern rifles, shotguns, and dynamite
bombs, coupled with modern steamships and railroads, by
which the remotest corners of the earth become readily

1 Shaler speaks of ‘‘near a hundred animals” that man has domesti-
cated. Domesticated Animals. Their Relation to Man and to his Advance-
ment in Civilization, p. 219. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1895.

THE POINT OF VIEW 9

accessible, any species of any size or value, either in the
oceans or on the land, stands small chance against exter-
mination, unless directly preserved by man. Within the
past forty years the largest mammal native to our conti-
nent, the bison, has been practically, and doubtless would
have been absolutely, exterminated had it not been for

Fic. 3. BurraAro HERD ON A STAMPEDE, BLUE MOUNTAIN ForEST

(Photograph by Charles Irving Rice)

the wise action of the government and of a few public-
spirited men. Prominent among these was the late Austin
Corbin of New York, who established the Blue Mountain
Park as a preserve for large game. In this area of 26,000
acres, containing a mountain range, we are permitted to
see wild life, not in menagerie cages and pens, but in its
magnificence, in the setting Nature designed for it. Surely
the Corbin Preserve is an institution of national interest.

10 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Cultivation of Plants.— Important as domestication of
animals is, the greatest advance of the race in its relations
toward nature is found in the cultivation of plants. This
has constituted the largest factor in the transition of
human tribes from wandering nomads to stable, populous,
civilized communities. In the stability of landhold we
have the beginning of home, as distinguished from the
casual camping ground; and in the footsteps of Ceres
and Pomona has followed Flora, to make home beautiful.
With home is founded commerce, and arts, literatures,
philosophies, and sciences as well.

Cultivation of plants indicated and developed elements
of character fundamental to civilized life. Willingness to
work for daily bread, intelligent provision for the future,
courage to fight for home, love of country, are a few
among the virtues attained. When we consider its uni-
versal and fundamental character in relation to civilization
and human advancement, the omission of soz/ love from
a system of education of the young is suggestive of
relapse to barbarism. To allow a child to grow up with-
out planting a seed or rearing a plant is a crime against
civilized society, and our armies of tramps and hordes of
hoodlums are among the first fruits of an educational
system that slights this important matter.

Elementary botany is chiefly cultivation of plants. We
shall see in its proper place, as we have already noted
with animals, that there are certain plants that man has
found worth while to domesticate. Certain other plants
are of great human value, though not domesticated, and
others, weeds and poisonous species, have been recognized
as enemies of the race. The nature study of plants in

THE POINT OF VIEW II

Fic. 4. A Homer

elementary public schools should consist in just this fun-
damental knowledge that has grouped itself most closely
about human life. Modern botany is a special interest of
adult minds. Compared with this ancient body of plant
lore it is recent, technical, superficial, and special, and as
such it is a profound mistake to attempt to introduce it
into a general plan of elementary education.

12 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Humanity, like the giant Antzus, renews its strength
when it touches Mother Earth. Sociological studies sug-
gest that city life wears itself out or goes to decay after
three or four generations, unless rejuvenated by fresh
blood from the country. Thus these deeper relations to
nature are not only ancient and fundamental but are also
immanent and persistent. While I should not advocate
teaching trades in the public school, although we are wont
to say that every boy should learn one, this study is
so much deeper down in the warp and woof of life, so
immediately supports the whole structure of civilized
social organization, and is so closely associated in the
creation and maintenance of the home, as distinguished
from the camp on the one side and the tenement-house
barrack on the other, that it stands on quite a different
footing. I should like to see the nature-study course give
to all boys and girls the knowledge and the power to sur-
round their homes with the most useful and beautiful
plants available, and actually to produce their living by
rearing plants or animals, or both, if occasion ever require.
Many will say that this instruction belongs to the home.
This is true in a measure; much of it should and must
be done by the home, and one of the chief aims of this
book is to unite home and school in the work. Often a
home from which this fundamental “nature study”’ has
lapsed can be reached and rejuvenated by the children
through the school. This is not only the easiest and
most natural way, but in many cases the only hope.

But, the teacher says, the parents make all sorts of
objections to nature study, call it a “fad,” “nonsense,”
complain of “waste of time on new-fangled notions,” say

THE POINT OF VIEW 13

that “they never had to learn such stuff.” These objec-
tions of the home are for the most part right as to what

Fic. 5. A TENEMENT House

often goes by the name of nature study, and nothing
could be more helpful for development of ideal courses

14 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

adapted to local conditions than to invite their freest
possible expression. If we cannot find a nature study
worth while, a nature study so full of human good that it
will meet and overcome all such objections, then we should
devote the time to other subjects. But from several years’
experience the writer is confident that all reasonable objec-
tions can be met, and that we can find a nature study so
good that this attitude of parents can be completely
reversed and their interest and enthusiasm so thoroughly
aroused that they will say: ‘We had no chance to learn
these things, but we wish our children might be given the
opportunity and teach us.”

When this is accomplished, we shall have a nature
study that shall bind home and school together as noth-
ing in the curriculum does at present. Instead of giving
over our entire school system to passive book learning, we
shall have at least one subject that shall keep alive in the
child the spirit of research, under the impetus of which
he makes such astounding progress in learning the great
unknown of nature around him during the first three or four
years of life. This matter of original research in hand-to-
hand contact with nature ought to be made the breath of
life in an educational system. It will form perhaps the
most essential feature in every lesson in this book, and will
be treated more fully under a special heading. By its means
we may reinstate childhood in the function for which it was
designed and created. John Fiske has pointed out that
infancy was developed as a prolonged period of plasticity,
by which “the door for progressiveness was set ajar.” !

1 John Fiske. Zhe Meaning of Infancy. Excursions of an Evolutionist,
p: 314.

THE POINT OF VIEW 15

If life is response to the order of nature, the higher
and more complete the response, the higher and richer
must be the life. Since response presupposes knowledge,
nature study must take its place in public education as
one of the chief means by which the race may push
forward toward the more perfect response to the order
of nature, which shall be its more perfect life. “I am
come that they might have life, and that they might have
it more abundantly.”

(any Surary sepreyog Aq ydeasojoyg)

AMIHSd NV ET MAN ‘HAMA HUqd ANVS NIANOD) AHL

‘ISAUNOY NIVINOAOW FATT

‘9 “DI

16

CHAPTER II

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY

Economic, A®sTHETIC, EDUCATIONAL, ETHICAL,
RELIGIOUS

Consummation of happiness is the natural outcome of the perfecting
of character, but that perfecting can be achieved only through struggle,
through discipline, through resistance. It is for him that overcometh that
a crown of life is reserved. The consummate product of a world of evolu-
tion is the character that creates happiness, that is replete with dynamic
possibilities of fresh life and activity in directions forever new. Such a
character is the reflected image of God, and in it are contained the prom-
ise and the potency of life everlasting. Fiske, Through Nature to God,

p- 114.

And sure good is first in feeding people, then in dressing people, then
in lodging people, and lastly in rightly pleasing people, with arts, or sciences,
or any other subject of thought. RUSKIN, Sesame and Lilies, p. 236.

Economic. —In basing a plan of nature study upon its
human values it may be necessary to explain what is meant
by the worth of a study in the curriculum. Throughout
all the details of the various kinds of values we shall
discuss, the paramount value to be aimed at is character,
will to do good, power to create happiness. No lesson that
does not contribute toward this end can claim the right
to a place in the course.

Different plans of nature study are more or less strong
in presenting a certain class of values, generally the
zesthetic or scientific. My own plan has often been

17

18 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

criticised on the ground that it emphasizes unduly the
economic side, some even going so far as to insinuate
that economic values are the only ones recognized.
Nothing can be farther from my thought, as I hope this
chapter will conclusively prove; but I would include all
human values in about the relations that they bear to life,
especially to child life in its different phases and interests.
I have made economic values prominent because all other
plans of nature study ignore them almost completely.
I have used them because money is the common, univer-
sal expression of value that every one understands and
respects; and while we may realize that there are many
things that money cannot buy, no other measure of value
is so fundamental to the ordinary affairs of life. Money
value is, moreover, the trunk that supports many of the
higher values. Some measure of assured material wealth
must be attained before art, literature, and science can
develop, and what holds true in the race, among different
peoples, holds, in the main, with individuals. Further, the
entire organization of society, social ethics, laws, and cus-
toms group themselves about this as the common measure
of value for the life and work of man.

More and more, as society becomes organized, the com-
mon goods of nature come to form a great public prop-
erty, — pure air, pure water, forests and roadside trees
and flowers, gam” and fishes, birds, and other beneficent
animals; and the laws founded on these nature values are
yearly widening their circles of influence as knowledge of
nature advances. On the other hand, the evils in nature,
—insect pests, noxious weeds, fungous or bacterial dis-
eases, injurious animals, — constitute a continual menace

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY 19

to the public good. No man has the right (and ignorance
cannot be pleaded as adequate excuse) to allow things to
breed upon his premises that may cause damage to his
neighbor. This fight for the good and against the bad in
nature is primordial and fundamental; it has existed as
long as the human race; it cannot and should not be set
aside by any considerations of a sentimental character,
but it should be made in our plan of public education
what it is and always has been in the education of the
race, the dominant idea in nature study. We cannot
expect intelligent observance of laws until the facts of
nature upon which they are based become common
property of the community. To lay this foundation for
right living is certainly one of the functions of a public-
school system. As it is now, few people know even the
names of the things that are doing the greatest harm
or the most good in their own gardens. Insect pests,
weed seeds,-and the spores of destructive fungi are no
respecters of fences, and we must look to a rational nature
study to render universal the needed information.
Finally, with many the financial motive is the strongest
one we can bring to bear to induce them to study or
allow their children to study nature. After a beginning
has been made, other, and so-called higher, motives may
develop. There is the greater need of enlarging upon the
economic motive because it has never been adequately
brought before the public. Our biological science has been
too largely a dead museum affair with little relation to the
life of the community. When we study nature alive
and at work, we begin to realize the incalculable worth
of knowledge, the human value of science. A _ single

20 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

insect species, inconspicuous and uninteresting in itself,
like the San José scale or the codling moth, has the power
to destroy or cripple the fruit industry of the entire coun-
try. Another, like the gipsy moth, can possibly strip the
continent, periodically at least, of its forests, and others,
for example the Hessian fly or chinch bug, hold in their
power the wheat crops of large sections of the country.
Practical knowledge in this field stimulates interest in birds
and other insectivorous animals, and we have a foundation
from which to study their work in the economy of nature.
Fungous and microbic diseases of plants, animals, and
man are other important topics of recent development
which must be handled with discretion, but about which
the public should have intelligent information. It is need-
less to multiply illustrations. My point is that nature
study, or elementary science, for the public school ought
to be all for sure human good. We must winnow our
science of chaff and by careful selection fill the limited
time with the best knowledge the experience of the race
and modern science has to offer.

#sthetic. — After the necessities of life are secured, man
has instinctively turned toward the beautiful to complete
his satisfaction in nature. Flower culture is an ancient
line of human interest. Possibly nothing in modern times
equals the hanging gardens of Babylon. Here we must
turn for real education on the esthetic side to the creation
of the beautiful in nature and not content ourselves with
talking about it or with passive enjoyment. Nature study
should thus fill and surround our homes and schoolhouses
with the most beautiful things attainable and instill the
spirit of creating and preserving the natural beauties of

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY 21

roadside and field and forest rather than that of ruth-
less destruction. This side is provided for in chapters
on cultivation of flowers, school and home gardens, and
elementary forestry.

Unless the active and creative side is emphasized, a con-
stant danger is that the study will fall to the level of fancy-
work, which may interest the teacher but fail to appeal to
a large part of the class, especially the boys. While beauty
should be given its due share of attention, a still greater
danger is that it usurp the whole field. We then have a
condition so well described by Huxley :

In these times the educational tree seems to me to have its
roots in the air, its leaves and flowers in the ground; and, I confess,
I should very much like to turn it upside down, so that its roots
might be solidly embedded among the facts of nature, and draw
thence a sound nutriment for the foliage and fruit of literature and
of art. No educational system can have any claim to permanence,
unless it recognizes the truth that education has two great ends to
which everything else must be subordinated. The one of these is
to increase knowledge; the other is to develop the love of right
and the hatred of wrong.

With wisdom and uprightness a nation can make its way
worthily, and beauty will follow in the footsteps of the two, even if
she be not specially invited; while there is perhaps no sight in the
whole world more saddening and revolting than is offered by men
sunk in ignorance of everything but what other men have written;
seemingly devoid of moral belief or guidance; but with the sense
of beauty so keen, and the power of expression so cultivated, that
their sensual caterwauling may be almost mistaken for the music
of the spheres. Scéence and Education Essays, p. 130.

Finally, beauty should be permitted to bring its own
message, to speak for itself. Explaining it and talking

22 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

about it more often detracts from its best appreciation
and enjoyment.

You send for me to talk to you of art; and I have obeyed you
in coming. But the main thing I have to tell you is, —that art must
not be talked about.... Does a bird need to theorize about building
its nest, or boast of it when built? RuskINn, Sesame and Lilies,
p. 216.

Educational. — On the side of educational values in build-
ing up sound brain tissue and mental power, the school
should yield to Nature, “the Old Nurse,” so far as pos-
sible, the position she has held in the education of the
race. Clearly, this relation is that of active response in
direct, first-hand contact with nature. Doing something
with nature has ever formed a large factor in education, of
which nothing can take the place. This alone, as Froebel
says, can prevent education from becoming hollow and
empty, artificial, and a wholly secondhand affair.

We do not feel the meaning of what we say, for our speech
is made up of memorized ideas, based neither on perception nor
on productive effort. Therefore, it does not lead to perception,
production, life; it has not proceeded, it does not proceed from
life. FROEBEL, Education of Man, p. 88.

With a distrust in “book larnin”’ that has become
proverbial, it is strange that it has been allowed to domi-
nate the school curriculum so completely. This danger is
now so widely recognized that it is unnecessary to dwell
upon it, and, while some of our best plans of elemen-
tary science teaching aim to bring nature and the child
into direct contact, much remains to be done by way
of deciding what to bring to the child and what sort of

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY 23

contact, relation, or association it is best to form. Upon
these two things depend largely the quality of knowledge
and texture of mind that education yields to the child.
Space does not permit a full statement of the argument,
which I have given at length elsewhere,! but its two
important conclusions must be clearly borne in mind.
These are, first, that quality of knowledge depends upon
the ideas with which it is associated in the mind; and,
second, that the strongest associations are related to the
spontaneous activities of the individual. That is, for
elementary study we must select those things that stand
in fundamental associations with life and about which the
children can find something worth while to do. In line
with Herbart’s doctrine of apperception and Froebel’s of
self-activity, it is the active as distinguished from the pas-
sive method of instruction, of which Professor Burnham
says:

The great maxim of modern reform in education is the activity
of the pupil instead of the didactics of the teacher. There are but
two methods of instruction: as regards the pupil, the active and the
passive; as regards the teacher, the method of demonstration and
the method of suggestion. Zhe active method of the kindergarten

and the university should be adopted in all the grades. [Italics
mine. ]

In connection with it we must lay special stress upon the
fact that the highest type of spontaneous, whole-souled
activity cannot be developed about trifling or worthless
things. “Give children large interests and give them
young.” This motto of Alice Freeman Palmer may
well be used in deciding whether a topic should be

1 Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vii, No. z, p. 208.

24 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

admitted to the nature-study course. Will it form or
help to form an important, lifelong interest, —an interest
not technical or superficial, touching life only on the sur-
face, here and there and at long intervals, but one that
lies close to the heart, to the home, and to all that makes
life worth living? The value of such an interest is inesti-
mable. It may add a sparkle to the eye, elasticity to the
step, and a glow to every heart beat, and be the most
efficient safeguard against idleness and waste of time,
evil, and temptation of every sort. The love of some-
thing worthy and ennobling is a passport the world over,
for “ All the world loves a lover.” To find such an inter-
est in some worthy nature-love is to discover the fountain
of youth.

Nature is the great mother of such interests, and in pro-
portion as education becomes thus alive and active, nature
study must form a prominent factor in the curriculum.
What is there for the whole child—hands, feet, eyes,
ears and brain, mind and soul—to work with actively,
except phenomena of nature, responses to which have
constituted the chief education of living forms through
all time? Language has grown up out of and around
the things of nature to such an extent that even our
common-school reading and writing is little more than a
hollow mockery without the fundamental nature study to
give it life and content; and much of our best literature
must fail to be appreciated if its allusions to nature are
not properly sensed.

When we consider that the Engis skull is a “‘well-shaped
average human skull,’ indicating an average European
brain of the present, and when we think that Nature

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY 25

has thus built up the human brain to the level at which
civilization was possible, we begin to see the true impor-
tance of her tuition and to realize that a plan of education
that leaves “the Old Nurse” in the background is quite
likely to fail in laying the solid foundations of intelligent
human character. It is in danger of posing as a system
of elementary education with really elementary education
left out.

Before discussing its value from the point of view of
the child’s development, I may say a single word for the
teacher and for the tone and spirit of the school in general,
as it appears largely-in the relation of teacher to child.
The impossible idea that a teacher must know everything
is at present the shackles of our school system. Here is
a subject that shatters these fetters by its very presence.
In this field any child may ask a question that all the
wise men cannot answer. The field is so boundless that
to expect an elementary teacher to know all or much about
a small part of it is preposterous. The most advanced
specialists really know only a little about a very few ani-
mals or plants, and this little relates chiefly to technical
details that have no place in a nature-study course. On
the active side of growth and movement children, teachers,
and specialists are all learners together.

Thus, father and son, tedcher and pupil, parent and child, walk
together in one great living universe. Let not teacher or parent
object that he himself is as yet ignorant of this. Not the communi-
cation of knowledge already in their possession is the task, but the
calling forth of new knowledge. Let them observe, lead their pupils
to observe, and render themselves and their pupils conscious of their
observations. . .

26 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Even the knowledge of a previously given name is unimportant ;
only the clear and distinct apprehension and the correct naming of
the general and particular attributes are important... .

Let not the teacher of a country school object that he knows
nothing about natural objects, not even their names. Evenif he has
had the scantiest education, by a diligent observation of nature he
may gain a deeper and more thorough, more living, intrinsic, and
extrinsic knowledge of natural objects in their diversity and individu-
ality, than he can acquire from ordinary available books.

Besides, that so-called higher knowledge rests, ordinarily, on
phenomena and observations within the reach of the plainest man,
observations which frequently —if he know how to use his eyes —
come to him with little or no expense, in greater beauty than the
costliest experiment could yield them. But to this he must bring
himself by continued observation; to this he must let himself be
brought by the boys and youths around him.

Parents should not be timid, should not object that they know
nothing themselves and do not know how to teach their children. If
they desire to know something, their ignorance is not the greatest
evil. Let them imitate the child’s example; let them become chil-
dren with the child, learners with the learner ; let them go to father
and mother, and with the child be taught by Mother Nature and by
the fatherly spirit of God in nature. The spirit of God and nature
will guide them. FROEBEL, Education of Man, pp. 200 ff.

From how much impossible cram, mental pretense, obliq-
uity, and distress such a natural relation would relieve the
teacher. It would bring us up to natural, ideal relations
of teacher to pupil, relations of mutual helpfulness, that
would sweeten and leaven the whole lump of our educa-
tional system and make it instinct with interest and life.
“Tf I could only tell teachers how easy it makes the whole
school go I would be satisfied,” remarked a teacher who
had given this kind of nature study a trial. Instead
of being afraid or ashamed to say “I don’t know,” the

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY 27

teacher who sincerely desires to learn will be glad to say
it, glad to have something brought in that affords him an
opportunity to learn, and not only that, but at the same
time the best possible opportunity to teach. Such teach-
ing and learning will transform education from a deadly
mechanical grind to a living process.

But after all, childhood, —active, fresh, spontaneous
childhood, — and its need of the normal environment for
growth and vigor, supplies the imperative demand for a
natural and active nature study. Truly “trailing clouds
of glory do we come”; and when we discover the right
way, there shall be no “shades of the prison-house” to
“close upon the growing boy.” In rare cases now we
find the charm of childlikeness, the open interest and
rapid growth, extending on through boyhood and to the
end of old age. When we learn how to educate normally,
this may become the rule rather than the exception.

The term is being much abused at present, but I hope
I may be rightly understood when I say that the key to
the solution of this problem is original research. The
mind seeks for truth as the body for food. Search is a
primordial element in all life, in all education. Cut this
out and you have parasitism and degeneration of the
higher functions. Everything that lives, from the amceba
seeking for food to the artist or the scientist in search of
beauty and truth, spends the best effort of life in just this
thing,— search. Witness the way the infant learns during
the first years of life, the incessant activity and infinite
delight and wonderful rapidity with which it reaches out
into the unknown of nature around it. Let us study how
we may continue this splendid process of growth through

28 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

all the years of school life. To do this we shall need
nature at every turn, and the result will be a living,
active, creating mind instead of a helpless parasite.

Again: Iam incessantly told that we, who advocate the introduc-
tion of science in schools, make no allowance for the stupidity of the
average boy or girl; but, in my belief, that stupidity, in nine cases
out of ten, #7, non nascitur, and is developed by a long process of
parental and pedagogic repression of the natural intellectual appetites,
accompanied by a persistent attempt to create artificial ones for food
which is not only tasteless, but essentially indigestible. HuxLey,
Sctence and Education Essays, p. 128.

Ethical and Social. — As to the ethical values of nature
study, an active, vigorous mind will find something to do,
some way of expressing itself. Whether such a person
does good or evil must depend largely on “the love of right
and the hatred of wrong.’”’ Much evil is done through
pure ignorance. A boy has little idea how much harm he
may be doing when he kills birds or destroys their nests,
because he has never been taught how much good they
are capable of doing; and further, he has no basis of
knowledge to tell him how much pain and distress he
may be causing; and finally, he has no realization of
the greater pleasure that he himself would derive from
an intelligent study of the same birds. No one can esti-
mate the damage that the introduction of certain insects to
new continents has wrought and may cause, but we must
know these things in order to take proper precautions in
the future. To do our duty by our neighbors we need
a large body of knowledge of the common things that
surround the home. No one, if he knew what he were
doing, would breed about his premises noxious insects

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY 29

or weeds or the fungi of plant or human diseases that
might cause his neighbors annoyance or loss. These
things must be made matters of common knowledge in
order to form the basis of right living, and how can this
be done so universally and well as in our nature-study
courses? In order to safeguard public interests and
prevent a person from causing damage to his neighbors
in these respects, laws are being rapidly passed in the
different states. We cannot hope for a general observ-
ance of them until the facts upon which they are based
become the common property of the community. Under
the several subjects collect the nature laws of your state
or city and town ordinances and make them a part of the
nature-study course, — the laws and board of health regu-
lations touching birds, insects, weeds, street trees, forest
fires, destructive fungi, and bacterial diseases. These
laws express the highest level of intelligent public knowl-
edge and opinion, and their influence and scope should be
largely increased for the public good. How can this be
done so well as by studying the laws in connection with
the facts of nature upon which they are based ?
Everywhere in our theories of education the negative
is giving place to the positive. We must have positive
effort for good at every point and then there will be little
need of the dull machinery of repression. Just in the
period of early childhood, with its passion for activity and
its capacity for interests, we need this ethical training more
than at any other time. To turn the stream into benefi-
cent channels is far better than to let it run to waste or
to dam it up. If the boys of a neighborhood make the
raising of peaches and grapes impossible, a better remedy

30 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

than the jail would be to start them raising peaches and
grapes of their own. Effort for the production of property
is ethical, and the moment the child engages in it he places
himself upon the side of law and order in the community.
To rear a flower is an ideally ethical thing and may ele-
vate the moral and esthetic tone of a household. We
need this ethical training, not in the way of moralizing,
but in unconscious positive doing, as the warp of our edu-
cation, and nature study offers boundless opportunities for
its daily inculcation and practice.

Religious. — Finally, no one can love nature and not
love its Author, and if we can find a nature study that
shall insure a sincere love, we shall be laying the surest
possible foundation for religious character.

A good deal has been written of late about the child
repeating the history of the race, and it seems to have
been taken for granted that the nature worships of primi-
tive peoples form the normal stepping-stones for the child
to higher conceptions of religious truth. The reasons
that seem to render such suppositions unnecessary or
possibly untenable are stated more fully in the paper just
referred to.1 It is sufficient to say here that all the nature
worships of which we now have any knowledge are rela-
tively modern phenomena, terminal twigs on the evolu-
tionary tree, rather than fundamental elements in the
main trunk of human progress. They would thus have
no relation to the normal development of the child.

Creative effort for good; this is the fundamental con-
ception of religious progress, aside from all matters
of race, creed, or sect, ‘The character that creates

1 Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vii, p. 208.

VALUES OF NATURE STUDY 31

happiness, that is replete with dynamic possibilities
of fresh life and activity in directions forever new.”
Nature is given as the great matrix with which we are
to create, and to go through life with no attempt to gain
a knowledge of it, with no effort to learn its possibilities,
is dull, dead atheism. The child that puts forth creative
effort to make the world better, the child that plants a
seed or cares for the life of an animal, is working hand in
hand with nature and the Creator, and what higher reli-
gious development can we desire than that he become
the ‘reflected image of God’?

ALEXANDER TAMING BUCEPHALUS

Fic. 7.

(A. Castaigne)

3?

CHAPTER III

CHILDREN’S ANIMALS AND PETS

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie
down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling
together; and a little child shall lead them.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the
earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover
the sea. Jsatah, xi.

He comes to the teacher with his eyes filled with a thousand pictures,
but these are ignored, and he is robbed of them one by one, until the
beauty of this world fades from his sight, and it is changed to a vale of
tears. JACKMAN.

Thanking the true Pan
Who by low creatures leads to heights of love.
Mrs. BROWNING, Flush or Faunus.

Pets are the child’s natural introduction to animal life.
By their means the knowledge gained of the animal as a
whole, its habits, life, individual character, intelligence,
disposition, affection for its master, its health and well-
being, is infinitely more living and real than that imparted
by any other method of instruction. By its associations
with the child’s spontaneous activities in caring for his
pet this knowledge becomes a part of his life and will
thus enter into the formation of his character to exert
its civilizing influence as long as he lives. Of how little
value, compared with this, is learning of names, schemes
of classification, or anatomical structures.

33

34 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

In the development of the child’s emotional and moral
life this relation to his living pet is of even greater impor-
tance. Nothing is better fitted to develop patience and
conscientious carefulness than the daily attention to its
needs. Unselfishness is fostered by this care and by
the generous sharing of his good things with his humble
friend.

Play is coming to be recognized more and more as an
important factor in life and education. Nothing as fully
brings into healthful activity every function and power,
so that Froebel truly says: «A man is a whole man only
when he plays.’”’ Plays of the young are generally pre-
paratory to activities of adult life, and pet-plays prepare,
as nothing else can, for the most important of all func-
tions, the care of the young. The care of the pet involves
the same reasoning, the same thinking and feeling and
willing and doing, as the care of the child. Finally, love
of nature is a thing of slow growth. It begins when
the love of a child flows out toward some one specific
thing; it gathers force when something else is loved,
and so on until he loves so many things and has come
to look so deeply into nature’s heart that he feels the
love of all nature. This is a result worth years of patient
education.

With these educational values in view, parents would
naturally provide for their children pet animals suited to
their ages and inclinations so far as possible, and they
can steady and assist the child in faithful care and proper
treatment.

For the school, the main point of interest being the rela-
tion between the child and pet, we must begin by finding

CHILDREN’S ANIMALS AND PETS 35

out what animals the children have. This may be done
by simply asking them to write a language lesson about
their pets, in which each tells what animals he has, how
he cares for them, and what he does with them or how he
plays with them. The teacher may then preserve these
for future reference, and during the nature-study hour
have the children recite about them in order, describing
their interests in the pet, its character, intelligence, and
disposition, the care it receives, its health, and cleanliness.
One after the other the children might be invited to
bring certain kinds of pets to show and to use as models
for drawing lessons.

Another way of securing a statement of the resources
at command of the class is to have blanks printed with
names of a number of different animals and ask the chil-
dren to fill them out as indicated. A form is here given
that may, of course, be modified in any way to adapt it
to local conditions.

ANIMALS AND PETS OWNED BY:

NOME ooocccesccccccccee vo NY 4/1] en Grade 00... Age

The pupil will please draw a line under the names of animals that he
owns and indicate the number of each.

Dog Rabbit Other animals Chicken Frog

Horse Squirrel Pigeon Other birds Fish

Cat Rat Canary Toad Turtle
Lizard Butterfly Anything else

Nore. — Please write a short description of your animal, giving breed
or species, if known, age, size, etc., and state who takes care of it and
what care it receives daily. Add anything that you wish to tell about it,
using the back of this sheet, if necessary.

36 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

With the papers in hand the teacher sees exactly what
the resources of the class are for this series of lessons in
the zodlogy work. A plan may then be made that shall
bring out the best knowledge the children have about
their animals, their habits, likes and dislikes, foods, care,
uses, etc. If the class is well supplied with pets, the
children may study and observe them, thus learning their
lessons from the living realities rather than from books;
and, as just intimated, such pets as are not likely to
cause annoyance and disturb the school may be brought
in during some of the lessons. But, in general, school-
rooms are not adapted for keeping animals, and even a
pigeon or a rabbit may be a nuisance when thus out of
place.

It is not intended to give the natural history of each
animal pet in the series, and great care must be taken
not to allow the lessons to grow dull with commonplaces
that everybody knows, or run off into details of technical
and superficial interest that it makes no difference whether
any one knows or not. People may live long and die happy
without ever having lumbered their minds up with such
ideas as ‘‘a chicken has three eyelids,” “a dog is covered
with hair,” “a cat has five toes on the front feet and four
toes on the hind feet,” and so on ad nauseam. There are
plenty of common-sense, valuable, and interesting things
to be learned about animals to occupy the time, and we
may leave all details of comparative anatomy to special
courses in colleges or medical schools. The following is
intended as merely suggestive upon the more important
of these matters, to illustrate the point of view rather
than to give a complete list. The resources of the

CHILDREN’S ANIMALS AND PETS 37

children and the common sense of the parent or teacher
must supply the rest.

The Dog.1— This was the first animal domesticated by
man and the only animal that the North American Indians
had tamed before settlement of the country by Europeans.
The reasons for this are to be sought in the character of
the dog and in his value to man. Let the children
illustrate from their own pet dogs so far as possible, and
from observations that they have been able to make for
themselves, each of the following points: fidelity and
love for master, unselfish devotion, courage, strength and
endurance, intelligence and docility, ability and willing-
ness to learn. Study the dog’s work in the hunt, his
keen scent and ability to track game, his speed and
endurance, his passionate love of hunting and retriev-
ing game; the shepherd dog, his work with flocks
and herds; the watch dog. The following topics will
appeal to the children more strongly: the dog as a
companion and playfellow; the games and tricks of
dogs, — fetching sticks or balls when thrown, retrieving
from water, drawing sleds and carts, sitting up, begging,
speaking, etc.

Among the many who keep dogs but few know how to
take proper care of them. Most people overfeed, thus
allowing the dog to grow fat, lazy, and stupid. For an
adult dog one meal a day, given in the evening, is gener-
ally better than two or three. It should consist of dog

1 Read to the class the best story you know about a dog, eg., Castle
Blair, Shaw; Helvellyn, Scott; Rab and his Friends, Dr. John Brown;
Don, J. T. Fields; To Flush, my Dog, Mrs. Browning; “ How William of
Orange was saved by his Dog,” Motley’s Rise of the Dutch Republic.

38 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

biscuit or the coarser table scraps, bread crusts, brown
bread, oatmeal, bones with not too much meat, and vegeta-
bles. In severe weather or with much exercise in the open
air a dog needs to be fed oftener and to have more food.
The best indication as to whether the feeding is proper
is the condition of the animal. He should be neither
lean nor fat, but sleek. One should be able to take up a
handful of soft, loose skin anywhere on the dog’s body.
A gnawing-bone is the dog’s toothbrush, and he should
be kept well supplied at all times, both for business and
amusement. Too much meat and lack of cleanliness is
apt to give rise to offensive odors, the “doggy” smell of
animals not properly cared for. Fleas are the great bur-
den of a dog’s life (see page 81, under insects). To kill
every flea on a dog it is necessary only to lather him
completely with some mild, clean soap, castile or ivory,
let it stay on for two or three minutes, then rinse in
clean water or let the dog take a swim. A dog is thus
the best possible flea trap. He will pick up every flea
in the house or neighborhood, and they may then be
easily killed. If every one did this, which is no less
than he should wish to do for the health, cleanliness, and
comfort of his pets, a neighborhood might soon be rid
of these pests. For other matters as to the dog’s health
and care, their owners should be referred to standard
authorities,

The Horse. — Domesticated before the dawn of history,
probably by a branch of the Aryan race in the north of
Asia, no animal has exerted a more powerful influence
in human progress, either in war, in sports, or in the arts
of peace. To learn to control and ride a spirited horse is

CHILDREN’S ANIMALS AND PETS 39

an education in itself for a boy, closely associated with
one of the greatest lessons in the nature study of the
race.

Many of the children are likely to have more or less to
do with horses in connection with either their pleasure or
their work, and the
aim of these lessons
may well be to estab-
lish a fellow-feeling
with them and high
ideals as to their

care and humane
treatment. We may
see daily instances
of misuse, if not of
actual abuse, which
a few reasonable
lessons might have
prevented ; and the
object at which such
education should
aim is the develop-
ment of general

: Fic. 8. A NOBLE ANIMAL
public sentiment. (Photograph by Charles Irving Rice)
To this end lead the

children to observe the treatment of horses in the neigh-
borhood and then group language lessons about such
topics as naturally suggest themselves. Among these
will be: care and feeding, blanketing in bad weather, over-
driving and overworking. Teach the law of your state
with reference to cruelty to animals. Have the children

40 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

read Black Beauty. How much time is devoted to these
topics must depend largely on local conditions and on the
interests and resources of the class.

The intelligent and humane taming of so powerful an
animal is perhaps the point of chief interest. We often
hear of “breaking” a horse instead of “‘taming”’ it, and
a poor spiritless thing is apt to result. The best story in
this connection is the following, a very old one; but it
may still serve as an inspiration to every child as long as
horses exist.

Philonicus of Thessaly had offered to sell Philip his horse
Bucephalus for thirteen talents. So they all went down into the
plain to try the animal. He proved, however, to be balky and
utterly useless. He would let no one mount him, and none of the
attendants of Philip could make him hear to him, but he violently
resisted them all. Philip, in his disgust, ordered the horse led away
as being utterly wild and untrained. Whereat, Alexander, who was
present, said: “That is too good a horse for those men to spoil that
way, simply because they have n’t the skill or the grit to handle him
right.” At first Philip paid no attention to him, but as he kept-
insisting on being heard and seemed greatly disturbed about the
matter, his father said to him: “ What do you mean by criticizing
your elders, as if you were wiser than they, or knew so much more
about handling a horse than they do?” “ Well, this horse, anyway,
I would handle better than any one else, if they would give me a
chance.” “In case you don’t succeed,” rejoined his father, “what
penalty are you willing to pay for your freshness?” ‘“TI/Il pay, by
Jove, the price of the horse!” Laughter greeted this answer, but
after some bantering with his father about the money arrangements,
he went straight to the horse, took him by the bridle, and turned
him around toward the sun. This he did on the theory that the
horse’s fright was due to seeing his own shadow dance up and down
on the ground before him. He then ran along by his side awhile,
patting and coaxing him, until, after a while, seeing he was full of

CHILDREN’S ANIMALS AND PETS 41

fire and spirit and impatient to go, he quietly threw off his coat, and
swinging himself up, sat securely astride the horse. Then he guided
him about for a while with the reins, without striking him or jerking
at the bit. When now he saw that the horse was getting over his
nervousness and was eager to gallop ahead, he let him go, driving
him on with a sterner voice and with kicks of his foot. In the group
of onlookers about Philip there prevailed, from the first, the silence
of intensely anxious concern, But when the boy turned the horse
and came galloping up to them with pride and joy in his face, they
all burst out into a cheer. His father, they say, shed tears for very
joy, and, as he dismounted, kissed him on the head, and said: “ My
son, seek thee a kingdom suited to thy powers; Macedonia is too
strait for thee.’

Bucephalus became from this time the property and the insepa-
rable companion of Alexander. He accompanied him on his cam-
paigns, “sharing many toils and dangers with him,” and was generally
the horse ridden by him in battle. No one else was ever allowed
to mount him, as Arrian says, “ because he deemed all other riders
unworthy.” He is reported to have been a magnificent black charger
of extraordinary size, and to have been marked with a white spot on
the forehead. BENjJAMIN IDE WHEELER, Life of Alexander the
Great.

The Cat. — This, according to Shaler, “is the only ani-
mal that has been tolerated, esteemed, and, at times,
worshipped, without having a single distinctly valuable
quality.” «It is,” he goes on to say, ‘in a small way,
serviceable in keeping down the excessive development of
small rodents, which from the beginning have been the
self-invited guests of man. As it is in a certain indiffer-
ent way sympathetic, and by its caresses appears to indi-
cate affection, it has awakened a measure of sympathy
which it hardly deserves. I have been unable to find
any authentic instances which go to show the existence
in cats of any real love for their masters.’

42 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Unlike dogs, cats readily return to a wild, or semi-wild,
life, and thus become a menace to much of the valuable
and interesting nature life of the country, game birds and
animals, and even to poultry. They breed in great num-
bers in cities, where their lives are, for the most part, a
prolonged misery both to themselves and the community.
Their cries at night are the most disagreeable sounds we
have in nature. The various smells that mark the places
they infest are utterly nauseating and intolerable.

Cats are the worst enemies of our common birds. Mr.
Forbush estimates that on the average a cat kills fifty
song birds a year, and he has known of a single cat
destroying six bird’s-nests in a day. In most states the
legislature has deemed it wise to pass laws imposing fines?
upon those who kill birds. It is obviously absurd to fine.
a man for killing one bird and at the same time allow him
to keep a cat that kills fifty. In some cities in Europe,
where every effort is being made to protect the birds,
cats are considered public nuisances if allowed to run
at large. People who wish to have cats must confine
them within their own premises, both by day and night,
because numerous cat traps are continually set for strays.
While not inaugurating a crusade against cats as pets,
the lessons in nature study may exert some influence
toward inducing children to observe what cats do and
possibly to keep other pets so far as possible. Special
attention should be directed toward preventing cats from
killing birds ; abundant feeding, keeping in at night during
nesting time, and possibly training, may prove effective in

1 Maine, $1 to $10; Massachusetts, $10; Indiana, $10 to #50; Cali-
fornia, $20 to $500.

CHILDREN’S ANIMALS AND PETS 43

some cases. Bells worn about the neck, as sometimes
advocated, may save now and then an old bird, but not
the newly hatched nestlings or young birds that are not
yet wary or strong enough to fly.

Fic. 9. TAMING THE PIGEONS

(Photograph by J. Chauncey Lyford)

Care of the other common pets, — rabbits, guinea pigs,
white mice, canaries, pigeons, chickens, and the like, —
may be taken up in series, according to the resources of the
class. Different breeds of the various animals, — rabbits,
pigeons, chickens, — with such knowledge as the children

44 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

may possess of their comparative merits, will furnish
material for valuable lessons. Homing pigeons are espe-
cially interesting.

Pets out of the common run will prove instructive. A
wild bird tamed by some member of the class, a tame
toad, frog, newt, turtle, snake, fish, or even butterfly, is not
only interesting because of its rarity, but widens human
relations toward nature. In the great process of animal
domestication, in which we have made so little advance
in the last four thousand years, such work may be made
to constitute the crest of the wave of human effort, in
itself the most interesting thing in the world.

CHAPTER IV
PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY

MeEtTHops; MareriaAts; INSECT COLLECTIONS

TEACHERS ordinarily feel quite at a loss where to
begin or what to do with insects, but in no other sub-
ject should they feel more at their ease. The trouble
has been that the field is so boundless and the books
so technical that it has seemed impossible to bring it
into any fruitful relation to elementary teaching. But
leaving all the anatomy, the minutiz of structure and
classification for the specialists, and taking the com-
mon forms alive and at their work, no study furnishes
more fascinating or valuable lessons. We shall have
daily to say “I don’t know,” but so do the profes-
sors of entomology who have done nothing but study
insects all their lives; or, since some teachers have not
yet learned the value of saying “I don’t know,” let them
play ball with the questions.

In an elementary course the aim should be to learn
what every one ought to know about a few of the most
important insects, and, for this purpose, we may study
them in the following groups:

1. Insects of the household. 3. Insects of field and forest.
z. Insects of the garden. 4. Beneficial insects.

5. Insects beautiful and interesting.
45

46 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

On the side of injury and damage to man, it has been
calculated that insects about equally divide the produce
of the soil with the farmer. Professor Riley estimated
that insects destroy annually from $300,000,000 to $400,-
000,000 worth of produce in this country alone. These

Fic. 10. PROMETHEA JUST EMERGED

a
figures were given twenty years ago and are low, as we
shall see, when we study the ravages of single insect
species.
The beneficent work of insects consists in practically
creating by cross-pollination our beautiful and fragrant

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 47

flowers and most valuable varieties of fruits. So important
is this great work that the question continually arises:
Might we not be doing harm if we reduce the numbers

of insects too much?

practical answer must be
sought in a study of each
species of insect, but it is
safe to say that as most
of the injurious kinds
do little or no good,
destruction of them is
the only problem. It is

Ecos oF ANTIOPA BUTTERFLY

also a wonderful coincidence that the most useful and
benign of all insects, the honeybee, is practically sufficient

Fic. 12. LARVA OF CECROPIA REARED FROM
THE EGG

(Length, 33 inches)

inadequate to the task.

for the work of cross-
pollination of fruits
and flowers.
Methods of insect
destruction have run
of late years toward
the use of poisons and
spray pumps. These
are expensive and
laborious, and a ride
through the country
in any direction will
convince the unpreju-
diced observer that
these methods are

One man may rid his garden of

insect pests only to have it restocked from his neighbors’

48 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

across the way, and soon he gives up the fight. We need
rather to study how to make the most of the far more
powerful and universal agencies of living nature, the
natural enemies of various insect species; and with an
intelligent public educated about these problems and all
working together, many of the worst insect ravages may
be easily and speedily
abated.

First, as to a few
simple terms: By the /zfe
history, or the life story,

i,

£
I
f

of an animal, we mean
all the changes it goes
through and all that it
does from the time it
hatches from the egg, or
is born, until it dies of
old age. Most insect
eggs hatch out into some-

Fic. 13. CHRYSALIS OF CECROPIA IN thing quite unlike the
Cocoon parent. This is called a

cae “larva.” The larve of

flies are often called “ maggots,” those of beetles, “grubs,”
and those of moths and butterflies, “caterpillars.” After
feeding actively and shedding its skin from five to twenty
times as it grows, the larva passes into its third stage, the
“pupa.” To outward appearances this is a quiescent stage,
the insect being incased in a hard shell, but inwardly active
changes of form are going on. The pupa of a butterfly is
often called a “chrysalis.” After the internal rearrange-
ments have been made and the proper time has arrived, the

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 49

pupa case is split open on the back, and the adult insect
emerges; the fourth and last stage begins. The adult
female lays the eggs, and the life story from egg around
to egg again is completed. This change of form in insects
is called “ metamorphosis.”

A few insects hatch out from the egg more nearly like
their parents in
form. Children
will notice this
in the case of
their grasshop-

per or water-bug
eggs. Insects
that do not
thus completely
change their
form are said
to present an

incomplete

Fic. 14. ADULT CECROPIA ON COCOON

metamorphosis,
and the young
in all stages are called “nymphs” instead of Jarva.

With our insect enemies it is important to learn the
whole life story in order to find the weakest point, at which
we may most easily attack and destroy them. We shall
endeavor always to point this out for the insects described,
but it will be possible to give only a few which happen to
be of greatest importance at present in order to illustrate
a method for insect nature study. The best rule to follow
is to study the insects that happen to be of most impor-
tance or of greatest interest for any locality or season.

(; natural size)

50 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Until we have the country much fuller of birds and other
insectivorous animals than it is, we may expect to have
storms of different kinds of insects. It may be grass-
hoppers or crickets or army worms or plant lice or June
beetles or caterpillars of a hundred kinds. We never
can tell what will come next, so, while the following are
described as probably of greatest importance at present
and for some time to come, we must not be too much
influenced by a formal list, but keep our minds open to
study nature as it flows by and be ever ready to do the
thing that is most worth our while.

Apparatus and Methods. — The first thing to provide is
something to catch insects with, the insect net. This
may be easily made by taking a piece of No. 12 spring
brass wire four or five feet long. Bend it into a round
loop about a foot in diameter, crossing the wire six inches
from the ends and giving it one firm twist. Next,
clamping it tightly against a small iron rod or round
stick in a vise, wind the ends closely around the rod into
a spiral. You now have a convenient frame into which
any stick can be screwed fora handle. The net may be
made from three-quarters of a yard of cotton tulle or light
cheese cloth sewed into a bag rounded at the bottom and
just as large as the frame at the top. It lasts longer if
a narrow border of sheeting to cover the wire is stitched
around the top. The bag should be a little more than
twice as deep as the frame is wide, so as to lap over and
close well when an insect is caught. It is lively work catch-
ing insects, and no one piece of nature-study apparatus will
give a child more exercise in the fresh air and better train-
ing of eye and hand than an insect net. Nothing will

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 51

secure for him such an inexhaustible supply of material for
study, and every boy and girl should have one of his own.

To preserve your insect, you must first kill it without
injury, and this is best done with a cyanide bottle. Geta
wide-mouthed bottle and a good cork to fit it tightly. In
the bottom put an ounce of potassium cyanide broken into

Fic. 15. MAKING THE INsecT NET

lumps not larger than a filbert; add sawdust a little more
than enough to cover the largest lumps and pour in plaster
of Paris, mixed to the consistency of thick cream, to form
a layer a quarter of an inch thick. The plaster will
harden in a few minutes, and an insect dropped in and
corked up will die almost instantly and without injury or
apparent suffering. What kills the insect is the fumes

$2 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

of the cyanide coming through the plaster and saturating
the air within the bottle; hence avoid breathing any of
these fumes yourself and keep the bottle tightly corked at
all times. The cyanide is a deadly poison, and the fact
that it is a harmless-looking white substance, not unlike
lump sugar or rock salt and many other things, renders
it one of the most dangerous poisons to keep about the
house. Label the bottle as in
Fig. 16. Sucha bottle will remain
good for a season. If moisture
collects in it, wipe dry with blot-
ting paper or a soft cloth.

Insects may also be killed with
r—S— I chloroform. If this is preferred,
Gnd ISON sae get an ounce of it in a flat vial;
" FOR Insects. stick the handle of a small camel’s-
este ee hair brush into the bottom of the

. cork, and, holding the insect in a
fold of the net, apply a drop to
each side (for insects breathe
through a row of minute holes
along the sides), and it dies
instantly.

On a collecting trip you will
also need strips of newspaper,
in which the insects may be
neatly folded without breaking the wings or legs.

Insects are mounted in a number of ways. The com-
mon method is to pin them in a large tray provided
with a sheet-cork bottom and glass top; but these trays
or cases are expensive and cannot be recommended for

Fic. 16. CYANIDE BOTTLE

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 53

school collections. Another way, after the insect has
been properly “stretched,” or “ spread,” is to mount per-
manently in the depression of a block of plaster of Paris,
a plate of glass just fitting the plaster block being
fastened with gummed paper, as a cover. Most moths
and butterflies in our large museums are now mounted in

Fic. 17. WALKING STICKS

Male, female, and eggs. (To show method of mounting)

this way for exhibition. This method has the disadvan-
tage of allowing only one side to be seen.

The method here advocated, which, I think, will super-
sede all others when its advantages come to be prop-
erly understood, consists in simply inclosing the insect
between two plates of glass.1_ Since our method of spread-
ing insects depends upon properly exhibiting them in this
way, I will describe it in this connection.

1 I am indebted for this method of mounting insects for school collec-

tions to Miss Martha F. Goddard, who found it in use in the Swiss schools
and kindly described it to me.

54 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Take two rectangular plates of glass of the same size,
large enough for your specimen, or specimens, for this
method is admirably adapted for life-story collections.
Cut a strip of thin wood as wide as the thickness of your
largest specimen, — berry-box or cigar-box wood is good,
—brush over one side with ink to blacken it, and, with
glue or shellac, stick the wood around the edges of one of
the glass plates. You now have a box with glass bottom
and wooden sides as deep as your thickest specimen.?
Arrange your specimens in order: egg cluster; single
egg; larvae of increasing sizes; moulted skins, if you have
them; pupze, male and female; cocoons; pupze cases, from
which the insects have emerged; leaves eaten by the
larvee; male and female adult insect. Fasten in place
with minute drops of glue where the specimen touches
the glass,? and, if desired, glue a neat label under each
specimen, giving perhaps the date of the different proc-
esses represented. Put the other glass on for a cover and
glue a strip of black paper or passe-partout around the edge
of the whole just wide enough to hide the wooden frame.
You now have a series of specimens that tell the story of
an insect’s life from beginning to end in its reality.
You can see both sides of your insects, -—-head, mouth
parts, legs, feet, wings, —all equally well.%

1 “Insect mounting strips,” made in one piece, to fold together, like a
honey section, for cases 2 x 5, 4x 5, and 5 x7 inches, and of different widths,
are now obtainable from the A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio, at about $1.25
per thousand.

2 Glue sometimes dries so hard that it scales off the glass. To prevent
this I add to an ounce bottle about twenty drops of glycerine.

8 Insects are often marked and colored differently above and below,

so that this is no small matter in deciding on a method of preparation for
imparting clear and complete conceptions to children.

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 55

As scrap glass, broken glass of all sizes, and old photo-
graphic negatives! can be utilized in this way, the cost,
either to the children or the school, for mounting a good
working collection of insects need be practically nothing,
not even the price of insect pins.

Spreading. — As we have now a clear idea of what we wish
to do with our insects, the matter of spreading — arrang-
ing wings and legs so that they will show what we wish

Fic. 18 NEw METHOD OF SPREADING INSECTS

to see — becomes one of ordinary common sense. While
the specimen is flexible, simply arrange the parts and have
them held as you wish until they dry. We will study
natural positions of the various insects and set the parts
accordingly.

Since we do not mount insects in the old way, we do not
need the minute and technical apparatus and materials
usually described for this work. All that is required is

1 Waste negatives are the best glass obtainable, thin, clear, and free
from bubbles. The films may be easily removed by hot water in which a
little sal soda or other alkali has been dissolved.

56 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

some thin boards or cards, cigar-box wood or grape-basket
covers, and a few pins, or better, fine needles mounted
in match sticks.1

To spread a butterfly or moth lay it on its back on
the board and stick a pair of pins, one each side of the
body, between the thorax and abdomen. If necessary,
insert a second pair at the neck or in front of the wings.
Bring the wings down flat on the board, move the fore
wings to their natural position, and lay on bits of glass,
one on each side to hold them, and to press them smooth
and flat while they dry. To arrange the legs have a
little piece of berry box, cut as in the figure, or two nar-
row strips, mounted on a pin; bring it down over the
insect, just the right height to suit the length of its
legs, and with a mounted needle arrange the feet upon
it in their natural positions. See that the feelers are in
good position, setting a pin against them to hold them
until they dry. Possibly you will wish to uncoil the
tongue and pin that out. Dragon flies, hellgrammites,
bumblebees, and other large winged insects may be spread
on their backs in the same way. To mount butterflies
with wings closed over the back you will, of course, place
them feet down, but it will be well to let them rest with the
body on the board, as the legs will be too fragile to support
the weight when they become dry.

Beetles, bugs, grasshoppers and crickets, ants, flies,
spiders, etc., are easily spread, feet down, in natural posi-
tions (Fig. 14). Some of the smaller and stouter ones

1 While we do not use pins to stick through the insects, insect pins are

good to use for holding the parts in place while they dry. A package of
one hundred, assorted sizes, costs but fifteen cents.

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 57

may be able to stand on their dried legs, but it will gen-
erally be safer to mount them, with the aid of a drop
of glue, so that the thorax will touch the glass. If it be
desired to have them stand higher, glue a little post of
the right length, —a bit of broom, splint, or cork, — to the
thorax, or thrust a point of a toothpick (dipped in ink)
into the thorax from below and cut it off as high as you
wish the insect to stand, and glue this to the glass of
the permanent case. With beetles and grasshoppers it is
well to raise one wing cover so that the wing below may
be seen.

Caterpillars and grubs and larve of various sorts may
be mounted in several ways. First, to prepare dried
skins lay the dead caterpillar on a blotter, and using a
lead pencil for a roller, begin at the head and gently roll
the viscera out. The flattened skin may then either be
pressed as we would a flower, until it is dry, or inflated
with a blowpipe and dried over a lamp.! If the larva
is green, it will turn yellow in drying, and the color may
be imitated by shaking into it a little green chalk or Paris
green. Mosquito wrigglers and similar larve may be
allowed simply to dry on the glass of the mounting case in

1 The blowpipe for this purpose is made from a small glass tube drawn
to a moderately fine point, three or four inches long. Slip over the open
end a piece of small rubber tubing about a foot long, for a mouthpiece.
By cutting off the intestine about a quarter of an inch behind the body
and blowing sharply at the cut, it will open up, and the whole caterpillar
will be inflated; keep blowing and slip the intestine over the end of the
blowpipe; it will soon stick fast to the glass, and by holding it over
a lamp, high enough not to scorch, and keeping it inflated, the skin will dry
in a few minutes. If the blowing is too tiresome, the blowpipe may be
attached to a “dying pig” or a toy rubber balloon, the inflation of which
will keep up a constant pressure until the skin is dry.

58 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

the place where it is desired to have them. White, soft
larvee, grubs, apple worms, or maggots may be preserved
whole in 75 per cent alcohol (alcohol to which one-°*
fourth water has been added), or better, if obtainable,
5 per cent formalin, in small vials with the corks sealed
with wax.!

If the specimens become stiff or too dry, they require
relaxing before they can be spread. This is done by
leaving them in a tight box—TI use a small aquarium,
but a tin pail or box will do as well— with about two
inches of moist sand in the bottom. Lay a paper over
the sand to prevent injury to delicate specimens, and if
mould appears, light two or three sulphur matches and
let them burn in the closed box, or pour in a few drops
of strong formalin or carbolic acid. It will take from an
hour to a day, or even more, to relax an insect, according
to its size and dryness. The softening may be hastened
by moderate warming and is retarded by cold. If a leg
or antenna is broken, it may be mended with a touch of
white shellac.

Very small insects, — gnats, fleas, lice, newly hatched
larvae, etc.. — can be mounted by simply gluing them to
the glass, with no attempt to spread.?

The dried specimens should be placed in their perma-
nent positions in the glass mounting cases and sealed up
as speedily as practicable to insure them against attacks

1 Instead, these specimens may be easily sealed in glass tubes, making
neat and permanent mounts.

2Many of these minute insects may be mounted beautifully on an
ordinary microscopic slide, and the whole life story be brought under a
single cover slip.

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 59

of museum pests. The one especially to be feared is a
minute beetle, Anthrenus, that feeds, both in the larval
and adult state, upon such dry animal substances as
museum specimens. This is the insect pest that reduces
practically every uncared-for specimen to a heap of brown
dust. Heretofore it has made the gathering of biological
school collections almost impossible. A class leaves a
fine collection in the cabinet at the end of the spring
term, only to find it dust in the fall, and the teacher and
school are naturally discouraged. Specimens promptly
sealed up in the way just described have already stood the
test of several years, but we cannot tell when Anthrenus
may have laid its eggs on a specimen, and we must watch
for the first indications of its presence, — fine brown dust
on and underneath the insect. If this be seen, drill a
small hole through the wooden frame of the mounting
case, and with a pipette, with the point drawn out to a
fine tube, insert a drop of carbon bisulphide. Plug the
hole immediately, and its contents will be safe forever
after.?

With the above suggestions any class in nature study
may easily begin a permanent collection of insect life
stories that will be an invaluable aid in instruction and
grow in excellence and completeness for the important
insects of the neighborhood from year to year. The col-
lection should be kept in the dark, except when in use,
to prevent fading of specimens, and it may be packed
in small space in a drawer or box. The mounting cases
should be labeled on one end with the name of the insect

11 have never been obliged to do this, but give it as a suggestion to
those who may be troubled by museum pests.

60 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

contained in it, and also with that of the child or class
that contributes it to the school collection.

It is not intended, however, to allow the use of these
collections to degenerate to the museum method of study-
ing insects. Each life-story collection should be made
merely the starting point, —a means of imparting clear
ideas as to just what insect to look for in beginning

Fic. 19. BEGINNING OF A NATURE-STUDY INSECT COLLECTION

the study of the active life and work of the species in
the infinite museum of nature always present about our
homes.

In case it is undesirable to make insect collections, drawings,
preferably colored, may be made illustrating each step.

For the study of insects alive in the schoolroom, vivaria or aquaria
described in Chapter XXIV may be used. If these are not at hand,
a good substitute for this purpose may be made by replacing the
cover of a cigar box (a chalk box or even one of pasteboard will do)
with a pane of glass. These latter have proved most serviceable.
Each child should have one on his desk, where he can feed his

PLAN FOR INSECT STUDY 61

insects and watch them grow and pass through their various moults
and transformations.

In the fall the different cabbage worms will prove instructive
material for study, as they pass rapidly through their various trans-
formations. Many of the specimens collected at this time will have
been parasitized, and the emergence of the parasites from their host
will afford a valuable lesson on the work of beneficial insects.

Many cocoons are likely to be brought in during the
fall and winter. A good disposition of these is to have
each pupil fasten his collection on a card and arrange the
cards as a frieze over the blackboards around the room.
When a moth is seen emerging, the card may be taken
down and the whole process watched.

GENERAL BOOKS OF REFERENCE

Comstock, A Manual for the Study of Insects, 701 pp.; 797
illustrations. 1895. — The best general book of reference ; rather
advanced for grade school work.

BELLE S. CRAGIN, Our Insect Friends and Foes, 377 pp.3 255
figures.

WEED, Life Histories of American Insects, 272 pp. ; 94 figures.

CHAPTER V
INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD

Flies. — These are the commonest and often the most
annoying insects we have. We are obliged to screen our
windows and doors to keep them out. They flyspeck
everything they can get at, crawl over our food, fall into
our milk and cream, lay their eggs, flyblow our meats
and fruits and other foods. There are hundreds of dif-
ferent kinds of flies. Little flies and gnats, so small we
can hardly see them, never grow to be big flies. They
are all different kinds.

The question is, How can we get rid of the three or
four troublesome kinds that infest our houses? In order
to answer this question, we must learn their life histories.
The picture below gives the four stages in the life of
every fly: the egg, larva or maggot, the pupa, and fly.

The common house fly, Musca domestica, lays its eggs
in horse manure and dooryard filth, How many eggs one
fly may lay is not known, nor how long a fly may live.
A fly has been known to deposit as many as forty-five
eggs in a single night, and she probably lays hundreds or
possibly a thousand during her lifetime. The eggs, as we
know from Dr. Packard’s studies, hatch in about one day,
the larvae grow for five to seven days, and the pupal
stage is also from five to seven days. Thus in ten to

fourteen days a generation of flies may be produced, and
62

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 63

we see why it is that from a very few individuals in early
spring we may have swarms of flies by midsummer.

The stable fly, Stomoxys calcitrans, is commonly mis-
taken for the house fly, which it closely resembles, but
differs from it in having its mouth parts formed for
piercing the skin. Its bite is painful, and while it is not
poisonous, it may carry disease from animal to animal or
even to man. We often see horses, cattle, and dogs sur-
rounded by swarms of these
flies, and, aside from the
actual suffering and annoy-
ance they cause, they must
occasion the loss of pounds

®

Fic. 20. Housr FLy

a, egg; 4, larva or maggot; c, pupa case, or puparium; d, adult male. (All enlarged)

of flesh and gallons of blood and milk during a season.
These flies probably lay their eggs on manure, and with
this covering our fields and pastures, we shall not be able
to prevent them from breeding in the country. In cities
stable pits may often be made fly proof with but little
additional expense.

The bluebottle fly, Calliphora crythrocephala, is a third
species that children can readily learn. It breeds in
decaying animal matter. If a fish head or a piece of

64 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

fresh meat be exposed for an hour in warm weather, it
will generally be found to have masses of whitish-yellow
eggs on it of the bluebottle, or blow, fly.

It is not intended that children shall make breeding
experiments with flies. Such disagreeable work may be
left, in general, for specialists, but the two lessons that
every child should learn are that filth of various sorts
breeds flies and that in spite of the best we can do in
keeping our premises clean, we need the help of insectiv-
orous animals. Ask children to study what the swallows
are doing when circling about a herd of cattle, what the
phoebe and kingbird do when they dart from their perch
and you hear their bills snap. What other birds eat
flies? Let some child who has a tame bat see how many
flies it will eat. The writer had one that ate 243 ata
meal, but it died soon after. Let the children watch the
toads about the back doorstep to see how many flies one
of them may eat in a day. One little girl the writer
knows counted while a toad snapped up 128 flies within
a half hour. A tree frog is a most interesting pet and a
wonderful flytrap.

Mosquitoes. — These insects furnish a great field for out-
door study, careful observation, and experiment. There
are thirty different species described for North America
(for the more complete study of which refer to Bulletin
No. 25, United States Department of Agriculture). It is,
however, only necessary to know the life story of any one
kind to do efficient and valuable work. The eggs may be
found at any time in warm weather on the surface of stag-
nant water; they hatch generally in the afternoon of the
same day they are laid and pass their larval and pupal

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 65

stages, known as ‘wrigglers,” in the water, and in from
seven to fourteen days, according to weather, emerge as
adult mosquitoes. A female may lay from 200 to 400
eggs. A good example in arithmetic is the following:

Suppose a mosquito lays 200 eggs, one-half of which
hatch females, and these each lay 200 eggs, and so on,
calling the time for a generation ten days; how many
mosquitoes would there be after 180 days, 7z.é., in the
eighteenth generation? © ~~ -~-- Criss Bs
The answer is 2,000,000,-
000,000,000,000,000,000,-
000,000,000,000,000, one-
half of which may be
males. This is, accord- |
ing to Dr. Howard, about
the minimal period in |
which a generation can EEG erie a sel lesaad ol cal
mature. What would the Fic. 21. FEMALE ANOPHELES Mosquito
result be if the period were \Erose Fhistogtiph: by the Author)
twenty days? thirty days? Eggs might be collected and
reared and the actual time ascertained by the class.

In one month a single female mosquito may thus give
rise to from 1,010,100 to 2,020,000 female mosquitoes,
— quite enough to stock a good-sized city.

Lessons on mosquitoes may be undertaken at any sea-
son of the year, but are especially valuable after warm
weather begins in spring, — April or May for most parts
of this country. A lesson or two in winter will prove
instructive in discovering how mosquitoes pass this sea-
son. The children should then be asked to seek for
specimens in stable and house cellars.

66 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

After the snow and ice disappear in spring, let each
child keep careful watch for eggs and wrigglers, in any
stagnant pools, water pails, tubs, or barrels standing
outdoors about his own home, and note the date and
bring in specimens in a bottle
filled with the water in which

Se they are found.

Fic. 22. EGG RAFT LAID BY A As soon as the wrigglers
PaNietS MOSES appear in numbers, arrange
an aquarium with a single little fish, preferably a native in
the locality, — sunfish, perch, pickerel, pout, bass, shiner,
dace, — but a goldfish will do. You will not have fed the
fish the day before this lesson. Gather the class about
the aquarium, and as you pour in a tumblerful of wrigglers

ask each to count how many the fish takes for a meal.

In another aquarium keep a large
quantity of wrigglers. Have the top
securely covered with gauze, so that
none may escape into the room, and
observe from time to time to see them
moult their skins, until a number have
passed through the larval stages and
emerged as adult mosquitoes.
Then, at the beginning of the
nature-study lesson, put a few
drops of kerosene oil on the water
and let the children observe the
result. Within a few minutes all the wrigglers will have
been killed, and as the mosquitoes touch the oily surface
they sink down and drown. A mosquito can walk on
water, as the children should already have observed in

Fic. 23. Mosguiro Pupa
(After Howard)

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 67

the aquarium, but it cannot stand on oil. Since all the
mosquitoes of a neighborhood must come to the water to
lay their eggs, and since all the eggs and wrigglers are
killed, this is one of the easiest ways to rid the place of
mosquitoes. It has been tried on a large scale and under
all sorts of conditions with remarkable success, so that
any inland community, not surrounded by interminable
marshes which cannot be drained, may easily rid itself of
the mosquito pest. The amount of oil required is an
ounce for fifteen square feet of water surface, and it will
not require renewing for from one to two months, unless
washed off by heavy rains. As soon as live wrigglers can
be found, the oil should be applied again.

The children have now learned two ways of exterminat-
ing mosquitoes. Discuss and compare them, drawing out
what the class thinks is the easiest, cheapest, and most
effective method. Bring out the fact that one is man’s,
the other is nature’s, method.

As the hunt for mosquitoes and wrigglers progresses
in the spring, have each child make a map of some part
of the district, preferably his own lot, block, or farm,
marking plainly all the pools and streams in which mos-
quitoes are and are not found. Have the children then
go over the ground very carefully again, to see if they
can discover why mosquitoes are abundant in some places
and not in others; they may take their maps with them
and do this on an excursion. Do the fishes make the
difference? Do frog and toad tadpoles! keep the water

1 The writer has seen toad tadpoles eat mosquito larve in an aquarium
and has observed that in two water-lily tubs standing side by side the one
without tadpoles swarmed with wrigglers, while the cne stocked with tad-

poles contained none or very few.

68 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

clear of wrigglers? Can they discover anything else that
eats mosquito wrigglers in the water ?

Step by step, as a point is learned, encourage each
child to make what practical applications he can. If this
has been done, the children will have collected minnows
from ponds and streams where they are abundant in order
to stock such pools as are suitable but do not contain
fish. Mud puddles and all pools too filthy or temporary
for fish to live in should be drained, and where this is not
immediately possible, they may be
covered with kerosene at the rate
of an ounce to fifteen square feet
of surface.

Mosquitoes and Malaria. — Annoy-
ance and suffering caused by
mosquitoes should be sufficient to
supply motives for this work. Still
another series of lessons for pupils
of sufficient advancement will serve
Fic, 24. Ecos or Marariat to increase interest in the subject,

secu especially in districts afflicted with
malaria.

As they appear resting natu-
rally on the surface of the

water. (Enlarged. After © Begin by asking the pupils how
Howard) ‘ a. ¥
many have had malaria within a
year. How did they enjoy it? Next they may be asked
to tell how many cases they have known in the neighbor-
hood. Let them describe how the different cases are
distributed with reference to swamps and stagnant water.
It might be well to ask them to tell how they suppose
people get malaria and leave them to think over this
question until the next lesson.

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 69

At the beginning of the lesson restate the question and
allow only a few minutes for them to advance their own
theories. Follow up the answers that take the right direc-
tion and see if the cases of malaria cannot be accounted
for readily by
means of trans-
mission of the dis-
ease by mosquito

bites. Then read
the following: Fic. 25@. Hatr-Grown LarVA OF ANOPHELES

In feeding position, just beneath surface film.
“The latest an- (Enlarged. After Howard)
nounced results of

the most advanced investigators
seem to show that mosquitoes
form the principal if not the sole
means of transmission of malaria,
and workers in all parts of the
world, including many parts of
the United States, are investigat-
ing the subject, more especially
in relation to local conditions.”
Circular No. 4o, Second Series,
United States Department of
Agriculture, Division of Ento-

Fic. 254. HALF-GRowN LARVA OF
CULEX

In breathing position. (Enlarged.

mology, entitled «« How to distin- After Howard)
guish the Different Mosquitoes
of North America.” [It is now held that yellow fever is also trans-

mitted by mosquitoes. ]

The children will see that they are doing something
worth while and of present interest. It now becomes
necessary to distinguish among the different species of
mosquitoes the ones that carry malaria. These have all
been found to belong to the genus Anopheles. The

70 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

distinguishing characteristic of the genus is that the palpi
are at least almost as long as the proboscis in both sexes.
An easier way to distinguish Anopheles from all other
mosquitoes is from the position of the wrigglers in the
water and of the adults when resting on a surface (Fig. 3
of above Czrcudar and others in Bulletin No. 25).

If Anopheles is found and malaria abounds in the
district, the investigation of the class should be carefully
prepared for publication in the local papers and every effort

eet

Fic. 26. RESTING PosITIONS OF ANOPHELES (AT LEFT) AND CULEX
(aT RIGHT)
a, antenne ; 4, proboscis; /, palpi. (Enlarged. After Howard)

be made to effect complete extermination of the pests.
Even if this be impossible, if the study succeed in influ-
encing the children against wantonly exterminating the
fishes and frogs and newts of our surface waters, it will
not have been in vain.

Throughout these lessons special attention should also
be directed toward observing and studying the enemies of
mosquitoes in the air. Young toads and tree frogs may
be experimented with to see how many they will eat at a
meal. Swallows are known to destroy enormous numbers,

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 71

and nothing is more fascinating than to watch the dragon
flies, appropriately called “mosquito hawks,” catching
mosquitoes on the wing.

We shall not be able to devote so much time to many
other insects, equally important, but this study of the
mosquito should be used as the type, showing the point of
view and the methods to be employed with other species.

Clothes Moths. — Comstock calls them “the dread of every
housekeeper.” A coat is no better than its smallest hole.
Since earliest historic times
these little insects have
been the devourers of
man’s woolens and furs,
and they are still as active
as ever. No estimate can
be made of the amount of
trouble, annoyance, work, Ma. 27. Common Ciotuus Morn
and damage they cause a,adult; 4, larva; ¢, larva in case.

(Enlarged, After Riley)
year by year. It must go
a long way into the millions in spite of the best efforts
of careful housekeepers. How many intelligent house-
keepers know the life story of this troublesome insect?
IIow much casier might it make the battle if they did !

Lessons may begin by asking the children to collect
statistics of amount of damage caused by clothes moths
in their own homes during the previous year. Include
with the actual loss, if any, the value of time, labor, and
materials used in prevention. There are sixteen million
homes in this country and, if desirable, simple calcula-
tion will yield an interesting estimate of the tax that one
small family of insects imposes and collects each year.

72 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Next let the members of the class provide themselves
with wide-mouthed bottles and hunt over every closet,
attic or storeroom, stable, poultry house, or woodshed
where scraps of hair, feathers, fur, or woolen cloth may have
gathered. Let them collect all the specimens both of larva.
and moths they can find and bring them to class in their
bottles. The lesson may then be devoted to distribution
of clothes moths about the home.

oe Put a scrap of black woolen cloth
Ls

< in each of the bottles containing

PEA SOR
| NRO

moths, cover the tops securely
with fine cotton gauze, and ask
the children to study their speci-
mens to see if they are all alike.
Fic. 28. SouTHERN CLOTHES There are three clothes moths,
eck ie pine sa eee distinguished as follows:

pupa skin. (Enlarged. After Tinea pellionella, common

Huey) clothes moth, brown, with a few
dark spots on fore wings ; larva constructs a case to live in.

Tineola biselliella, southern clothes moth, pale straw
color without spots; larva spins silken webs, eats hair,
feathers, furs, museum specimens, and cobwebs.

Trichophaga tapetzella, tapestry moth, basal half of fore
wings black, the rest white; larva constructs burrows or
galleries in which it spins a silken lining. It generally
feeds on coarser fabrics, tapestries, carpets, skins, felt,
carriage upholsteries, etc.

Continue study of specimens ; examine black cloths with
the aid of a hand lens for eggs, tiny white specks scarcely
visible to the naked eye; select as many different stages
as possible and mount them permanently, as described in

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 73

Chapter IV; make drawings and group language lessons
for the time being about the life story and work of the
clothes moths.

The construction of its case is an interesting process
with the common clothes moth. It is made very small at
first to fit the tiny larva. As it becomes too short for its
growing occupant, new material is added at both ends,
and when it gets too tight the larva slits it down the side,
first at one end and then at the other, and inserts trian-
gular gores. If, after they have begun to grow, the black
cloth is removed and a piece of red
woolen, or any other color, sub-
stituted, then later some white,
and so on, a coat of many colors
will result which will show how
each addition has been made. The Fre. 29. Taprstry Motu
moth has but a single brood in the Adult moth. (Enlarged. After
northern United States, the adult oo
moths appearing and laying their eggs from June to August,
so that this latter experiment must be chiefly vacation
work for the pupils; but it will take only a few moments’
attention from time to time, and the specimens may be
preserved and brought in at the opening of school in
the fall. The pupa is formed within the case, and the
pupal stage lasts ordinarily three weeks. The moth eats
nothing, its mouth parts being rudimentary, and causes no
damage, except as it lays its eggs upon exposed materials
that may furnish food for its destructive larvze.

The final lesson should be focused upon developing
clear ideas about methods of dealing with clothes moths.
Draw out and arrange in an orderly fashion, so far as

74. NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

possible, every method the children can think out for them-
selves and all they may have learned from their homes.
The first and most effective of these will be scrupulous
care against allowing to be neglected anywhere about
the premises any materials that may furnish food for the
larvee. Second, all woolens and furs must be packed
away so that moths cannot lay their eggs on them, and
it should be remembered that they may lay their eggs
about cracks in trunks or chests and that the larve
may find their way in when they are almost too small to
be seen. We can prevent this by tying the materials in
tight cotton-cloth bags or by packing them away in paste-
board boxes with a strip of paper pasted over the crack
around the cover. If there have been any moths about,
there is danger that eggs may have been lodged about
the garments, which airing and brushing may not have
removed. To insure against possible damage from this
source we may pack the garments in a very tight box,
wash boiler, or trunk, placing on top a saucer containing
from a tablespoonful to half a teacup (according to size
of receptacle) of carbon bisulphide. Close quickly and
as tightly as possible and leave closed for a day. This
should be done by daylight and out of doors. The fumes
of the carbon bisulphide are heavy and will have descended
and penetrated through every stitch, seam, and pore, kill-
ing eggs and larve in all stages. The garments may then
be aired and packed away.

Great care should be taken not to breathe any of the
carbon bisulphide, for it is poisonous; hence if kept about
the house or premises at all, it must be in securely stop-
pered cans or bottles. No flame or fire should be allowed

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 75

anywhere near carbon bisulphide, because it is volatile and
its fumes are highly inflammable and explosive.

In leaving the subject, as with all similar topics, make
perfectly clear its social and ethical bearings. In the
preliminary search for specimens the children will doubt-
less have discovered that some cast-off garment, piece
of carpet, fragment of horse blanket, or other rubbish
in some corner of attic or outhouse is breeding moths
enough to supply the neighborhood. It is quite as impor-
tant that boys should undertake this study as girls,
because often most of the moth supply is bred in stables
and outhouses. Is it right that some one should be igno-
rant and careless and thereby cause his neighbors labor,
annoyance, and loss?

The Carpet Beetle, or Buffalo Moth, Anthrenus scrophulari@.—
Since its food is similar, this insect may be hunted for at
the same time with the clothes moths and should be treated
in somewhat the same way. It was imported into Boston
and New York from Europe about 1874, and it is inter-
esting, as showing how fast such pests may travel, to
note that it has become a household pest throughout all
the New England states, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas, It is not
commonly known as a carpet pest in Europe, because
tacked-down carpets are little used.

The larvze, which, as in the case of the clothes moths,
do all the damage, are lively little fellows, about a quarter
of an inch in length, bristling all over with stiff brown
hairs. They frequent cracks in the floor about borders
and unused portions of rooms and, feeding from below,
cut long slits in the carpets. Besides poking them out

76 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

of cracks a good way to trap them is to spread woolen
cloths on closet floors, taking them up daily and shaking
them over papers. The larve, if kept in bottles and fed
on woolen cloth, may be observed to change into pupz
within their last larval skins. The pupa case finally is
split open on the back, and a little black beetle emerges.
It is about one-seventh of an inch in length and is cov-
ered with black, white, and brick-red scales, giving it a
mottled appearance. An amusing thing about the larvee
is that, if kept in a dry place without any food, they wili

Fic. 30. CARPET BEETLE

a, larva, dorsal view ; 4, pupa within larval skin; c, pupa, ventral view; d, adult.
(All enlarged. After Riley)

live for an almost indefinite time, feeding on their cast-
off skins, z.¢, when one gets hungry he sheds his skin
and eats it. Great care should be taken to teach the
distinction between carpet beetles and our little lady-bird
beetles. These latter often come into our houses to pass
the winter and are killed by mistake. They are among
our best insect friends and may be worth a quarter apiece
for destroying plant lice, as we shall see when we come
to study insects of the garden.

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD Ta.

The times and seasons in the story of the carpet
beetle’s life are not definitely stated in the books, which
means that there is all the more for pupils to find out.
There are probably two broods a year. Adults of the
second brood begin to emerge in the fall and continue
coming out through the winter, so that by spring, in an
infested house, the rooms will be full of them. They are
day fliers, are attracted to the light, and hence, on sunny
days in early spring, they gather in numbers on the win-
dows. They feed on the pollen of flowers — especially of
the Scrophulariaceze (mullein and snapdragon) and certain
of the Compositze (milfoil). They are also fond of the spi-
rzeas, and may be found on willow, currant, and cherry blos-
soms. It is stated in the books that “they have probably”
deposited their eggs about the carpets before they seek
the flowers in the spring, but it would be safe to brush
them from the window panes into a saucer of kerosene
oil.

Remedies.— From what we have already learned of their
life story, we see that when a house is once infested it
is a desperate undertaking to get rid of the pests, living
as they do in all sorts of cracks and crevices. Carpets
must be taken out and thoroughly sprayed with naphtha
or benzine, floors must be scalded, the cracks cleaned out
and kerosene or benzine poured into them. Even then
the best way to deal with the carpet beetle is to revolu-
tionize ideas of housekeeping and substitute hard-wood or
stained or painted floors with rugs for tacked-down carpets.
Further, since dust and stuffiness are the most unhealth-
ful features of American homes, this change is likely to
prove highly conducive to health ; and if the carpet beetle

78 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

can aid in bringing this about, it should be looked upon as
a missionary rather than a pest, a blessing in disguise.

Fleas, Lice, Bedbugs. — These insects subsist upon the
blood of man and all kinds of animals, generally a dif-
ferent variety for the different species of animals. No
estimate of the time, labor, expense, and distress caused
by this class of insect pests can be made. They flourish
in the homes of the untidy and careless and spread through-
out the community by means of appropriate channels of
intercourse, — public schools, churches, libraries, public
conveyances, and the shifting of servants.

A superhuman amount of tact and
good nature on the part of the teacher
would be needed to carry

Fic. 31. BLAck CARPET BEETLE
Larva and adult. (Allenlarged. After Howard and Marlatt)

on the study of these insects along the lines indicated for
mosquitoes and the other household pests, but it is not
intended to attempt it. A quite distinct method of pro-
cedure should be adopted, and this must be varied accord-
ing to all sorts of circumstances. But since the school is
perhaps the most frequent means of their dissemination,
it is no more than right that they should form a serious
part of the nature-study course whenever this becomes
necessary. Respectable people who are made the fre-
quent victims of these mortifying scourges, and especially
teachers, should be the first to insist upon this.

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 79

It is not proposed to import any specimens for study
or even to ask pupils to search their homes for them,
since those who are successful in their search cannot be
expected to own up to the fact. If sometime during
the year specimens cannot be found in the school, the
study may be confined to prepared specimens collected
from former years, by way of prevention, or it may be
omitted altogether.

Whenever specimens are found, the opportunity should
be utilized to give a series of lessons that can never be
forgotten. The child upon whose person or belongings
any of the above-mentioned insects, with possible excep-
tion of fleas, are found should be sent home and not
allowed to return to school until assurance is given that
the pest has been thoroughly dealt with. Due care should
be exercised, of course, not to be too severe in case of
an accidental specimen for which neither the home nor
child is responsible. The ethical side is very clear in all
such cases, and it should be made plain to each child that
his carelessness may cause a whole school and neighbor-
hood useless labor and distress.

For purposes of reference (and information is needed
by a large portion of the public) a brief outline of the
life story is added for each species, together with one or
two of the most approved remedies.

Fleas. —The most common flea in this country is the
dog and cat flea, Pulex serraticeps, which attacks man as
well and often infests houses where these pets are kept.
When numerous it may cause as much annoyance as
the human flea, P. zvrttans. In fact, the two species are
so nearly alike both in appearance and in life story that

80 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

no attempt need be made to distinguish them. Rabbits,
squirrels, rats and mice, moles, hens, and many other
animals have each their peculiar flea, but for elementary
study they may all be treated alike.

From a lady’s dress, on which a kitten had been
fondled for a short time, fully a teaspoonful of fleas’ eggs
was collected. Few people ever think of this part of the
life story, but here it naturally begins. The eggs are
white, oval, and may be distinguished readily from particles
of dust by the unaided eye that knowsthem. They are laid

Fic. 32. DoG Anp CaT FLEA

Egg, larva, and adult. (Allenlarged. After Howard)

generally in the hair of the infested animal, or wherever
else the fleas happen to be, and are easily shaken off to
the ground or floor, where the eggs hatch and the larve
develop. The larve are slender, white, footless, active,
wormlike little creatures. They feed upon the particles
of dust in carpets or cracks of floors or out of doors
upon decaying vegetation in the soil. The pupal stage is
also passed in the dust, where the larva feed. The egg
hatches in about fifty hours; the larva completes its
growth in seven days; and, after eight days spent in the
cocoon, the adult emerges. Thus about seventeen days

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 81

are required for the three stages, — egg, larva, and pupa,
—and how long the adult lives or how many eggs one
may lay nobody knows. The adult readily leaps upon a
passing animal,—dog or cat,—and the life circle is
repeated, generation after generation, the year round, in
artificially heated houses or wherever there is sufficient
warmth for development to go on.

Remedial measures must depend somewhat upon degree
of infestation. If a house is badly infested, the thorough
dusting of everything — floors, carpets, rugs, sofas, and
all upholstered furniture—with fresh pyrethrum powder,
left from two days to a week before sweeping up, may
afford relief. When this is not effective, the pyrethrum
is probably not fresh, but it is sometimes said to be neces-
sary to spray the furniture and carpets heavily with ben-
zine or naphtha and scrub and soak the floors with hot
soapsuds.

By far the easiest and best way is prevention, and the
humane care of household pets demands nothing short of
this. As previously stated for dogs, it is necessary only
to keep a sharp lookout, and as soon as any fleas are
found thoroughly lather the animal before his bath. A
dog thus becomes the best automatic flea trap imaginable.
Cats may be held on a newspaper and pyrethrum powder
thoroughly dusted into the fur. Rabbits, white rats, and
squirrels may be treated similarly. Nest boxes, kennels,
sleeping rugs, and baskets should also be thoroughly
treated with pyrethrum from time to time.

Lice. —The head louse, Pediculus capitis, lives in the
hair of the head. The eggs are known as “nits” and are
securely glued to the hairs a little distance from the scalp,

82 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

generally back of the ears. They are laid in great numbers.
Remedies are, first of all, cleanliness and constant vigilance
where infection is possible. One thorough application of
oil of cajeput to the hair should prove fatal to both lice
and nits. Some care should be used not to flood the scalp
with the oil, as on tender skins it causes slight inflam-
mation and for delicate
skins of young children
the oil, mixed with an equal
amount of vaseline, will
prove as effective, with less
danger of causing irritation.
Larkspur and strong alco-
hol are other remedies.

The body louse, Pedicu-
_ lus vestimentt, lives and

Fic. 33. CimEx LECTULARIUS deposits its eggs in the
a, adult female gorged with blood; 4, egg. folds and seams of human

(After Marlatt)

clothing. A female may
lay as many as 2500 eggs a month, and in warm weather
many more than this, which accounts for the sudden-
ness with which an outbreak may appear. The remedy is
thorough boiling of all infested clothing, preferably in salt
water. Treatment with carbon bisulphide, as described
for clothes moths, is also effective.

Bedbugs, Cimex lectularius.—These are insects the long
association of which with man, extending as far back as his-
toric records, has resulted in development of a consider-
able degree of cunning. They bite during the sleep of
their victim and under cover of darkness, hiding during
daylight in cracks of old-fashioned wooden bedsteads,

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 83

under loose places in the wall paper, in crevices behind
picture mouldings, in picture frames, or about door or
window casings or mopboards. They are inclined to be
gregarious, which aids in their destruction in case their
hiding places can be discovered, and their characteristic
“spotting” is of assistance in this. Bedbugs are known
to migrate from one house to another, especially when a
house is vacated, and they can live for a year or more with-
out food. That they are cunning enough to steal rides
from place to place is indicated to some extent by the
frequency with which they get into trunks and satchels of
. travelers and are found on the clothing of school children
from .infested homes ; but this
may be due to accident or over-
crowding.

A common remedy consists in
flooding with benzine all crev-
ices that may harbor the pest.
Filling these cracks with pyre- yo, 34. Broop-Suckinc Cone
thrum powder is not so effective Nose
as with most other insects, but ~ 2@ult bug: 4, first pupal stage.

(All enlarged to same)
for immediate relief a thorough
dusting of the powder between the sheets will protect the
weary traveler from the most voracious of the species,
and all tourists, especially in Europe, should include a

supply in their kits.

The “big bedbug,” or blood-sucking cone nose, Cono-
rhinus sanguisuga, is distributed throughout the Southern
States. During its larval stages it probably subsists
upon other insects, but the adults are provided with wings
and live on the blood of mammals. They not infrequently

84 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

fly into houses and attack men. Their bite is extremely
painful and quite venomous. Closely related to these
is the “kissing bug,” Reduvius personatus. Its natural
food, so far as known, is the bedbug, hence it is common
in filthy cities ; but it sometimes bites man with somewhat
serious results. In its larval stages its body is covered
with a sticky substance. This collects dust and lint
which effectually con-
ceal the insect and give
it one of its common
names, “the masked
bedbug hunter.” The
insect may not uncom-
monly be found about
dusty corners of attics
or barn lofts, and the
adults are sometimes
found in beds, where
they are probably seek-
ing their natural food.

Cockroaches. — Roaches
eat practically every-
thing they can gain
access to, often doing
serious damage even to book bindings in libraries. They
are nocturnal and live in damp, dark places, generally
about sinks, water pipes, and set tubs. They have a
nauseating odor and, as they are wont to congregate
about garbage, the thought of eating the food they have
touched is intolerable. They may also be carriers of
disease germs.

2

a

Fic. 35. THE AMERICAN ROACH

a, egg capsule; J,adult. (Natural size. After
Marlatt)

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 85

There are four kinds of roaches common in this coun-
try : the small brown German roach, the Croton or water
bug, Ectobia Germanica, generally troublesome about hotels
and dwelling houses; the large black roach, Periplaneta
Americana, more common about mills, bakeries, wharves,
and ships; the Australian roach, P. Australasig, com-
mon in Florida and the South; and the oriental roach,
P. orientalis, which
is quite cosmopolitan.

To be rid of these
pests is easier to talk
about than to accom-
plish. Their long
association with man

ne in : oe _ ve . Uy) ))))

and poisons are of &
only partial and tem- Fic. 36. THE GERMAN RoacHu

porary avail. Clean, 4, second stage; d, fourth stage; f, adult female
with egg case; g, egg case. (Enlarged. All
natural size, except g. After Riley)

open plumbing, with
no cracks for them to
hide in, is the first consideration. If this be impossible,
scalding soapsuds or benzine syringed or poured into their
hiding places will aid in keeping their numbers in check.
The writer has discovered that bats are very fond of
roaches, and it is said that a common toad or a tree frog
left in an infested room will soon exterminate them.
Experiments, as opportunity may offer, with any of these
natural methods may prove instructive and interesting.
The eggs of cockroaches are inclosed in large bean-
shaped packets within the abdomen of the female and are

86 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

carried about until the young emerge. They are thus
easy to find and may be hatched and the different stages
studied if this seem desirable. For insects they are of
slow growth, requiring five or six months (German roach)
or a year (American roach) to attain adult size.
Ants. — This is a fascinating group of insects to study.
Their social life and work, care of queens, eggs and young,

Fic. 37. THe LITTLE BLack ANT

a, female; 4, male; c, worker: egg, larva, and pupa.
(All enlarged. After Marlatt)

their soldiers, their armies and battles, their cows, the
plant lice, and the slaves that some species capture and
bring home to do the menial work of their nests place
them above all other insects. We shall study some of
these in the proper place, but among household insects
we must consider those kinds that are often troublesome
about our homes.

The little red ant, Monomorium pharaonis, is one of the
smallest and often most annoying of household pests.
It lives upon all sorts of human provisions, especially
sweets and fatty foods, and seldom is a cover tight enough
to exclude its seemingly innumerable hordes. A small
black ant, JZ. minutum, and a somewhat larger species,
Tetramorium cespitum, are troublesome much in the same

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 87

way, but their nests being in the ground outside the house
they are generally easier to find and destroy.

In order to deal successfully with ants we must know
that their communities consist of : (1) workers, or neuters,
which are wingless and very numerous, so that these are
the ones we commonly see about; these are females not
fully developed ; (2) queens, or females, which are single
or but few in a nest and which we never see outside the
nest, except in mating time. The queen is much larger
than the workers, her abdomen especially being much
distended with eggs, of which she may lay thousands a
day. The queens have wings at first, but after they have
flown out and been fertilized, they either tear their own
wings off or the workers do this for them, and they settle
down in the nest to lay eggs for the rest of their lives.
Males, generally
much smaller than the
queens, have wings
but are short-lived
and are not com-
monly seen about the
nest, except in mating
time. This occurs for
most of our species

Fic. 38. THE RED ANT

in the late summer
or early fall, when,
for a few sunny days, the air may be swarming with
flying ants. These are the males and queens on their
wedding journeys. A number of species have in addition
to these three kinds “soldiers,” which may be recognized
by their large size and huge jaws.

a,female; 4, worker. (Enlarged. After Riley)

88 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

To rid a house of ants effectually it is only necessary to
find the nest — often easier said than done— and treat it
with boiling soapsuds, kerosene or benzine, carbon bisul-
phide or gunpowder, according to individual preference
and the location of the nest.

It is a fine piece of investigation to set a boy at, this
finding of a troublesome ants’ nest. It can always be
done, with sufficient patience and persistence, by follow-
ing the streams of workers going to and from it. The
little red ant generally nests in crevices about the sills or
timbers, sometimes between the flooring, and often holes
will have to be bored or baseboards or portions of the
floors be torn up to get at them. Naturally in such places
scalding suds or benzine will be used to deluge the nest.
The other two species commonly nest outside, in the
ground under stones or pavements, and may be thoroughly
dealt with by running a stick or crowbar into the nest and
pouring down any of the liquids mentioned. An interesting
way, which will appeal to boys, is to load the hole with about
an ounce of gunpowder, connect with a fuse, close well with
earth, and touch it off, and ants will disappear as by magic.
A pack of firecrackers may be used for the purpose.

Among the many insects that invade the house the
above have been chosen as typical of different modes of
life and as most important. Any others may be studied in
similar ways, and they may also be dealt with by methods
like those above described. On any topic relating to
insects the most reliable information may now be obtained
from either the United States Department of Agriculture
or the Experiment Stations of the different states. To
obtain the bulletins issued in Washington apply for the

INSECTS OF THE HOUSEHOLD 89

monthly list of publications, the facsimile heading of which
is as follows :

This circular will be sent regularly to all who apply for it
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Division of Publications

WasuinctTon, D.C., Nov. 30, 1g01

MONTHLY LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
[Novemdber, rgor.]

Notg.— To obtain those publications to which a Price zs affixed, application must be
made to the Superintendent of Do ts, Union Building, Washington, D.C., to whom
all remittances must be directed.

The Department of Agriculture does xot distribute or control the distribution of publica-
tions of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations. Application for them should be made
to the several stations in the different States.

These monthly lists will serve to keep us posted on what
is being done and open the way to securing the latest and
most reliable information about domestic animals, birds, trees,
insects, fungi, and many other nature subjects. The following
may be referred to in connection with this chapter.

L. O. Howarp and C. L. Marzatr. “The Principal Household
Insects of the United States,” Bulletin No. 4, Division of Entomology,
Washington, 1896, 130 pp.; 64 illustrations. Price, ten cents.

HERBERT OsBorNn. “Insects affecting Domestic Animals,” Bulletin
No. 5, Division of Entomology, Washington, 1896, 302 pp.; 170 illustra-
tions. Price, twenty cents.

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CHAPTER VI

LESSONS WITH PLANTS

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither
do they spin: and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.

No blooming of roses endureth forever,
The glories of sunset not alway remain,
Yet liveth their grace in the spirit, tho’ never,
The senses perceive the same beauty again.
S. M. Newman.

THE love of a flower in the heart of a child is the high-
est thing that nature study can hope to develop. No
amount of knowledge about flowers can take its place nor
compare with it in life value. This, with some knowledge
of horticulture, acquaintance with poisonous plants, wild
flowers, trees, and some of the lower forms, is the botany
that should be required below the high school.

Too often, especially in our efforts at education, when
we strive hardest to develop love of a subject we succeed
in awakening quite the reverse emotion. This is a deli-
cate matter, and it must be no half-hearted love that
attempts to teach! Books on psychology and child study

1 Since we love, what need to think?
Happiness stands on a brink
Whence too easy ’tis to fall
Whither ’s no return at all;

Have a care, half hearted lover,
Thought would only push her over!

LoweLL, Love and Thought.
gI

92 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

help us all too little in these fundamental matters. The
best we can do is each to ask himself: What flowers do
I like best? How didI come to like them? How old was
I when the feeling began,
and what associations have
I formed with them? How
and when were these
formed ?

When we analyze these
emotions in ourselves and
observe their expressions in
others, we find different
kinds of love: the love of
the fresh-cut flowers of the
shop windows, a commercial
affatre de ceur, as fleeting,
superficial, and rootless as
they ; the botanist’s passion
to analyze and know the
names of more flowers than
any one else, a refined love
of himself; the so-called
love of the rare, the new,
the strange, and curious;
and finally, the love of the
gardener for the flowers he
has planted and reared, like
the love of parent for child.
Through all these different kinds we note that the par-
ticular feeling is mainly a matter of association. If flowers
are good only to enhance the pleasure of a ball, when the

Fic. 40

LESSONS WITH PLANTS 93

party is over they are valueless. Flowers greet us with a
burst of color and fragrance on a perfect morning in June,
awakening feelings of delight, and we associate the pleas-
ing emotions with them. On the other hand, the same
flowers, sensed in some striking way at a funeral, become
unendurable because of the associations they arouse.

When Queen Louise was fleeing from Napoleon with
her family, the carriage broke down; and while they
were waiting, to soothe little William’s crying, the queen
made him a crown of the blue corn flowers by the road-
side. Ever afterward they reminded him of his mother’s
eyes and became his best-loved flower, Centaurea Emperor
William.

The problem of developing love of flowers thus becomes
one of forming pleasing associations with them, and it
should be remembered that the strongest and most per-
sistent association is that related to the w2// of the indi-
vidual. Under normal conditions a person will love those
things about which his work centers, to which the effort
and energy of his life is devoted. This is the only real
“treasure” of life, and “where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also.’’ Parents, even, do not love their
children, nor children their parents, unless they work and
sacrifice themselves in each other’s behalf. In fact, love
is often defined as the desire to do good to the object
loved, so fundamental is this aspect of its development.
In a word, we may say that the affections form and grow
about our habitual doing, if this be pleasurable.

With these preliminaries clear, we may begin by asking
the children: What flowers do you like best? Why do
you like these better than any others?

94 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Let this be a writing lesson, giving it to the class with-
out warning and encouraging each one to write honestly
just as he may feel. If any do not like flowers, encourage
them to state the fact and give the reasons, as far as they
can, for their feelings.

Next make a composition lesson on what the children
know about cultivating flowers. Ask them to write about
their own doings in this line. What flowers have they
raised? How did they succeed? Let them describe the
seeds, and tell how they planted and cared for them.
Those who have done nothing of the kind may have to
be provided with a routine writing lesson for this period.
But from these lessons you may gather the lines of interest
that the children have already begun to develop.

Have a package of seeds, if possible of the flower that
most of the children like best, and ask how many would
like to take some seeds and see who can raise the best
plant. Distribute an equal number of seeds to as many
as wish to undertake the work, and give a simple lesson
and demonstration on the preparation of soil and best way
to plant. This should be done some time in March, so
that the plants may be well grown and in fine bloom for
the flower show at the end of the spring term. The seeds
should be planted and reared at home, each child promis-
ing to do all the work himself, to take the sole care of
his plant, and to bring in his result, whatever that may be,
at the end of the term.

It will be better for many reasons, for the independence
and ingenuity of the children and to preserve the impar-
tiality of the teacher, if the children be given to under-
stand that each must find out for himself, from books or

LESSONS WITH PLANTS 95

parents or anybody who knows, the best way to rear his
plant. A number of seeds, five to a hundred, according to
the variety, must of course be given to each, and it may
be clearly pointed out that, if a child be careful, he may
have a number of plants. The question being, Who can
raise the best single plant? a child may try different
methods with different plants, and so learn for himself
which way is best. Thus we cultivate thoughtfulness
and power to reason, and initiate unconsciously into scien-
tific experiment, directed toward tangible and practical
ends.

We may begin in the first grade with some plant of easy
culture and continue with more difficult plants, making
this a regular feature of the spring botany work through-
out the grammar grades. In neighborhoods where none
of the children have ever planted a seed or tried to rear a
plant of any sort, it may be necessary to begin with easy
plants for all grades.

For the best success of these lessons we need to select
plants as beautiful, attractive, and interesting as possible,
that will bloom well between time of planting and end of
spring term. They should also be adapted to pot culture.
The table on the following page may be suggestive as to
varieties best adapted on account of short period between
planting and bloom.

This work has been tried as an experiment for the past
four years with increasing evidence of its value’ The

1The first year the children were purposely not told what seeds they
were given, and in consequence they had little else but beautifully grown
weeds to show at the end of the term. Petunias were planted sometimes

three inches deep.

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
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LESSONS WITH PLANTS 97

distribution of plants to the different grades last year was
as follows :

Grades I and II. Dwarf nasturtium, Tom Thumb, 7rofq@o-
lum minor. This has never failed to
bloom profusely and greatly delight the
children.

Grade II. Calliopsts coronata, very successful.

Grade III. Sensitive plant, Mimosa fudica. The
best plant to teach that plants are alzve.

Grade IV. Bachelor’s button, Centaurea. Always
succeeds and is a great favorite in the
school.

Grade V. Balsam, /zpatiens. This has done only
fairly well, and the number of failures
indicate that it needs good care.

Grade VI. Petunia.t Interesting on account of dust-
like seeds.

Grades VII and VIII. Ten-weeks stock. Has done fairly well.

To rear a plant dest is the lesson. A man is a whole
man only when he plays. This competitive element thus
enlists the whole child, brings into action every scrap of
power to think, reason, investigate, experiment, to will
and to do, of which a child is capable. And do we think
how large a lesson we have given? No man yet knows
how to rear any single plant dest or has ever been able
to do it. It is the lesson, in epitome, of the human
race in learning the best cultural conditions for different

1 Petunias had been tried by grades VII and VIII and failed two years
in succession. They were accordingly given up for a year. The next year
grade VI begged to be allowed to try petunias, just because the others had

failed, and scored a brilliant success. This was due to simple instruction
upon preparation of soil and planting the seeds given as a class lesson.

98 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

plants, the making of two blades of grass grow where
one grew before, the lesson of improvement by culture,
applicable not only to plants but to everything else that
has life and grows. It represents the momentous step of
the race from barbarism to civilization. In this simple,
easy, and natural way we permit the child to throw him-
self into the great current of human effort, that has done

Fig, 4% PRizE Prants

Grades IV-VII, Upsala Street School. June,1goo. (Photograph by the author)

more than anything else to uplift human life, and let him
play and learn to swim in it; and we may be sure that
no child who has once thrown his whole heart and soul
into this effort can ever develop into quite the ruffian
or savage he might otherwise have become. Unless we
do introduce this element, the work may fall to the level
of meaningless drudgery. With it the lesson epitomizes

LESSONS WITH PLANTS 99

in a tangible, practical way the universal struggle for
existence, the effort to do things well, which is the first
condition of all success in life. It has seemed from the
sustained interest and enthusiasm of the children that
they feel this truth instinctively. Here is no mere book
and word lesson the relation of which to success in life few
children can adequately appreciate. J/¢ 2s a mastery of the
real forces of nature. They must use the sun’s heat and
light, the air, water, and earth, and it is a natural step from
such a lesson to think, “If I can do this we//, I can suc-
ceed in life itself.”

Of all the wonderful things in the wonderful universe of God,
nothing seems to me more surprising than the planting of a seed
in the black earth and the result thereof. Take a poppy seed, for
instance: it lies in your palm, the merest atom of matter, hardly
visible, a speck, a pin’s point in bulk, but within it is imprisoned a
spirit of beauty ineffable, which will break its bonds and emerge from
the dark ground and blossom in a splendor’so dazzling as to baffle
all powers of description. The Genie in the Arabian tale is not half
so astonishing. CELIA THAXTER, Ax /sland Garden, p. 3.

On the mental side, in training the powers of observa-
tion, the child sees the wonderful life story of his plant
—from seed through root, stem, leaf, and flower to seed
again — unfold under the closest daily scrutiny of which
he is capable. Not all the books nor all the plants in the
world could teach him so much as just this one plant so
closely associated with his own thinking, feeling, willing,
and doing. Ability to think for himself, reason, and experi-
ment will be cultivated with every step. All the power
gained stands naturally related to everything he may do
in life. To throw about his plant those conditions that

100 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

will make it grow best, as we have already seen with the
care of the pet animal, calls into play the same logic as
is required in taking the best care of himself or of any
human life that may be intrusted to him.

For ages before writing was invented literatures were
passed from one generation to another by living word of
mouth. In like manner no skilled gardener can even
tell, much less write down, a hundredth part of what he
knows about raising plants. While we cannot neglect
means of expression in language and drawing, nature is
too infinitely complicated and life too deep for our shal-
low formulas, and the more fully we take these facts into
account the better. It was thought at first that the chil-
dren might be induced to keep diaries or records of their
plants, giving just what they did and just how fast the
plants grew; but it was found that their writings were of
little value, and were even thought to act as a chill to
the spontaneous interests of some of the children. This
method must be used with great reserve. Some children
have a passion to write, while in others the very thought of
writing seems to benumb every impulse. Oral lessons, on
the other hand, were eminently successful, the only diffi-
culty being, as one teacher expressed it, to “get the
children to stop talking about their plants.”

After throwing his plant “over the banister’? because
it did not grow fast enough to suit him, one little boy
wrote: “The best thing one learns from this lesson is
patience. I should like to try it again next year, to see
if I can have more patience than I had this year.’ The
ethical value of such a lesson is too patent to require
comment. Patience, carefulness, faithfulness in little

LESSONS WITH PLANTS IOI

things, continuity of purpose are all instilled uncon-
sciously without preaching, and, best of all, the pupils
come to love their flowers as parents love their children.

Only a little shrivelled seed,

It might be flower, or grass, or weed;
Only a box of earth on the edge

Of a narrow, dusty window-ledge ;
Only a few scant summer showers ;
Only a few clear shining hours;

That was all. Yet God could make
Out of these, for a sick child’s sake,
A blossom-wonder, as fair and sweet
As ever broke at an angel’s feet.

VaN Dyke, The Builders, p. 41.

CHAPTER VII

ELEMENTARY BOTANY, FLOWER CALENDARS, WAYSIDE
FLOWERS, POISONOUS PLANTS, WEEDS

Die Blume, die dein Auge heute sieht,

Tat vor Aeonen schon in Gottes Geist gebliiht.
(The flower thine eye beholdest to-day,

Hath in God's spirit bloomed eternally.)

ANGELUS SILESIUS, 1650.

Flowers are thoughts of the Spirit of God,
Their love is love of his grace,

Their fragrance is breath of divinity,
Their beauty, the light of his face.

Let us begin by giving a few simple
language lessons to find out what the
children know and think about the com-
mon plants. We may ask them first to
describe and name the chief forms of
plants that they know. They will prob-
ably group them somewhat as indicated

Fic. 42. BLoopRroor

for the higher plants, in the table on the following page.
To some of the lower groups their attention will have to
be called by common specimens and descriptions. Next
we may ask them to write the names of all the plants they
know. After the lists are handed in, one of the pupils
may be asked to write the following table on the black-
board and all the children to copy it into their note-
books.

102

ELEMENTARY BOTANY

103

List or ALL KNown PLANTS‘

NuMBER
oe inns CHARACTERISTICS
FLOWERING PLANTS 121,961 | REPRODUCE BY SEED.
Trees in United States (495) Woody, single stem, trunk at least
20 feet tall.
Shrubs — Woody, diffuse stems, bushes.
Vines . — Woody, slender climbing stems.
Herbs . — Non-woody stems, dying to the
ground yearly.
FLOWERLESS PLANTS 74,586 REPRODUCE BY SPORES.
Ferns . de git Hs 3452
Mosses and Liverworts 6,750
Lichens 5,600
Alge 15,554 | Mostly aquatic, seaweeds, green
pond slimes.
pais § | (48,574)? | Mushrooms, lichens, mildews, smuts,
L} 42,860 moulds, yeasts.
Bacteria 970 Plants smaller than the finest dust
that we can see.
Other kinds . 5,000
Total 196,547

How many plants were there in the longest list ?

As we found with animals, so with plants we can hope
to learn even the names of only a small number, and we
must select these, as we do our friends, with great care.
There are some that we meet every day, so common that

we ought to know them.

Others are so beautiful or fra-

grant that we would go far to visit them,

1] am indebted for these estimates to Prof. George E. Stone, Amherst,

Mass.
2 Saccardo’s estimate.

104 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

I know of no better device for introducing children of
all grades to the wild flowers than one quite commonly
used by local teachers but not described in manuals of
nature study. I refer to the Flower Calendar. Clear a
space on the blackboard and write at the top:

FLOWER CALENDAR. I901

Date Name oF FLOWER PUPIL WHO FIRST FINDS IT IN BLoom
April 3 Hepatica. . . . . . Alice Smith
April 9 Bloodroot . ... . . James Cary

and so on, and at the end of the week, or when the board
is full, have the school copy the list into their nature note-
books. It will form an interesting record, may be referred
to often, may bring back pleasant school memories, and
be a treasure for life. Here again we have the spice of
rivalry, the spirit of play, and while some may insist that
“work must be work,” we never can hire or whip a child
to work half as hard as he works when he plays. It will
send the children out of doors to learn their lessons from
the fields and woods, keep their eyes bright and wide open
on their way to school, and give them lifelong interests,
acquaintances, friends.

Hast thou named all the birds without a gun ?
Loved the wood-rose and left it on its stalk ?

O, be my friend, and teach me to be thine.

Emerson, Forbearance.

Except with the most common plants, encourage the
children to bring in descriptions, or only so much as will
make the identification possible. It is a distinct loss to

ELEMENTARY BOTANY 105

have our rarest and most beautiful flowers so completely
exterminated near our towns and cities that few ever see
them blooming. A strong feature of this work may well
be the beautifying of roadsides with as great a variety of
wild flowers as possible, and a good rule will be, ot to
pluck any roadside flowers. Leave them for passers-by
to enjoy, and gather only from private fields where permis-
sion is granted and only such flowers as are superabundant.
This will leave no reason for complaints, often raised, that
interesting thoughtless children in the study of flowers
results in their wanton extermination.

Wayside songs and meadow blossoms ; nothing perfect, nothing rare;
Every poet’s ordered garden yields a hundred flowers more fair ;
Master-singers know a music richer far beyond compare.

Yet the reaper in the harvest, ’mid the burden and the heat,
Hums a half remembered ballad, finds the easy cadence sweet, —
Sees the very blue of heaven in the corn-bloom at his feet.

Van Dyke, The Builders, p. 42.

While the flower calendar may be repeated from year
to year, and even increase in interest by repetition, it
will not consume the time nor supply all the work
desirable with our flora. Some flowers must be studied
more thoroughly than others, and to avoid confusion and
repetition from year to year in this work, we need to
have a concerted plan understood and agreed upon by
the teachers of a town or city, with plants assigned to
each grade. Such an assignment is made in the year
and grade plan at the end of this book and need not
be repeated here. It is designed especially to include
the flowers that every child in New England ought to

106 NATURE

STUDY AND LIFE

know, and for other sections the teachers, at some of their

local meetings, should appoint a committee to arrange a

Fic. 43. FRINGED GENTIANS

(Photographed, but not plucked, by
the author)

suitable list.

It has been thought by teach-
ers of long experience that, be-
side the casual acquaintance of
a good many more, it will not
be too much to learn a little
more fully twelve plants a year,
grouping, drawing, and writing
lessons about them. The chil-
dren should be directed to fol-
low their growth, learn their
habitats, make collections of
their seeds, and be able to tell
the plant by a leaf, flower, or
seed. If this be done during
the eight grades, the children
should have formed a practical
acquaintance with about one
hundred of our common plants.

A number of poisonous plants
occur, either widely distributed
or locally, in the United States.!
Fourteen of these are included
in the above lists, and they may
be briefly described below. The

lv. K. Chesnut. “Thirty Poisonous

Plants of the United States,” Farmer's
Bulletin, No. 86, United States Depart-

ment of Agriculture. 32 pp., 24 figures. This can be obtained gratis on
application to the Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

ELEMENTARY BOTANY 107

others should be carefully studied by teachers where they
abound and introduced into their nature courses. Every
parent and child ought to know the dangers connected
with these plants, and the general study of them, as indi-
cated, would result in the saving of considerable suffering,
sickness, and death year by year.

Poison Ivy, Rhus radicans.— [Poison oak, three-leaved
ivy, mercury, black mercury, markweed, pikry (Me.).]
This is a common climbing, sometimes bushy, shrub
about roadsides and orchards. The stem has aérial roots
by which it clings. The leaves are compound with three
leaflets irregularly toothed and notched. They are bright
red when they appear in the spring, turn red again in the
fall, and are frequently gathered in children’s bouquets.
The greenish flowers appear in May and June, and the
white waxy fruit remains through the winter. Through
ignorance it is sometimes even planted about houses. The
Bulletin says: “It is highly desirable that legal measures
be adopted compelling the destruction of these plants
where they abound in cities and in places of popular
resort.”

The poison is a heavy, gummy oil contained in all
parts of the plant and exuded from leaves, bark, and
fruit. This is very non-volatile and retains its virulence
unimpaired in old dry stems and leaves, which, therefore,
should always be promptly burned in destroying the
plants, and care taken not to inhale the smoke. Imper-
ceptible amounts, coming in contact with the skin, cause
the characteristic painful blisters. Such minute quantities
are effective that specially susceptible persons are some-
times affected by merely walking near the plants, when

108 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

it would seem that either pollen or particles of dust that
had absorbed the oil from the leaves must be carriers for
the poison. Ordinary washing, even with soap, merely

Fic. 44. Porson Ivy

spreads the oil and serves to rub it in. If poisoning has
occurred, or if there has been serious exposure in hand-
ling or destroying the plants, affected or exposed parts
should be bathed in a strong solution of lead acetate in

ELEMENTARY BOTANY 109

dilute alcohol (alcohol one-fourth to one-half water, with
as much sugar of lead as will dissolve cold). This will
quickly neutralize the poison and prevent further injury.
Clothes, towels, even the handles of tools that have been
used by those engaged in destroying poison ivy, must be
thoroughly washed in strong
hot soapsuds, or in the lead
acetate solution, before
being allowed to come in
contact with any one else.
The sugar of lead solution
is itself poisonous, if taken
internally.

We cannot, of course, ask
children to bring in speci-
mens of such a plant, and
none of it should be allowed
exposed about the school-
room. It may generally be
pointed out in the first excur-
sion with the children, or
the teacher may take proper
precautions and press speci-
mens of leaves, stems,
flowers, and fruit and mount them between two plates of
glass, as described for insects. This also applies to the
other plants that are poisonous to the touch.

Poison Sumac, Rhus vernix.— [Swamp sumac, dogwood
(Mass.), poison elder (Ala.), poison ash (Vt.), thunderwood
(Ga., Va.).] This is a treelike shrub six to thirty feet tall,
with slender pinnate leaves of seven to thirteen leaflets,

Fic. 45. Porson SUMAC WITH FRUIT

TIO NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

without marginal teeth. Its very prominent leaf scars are
sufficient to distinguish it from other shrubs in winter.
It grows in swamps and damp woods from Florida to
Canada and westward to Louisiana.

It is poisonous to the skin in the same way as poison
ivy and requires the same precautions in handling and
the same treatment.

Poison Oak, RAus diversiloba.— (Poison ivy, yeara, Cali-
fornia poison sumac.) This is a western plant of the
same class with the two preceding and should be treated
in the same way.!

Poison Hemlock, Conzum maculatum.— (Hemlock, wild
hemlock, spotted parsley, stinkweed, poison root, poison
snakeweed, cashes, wode-whistle.)
Poison hemlock is a hollow-stemmed
biennial, two to seven feet tall, stems
smooth and purple spotted, widely
distributed about roadsides and waste
lands. The flowers are white, appear-
ing in July and August. The leaves
have an extremely nauseating taste
and when bruised emit a characteristic
“mousy” odor. Poisoning occurs by
eating the seeds or roots or even by
blowing whistles made from the hol-
low stems. It probably furnished
Fic. 46. Porson Hemnock the poison administered to Socrates.

1 The nomenclature for all these poisonous plants is here given according
to Bulletin No. 86, and so much confusion exists that it would be a great
desideratum if the names could be fixed and made reasonably uniform for
the whole country by means of nature-study lessons in the public schools.

ELEMENTARY BOTANY III

Many domestic animals are killed by eating the plant in
hay. It should be exterminated by hand pulling before
the seeds mature.

Water Hemlock, Czcuta maculata.— (Spotted parsley,
snakeweed, beaver poison, musquash root, muskrat weed,
cowbane, spotted cowbane, children’s bane, death of man.)
This is a smooth, erect perennial, three to six feet tall, stiff
hollow stem, streaked with purple, twice to thrice decom-
pound leaves with leaflets finely serrated, the veins run-
ning mostly to the notches instead of, as usual, to the
points of the teeth. The plant is easily recognized by
the root, which consists of a clump of thick fleshy tubers,
each from one to three inches long. It is quite common
in swamps and wet pastures throughout the United States
and Canada, but less common in the arid regions west of
the Mississippi. The flowers are white, in umbels two to
three inches across, and appear in August.

The root is especially dangerous, because of its whole-
some appearance and aromatic taste, which often tempts
children to eat it. No estimate of the annual damage to
stock can be made. Cattle are sometimes poisoned by
eating the roots and even by drinking the water of pools
into which these have been trampled.

For nature study, children in every school, city and
country, should be given a clear idea of this plant, — root,
stem, leaf, flower, and seed, —and in rural districts they
should make careful surveys to discover its abundance
and distribution and adopt practicable measures for its
extermination.

Pokeweed, Phytolacca decandra.— This is not very poi-
sonous, and its: succulent shoots are widely esteemed for

112 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Fic. 47. WATER HEMLOCK

greens in the spring, and may be so used if care be taken
not to include any of the root, which is bitter and poisonous.
Cases of poisoning sometimes occur from eating the berries,

ELEMENTARY BOTANY 113

probably on account of poison contained in the seeds.
It is a valuable bird-food plant and is highly ornamental
in its clean, robust growth and masses of purple-black
berries, and may be grown with impunity and even advan-
tage if the above simple precautions are understood.

Corn Cockle, Agvostemma githago.— This is a well-known,
pretty, purple-red flower of the grain fields. Poisoning
occurs among poultry and all sorts
of domestic animals from eating the
seeds in screenings or ground feed.
People are sometimes poisoned by
low-grade flour made from wheat
containing the seeds. This can
generally be distinguished by black
particles from the seed coats and
by a peculiar odor when the flour is
moistened. This plant should be
more generally understood, and
great care should be taken not to sow
grain containing its seeds.

Black Cherry, Prunus serotina, —
(Wild cherry, rum cherry.) This is
a valuable forest and cabinet-wood ‘Fic. 48. Corn Cocxte
tree, and its loads of black cherries
make it one of our most important bird-food trees. The
fruit may be eaten with impunity if the seeds be discarded,
but it should be commonly understood that the kernels
and leaves may contain prussic acid in amounts sufficient
to cause serious poisoning. Children should be cautioned
against eating the kernels, and freshly cut branches should
not be thrown where stock may eat them.

114 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Red Buckeye and Common Horse-Chestnut, .fisculus pavia
and /ippocastanum. — Both contain active poisons in their
seeds and fresh leaves and twigs. Fish may be stupefied
by stirring the crushed nuts and twigs into small pools.
Poisoning may occur from eating these parts, but the
bitter taste serves, in general, as a sufficient safeguard.

Broad-Leaf Laurel, Aa/ma latifolia. — (Laurel, north of
Maryland, ivy, south of Maryland, mountain laurel, sheep
laurel, poison laurel, wood laurel, small laurel, high laurel,

Fic. 49. DATURA

Beautiful but dangerous. (Photograph by Charles Irving Rice)

American laurel, poison ivy, ivy bush, ivy wood, big ivy,
calico bush, spoonwood, kalmia, wicky.) Laurel is too well
known to need description. It is our most beautiful native

ELEMENTARY BOTANY II5

shrub by reason of its polished evergreen leaves and pro-
fusion of exquisite flowers. In very rare cases sensitive
people are said to experience discomfort if too large quan-
tities of the flowers are kept in their rooms, but it can safely

Fic. 50. CAPER SPURGE Fic. 51. SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN

be handled and enjoyed all the usual ways with perfect
impunity. The only precautions necessary are to prevent
animals not accustomed to it from eating the leaves.
Even goats have been known to die from this cause.

Narrow-Leaf Laurel, Kalmia angustifolia. — (Sheep laurel,
lambkill, sheep poison, lamb laurel, small laurel, low laurel,
dwarf laurel, wicky.) This shrub is dangerous in the same
way as its larger cousin.

Jimson Weed, Datura stramonium and D. tatula (the taller
and purple-flowered species).— [Jamestown weed, common
stramonium, thorn apple, apple of Peru, devil’s apple,

116 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

stinkwort, stinkweed, Jamestown lily, white man’s plant
(by the Indians).] This is a rank ill-smelling weed,
common in vacant lots, rubbish heaps, roadsides, and
waste places. It is a stout, bushy annual with coarse,
smooth stems, two to five feet high, and large flaccid
leaves. The flowers are white (or purplish), shaped some-
what like a morning-glory, “heavy scented,” from two to
four inches long, and appear from May to September (the
fruit ripening from August to November), according to
latitude. The fruit is a large, con-
spicuous, prickly, four-valved pod
containing great numbers of dark
roughened seeds.

Cases of poisoning arise from
the use of the plant as a stimulant
or medicine, from children eating
the seeds or playing with the
flowers (holding them in their
mouths), and with cattle from eat-
ing the plants in hay. The jimson
weed should be much better known,
and no child should permit one to
ripen its innumerable seeds.

Caper Spurge, Luphorbia lathyris.
— (Garden spurge, mole plant,
gopher plant, wolf’s milk, springwort.) This spurge is a
garden, roadside, and pasture perennial, common over
most of the United States and Canada. The milky juice
is extremely acrid, and the fruit is poisonous. Women
and children are often poisoned by handling the plant or
by getting the juice on the hands or face.

Fic. 52. DWARF LARKSPUR

ELEMENTARY BOTANY 117

Snow on the Mountain, Euphorbia marginata. — This is
an erect annual, two to four feet high, conspicuous for
the white margins of its leaves. It is often listed in seed
catalogues and planted for ornament. Poisoning com-
monly occurs through honey gathered from its flowers,
large quantities of autumn honey being yearly rendered
unsalable by the presence of this plant. Like the preced-
ing spurge its acrid juice on delicate skins not infrequently
causes blisters and inflammation similar to that produced
by poison ivy.

Other poisonous plants are:

Death-Cup Mushrooms, of the genus Amanita, described under
fungi.

American False Hellebore, Veratrum viride (white hellebore,
swamp hellebore, Indian poke, poke root, Indian uncus, crow poison,
devil’s bite, duckretter, itch weed, bugbane, wolfsbane, bear corn).

Dwarf Larkspur, Delphinium tricorne, Stagger Weed (O.), and
Purple Larkspur, D. menztesii.

Woolly Loco Weed, Astragalus mollissimus and Stemless Loco
Weed, A. Lambertiz.

Rattlebox, Crotalaria sagittalis.

Oregon Water Hemlock, Czcuta vagans.

Great Laurel, Rhododendron maximum.

Staggerbush, Pzerts mariana.

Branch Ivy, Leucothoé catesbat.

Black Nightshade, Solanum nigrum.

Bittersweet, Solanum dulcamara.

Sneezeweed, Helenium autumnale.

It is certainly no more than common sense should dic-
tate to provide adequate instruction about these plants
wherever they abound. The school, by codperation of
teachers, intelligent parents, and pupils, should provide
a neatly labeled collection. The specimens should be

118 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

mounted so that they may be handled and studied with-
out danger, and kept in a drawer or suitable box by itself

and labeled:
POISONOUS PLANTS

OF THIS LOCALITY.

Weeds. — A weed is a plant that persists in growing
where it is not wanted. This insistent impudence, the
vigor and tenacious hold on life, the great number of
seeds produced, and the numerous devices weeds employ
to secure their distribution, the brigandish crowding
aside and killing down of all other plants within reach,
all tend to constitute the weeds a most interesting group .
of plants to study.

We may first ask the class to write the names of all
the weeds they know. For another lesson let the pupils
write descriptions of the more important and interesting
plants on their lists, giving their life stories, telling when
they blossom, and especially when they begin to ripen
their seeds. After these lessons we may make an excur-
sion around the school yard and count the different kinds
of weeds found growing in the area.

A lesson that never fails to interest the children may
be arranged by having them fill a number of flowerpots
with earth from different sources, — from their gardens,
from different levels in some freshly dug cellar, from the
bottom of the pond, etc. Keep them in a warm place
and watch the different plants as they come up. Many
interesting questions will arise as to how the weed seeds
got into the soil and how long they may remain dormant.

1Jn making this collection such plants as are poisonous to the touch
may be handled by means of pieces of newspaper.

ELEMENTARY BOTANY 119g

Study the seeds of ten of the most troublesome weeds
in the neighborhood. Select large vigorous plants, and
estimate the number of seeds produced. A Russian
thistle has been found to produce about 20,000 seeds,
and a single plant of purslane about 1,250,000 seeds. We
may next investigate the methods of seed dissemination
and arrange an instructive school collection that will show
the various devices adopted by different weeds. As a
concluding lesson we may take samples of different grains,
— wheat, oats, barley, rye, clover, and the different grass
.seeds, — and each pupil may examine a small quantity
and report the number of weed seeds discovered.

Weeds have been called by some the ‘ farmer’s
friends.’”” How can this be so? They necessitate good
cultivation of the soil, and this is of great benefit to
the growing crops. They compel the farmer or gardener
to keep the ground well occupied with vigorous useful
plants. Certainly not all weeds are friends, and after
proper methods of cultivation have been attained, they
only make the work more difficult. Weeds like the
thistle, dandelion, or milkweed, the seeds of which may
be carried long distances by the winds, or which are
likely to be carried by other means, may be a cause of
serious damage to neighboring fields. This brings us
to the final topic for study, viz., the weed laws of the
state. Obtain a copy of these laws and discuss them
with the class.?

1Lyster H. Dewey. “Two Hundred Weeds: How to know them and
how to kill them,” 1895, and “Legislation against Weeds.” Bulletin
No. 17, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 1896,
This gives all the laws of the different states regarding weeds.

(od JaystJay YseD [eEuOWeN oy} Jo AsazInod Aq)

OIHO ‘NOLAVYG ‘LHHULS WY NO ANADS

£86

‘OI

120

CHAPTER VIII
GARDEN STUDIES

Home anD ScHOOL GARDENS

Spacious and fair is the world; yet oh! how I thank the kind heavens
That I a garden possess, small though it be, yet mine own.
One which enticeth me homewards; why should a gardener wander?

Honor and pleasure he finds, when to his garden he looks.
GOETHE.

Eacu of the children of the German emperor has a
garden of his own in which he works and sees plants
grow from his own sowing, and learns innumerable things
that books and the best of instructors could never teach.

When we consider the fundamental relations of the race
to the soil and its culture and products, and when we
remember that the establishment of these relations con-
stituted the greatest uplift of the race toward civilization,
we realize that to leave soil lore out of a plan of public
education is likely to prove reversion toward barbarism.
The vandalism, juvenile and even adult, that renders
pursuit of horticulture in a New England city or town
well-nigh impossible must be accounted a first fruit of
this unwise neglect.1 It would also seem that failure

1 Recent studies (Flynt) have shown that our tramps are the natural
product of our school system, not foreign born, as we are commonly
tempted to suppose. Their manner of life demonstrates with remarkable
force a reversion to nomadic ways.

121

Missing Page

abe, Buissi\

124 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

if we see a chickadee in winter going through his trapeze
performances as he picks out the little black eggs from
behind the buds, we feel like encouraging his presence
in every way we can. He becomes thenceforth an inter-
esting friend of ours for life. And so it is with a thousand
other things. Knowledge lives and grows, if we have this
common ground, these fundamental interests, about which
to group our otherwise unrelated observations. Lacking
this, everything falls apart, and the whole becomes a
chaotic, unorganized affair. Adults may be able to form
more abstract, idealized relations with nature, but even
this is rare, and we cannot hope to establish them whole-
sale with children.

The garden thus becomes not only a vital part of a
child’s education in itself, but the great center, the heart
of vitalizing influences and interests that radiate into
nature in every direction.

The status of children demands a thorough revival of this
work. In the first place, children of native New England
parentage are becoming very few. Our vital statistics are
complicated by foreign immigration; but it is probably
safe to say that in our strictly native New England popu-
lation there are more deaths than births. We often
hear France alluded to in this connection, but official
statistics for New Hampshire (1892) show that to every
1000 inhabitants there are 19.1 births and 20.1 deaths.
{n France the ratio is 22.1 births to 22.6 deaths. As
a whole, New England stands third lowest, 24.9 birth
rate per 1000 population ; France, 22.1; Ireland, 22.4 ;
Germany, 35.7; Hungary, 40.3; and, despite her lower
death rate, she stands also third lowest in increase of

GARDEN STUDIES 125

population from this vital source. From strong families
of six to ten children we have dropped in a single genera-
tion to families of one, two, or none, so that writers abroad
are pointing to New England as the most glaring example
of sudden racial degeneration on record. And with our
few children, why is it that we see so many advertisements
“House to let to family of adults”? Simply because
children are not properly trained, are idle and consequently
mischievous and destructive. Give them interests and
work to do in upbuilding the home, and they will not tear
it down. Formerly children were helpful members of the
household, and while sometimes they were forced to work
too hard, even that was better for them than idleness.

In cities one of the hardest of family problems is how to
keep the children interested and healthfully employed at
home. Where even a little land is available this problem
may be solved in such wise that these advertisements will
be changed to read: ‘House to rent to family with two
or more children ; no family without children need apply.”

How this may be accomplished with only wholesome
exercise, without drudgery, is a problem which must be
worked out largely for each individual child, and upon
which the best thought and effort of both teachers and
parents should be focused. Only a few more general
elements of its solution can be here suggested.

The element of prime importance is individual owner-
ship by the child.

Probably the best way to teach selfishness is to try to
teach unselfishness too early. The passion for ownership
is coextensive with life. It is an expression of “The Will
to Live,’ It is as universal as hunger. It begins in the

Tic. 54. PLANTER AND OWNER OF PEACH TREES
Old Mixon, fifth year from seed

GARDEN STUDIES 127

living series when an amceba swallows a particle of food.
By the effort put forth in the act of swallowing, the par-
ticle becomes the ameeba’s property for the sustenance of
its life. With man it is the foundation of government
and social organization, as well as the chief incentive to
labor, invention, and discovery. ‘From the old stone age
upward so far as we can trace the history of man,” says
Dr. Brinton, “the one efficient motive to his progress
has been the acquisition and the preservation of his prop-
erty. This has been the immediate aim of all his arts
and institutions, and the chief incentive to individual
exertion.” L. H. Morgan says that “ monogamy resulted
from increase and variety of property through the estab-
lishment of inheritance in the children of its owner ; the
influence of property in the civilization of mankind it is
impossible to overestimate. It was the real power that
brought the Aryan and Semitic nations out of barbarism
into civilization.” !

Far from being antagonistic to unselfishness and altru-
ism, the desire for ownership is their necessary forerunner,
their normal preparatory and embryonic phase, for no
man can give until he possesses something worth giving.
The more he possesses, the greater his power for good.
Mental power and acquisition of knowledge and skill in
this regard are like material property. Abuses of this
power naturally occur, and we find exceptional cases of
arrest in this normal process of development. But the
miser has stood scarecrow too long.

1 Linus W. Kline and C. J. France. “The Psychology of Ownership,”
Pedagogical Seminary, vol. vi, pp. 421-470.

128 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Kline and France in their study of the Psychology of
Ownership have shown that extreme selfishness, the desire
to own and to keep, is normal to childhood. Through its
natural exercise and development the child learns in the
only real way possible to appreciate the property rights
of others. With adolescence he blossoms into altruism,
which, unless blighted, ripens into valuable life work.

Another point, attested by common experience, is that
unless effort is put forth toward attainment of an object,
its value is not appreciated. The most worthless things
for which a child has hunted or into which he has thrown
his work become the treasures of his life. The most
costly things, no matter how beautiful or interesting,
lavished upon him without this inner relation to his will,
remain but so much rubbish, ‘pearls before swine.”
What can be better calculated to call forth a child’s best
activities and, after due patience, to crown his efforts
with possessions of solid value than cultivation of fruits
or flowers? And what other occupations stand in such
fundamental relation to life and civilization? Other “his-
toric occupations” are special and technical, besides being
dead and antiquated, in comparison with this; while this
must remain perennially in vital relations to life.

The way in which parents approach this problem will
naturally vary with differences of opinion. But those
who appreciate the point of view suggested will begin by
apportioning to each child, at three, four, or five years of
age, some little plot of ground that he can call his own.
They will furnish him, or allow him to earn, tools of his
own, — a trowel, rake, seed box, — give him a place to keep
them and instruct him in the proper care of them. They

GARDEN STUDIES 129

will hunt over garden catalogues with him and encourage
him to form his own plans, select the things he wishes to
raise, and give him necessary information. Then if the
child chooses to raise something of real value to the
household, they may pay him the market price for it and
encourage him to start a savings-bank account of his own.
Year by year, as the children grow in ability, the parents
will gradually increase the size of their gardens, give to
this one an apple tree, to another a grapevine, to another
the crimson rambler by the porch, and so on, thus appor-
tioning the nature property of the home where it will
yield the greatest amount of education to their children.
They will thus gradually and naturally increase respon-
sibilities and opportunities for creative and productive
work.

This work will, of course, take every possible direction
according to the circumstances and needs of the home.
A well-kept garden can easily supply half the living of a
family, and the fresh vegetables and fruits, which are
beyond all comparison superior to the stale products of
the markets, may have a wonderful influence upon the
health of the household. But, if these things are not
considered desirable, the land at disposal may be devoted
to ornamental plants and the home be made a paradise of
flowers and trees.

If the boy cannot have the care of a little garden of his own, he
should have at least a few plants in boxes or flower pots, filled not
with rare and delicate or double plants, but with such as are com-
mon, rich in leaves and blossoms, and thrive easily. The child, or
boy, who has nursed and cared for another living thing, although it
be of a much lower order, will be led more easily to guard and foster

130 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

his own life. At the same time the care of plants will satisfy his
longing to observe other living things, such as beetles, butterflies,
and birds, for these seek the vicinity of plants. Translated from
FROEBEL’S Afenschen-Erziehung, p. 69.

Finally, we must begin young. ‘Give a child large
interests, and give them young.’’1 Early impressions are
proverbially deep. By eight or nine the child’s brain has
practically attained its adult size. While refinement of
structure may go on even into mature age, the funda-
mental lines are laid down, and the basal habits and phi-
losophy of life are pretty solidly established. If habits of
indolence, carelessness, or possibly vice have been formed,
and vitiated tastes and appetites have been allowed to
develop, the reformation will be so much harder and the
results fragmentary and unsatisfactory. And this work is
so fundamental, simple, and primitive that young children,
excepting only the abnormal and spoiled, will enter into
it with delight and by this act enter into civilization.

To lead children early to think, this I hold as the first and most
important object of child-training.

To train the children early to work and industry seemed to him,
the ideal father, so natural, and matter of course as to need no state-
ment. Besides the child that has been led to think is it not led, at
the same time, to industry and diligence — to all virtues of home and
country ?

Those words are a seed from which develops a shady evergreen
tree of life, full of fragrant blossoms and sound, ripe fruit. Let us
hear and heed this who allow our children to grow up thoughtless
and idle, and therefore dead.

But — it is hard, yet true, as will appear if, in our intercourse and
daily life with our children, we cast a searching glance upon the con-
dition of our minds and hearts — we are dead, our surroundings are

1 Alice Freeman Palmer.

GARDEN STUDIES 131

dead to us. With all our knowledge, we are empty for our children.
Almost all we say is hollow and empty, without content and without
life. Only in the few rare cases, when our speech rests on inter-
course with life and nature, do we rejoice in her life.

Let us hasten, then! Let us impart life to ourselves, to our
children; let us through them give meaning to our speech and life to
the things about us! Let us live with them, and let them live with
us; thus shall we obtain through them what we all need.

Our surroundings, the objects we see are lifeless; they are dead
matter. They crush, instead of uplift us, for they lack the quicken-
ing word that gives them significance and meaning.

Our speech is like the book out of which we have learned it, at
third or fourth hand.

t

Fathers, parents, let us be up and doing! what we lack let us
provide for our children. What we no longer possess — the all-quick-
ening, creative power of child-life—lJet it be again transfused from
their life into ours. Translated from FROEBEL’s MJenschen-Erzte-

hung, p. 55.

In adult science we have been studying dead things so
long, dissecting and analyzing type-forms, that we have
well-nigh gone blind to the living, active side of nature ;
but this has furnished the primitive and fundamental, and
must furnish the larger future, interests of mankind in
nature. So completely does this side monopolize our
college and even university courses in biology that our
teachers know nothing else to teach, However much
value this may have for adult thought, when we attempt
to teach little children we must moult it all, heed every
suggestion of the great teacher, and become as little
children ourselves.

132 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

In the general movement toward active education
manual training, cooking, and sewing have made rapid
progress toward assured positions in the curriculum,
while the most wholesome and educative work of all,
work in the fresh air and sunshine, with the soil and
growing things, practical gardening, has lagged behind.
In Europe, according to Mr. Clapp, there are eighty-one
thousand school gardens from Sweden to Switzerland.
As long ago as 1887 a decree was passed in France by
which no plan of a school building could be accepted
unless a school garden was attached. ‘The absence of
the school garden is the most radical defect in our ele-
mentary education.” 4

The form a school garden should take, the things
planted in it, and the sphere of its influence in the educa-
tion of a neighborhood must, of course, vary with local
needs and conditions. Where home gardens are lacking
or neglected, nothing can so awaken the children to the
resources and possibilities of life and nature. In one
case over 80 per cent of the children started gardens
of their own at home, and many of the parents, mostly
foreigners, sought information through the teachers as
to where seeds and garden supplies could be obtained.

Even where home gardens are all that could be wished
or desired, the school garden can furnish opportunities for
such class lessons in soils, soil preparation, and fertilization,
methods of planting seeds, methods of propagating fruit
and forest trees by seeds, cuttings, buds, grafts, and layers,
as will be described under those topics, — pruning, thinning
fruit, insects, and fungous diseases. A wild-flower garden

1 Henry Lincoln Clapp, in Education, May, 1901.

GARDEN STUDIES 133

along one fence with a fernery in a shady corner will
afford instruction as to the whole life story of these
plants and supply nature study and drawing material,
always fresh and near at hand, without the necessity of
trespassing on private grounds or robbing waysides.

Fic. 55. SCHOOL GARDEN

George Putnam School, Roxbury, Mass. (Photograph by Henry Lincoln Clapp)

I do not wish to be understood as advocating any
serious encroachment by the school garden on the play-
grounds. Trees are not only ornaments but additions to
playgrounds and might well be selected with some regard
to instructive and pleasing variety and especially to attract-
ing birds. A list that might meet these requirements
will differ greatly with soil, locality, and available space.

134 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The list that I would select, conditions being favorable,
might be the following, in order; that is, if room was
sufficient for but one, take the first, if sufficient for
three, the first three, and so on.

1. Mulberry. g. Butternut.
2. Asiatic Wild Apple, Pyzus to. An Oak.
baccata, with the Euro- 11. White Pine.
pean Wild Apple, P. 12. Native Wild Crab Apple.
malus, planted beside it 13. Sassafras.
or grafted to one of the 14. Tulip Tree.
main branches. 15. Sycamore.
3. Hackberry. 16, Soft- Maple.
4. Red Cedar. 17. Hemlock.
5. Black Cherry. 18. Larch.
6. One of the improved chest- 19. A Spruce.
nuts, Paragon, Numbo, or 20. A group of White Birches.
Parry’s Giant. 21. Purple Beech.
7. Hickory Nut. 22. A Locust.
8. Black Walnut. 23. Linden.
24. An Ash.

There is apt to be so much monotony in street and pub-
lic park planting that the school garden may well contain
trees that are less commonly seen.

For the fruit garden we should have one, or several,
if there is room, of each of the standard fruits—peach,
pear, plum, apple, quince, grape, cherry—the best for the
locality ; or several varieties may be grafted into one tree,
for experiments in cross-pollination. A number of the
bush fruits —raspberries, blackberries, currants, goose-
berries, and strawberries — might furnish instructive
materials, but it should be remembered that they ripen
during the summer vacation and hence belong more prop-
erly in the home gardens.

GARDEN STUDIES gee

The school grounds often afford opportunities for
landscape gardening. Flowers may be arranged in har-
monious and pleasing combinations of color and against
suitable backgrounds of shrubbery. The trees may be

grouped naturally to form artistic pictures. The build-
ing, if practicable, can be covered with woodbine and

Fic. 56. PORTION OF SEVENTH GRADE GARDEN

Upsala Street School, Worcester, Mass.

ampelopsis, with wistarias and bignonias, actinidias and
honeysuckles interspersed, and with climbing roses trained
about the lower windows. Thus the school may be
made an attractive place, supply material for practical
instruction, and at the same time elevate the taste of
a community.

136 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The A, B, C of Landscape Gardening. —When we study
the way Nature plants her trees and vines, the principles
of good arrangement become simple matters. A. Leave
open glades for sunshine and air. ZB. Plant in masses, in
natural groups, so as to form pleasing pictures for differ-
ent seasons; and, combining this principle with A, leave
open vistas toward beautiful views and cover unsightly
features of the landscape. Flower beds are much more
effective when framed in a suitable background of foliage
than when planted in open spaces. C. Avoid straight
rows wherever possible; Nature never plants that way ;
it is stiff, monotonous, and tiresome.

Study and discuss with the class specimens of good
planting in the neighborhood. Little trees may look
lonesome at fifty feet apart; but measure the spread of
large trees of different kinds. We need to acquire the
power to look ahead twenty, fifty, a hundred years when
we plant trees. Failing to do this, people often plant too
close to the house, and the trees grow up and bury it
in shade so dense as to invite dampness and decay. In
consequence they are obliged to cut them down in their
prime. Leave open vistas toward the sunrise and sun-
set; plant a heavy mass of deciduous trees to shield the
house from the noonday and afternoon sun; arrange the
evergreens on the north, where they may break the force
of storms but not cut off the winter sunshine. In groups
the trees should stand good hammock-distances apart.

The school garden can also supply ethical culture where
it is most needed. A small fraction of the community,
with uncultivated tastes and with little regard for the
rights of others, may practically render impossible its best

GARDEN STUDIES 137

horticultural development. It may seem to some like
flying in the face of Providence to plant fruits in the
school garden, but this is just the thing to do. It is the
only rational way of “taking the bull by the horns.” One
school, within my knowledge, in which this theory was
given a trial raised peaches, and the children sold them
to buy books for the school library. Not a peach was
stolen. In another school in which a similar experiment
is being tried the juvenile vandalism that made pursuit
of horticulture almost impossible disappeared completely
after the first year.

Wherever possible, besides the general features de-
scribed, each child should be given a plot, where he can
plant whatever he pleases. This will serve to develop
individuality, and the condition of the plot will be the
natural index of what a child knows and is able to do
by himself.

By being content to begin in a moderate, sensible way,
by planting those things adapted to local conditions and
needs, and varieties that will flower or fruit either before
the middle of June or after the first of September, a school
garden is reasonably sure to grow in favor. And “the
most radical defect in our elementary education”’ may be
soon supplied.

Fic. 57, EXAMPLE OF TASTEFUL PLANTING

(By courtesy of the National Cash Register Co., Dayton, Ohio)

CHAPTER IX
NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY OF CHILDREN

FLOWERS AND VEGETABLES

At Noey’s house when they arrived with him —
How snug seemed everything, and neat and trim:

With little paint-keg, vases and teapots
Of wee moss-blossoms and forgetmenots :
And in the windows, either side the door,
Were ranged as many little boxes more
Of like old-fashioned larkspur, pinks and moss
And fern and phlox ; while up and down across
Them rioted the morning-glory-vines
On taut-set cotton-strings.
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY, A Child World.

In order to develop the educational values connected
with the plants children are trying to rear at home we
must first know what they are. For a simple language
lesson, ask each pupil to write a list of what plants he
owns. This will, of course, result in a mass of unclassified
data that the teacher must arrange and tabulate before it
becomes usable. This entails an unnecessary amount
of labor, and a better method is to have blanks with the
names of the commoner sorts printed in order on sheets
of school writing paper. The data will thus be uniformly
arranged by the children themselves, and the teacher can
keep them on file as a basis for assignment of lessons on

139

140 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

any plants that it may be desirable to study. Each group
of teachers, of course, will have to decide on the exact
list of plants best suited to the locality. Three of these
blanks will probably be found useful, one for flowers and
ornamental plants, one for the vegetable garden, and one
for fruits; but by including fewer varieties these may be
all printed on a single blank. However, in the present
low condition of our horticultural life, the printing of as
many names of plants as possible may serve as a most
valuable means of calling the attention of the children to
desirable varieties to plant.

In graded schools these blanks might be passed Mares
to the teacher in the next higher grade as the children are
promoted. (See next page.)

_ The object of the lessons should be simply the culture
of flowers with reference to the highest enjoyment of them.
With blanks properly filled out the teacher has in hand
the resources of the class for future lessons. Plan with
reference to seasons of blooming and planting, begin with
such as the greatest number of children have, invite them
to bring in of each kind enough, if practicable, to supply
the class and teacher with specimens, including buds,
open blossoms, and seeds. Some of these may be kept
in the school collection. Then let the children recite on
methods of culture, compare notes as to best methods,
appealing to quality of the specimens in hand, discuss form
and colors, enjoy together the fragrance, and call out any-
thing that the children have noted as to the insects or hum-
ming birds that visit the flower. Finally, question the class
about the insect enemies that make culture of the plant
difficult, and the fungi, blights, and mildews that attack it.

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY I4I

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY — FLOWERS

NY7/1)) 1) Ae Grade... DDATE Sores seis hi

Nore. — Without rewriting the names, each pupil will indicate the number and variety
of each, if known, and if unknown indicate this by a (?).

FLOWER How oBTAINED By WHOM CARED FOR

Roses

Lilies . . .
Violets . . .
Nasturtiums

Sweet Peas .
Mignonette .

Crocus

Iris 2...
Hollyhocks.
Honeysuckles .
Clematis
Moonflowers

Cypress Vine . aes
Morning-Glories . . .
Mimosas .
Forget-me-nots
Sunflowers .
Chrysanthemums
Geraniums .

Petunias

Verbenas ‘i
Pinks ....
Primroses

Pansies . gl go ee
Poppies. . . .. .-
Passion Flowers. . .
Mallows. .

Peonies .

Hawthorns .
Lilacs.

Phlox

Portulacas. . .
Marigolds . .
Dahlias .

Asters

Cannas .

Zinnias . . . .
Other kinds . .

142 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The best text-book for this work is any first-rate floral
catalogue, and the best book for reference, which should
be supplied as a desk book to the teacher, is the book on
horticulture and landscape gardening that best applies to
the region as to climate and local conditions.

Must the teachers, then, learn all this and tell it to
the children? Far from it. They need only the sincere
love of flowers and the first rudiments of their culture;
and then to have judgment enough not to try to tell
the children even half they know. The very breath of
life for a healthy, vigorous child is original investigation ;
and to stuff the memory faster than the power to think
and the will to do are developed, is the quickest road to
mental indolence. ‘Yes, but they will ask all sorts of
questions,” says the timid teacher who is afraid to say
“T don’t know.” Well, then, questions are the best
things in the world to play ball with. They are too good
to break by answering. Toss them back to the class.

“Alice asks how deep to plant her tulip bulbs. How many
know?” A dozen hands go up. “John, will you tell us how deep
to plant tulips?” /ofz. “ About a foot deep.” More hands go up.
“No! no! no!” the children are saying to themselves, and John gets
red in the face. ‘ How do you know tulips should be planted a foot
deep, John? Did you ever plant any?” “No, ma’am.” “Well,
then, you don’t know but only guessed about it, John; is that true?”
“Yes, ma’am.” “ Well, perhaps we had better not waste any more
time guessing. How many raised tulips last year?” Hands again
goup. ‘Mary, will you please tell us how deep you planted yours?”
“T planted my tulips six inches deep.” “Did they grow well?”
“Yes, they all came up the next spring, and every one blossomed.”
‘How many agree that six inches deep is about right to plant tulips?
Well, every one seems to think you are right. Mary, how did you
find out?” «TI saw Mrs. Johnson planting some one day and watched

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY 143

her do it, and she said that they must be planted six inches deep.
Her tulips always grew so well I thought she must know. Then I
read it again in a flower catalogue, and I| have tried it myself.”

So every question is a prize, a living, bursting bud;
be careful of it. Make the most and best of it. If the
children are really doing something, there will be no end
of questions with real purpose in them, and the nature-
study period will be the liveliest, most quick-witted and
mutually helpful, and the happiest lesson of the day. If
they are not actively doing something with nature at first
hand, as Froebel says, all will be dull, empty, lazy, dead,
and no teacher can lift the load.

Do not harshly repel him; show no impatience about his ever-
recurring questions. Every harshly repelling word crushes a bud or
shoot of his tree of life. Do not, however, tell him in words much
more than he could find out himself without your words. For it is,
of course, easier to hear the answer from another, perhaps to only
half hear and understand it, than it is to seek and discover it himself.
To have found out one fourth of the answer by his own effort is of
more value and importance to the child than it is to half hear and
half understand it in the words of another; for this causes mental
indolence. Do not, therefore, always answer your children’s ques-
tions at once and directly ; but as sooz as they have gathered sufficient
strength and experience, furnish them with the means to find the
answers in the sphere of their own knowledge. FROEBEL, Education
of Man, p. 86.

But suppose, as often will occur, the question is one
that no one knows anything about. If reasonably within
their “sphere of knowledge,” call for volunteers. Who
will try to find this out and tell us about it? The thing
we need to develop most in our public education is indi-
vidual initiative, power to think and do—~vesource. If

144 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

the question is too hard to answer in a day or a week or
a year, so much the better. If it be one worth while
to work at for a lifetime, so much the better. You may
have given a life work, the highest prize a teacher can
ever give a pupil. It may make the difference between
a life worth living and not worth living.t

A blank for the vegetable garden similar to that for
flowers may be prepared about as on the opposite page.

1 Blessed is he who has found his work ; let him ask no other blessed-
ness. He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it, and will follow it !
How, as a free-flowing channel, dug and torn by noble force through the
sour mud-swamp of one’s existence, like an ever deepening river there,
it runs and flows ;— draining off the sour festering water, gradually from
the remotest root of the remotest grass-blade ; making, instead of a pesti-
lential swamp, a green fruitful meadow with its clear-flowing stream. How
blessed for the meadow itself, let the stream and z¢s value be great or small !
Labour is Life. From the inmost heart of the Worker rises his God-given
Force, the sacred celestial Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty
God; from his inmost heart awakens him to all nobleness — to all knowl-
edge, “self-knowledge” and much else, so soon as Work fitly begins.
Knowledge? The knowledge that will hold good in working, cleave thou
to that. Properly thou hast no other knowledge but what thou has got by
working: the rest is yet all a hypothesis of knowledge: a thing to be argued
in schools, a thing floating in the clouds, in endless logic-vortices, till we
try it and fix it. ‘“ Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by actions alone.”

Work is of a religious nature: — work is of a drave ... nature; which
is the aim of all religion to be. All work of man is as the swimmer’s; a
waste of ocean threatens to devour him; if he front it not bravely it will
keep its word. By incessant wise defiance of it, lusty rebuke and buffet of
it, behold how it loyally supports him, bears him as a conqueror along.
“Tt is so,” says Goethe, “with all things that man undertakes in this
world.” CARLYLE, Past and Present, p. 190. :

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY 145

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY — VEGETABLE GARDEN

Flome rented Or OWNC.o.ccccccccceccecvesves ces veeceee

Norte. — Without rewriting the names, the pupil will please indicate
the quantity, amount and variety, if known, of each.!

How 1s SEED or

NAME OF PLANT
STOCK OBTAINED?

By WHOM CARED FOR?

Artichokes ‘
Asparagus .
Chives .
Cabbage.
Cauliflower .
Celery .
Cress .
Cucumbers .
Eggplant
Lettuce
Mushrooms
Melons .
Onions
Parsley . . |
Radishes . ’.
Squashes
Tomatoes
Sage .

Anise. .
Rhubarb
Other Plants

11t may be objected that I have left a number of the commoner sorts out, notably
beans. Of course, in preparation of these blanks for use, each group of teachers must again
decide for themselves, according to local interests and conditions. The greatest danger
in the lessons will be the cut-and-dried, ‘‘ systematic” inclusion of things too commonly
known to be anything but dull and unprofitable. And where garden work isall that it should
be in a neighborhood, where the children are carrying it along with success and enthusiasm,
most of it may safely be left in charge of the children and the home. :

New and choice varieties of common vegetables may be brought to attention of the
school, and knowledge about them thus be disseminated through the neighborhood. Insect
enemies and fungous diseases of even the commonest things will also furnish many valuable
lessons.

Fic. 58. A PARADISE FOR CHILDREN

146

CHAPTER X
NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY (Continued)
GARDEN FRUITS

WE must have recourse to our blanks again in order to
find out what the children have for this most fascinating
field of study and work. The fruit-blank may be arranged
somewhat as indicated on the following page.

With either the rich or the poor, every fact learned
about fruits, their qualities and culture, may be of life-
long value. To know how to grow any fruit to highest
perfection opens up a noble and useful life work. Improve-
ment of varieties by judicious cross-pollination is a bound-
less field for intelligent experiment and patient work; and
a gain of even a small margin in quality, color, flavor, and
size of any standard fruit is a service to mankind that
cannot be calculated in money. This work represents
one of the most ancient and noble struggles of man to
regain paradise, and it will go on as long as human life
exists upon the earth. No sooner has a “best” variety
been produced than by judicious breeding a better may
be obtained. Until recently this progress has depended
mainly upon accidental seeds. A seed gains a foothold
and some wise, thoughtful man notices that it produces
fruit better than its kind. He cares for it, and within
a few years every garden in the land or zone may be
reaping the benefit of his work.

147

148 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY — FRUITS

SCHOOL cisesed conten Bie oo Grade... Date.

Home rented or owned

Note. — State after each the number you own and variety, if known.

Fruits By wHOM PLANTED | CARE GIVEN YEARLY CRoP PRODUCED

Apples
Apricots : .
Blackberries .
Cherries
Currants .
Gooseberries
Grapes
Mulberries
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears

Plums .
Quinces
Raspberries
Strawberries .

Fruit culture, furthermore, forms the natural center
for interests in many other things. Innumerable insect
friends and foes await acquaintance, whose common names
refer to the trees about which they may be found: the

1JIn these different blanks I have placed the question “ Home rented
or owned” for several reasons. To some this, at first sight, seems need-
lessly prying into home matters. But no general publicity need be given
to the answers, and the data secured will be of great sociological value
and will assist the teacher in advising the child with reference to what
to plant. It may, of course, be omitted if desired.

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY 149

apple worm, apple maggot, apple and plum curculios,
apple-, peach-, and cherry-tree borers, grape sphinx moth,
grape berry moth, and so on through a long list. If the
children have trees and vines, there will be no lack of
interest and materials for insect studies. From this they
will also gain a practical insight into the work of birds
and other insectivorous animals, and appreciate the need
of protecting them and attracting them to their homes;
and they will be glad to study the work of bees in carry-
ing pollen from flower to flower. Finally, they will at
least be awakened to see the value of knowledge about
the blights and mildews and other fungi that now make
fruit culture so difficult.

Wherever I go I find common knowledge of the best
varieties of fruits falling out of the public mind. It is
certainly little enough to ask of nature study that it keep
alive this ancient and beneficent tree of knowledge, root,
trunk, and branch.

To begin with, set a series of composition lessons upon
each of the more important of the fruits commonly raised
in the vicinity, asking the pupils to name all the varieties
they know. Let them describe each as to vigor of growth,
color, size, shape, flavor, fragrance, quality, origin, uses.
This will open the eyes of both teachers and pupils to how
little is commonly known of such matters.

In proper season the liveliest lessons may be arranged
by asking the class to bring in specimens of all the
varieties of a certain fruit they have. Let the children
smell, taste, and handle them, and discuss which is the
best kind for different purposes. Make a practical fruit
show of it, a game of “bests,” to learn not only the best

150 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

variety, but also who can raise the best specimens of
a variety. How did he succeed in doing it?

In connection with these exhibitions and lessons the
teacher should have on his desk the latest revised Cata-
logue of Fruits4 He should not allow the pupils to see
it until they have guessed which is the best fruit of the
kind they have before them —apple, pear, peach, plum,
grape, etc. — known in the world.

This Catalogue of Fruits represents the combined efforts and
the best judgment of the members of the American Pomological
Society, the men, living in every part of the country, who are best
skilled and most deeply interested in advancement of American fruit
culture. It is arranged so that he who runs may read. It con-
tains a map with all the various fruit belts or districts clearly indi-
cated and numbered, and then follow tables that give more modern
information on American fruits than could be found in all the
horticultural libraries.

From these tables we are able to read at a glance a
description of each fruit, under its accepted name, giving
its size, form, color, flavor, quality (marked on a scale of
10 for best), season, use, origin, and the region where it
grows to greatest perfection. It is an interesting exer-
cise simply to read the names of these fruits over to a
class in order to realize how few we know practically and
how little people in general know about them. It is not
to be expected that every one will agree with all the esti-
mates given by the American Pomological Society, but

1 Revised Catalogue of Fruits recommended for Cultivation in the Vari-
ous Sections of the United States and the British Provinces, United States
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 1899. Every teacher should
be furnished this or should get it by ordering it, with five cents inclosed,
from Superintendent of Documents, Union Building, Washington, D.C.

NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY I51

differences of opinion are valuable to set people to inves-
tigating and exercising their judicial powers.

I will give for some of the standard fruits only those
that are scaled ro for quality, z.¢., the very best known
and of such preéminent excellence as to deserve the mark,
with a few others for comparison. (See next page.)

While it may not seem worth while to a child to try to
rear a peach tree, grapevine, or other fruit, knowing as
little as he does about them, give him the idea that this is
the best thing of its kind in the world, and await the result.

In case the children have no fruit trees of their own,
which, I regret to say, will generally be the case, it may
take two or three years to get this work well under way.!
But the school may be a great means of inducing children
to get things of their own, of helping them to secure the
varieties they wish, and it may furnish the natural chan-
nels through which scions, cuttings, buds, seeds, and
plants may be distributed and exchanged throughout the
neighborhood. Horticultural exhibits and fairs may be
utilized for studying varieties to excellent advantage.

Next to study of varieties of fruits comes naturally
the knowledge of best soil, treatment, care, food supply,

1 Every home garden is, of course, a garden of “bests” in accordance
with its owner’s knowledge and tastes. Too often, however, it is filled
with such comparatively worthless things as to awaken no interest on the
part of children and to give the impression that they are not worth taking
care of. But in every neighborhood some one may be found who knows
something about these things and has the best garden and orchard of the
vicinity in at least certain features. Get his permission to take the class,
giving all assurance that nothing shall be stepped on or injured, to his
garden when various fruits are in their prime, or when instructive work is
going on,— pruning, fertilizing, grafting, budding, etc. I can see you
smile at this, but try it.

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

152

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NATURE-STUDY PROPERTY 163

and methods of culture for each. Many points of interest
in all these connections will come up during the fruit shows,
and while the specimens are being compared it is just the
time to ask: How did you do it? Did you thin the fruit?
How did you prune the tree? How did you keep the
insects off? What do you feed your trees? and so on.
Of course most of these topics are matters for lifelong
study, and though it may not be possible to do as much
with them as you wish, are they not better on this
account ?

aauy WATg ANVaNnAg VW ‘sIVossoT1g

40 ATIVUIWY V

6S -

154

CHAPTER XI
PROPAGATION OF PLANTS

SEEDS, Layers, Currines, GRAFTING, AND BUDDING;
TRANSPLANTING

The Seeds. — First have each member of the class make
a neat collection of the seeds of all the fruits —crab
apple, apple, pear, peach, plum, strawberry, etc. — given
in the preceding list, or of as many as possible. A lesson
or two may be devoted to mounting these neatly in vials
or on cards. Label them in such wise that they may be
used for tests to see whether the children can distinguish
the different seeds at sight.

We may next ask each of the children to bring in a
number of fruit seeds for observations and experiments in
germination. Certain seeds are naturally better adapted
to these studies than others. Still, any which have local
importance may be used; and so few children have ever
seen the germination of some of the smaller seeds — straw-
berry, raspberry, grape, etc.—that these may prove the
most instructive of all, especially in sections where their
culture is a prominent industry. If time allows the use of
not more than one seed for these studies, the peach will
probably be the best in all sections where its culture is
possible; but with just this seed the greatest care must
be taken to be sure that it is from vigorous stock and not

155

156 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

contaminated by the disease “peach yellows,” that has
desolated the orchards in so many sections of this country.
So serious is this danger said to be, since peaches are
shipped from diseased orchards to all parts of the country,
and “yellows”’ peaches are not infrequently seen even in
horticultural fairs, that it will be much safer to purchase
the peach seeds from reliable nurserymen or from the
State Experiment Station. The peach is placed first on
account of its large seed, its beautiful and rapid growth,
the short time before it comes into bearing, and the
need of stimulating and popularizing culture of this
valuable fruit.

The object of this work in germination is to raise plants
that may be used for lessons in budding and grafting and
for distribution throughout the neighborhood, and its needs
and possibilities must naturally determine the number of
seeds planted. A secondary purpose is to give each child
a chance to see one of these plants start out in life, and,
even if the district be fully stocked, to have a single pot
of fruit-tree seedlings in a schoolroom will serve to keep
this lore alive in the hearts of the children and prove a
most suggestive bit of nature-study equipment.

The first general topic is naturally methods of saving and
germinating the different seeds. This may be most con-
veniently stated in the form of a table. (See next page.)

The chief lesson to be learned from seed propagation is
that new varieties of fruits are secured in this way. The
seed of a Baldwin apple, for example, will not produce a
Baldwin. It may be a better apple, but the chances are
thousands to one that it will not be as good. The original
apple, Pyrus malus, from which our cultivated varieties are

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS

157

derived, is a little fruit less than an inch in diameter, now
growing wild over southern and central Europe, mixed
with cultivated apples. Its earliest home was probably
the region south of the Caucasus along the Black and
Caspian seas. Small forests of these trees still occur in
that country. These apples were known and used and
probably cultivated long before authentic history began.
They were dried for winter by the Swiss lake-dwellers,

METHOD AND SEASON OF

VARIETY METHOD OF SAVING SEED PLANTING
( Remove from fruit Without allowing to
P and, if necessary to kee dry, plant from one to
Apple, Apricot, ais ke P ye ;
‘ over winter, mix with dry | two inches deep in
Cherry, Nectarine,

Peach, Pear, Plum,
Quince.

Blackberries,Grapes, (

Currants, Gooseber-

ries, Mulberries,¥<

Raspberries, Straw-
berries.

L

sand and store in a cool
cellar. Or put under a
flat stone out of doors

and leave over winter.

Washclean from pulp,
partially dry, and, if de-
sired, store in a cool
place until the following

spring.

deeply spaded seed bed,
well drained so that water
will not stand over it
during the fall or winter.

Plant when ripe, or
the following spring, in
fine loam from _ one-
fourth to one-half inch
deep.

and it has been shown that they knew two varieties of
apple back in the stone age, before they had discovered
any metals. Fig. 60 shows in outline one of the latest
achievements, the Bismarck apple, originated in New Zea-
land, and the little wild apples of thousands of years ago.

This gain has all been made by planting apple seeds
and taking good care of the trees. And of those who have
the patience and perseverance to plant the necessary thou-
sands of seeds, —for they tend so strongly to fall back to the
little wild apple from which they sprang, — and to care for

158 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

them until they bear fruit, the one who finally discovers an
apple better in some respect than all the rest, has become
a benefactor of mankind; for from the billions on billions
of apple seeds that have been ripening for thousands of
years we have only 299 kinds, some poor, some fair, some
good —a few very good — only two best. We cannot see
deep enough into the
heart of nature to
know just what benign
influences joined hands
to produce these
“bests.” But two
apple blossoms on
two different trees
must have set out to
make the best seeds
in all the ‘world; the
rains and the dews
Fic. 60. BIsMARCK APPLE and the winds were

a, the wild Asiatic crab apple, Pyrus baccata ; just right that year,
b, P. malus, the wild le oF EE A :
, P. malus, the wild apple of Europe. the sock: was good,

(All § natural size)

a bee carried pollen
from one blossom to the other, and a bird guarded the
fruit from devouring insects, and finally some child, —
who knows ?— ate the apple and planted the seed in good
soil.

Taking the hint from nature’s ways, men have at last
begun to make careful experiments in “plant breeding.”
Read or tell to the children the stories of John Chapman,
better known as “Johnny Appleseed,” who supplied the
early settlers in Indiana and Ohio with apple seeds and

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 159

apple trees ; of Ephraim Bull, of Concord, who originated
the Concord grape; and of Luther Burbank, “the wizard
of plants,’ who has given to every garden in the land
some of its choicest varieties of fruit.

The theory and method of procedure are comparatively
simple. Select the two plants, trees or flowers, that you
wish to breed. Be sure they are healthy, vigorous, and
grown to the highest perfection possible. In general, it
is best to have the female of a kind preéminent for robust
growth, while the male possesses the color, fragrance, or
flavor that you wish to perfect. Next choose a well-placed
bud, or cluster of buds, about equally advanced on both
plants. Before they open, carefully tie a paper bag over
the buds from which you intend to take the pollen.
From the female flowers, also before they open, remove
all the stamens, and in like manner cover them with a
paper bag. When the anthers of the male flower open,
indicating that their pollen is ripe, remove the pollen
with a clean soft brush and dust it thoroughly over the
stigma of the other flower. Replace the paper bag over
the female flower. Let it remain covered until the seeds
begin to grow, when the bag should be taken off. Then
make a careful note of exactly what you have done, giv-
ing the varieties used, which one was taken for pollen and
which for stigma, and the date and methods of culture given

1For “Johnny Appleseed,” see Ohio Archeological and Historical
Quarterly, January, 1901, p. 303.

For references to Mr. Bull, see Massachusetts Agricultural Reports,
1850-1860; also article on ‘Progress of Plant Breeding in the United
States,” Yearbook, Department of Agriculture, 1899.

For a recent note on Luther Burbank and his work, see American
Gardening, vol. xxi, p. 35, 1900.

160 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

to the plants. The best of memories are apt to play all
sorts of pranks, and this is only a safe and easy precau-
tion. Label the flower, so that there can be no possibility
of mistake. When the seeds are ripe, plant them care-
fully in soil that has been thoroughly baked, or that you
are sure does not contain a single seed of the kind you
are to plant in it. With such seeds the chances are
greater that you may rear a flower
or fruit that combines the qualities
of both parents and is possibly the
finest of its kind in
the world.

Layers, Run-
: ners, Cuttings,
Grafts, and Buds.— I have
just stopped writing to go
down into the garden to count the
buds on this year’s shoot of my
little Esopus tree. There are 57,
and this whole shoot was a single
bud last spring. Ona similar shoot
Fic. 61. Cuerry Twics of Burbank plum there were 173, on
A growth shoot and fruit spurs) a Royal George peach, 240, on a
ae ached a Niagara grape, 91. A bud, except
,/, lateral or leaf buds. A a fruit bud, is in possibility a tree

pointed leaf bud may be of its kind. The buds on a tree
seen in the center of each

cluster of fruit buds produce shoots or trees that vary

little if at all from one another ; so,

in order to multiply a desirable variety, we have only to
place its buds where they may grow.

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 161

If a bud produce fifty buds a year, and each of these produce fifty
buds, and so on, how many buds will there be at the end of the fifth
year? Ans. 312,500,000.

Last spring I was glad to pay a dollar for a young Campbell’s
Early grapevine. Now the vine has thirty-eight buds on it and has
produced a second vine from a layer that I bent down and covered
with earth early in the summer. The grape is said to be as much
better than the Concord as the Concord is better than the wild grape.
If this be true, its originator is welcome to the dollar, and I hope he
may be a multi-millionaire by this time, as he deserves to be.

Let the children each bring in branches of some kind
of tree, preferably a fruit tree, and help them to study
the annual growths that it may show. Study with them
the two kinds of twigs (growth twigs and fruit spurs)
and the different kinds of buds (leaf buds and fruit buds).
We shall need to have clear ideas of these when we study
how to bud and graft, make cuttings and layers, and
prune and feed our trees.

Yearly growths are distinguished by roughened lines
around the branch at the position of each successive ter-
minal bud. Beginning with the present year’s growth,
these may be counted back for four, five, and sometimes
many more years. In seasons where a wet, warm autumn
follows a drought in summer there are sometimes two
distinct periods of growth with all the appearance of the
annual markings between them.

With the buds distinguish the large terminal bud, which
is to continue the growth of the shoot ; the side, or lateral,
buds, that are destined to make leafy side branches ; and
the fruit buds, that are to produce the fruit of the ensuing
year. The chief purpose of this study is to enable the
pupils to tell a fruit bud from a leaf bud, and a fruit spur

162 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

from a growth shoot; for if they set a fruit bud or graft
a fruit spur instead of a tree they will at best get but a
single fruit.

Any time after the leaves fall this study of buds may
be begun, but it should preferably be put off until late
winter, — February or March. If branches bearing both
kinds of buds —of apple, cherry, pear, peach, and plum

Fic. 62. CHERRY TWIGS

The story as told by the buds themselves

— be then set in a vase in a window in the schoolroom,
they will soon begin to swell. Fruit buds are plump and
short, while leaf buds are slender and pointed. For the
lower graces select a twig of the five kinds named above
and have the children guess which buds will produce leaves
and which blossoms. Tie a red string at the flower and a
white string at the leaf buds, and two or three weeks will
tell who is right.

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 163

For the higher grades it will be possible to work out
two or three trees more carefully. Suppose we have
apple or pear branches, and each child is provided with
one about two feet long (Fig. 63); let them, after review-
ing the yearly growths, make out the general arrange-
ment of buds, the leaf scars underneath each bud, and
the large fruit scars, which show where the branch has
borne apples. The position of these will serve to illus-
trate the characteristic appearance of the fruit spurs, and
from the condition of their buds we can tell whether the
tree is to blossom the coming spring. With the point of

Fic. 63. FRuIT SPuRS OF PEAR

Showing rings of yearly growth and enlargements where fruits have been borne

a sharp knife—a needle or pin will do — lift off one
by one the scales that cover the bud. If in the center
a little clump of knobs is found, we may know that a
cluster of blossoms would have come forth in the spring.
If, instead, we find a group of slender points, folded leaf
embryos, we know that the bud would have produced such
a cluster of leaves as we see on the fruit spurs of an apple
tree in the off years. The function of these leaves is to
gather food and strength to form a fruit bud for the year
to follow.

After thus dissecting a few buds of each fruit, the
pupils should be able to tell a fruit bud at a glance; and

164 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

at the end of their work in this subject they should have
learned that the apple, pear, plum, and cherry bear fruit
upon short scarred spurs or branches of several years’
growth, z.e., on the “old wood,”
while peaches, apricots, and nec-
tarines produce all their fruits
upon wood of the previous sea-
son’s growth, ze, upon “new
wood.” It will be noted further
that peach buds often occur in
threes, —two large plump buds
(fruit buds), with a slender leaf
bud between. Higher up the
branch we shall generally find
large single buds, slender and
pointed, and these we shall select
for budding.
With the above points clear,
Fic. 64. Peach Twig and by the aid of the table at the
Showing fruit buds, f, and leaf end of this chapter, we shall be
buds, Z. «a, trimmed to use for wt
budding able to propagate any fruit in the
way best adapted to its culture.
It will thus accomplish two objects at once if I illustrate
the various methods by describing the practical rearing
of three typical fruits, — the grape, apple, and peach.
How to raise a Grapevine; Cuttings. — Ascertain who in the
neighborhood has a vine of the desired variety. As soon
as the leaves fall in October, if he knows how to take
care of it, he will prune off almost all the new season’s
growth. Ask him to contribute some of the largest and
ripest of these waste canes, cut them into lengths with

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 165

two buds each (Fig. 65), tie in a bunch, and bury six
inches deep, butt ends up, in a well-drained spot in the
school garden.

As soon as the ground can be worked in the spring,
set your cuttings slantingly, about six inches apart, in a
row in the propagating bed (see Chapter XXII). They
should be pushed down into the soft, fine earth, so that
the top bud is flush with the surface, and then covered
with an inch of sifted loam, léaf mould, peat, or street
sweepings. The buds will readily push
through this, and it will retain mois-
ture. If given good care, they will be
strong enough to transplant to the
place where you wish to have them
grow permanently the next spring.

Layers.— You may save from one to
two years in the growth of your grape-
vine by obtaining permission to make
a layer of one of the canes still attached
to the vine. A layer is formed by
bending down a vigorous young shoot,
pinning it securely in a little furrow
in the ground, and covering it with
three or four inches of soil. Roots
will start along the covered part of
the stem and leaves and branches from
the tip, and with the help of the parent
vine for the first season you may have
a strong young vine equal to a two- or even three-year-old
cutting. If it be impossible to bend the branch down to
the ground, you may put the tip through the hole of a

Fic.65. GRAPE CUTTINGS

166 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

good-sized flower pot, fasten the pot securely, and fill it
with fine, rich soil. This will have to be watered carefully
every day in dry weather. By either of these methods you
can have a strong vine, which you should sever from the
parent and plant where you wish it to grow as soon as the
leaves fall off in autumn.

Transplanting. — Prepare

a large hole, make it three
or four feet wide, so that
the slender roots can be
spread out naturally in it,
mellow the soil deep (if
the ground is poor, dig it
out and put in a wheel-
barrow load of rich loam),
and scatter into the bot-
tom of the hole a peck of
bones that you have saved.
Now dig up your plant
carefully, to save the fine
roots, and without expos-
ing them to the air any

Fic. 66. LAYER OF WINCHELL GRAPE
Showing one year’s growth of roots. Ayard- more minutes than neces-

stick is included for comparison. In trans- sary (if it has to be carried
planting, cut back as indicated at ¢ .
far, wrap the roots in wet
paper or burlap), spread them naturally in the hole, filling-in
with fine earth as you arrange the roots of different levels,
and tramp the earth firmly about the plant. Finally,
put two or three stakes around it for protection. If
the ground be dry, soak it thoroughly, and after it has
dried so that it works mellow without puddling, rake the

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 167

surface fine and smooth. Before digging your vine you
must cut it off to within two buds of the ground. Yes,
you must. Boys and girls always demur at this, but the
reason for it is plain. We want one large, strong cane to
grow. There are from thirty to forty buds on your vine.
If all are retained they will all try to grow, and those that
succeed will make only weak branches. By doing as I
say you will have one strong stem instead of ten weak
ones, and your vine will be ten times as good. When the
two buds you have left begin to grow and have made two
or three leaves, pinch off the tip of the weaker one and
give the other a support to climb. If you wish to have it
grow tall as fast as possible, so that it may cover an arbor
or reach a second- or third-story porch or window, pinch
the tips of all its side shoots in the same way. By this
means a growth of from ten to thirty feet may be secured
in a season.

Pruning. — Practically every bud or young vine or tree
must be looked upon as a little blind creature, wild with
ambition to overgrow the world. Your grapevine now has
forty or fifty buds. Only two of them can be allowed to
grow. If you wish to train to a trellis, cut your vine back
again to within four or five buds of the ground, and the
following spring allow only the two strongest branches to
grow, pinching the others as soon as they have made a
leaf or two. If you wish your vine to grow taller, you
may cut it off as high up as the wood is fully ripe, and
before it begins to grow smaller toward the tip pinch all
the side buds below the two topmost ones and allow only
one or two of the highest buds to continue the growth.
Care and patience should be exercised not to allow the

168 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

young vine to overbear; for if it does, it may not regain
vigor for four or five years. The first year, if from a
strong layer, or the third, if from a cutting, it will prob-
ably show a cluster or two of blossoms. Nip them off and
wait, and the next year do not allow it to bear more than
three to six clusters, according to its strength.

If you study your vine, you will learn that the fruit is
always borne on shoots of the season’s growth, which
spring from buds on the wood of the preceding year;
and your rule for all subsequent pruning should be to
leave not more than twenty to thirty buds on the vine.
Cut off all weak canes close to the stem and, supposing
there are five or six vigorous young canes, cut them
all back to within four or five buds. Mr. Saunders, late
Superintendent of Gardens and Grounds, United States
Department of Agriculture, advocates doing this soon
after the leaves fall in autumn; and he gives as his rea-
son the fact that the roots continue somewhat active and
distribute food materials to all the buds through the fall
and early spring. If this material be concentrated on
the few buds left after pruning, the fruit will be larger
and ripen earlier than if most of it were wasted in the
portions of the vine afterwards cut away. Since this is
true, wood intended for cuttings should be more vigorous
if taken in February or March. It should always be cut
before the least signs of growth appear in the spring;
and all pruning must be done by March in most northern
states ; otherwise great loss of sap will occur from bleeding
in the spring.

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 169

How To RAISE AN APPLE TREE

By the time a child is one year old he may plant an
apple seed in the earth. He may not know what he has
done for several years afterwards, but this is apt to be
the case with all great works of man, no matter how old
he may be.

Ask each one of the class to save a few apple seeds,
and without allowing them to become dry, have.the chil-
dren plant them in a drill across the propagation bed.
Drive a stick labeled “Seeds of ———— Apples” at one
end of the row. When the seedlings come up in the
spring, thin to two or three inches apart and keep the
ground mellow and free from weeds. See how tall you
can make them grow. Before the ground freezes in the
fall dig them up, saving all the roots, tie them in a labeled
bundle, and keep in moist, not wet, sand in a cool cellar.
We must now learn how to graft before we can go on.!

Grafting. — You have learned that a bud is in embryo a
plant of its kind. When set in the ground, certain kinds
that are strong enough will form roots of their own. Other
buds that do not form roots so readily we plant in some
closely related tree, and they may grow up to form its
trunk, or, if inserted in a limb, one of its branches.

1 J regret to differ with a number of recent writers on nature study who
advise children to get nursery-grown trees to start with. We should do
this, of course, if fruit and quick returns are the objects; but where culti-
vation of patience, resource, and education are the ends in view, this is
just the thing that ought not to be done. This work will require only a
few minutes’ attention each year, and to have started at the seed, the natu-
ral beginning, may develop in the child a relation to his tree deeper than
the purely commercial.

170 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Apples of all kinds are nearly enough related to inter-
graft, so that we might have as many different kinds of
apples on one tree as the tree has branches; and this
makes not only an interesting tree, but a most serviceable

el
Fic. 67. VARIOUS METHODS OF WHIP
GRAFTING
a, plain whip graft; 4, whip-tongue graft;
¢ and d, modifications which give large
contact surfaces, suggested to the author
by Jackson Dawson

one where a child has no
room for more.

For grafting we need
a very sharp knife, cloth
bands or raffia to tie with,
and grafting wax.1 The
stock is the stem, into
which we set the graft.
This we already have in
the little yearling apple
tree. The sczow is the
shoot, from which we wish
to prepare our graft. The
graft is a scion or part of
a scion, a little stem carry-
ing a bud or two, that
we wish to propagate.
Fig. 67 shows all these
in their proper relations.

Scions are prepared,
somewhat like grape cut-
tings, by removing vigor-

ous shoots of the previous season’s growth at any time
before they begin to start in the spring and storing in a

1Grafting wax may be prepared by melting together four parts resin, two
parts beeswax, and one part tallow. It should be used to cover every part
of the cut surface around a graft to keep out the air and prevent drying.

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 171

cold cellar in moist sand or moss. Cut your scions from
the ends of strong bearing limbs fully exposed to sunlight
and air, since these have been found to do much better
than the large tempting “water shoots” that often spring
up in the center of the tree.

There are about fifty methods of grafting described
in the books, but they are all different ways of doing one

Fic. 68. CLEFT GRAFTING

thing, viz., matching the line between the bark and wood
of the scion to that of the stock and fastening them
together until growth unites them into one. You will
see the need of matching these lines together when you
think that this soft substance between the bark and wood
is the only living and growing part of a tree. You must,
therefore, make close contact between the ving part of
scion and stock if any growth is to occur, and growth of

172 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

the scion will be good or bad according as this contact is
more or less perfect.

Of the many methods of grafting I will figure two,
one of which we shall use with our apple tree, the whip-
tongue graft; the other, common cleft grafting, we may
need to know if we wish to add new varieties to an old
tree. Let us suppose that we have secured the scions of
the kinds we wish and buried them
in the sand with the little trees in
the cellar.

Along in March or April we will
take them both up and, selecting the
largest stock cut it off at the junction
of root and stem with one smooth,
slanting cut about an inch in length.
Selecting a scion that is the same size,
we will cut off its lower end in the
same way, and, splitting the stock
and scion a little, near the middle, as

Fic. 69. GRAFTING A — shown in Fig. 69, slide them carefully

Serer ms noe together. Wrap them tightly around
with fine cotton thread that has been dipped in melted
grafting wax and cover the whole wound with grafting
wax and replace it in the moist sand until spring. It
will be best to plant it back in the propagation bed and
let it grow there for two years. As the buds of your
graft start, allow only the strongest of them to grow to
form the trunk of the future apple tree; and after two
years you should have an apple tree from four to six
feet tall, ready to transplant, as described for the grape-
vine. At the time of transplanting we shall cut the

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 173

tree back pretty well and begin to shape its permanent
head. In doing this we must again call to mind the fact
that the little tree is blind and ambitious. Numbers of
buds will start that, if permitted to grow, will only be in
its way later on. It will greatly conserve the strength of
the tree if we keep watch for a time and rub these buds
off as soon as they start and allow only the four or five
to grow that we wish to form the main branches of our
tree. Another way is to let all the buds grow as they
please and then prune off all but the four or five that we
wish: to keep the next spring. But this is wasteful, and
by the easier method first given, as Mr. Saunders?! says,
we can have a tree as large three years from transplant-
ing as could be had in five years by the more wasteful
and laborious procedure.

In forming the head of a young tree we must be care-
ful about two things: allowing two branches to start from
the same place to make a crotch that will split the tree
when it bears its load, and allowing branches to grow
across the top, interfering with other limbs and making
the crown too dense for air and sunlight to penetrate.
This latter we can do by often looking over the tree
through the growing season and rubbing off a shoot here
and there that we see is taking a wrong direction, and
thus keep the top open to sunlight and air without having
to saw off large branches.”

1 William Saunders. “Pruning of Trees and Other Plants,” Yearbook,
1898, United States Department of Agriculture.

2G. B. Brackett. “The Apple and how to grow it,” Farmer's Bulletin,
No. 713, United States Department of Agriculture. Figs. 7 and 9 show
type forms of trees that have objectionable crotches.

174 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The condition of a tree is indicated by its annual growth.
If this is too vigorous and the tree is going to bud and
wood, the soil is too rich in nitrogenous materials. We
may leave it unfertilized a year and possibly prune off a
number of its roots. If the annual shoots over the out-

side of the tree are less than a foot long,

the tree probably needs feeding. For a

tree, after it has begun to bear, to make

a vigorous growth of about a foot on the
\ tips of its exposed branches is considered
an index of good condition.

How To RAISE A PEACH TREE

First, as before stated, we must be sure
that we are starting with seed of unim-
paired health and vigor. This we shall
get from our State Experiment Station
or from some reliable nurseryman in the

Fic. 70. Peacn neighborhood or save it from fruit of a
ea tree that we know is not tainted with yel-
First year, bud set

in September. Cut lows.1 As early as the ground can be

off at ¢ the follow- worked in the spring we will plant our

ing spring * .

seeds, about six inches apart and two
inches deep, in a row across our propagation bed. Cut-
worms are fond of young peach trees, and if there are
any of these pests around, we shall do well to melt the

1 The cause of peach yellows has not been discovered; but it is certain
that it is communicated by seeds and by buds or grafts of diseased trees.
Write to the Agricultural Experiment Station of your state for latest
information on the subject.

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 175

top and bottom out of a tin can and, forcing it halfway
into the ground, plant the seed in it. Otherwise we may
not have a single tree to show for a dozen seeds.

Nothing in the whole garden is more graceful than
a seedling peach, and it grows faster than almost any
other tree. By the end of the season, with good treat-
ment, it should be about four feet tall and nearly an inch
in diameter at the ground.

Budding. — Along in September, or earlier farther south,
we shall need to bud our tree, z.¢., plant a bud of the desired
variety ; let us say this is the Royal George. Budding
is done by slipping a bud, with a little shield of its own
bark, under the bark of the stock. To do this we cuta

Fic. 71. BuppING A PEACH TREE

«“T” in the bark, very carefully lift up the angles with
the thumb nail, a wooden blade, or the ivory blade of a
“budding knife,” cut off our bud as shown in Fig. 71,
being careful not to include any wood in the slice except

176 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

a mere point under the bud itself, slip it into place, and
tie snugly with a bit of raffia or a strip of cloth. The

Fic. 72. REARING
A PEACH TREE
Second year. 4, heel;
ch, cut-off heel in

July

time to bud is as early as possible in
either fall or spring, when the bark
“slips” easily. For the peach it is usu-
ally done in the fall, because the bud
will have become a part of the tree and
be ready to begin growth early in the
spring. The bud should be set close to
the ground on the north side of the tree,
and we can test whether it is in proper
condition by opening the bark higher up
to see whether it slips easily. After a
week or so we must loosen the band to
prevent girdling our tree, and we shall
be surprised to see how
much the little trunk
has grown in diameter |
during this short time.
The tree, of course, |

is not dug up to bud,
and it stands in the

' il
propagation bed where
it was planted until the care) yt
following spring. Ex- me 73. Rearing A

amine it at this time to make sure that PEACH TREE

the bud is alive.
begins to shoot

If it is, as soon as it Spring of third year.
Cut back to a “ whip”
cut the tree off a few

inches above and rub off all other buds that attempt to
dispute the field. Before any growth occurs you may
transplant the tree to its permanent place or allow it to

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 177

remain where it is for another season. You now have
something to show what a single bud can do in a year,
7.¢., Make a tree with a trunk and branches, with hundreds

of buds, six or seven feet
tall. Put a stick beside
it and mark from noon
to noon for a few days
and you can never think
of a tree as an inanimate
thing again. We cut off
the old trunk three or
four inches above the
bud and tie the tender
shoot to it so that it may

not be broken off by the

wind. This “heel,” as
it is called, should be
cut off smoothly, close
to the bud, in July or
August, so that it may
heal over nicely before
winter.

We now need to know
how to form the head of
a peach tree and some-
thing about its pruning
and care. It is com-

Fic. 74. REARING A PEACH TREE

Autumn of third year from seed. The branches
have grown from buds since spring. Planted
by the boy when one year old. (Photograph
by the author)

monly recommended to prune the peach in February or
March, as late as possible, but certainly before any signs
of growth appear in the buds.!_ The following February,

1In regions where severe ice storms prevail it is advised to prune back

late in the fall.

178 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

then, we must prune our ambitious little tree back to
a ‘whip,’ removing all the side branches and cutting
off the top to within two or three feet of the ground

Fic. 75. REARING A PEACH TREE

Autumn of fourth year from seed. (Photograph by
the author)

(Fig. 73)... As the
buds start again we
will allow only three
or four to grow,
being careful that
they do not form
crotches which may
split the tree later
on. There will be
demurrings, but you
have learned what a
bud can do, and one
strong branch is
better than ten
weak ones in this
stage of the tree’s
growth. By allowing

1This matter of prun-
ing back, especially at
time of transplanting, is
one of great practical
importance. Numbers of
young trees die yearly, or
make little or no growth
the first year after trans-
planting, solely because

this has been neglected.
Nurserymen are obliged

to deliver unpruned stock because their customers do not know the value
of proper pruning. Later on, for lack of it, trees and vines overbear and

break down or become worthless by overgrowth of weak branches.

PROPAGATION OF PLANTS 179

only three or four to grow, each will be again five or six
feet long by fall. The next February we must again cut
back fully one-half of this new growth and permit two buds
to grow from each of the three or four main branches.
The tree will probably blossom this spring, but should not
be allowed to bear more than three peaches. We have
now a beautiful little tree with six or eight main branches.
The following February we must cut these back half their
new growth and remove all weak shoots that may have
started. The next spring we shall again let each of the
six form two branches, and we shall have a tree with about
twelve limbs, stocky and able to support the burdens of
coming autumns. This year, the fifth from seed, our tree
may be allowed to bear a peck of peaches, and the next
a bushel, and after that, from five to ten bushels. The
future pruning will consist in removing entirely all weak
and slender shoots and cutting off about half the new
growth of the stronger branches.

The universal complaint is that peach trees are no
longer capable of living and bearing more than four or
five years. This is thought to be due to retaining too
much of the new bearing wood and thus allowing the
tree to overbear too young. Nurserymen of long experi-
ence have assured me that by the above method, and good
yearly feeding and care, there is no reason why peach
trees should not be kept in good bearing from twenty to
thirty years.

180

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

METHODS BY WHICH DIFFERENT FRUITS ARE PROPAGATED

APPLES
CRAB APPLES.

BLACKBERRIES
RED RASPBERRIES

DEWBERRIES .
BLACK RASPBERRIES
WINEBERRY

CHERRIES .

CURRANTS
GOOSEBERRIES
GRAPES .

MULBERRIES

ORANGES
LEMONS
PEACHES
NECTARINES
APRICOTS

PEARS
PLuMs

QUINCES

{ From seeds of common apple, crab apple, or wild
crab, seedlings grafted or budded after one
season’s growth.

From underground runners and root cuttings, #.e.,
pieces of roots three or four inches long will
form new plants.

From root cuttings or by layering tips of canes.
In most varieties the layers form spontaneously;
a few need to have the tips of the canes covered
with earth.

and from seeds of mahaleb cherry for dwarf;
grafted or budded after first year’s growth. In
severe Climates morello, or the wild pin-cherry,
seeds are used to furnish a hardy root system.

By cuttings of previous season’s growth, by layers,
y 8 Pp g y tay’

U
|
E seeds of mazard cherry for large trees,
especially with the grape.

c

From seeds, more often by cuttings of mature
wood. (Downing.)

( From orange or lemon seeds, seedlings grafted or

budded.

From seeds, seedlings budded in early fall of first
season; from plum seeds in cold climates.

i
|
U
f From seeds of pear, grafted; or from quince or
| thorn-apple seeds for dwarf trees.

From seeds of plum or peach, budded.

From cuttings; varieties difficult to root, grafted
on cuttings of vigorous kinds.

CHAPTER XII
INSECTS OF THE GARDEN

Succrss in gardening is quite as likely to depend on
knowing something about insects as about the plants
themselves ; and further, the child’s interest in the animal
discussed in the chapters to follow will depend largely on
his knowledge of what the insects are doing in his garden.

I shall endeavor to choose a list of garden insects that
will include some of the most important, simply as illus-
trating methods of study ; but the only rule for a teacher to
follow is to take up those insects that possess the greatest
interest and importance for the locality and season. And
here, as with the programme for flower study, some special
committee of teachers may well prepare the local lists.

The Codling Moth, or Apple Worm, Carfocapsa pomonella. —
This is possibly the most important and to children, when
they begin its study, one of the most interesting of gar-
den insects. The larva of this moth lives in apples, crab
apples, pears, and quinces and sometimes attacks peaches,
plums, apricots, and cherries. The damage it causes
annually has been estimated for three states as follows:
Illinois, $2,375,000; Nebraska, $2,000,000; and New York,
$3,000,000. It was early imported from Europe and is
now at home wherever fruit is cultivated in this country
and Canada, causing a loss of from 25 to 75 per cent of

the apple crop, as well as that of many other fruits. In
181

182 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

the heavy bearing years the wormy apples fall off and are
discarded, but the great number of apples serves to rear
enormous numbers of the worms, and, according to my

Fic. 76. THE CopLinG Motn (A LirE-STORY COLLECTION)

a, egg; 2, larva; c, cocoons; @, pupa; ¢, 4, adults; /, work of downy woodpecker on
apple bark; g, moth on apple bark, to show protective coloration. (@ and h
after Slingerland)

observations and experience, in the off years, when apples
would be valuable, the worms take the whole crop.

Let us first endeavor to gain a practical knowledge of
just what the insect is doing in the neighborhood. The
study should be undertaken early in the fall. Ask the
pupils to examine 100 apples, from their home supply or

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 183

as they are picked from the trees, and bring in the per-
centage injured by the codling moth. Next they may
take a more general survey of the pears and other fruits,
and let each estimate from his own observations the pro-
portion of fruit injured and the damage caused according
to market price. Of course in starting the pupils the
teacher will appoint one of the class to prepare before-
hand a demonstration of wormy fruit, so that all will know
exactly what to look for.

The next step is to work out the life story as it is being
lived about their fruit trees. Any time from October to
May, by scraping the bark scales from the trunks of apple
or pear trees, the pupils will be able to find the larve, the
“worms,” so familiar in apples, snugly ensconced for the
winter in their silken cocoons. They may also find them
often by thousands in fruit barrels or in the cracks about
places where fruit has been stored. Let them bring in
as many as they can find in two hours’ diligent search
and put them away in a vivarium in a cool place for further
study the coming spring. No child who has gone thus
far can ever again molest a downy woodpecker that he
sees working over the trunk of his apple tree.

Early in the following May, review these lessons briefly
and bring the vivarium with the larve into the school-
room. At this time a few of the moths may have
emerged, but probably most of the cocoons will be found
to contain pupee. A number of the larvae may have been
prepared for the school collection, and now a supply of
pupz should be saved for the same purpose.

Renew the hunt about apple cellars and barrels and
either kill or collect every larva or pupa found. If they

184 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

are numerous about the cellar, keep the windows closed or
screened, so that the moths cannot escape to the apples
outside. Make an excursion to a neighboring orchard and
search the trees over. Look especially for bark scales
that have been pecked into by woodpeckers. You will
find numbers of these if there are any of the birds about,
and by lifting the scale you will find the empty cocoon.
If all the cocoons are not thus empty, you do not have
woodpeckers enough to take care of the trees. Have any
of the children observed woodpeckers at work on the trees
during the winter? Did they save the bark scales from
which they saw them pecking the larvae? These bark
scales tell a story as interesting as apples, birds, and
insects all combined, and one or two should find a place
in every school collection of the codling moth.

Later in May and early in June the dark-gray moths
will be emerging in numbers in the vivarium. Fig. 76
shows them, natural size, and it will be noticed that they
have a little horseshoe of bright copper-colored scales on
the front wing. This will serve easily to distinguish the
codling moth from the other innumerable little gray mil-
lers of about the same size. Shortly after the moths
begin to emerge in numbers in the locality look for the
eggs, flat oval scales about one millimeter in diameter,
laid commonly (in the spring) on the young apples a week
to ten days after the petals have fallen. Most observers
speak of beginning to find them about the time when the
apples have grown to be an inch in diameter.! This is

1 The eggs are commonly stated to be laid in the calyx of the apple, but
all recent observations prove that those who started this story had not seen
the egg, but reasoned from the fact that the larva eats its way into the

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 185

an extremely important point, because the apple trees are
sometimes sprayed with poison solutions in the hope of
killing the newly hatched larva before it eats its way into
the apple, and if this be done when the blossoms are on,
practically all the honeybees in the neighborhood will be
killed. Besides, the poisons will probably be washed off
by rains at this season before the eggs are even laid, and
it will be a week or more before they hatch?

As many as eighty-five eggs have been found in a vial,
laid by a single codling moth. As the insect lays its eggs
singly and flits actively about in the process, the eggs
come to be pretty well distributed, generally one to an
apple, though sometimes several are found on the same
fruit. In the northernmost sections of the United States
the codling moth has generally about one and one-half
broods a year, z.¢., those that emerge early give rise to a
second brood, while the late ones produce but one. In
all the great middle fruit belt there are regularly two
broods, and farther south there are three.

An example in arithmetic might be made as follows: Suppose
there are fifty apples in a peck; how many might a codling moth
spoil if she lays fifty eggs on as many apples, and half of these eggs
hatch female moths, and in the second brood, again, each lays fifty
eggs on fifty apples? Axs. 26 pecks.

If a downy woodpecker eats one codling-moth larva a day from
November to April inclusive, 180 days, what might be the value
of its work to an orchard if apples are fifty cents a bushel?

Ans. $585.

apple at this point. The eggs are laid anywhere on the surface of the
apple and sometimes even on the leaves near it.

1If spraying is resorted to, it should be done after the petals fall and
before the calyx lobes close together.

186 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Beginning with the caterpillars under the bark of the
apple trees, the life story of the codling moth may be
briefly told as follows : The larvae change to pupz in May,
emerge as moths in late May or June, and lay their eggs for

Fic. 77. Work OF A SINGLE BORER ON A
YOUNG PEACH TREE

fp, pupa; g, gummy exudation.
(Photograph by Slingerland)

the first brood in June.
The larve generally
crawl into the calyx
cup of the young
apples and eat their
way to the core, com-
plete their growth in
about three weeks,
commonly eat their way
out through the side
of the apple, and either
spin to the ground and
crawl to the trunk of
the tree or crawl down
the branches and make
their cocoons under
the bark again. This
occurs with the greater
number early in July.!
In the warm weather
of midsummer the
larvee complete their
transformations

1This habit affords one of the most vulnerable points of attack. To
trap practically all the codling moths in an orchard it is only necessary to

scrape all loose bark off from the trees and fasten around the trunks a band

of burlap or heavy paper. Remove the bands and collect all larvae once a

week during July.

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 187

quickly and emerge in two or three weeks, about the
middle of July, and, greatly increased in numbers, lay
the second brood of eggs, generally on the late apples.
Many of this brood are barreled with the apples, and
the rest escape from windfalls and discarded fruit and
return to the tree trunks for the winter.

The final topics for study are the habits of the moth in
relation to its natural enemies. It will be found to be
nocturnal. Its color, as it hides on the apple bark, ren-
ders it almost invisible even to the sharp eye of a bird.
Taking refuge thus in the darkness, it escapes the day birds,
and we have no evidence that any of our insectivorous
night birds feed upon it. But we have one misunderstood
and wrongly despised little nocturnal animal, the bat,
which Koebele, in California, has actually observed in
the réle of “a most efficient destroyer of this insect.” }
Should children make similar observations, they would
not kill every bat they find. Finally, what birds prey
upon the codling moth? We shall discuss in a subse-
quent chapter what we may do to increase the numbers
of such birds about our homes.”

The Peach-Tree Borer, Sannznoidea exitiosa. — ‘We sup-
pose that few of the peach trees which have been planted

1 Koebele writes: “Every night during June as many as six of these
bats were to be seen flying around an isolated apple tree upon which there
were a large number of the moths, not only taking the codling moth on the
wing, but very often darting at a leaf to get the resting moth.”

2 Refer to Bulletin rg2, Cornell University Agricultural Experiment
Station, Ithaca, N.Y., “ The Codling Moth,” by M. V. Slingerland, 1898, —
the best source of information on the subject. The birds mentioned as
eating the codling moth are downy woodpecker, nuthatch, bluebird, crow
blackbird, kingbird, swallows, sparrows, wrens, chickadees, and jays.

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

_
[oe
oa)

east of the Mississippi River during the last quarter of a
century, have lived to produce a crop of fruit without suf-
fering more or less from this dreaded borer.” !

I chanced recently to visit a young peach orchard set out by a
man with the view of raising peaches for market. The trees were

Fic. 78. PEACH-TREE Borers, MALE AND FEMALE

Female with broad yellow band across abdomen.
(Photograph by Slingerland)

only three or four years old and had begun to bear finely. As he was
showing me about, I pointed to a mass of borer chips and gummy
exudation at the base of one of his trees and asked him if he knew
what that meant. He replied that he did not. I then dug out the

1M. V. Slingerland. “The Peach-Tree Borer,” Bulletin 776, Cornell
University Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N.Y., 1899.

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 189

borer and showed it to him, explain-
ing how one such larva might kill a
tree, and how, if it had lived to lay
eggs, it might have cost him many
more.

Thanks to Slingerland’s pic-
tures we have this arch-enemy
of all good peach trees before
us, egg, larva, pupa, moth, and
evil doings, the latter written
so plainly that no child can fail
to read them. The children
should be asked to keep a sharp
lookout about their peach trees,
and all the trees in the neigh-
borhood in fact, because one old
stub may grow borers enough to
stock a large area, and gather
specimens of the different stages
for the school collection.

To facilitate this work the life
story may be told in a word, as
follows: The moths, somewhat
resembling steel-blue wasps,
emerge from their cocoons on
the peach trees from late June
to early September (for latitude
of New York; earlier in the south
and later farther north) and dur-
ing this time lay their eggs on
the trunks of peach and plum

Fic. 79. Ecos, Larva, Pupa,
AND COCOONS OF PEACH-
TREE BORER

190 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

trees, generally within eighteen inches of the ground.
The eggs are brown, and almost seven hundred have been
counted in a single female. They are glued to the bark
and hatch in about a week, and the little borer immediately
crawls into a crack, bores down to the juicy inner bark and
there remains for
about ten months,
feeding during
all but freezing
weather. It then
makes its brown
cocoon, generally
on the tree trunk
close to the
ground, and after
three weeks
emerges to repeat
the story. The

moths are day
fliers, are not at-
tracted to hghts,

but visit flowers

Fic. 80. BORER SIGNS AROUND BASE OF PEACH for nectar or
TREE

pollen.

The best way
to deal with the peach-tree borer is to watch the trees
and as soon as the gummy exudation appears dig out the
larva with a knife. Peach trees heal up wounds readily,
and there need be no fear of injuring the tree as much
with the knife as the borer would without it. All peach
trees should be gone over very carefully in September,

(Photograph by Slingerland)

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN IQI

again in May, and, finally, late in June. This latter is to
make sure that none of the larvae escape and thus prevent
any adults from emerging to lay their hundreds of eggs.
Excepting a few parasitic insects, no natural enemies of
this pest are mentioned by Professor Slingerland, but quite
possibly some child may be able to discover a flycatcher or
redstart or some other bird catching the moths as they flit
among the trees, laying their eggs. It is needless to add
that such an observation would be of great value.

A number of other borers belong to the same family

-and resemble the peach-tree borer in appearance and life
story.

The Pear-Tree Borer, “igeria pyri. — This is often quite
destructive to pear trees. Its presence is revealed by chips,
resembling fine sawdust on the bark of the tree. It should
be dug out with knife and wire wherever found.

The Grapevine Root Borer, Ageria polistiformis. — In the
larval stage this insect bores into the roots of grapes.
The adult, a large, brownish-black, wasplike moth, meas-
uring from an inch to an inch and a half across the wings,
appears in August.

The Imported Currant Borer, Lgeria tipuliformis.— This
is widely distributed and renders the culture of this valu-
able fruit difficult or, if neglected, impossible. All hollow
canes should be cut out and burned in the fall or early
spring.

Other destructive borers are the larve, or grubs, of
beetles. Several of these which should be more com-
monly known are the following.

The Roundheaded Apple-Tree Borer, Saperda candida. — This
beetle is a very serious enemy of apple and quince trees.

192 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The larva is supposed to require three years to complete its
growth, during which time it feeds in the bark and trunk
of the tree. The children should be directed to search
over the trunks of their apple trees, especially after a rain,
for the sawdust-like chips that mark its presence. The
large borings often penetrate deep into the heart of the
tree, but the grub can be reached and destroyed by means
of a wire. The beetles are to be found in June and July,
remaining concealed by day and becoming active about
dusk. They are about three-fourths of an inch long, pale
brown, with two broad creamy-white stripes running the
whole length of the body, so plainly marked as to be
easily recognized.

The Flat-Headed Apple-Tree Borer, Chrysobothris femorata. —
This is an even more formidable enemy to the apple trees
than the last species and attacks also the pear, plum, and
peach. Whether the larva requires one or two years to
complete its growth is not determined. The beetle may
be found from the latter part of May on through the
summer. It is very active in the daytime, running about
the trunks and branches of the trees in the hot sunshine
and depositing its minute yellow eggs under the scales and
in the cracks of the bark. It is generally about one-half
inch in length, but varies a good deal. The color is shin-
ing greenish black, with two transverse, depressed brassy
spots above, under parts and legs appearing like burnished
copper, with the feet shining green. This borer does not
confine its attacks to the trunk, but may be found in the
larger branches as well.

The Broad-Necked Prionus, Prionzs /aticollis, is of interest on
account of its huge size, the larva often reaching a length

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 193

of three inches. It attacks the roots of grapevines, and
when a vine dies of no apparent cause its roots should be
searched for this destructive pest. The adult is a brown-
ish black beetle, with short, heavy jaws, commonly about
an inch and a half in length. It begins to appear about
the middle of July. A near relative of this beetle is the
tile-horned Prionus, P. ¢mdricornis, which has a similar life
story and attacks the grape in the same way.

The Divaricated Buprestis, Auprestis divaricata. — The
adult is a bronze or copper-colored beetle, a little less than
an inch in length, the larva of which attacks the cherry
and not infrequently the peach. The wing covers are
elongated into blunt, divaricated tips, from which the
name is derived.

Two important borers attack the strawberry : the straw-
berry root borer, Axarsia lineatella (which often destroys
also the tender twigs of the peach), is a minute moth;
and the strawberry crown borer is a beetle, Zyloderma
Sragari@, belonging to curculios. The remedy for these
consists in digging up the plants as soon as they wilt and
burning them root and all.

The Grape-Cane Borer, Amphicerus bicaudatus. —lfa young
shoot on a grapevine suddenly wilts and dies, you will prob-
ably find it hollowed out near its junction with the vine,
and, within this hollow, a cylindrical brown beetle about
one-half inch long. Sometimes all the new growth on a
vine is killed in this way, and twigs of pear, apple, plum,
peach, forest, shade, and ornamental trees may be found
to contain the same pest. The beetle is single brooded,
the eggs being laid from March to May, or June, accord-
ing to latitude. The larvae develop in dying or diseased

194 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

wood, such as prunings of fruit and shade trees, never in
thoroughly dry nor in vigorously growing wood, and the
adult beetles, after passing the winter in such material,
attack the growing shoots in the early spring. Thus the
remedy consists in burning all prunings during the fall
or winter.

The Rose Chafer, ‘‘ Rose Bug,’’ or ‘‘ Rose Beetle,’* Macrodac-
tylus subspinosus. —The adult insect is too commonly
known to need description. But whence come the count-
less hordes that suddenly appear in June on rose bushes,
fruit trees, ornamental shrubbery, especially spirzeas and
grapes of every variety, is not so well understood. They
often come in such numbers that spraying with poisons
is ineffectual in preventing the plants from being stripped
of their leaves. The mystery of their sudden appearance
is explained when we learn their life story. The eggs
are laid in the ground in June and July, in grass land,
generally sandy meadows, and the grubs, resembling the
larvee of the June beetle, only smaller, feed upon the roots
of grasses, attaining their growth by autumn of the same
year. The following spring they transform into pupz
in the ground and in two to four weeks, according to
weather, emerge as adults. From this life story it is thus
seen that, for a neighborhood seriously afflicted by this
pest, the most effectual remedy consists in plowing up
their breeding grounds and raising some other crop than
grass. Little is known about the birds that feed upon
this beetle, and the children should be encouraged to keep
watch of all birds about their homes, for observations
in this field may prove of value. A large percentage
of the food of the bluebird, brown thrasher, catbird, house

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 195

wren, downy and hairy woodpecker is known to consist
of beetles, and it is possible that a sufficient number of
these birds might be reared to deal effectually with this
pest. The toad may devour enormous numbers of them,
and, as we shall see when we study its life, they can often
be gathered in such numbers as to afford instructive feed-
ing tests. Spireeas planted about the garden serve to pro-
tect other plants and form convenient collectors, and if it
is desired simply to destroy the beetles, they may easily
be shaken into a pan containing a little kerosene oil.

The Tent Caterpillars. — These are of two kinds, somewhat
similar in appearance, but differing widely in habit of life.
The apple-tree tent caterpillar, C/éstocampa Americana, is
a pest so common and destructive and so easily dealt
with that Saunders says of it : “Governments might well
enforce under penalties the destruction of these cater-
pillars, as their nests are so conspicuous that there can
be no excuse for neglecting to destroy them, and it is
unfair that a careful and vigilant fruit grower should be
compelled to suffer from year to year from the neglect of
a careless and indolent neighbor.’’ The moths lay their
eggs in easily recognized “belts’’ on the slender twigs of
trees, chiefly apple and wild cherry, in July. The minute
black caterpillars complete their development during the
summer: and fall and may be seen curled up within the
eggshell any time during the winter. Early in the spring,
generally before the buds burst open, they eat their way
out and feed first on the cement with which the egg cluster
is protected. As soon as they appear they begin feeding
on the tender leaves and commence building their tent in
a convenient crotch. There are about three hundred eggs

196 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

in a belt, and so voraciously do the young caterpillars feed
that it has been estimated the occupants of a single tent
may cost a tree from 10,000 to 12,000 of its leaves, each
caterpillar eating two a day as it approaches maturity.
Early in June the caterpillars scatter from the trees in
all directions, seek out protected crannies about fences
and buildings, and spin their cocoons. Within these they
change to pupz, and after two to three weeks emerge as
moths, to repeat the life story.

No insect is better adapted for rearing in the school-
room. Simply place the branch with its belt of eggs in a
bottle of water, feed as required with fresh leaves, and
thus let the children read the story in nature.!

The forest tent caterpillar, C. d¢sstria, differs from the
above in having, instead of a white line, a row of light
dots down the middle of the back. The egg belt is cut
off squarely at the ends, the moths are light brown with
dark lines on the fore wings, and they do not build a
conspicuous tent.

Cankerworms. —- There are also two species: the fall
cankerworm, Axzisopteryx pometaria, and the spring can-
kerworm, Paéeacrita, or A. vernata. The larve are the
commonly known “ measuring ”’ or “inch” worms of shade
trees and orchards, but the moths and other characters
in the life story are not so generally understood. After

1A school in which this has been done for the past three years reports
that tent caterpillars have been practically exterminated from the district.
The eggs are collected and burned, each child being given credit for the
number he brings in, and any tents found in the spring are destroyed. The
caterpillars troop out of the tent to feed twice a day, mid-moming and
afternoon; hence, in order to find them all at home the tents should be
destroyed in the early morning or evening.

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 197

spinning down from the trees in summer the larvae burrow
into the ground three or four inches and there transform
into pupe. With great show of wisdom the fall species
wait until after the first hard frosts, when our summer
birds have flown, and then, during the first warm spell,
emerge to lay their eggs. They may also come forth
during any warm days in winter. The spring form, a
few of which may come out in the fall, wait until the
first warm weather in spring, also before many of the
birds are back. The male is a frail silken-winged moth,
while the female is wingless and must, therefore, crawl
up the trunk where she lays her eggs, often a hundred
in a plate, on the bark or on the twigs of the food
tree. The eggs hatch with the bursting of the buds, and
the year story is again begun. Our winter birds, espe-
cially the chickadee, eat great quantities of the eggs and
female moths. Professor Forbush has demonstrated that
an orchard can be practically rid of them by protecting
these birds and attracting them with winter food. The
wingless condition of the females makes this one of the
easiest insects to deal with. Bands of coal tar, mixed
with oil or printer's ink, are for this purpose fastened
around the trees. They often fail because those who do
the work are ignorant of the insect’s life story and do not
put on the bands until large numbers have ascended the
trees and laid their eggs, or they allow the bands to get
dry during warm spells in the winter or early spring.
While the English sparrow was imported largely to destroy
cankerworms, they have greatly increased where the spar-
row has become most numerous and where our native
birds have, in consequence, been driven away.

198 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The White-Marked Tussock Moth, Orgyza leucostigma.—The
larve are among our most beautiful caterpillars, but they
may become so numerous as to strip a city’s shade and
fruit trees of their foliage. They feed upon almost all of
our deciduous trees and even on fir and larch and spruce
as well. As in case of the cankerworm, the females are
wingless, but unlike it there are two broods a year, and
instead of going into the ground, they make their cocoons
in the trees, pupate there, and the females crawl out of
the cocoons and lay the eggs in a white frothy mass upon
them. The white egg masses are conspicuous objects on
the trees in winter, and since the insect is two brooded
and may at any time become too numerous to control,
they should be gathered and destroyed. This is another
instructive insect to rear in the school vivarium.

The Fall Webworm, Hyphantria textor.—In July, after
the tent caterpillars have run their course, the trees are
again disfigured by large irregular masses of webs, so
conspicuous that their destruction ought to be a simple
matter of common sense. This insect is single brooded ;
both male and female moths are provided with wings and
hence spread more rapidly and are not so easily con-
trolled as the two moths just described. The caterpillars
burrow in the ground to pupate and do not emerge until
the following July.

Cutworms.— These are caterpillars of the various species
of the owlet moths, genus Agrostis. Their plan of work
is to cut off every tender plant in the garden even with
the earth. Both caterpillar and moth are nocturnal, the
moth laying her eggs on plants near the ground during
the latter part of summer. At first the larva feed upon

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 199

the tender roots of grasses and other plants, but by spring
have attained to nearly or quite an inch in length and are
ready to begin their most wasteful and destructive careers.

Fic. 81. Dincy CuTworM

Male and female. (After Slingerland)

Whenever we see a plant in the morning wilted and pros-
trate, the only thing to do is carefully to scrape the loose
earth away from around its roots, find the culprit, and
either keep him in a vivarium to develop into the moth or
put him in the school collection; for both cutworms and

Fic. 82. CuTWworms

a, variegated; 4, white. (After Slingerland)

their moths, especially, should be known much better than

they are.
If other vegetation be lacking, almost any of the nu-

merous species of cutworms assumes the climbing habit,

200 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

ascending trees, grapevines, rose and berry bushes and
eating out the fruit and leaf buds. Newly set orchards
have thus been killed, and for a long time no one could
find out what did the damage, supposing that it must be
some winged insect. A man, happening to go through
his vineyard at night, heard the gnawing of innumerable
jaws and by striking a match solved the mystery.}

Plants may be generally protected from cutworms by
folding a piece of stiff paper around the stem so that it
goes into the earth an inch and reaches two or three
inches above the surface. Young trees may be treated in
a similar way, or tin cans, from which the solder has been
melted, may be placed around them; but if cutworms
are numerous and their food is scarce, they will climb
over paper or tin. Their climbing may be prevented by
tying a band of cotton batting so as to form an inverted
funnel around the trunk of the tree; but when this is
done the worms often girdle the tree below the band.

The Indians used to practice hand picking of cutworms
in their primitive cornfields, and this has been the most
satisfactory method of dealing with the pest ever since.
But toads and robins should have delegated to them all the
“picking.” I shall refer to their work more at length in
succeeding chapters. Poison baits and sprays have proved
only partially effective.

Grasshoppers, or Locusts, of any species are well adapted
for elementary lessons on account of their large eggs.
These are laid during late summer or early fall and may
readily be found in flask-shaped packets, an inch or more

1M. V. Slingerland. “Climbing Cutworms,” Bzdletin rog, Cornell
University Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, N.Y., 1895.

INSECTS OF THE GARDEN 201

in length, just beneath the surface of the ground. If
grasshoppers are numerous, the children may find them
laying in September. Experiment by feeding a few, in
order to determine how much grass they destroy. Grass-
hoppers are, further, of special interest in relation to bird
foods. It will be noticed in the food chart, Chapter XIX,
that all our common birds feed upon grasshoppers, the only
insect, in fact, of which this is true.}

Crickets are similar to grasshoppers in life story, eggs,
and feeding habits, and are even more interesting from
the way they “chirp.” This may readily be observed if
a few are kept for a time in a vivarium, and the phenome-
non never fails to fascinate a child. Crickets may be fed
on grass, apple cores, or bits of raw carrot.

Goop Books ON GARDEN INSECTS

WILLIAM SAUNDERS. Jnsects [Injurious to Fruits, 436 pp.; 440
illustrations. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1892.

Mary TREAT. J/ujurious Insects of the Farm and Garden,
296 pp.; 171 illustrations. Orange Judd Co., New York, 1892.

1 Food for soft-billed birds, robins, orioles, mocking birds, etc., is expen-
sive, ‘ants’ eggs ” costing about one dollar per pound. Some states are
paying bounties of one dollar per bushel for grasshoppers destroyed, and it
is quite certain that a very inexpensive and perfect bird food might be made
by a suitable preparation of these insects. Possibly they could be scalded
or steamed and thoroughly dried, then moistened again, as we treat ‘ants’
eggs” for feeding. If the grasshoppers are caught, as they always should
be, before egg laying has begun, no bird food could be more nutritious.

CHAPTER XIII
GARDEN INSECTS (Continued)

The Apple Maggot, 7rypeta pomonella. — This, commonly
known as the “railroad worm,” has become an enemy to
apples and apple culture, ranking almost as destructive
as the codling moth. Thousands of barrels of fruit are
stored or marketed, apparently sound, only to be opened
and thrown away.

Beginning this study with the opening of school in
September, ask the pupils each to examine 100 apples,
preferably all of the same variety, and report the result
at a subsequent lesson. If the pest be abundant, the
teacher will find little difficulty in securing a few “rail-
roaded apples’’ with which to show the class what to
look for.

The injury to the fruit is done by the larva, or maggot,
boring channels back and forth through the pulp as it
feeds. One such larva is sufficient to spoil an apple, and
since the fly has been found to contain from 300 to 400
eggs, there is almost no limit to the damage that this one
insect may cause.

By keeping a number of infested apples in a box the
pupz may be secured for the school collection, and a few of
these should be put away in a cool place until June or July,
in order to get the adult flies. These should also be sought
for in the fall about apple trees. Fig. 83 sufficiently

202

GARDEN INSECTS 203

indicates their appearance. They are a trifle smaller
than an ordinary house fly and may be recognized by a
dark figure on the wing, shaped somewhat like a turkey,
and also by the white lines across the back of the abdo-
men, three in the male and four in the female. No insect
is better adapted to demonstrate to the children the work
that so insignificant a creature is able to accomplish. The
fly has been seen to puncture the skin of the growing
apple, generally on the shaded side, and deposit a single

Fic, 83. APPLE MaGcotT

a, egg; 3, larva; c, pupa; d@, adult female. (All enlarged.)
(After Harvey and Comstock)

egg directly in the pulp. Thus a single female may ruin
one or two bushels of fruit. They may be found in the
apple trees from June or July, according to latitude, until
hard frosts occur in the fall, and they attack practically
all varieties of apple. Nothing is known regarding the
natural enemies of the apple maggot, and its life story
renders it one of the most difficult of all insects to con-
trol. Possibly a pair of phcoebes, or other flycatchers, or
a few tree frogs in an orchard might save hundreds of

204 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

bushels of fruit in a season. What boy will watch some
of these, so as to be able to tell us what they do?!

The Curculios, or Snout Beetles.—The apple curculio, Azcho-
nomus quadrigtbbus, does considerable damage to cultivated
apples in some of the Southern States, but is not generally
numerous. There are also quince and grape curculios,
Conotrachelus crategi and Craponius inequalis, which may
be studied in neighborhoods where they are destruc-
tive. Other members of this family infest nuts and
acorns and some
other garden
fruits. The
insect for special
, study in this
group is the
plum curculio,
Conotrachelus
nenuphar. If
neglected, this
pest may take a
large part, or the
whole, of the peach, apricot, plum, and cherry crop.

The statistical method may be adopted again by asking
each member of the class to examine 100 plums, peaches,
or cherries, to discover what proportion of the fruit is
affected. Ask the pupils to observe the laying of eggs,
which may readily be seen shortly after the fruit has
begun to grow in the spring, when peaches are about the

Fig. 84. PLrum CurcuLio

Larva, adult, and mark on the fruit. (Enlarged)

1¥For full account of Trypeta, by F. L. Harvey, see Annual Report of
the Maine State College Agricultural Experiment Station, 1889, pp. 190-237;
Plates I-III.

GARDEN INSECTS 205

size of hazelnuts. The whole operation takes about five
minutes. The beetle first digs an oblique hole in the
fruit with her snout, enlarging it at the bottom. She
then lays an egg in the mouth of the hole, pushing it to
the bottom with her snout. Finally she cuts a crescent-
shaped flap around the egg. Her purpose in doing this
seems to be to make a dead spot, so that the growing
of the fruit at this point will not

crush the egg. This crescent is
the mark by which to distinguish
the curculio’s work, and it is ren-
dered even more conspicuous by
a copious exudation of clear
gummy substance from the
growing fruit. The larva feeds
in the pulp, generally about the
stone, and the fruit, except in
case of the cherry, falls prema-
turely. When the larval growth
is attained, in three to five
weeks, it burrows out of the g z

Fic. 85. YOUNG SHOOTS OF ~
fallen fruit and into the ground RABE
to a depth of four to six inches. a, attacked by plume moth; 4, for
Here it pupates and emerges the
same season as the little, rough, brownish beetle shown in
Fig. 84. It may be recognized by the elongated hump of

comparison.

what appears to be black sealing wax on each wing cover.
The winter is passed in cracks about buildings and in the
bark of trees, whence the beetles come forth with the
peach and plum blossoms, ready to begin their work of
destruction. There is a single brood a year,

206 NATURE STUDY -AND LIFE

The Apple-Leaf Crumpler, Physzs indigenella.— Among a
number of moths whose larve attack the leaves of fruit
trees this one is chosen because of the ease with which it
may be found. Any time during the winter little masses
of crumpled and withered leaves may be seen attached
by silken threads to the twigs. Within the mass will be
discovered a little twisted, horn-shaped case containing
the half-grown larva of the leaf crumpler. In the spring
it fastens the
young leaves into
little bunches by
means of silken
threads and con-
tinues feeding
upon them until
its growth is at-
tained, about the
middle of June.

Fic. 86. GRAPE-LEAF FOLDER It then changes

Larva, adult female moth, and folded leaf - into a dark-brown
(After Marlatt)

chrysalis within
its case and in July emerges to lay its eggs and thus begin
its life story anew.

The Gartered Plume Moth of the Grape, Oxyftilus periselt-
dactylus. — This is one of our prettiest little moths, but
its work should be known to every child who has a grape-
vine. After the leaves have fairly started in the spring
they will often be drawn together into round balls, and
within may be found an active, wriggling, bristling larva
of a greenish-yellow color, nearly half an inch in length
when fully grown. These are the larve of the plume

GARDEN INSECTS 207

moth and, if neglected, they may destroy the entire crop
of a vine while the blossom buds are opening. The vines
should be daily examined at this season and, after securing
specimens for the school collection, every larva should be
destroyed. The insect being single brooded, thorough
attention at the proper time will do away with the pest.

The Grape-Leaf Folder, Desmza maculalis. — This is another
common enemy of the grape and should be treated, like
the plume moth, by hand picking while in the early larval
stages; the conspicuously folded leaves make this easy
and effectual.

The Grape-Berry Moth, Eudemzis botrana.— This insect
often destroys nearly the whole crop of grapes in a garden.
The larve pass
the winter in co-
coons attached to
the leaves, and if
these are burned
in the fall, the
pest may be
greatly abated.

The Sphinxes, or

Hawk Moths, might
Larva, pupa, adult, and portion of grape leaf, showing
be treated among method of making its cocoon for winter

our most beauti- (Enlarged. After Marlatt)

ful and interest-

ing insects were it not for the fact that the larve of at
least ten species feed upon the leaves of the grape, and
their enormous size makes it possible for a single larva
to strip and kill a young grapevine in two or three days.
The sphinxes are the large, narrow-winged moths, often

Fic. 87. GRAPE-BERRY MOTH

208 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

mistaken for humming birds, that visit the flower beds at
dusk. The Pandorus sphinx, PAclampelus pandorus, is one
of the largest and most beautiful of the group and from
tip to tip of expanded wings often measures more than
four inches. It is single brooded. The moths appear in
July and lay their eggs underneath the leaves of the grape
and Virginia creeper.

One of the most common of our garden species is
the green grapevine sphinx, Darapsa myron. It is two
brooded, the moths of the first brood appearing during
the latter half of May, those of the second during the
latter part of July. The egg is laid on the under surface
of grape leaves and hatches into a yellowish-green larva

Fic. 88. GREEN GRAPEVINE SPHINX, FROM WHICH PARASITES HAVE

EMERGED

with a long black horn near the posterior end. After
successive moults, with attendant changes in color mark-
ings, it appears as in Fig. 88. It is then about two inches
long, green, with yellow dots, white lateral stripes from the

GARDEN INSECTS 209

head back to the horn, and a row of yellow spots, with
pink to lilac centers, along the back.

The Achemon Sphinx, PA7/ampelos achemon. — Another
of our most common species is found on the grape and

Fic. 89. ALDER APHIDS, WITH HARVESTER CATERPILLAR FEEDING
UPON THEM

(Natural size. Photograph by Miss Katherine Dolbear)

Virginia creeper. The eggs are laid in July, under the
leaves, and the larva matures about the first of September.
It then burrows into the ground, transforms into a pupa,
and passes the winter in this state. Just before going into
the earth it assumes a pink or crimson color.

The Five-Spotted Sphinx, Phlegethontius celeus.— This is
the moth of the common tomato worm. Its larva also
transforms in the ground.

However terrible any of the sphinx larvae may appear,
they are all harmless and may be handled with impunity.
They are easily reared by feeding with the leaves upon
which they are found. It is always safe to provide them

210 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

with moist earth, into which they may burrow when they
wish to transform, since they either burrow or make their
cocoons on the surface of the ground. The larve are
especially interesting from the number of ichneumon flies
parasitic upon them, and by keeping some in the viva-
rium, a school is almost certain to be afforded the spec-
tacle of a swarm of minute larvae suddenly boring their
way out and spinning their little cocoons all over the back
of their host. Do not say much about it beforehand, but
when the first signs appear, gather the class around and
let them wonder about it. They will learn a lesson never
to be forgotten.

Plant Lice, or Aphids. — These are among the commonest
and most annoying insects we have. They infest almost
every plant of the conservatory, garden, field, and forest
and often become extremely destructive. Their mode of
life consists in puncturing the plant and sucking its sap.
They may attack the roots, as does the corn plant louse,
Aphis maidis, or they may live on both the roots and
leaves, as does the grape phylloxera, Phylloxera vastatrix,
or they may occur on roots and bark, as does the woolly
apple louse, Schizoneura lanigera. The greater number
of species confine their injuries to the tender, growing
parts, — leaves, buds, and young fruit, —as, for example,
the green apple-tree aphid, A. malz, the peach-tree aphid,
Mysus persice, and the common aphids of the rose, elm,
carnation, and many other trees, shrubs, and plants.

Many kinds of plant lice have a pair of minute tubes
on the back, through which a sweet fluid, honeydew, is
excreted. This often covers the leaves and even the pave-
ment under the trees. Injury to the trees is increased by

GARDEN INSECTS 211

the various mildews which the honeydew invites, and the
beauty of the foliage is destroyed as well. Ants attend
the aphids for this excretion, and some species of ants
also preserve the eggs in their nests over winter and
carry the newly hatched plant lice to their food plants in
the spring. Bees sometimes make honey from honeydew,
generally of a rank, inferior quality, but pay no attention
to the aphids themselves.

From the bodies of many species of aphids are also pro-
duced white, powdery, downy, or flocculent growths that
may serve to conceal the insect or render it unpalatable
to birds. The woolly aphids of the alder, beech, and apple
are good examples of this.

A number of aphids have the strange instinct of migrat-
ing from one kind of plant to another. The green apple-
tree aphid thus migrates to the grasses to spend the
summer and in the fall comes back to the apple to feed
for a time and deposit its eggs. Ina similar way the hop
aphid, Phorodon humuli, feeds upon the plum in the
spring, migrates to the hop to spend the summer, and
returns to the plum in the fall.

With such small insects we cannot hope to do much by
way of description or classification beyond naming. them
roughly from the plants upon which they are found, but
their powers of multiplication and their relations to lady
beetles and other natural enemies are valuable lines of
study. We may take them up in connection with the life
story of one common and important species, the cherry
aphid, Mysus cerast.

In October ask the children to hunt over cherry trees
in the neighborhood and bring twigs infested with the

22 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

black-cherry aphid. If these are kept fresh, the plant
lice will desert the leaves and gather about the buds on
the twigs. If they are carefully watched, preferably with
a hand lens, they may be seen to lay their eggs, generally,
in the angle between the bud and twig. The eggs are
visible to the unaided eye and appear at first as oval,
yellowish-green
bodies, which turn
in a short time to
shining black.
The egg laying is
an interesting

process, a sight of
which will repay
much patient
observation. The
mystery to me
always is how so
infinitesimal a
brain can know
how to lay eggs
at all, much less
learn where to
put them so that the young may find their natural food
on hatching in the spring.

If this is not possible, the children will certainly be

Fic. go. CHERRY TWIGS COVERED WITH APHIDS

able any time during the winter to bring in cherry twigs
that will have the eggs behind the buds. If these be
taken into the schoolroom about the time the buds burst
in the spring, the eggs will soon hatch into tiny black
aphids. These have no wings and are all females, and

GARDEN INSECTS 213

after growing for about two weeks they will begin to give
birth to living young —very small, but perfectly formed
aphids —at the rate of possibly two or threea day. These
also are females and, attaining their growth in a few days,
in turn produce living young at this astonishing rate.
Meanwhile, if we keep watch of the cherry trees, we may
observe the increase of the aphids from a single one here
and there to millions, covering the leaves, growing shoots,
and even fruit, with disgusting black masses of the insects.
When we think that the trees are about to be killed, a
winged generation appears which leaves the cherry trees
for some other plant. It is possible that this migration
has been developed to save both trees and insects. It
occurs generally about the time the cherries ripen, but to
what plant they go has not been determined. In the fall
winged females find their way back to the cherry trees,
the eggs are laid behind the buds, and the year’s cycle is
completed.

Most of our common species of aphids present a similar
life story. So far as is known, some do not migrate
from one plant to another. A few, like the woolly aphid
of the alder, have not been discovered to lay eggs, but pass
the winter in the adult form in protected crevices about
the bark and roots of their food trees, covered by their
woolly coats.

Living the easy life of a parasite, sucking the nutritious
juices of plants, aphids multiply at a most astonishing rate.
Possibly for a month or so in the spring the class may
arrange to have a single aphid on some convenient food
plant and may be able to count from week to week the
numbers produced. This will furnish the data for an

214 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

interesting calculation as to the number that might arise
from a single parent for a season or a year, and it will
open the eyes of the pupils to the necessity of prompt
action if they hope to prevent injury to their plants.
The mathematician Réaumur estimated that in five gen-
erations, which might not require more than ten weeks,
a single aphid could become the mother of 6,000,000,-
000,000. For the corn-root aphid Professor Forbes has
calculated that a “stem mother,’ as the fertile females are
called, might produce in a season 9,500,000,000,000 young.
Placed end to end these would form a procession 7,850,000
miles in length, a distance equal to 314 times the earth’s
circumference ; or, standing shoulder to shoulder, they
would make an army 10 feet wide and 230 miles long.
Nothing in nature shows more clearly what an infinite
power for harm a little thing may be.

Local conditions and interests should largely determine
the species of aphids to be studied.

The grape phylloxera, P. vastatrix, is the insect which
has devastated the vineyards of Europe, but it is not
so destructive among the native grapes of this country.
It exists in two forms, one infesting the leaves, the other
the roots. In both locations the aphids cause knotty,
wartlike galls, often conspicuous on the underside of
grape leaves and also found on the finer rootlets. By
cutting these galls open we may find the insects them-
selves. Plucking and burning the leaves as soon as the
galls appear is the simplest remedy suggested, and any
_ young vine with lumpy nodules on its roots had better be
burned than planted. A little “sharp-eye”’ study of the
grapevines about their homes will soon determine whether

GARDEN INSECTS 215

the children shall spend the time on the phylloxera or on
some other form.

The apple-root plant louse, or woolly aphid, of the apple,
Schisoneura lanigera, is another important species. Like
the phylloxera it occurs in two forms. The one infesting
the bark may be found in pits and crannies about the
trunks and branches of apple trees ; it is a blue-black aphid,
the larger specimens covered with a bluish-white woolly
growth. The underground form causes warty swellings
on the roots. If an
apple tree becomes
sickly from no visible
cause, borers or the
like, its roots should
be carefully exam-
ined, and if the root

galls are found, it is
generally best to dig Fic. 91. Woorty APHIDS OF APPLE

it up and plant some _ Showing characteristic swellings and cracks in the
. bark which they cause. (Natural size)
other kind of tree,
never an apple, in its place. Nursery stock that shows
these root galls should be rejected, or if this is not prac-
ticable, the roots should be soaked for half an hour in
water heated not above 150° Fahrenheit.

Other species, too numerous to name, may be found on
the rose, apple, plum, peach, elm, maple, chestnut, oak,
and on many herbaceous plants.

The Scale Insects, — Mealy Bugs, Scale Bugs, Bark Lice, —
resemble plant lice somewhat in their manner of life. As
their common names imply, they appear as scales on the
bark, leaves, and fruit of plants and, like the plant lice,

216 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

subsist on the juices of their host by means of piercing
and sucking mouth parts.

In the Lecaniums, or naked scale insects, the scale is
the insect itself. In the majority of species, however, the
scale is an armor composed of powdery, waxy, or even cal.
careous substance, together with moulted skins, excreted
by the insect and beneath which it lives. Several species

Fic. 92. BRANCH OF WILLOW TREE KILLED BY OYSTER-SHELL
SCALE INSECTS

(About natural size)

furnish valuable commercial products, notably the cochi-
neal insect, Coccaws cacti, from which cochineal and carmine
are derived, and Carterta dacca, living on the branches of
several tropical trees, from which we get shellac; but
our common species are among the most troublesome and
destructive of insect pests. Like the plant lice they mul-
tiply with great rapidity, and their scaly coverings tend to
protect them from the oily or soapy washes and sprays
commonly used to kill insects by contact.

GARDEN INSECTS 217

Have the class hunt over the trees, shrubs, and vines
in their gardens and bring in specimens of the scale
insects that they find.

The oyster-shell bark louse, Mytilaspis pomorum, is a
common and easily distinguished scale, found often on
the apple, pear, currant, and sometimes on the plum. The
scale covering the female insect is about one-sixth of an
inch in length, of characteristic oyster-shell form, some-
times completely incrusting the bark (Fig. 92). The males,
which are not often seen, are smaller than the females
and occur generally upon the leaves. The adult male is
a minute two-winged fly whose relationship to its mate
or parent could scarcely be suspected. By turning over
one of the female scales any time during the fall, winter,
or early spring, the eggs may be seen with the aid of
a magnifying glass, sometimes as many as a hundred
under a single scale. If an infested twig be placed in a
bottle of water in the schoolroom, preferably one on each
pupil’s desk, in late May or early June, the eggs will soon
hatch, and the young scales, appearing to the unaided
eye as minute, crawling specks, may be seen swarming
over the twig. In this stage they are without scaly cov-
ering, but after distributing themselves and finding suit-
able places, they settle down, insert their piercing beaks,
begin to secrete a scale, and the females never again
change their locations. Later in the season they are fer-
tilized by the winged males, and by August the body of
the female insect is little more than a bag of eggs. In
the early autumn the eggs are extruded underneath the
scale, and the body of the female shrivels to a scarcely
recognizable speck at the small end of the scale. Thus,

218 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

for nearly nine months in the year, the oyster-shell bark
louse exists in the egg state, and there is but one gener-
ation in a season. Hence the scales will never be found
on the later growths of the preceding year ; and while
trees are frequently killed by this insect and young trees
should not be planted until completely cleansed of them,
it is a very slow process, and many trees are weakened
rather than killed outright.

Many other scales will doubtless be found: Kermes on
the oaks, interesting from their resemblance to gall-like
knots on the twigs; Lecaniums, of a variety of shapes, on
all kinds of plants. One of the Lecaniums, a large oval
scale nearly a quarter of an inch in length, has become
quite destructive to plum orchards in recent years. An
instructive story attaches to the cottony cushion scale,
Icerya purchast, which some years ago threatened to
destroy the orange groves of southern California. It had
been introduced from Australia and before the danger was
realized, as is too often the case, had become widely scat-
tered. It was finally discovered that in its native home
this scale is not particularly destructive, and a reason for
this was sought and found in the fact that its numbers are
there held in check by several predaceous lady beetles.
One of these, Vedalia, a small red and black species, was
successfully imported and soon relieved the orange groves
of their unnatural burden and returned to them their loads
of fruit.

In general, the smaller an insect enemy, the more dan-
gerous it is, and its powers of destruction naturally
increase with the number of plant species upon which it
is able to feed. We might pass the scale insects by were

GARDEN INSECTS 219

it not for one pernicious kind, also a foreign importa-
tion, that now menaces the best horticultural interests
of almost the whole country. Every child who has a
garden should learn to know the San José, or pernicious,
scale, Aspidiotus perniciosus.

The San José scale takes its name from the place of its
introduction into this country, the San José valley, which
took place through the medium of trees imported from
Chili. Its original home
may be Australia, but in
spite of diligent search
this has not been fully
settled. It may have
come from China or
Japan. Three years after
its introduction this scale
was recognized as a dan-
gerous insect enemy, but
it had been widely distrib-
uted on cuttings, scions,
nursery stock, and fruits
shipped to all parts of
the country.

The insect is minute and covers itself with a circular
scale from one to two millimeters in diameter, of an ashy
gray color, and with a minute prominence near the center.
If unchecked, its power for evil is almost beyond estimate.
The young are brought forth alive, and there are four or
five generations a year, so that it has been calculated that
a single female scale may be the progenitor of 3,216,080,-
400 during a season. This gives the plant no chance for

Fic. 93. THE SAN Josf& SCALE

(Natural size and magnified)

220 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

growth and little for life. As with the oyster-shell bark
louse, the young crawl actively about for a short time
after birth, and, since there are many generations, they
flow up over the new growth, leaves, and fruit of the
infested plant. The tree assumes the appearance of
being dusted over with ashes, and each speck represents
a tiny pump sucking its life sap.

The danger from the San José scale is further enhanced
by the great number of its food plants. It seems to thrive
about equally well on the apple, apricot, cherry, currant,
gooseberry, cotoneaster, hawthorn, peach, plum, pear,
quince, rose, raspberry, spiraea, flowering quince, almond,
euonymus, linden, flowering currant, acacia, persimmon,
elm, osage orange, English walnut, pecan, alder, weeping
willow, and laurel-leaved willow, and even this list is prob-
ably far from complete. Infested trees, if left to them-
selves, commonly die within a few years. Young peach
trees may survive two or three years; older and hardier
varieties, somewhat longer. Aside from injury by loss of
sap the San José scale appears to poison the plant, and
while there are two small, comparatively harmless, circular
scales, which cannot be distinguished from it by the unaided
eye, the sickly condition of the affected plant is generally
a sign that we have to do with the pernicious scale.

If the San José scale is found, be careful to mount
some permanently for the school collection and send a
few twigs bearing specimens to the Agricultural Experi-
ment Station of your state, with an exact statement of
where they were found. Be sure that none of the speci-
mens are alive. They should be held in boiling water for
five minutes or left in a cyanide bottle over night before

GARDEN INSECTS 221

sending. If no pernicious scales can be found in the
neighborhood, it might be well to send to your Agricul-
tural Station for prepared specimens to be permanently
kept in the school collection. From this source you can
obtain any needed information about methods of dealing
with the pest.!

Enemies of the pernicious scale are chiefly minute para-
sitic flies and several species of lady beetle. There is
some evidence that it is attacked by a fungus, but by
which one has not been discovered, if, in fact, it prove to
be a fungus. These are topics somewhat minute to be
studied by other than specialists.

A matter of great importance concerns the manner in
which the insect is disseminated. The females have no
wings, and, therefore, during the free-moving stage dis-
tribution by crawling is slow and can generally take place
from tree to tree only when they stand close together or
have interlacing branches. It has been discovered, how-
ever, that the young often crawl upon other insects, ants,
and lady beetles, and probably also upon the feet of birds,
and may be carried long distances. Any infested tree
may thus be a menace to an entire neighborhood. The
first method of its wide dissemination, before the danger
was recognized, was on infested nursery stock, young trees,
scions, cuttings, fruit, etc., but this is now controlled by

1“ There is perhaps no insect capable of causing greater damage to
fruit in the United States, or perhaps the world, than the San José, or
pernicious, scale.” “The San José Scale: First Occurrences in the United
States, with a Full Account of its Life History and the Remedies to be
used against it,” Bulletin Ne. 3, New Series, United States Department of
Agriculture, Washington, 1896. See also “ How to control the San José
Scale,” Circular No. 42, Second Series, Oct. 22, 1900. Same address.

222 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

the nurserymen. The young trees and all other stock, if
there is the least suspicion that the scale may be present,
are put in a tight box and treated with the fumes of
hydrocyanic acid, somewhat as we learned to kill insects
in the cyanide bottle; so that, if such stock is accompanied
by a certificate that it has been so treated, we need have
no fear in’ planting trees, even if there are a few dead
scales on them.

The following insects are so well known and found
so easily that I shall do little more than mention their
names. On account of their importance they should be
included in a nature-study course.

The Colorado Potato Beetle should be studied in the spring.
It is a good form to use in lower grades, in connection
with their garden work, to show feeding, eggs, and larve.
Professor Fernald has made a careful estimate that this
insect collects a tax from the people of Massachusetts of
not less than $75,000 a year. If every one in a neighbor-
hood would sprinkle his potato vines with a mixture of one
part of Paris green to twenty of flour or plaster, as required,
for the first week or two after they come up, there would
be no more potato beetles that season. They pass the
winter as adults in the ground, and since a female may lay
from 500 to 1000 eggs, and since there are from two to
four broods a season, this is the time to do thorough work.

The Asparagus Beetle, Crioceris asparagi, has a life story
similar to that of the potato beetle.

The Striped Cucumber Beetle, Diabrotica vittata. — The
eggs are laid about the roots of cucumber, squash, melon,
and other plants of the same family, and the larve feed
upon the roots.

GARDEN INSECTS 223

The Grapevine Flea-Beetle, or Haltica chalybea.

The Imported Elm-Leaf Beetle. — Where numerous, this is
a good insect with which to study bird foods. This may
be done by making feeding tests, and by observing the
birds that feed upon it, as the children go to and from
school. They have increased especially in cities and

towns where the native birds have
been drivenaway by English
sparrows.

The Imported Currant Worm, Vevza-
tus ventricosus. — This and the
native currant worm, Pristiphora
grossulari@, are both sawflies
about the size of the house fly, but
more slender and with black areas
on the front border of the fore-
wings. The males and females
may be found about the time cur-
rant leaves open in the spring, and
a few days after, the white eggs are
placed end to end along the veins
on the underside of the leaves. I F1¢.94. AsPanacus Berries

‘ ‘ Eggs, larve, and adults
have been informed that a pair of
black and white creeping warblers
kept one row of currant bushes so clean that the box
of white hellebore, provided against them, remained

(Photograph by the author)

unopened.

The Rose Slug, Monostegia rose. — This familiar pest
feeds upon the upper surface of the rose leaf, chiefly at
night, remaining hidden beneath the leaf during the day.
The rose bushes appear as if scorched and are greatly

224 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

damaged. The parent is a small black sawfly with smoky
wings. Numbers may be caught about the rose bushes on
sunny mornings in May or early June. When full-grown
the larvee burrow into the ground and there pass the winter.
Several authorities — Harris, Comstock, Cragin — state
that there are two broods of rose slugs a year. Miss Murt-
feldt’s experiments, with which the writer’s observations
agree, prove that there is but a single brood.

The Pear-Tree Slug, /y?ocampa cerasi, is the larva of a
sawfly about the size of the above, shining black with
iridescent wings, the front

pair smoky in the center.
It feeds, like the rose slug,
on pear or cherry leaves and
winters in the ground.

The Red-Humped Apple-Tree
Caterpillar, Gidemasia con-
cinna. — This species and
the yellow-necked apple-tree
caterpillar, Datana mintistra,
are apt to attract attention
in the late summer or early

Fig. 95. Rep-Humpep Aprie-Tree fall. Their caterpillars are

Licenses striped yellow and white on

PA ne ne ne a dark ground, the one with
the head and fourth segment coral red, the other with the
head shining black and first segment orange. They feed
and rest in close ranks and strip the branches perfectly
clean as they descend. When disturbed they secrete an
acrid-smelling fluid, which evidently protects them from

birds. They are the larvae of moths which spend the

GARDEN INSECTS 225

winter in the ground as pupee and emerge in July to lay
their eggs on the leaves.

The Cabbage Butterfly, Pzevis rape, is our commonest
white butterfly. The females have two black spots on the
fore wing, while the males have but one. This is one of
the best forms for the pupils to rear. The writer has
counted 465 ovules in a single specimen, which shows
what a power for damage one little butterfly may be. But
this is possibly the only one of our common butterflies
that should be destroyed wherever seen.

The Cabbage Plusia, Plusza brassice.— The larva is a
green, striped, measuring or looping caterpillar. The
moth is dark smoky gray and flies and lays its eggs at
night.

The Corn Worm, or Bollworm, Meliothis armigera.— This
insect attacks the two great staples, corn and cotton,
and is also a common pest on tomatoes, peas, and beans.
When numerous enough to demand study, the larvae, vary-
ing from grass green to dark brown, with a yellow stripe
along each side, may be found in the tips of the ears of
corn. When fully grown—they are about one and one-
half inches long—they bury themselves in the ground.
Here they transform into brown chrysalids and emerge,
after three or four weeks, as clay-yellow moths.

The Army Worm, Leucania wunipuncta.

The Squash Bug, Azasa tristis.—This is a good example
of a true bug, but a serious garden pest for all plants of
the cucumber family. The eggs are yellowish brown or
bronze in color, large and conspicuous, and neatly spaced
in groups of twenty to forty on the leaves or stems of the
food plant.

226 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The Chinch Bug, B/zssus leucopterus, should be studied
in sections where it is important. It will be particularly
interesting to experiment with the white fungous disease
(see Chapter X XVII) which has been used in recent years
to combat the pest.

The average annual loss which this insect causes to the United
States cannot be less than $20,000,000. HOWARD.

The Hessian Fly, Ceczdomyta destructor. — The adult insect
is a minute two-winged fly, the larvae of which live between
the sheathing bases of the leaves and in the stalks of
wheat near the root. It derives its name from having
been introduced, probably, with the bedding straw of the
Hessian soldiers during the Revolutionary War, and has
become, according to Comstock, ‘‘ perhaps the most serious
pest infesting wheat in this country.” The larve and
pupz, ‘flaxseed stage,” may be found by opening the
leaf sheaths.

Methods of controlling Insects. —In connection with the dif-
ferent insects already described I have laid all the empha-
sis on nature’s methods. This, it has seemed to me,
is the field for nature study. As an intelligent people
we can no longer put off the agreeable task of learning
the resources of life and nature to the end that we may
make the most of the good forces of nature to suppress
the evil. The chapters on birds and other insectivorous
animals are written, in part, from this point of view.
The swallows and swifts, night hawks and flycatchers,
with the bats for night police, might sweep the air of
insects. The warblers, vireos, cuckoos, wrens, orioles,
chickadees, woodpeckers, cedar birds, and others protect

GARDEN INSECTS 227

the trees from their tops to their trunks. The robins and
bluebirds, meadow larks and blackbirds, many of the spar-
rows, toads, frogs, and salamanders, and several of our
harmless snakes (probably) feed largely on the insects of
the ground. We need to know and cherish them all; and
when we attain to this larger response to nature the insect
problem will be for the most part a thing of the past. What
insects now destroy we may have for education, art, and sci-
ence. But until that time arrives we shall need to know
some other methods of dealing with insects, and many of
them are much in vogue at present.

Insects that chew — potato beetle, currant worm, rose slug, canker-
worm, tent caterpillar, cabbage worm, codling moth, as it gnaws its
way into the fruit, and a host of others—may be combated by
means of poisons dusted or sprayed upon their food plant. A Spvay-
Calendar, which any one can obtain from the Agricultural Experiment
Station of his state, will give the formulas for all the different sprays
and the times when each should be applied.

Insects that suck — plant lice, scale insects, squash bugs, and bugs
generally — require substances that will kill by contact, or soapy or
oily mixtures that will get into their breathing pores and smother
them. Your Spray-Calendar will give all of these preparations with
directions for their use.

Insects that bore can be detected by the sawdust-like chips or the
exudations of sap or gum from burrows. Those that work in or just
under the bark may be cut out with a knife. Such as work deeper
can often be destroyed with a piece of piano wire. Another way to,
reach the villains is to inject a little carbon bisulphide into the burrow
and quickly plug it up tight.

CHAPTER XIV
BENEFICIAL INSECTS
THE HONEYBEE

WE may begin by asking the class some bright morning
in May: What did you see the bees doing, on your way
to school? What flowers were they on? Did you see
their hip pockets full of pollen? What do you suppose
they do with that? Where do they find the honey?
These with a hundred others are just the questions with
which to begin the study of the honeybee’s life and work.

Have in different vials a house fly, bluebottle, wasp,
hornet, ant, bumblebee, a honeybee, if possible with pollen
on its thighs, and any other insects that may look some-
what like a honeybee. Pass them around and find out
how many can tell a honeybee from every other insect.
Do not let anybody tell until all have had a good chance to
see. Ask each child to borrow somebody’s watch between
this lesson and the next and to follow a bee for five
minutes, and be prepared to tell exactly what it did.
How many blossoms did it visit? What kind were they?
Were they all the same kind, or did it go from one kind
to another? From their observations, what can they say
as to the flowers the bees like best? Could they see
how a bee fills its pollen baskets? For lower grades and

the kindergarten, a pound section of honey may furnish
228

BENEFICIAL INSECTS 229

material for an instructive demonstration. In higher
grades, something of the same kind may be done by
way of testing different specimens, to see if the pupils
can distinguish the aroma of the flower from which the

honey is made, comparing
pure honey with a sample of
some adulterated honey that
may have found its way into
the neighboring stores.

The next series of lessons
may well be directed to dis-
covering the influence of bees
on the pollination of flowers
and fruits. Select, or raise
in the school garden, two
similar clumps of white or
alsike clover. To study the
work of bumblebees red
clover may be used. Cover
one clump with netting be-
fore any of the blossoms open,
leaving the other uncovered.
Have some one appointed to
save and count all the heads
that mature in each clump;
carefully thresh out the seeds

Fic. 96. HONEYBEES

a, worker; 3, queen; c, drone.

and put up in two vials, properly labeled.
Any other flowers that are of interest in the locality
may be treated in the same way; at least, a number of

1 If crimson clover is used, the whole experiment may be completed in

the spring term.

230 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

our common garden fruits should be experimented with
Cover a clump of strawberries before the buds open, and
count the blossoms; leave a similar clump uncovered,
and compare the fruit. In the same way cover a small
branch of plum, peach, quince, pear, cherry, and apple.
This has been done for some of our fruits, with the
result that not only are more fruits generally found to
“set”? on the exposed branches, but the fruit is often
larger, plumper, and richer in quality, and the seeds are
large and well developed, while those in self-pollinated
fruits on the same tree are small and often abortive, z.¢.,
without kernels. When these experiments are made, the
fruits may be saved, preserved in formalin, or may be care-
fully drawn to exact size for the school collection. The
seeds may also be preserved to show that, in times past,
a honeybee possibly assisted in the production of those
seeds that have given origin to many of our improved
varieties of fruit.

The study will naturally irradiate into the more general
subject of the value of insects in cross-pollination. What
other insects are seen about the fruit blossoms? Are
other insects numerous at this season? With all of our
native bees — bumblebees, hornets, wasps — the queens
alone survive the winter. Comparatively few of the other
blossom-seeking insects live through the winter, and many
of these do not come out of their winter quarters in time
for fruit bloom. Here we have the one efficient insect
which carries over the winter an army of workers, ready to

1“ The Pollination of Pear Flowers,’ Merton B. White, United States
Department of Agriculture, 1894. See also “ Pollination in Orchards,”
Bulletin 181, Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, 1900.

BENEFICIAL INSECTS 231

pour forth into the orchards and do the work that the trees
require at this season. How manyfruit blossoms does a bee
visit ina minute? I have counted a number of times, and
the average is about twenty per minute. How many men
or boys would it take to do as much of this work as a single
bee? as a hive of twenty thousand? Attempts have been
made to raise fruit on a large scale with no bees in the local-
ity, but year after year no fruit has been produced. Bees
were introduced, and abundant crops followed. Seasons
in which the weather is too cold or stormy for bees to fly
during fruit bloom are well known to be poor fruit years.

Is the neighborhood well stocked with bees? This is
the next question. Mr. Benton has estimated that there
are about one-tenth as many bees as the flowers of the
land will support, at the average profit per hive. Some
approximation to an answer to our question may be
attained by asking the pupils to collect statistics as to
the yield of honey per colony in the neighborhood. An
average yield of honey for large apiaries is from about 50
to 100 pounds per colony. Of course the management of
the bees makes a great difference in the yield, as does also
the season! A single swarm has been known to make
1000 pounds in a season. Bees are supposed to fly and
do most of their collecting within a radius of about two
miles, and within this circle, four miles in diameter, it is
commonly estimated that 200 swarms may be maintained.

1A hive has been known to gain thirty-two pounds in weight in a single
day during an abundant flow of linden nectar. Of course this is nectar,
which must be evaporated down by the bees before it is honey.

2 Bees have been kept on an island and have been proved to fly as far

as seven miles to find the flowers. How well they thrived under these
conditions, however, is not stated.

232 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The next topic is the management of a hive of bees.
How many of the class know anything about it? How
many have bees of their own? Do any of their parents
keep bees? If none of the children or their parents have
bees, the study may have to be concluded at this point,
If, however, the locality be favorable, there is one more
question to be asked. Who will volunteer to get some
bees and begin to study them?

A swarm of bees in a glass hive in an upper story or
attic window of the school building may prove a most
instructive part of the nature-study equipment, where con-
ditions in the school and district permit. Under these
conditions, I include a number of things. The spirit of
the school comes first. If bees are common and every-
body knows and sees enough of them, it may not be
valuable. If nobody knows anything about the manage-
ment of them, wait until somebody learns before attempt-
ing it. Bees are sometimes kept with profit on the roofs
of houses in large cities, but, in general, where there are
no flowers within two or three miles, a school hive is
out of the question.

One thing is clear at the outset. If it is deemed advis-
able to have a school hive, none of the care of it should
be allowed to devolve upon the teacher. True, if one thor-
oughly understands the subject, there need be but little
work about managing a single swarm of bees; still this
little must be done at the proper times, and a teacher
already has too many things to look after. If some one,
or better, if a group of the older children, wish to volunteer
to put the hive in the school or in one of their homes,
where it will be available for study, then the experiment

BENEFICIAL INSECTS 233

may be tried and will probably prove successful. Its suc-
cess will be doubly assured if some parent who under-
stands bee keeping and is interested in the school will
direct and assist the children in their work. The follow-
ing suggestions are offered to help such a group of children.
They embody the results of four years of experimenting
as to the simplest methods of demonstrating the life of
the hive.?

First a “nucleus hive,” z.¢., a little hive, may be made
with an ordinary one-pound section and a glass case to fit
over it. To arrange this select a partially filled section of
honey and drive small
brads into the corners,
letting the heads stick
out one-half of an inch
below for it to stand on
and a quarter of an inch
at the sides to insure
room for the bees to
pass between the section and the glass case that is to
cover it. Next cut pieces of glass the right size to
make a glass case to slip over the section. The front
glass must be cut one-quarter of an inch short to allow a
space for the bees to go in and out at the bottom in front.
Fasten this together with half-inch strips of black cotton
cloth and glue, laying the strips over the corners. After

Fig. 97. NucLeus Hive

1I£ local libraries or the neighborhood are not supplied with books on
bees, the class should get Budletixn No. z, United States Department of
Agriculture, “The Honey Bee,” by Frank Benton. It may be obtained
from the Superintendent of Documents, Union Building, Washington, D.C.,
for 25 cents.

234 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

the glue is dry flow a little melted beeswax, with a hot
case knife, all around the corners on the inside. This is
to prevent moisture of the bees from softening the glue.
The bottom should be made of a board, about six inches

Fic. 98. SINGLE-FRAME OBSERVATION HIVE IN POSITION

(Photograph by the author)

wide and long enough to extend ten inches in front of the
hive. Bees need to be kept warm, and they commonly
insist upon having their hive totally dark. To secure
both of these conditions, make a rather thick quilt that
can be pinned snugly over the glass case.

BENEFICIAL INSECTS 235

It remains to mount the hive in some upstairs window,
preferably in the attic, or in some room that is not used.

i
Ki
LS

Ml

Fic. 99. OBSERVATION HIVE IN POSITION

The large box is known as the “brood chamber,” or “hive body.” In it the queen
lives and lays eggs, and the bees nurse the young, or “brood.” The two cases
above are the “supers,” in which the bees store their surplus honey. Toward
the window is seen the wire screen passageway, through which the workers go
and come

Fasten a narrow board under the sash, and, setting the
hive in place, mark where the bottom board comes and cut
a hole one inch wide by one-half of an inch deep, through

236 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

which the bees may go out. Finally, make a screen-wire
tunnel, an inch high and as wide as the hive, to fit perfectly
between the hive and the board under the window sash.
This is to prevent the bees from escaping into the room.

The best time to fill the hive is in the spring, when
some local bee keeper is “cutting out” his first queen
cells. Take the little hive to him and get him to insert
‘““a capped queen cell with about a teacupful of bees from
the same hive, closing it up so that no bees can escape.
It may then be screwed to the window sill where it is to
stand. The bees should be confined for three or four
days, if possible, until the young queen emerges, and it
is’ well to feed them a little syrup or honey daily to
make them feel at home, otherwise they may all decamp
to their hive! Fig. 97 shows this hive in position.

An observation hive that is more certain to give satis-
faction is shown in Fig. 98. The glass case for this may
be made like the other except that the front glass is
replaced by a strong wooden post, with entrance hole
below, very securely screwed to the bottom board. The
size must be governed by the size of the frames in the
hive from which the bees are to come. Take this toa
bee keeper and have him set in one of his frames, well
filled with brood and covered with bees. He will be sure

1] have had two of these little hives made from one-pound sections, and
nothing more interesting could be desired. In one of them that stood in
my window an entire season I was able to study every activity of bees, even
better than in a larger hive. The third one I tried in exactly the same way
worked well for a few weeks, when the queen concluded that it was too
small for her ambitions, and she forthwith decamped, taking all the bees
with her. They next went into one of my bird houses in a tree, but soon left
that. It would probably be difficult to keep so small a hive alive over winter.

BENEFICIAL INSECTS 237

that there are eggs in it from which the bees may rear a
queen, and this intéresting process may then be observed
by the school from day to day, and it will be a red-letter
day when her royal highness comes out.

A third form of school hive is a full-sized swarm in a
glass box. This can be made of one-inch pine for the
frame, with glass set in for ends and sides. The top
should be made of a similar, glazed frame just large
enough to cover a honey super. If this be narrower than
the top of the hive, it may be supplemented by narrow
strips of board. The whole stands, without fastening,
on a solid bottom board, which may be screwed to the
window sill in front and supported by a post at the back.
Otherwise its mounting, covering, and manipulation is in
every way like that of the smaller hives described above.!

Each form of hive has some special feature to its
advantage. The small one requires little room and still
demonstrates the whole life of the hive. The single large
frame does this more perfectly, but may cost something.
The single-frame hives both possess the advantage that the
queen can always be found, and in the larger one young
bees may generally be seen gnawing their way out of their
cells, —two most interesting things to watch. Marked
bees may also be followed when they come in, and may be
seen distributing their load ‘of. nectar to the other bees or
kicking off their pollen balls into the cells. On the other

1 Bees are greatly disturbed by any jarring of their hive, about as much
as human communities are by earthquakes. This is obviated by the quilt
coverings. For the large hive it is well to make these in square sections,
each large enough to cover a side or end, and with one longer strip which
can cover one side, and the top with three supers in place.

238 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

hand, these little swarms can make no surplus honey,
the chief reason for which bees are kept, and they will
not be likely to “swarm,” which is an interesting thing,
an advantage or disadvantage according to taste. In the
large hive the queen will be busy laying eggs in the inner
frames and may not be seen from one year to another,
honey being stored usually in the combs next to the
glass. This is a disadvantage; still it is only in sucha

Yay

A - ay EEN aa ‘ sen Sey ; eK
Xs 4
; Bl
Entrance Z

Uf
Fic. 100. SECTIONAL PLAN OF OBSERVATION HIVE

The size depends on size of brood frame. The bee space should be 3 in. below,
@ in. at ends, and 4 in. above

large hive that we can see the life of a bee-city in its full-
ness, — the thousands of workers, the continuous streams
of out-going and in-coming bees, —and thus gain some
conception of the great work they perform.

The honeybee is not native to this continent. It was imported
from Europe, when or by whom is not known, and has since spread
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Since about 1860 the United States
Department of Agriculture has been engaged in searching over the
greater part of the globe to find and introduce the best races of bees

BENEFICIAL INSECTS 239

that could be discovered, so that we now have four varieties, each
excelling in certain points.

The common black or brown or German bees have become better
acclimated than any of the others, and during their 200 years of
residence have become the common wild bees of the whole country.
Their faults are: bad temper, which makes them hard to handle;
their tendency to desert their combs and to “ball up” so that it is
difficult to find the queen; and their failure to resist the attacks of
the bee moth. This is a most serious defect. A colony of black bees
left a season without being looked over and the moths removed from
time to time is likely to be found empty of bees and a mass of ugly
caterpillars, moths, webs, and cocoons. The bees themselves are
fair honey gatherers, make white comb honey, and winter well. They
are medium-sized and dark brown, sometimes almost black, in color.

The Italian bees, imported to this country in 1860, have found
greater favor with bee keepers than any other race. They are large,
beautiful bees, with the first three bands of the abdomen yellow or
leather colored. They are gentle, can be handled easily, stick to
their combs so well that the frames may be lifted from the hive and
stood up about the yard, while the bees go on with their work as if
nothing had happened. On this account, the queen may easily be
found at any time. I have sometimes seen an Italian queen continue
laying eggs while the frame she was on was taken from the hive.
Italian bees are better honey gatherers than the blacks, cap their
honey fairly white, and resist attacks of the bee moth, so that for this
reason alone, where this pest is present, it would pay to keep only
Italian bees ; but they do not winter quite so well in the colder sections
of this country.

Carniolans are large ashy gray bees with silvery white hairs, the
gentlest and most beautiful of all races. They were imported from
the Alpine province of Carniola, Austria, in 1884. They are fair
honey gatherers and cap their honey exceedingly white. How they
cope with the bee moth is not stated in the books. The Carniolans
winter better than any other strain and are prolific, but they have the
reputation of swarming excessively. This is their greatest disad-
vantage, and Frank Benton is inclined to think that it is due to the

240 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

warmth of our summers, and that consequently the hives should be
well protected by shade.

Cyprians, Holy Lands, or Syrians have scored the highest honey
record of any bees ever tested in this country, 1000 pounds from a
hive in a single season. They were brought from Cyprus. They
are a small bee, slender and active, with the first three bands of the
abdomen orange above and all the segments underneath yellow, often
to the tip. The white appearance of honey is chiefly due to a little
harmless deception on the part of the bees that make it. Instead of
filling the cells full they leave a little bubble of air under the cap,
and this looks white by reflected light. The Cyprian bees are too
honest for this and fill the cells full of honey. Their pains, however,
gives the honey a dead, “ watery”? look, which injures its selling
quality. It is said that they never molest one that may pass their
hives or be working among them, unless a hive itself be directly inter-
fered with. Then they are the fiercest and most persistent of fighters.
They thus protect their hives better than any other race from robber
bees, bee moths, and all other intruders, but this character has ren-
dered the handling of them so disagreeable that their culture has not
made much progress in this country.

As may be inferred from the above, the effort is to obtain the best
variety of bee in the world. When this is discovered, the stock may
be still further improved by selection and breeding, as in the case
of other domestic animals and plants. Just now the attempt is being
made to find a bee whose tongue is long enough to reach the nectar
in the red clover. If any child can find a honeybee that is working
on red-clover blossoms and can discover the hive to which it belongs,
he may help along this work and possibly make a name and a fortune
for himself. Both the farmer and the bee keeper would be benefited.
It would doubtless make possible the more complete cross-fertilization
of the clover and give the farmer more and better seed than he now
gets by the help of bumblebees. The bee keeper could then save
the barrels of nectar that now go to waste in the red-clover blossoms,

“Lining” bees is a topic that may well be studied during an
excursion, or even in the school yard, if bees can be found. Take
a little honey, and after allowing a bee to fill her honey sac take the

BENEFICIAL INSECTS 2AT

direction of her flight. She will make a bee line toward the hive,
or bee tree, from which she came. A little flour dusted over the bee
will make it easier to follow her flight’ In this way bee hunters
locate bee trees in the woods. A bee line is obtained at one
position; the hunter then moves to a new position some distance
to the right or left of his frst stand and gets another bee line.
The bee tree will be found where the two lines intersect. In tracing
bees from red clover, if they can find any such there, let some of the
class dust flour on the bees in the field and others watch at the
apiary toward which they fy and find the hive to which the foured
bees belong. Follow the matter up by finding out how much honey
this hive makes (it may be one or two hundred pounds more than any
other colony in the neighborhood), and then see if any one can be
found who has a microscope and can measure the tongues of the red-
clover bees, comparing them with the tongues of bees that do rot
work on red clover. Finally. have a member, or committee, of the
class write up the story and get it printed in the local paper and in
some bee journal. Possibly. if all the bovs and girls in the United
States keep a sharp lookout all next summer, not more than a dozen
will find honeybees working on red clover. But even if these few
were discovered, by modern methods of queen rearing we might have
within ten or nfteen years. the long-tongued bees as common as
ordinary bees are now.

CoMPARATIVE VALUE OF DIFFERENT RacrEs oF BEES

‘Marked on a scale of ten. Estimates of Frank Brenton)

ae, . Tes

| GENTLS- BUSEY ' er eee ProaitFic Swarm | LENGTH
Rac | GATHER- | ANCE TO __ Na = | or

NESS ING NESS SB
ING MotTH ePancice
! i

Black . . | = z 4 Ss et 6 | 6
Italian. . | S = Ss 6 | 7 S N
Carniolan Io | $s Pi Io | 9 10 | N
Cyprian . 3 Io -:10 = be) Ss 10
Dorsata . 7 i § 5.
| : ,

242 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Besides the honeybee there are about five thousand
different kinds of bees, bumblebees of many different
kinds, carpenter bees, digger or burrowing bees, potter
bees, and cuckoo bees, all having most interesting habits
and instincts, and many exceedingly beautiful. With all
our native bees the life story of the individuals is similar
to that of the honeybee, except in regard to the food of
the larve, which may be leaves or insects; but the story
of the colony is altogether different. Most of them are
“solitary,” and those that have social habits have not
developed the stability and perfection of organization
found in the hive bee and among the ants.

In the spring, for example, there are no colonies of
bumblebees, and the few we see about early spring
flowers are solitary queens that have hibernated in some
protected shelter during the winter. They collect honey
and pollen and select suitable places for their homes
(commonly deserted mice nests), build cells and lay eggs
in them, feed the young, and thus continue until the
larve begin to emerge. The first bees are small workers,
and they soon relieve their mother of the labors of both
field and nest. Subsequent broods during the summer
are large workers, and these rapidly increase the stores of
the nest. In August a generation of queens and drones
emerge, and these soon scatter over the fields and leave
the nest deserted. The workers and drones die, and the
queens alone survive the winter.

Coville succeeded in moving bumblebee nests to glass-covered
boxes in his window arranged essentially like the beehives above
described. He did this by chloroforming the bees lightly in the
evening, when they were all athome. After being confined for a day

BENEFICIAL. INSECTS 243

they learned their new location and accepted it without difficulty.
One other observer has told me of catching a queen bumblebee early
in the spring, taming her by feeding with honey, and inducing her to
accept a nest he had provided in a large bottle. He was thus able
to watch the colony from beginning to end.

Bumblebees are valuable insects, aside from the interest
attaching to the study of them, from the work they per-
form in the fertilization of flowers, especially red clover.
Greenhouse men, who raise melons, cucumbers, and toma-
toes under glass, are obliged to keep swarms of honeybees
to carry the pollen from flower to flower. But honeybees
do not live long under such confinement and hence must
be replaced by fresh hives perhaps once or twice a year.
It has been suggested that bumblebees might do this
work fully as well at little or no expense. To try the
experiment it would only be necessary to catch a few
queens as late in the fall as possible and confine them
in the greenhouse, supplying them with field-mice nests.
What boy will try this plan and report results?

Other near relatives of the honeybees are the wasps and
hornets, and here again we have hundreds of different spe-
cies, some social, like the bumblebees, and many solitary.
Most of these make burrows in the ground, like the digger
bees, but they provide as food for their young, instead of
pollen and honey, insects, spiders, etc., stung with such
care and precision that they are paralyzed but not killed.
The common mud wasp, or mud dauber, is very easily
studied and will serve, if time permits, to initiate the
children into the mysteries of this fascinating group.

1 George W. and Elizabeth G. Peckham, “ On the Instincts and Habits
of the Solitary Wasps,” Sudletin No. 2, Wisconsin Geological and Natural

244 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Among the social wasps the white-faced hornet is the
one to study. It may seem strange to classify this arch-
enemy of our boyhood, whose huge paper nests have been
the legitimate targets for stones and later for rifle and
shotgun, among the beneficial insects. But Mrs. Treat
says of them:

Are orchardists and gardeners aware of the untold numbers of
noxious insects that a colony of White-faced hornets will destroy in
aseason? ... I would rather have a colony in my orchard when
infested with the slug, Se/andria cerasz, than ever so many barrels
of London-purple. In the summer of 1886 I found these hornets
were busy from morning until night in the orchard, taking slugs from
the leaves, and carrying them to their young, where their nest was
suspended in one of the trees. /ujurious Insects of the Farm and
Garden, p. 288. (On the other side it should be stated that where
grapes or peaches are raised the hornets are known to gnaw holes in
the fruit, and this opens the way for honeybees and may lead to great
injury to the crop. It thus sometimes becomes necessary to destroy
all the hornets in the neighborhood before the fruit begins to ripen,
and this is a simple matter, since the nests are so easily found.)

The life story of the white-faced hornet resembles that
of the bumblebee. The queen alone lives over winter
and in the spring makes her own paper and begins to
build the nest alone. As cells are made she lays the eggs
in them and feeds the larve on finely chewed insects. To
see the tiny maggot-like larve stretch themselves almost
out of their cells when the queen mother comes with food
puts one in mind of nestling birds, only it seems more
History Survey. Of this Howard says (Znsect Book, p. 18): “No more
readable book on a natural history topic was ever prepared, not even

excepting the famous Natural History of Selbourne or the general volume
of Kirby and Spence’s Introduction.”

BENEFICIAL INSECTS 245

wonderful. The first brood consists of small-sized workers,
and, as these take up the labors of nest-building and
food-bringing, larger workers are produced. Finally,
in the early autumn a generation of males and females is
produced, and the queens hibernate, to repeat the story
the following year. The queens often crawl into attics to
spend the winter, and a few are sometimes found in the
old nests. A queen might be taken in the fall or early in
the spring, and if provided with paper pulp, honey, and
abundance of insect food, she would quite probably build a
nest and afford a most instructive demonstration of insect
life. The white-faced hornet is especially interesting
from the fact that the suggestion for making paper from
wood pulp, which is now such an extensive industry, was
probably obtained directly from its wonderful nest.

The specimen figured below, from which one side has
been cut to show internal arrangement, was built by the
queen before any of her brood had come to her aid.

CHAPTER XV
INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL

Ichneumon Flies. — The insect photographed in Fig. 101
is drilling into hard maple wood for the purpose of laying
an egg in the burrow
of a wood-boring larva.
How long she had been
there before I found
her it is impossible to
state, but for more
than two hours she
worked, inserting and
partially withdrawing
her drill repeatedly,
until it had penetrated

nearly two inches into
the hard wood. At
last she withdrew the
drill, apparently satis-
fied, and flew away,

to save more maple
Fic. to1. ICHNEUMON FLY BORING trees from borers, I

INTO A TREE h ‘
ope, for, after seeing
her good works I had
not the heart to put her in the cyanide bottle. It was

wonderful to see another, that came to the same tree while
246

(About # natural size)

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 247

I was watching, hunt over the surface inch by inch for
a likely place to drill; but, after about an hour’s search,
she flew away. Certainly nothing I have ever observed
has so impressed upon my mind the marvelous perfection
of Nature’s mechanisms and the completeness with which
every darkest nook and corner of her domain is guarded.
A horntail, Tremex, bores deep into the tree and deposits
her egg. Who would think that any harm could reach it
there? But the ichneumon fly is armed and equipped for

Fic. 102. BLAck THALESSA

d, drill; ov, ovipositor. (zm natural size)

her task. Her egg hatches in the burrow of the Tremex,
the young ichneumon finds the wood-boring larva, lives as
a parasite upon it, and, finally, after completing its trans-
formations, emerges as the ichneumon fly in the picture.
There are more than a thousand genera of ichneumon
flies, with, of course, a great many more species, and if
the Tremex larva is not safe in the heart of a maple tree,
what must be the fate of the thousands of larvee that feed

248 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

unprotected on the leaves of plants? The truth is that
nearly all of them have one or more species of ichneumon
fly ever seeking a victim in which to deposit her eggs.
So we shall find with nearly every species of larva we
attempt to rear that one of these parasitic flies has come
before us, and instead of the moth or butterfly we expected,
we get the brood of parasites. If we are intent on secur-
ing butterflies and moths, this is sometimes annoying ;
but if we are studying insect life in the large, we are
thus often rewarded with a glimpse of one of its most
interesting and important phases.

Simply ichneumons or, if that is not sufficient, ichneu-
mon wasps would be a better term by which to designate
this group, since they resemble wasps much more than
they do flies; but they are described in all the books as
“ichneumon flies,’ and to change the name will take a
long time. Ichneumons are generally large or good-sized
parasitic insects, but some are minute. They have four
wings, like the bees and wasps, long, incessantly vibrating
antenne, and their prevailing color is dull yellow, though
many are black, marked with yellow. Our largest species
is the beautiful Zhalessa atrata, which from the tip of
the antennz to the end of the ovipositor measures
nearly ten inches. It is parasitic on the larva of the
pigeon horntail, 7vemex columba, a common borer in elms,
oaks, buttonwoods, and maples. Pzmpla inguisitor, one
of the commonest and most widely distributed, ranging
from Massachusetts to California, is parasitic on a number
of caterpillars. The body is about half an inch long, shin-
ing black. The pupils are pretty certain to find it in
connection with their studies on the tent caterpillars and

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 249

the white-marked tussock moth. A favorite time for the
Pimpla to sting her victim is while the caterpillar is spin-
ning its cocoon; and if a number in this stage are placed
in an open window in the schoolroom, it is quite possible
that a Pimpla may come and show how she does her work.
The eggs of the Pimpla hatch into whitish larvae, which
feed actively and attain their growth in about four days.

Fic. 103. TomAtTo SPHINX LARVA

With parasites emerging; 268 are out or in sight. (Natural size)

They then spin slender yellowish-brown cocoons, transform
into pupe, and emerge in about ten days as adult ichneu-
mons; so that the whole life story from egg around to egg
may not require more than fifteen days to be completed.

Until recently all the four-winged parasitic insects were
called ichneumon flies. Now the group has been much
subdivided ; but since the distinctions upon which these
divisions have been made are mostly minute and technical,
we may leave them to specialists. It will be sufficient,
for elementary work, if we gain some clear ideas of the
réle that parasitic insects play in nature.

250 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The smaller ichneumons (of course there are distinc.
tions other than size) are now called ‘‘braconids,” and the
smallest, many of them not more than one one-hundredth
of an inch in length, have been set apart by themselves as
the Chalcis flies.

The Braconids.— One of the commonest braconids is
parasitic on the tomato sphinx. Others are found on the
grape sphinx and the cabbage worms. Little bunches of
white or yellow cocoons, often found attached to grasses
and weeds, if preserved in a bottle covered with gauze,
will be found to contain insects of this family.

One of the most
interesting of these

little parasites for

the children to study

belongs to the genus

Fic. 1of. PARASITIZED PLANT LICE Aphidius so named
,

pence aN ney from its work with
the plant lice. If colonies of aphids are examined late
in the season, from July to October, many will be found
lighter colored than the rest and much swollen. Often
an artichoke leaf or a spray of yellow dock will have a
dozen or more such specimens. Keep a number ina glass
covered with gauze, and within a few days you will find
neat little trapdoors cut in the backs of the aphids and
the minute parasites flying about in the glass. Let them
have golden-rod or asters and a fresh supply of plant lice
in a window or large gauze cage and see who can observe
them laying their eggs. Another similar parasite of the
aphids emerges from the plant louse when it reaches
maturity and spins a flat cocoon, using the shell of its

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 251

late victim as a roof. Some of these will probably be
found during the search for plant lice.

The Chalcis Flies. — These are the smallest of the parasitic
Hymenoptera. They are generally black with metallic
luster, but a few are yellow. Slingerland writes of one
of them:

It would seem that the codling-moth’s egg, not quite so large as
a common pin’s head, would escape the eye of the enemy, but many
of them do not. In June, 1896, we were surprised to find that quite
a number of the eggs we saw had a peculiar black appearance.
These were placed in cages, and a few days later the mystery was
explained. For instead of little apple-worms hatching from them,
there appeared fully developed adult insects, the surprising number
of four coming from a single tiny egg in some cases. It is wonder-
ful to think of four perfect animals having been born in, and having
obtained sufficient sustenance to develop into perfect insects from
the contents of such a tiny thing as the egg of a codling-moth. In
figure 138 is shown a greatly enlarged picture of this pretty little
parasite, which is of course an exceeding small creature, yet it is
easily visible to the naked eye.

Many of the Chalcis flies are parasitic on the scales
and on the eggs of other insects. To keep watch for
them will add interest to many of our lessons,

The Syrphus and Tachina Flies. — Though related to the
ichneumons only by their parasitic habits, these may be
considered in this connection. Both belong to the fly
family proper, since they have but a single pair of wings.

The syrphus flies are the ones we all have wondered
about from our infancy. They are par excellence the
flies of bright sunshine and flowers, where they disport

1M. V. Slingerland. “The Codling-Moth,” Bulletin rg2, Comell
University Agricultural Experiment Station, 1898, p. 37.

252 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

their gorgeous colors. Some appear to be always on the
wing, while others may be seen resting lightly on flowers,
especially of Helianthus, golden-rod, and asters in the early

autumn. The fact that renders

a study of this family important
is that the maggots, or larve,
of many of them feed upon plant
lice and other small, soft-bodied

insects. In collecting plant lice,

especially such as cause great
Fic. 105. A SyRPHUS FLY ; z
: deformity of the leaves, as in

(Enlarged about one-half)

case of the currant, elm, and
snowball, keep a sharp lookout for slender maggots within
the gall-like cavities, and do not mistake them for the
insects that do the harm. Preserve them in the vivarium,
supply with aphids, and watch them as they transform,
first into hardened pupa cases, and finally into adult
syrphus flies.

The syrphus flies whose larve are not predaceous feed
on wet, decaying wood, manure, and
mud, or live in filthy water. Their
larvee are the curious ‘rat-tailed

)

maggots” that the children are sure

to bring in with the question: What Fic. 106. Rat-TaiLep

Macoot or AQUATIC
SyrPHuS FLy

priate food and surroundings, and they (After Riley)

is that? Keep the larvee with appro-

will soon answer the question them-

selves. More than three hundred different species of
syrphus flies have been described in the books. Many
of them mimic other insects, especially bees, wasps, and
bumblebees.

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 253

The tachina flies are another numerous family of
extremely beneficial insects. They are large to medium-
sized flies and resemble the house fly in form and general
appearance. They are the stout, bristly flies that we see
so often on sunny days about rank vegetation. Their
larve are all parasitic on other insects, chiefly on the
injurious leaf-eating caterpillars. While an ichneumon
commonly attacks only a single species or its near rela-
tions, the tachina flies present the advantage of working
upon almost any in-
sect that may be
numerous. Thus a
tachina fly will lay
her eggs on a cater-
pillar, if she can find
one. If not, she
may lay them on
grasshoppers, bugs, Eggs on a caterpillar, larva, adult, and pupa; size
beetles, sawflies, or a little larger than a house fly
“even bumblebees.

The white, oval eggs are glued to the body of an insect as
though they werea part of its own skin. The little maggots
on hatching burrow into their victim and feed upon its tis-
sues and juices. Growth is rapid and after its attainment the
little plunderers are said to murder their host by destroying
a vital organ, after which they work their way out. Unlike
the ichneumons the tachina larve spin no cocoons, but
instead the outer skin hardens into an oval case, the pupa
case, or puparium ; within this the larvae change into pupe,
and in about ten days we may expect to see them emerge
as adult flies. There may be several generations a year.

Fic. 107. TACHINA FLy

254 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

By far the favorite hosts of these flies are the leaf-eating cater-
pillars and the numbers destroyed in a single season by these para-
sites is quite beyond computation. I have seen vast armies of the
army-worm, comprising unquestionably millions of individuals, and
have been unable to find a single specimen which did not bear the
characteristic eggs of a tachina fly. These flies were present in such
numbers that their buzzing, as they flew over the army of caterpillars,
could be heard at some distance and the farmers were unnecessarily
alarmed since they conceived the idea that the flies were the parents
of the caterpillars and were flying everywhere and laying their eggs
in the grass and wheat. As a

matter of fact, one great outbreak

of the army-worm in northern Ete Oe
a

Alabama, in the early summer of

1851, was completely frustrated J £.
by the tachina flies, aided by a

few other parasites and predatory eaae €
insects. L. O. Howarpb, Zhe ae 2
Lnsect Book, p. 158. Pee enOes ? 7)

Larva, pup, and
adults of several =)
Valuable shade trees are ;

species
sometimes cut because they ya iN
are infested with caterpillars for two or ‘ina “
three years in succession. Of course
trees may be killed by being stripped of their leaves
repeatedly ; but frequently the year after the pests seem
to have become unendurable there may be scarcely one
in the whole neighborhood, all but a few having been
killed by increase of their natural enemies.

Lady Beetles, Ladybirds, or Ladybugs. — These insects are
too familiar to require description. We may bring one to
class in a vial and let the children learn their next day’s
nature-study lesson by observing what the lady beetles
are doing. A branch of apple or cherry covered with

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 255

aphids in June will be likely to show lady beetles in all
stages; the yellow eggs in clusters, often in the midst of
a swarm of aphids ; the alligator-shaped larvee, black with
red or yellow spots and covered with warts or spines; the
angular pupz suspended from the leaves or twigs by their
tails ; and the adult beetles. Both larve and adults spend
a large part of the time devouring plant lice, scales, and
the eggs and young larve of other insects.

Lady beetles often come into houses to pass the winter,
and their presence may well be encouraged, as it would
seem that they might be the best protectors of the win-
dow garden against plant lice and scale insects. I have
not been able to find any account, however, in which it
is stated that they have been successfully kept alive
and feeding during the entire winter, but this might
prove a valuable line of experiment!

Lion Beetles. — Among the beetles there are a number
of other carnivorous species that are of great service in
our gardens. If any of these or their larvee can be found,
instructive feeding tests may be made.

The lion beetle, Ca/osoma scrutator, is our most beauti-
ful species. It is somewhat over one inch in length, the
wing covers are bright golden green, and the body is
marked with blue, gold, green, and copper. This beetle

1 Professor Weed has described finding “balls” of hibernating lady
beetles containing as much as a quart. He stated that they occurred
about the borders of woods under piles of leaves and brush. One
other observer has reported to me a similar find in a hollow stump. We
ought to learn more of this, and if such a ball could be captured and
the beetles be distributed among the cherry, peach, and plum trees of a
neighborhood, they might nip many a serious outbreak of plant lice in
the bud.

256 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

hunts over trees in search of caterpillars. It has also
been described as climbing cornstalks, stopping appar-
ently to listen at the tip of the ear, and if a corn worm
is within, it speedily drags it out and devours it.

Calosoma calidum is another lion beetle, a little smaller
than the above, shining black, with three rows of copper-
colored pits down each wing cover. This is chiefly noc-
turnal and is said to feed largely on cutworms. The larve
of both the Calosomas are flat, fish-shaped creatures, some-
times two inches long, with somewhat the appearance of
having pincers at both ends. They are fierce hunters after
caterpillars, climbing trees and often burrowing in the
ground after cutworms. They may be found in the daytime
generally under boards, stones, or heaps of leaves and rubbish.

The Tiger Beetles, Cic7ndelide.— These are described
both in appearance and in character by their common
name. They are the lively beetles that we have all seen
in dusty roads, which fly up as we approach and always
alight with head toward us. Their color is usually green
or bronze, spotted and banded with yellow, but some are
sand colored. Their larve are ugly but very interesting
creatures. They live in vertical burrows, often a foot
deep. The flattened dirt-colored head with its jaws wide
open fills and conceals the opening, and unsuspecting
insects, as they walk over, are seized, dragged down to the
bottom, and there devoured.

The Bombardier Beetles. — There is certainly nothing
more startling and comical than one of these insects —
‘‘a regular sharp-shooter, blue uniform and all.”! They

1 Gibson, Sharp Eyes, p. 73, gives an amusing account of a bombardier
beetle.

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 257

are ground beetles and may be found by turning up flat
stones in pastures. The head and legs are reddish yellow,
and the wing covers are commonly blue, sometimes black.
If any of the children succeed in finding one, it should be
made at home under a stone in a vivarium, well fed with
insects, and experimented with as occasion offers. It
would be interesting to know how a toad might fare with
a bombardier.

There are many other common carabids, or ground
beetles, whose strong jaws mark them as carnivorous spe-
cies. It will be well not to try to keep any such beetle
with other insects that we may wish to rear or preserve.

Dragon Flies. — These may be classed among beneficial
insects as long as there are mosquitoes, gnats, and flies to
be destroyed. They are the swallows among insects, cap-
turing and eating a great variety, especially of the smaller
insects, on the wing. But long after flies and mosquitoes
cease from troubling we shall need dragon flies, that we
may enjoy their beauty and that each year we may watcha
few crawl out of the water and change to fairies. Theeggs
are laid in or on the water, often on the stems of water
plants. Sometimes the female crawls down a stem and
under the surface to lay her eggs. The larve are active,
predaceous creatures, feeding on aquatic insects, young
fishes, and tadpoles, from the time of hatching until they
leave the water to transform. In the last stage, before
emerging from the water, they are known as “nymphs” ;
and this takes the place of the quiescent pupa, or chrysalis
stage, of other insects.

Damsel Flies. In habits and appearance damsel flies
resemble dragon flies, but they are smaller, and the wings,

258 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

instead of remaining spread out, are folded over the back
while at rest. They are the delicate, shimmering, scintil-
lating insects that we so often see flitting and darting
about the borders of ponds and streams. The larve are
aquatic, and the life story in general is like that of the
dragon flies. The French call them demozselles.

Caddis Flies. — ‘‘ Will you please tell us what these things
are? Teacher doesn’t know nor any one else in our
school. They are alive.” The speaker was one of a half-
dozen boys; he had a tin can in one hand and held out
some small objects in the other. ‘Those are caddis fly
worms,” I answered. ‘What do they eat?” was his next
question. I told him that they fed upon water plants,
and said that if they would keep them in an aquarium with
plenty of plants, they might see one pop out of the water
and change like a flash into a four-winged fly.t

More than 150 different kinds of caddis flies have
been described for North America. Most of them are
vegetable feeders and build cases of tough silk, with
all sorts of materials, — grains of sand, small stones, bits
of wood, pine needles, snail shells, etc., — woven into their
walls; so that their occupants are pretty well protected
from predaceous insects and even from fishes. Generally
the case is free, and the larva drags it about as it seeks its
food. In swiftly flowing streams, however, the cases are
often fastened to the rocks. In one family of caddis flies
the larve are carnivorous, and these construct funnel-
shaped silken nets attached to stones, the small end of the

1] learned that the boys had “fixed up” one of the chicken coops in
the neighborhood into what they called their “laboratory” and were spend-
ing their summer vacation “studying insects and all kinds of things.”

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 259

funnel tapering down to the opening of the case. Howard
speaks of finding 166 of these nets on a rock about
eighteen inches in diameter.

The larvz of dragon flies, damsel, and caddis flies may
best be collected in May or June by raking out the

Fic. 109. MALE CECROPIA AND Cocoon. LOWLAND Form

(2 natural size. From photograph by the author)

leaves and bunches of grass from the bottom of pools and
streams. They may then be kept in the school aquaria, and
the feeding and final transformations be easily observed.
An excursion to some pond in June, when the dragon and

260 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

damscl flies are emerging, — when we can let the nymphs
crawl up on our hands and see them transfigured in the
bright sunshine, — will give us glimpses of nature that
cannot be forgotten, and will make nature lovers of
us all.

Butterflies and Moths. — In advocating the possession of
insect nets by the children I have had in mind chiefly the
collection of injurious insects, not the extermination of our
butterflies. As with roadside flowers, our nature-study les-
sons with butterflies may
well be protective rather
than destructive. Even in
connection with the col-
lection of cocoons and
chrysalids, I prefer to
store them in a cold out-
building and bring them
into the schoolroom only
after furnace fires are ex-

Fic. 110. CECROPIA LARVA ASLEEP tinguished in the spring,

(Length 3 inches. Photograph from life) SO that they may emerge
in their normal season;

and then, after we have seen them emerge and, perhaps,
fed them a few times with honey, let them go, to keep the
world as full of butterflies as possible. Mrs. Brightwen !
in this way tamed the butterflies about her home so that
they would follow her about and alight upon her hands to
be fed. Is not this a better ideal, especially for young
children, than the collection of dead specimens? And,
furthermore, if we follow it, we shall be able to study

1 Wild Nature won by Kindness.

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 261

their lives, habits, and instincts in a way that the older
methods cannot approach. I shall never forget with what
a growing sense of wonder I first watched a parsnip but-
terfly as she laid her eggs. It was before I had read
Gibson’s description of butterflies as botanists. There
were long, straight rows of vegetables the length of the
garden, — one of carrots and, several rows removed, one
of parsnips. The plants had just put forth the third leaf,
and it was about all I could do to distinguish them from
the numerous weeds; but that little creature, for nearly
an hour, unerringly laid her eggs either on the carrots or
the parsnips. I have often thought that I never learned
so much from all the collections of insects, including my
own, as I did from that living butterfly. It was a reve-
lation to me.

Still there is much to be said on the other side. Col-
lections of butterflies are different from collections of
birds. A mounted butterfly may retain its natural beauty
to a greater degree. Butterflies are not intrinsically so
valuable as birds for the work they do in nature. Most
of them at best are but creatures of a few days, and we
may thus prolong their beauty by preserving them. On
the whole, if it is done with care, and if the specimens
are used as a means by which to stimulate study of the
life and work of the species rather than as an end in
themselves, I should encourage butterfly collections both
in the school cabinet and on the part of the children
who wish to make them. In doing the collecting, how-
ever, it is a good rule to examine all specimens before kill-
ing them and to let all the imperfect ones go. There are
so few perfect specimens that the species will suffer but

262 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

little, and the children will have the more exercise in
the fresh air.

Few species of butterflies do enough harm to require
attention on that account. The mourning cloak, Euvanessa
antiopa, occasionally does some damage to shade trees,
elms, willows, and poplars; and this is about the only
species that lays its eggs in clusters and the caterpillars
of which feed close together so that their depredations are
conspicuous. Of the entire group the cabbage butterflies,
— Pieris napi, protodice and, especially, vaf@,—are the
only serious pests. These are our commonest species,
unfortunately. The larvee are the slender green caterpil-
lars so numerous on cabbage, cauliflower, other Cruciferee,
and also on nasturtiums. Where any of these plants
occur we are sure to find, on any warm day between May
and October, one or more of these white butterflies laying
her eggs.t

Space does not permit more than the mention of the
names of some of our commonest and more conspicuous

1 The story of the accidental introduction and spread of what is now
the common cabbage butterfly (?. vaf@) is of interest as showing the
importance of such apparently trifling things. It was brought from Eng-
land to Quebec about 1860, probably in ship’s supplies or in imported
cabbages. In three years it had spread over an area about sixty miles in
diameter; by 1871 it covered eastern Canada and the New England states;
ten years later it was common over the eastern half of the continent from
Hudson Bay to Texas; and for some years now it has had possession of every
cabbage patch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In this rapid conquest of
the continent our native species of the same genus, which feed on the
same plants, have been almost exterminated in many regions where they
were once numerous. The writer has counted over five hundred ovules in
the ovaries of a newly emerged cabbage butterfly. There are three broods

a year in the North and more in the South; hence a new insect without
natural enemies practically owns the earth.

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL 263

species; and, while tables have certain disadvantages, it
is hoped that the following table will answer more of the
questions that arise as butterflies and their caterpillars
are brought into the schoolroom, than could be disposed
of in any other way. These tables are the more interest-
ing because they represent the work, ingenuity, and obser-
vation of a schoolboy aged fifteen, Master W. T. M. Forbes.
The species given have been collected, and in many cases
their larvz reared, by this enthusiastic young naturalist.

264

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

BUTTERFLIES
Name Proninent Cultre anil Wedtines||Troatee 1 2E
: ee” | in'inehes | MEDC
Giant Fnitillary, Argynnis | Orange brown, black checkered, 3-4 Cc.
cybele silver below
Aphrodite, Argyunis aphro- | Orange brown, black checkered, | 23-3 R.C
dite silver below
Little Silverspot, Brezthis | Orange brown, black checkered, | m.13,f1%} C.
myrina silver below
Marsh Fritillary, Bresthis be/- | Orange brown, no silver 1Z (oH
lona
Baltimore, Aelitea phaéton | Orange, black, and yellow, no rah io
silver
Harris’ Checkerspot, Je/i- | Orange brown, black mottled | 7.13, f12| R.C
tea harrisi
Pearl Crescent, P/yciodes | Orange brown, black mottled | m.14,f18| V.C
tharos
Silver Crescent, Phyciodes | Orange brown, black mottled Ip-2 Cc.
nycteis
Harvester, Feniseca targui- | Orange brown, black borderand 1} R. R.
nius spots
Ismeria, Phyciodes ismeria Orange brown, black mottled | m.14,f:12] V.R.
Semicolon, Grapta interroga- | Orange brown, black dotted, 2k Ba,
tionis wings angled
Green Comma, Grafta comma | Orange brown, black dotted, 2 R.C
wings angled
Gray Comma, Grafta progne | Orange brown, black dotted, 2 R.C
wings angled
Brown Comma, Grafta fau-| Orange brown, black dotted, 2 R.
nus wings angled
Large Tortoise-Shell Butter- | Orange brown, black dotted, 23 R.
fly, Vanessa j-album wings angled
Small Tortoise-Shell Butter-| Black, orange band, wings 1? R.
fly, Vanessa milberti angled
Milkweed Butterfly, Azosta | Orange brown, black veined 4-43 v.C
plexippus
False Milkweed Butterfly, | Orange brown, black veined 2h Cc.
Basilarchia disippus
Common Copper, Chrysopha- | Orange, hind wing black I v.c
nus hypophleas
Large Copper, Chrysophanus | Orange brown, hind wing black 13 V.R.

thoé

(m. washed out)

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL

BUTTERFLIES

265

Food of Caterpillar

Broods per Season

Haunts

Number Month

Violets, pansy I July, Aug. Meadows, on fireweed

Violets, pansy I (or 2) July (and Sept.) Meadows, on fireweed

Violets, pansy 3 June, Aug., Sept. | Meadows and hillsides

Violets, pansy 3 June, Aug., Sept. Meadows and hillsides

Turtlehead (while young), I June, July Swampy places

Aster (when older)
Aster (only Diplopappus I June Roadsides, on clover
umbellatus)

Aster and daisy 2 July, Sept. Roadsides

Aster I July Roadsides

Plant lice, mealy bugs} 3 June, July, Sept. Edge of water

Elm, hop, nettle 2 July, Aug., May Roads near trees

Elm, hop, nettle 2 May, June, Aug. Roads near trees and
waste land

Elm, currants 2 July, Sept., May Roads near trees and
gardens

Willow Ir All summer Roads near trees and
gardens

Willow 2 Feb.—Oct. Edge of water

Nettle 3 May, June, Aug., Sept.| Roadsides

Milkweed, dogbane 2 or more May-Oct. Everywhere

Willow, poplar 2 June, Aug. Roadsides

Sorrel, dock, oxalis 3 May, June, Sept. Everywhere

Sorrel 2 July, Aug. Moist land

266

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

N Prominent Colors and Marki pepanee: | Ete
ame rominent Colors and Markings pa epi anse | quency
Dark Fritillary, Argynis | Orange brown, hind wing black, 29-4 c..
idalia silver spots
Thistle Butterfly, Pyrameis | Pink or red, black and white 2-2} G
cardui mottled
Painted Beauty, Pyrameis| Pink or red, black and white 2 Cc.
huntera mottled
Snout Butterfly, Lzdythea | Black, orange and white banded Ve Re
bachmanni and dotted
Variegated Fritillary, &zwg- | Orange brown, black checkered, 1f-2¢ V.R.
toieta claudia no silver
Orange Sulphur, Colias eury- | Yellow orange, or white, black 2 VR
theme border
Little Orange Sulphur, Tervias | Yellow, orange, or white, black i}-2 ve
nicippe border
Common Sulphur, Colias phi- | Yellow or white, black border 1j-2} v.c
lodice
Little Sulphur, Terias lisa Yellow or white, black border if-15 R.
Cloudless Sulphur, Catopsilia | Yellow or white, no black border 23 R.
eubule
Tiger Swallowtail, Papilio | Yellow, black bands 3-5 kh. €
turnus
Mustard White, Pieris xap~i | White, or white with black dots 2 R.R.
Cabbage Butterfly, Pieris rape | White with black dots 2 Woe
Checkered Cabbage Butterfly, | White with black dots (/ gray 2 R.
Pieris protodice brown checkered)
Orange Tip, Euchloé genutia | White with black dots (mm. or- 13 We.
ange tipped)
Light Blue, Lycena pseudar- | Light violet (/ dark bordered) I Cc.
giolus
Tailed Blue, Lycena comyn- | Purple (f. often brown) I oe
tas
Brown Emperor, Chloriffe | Dark brown (/. with eye-spots) | 7. 2,425 | V.R.
clyton
Pearly Eye, Dedis portlandia | Dark brown, 20 eye-spots 1j-2 R.R
Many-eyed Satyr, Satyrodes | Dark brown, 20 eye-spots (semi- pera R.C
canthus transparent)
Common Wood-nymph, Weo- | Dark brown, 6 eye-spots ha R.C
nympha eurytus
Blue-Eyed Satyr, Satyrus | Dark brown, some eye-spots in a Cc.
alope a yellow-spot
Dull-Eyed Satyr, S. a. nephele | Dark brown, 6 eye-spots i? R.

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL

267

Broods per Season

Food of Caterpillar Haunts
Number Month
Violets, pansy, and aster I July, Aug. Low land
Thistle, other Compositz 2 Aug., Sept., May High pastures
Thistle, burdock, everlast- 2 July, Sept., May High pastures, on
ing thistles
Hackberry
(Not native) Passion flower 3 August Low fields
Clover 3 May, July, Sept., Open fields
April 2d
Pea family 2 (?) June, Aug., March | Open fields
Clover and pea family 3 May, June, Sept. About cultivated fields,
everywhere
Clover, cassia 2 July, Aug., April
Pea family, cassia 2 August
Tulip tree, wild cherry, etc. 2 June, Aug. Open woods
Mustard, etc. (rarely cab- 3 May, July, Aug. Waste land
bage)
Cabbage, mustard, etc. 3 May, July, Aug. Gardens
Mustard family 3 May, July, Sept. Gardens
Mustard family (eats flow- I May Open woods
ers and seed pods)
Pea family, and almost 2 May, July Roadsides
everything
Pea family 3 May, Aug., Sept. Roadsides
Hackberry, elm, etc. I June, July
Grasses I July Open woods
Grasses I July Meadows, in grass, or
open woods
Grasses I June Hillsides
Grasses I July Hillsides
Grasses I August Hillsides

268 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
N. Prominent Colors and Marki Expanme | EYe-
ame rominent Colors an arkings nee quency
Red Admiral, Pyrameis ata- | Dark brown, oval orange band 2 cy
lanta
Mourning Cloak or Yellow- | Dark brown, yellow edge 3 c.
Edge, Vanessa antiopa
Blue Emperor, Basilarchia | Blackish, blue shadings 3 R.C
astyanax
White Admiral, Basilarchia | Blackish, a white band 24 V.R
arthemis
Black Swallowtail, Pagz/io | Blackish, blue shading and yel- | m. 3, f. 4 Cc.
asterias low dots
Blue Swallowtail, Pafi/io| Blackish, blue shading and 38-42 R.C
troilus greenish dots (7. blue green)
Green Swallowtail, PaZilio | Blackish and iridescent blue 3-44 V.R.
philenor green
Giant Swallowtail, Pafilio | Blackish, yellow dots 455 V.R.
cresphontes
Peacock, Junonia cenia Blackish, three large peacock 2-2} Loe
eyes
Hop Hairstreak, Thecla meli- | Blackish, gray below ik R.C
nus
Banded Hairstreak, Thecla | Blackish, light brown below ik R.R
calanus
Acadian Hairstreak, Thecla | Blackish, light brown below oa R.R.
acadica
Edward’s Hairstreak, Thecla | Blackish, light brown below it R.C
edwardsi
Striped Hairstreak, Zecla | Blackish, light brown below 13 R.R.
liparops
Olive Hairstreak, Thecla | Blackish, orange brown, green- #1 RR
damon ish below
Brown Elfin, Thecla augustus | Blackish, brown below g R.
Hoary Elfin, Thecla iras Blackish, brown below 1k R.
Henry’s Hairstreak, Zhec/a | Blackish and red brown, brown I V.R.
henrict below
Banded Elfin, Thecla niphon | Dark reddish brown, brown pe R.R
mottled below
Early Hairstreak, Theclaleta | Blackish, light gray below Pd V.R.
Coral Hairstreak, Theclatitus | Blackish, blackish and red band 1} RR.
below
Least Copper, Chrysophanus | Blackish, darker dots (. pur- Fu R.R.

epixanthe

plish)

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL

269

Broods per Season

Food of Caterpillar Haunts
Number Month
Nettle, elm 2 July, Sept., May Waste land
Willow, poplar, elm 2 July, Sept., April | Edge of water
Wild cherry, etc. Ior2 July (Sept.) Roads near trees
Wild cherry, hawthorn, etc. | 1 (or 2) July (Sept.) Open woods
Parsley family 2 June, Aug. Fields and gardens
Sassafras, spicebush 2 June, Sept. Open woods and brush
Dutchman’s pipe 2 - July, Sept., May Near houses
(Orange tree) rue family 2 June, Aug. Meadows
Plantain 2 Open fields
Hop vine, bean pods, etc. 2 May, July About shrubbery
Oak I July, Aug. About shrubbery
Willow I July, Aug. Edge of water
Oak I July, Aug. About shrubbery
Oak, willow, apple family, zt July About shrubbery
etc.
Cedar Tor2 May, June, Aug. Near cedars
Unknown (perhaps like I May Rough land
next)
Bores in young plums I May Roadsides and bushes
Bores in young plums
Pine I May Roads near pine trees
Unknown
Wild cherry, etc. I Last of July Open places near
brush

Unknown (probably sorrel) I July Meadows

270 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
N. Prominent Colors and Marki vias Ere:
ame Tomi: ‘colors and Markings ge me > | quency

Silver-spotted Skipper, ZAar- | Brown, silver spot below 1-2 c
gyreus tityrus

Northern Dusky-Wing, Thory-| Blackish, few faint light spots 18 Cy
bes pylades

Hoary-Edge, Achalarus lyci- | Blackish, orange spot 13 R.
dus

Checkered Skipper, Hesperia | Blackish, white dots os V.R,
centauree

Sooty-Wing, Pholisora catul-| Black I R.R.
lus

Sleepy Dusky-Wing, Tanaos | Gray, mottled 1k RC
bgizo

Dreamy Dusky-Wing, 7/a-| Gray, mottled 1-1} ae
naos icelus

Lucilius’ Dusky-Wing, Zha-| Gray, mottled, white dots 4 R.R.
naos lucilius

Persius’ Dusky-Wing, Zha-| Gray, mottled, white dots 1} RC
naos persius

Martial’s Dusky-Wing, 7/a- | Gray, mottled, white dots 1} R. R.
naos martialis

Juvenal’s Dusky-Wing, 7/a- | Gray, mottled, white dots 18, 18 R.
naos juvenalis

Horace’s Dusky-Wing, Z/a- | Gray, mottled, white dots 13 R.
naos horatius

Roadside Skipper, Amdlys- | Blackish, white dots I R. C
crites vialis

Pepper and Salt Skipper, | Blackish, white dots I R.
Amblyscrites samoset

Bordered Skipper, Azcyloxy- | Orange brown, black border fu Cc.
pha numitor

Indian Skipper, Zrynzis sas-| Light orange brown, black 1} R.C
sacus border and marks

CobwebSkipper,Erynnismetea| Gray brown, white bands 1} R.

Leonard’s Skipper, Zrynis | m. black and orange, f. black, | m.}, £14 | R.R
leonardus yellow band

Attalus’ Skipper, Zyvynnis | Gray brown, yellow dots m.13,f.18| V.R.
attalus

Whirlabout, Thymelicus bret-| m. orange, black dots, f. black- | m.13,f.1}] V.R.
tus ish, yellow dots

Volcanic Skipper, Tymelicus | Blackish, white dots m.1,f-tt| R.
@ina

Long-Dash, Thymelicusmystic| Blackish, yellowish blotches m.1k,f-th) R.

INSECTS BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL

271

Broods per Season

Food of Caterpillar Zanes Wonth Haunts
Locust tree, wistaria, etc. 1 July Bushy pastures
Locust tree, clover, etc. 2 June, Aug. Dry fields
Tick trefoil
Unknown, probably mal-

lows
Pigweed (lamb’s-quarters) 2 May, Aug. Fields and gardens
Oak, milkwort, etc. I June Meadows
Oak, poplar I June Damp woods
Columbine I, 2, OF 3 May (July, Aug.) Rough country
Willows I (or 2) May (July) Shady roadsides
Pigweed (lamb’s-quarters) | 1 or 2
Oaks and pea family I or 2 May (July—Aug.) Open oak woods
Pea family
Grass
Grass (?)
Grass 3 June, Aug., Sept. Meadows
Grass I June Meadows
Unknown (probably grass)
Grass T Sept. Meadows
Unknown (probably grass)
Grass
Grass, etc.
Grass 2 June, Aug. Meadows

272 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE
N. Prominent Colors and Marki Evpanse | Ete
ame ‘ominent Colors and Markings Fags Ans ° | quency
Peck’s Skipper, Polites peckius | Blackish, rows of orange dots |m..1, f.1$] C.
Tawny-Eyed Skipper, Lmo- | Blackish, orange dots (mw. orange |. 1, f. 1f| C.
chores taumas blotch)
Cross-Line Skipper, Zémo- | Blackish, white dots it RR,
chores manataaqua
Pontiac Skipper, Limochores | Blackish, light brownish orange | 7.13, f1}| R.
pontiac mottlings
Little Glass-Wing, Zufhyes | Blackish, white bars m. 14, f.12| RR.
verna
Dun Skipper, Euphyes meta- | Blackish m. 14, f-1y| R.
comet
Mulberry-Wing, Poazes mas- | Blackish (orange dots in /) ie Bi
Sasoit
Hobomok Skipper, Azrytone | Light brownish orange, black |.14,f.1k| C.
zabulon border and marks
Delaware Skipper, Azrytone | Light brownish orange, black] 1}-14 R.R.
delaware border and marks
Accius’ Skipper, Lerema ac- | Deep brown ar Ved
cius
Dusted Skipper, Lerema hi- | Olive brown m.th, f.1t| R.
anna
MOTHS
Regal Moth, Citheroniaregalis| Olive, spotted with yellow, 4-7 VLR,
veins red
Imperial Moth, Zacles im-| Yellow, spotted and banded 4-53 R.R
perialis with purplish brown
Io Moth, Ayferchiria io m. yellow, 7. purplish red m. 2h, f.3k| R.C.
Promethea, Callosamia pro-| f. reddish brown, light wavy 33-44 Cc.
methea bands, #. darker, markings
indistinct
Polyphemus, American Silk- | Yellowish brown, dusky band, 5-6 RC
worm, Telea polyphemus four transparent eye-spots
with pink outer margin
Cecropia, Emperor Moth,| Red brown, wavy dull red 5-7 RG
Platysamia cecropia bands
Luna Moth, Actias luna Light green, tailed, front border 4-54 R.

purple brown

Key: R., Rare

m., male

C., Common

J, female

R. C., Rather Common

INSECTS

BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL

273

P Broods per Season
Food of Caterpillar Haunts
Number Month
Grass 2 June, Aug. Meadows
Grass 2 June, Aug. Meadows
Grass
Unknown (probably grass)
Grass
Unknown (probably grass) te July Meadows
Unknown (probably grass)
Grass I May, June Meadows
Grass r (?) July Meadows
Grass
Unknown (probably grass)
MOTHS
Hickory, walnut, pine I June Borders of woods
Maple, buttonwood, pine I June Borders of woods
Clover, corn, hops, cotton, I June Fields and roadsides
elm, cherry, and other
trees, spines venomous
Wild cherry, tulip, ash, I June, July Open woods
and other trees
Oak, elm, hickory, bass- I June, July Open woods
wood, maple, and other
trees
Apple, cherry, plum, and I June, July Open woods
many other trees
Walnut, hickory, birch I June Borders of woods

R. R., Rather Rare

V.R., Very Rare

V.C., Very Common

1 The only native carnivorous butterfly-caterpillar.

CHAPTER XVI
INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS

Tue Common Toap: 1Ts LirFE Story and Work;
THE BioLocicaL TYPE

Life runs its rounds of living, climbing up

From moat, and gnat, and worm, reptile, and fish,

Bird and shagged beast, man, demon, deva, God,

To clod and moat again; so are we kin

To all that is; and thus, if one might save

Man from his curse, the whole wide world should share
The lightened horror of this ignorance

Whose shadow is chill fear, and cruelty

Its bitter pastime.

Sir Epwin ARNOLD, Light of Asia.

Ir the children are interested in their gardens, vines,
and fruit trees, and if they have begun to study intelli-
gently the insects about their homes, they will be ready
to commence with zest the work with our insectivorous
animals.

Possibly some child in the class has a pet toad. If so,
have it brought to school and make it at home in an
aquarium or glass box of some sort with about two inches
of moist earth in the bottom. It will probably bury itself
with only its back and eyes above the surface. Then
ask the children to bring in all sorts of insects — flies,
caterpillars, hornets, wasps, rose beetles, spiders, ants,
moths, roaches, squash bugs, anything they can find —

274

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 275

especially such as may be destructive and annoying in
the neighborhood. During the nature-study hour turn
these in with the toad and let the class gather around and
count the number it requires for a dinner. They will be
able to observe the manner in which the toad catches
an insect, —a flash of pink, almost too quick for the eye
to follow, and the insect is gone. From the numbers

Fic. 111. A PAIR OF TOADS

Female and male. (Photograph by the author)

obtained, they may be led to reason what a power for
good one such little animal may exert in their gardens.
They will also notice that a toad never snaps at anything
until it moves, so that all its food must consist of moving
living things.?

For the next lesson the children may be asked to study
the toads about their own homes. First, how many have

1 For suitable vivaria or aquaria, see Chapter XXIII. If insects are
not obtainable, bits of fresh meat may be dangled on the end of a thread,
dragged slowly in front of the toad, etc., thus demonstrating its manner of
feeding almost equally well.

276 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

they? This question may be answered by searching over
the lot about sundown or after a shower. Do they have
enough to keep the ground free from insects? How
large are their toads?
Let us see who can bring
in the biggest toad, and
the smallest. What kinds
of places do toads select
to spend the day in?
This is an important
point. It will be found
that they choose moist,
shady places, under

stones, leaves, or, more

fie tos Teer CRRE often, under boards. Are

there enough such shel-
ters well distributed about their gardens?

Before I knew what to do to save my garden from the slugs,
I have stood at evening rejoicing over rows of fresh emerald leaves
just springing in rich lines along the beds, and woke in the morning
to find the whole space stripped of, EE ——
any sign of green, as blank as a aie

board over which a carpenter’s plane
has passed.

In the thickest of my fight with
the slugs some one said to me,
“ Ievery living thing has its enemy;

the enemy of the slug is the toad.

Why don’t you import toads ?”
I snatched at the hope held

a 3 Fic. 113. JusT AFTER
out to me, and immediately wrote a4

to a friend on the continent, “In the name of the Prophet, Toads!”
At once a force of only too willing boys was set about the work

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 277

of catching every toad within reach, and one day in June a boat
brought a box to me from the far-off express office. A piece of wire
netting was nailed across the top, and upon the earth with which
it was half filled, reposing upon some dry and dusty green leaves,
sat three dry and dusty toads, wearily gazing at nothing. Is this
all, I thought, only three! Hardly worth sending so far. Poor
creatures! they looked so arid and wilted, I took up the hose and
turned upon them a gentle shower of fresh cool water, flooding the
box. I was not prepared for the result! The dry, baked earth
heaved tumultuously : up came dusky heads and shoulders and bright
eyes by the dozen. A sudden concert of liquid sweet notes was
poured out on the air from the whole rejoicing company. It was
really beautiful to hear that musical ripple of delight. I surveyed
them with eager interest as they sat singing and blinking together.
«“ You are not handsome,” I said, as I took a hammer and wrenched
off the wire cover that shut them in, “but you will be lovely in my
sight if you will help me to destroy mine enemy ”’; and with that I
turned the box on its side and out they skipped into a perfect para-
dise of food and shade. All summer I came upon them in different
parts of the garden, waxing fatter and fatter till they were as round
as apples. In the autumn baby toads no larger than my thumb nail
were found hopping merrily over the whole island. There were
sixty in that first importation; next summer I received ninety more.
CELIA THAXTER, Ax Island Garden, pp.9, 10. (See also Letters
of Celia Thaxter, p. 179.)

We may next take up the life story. Who can bring
in the first eggs? Where shall we look for toads’ eggs ?
At what season are they laid? Who ever heard of toads’
eggs, anyway? What do they look like? What child in
the class can tell us?

This part of the subject should be taken up in the
spring, about the time the frost comes out of the ground.
On some of the first warm evenings after this, a rustling
of dry leaves and grass may be heard in every direction,

278 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

where toads are plenty. It will often be mingled with
low musical trills of the male toad. This is the signal by
which you may know that all the adult toads are migrat-
ing to the nearest pond to lay their eggs. That same
night, or as you awake in the morning, you will hear
the country ringing with the music Gibson has so well
described as the “sweetest sound in nature.” As spring
draws slowly on, my ears grow impatient to hear it, and
as the years go by I enjoy it more and more. True,

Fic. 114. Lire Story

Showing egg, tadpole, young toad just emerged from water, one year old, and
adult. (4, c, d, ce, photographs by the author)

some may think it monotonous. It may come but once
a year, and then only for a few days, and to me it is one
of the cheeriest wedding bells of the season.

But the early musicians are now forgotten. A new singer has
come upon the scene, and his mellow nocturne in the twilight marshes
brings a message unknown to his predecessors. This is no shrill
peep that stirs your blood and sets your ears a-tingle, no bubbling
rattle or vibrant croak that cries ‘“‘qui vive” to your eager senses,
but a drowsy drool that brings your feet to loitering in the deepening
dusk, and whose distant music from the swampy lowlands lulls you

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 279

on your pillow. It is to me the sweetest sound in nature, the faithful
chosen voice of the twilight, one of the most characteristic attributes
of late spring, and yet, like the sprightly welcome of the hylodes
which ushers in the vernal season, it still remains unsung by our

poets, or if occasionally acknowledged the true singer never gets the
credit.

Who will immortalize in verse the pensive witchery, ‘most
musical, most melancholy,” of this tremorous song of the toad, for
it is in truth the uncouth and ill-favored toad that now swells his
bagpipe in the marshes and fills the night with music? It is one of
the beneficences of nature that the twilight glamour throws a veil of
obscurity over the performer while it emphasizes and consecrates its
music. HAMILTON GIBSON, Sharp Eyes, p. 54.

If we go down to the pond next morning, we may see
them by scores, hundreds, possibly thousands, paddling
about in the water, the males, many of them, trilling at
the top of their voices. Many, possibly, are still arriving,
hopping along, all toward the pond. The males do all
the piping, and it will be noticed that the throat is
swelled into a bagpipe while the sound is emitted. Males
and females are otherwise distinguished by the larger
size of the female, the body being also greatly distended
with eggs.!

The mass of eggs laid by a toad is remarkable. It
may be demonstrated by placing a pair, before they begin
to lay, in an aquarium or bucket half full of water. If
the water and receptacle are clean, z.e., if there is no sand
or plants to become mixed with the eggs, a clear, bright
mass of eggs may be obtained. A stone should be placed

1 Children, when they begin studying toads in the spring, often think
that the male is “eating” or “sucking the blood” of the female. They
should be told that he is helping the female lay her eggs.

280 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

in the water, rising to the surface, for the toads to rest
on. Some boy or girl may volunteer to secure the entire
laying of a pair of toads to show the school, and it might
be interesting to count or estimate the number. Toad
spawn is distinguished from that of frogs and salaman-
ders by the fact that it is laid in strings or “ropes,” the
eggs lying in single rows inclosed in a transparent jelly.
They are about the size of a small pin head at first, black
above and light below;
as they float they look
like strings of black
beads. It may stagger
the class to believe that
a toad can lay a mass of
eggs eight or ten times
as large as its whole
body, —as thougha hen
were to lay an egg the

Fig. 115. EGGs Laip By A TOAD size of a bushel basket.

The glass dish is nine inches in diameter. This m ystery is ex-
Number of eggs, 9500 (estimated) plained by the swelling

of the jelly on contact with the water. But the number
of eggs is almost incredible. Layings of four toads con-
tained, respectively, 7587 and 11,545 (counted), and 8000
and 9500 (estimated). This number is laid in a few hours,
generally at night ; and then, quitting the water, the parents
probably return to the same gardens whence they came.
Beginning with the egg, the most interesting part of the
toad’s life story may be read in its reality by occasional
observations in the ponds and by taking a few eggs home
or to the schoolroom to watch their development from

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 281

day to day. No aquatic egg is better adapted for such
use. It is large enough to be seen with the unaided eye,

Fic. 116. AQUARIUM
Arranged to collect eggs of a toad

develops under all sorts of conditions, and the progress
is so rapid that interest is sustained to the end. First
the egg elongates, then the tiny flat tadpoles hatch and,

282 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

feeding first on the gelatinous matter of their envelope,
they soon begin to eat the slimes in the aquarium and
grow with great rapidity; hind legs appear, fore legs
come, the tail is absorbed, and the little toads emerge from
the water, — all within little more than a month from the
time the eggs are laid.

To do this in the schoolroom, have some of the chil-
dren arrange two or three aquaria (glass, earthenware,
wood, or iron may be used, but tin, lead, zinc, galvanized
iron, copper, and other metals should be avoided, since
they may poison the water and kill the tadpoles) as nearly
as possible like the pond from which the eggs are taken.
Have the water not more than two to four inches deep in
the deepest part, and let the bottom slope up gradually
to the surface at one end. This will enable the tadpoles
to find any depth of water they wish and afford a place
for them to come out gradually into the air at the proper
time. In fact, the bottom of the aquarium may be made
of ‘sand, gravel, and moss-covered stones from a fairly
clean pond. It is necessary also to have plenty of green
algze and water plants, duck’s-meat, stonewort, bladder-
wort, milfoil, water cress, or the like, to oxygenate the
water properly, furnish food, and take up the excretions of
the growing tadpoles. If the aquarium is large enough,
a water hyacinth is an excellent plant to have growing
in it for this latter purpose. If the tadpoles do not keep
the water perfectly clear, a fresh-water mussel or two
will accomplish this. Give them a window with sunlight
a good part of the day; as they grow, let the children
carry any surplus back to the pond, and avoid over-
crowding by allowing about an inch of water surface to

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 283

a tadpole. If they tend to eat the aquarium bare, add
fresh supplies of slime and plants from the pond and, in
a word, keep them healthy, vigorous, and growing.

Encourage as many children as possible to provide little
pools in their gardens, stock them well with water lilies,
pickerel weed, cat-tails, iris, and other of our interesting
aquatic plants, and put in as many toads’ eggs or tadpoles
as the pool will support. For this purpose a water-tight
box or tub may be set in the ground, or a more natural
pool may be made by arranging large flat stones around a
hole in the ground and plastering up the cracks between
them with water-lime cement. The top of any such recep-
tacle should be two or three inches below the surface, and
the earth well packed around the edges to prevent rains
from splashing out its occupants. If natural food be not
abundant, its place may be supplied by bits of dog biscuit,
fresh meat, fish, or even bread, but care should be taken
to put in no more than is eaten clean or to remove
uneaten pieces before they foul the water. In this way,
without appreciable expense, any child can raise toads by
thousands, until many of our most injurious insect pests
become curiosities. The danger of ever getting too many
toads we will discuss in a moment.

Emphasize throughout these lessons the work the tad-
poles are doing in the water. They are known as the
“best scavengers” of aquaria, and it is difficult to keep an
aquarium clean without them. Their little horny jaws
are continually scraping the slimy growths from every-
thing in the water. Their food at this time is commonly
stated to be vegetable, but if one examines these slimes
with a microscope, he will always find a considerable

284 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

proportion of animal life as well. Toad tadpoles are espe-
cially good for this work and will generally keep the water
in the aquarium as clear as crystal. An instructive experi-
ment may be arranged by setting up two small aquaria just
alike. Put in plants and everything else, but leave all
the tadpoles out of one and observe differences in cleanli-
ness of the water. Unite with this study observations as
to feeding habits of tadpoles in the ponds. They may be
seen swarming around dead fishes, frogs, or other matter
that would otherwise pollute the water. Apply the
knowledge gained to the problem of keeping the ponds
and park waters in the neighborhood clear and sweet.1

Natural enemies of the toad form the next series of
topics for study. Why is it that, laying from five to ten
thousand eggs a year, toads do not become more numer-
ous? No one knows the natural length of a toad’s life.
It is claimed that one lived for thirty-six years in a garden
in England and was then killed by a tame raven. They
probably mature and begin to lay eggs when about four
years old. Suppose the females continue laying for ten
years, the fact that the species does not increase in num-
bers means that of the possible 100,000 eggs only two
survive to take the place of their parents. How are all
the rest killed off?

Practically every egg in a laying hatches, and I have
not discovered that any fishes, newts, tadpoles, or aquatic
insects eat the eggs. But the tadpoles from the time

1 As filth is washed into the ponds by the freshets of early spring, no
small service may be rendered in cleaning surface waters at this season. I
have seen pools even among city dumpage perfectly clean while the tad-
poles were in them during the spring.

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 285

they hatch until they leave the water are preyed upon by
water beetles, dragon-fly larvee, newts, and possibly fishes.
The entire hatching of a pond may be thus destroyed.
Probably ducks feed upon both eggs and tadpoles in great
numbers. On leaving the water the little toads are at
the mercy of ducks, hens, and many insectivorous birds.
Crows and snakes, and many species of hawks and owls
feed upon the adults. In addition to those destroyed by
natural enemies many are killed by wheels of vehicles
and lawn mowers, and many more are trodden under foot
and burned in rubbish.

The toad is known to possess something of a “homing
instinct’; so that if they are collected and put into a
garden, they immediately leave it, unless confined, in their
attempt to find their familiar haunts. It is also said that
the adults generally return to the pond in which they were
hatched, to lay their eggs. Both of these considerations,
coupled with the fact that it is difficult or impossible to
protect them from natural enemies in the ponds at large,
emphasize the advisability of each garden or farm raising
its supply in the easy manner suggested above. It is
work that any child can do and be the better and wiser
for doing, aside from any more material benefits that may
accrue, and these are likely to be by no means small.

The criticism naturally arises that such artificial cul-
ture might result in a plague of toads. This is scarcely

1In looking over burned brush lands-and weedy vacant lots, where the
leaves and rubbish have been burned in the spring, the writer has so often
found the charred bodies of toads that general attention should be called
to this matter. If this be done, common sense as well as humanity will

dictate that such burning should be done, when possible, either after the
ground freezes in the fall or before the frost comes out in the spring.

286 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

possible, for a number of reasons. First, the retiring and
wholly inoffensive nature of the animal could not consti-
tute it any such plague as we already have in many species
of insects that it destroys. As it is nocturnal, even its
proverbial ugliness is not conspicuous. Its powers of
locomotion are so limited that it could be easily caught
and destroyed, if that should ever become necessary,
Finally, its natural food supply, consisting wholly of
insects, worms, slugs, and the like, would inevitably set
a natural limit to its increase.1

We have before us an example of the plasticity of one of
nature’s mechanisms. A toad can live a year, or even
two, in apparent comfort, without any food whatever, but
no eggs will be produced. If food be abundant, it will eat
voraciously and produce eggs in great numbers, possibly
twice a year.2, Every such plastic living mechanism is a
bow bent back, and wherever its force is beneficent we
should be careful to keep it bent so that its spring will be
able to do the greatest good possible at any opportune
moment.

“ However useful they may be,” one teacher remarked,
“a toad is such an ugly, disgusting creature we never can
use it in school.” This is tradition, against which it is

,

1 Destruction of honeybees is about the only damage toads could do,
should they become too numerous. But as bees are not nocturnal and
are not much on the ground, this danger is imaginary.

2 Tn’some seasons toads are found in considerable numbers laying eggs
in July. These may be belated individuals, but I am inclined to think
that they are laying a second time. Celia Thaxter’s experience supports
this view, for her toads, brought to the Shoals in June, filled the island
with little toads the same summer. They must have laid once before their
importation.

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 287

well worth while to contend.! Children are rarely, if ever,
troubled by such notions, unless they have been implanted
by their elders; and while no compulsion is called for,
their objections are often easily overcome. The toad is
not a handsome animal, yet its eye, the fabled “jewel”
in its head, is one of the most beautiful in nature.
Ask the children why they think the toad was made so
ugly, all but the eye. There are important lessons in the
answer to this question. Keen-eyed birds of prey and
snakes are continually seeking it for food. With no
means of defense or escape from these swift pursuers, its
only hope of life lies in being as inconspicuous as possible.
This story is thousands of years old, and all this time the
more brightly colored toads have been snapped up first
and those that most resembled clods of earth have escaped.
On the other hand, insects must come close enough for
the toad to capture. They must practically walk into
its mouth, and thus it depends for its food upon looking
like the harmless earth over which they crawl. These
are lessons applicable to every living thing we study, and
when their significance is appreciated, they may do much
toward reconciling the fastidious to the homeliness of the
toad. Its life and its work in the world depend upon it.

1 Farewell, farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest, —
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
COLERIDGE, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

288 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

If roughly handled, a whitish liquid, which is somewhat poisonous,
is secreted from the skin of a toad, especially from the large glands
near the head. It will cause some swelling of a dog’s mouth, and
care should be
taken not to allow
it to get into the
eyes when hand-
ling toads. The
natural precau-
tions, gentle hand-
ling and washing
the hands after-
wards, are all-suff-
cient safeguards
against any ven-
omous properties,
and these also
apply to the hand-
ling of many other
animals!; but
everything — advo-
cated in this chap-
ter can be done
without so much

as touching a toad.

We may catch it

Fic. 117. PROTECTIVE COLORATION

in a large leaf, a
piece of paper or cloth or in a tumbler or jelly glass. The neatest
way to demonstrate a toad to a class is to have it in a clean tumbler
with a piece of gauze securely tied over the top. It may then be

1A. HH. Kirkland, “ The Habits, Food,and Economic Value of the Ameri-
can Toad” (Bulletin g6, Watch Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass.), gives
the fullest account extant of the toad from this standpoint. By his method,
killing the animals and opening the stomach, he identified eighty-three dif-
ferent species of insects, most of them injurious, as entering into its dietary.
By the method advocated above, however, z.e., by making feeding tests in
a vivarium with insects collected for the purpose, any school could add

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 289

passed around and examined without danger of offending the most
fastidious. The idea that warts are caused by handling toads is
ancient myth without foundation in fact.

The Biological Type. — Types of animal forms and struc-
tures have long been used in college courses in biology
and belong properly to this grade of advanced instruction.
The many attempts to introduce these same “types” into
more and more elementary work have seemed to me pre-
mature and ill advised. Before such studies are undertaken
the children need a foundation of living interests in the
animal life about them, and I have advanced this study
as a new kind of tyfe, adapted to elementary education.
I have called it the biological type. In less technical
words it may be called the life type, or life-story type,
for the study of an animal species. We have come of
late to appreciate the necessity of studying animals and
plants with children “as wholes,” but this too often has
been interpreted to include little more than their forms
and structures, which to children are dead and without
interest. By this life type I mean the activities, the work
of a species in its wholeness, —the active relations of the
animal to the life about it and especially to man. This is
the side of fundamental, large, and universal interests in
the life about us.
hundreds of species to this list, if they knew the species. Still this, of
course, would not show what might be termed the natural feeding habits
of the toad. But the toad’s stomach is a straight sac extending from the
mouth, where it is very wide, back almost to the end of the body. It is
easily everted, and by gently inserting a wire loop (a hairpin does very
well) the whole stomach contents may be drawn out without the least injury
to the animal. I do not, however, give this as a method to be used, but

merely as a suggestion, by which the animal’s life may be saved when it is
desired to make such examinations.

290 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

There can be no reasonable doubt that this aspect of
movement and activity is the natural side of approach for
the child. It is akin to that animism of childhood which
projects life and action even into inanimate things. It is
this side of living nature which, from intrinsic fascinations
and varied affinities with the passion for activity of child
life itself, is best adapted to create enduring interests and
love of nature. It is, moreover, with this side of nature
that a child’s activities come into frequent clash, which
results in all sorts of apparently brutal harms to nature.
With but a minimum of proper instruction which may
bring the child into sympathy with the life around it, and
especially show its values and relations to human life and
interests, all such activity may be easily guided into benefi-
cent channels. Instead of being repressed, as is now so
much the case, this activity may be greatly developed and
encouraged ; and then child life will flow happily along with
the life of nature.

But why choose such an animal to illustrate the bio-
logicaltype? There are many reasons, which I may briefly
state, in relation to the fundamental values of nature study
discussed in a former chapter.

First, on the esthetic side, to find any beauty in a form
proverbially the ugliest in nature carries the whole battle, —
sweeps the field of ancient prejudice and unfaith in nature.
To discover here the brightest jewel and the ‘sweetest
sound in nature’’ awakens a child’s faith and impels him
to seek and find beauty in everything about him.

I pick up a toad a hundred times a season just to enjoy looking at

its eye, —a living, sparkling, ever-changing jewel,— and his music
in the springtime brings a pleasure that nothing else affords.

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 291

On the side of public economy, the toad is one of the
most important animals we have. Toads are practically
at every child’s door; it need cost nothing for specimens,
and their commonness makes it possible for children to
observe and study them at odd times about their homes.
Further than this, the school children might save in the
course of their outdoor laboratory work and play from
$100,000,000 to $200,000,000, — nearly half the expense
of their entire public school education, — by learning and
utilizing this one species as a beneficent force in nature!;
and the effect will first be felt in their own gardens.

As an introduction to zodlogy no animal has a develop-
ment better adapted for study. The eggs are abundant,
come at a convenient season, and pass so rapidly through
the different transformations that even young children
do not lose interest. Nothing could be better calculated
to open the door of interest into comparative embryology
and zodlogy. Then there is the sleight-of-hand magic
of catching insects. Nothing in all the varied perform-
ances of animals brings so quickly: How did he do it?
What did he do it with? Such questions open the
way to comparative anatomy. Next we have a question
that will prove a puzzle. Ask the children if any of them
ever saw a toad drink. How did it drink? Here we
have comparative physiology. A toad drinks by absorbing
water through the skin.

Deprive a toad of water for a day and weigh the specimen care-
fully. Next let it sit on a wet blotting paper, or pour a little water
into its vivarium, and, after an hour, weigh the toad again. The
gain will represent water absorbed.

1 Riley’s estimate is that insects cause from $300,000,000 to $400,000,000
damage annually.

292 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Again, where do we find a better example of protective
coloration, harmony with environment, and life work?
This is a point of view that, when once appreciated, makes
interesting a thousand other things we shall see in nature.
Finally, the food of the toad shows the necessity of learn-
ing about insects and their work. Entomology as a science
is far too little studied in this country.

On the ethical side, no animal is more apt to be griev-
ously abused by the children. Experience has shown that
a little instruction of the right kind wholly does away with
this and makes them its most sturdy protectors. What
child could ever again harm a toad after watching it catch
insects for an hour, or after raising a few from the egg?!
The study may thus yield the best kind of moral culture.

Early in April, as I was vigorously hoeing in a corner, I
unearthed a huge toad, to my perfect delight and satisfaction; he

1 My attention to this subject, and, in fact, to nature study in general,
was aroused by the wholesale killing of toads when they came to the ponds
to lay their eggs. While walking once around a small pond I counted 200
dead or mangled and struggling in the water, and learned next day that two
boys had killed 300 more, carrying them off in an old milk can to empty
on aman’s doorstep. This 500 does not represent probably one-tenth of
the number killed by the children that spring (1897) around this one pond.
A “civilization” in which such abuses of nature are possible ought to be
eaten alive by insects, and something must be fundamentally wrong with a
system of public education that does not render such a thing impossible.
My first impulse was to get a law passed and appeal to the police, but the
wiser counsel of a friend prevailed, and I was induced to try education of the
children instead. Accordingly, a prize of $10 was offered to the Worcester
school child who would make the best practical study of the “ Value of the
Common Toad.” This was offered.March 31, 1898, and there was no
evidence that a single toad was harmed at the pond the following April
and May. I would have been well satisfied had such a result been attained
in five years. The fact that it came within thirty days reveals the possibility
of nature study when united to human interest.

INSECTIVOROUS ANIMALS 293

had lived all winter, he had doubtless fed on slugs all the autumn.
I could have kissed him on the spot! Very carefully I placed him
in the middle of a large green clump of tender columbine. He really
wasn’t more than half awake, after his long winter nap, but he was
alive and well, and when later I went to look for him, lo! he had
crept off, perhaps to snuggle into the earth once more for another
nap, till the sun should have a little more power.

To our great joy the frogs that we imported last year are also
alive. We heard the soft rippling of their voices with the utmost
pleasure ; it is a lovely liquid-sweet sound. They have not lived
over winter here before. We feared that the vicinity of so much
salt water might be injurious to them, but this year they have
survived, and perhaps they may be established for good. CELIA
THAXTER, Ax Island Garden, p. 56.

For four hundred years we have not added a single
animal to our list of domesticated species. The turkey
was taken to Europe and domesticated soon after the dis-
covery of America, and while ostrich farming is in its
experimental stages, Professor Shaler seems inclined to
consider this our last assured conquest over wild nature.

From this point of view our domesticated creatures should be
presented to our people, with the purposein mind of bringing them
to see that the process of domestication has a far-reaching aspect,
a dignity, we may fairly say a grandeur, that few human actions
possess. SHALER, Domesticated Animals, p. 8.

In a large way the work of domestication represents one of the
modes of action of that sympathetic motive which more than any
other has been the basis of the highest development of mankind.
Lbid., p. 221.

Thus we see that to domesticate an animal species is no
mean work with which to begin a century.

The toad has come more than halfway, to man’s
doorstep in fact, to escape its natural enemies and

294 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

demonstrate its uscfulness. To complete the process of
domestication it 1s only necessary to develop the intel-
ligence and sympathy that shall afford it universal pro-
tection. In addition, before considering a species a full
member of the human household, it is generally neces-
sary to discover means of breeding it in confinement or
under human control. With this condition met, in the
manner already described, there will remain no doubt that
we have added a new and important species to the domes-

ticated animals of this country.

CHAPTER XVII
COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS

How many different kinds of toads and frogs do we
know? Encourage the children to bring in as many
kinds as they can find, and study and compare them a
little as to size, color and markings, habits and habitats.
Learn their different notes, make feeding tests with each,
study the season of spawning and the characteristic appear-
ance of the eggs and, in a word, since they are all good
friends, begin to make their acquaintance.

And first, I wonder how many know the difference
between a frog and a toad. Aside from mere outward
appearances, form, warty skin, colors, etc., which are
not very constant, one of the prime differences is that
toads have no teeth on their upper jaws, while the frogs
always do. Here is a little matter of the common use of
the English language that might as well be set right in
the beginning. It is as easy to say “tree frog” as it is
to say ‘tree toad,” and since they are all frogs we may
as well call them so. In case of doubt, gently open the
mouth and pass a finger along the upper jaw, and if teeth
are present, we will call it a frog, if not, a toad.

Our froglike animals are further divided into two great
classes : those in which the adults have tails, and those
that have none. Here is another little matter of good
English that we may learn rightly to begin with.
Our long-tailed Batrachia (frogs and salamanders) are

295

296 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

commonly called lizards. But lizards are always covered
with horny scales, somewhat like the skin of a snake. We
have no common lizards in the northern states, although
they are numerous farther south. The little chameleon
and the “ horned toad,” often brought north as curiosities,
are lizards. Possibly one of the children has a specimen
and can bring it to school to make this difference clear.
Lizards and salamanders are shaped much alike, but if the
skin is smooth, like that of a frog, we will call the animal
a salamander or newt, not a lizard.

Taking our study of the toad as the life type, we may
apply similar methods to investigating any frogs and sala-
manders; and we will choose such as are most worthy of
our study. This is a great field, almost wholly unknown.
Any feeding test with one of these animals, by using a
variety of insects, is likely to yield knowledge to the class
that is valuable and that no one else in the world knows.
It is safe to say that all these animals are harmless, 7.2,
not venomous or likely to injure by biting; that, with one
or two exceptions to be noted below, they are all valuable
insect destroyers, each for its peculiar haunts; and that
they should be generally protected and utilized as benefi-
cent forces in nature. It is with this point in view that
the general study of them is advocated ; that as each fact
—their harmlessness, their usefulness, their varied beau-
ties, their interesting ways and lives — comes to be gener-
ally known and appreciated they may be treated from
motives of conscience and humanity rather than from
those of ignorance and prejudice.

In order to start the children intelligently on these
interesting researches, I shall give, in scarcely more than

COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 297

tabulated form, descriptions and suggestions of a few of
our commonest species. Naturally a species may be com-
mon in one locality and not in others, but it is intended
that the pupils should spend their time learning the life
stories of what they have rather than in hunting for what
they have not. The table thus aims to aid in naming
forms that may be brought in rather than to suggest what
to hunt for, and the scientific names are inserted in order
to facilitate reference to special books, not to be learned
by the children or teacher.

Toaps, Frocs, AND SALAMANDERS
Batrachia

TOADS, Bufo. Jaws toothless, skin generally warty. Genera three,
species thirty ; found in all parts of the world except Australia.

Common Toad, B. lentiginosus. Variety of northern form, amert-
canus. Very variable; adults warty; young almost smooth.
Note a prolonged trill, uttered by the males during the breeding
season, April and May, sometimes also in July. Food: insects,
spiders, millipeds, slugs, and worms. Feeding habit chiefly
nocturnal. Does not eat young of its own species.

FROGS, Rava. Skin smooth; toes and fingers fully webbed ; maxil-
lary and generally vomerine teeth ; chiefly aquatic. Genera four-
teen, species about fifty. Eggs are laid in masses of gelatinous
matter.

Common Frog, Leopard Frog, R. vzrescens. Greenish, sometimes
brassy, above, with light-edged dark spots arranged in two irregu-
lar rows along the back; beneath, pearly white or yellowish.

1 This is an interesting point to test. I have found that a toad will
snap a little toad, as it will any moving thing; but my experience has been
that they always immediately open the mouth and set the little one free
uninjured. I have never seen an insect or any other living thing treated in
this way.

298 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

About three inches long. Our commonest and most beautiful
frog. Note, a cluck much like that of a hen but more musical ;
one of the first species heard in the spring. Eggs laid about as
soon as the snow melts in the spring. Food: insects (?).

Brown Frog, Pickerel Frog, &. palustris. Brown, spots squarish
in four rows; beneath, yellowish white. Length, three inches.
Note, a low, hoarse croak, like the sound made by tearing
coarse cloth. Spawning season is early spring. Habitat, cold
springs and streams. This frog has a somewhat disagreeable
odor and is remarkable for the length of its leaps, being next
to the most agile frog we have. Food: insects (?).

Northern Frog, &. septentrionalis. Color above, olive with large
nearly circular blotches of brown; whitish beneath. Most vari-
able of all our frogs. Body stout, about two inches in length.
Possesses a strong odor of mink. Inhabits marshy waters,
northern United States and Canada; quite aquatic. Feeds on
insects and small fishes. Note and spawning season not given
in the books.

Green Frog, 2. clamata. Color above, bright green, rarely brown-
ish, with blackish spots ; white below. Note, a musical “ Chung”’
as it leaps into the water. Food: insects; otherwise practically
unknown. Spawning season not given in the books.

Bullfrog, ?. catesbiana. Our largest North American species.
Color, greenish olive above, variously marked with dusky
blotches; below, white, often bright yellow under the throat.
The note is a deep bass “ Br’wum,” “ more rum” or “ jug o’ rum,”
heard so often in the early summer evenings. ‘The spawning
season, so far as I have been able to observe, is late June and
July. The young remain in the water as tadpoles at least two
years and attain a length of five to eight inches. This is our most
valuable frog, but its work in nature is probably worth more than
its market price. The services of the large tadpoles, too, in cleans-
ing shallow ponds must be of considerable value. The number
of eggs laid by a large frog is not known, but is probably not less
than 20,000. Whatever the number, the frogs should be care-
fully protected — along with trout and other fishes — until after

COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 299

spawning is wellover. The open season should not be longer than
August and September. The food of the bullfrog seems to be
any living thing that it can even partially swallow. I have seen
one swallow the head end of a live mud puppy fully twice the
length of the frog’s body. Another observer has recorded a simi-
lar instance of the fate of a young alligator. Mice, birds, feathers
and all, fishes, crayfishes, insects, worms, tadpoles, and frogs of
its own and other species are acceptable, and in this struggle size
may not count for so much as first hold. In confinement they
may be fed on earthworms, grasshoppers, and other insects, and
it is not beneath the dignity of the biggest of them to sit all day
long beside a bone and snap the flies as they come.

Wood Frog, &. sy/vatica. Color, greenish to reddish brown, chang-
ing somewhat according to surroundings; a dark band on each
side of head extending over the eye and ear to insertion of arm;
legs obscurely barred, and sides speckled with black. A small
frog found commonly in the woods, scarcely aquatic, can leap
farther than any other of our frogs. Its note is a hoarse croak,
heard in April, when it comes down to the ponds to spawn.
Aside from the common notion that it feeds on insects nothing
definite is known as to its food.

SPADEFOOTS, Scaphiopus. Terrestrial frogs, heel provided with a
spur for digging. Form toad-like. Genera two, species four.

Spadefoot Frog, S. holbyrookiz. Length, three inches; skin rough;
color, earthy or ashy brown. From all accounts these frogs
bury themselves in the earth during the day, coming out to feed
at night, and, while widely distributed, are neither seen nor
heard except during the spawning season, when they are said
to be “noisy whistlers.”

TREE FROGS, Hy/a. Small; arboreal; fingers and toes with tips
expanded into clasping disks. Genera ten, species sixty.

Common Tree Frog, 4. versicolor. Color above, green, gray, or
brown, with irregular dark spots; white or yellow below. A
common inhabitant of orchards and waysides, but a good test

300 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

of any child’s sharp eyes to find. Its note is the musical
“ Tur-rr-r-t”” so often heard on a summer evening. The eggs
are laid in May or June in small masses attached to stems of
weeds and grass in shallow pools. This is to me the most inter-
esting of frogs. It is easily domesticated, so that it may be
carried about on the finger from fly to fly. If kept in a viva-
rium and well fed, it is said to make an interesting barometer,
climbing to the top of its ladder in fair weather and descending
into the water before a storm. The distribution of these frogs is
one of the greatest puzzles I have encountered. I have repeatedly
brought them to the trees about the house, where attractive pools
are provided, but they never stay more than a day or two. Why
they are not more numerous is another question for which I have
found no satisfactory answer.

Pickering’s Tree Frog, H. pickeringit. Color above, yellowish
brown, with a dark X on its back, by which it may always be
recognized. These little “spring peepers” announce the very
first day of spring with their shrill, clear whistles, “ Uh-e-e-t,
wh-e-e-t, wh-e-e-t,” from the pools of ice water in the glades
and meadows. One may hear them all the years of his life but
never know whence the sound comes, unless he puts on his
rubber boots, takes a lantern to the pool, and picks them up
in the very act.

Little Tree Frog, Chorophilus triseriatus. Color, ashy gray, brown,
or fawn color, with three brown stripes down the back. Habitat,
small pools in the densest thickets. Note resembles the low
jingling of sleigh bells in the distance. Range is given as east-
ern United States, south of central New Jersey, and westward.

CRICKET FROGS, 4crzs. Small; not arboreal. Genus one, species
one; with regional variations.

Cricket Frog, 4. gryllus. Color above, brown or gray, readily chang-
ing, a dark triangle between the eyes, the apex pointing back-
ward and continued down the middle line as a light stripe ; three
large oblique blotches on the sides; a dark (or white) line from
eye across the eardrum. Its note may be imitated by striking

COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 301

two marbles together twenty or thirty times, at first slowly, then
rapidly. It inhabits the weeds, the tall grass, and bushes of
muddy shores. No good account is given of its foods, breeding
season, or habits.

Both the time and place of spawning for most of our
species of frogs and toads is best indicated by their music.

SALAMANDERS, Uvodela. Smooth, elongated bodies; four limbs;
long tails; no external gills when adult. Sixteen genera and
fifty-three American species.

Newts, Diemyctylus viridescens. Color above, olive green, vari-
able; a row of black-bordered vermilion spots on each side;
below, yellowish dotted with black. The tail is flattened and
has finlike expansions of skin above and below. This descrip-
tion applies to the adult form of our common newt during the
breeding season or while it isin the water. Found under stones
and under logs out of the water, this newt (formerly classed as a
distinct species, D. miniatus) is vermilion red above, paler or
yellowish below; spots arranged as in the breeding form; tail
fins absent. As these newts have been kept in confinement by
a number of different people and have been observed to change
from one form to the other under varied conditions, there can be
no further doubt that they are one and the same species, the
different forms and colors depending possibly on condition of
maturity or on seasonal changes. The red form should be kept
in a damp, mossy vivarium with a pool or dish of water sunk
level with the ground at one end. The green form may be kept
in an ordinary aquarium, covered to prevent its escape, and pro-
vided with floats of bark or cork, upon which it may rest. Both
forms may be fed on worms or insects or small bits of raw meat.
Valuable feeding tests may thus be made, since we know very
little of the newt’s feeding habits. It is especially instructive to
see them eat mosquitoes and mosquito wrigglers in the water.
The egg-laying season extends from April to July, and the eggs
are laid singly, securely glued to and hidden within little tufts
of aquatic leaves which the female carefully draws together

302 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

around the egg as it is deposited. The egg is brown, about the
size of a toad’s egg.

Red-Backed Salamander, Plethodon erythronotus. Body slender,
about three inches long; lead colored, with a broad reddish
dorsal band, which varies greatly in color or may be absent.
This is our most common salamander; it is found under stones
and logs or beneath the bark of decaying stumps, and, unlike the
forms thus far noted, its eggs are laid in these places and not in
the water, and are watched over by the parent. Who can tell
us at what season the eggs are laid? The food is insects and
their larve.

Red Triton, Sfelerfes ruber. Length, five to six inches; color,
vermilion to dark salmon red, spotted with brown. No account
is given of its cggs or breeding season. This is the triton that
John Burroughs describes (Pepacton, Chapter V) as making
“more music in the woods in autumn than any bird.” The
note is said to resemble that of Pickering’s Hyla, only not so
loud. No other naturalist, so far as I can learn, has succeeded
in hearing it. Its haunts are springs and rocky streams, where
it may be found by turning over the stones. In rainy weather
it makes excursions on land.

Spotted Salamander, Amblystoma punctatum. Length, six to seven
inches; color, black above, with a series of yellow spots on each
side of back. Eggs of the spotted salamander will often be
brought in by the children. They are found in the icy pools
and ditches of early spring (March to April, according to season
and latitude), large, oblong, cylindrical masses of rather tough
jelly. They are transparent, and within the mass may be seen
the clear, spherical oval, about one-quarter of an inch in diameter,
each one containing a dark-brown yolk. This will prove a most
instructive object to watch for the next three or four weeks.

PROTEANS, Mud Puppies, Protecd@e. Medium- to large-sized ani-
mals, shaped like salamanders but thoroughly aquatic and
provided with external gills. One American genus with two
species.

COMMON FROGS AND SALAMANDERS 303

Mud Puppy, or Water Dog, Necturus maculatus. Length, ten
inches to two feet; color, dusky brown, more or less mottled.
Breeding season, early spring (?). Necturus has the reputation
of following fishes to their spawning grounds in order to eat the
eggs and young.

We have noted but five of the fifty salamanders, but
this will be sufficient for a beginning. In trying to keep
them in confinement we must remember that some are
aquatic, some terrestrial, and some both; and we must be
careful to note the haunts of any common species we wish
to study and render our vivarium as much like its normal
environment as possible. I must repeat that the above
forms are not described in order that they should be
“learned,” but solely to help toward an acquaintance
with these and similar forms, to the end that intelligent
sympathy may take the place of ignorant fear.

AN INVITATION TO THE BIRDS

Fic. 118.

304

CHAPTER XVIII
OUR COMMON BIRDS
THEIR LiFE, Work, AND NATURAL ENEMIES

Beloved of children, bards and Spring,
O birds, your perfect virtues bring,
Your song, your forms, your rhythmic flight,
Your manners for the heart’s delight,
Nestle in hedge, or barn, or roof,
Here weave your chamber weather-proof,
Forgive our harms, and condescend
To man, as to a lubber friend,
And, generous, teach his awkward race
Courage and probity and grace!

Emerson, May-Day.

BirD study is no trifling fad. Our bird life represents
a public property, protected by laws that are beginning to
be respected and enforced. We may begin again with
a few oral or written language lessons to find out how
many birds the children know and what they have already
learned about them.

There are so many books devoted to describing and
identifying birds, and all the species which we wish to
study are so common, that we may omit the descriptive
side. In fact, I should relegate the whole subject of
bird nature study to some one of the excellent books we
already have were it not for the fact that, with all our
books and all our birds, year by year boys and girls are
passing through our schools who are not able to recognize

395

306 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

even our commonest species, and what is worse, do not
care to learn or know anything about them. This means
that, excellent as our bird books are, there is something
lacking; and it is in the hope of supplying two vital rela-
tions between child life and bird life that the following
pages are written. We must teach the children the
human value and importance of birds. We must suggest
things for them to do which shall help and increase the
bird life about their homes.

Up to within a few years the usual methods of studying
birds consisted in mounting, preparing skins, and making
collections of nests and eggs. More recently we have
come to know that birds are too valuable to be used in
this way, and the opera glass and camera have to some
extent happily displaced the gun. But, in general, we
are in the negative phase expressed by a sentence from
one of the best outlines of the course of study for a city
school: /usist that no boy or girl destroy a bird or its
nest. Negative effort is uninteresting and, at best, little
more than a suggestion to do the thing prohibited. In
the same time we can much more easily teach, on the
positive side, work that the children will enjoy doing and
that will make abuse of bird life impossible.

The important question is: What do birds do in the
world? About this point center all our laws for bird pro-
tection. We must first gain, by observation and personal
acquaintance with the living birds of each species, a
knowledge of their ways, their foods, their beauties, and
their songs. Then give the imagination full play to
picture what the whole species is doing in every farm
and garden and about every home in the land. Think

OUR COMMON

BIRDS 307

of the millions of beautiful wings and building nests and

eating bills and singing throats.

Aside from their intel-

lectual and zsthetic values the paramount service of the

birds lies in their power to
destroy insects. For this
work we have a vast mech-
anism in nature, an army
plastic almost as air, on
wings, powerful and beauti-
ful, able to carry their fly-
ing squadrons hundreds and
even thousands of miles
whither food abounds and
insects threaten destruction
to vegetation.

In studying living things
we should bear in mind the
truth, stated often in these

words: As long as there ts life there ts hope.
thing that lives there are infinite possibilities.

Think, every morning when the sun peeps
through

The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove,

How jubilant the happy birds renew

Their old, melodious madrigals of love !

And when you think of this, remember too

’Tis always morning somewhere, and above

The awakening continents, from shore to
shore,

Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.

The summer came, and all the birds were
dead ;

The days were like hot coals; the very
ground

Was burned to ashes; in the orchards fed

Myriads of caterpillars, and around

The cultivated fields and garden beds

Hosts of devouring insects crawled, and
found

No foe to check their march, till they had
made

The land a desert without leaf or shade.

LoncFELLow, Birds of Killingworth,

In every-
No seed or

egg is so tiny but that it may hide the possibility of cover-

ing the world with forms
of its kind in an _ incred-
ibly short time. A_ pair
of bird’s eggs, with proper
care by the children, could
produce in ten years a pair
of birds for every child in
the land.

A bird came down the walk:
He didn’t know I saw;

He bit an angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew

From a convenient grass,

And then hopped sideways to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

Emiry Dickinson, Poems, p. 140.

Let us consider for a moment the possibilities

that lie hidden within the blue shells of a pair of
robin’s eggs. Allowing that ten young may be produced

308

NATURE STUDY AND LIIE

by a pair each year, and that the life of a robin is ten

years, we shall have:

Ist year( 2+ Io).

2d

3d
4th
sth
6th
7th
8th
gth
roth
soth
tooth

“

FIG, 119.

(12 + 60).
(72 + 360) .

1,616,400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

12 robins.
72%
4329
2,592
15,552
93.312“
559872“
3359232
20,155,392) *
120,932,352

I, 320,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,-
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 robins.

Younc Rogins Two Days OLD

If we do not have all
the robins we want (and
this applies to any living
thing) it is because we
do not know enough
about rearing them or
are not willing to act in
accordance with our
knowledge.

In addition to this
infinite power of multi-
plication we must never
lose sight of another
law of biology, viz., that
every living thing pos-
sesses_ possibilities of
development and im-
provement. No one has

OUR COMMON BIRDS 309
yet produced the best and most beautiful rose or peach
or bird or man or anything else that the world is capable
of yielding. By proper care we can have a world full not

only of such birds as we
have now, but of birds with
sweeter and sweeter song

and more and more beautiful plumage.

The’ winds blow east, the winds blow west,
The blue eggs in the robin’s nest

Will soon have wings and beak and breast,
And flutter and fly away. LoncrEeLiow.

And in presence

of these infinite possibilities for good or for ill we must
above all things remember that every human action tends

to make the world a garden
or a desert, a paradise of
joy and beauty or a vale
of tears.

To produce and multiply endlessly, with-
out ever reaching the last possibility of
excellence, and without committing herself
to any end, is the law of Nature.

Burroucus, Birds and Poets, p. 156.

If our birds felt a sense of security in our presence, they
might sing even more sweetly and more abundantly than
they do now. Indeed, Burroughs remarks of English birds :

« They sing with more con-
fidence and copiousness, and
as if they, too, had been
touched by civilization.”

day and more days in the year.

birds were uniformly safe
in man’s presence and un-
disturbed, they would come
much closer to us, as they
did to Thoreau, and to Celia
Thaxter in her garden.
With proper care many of
our best songsters and most

Wood birds here are house and garden
birds there [Eng.].
Burroucus, Fresh Fields, p. 136.

They sing more hours in the

Furthermore, if our

Many haps fall in the field

Seldom seen by wishful eyes;

But all her shows did Nature yield,

To please and win this pilgrim wise.

He saw the partridge drum in the woods;
He heard the woodcock’s evening hymn ;
He found the tawny thrushes’ broods ;
And the shy hawk did wait for him ;
What others did at distance hear,

And guessed within the thicket’s gloom,
Was shown to this philosopher,

And at his bidding seemed to come.

Emerson, Woodnotes, I, z.

useful birds that are now rare might become more common,
filling our parks and the thickly planted portions of our

310 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

towns, and even cities; and with more caution than pre-
ceded the introduction of the English sparrow, we might
bring about our homes the most beautiful songsters of
other lands. But the safer and wiser course will be to
begin by making the most of our native birds. These area
heritage infinitely rich, developed through geological epochs
to fit exactly all the conditions of life on this continent.
It is no light matter to disturb this living harmony, as our
experience with the English sparrow bears testimony.
With this wonderful power of increase the questions
naturally arise: Why do we not have many more birds
than we find about us? Why have we not hundreds where
we have but one? Has the natural limit been already
reached, so that attempts to increase the numbers would
be useless? All such questions open important fields for
observation and study. Food supply for all seasons of
the year is the main factor in this series of problems.
This will be considered in a section by itself. The next
factors are natural enemies of bird life. In connection
with each element in nature which tends to decrease our
valuable bird life, we should endeavor to discover the
means of preventing its operation. That this matter is
now a national exigency, in the careful study of which
every patriotic citizen and every school child should par-
ticipate, may be duly appreciated by referring to William
T. Hornaday’s recent paper! on the destruction of our
birds and mammals. We learn from this that during the

1 William T. Hornaday, Director of the New York Zodlogical Park.
“The Destruction of our Birds and Mammals,” Second Annual Report,
New York Zodlogical Society. New York, 1898. Office of the Society,
69 Wall Street.

OUR COMMON BIRDS 311

past fifteen years our birds have decreased 46 per cent in
thirty states and territories. For each of the states named
this decrease has been as stated in the margin. Three
states — North Carolina, Oregon, and California — show
neither increase nor decrease; and only four states —

Kansas, Wyoming, Wash-

3 Maine . 52%
ington, and Utah — have New Fiamivehives ae
had an increase of bird life. oe se
assachusetts 27
It would be a worthy am- Rhode Island . fo
am : : Connecticut 75
bition to infuse into our New York 48
7 New Jersey 37
school system, reaching, as Pennsylvania . 51
: : Ohio 38
it does, the life and heart fhaiana . a
d i Illinois . 38
of every child, the purpose jyichiean .
to change this destructive Wisconsin 40
. Iowa . 37
process to one of increase Msc 36
= eDraska 10
in every county, farm, and North Dakota. 58
. District of Columbia 33
city lot of the land. SouthiGaroling a
Climatic influences are [rors =
severe in this country, Mississippi. 37
i. Louisiana 55
Great numbers of birds are = Arkansas 50
7 F J Texas 67
killed in heavy rain and indian Territory . 78
- : Montana 75
hailstorms. Whole species Colorado 3
. : Idaho 40
are decimated in sleet and “A veage , z

snowstorms within the

range of their southern migrations. Thus our bluebirds
were killed off in 1895, and fearful havoc was wrought
in a number of our most valuable species in the Southern
States during the winter of 1898-1899. With these ele-
ments it is difficult to contend. To what extent man is
responsible by reason of clearing out natural shelter and
destroying natural food supplies it is impossible to say.

312 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Again, in times of great drought in regions where our
common species breed, both food and water may become
so scarce that numbers of nestlings famish or starve. The
birds then are loath to desert their nests to go to regions
of plenty. If birds were tamed sufficiently to come to
man as their friend in times of great need, as they do in
rare cases now, and as they learned to come to Mrs.
Brightwen, a little food and shelter might tide them over
the hard time, and their service afterwards would repay
the outlay a thousandfold. About the house and barn
and shade trees safe places of shelter might save great
numbers of birds every year, due care being exercised to
keep them clear of English sparrows and place them out
of the reach of cats.

Cats are generally recognized as the worst enemies of
our native birds! Professor Forbush has estimated that
a cat is responsible on the average for the death of about
fifty song birds a year; and one cat, to his knowledge,
destroyed six bird’s-nests in a single day. In connection
with their bird work the children should be encouraged to
gather all the evidence they can for their district; they
will then be more willing to choose other pets. All the
wild, stray, or worthless cats of a neighborhood should be
destroyed, as a mercy not only to the birds but to the
cats themselves. People who have cats that they value,
ought, for love of nature, to see to it that they are provided
with other food than young robins, orioles, thrushes, and
song sparrows. Much may be done by way of training
cats to let birds alone, and lastly, they should be kept in

1 “The foremost place among all song bird destroyers, as we have already
said, must be assigned to the house cat.” LANGE.

OUR COMMON BIRDS 313

as much as possible at times when young birds in the
neighborhood are learning to fly.

Next to the cat the English sparrow is responsible for
great decrease among certain of our native birds, espe-
cially of some of our most useful and desirable species
about the cities and towns. This is the obstacle that
blocks the way of younger children in doing effective
work for our native birds. They put out food in winter
and we ask: ‘What birds came for it?’’ ‘English spar-
rows.” They arrange drinking fountains. ‘Do the birds
come?” «Yes, English sparrows.” They build nest
boxes. ‘What birds do they haveinthem?” ‘English
sparrows.” If other birds come, the sparrows will mob
them. They will break up the nests and devour the eggs
of our robins, bluebirds, wrens, tree swallows and mar-
tins, song sparrows and vireos, and the children’s work
results in increasing this ‘‘ruffian in feathers,” ‘a bird
too pestiferous to mention.” The sparrows begin nest-
ing in February or March, thus preémpting available bird
houses before the native birds arrive, and rearing, as they
do, five or six broods a season, they increase with incred-
ible rapidity. It has been estimated that a pair in ten
years might produce 275,716,983,698 sparrows.2 What

1 Ona farm from which the cats were banished increase of birds was
so great the following year as to cause general remark among the neigh-
bors. Rats and mice, for destruction of which cats are sometimes kept,
can certainly be more effectively dealt with by intelligent use of poisons
and traps. Since not one of these vermin should be allowed on the
premises, this argument for the cat does not hold.

2« The English Sparrow in North America,” Bulletin No. 1, United States
Department of Agriculture, ought to be accessible for reference to every class

in nature study. The summing up of all the evidence is in part as follows:
“The English sparrow is a curse of such virulence that it ought to be

314 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

are we to do with this enemy of our valuable native birds?
So many differences of opinion and so many delicate
points of sentiment, morals, and pedagogy are involved in
answering this question that all a teacher can do is to
lead the children to observe and study the facts as they
occur about their homes, and then leave the solution of

attacked and destroyed before it becomes necessary to deplete the public
treasury for the purpose, as has been done in other countries. By concerted
action, and by taking advantage of its gregarious habits, much good may
be accomplished with little or no expenditure of money” (p. 164). Among
the “Recommendations for Legislation” I may also quote the following :
“(1) The immediate repeal of all existing laws which afford protection to
the English sparrow. (2) The enactment of laws legalizing the killing
of the English sparrow at all seasons of the year, and the destruction of its
nests, eggs and young. (3) The enactment of laws making it a misde-
meanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment, or both — (2) to intentionally
give food or shelter to the English sparrow, except with a view to its ulti
mate destruction; (4) to introduce or aid in introducing it into new local-
ities; (c) to interfere with persons, means, or appliances engaged in, or
designed for, its destruction or the destruction of its nests, eggs or young”
(p. 150). Methods of destroying sparrows that involve suffering, wound-
ing, etc., should be avoided so far as possible. The same is true of methods
which advocate destruction of “nests, eggs or young,” which I regret to
find are favored by the Department of Agriculture. Among the many
arguments against this method we may say that a nest is a sacred thing,
except to collectors, and the deliberate destruction of it violates our finest
sentiments of home and confidence. I have known people to advocate the
merciful extermination of sparrows out of nesting time, but they will not
allow a nest to be disturbed under their own roof. Recent opposition to
attempts to rid’ Boston of the English sparrow by destruction of “eggs,
nest and young” is history in point. I am also obliged, on biological
grounds, to differ from the Bz/etin on the point of protecting carnivo-
rous birds, like the sparrow hawk, shrike, and screech owl, because, since
English sparrows are so shy and cunning, these birds will be feeding largely
on the more easily caught native birds which we wish to protect. And,
further, if they did kill English sparrows in great numbers, in proportion
as these become scarce they would take more and more of our valuable
song birds, until we should be obliged to make war on the hawks and

OUR COMMON BIRDS 318

the problem to the parents. The one preliminary to
having our valuable native birds numerous in our cities
and towns, and in many parts of the country as well, is
practical extermination of the English sparrow. If at the
time the pest was imported general attention had been
aroused to the necessity of protecting our native birds

shrikes. Directions for poisoning sparrows, given on page 174 of the
Bulletin, are evidently not derived from adequate experimental data.
For example, arsenic is recommended. I have given this a thorough trial
during three winters, and while a few may be killed at first, their numbers
cannot be effectively diminished by its use. Strychnine sulphate is, according
to practical experience, the poison to use; and with regard to its preparation,
the Bulletin is singularly inaccurate. It says: ‘‘Dissolve two grams of
strychnine in a liter of hot water.” This is not possible, since this amount
of the pure alkaloid is not soluble in less than five liters of boiling water.
The directions further state: “Soak the grain in the poison solution at least
forty-eight hours,” but they nowhere say how much grain to take. Strych-
nine sulphate is evidently meant, and two grams of this are readily soluble in
100 cubic centimeters of water. Lange (Our Native Birds, p.76) falls into
the same inaccuracy. I am also obliged, on experimental grounds, to dis-
sent from the directions given by Lange, viz., ‘two small bottles of strych-
nine” to “nearly if not quite a peck of wheat.” This is not strong enough,
as I have repeatedly caught sparrows poisoned by grain prepared in this way,
and they often recovered completely.

My own formula is as follows: Dissolve one-eighth of an ounce of pow-
dered strychnine sulphate in one-half pint of boiling water. Pour this, while
hot, over two quarts of wheat (or cracked corn), stir well, and continue stir-
ring from time to time, until all the liquid is absorbed. Dry thoroughly,
without scorching, and put away in some safe receptacle, labeled

POISONED GRAIN. STRYCHNINE.

It requires but one kernel to kill a sparrow. A quart of wheat contains
about 23,000 kernels, and as a sparrow seldom takes more than two or three,
you have enough to rid the neighborhood of about 20,000 sparrows. Expose
the grain where poultry and tame pigeons cannot get it, and by operating
only during the winter there will be no danger of poisoning seed-eating wild
birds, at least for all northern towns and cities. By taking advantage of

316 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

and of giving them a chance to do the work of insect
destruction for which our natural conditions had developed
them, there would have been no serious insect outbreaks,
such as are now so frequent. It is coming to be a well-
recognized observation that insect scourges occur where
the sparrows are most numerous. The gypsy moth in

the sparrows’ gregarious habits, and the fact that they drive off other birds
from localities where they are numerous, much might be done even in the
South.

Sparrows are such suspicious and cunning birds that, if the strychnized
grain be exposed at first, they will probably roll each kernel in their bills,
taste it, reject it, and possibly refuse to touch it again that winter. The
best way is to select a safe place, where the wind is not likely to scatter it,
a walk, driveway, or porch roof with a smooth surface, so that the grain
may be swept up after each trial. Accustom them to feeding there daily
with grain exactly like that which is medicated (I often do this for a week
or even a month, until all the sparrows in the neighborhood are wont to
come regularly), study the times when they come for their meals, and then
on a cold, dry morning after a heavy snowstorm, having swept up all the
good grain the night before, wait until they have gathered, and then put
down enough strychnized grain to feed the entire flock. You have about
ten minutes before any begin to drop, and those that have not partaken of
the grain by this time will probably be frightened off; but, by timing it prop-
erly, I have repeatedly caught every sparrow in the flock. I have found
morning the best time, as they all come then; and it is essential to success
to select a dry day, since in wet weather they taste the strychnine too
quickly; I have seen them actually throw it out of the crop.

With this simple method at command, by concerted action a few friends
of our native birds can rid any northern city of the sparrow pest in a single
winter. This is no more than parents ought to be willing to do, if not for
the sake of the native birds, at least to clear the way for the children to do
effective work in their behalf. And if any continue to think English spar-
rows worthy of protection, despite all the evidence in hand, they should
protect them in cages on their own premises, and be placed under heavy
bonds never to let them out.

It is not intended that the children should do this work, but the
necessary information has been given for the use of parents or teachers.

OUR COMMON BIRDS 317

Massachusetts would probably never have come to our
notice had it not found free course in localities where
the sparrows had driven off the native birds. The same
is true of many other destructive caterpillars and of the
elm beetle. Even with the few birds that we now have
in rural districts, these pests do comparatively little
damage and never become so numerous as in the cities
that are swarming with sparrows. The sparrow has thus
had many opportunities to distinguish himself and has
failed in every case. Besides refusing to assist materially
in the extermination of insects, the sparrow has attacked
the gardens, orchards, vineyards, and grain fields in a most
destructive manner.

Fig. 120. IDEAL MARTIN HOUSE, WORCESTER, Mass.

318

CHAPTER XIX
THE BIRD CENSUS AND FOOD CHART

SCARCELY any one line of nature study possesses so
many interesting features as that connected with keeping
track of the number of birds in a neighborhood, with a
view to increasing the more desir-
able species. The best method
of making a bird census is to
count the nests in a certain dis-
trict as soon as the leaves fall
: Tic.121. CEDAR BIRD AND NEST
in autumn.t People generally
would find it interesting to do this for their city lots or
dooryards ; and if they would send the results from year
to year to their local bird club, to some bird magazine,
or to the writer, valuable data might be gathered as to
the hoped-for increase of our native birds in different
parts of the country. It is helpful for schools, besides
being good geography work, to make a chart or map of
the district, with each house, tree, hedge, vine, bush, and
thicket in its proper place. The separate counting of
each kind of tree gives the children a good reason for
learning the different species, and, if any bird shows
preferences for particular trees, this fact will be brought
out. Essays and language lessons may be devoted to

11 take pleasure in acknowledging for this valuable suggestion my
indebtedness to Frank M. Chapman.

319

320 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

discussions and descriptions as to the kind of places the
different birds choose to nest in. Drawing should be
combined with this, and each schoolroom might contain,

29H 7H OTS

Fic. 122.

Chart and census of a city block, Worcester, Mass., for 1898 and rgor. Stars signify
nests in 1898, viz., two robins, one oriole, one chipping sparrow, and one downy woodpecker.
Initial letters stand for nests in 1g01. Note the gain, 300 per cent, in three years. Houses,
trees, and shrubbery are appropriately indicated; ~., robin; o., oriole; 4.4., bluebird;
w.p., wood pewee; ¢.s., chipping sparrow. The trecs are:

Applerg: ones ask et eR ee we 5 Maple — one robin (two robins, rg00). 45
Ash, Mountain . San ‘ 2 Oak —(one robin, 1900) . . . 55
Birch «4. ie eG Peach . . ats dia stecee ay 5
Cherry — (one redstart, $905)" r 9 Pear— one robin, one oriole oe 38
Chestnut — one woodpecker (one ori- Pie etes, ee oe se ce 95
(0) CH coco) | a a Plum Ew i Ry v the a TD gh Kee ais 7
Elm ... 7 5 Others. : . ba,
Hawthorn —one chipping rea é I Total number of trees . . 319

Hickory . . . . Be a Od teh a 4 Bignonia vines — (three chipping spar-
TOWS, 1900). Se wo » 10

either in a case or hung about the walls and windows,
a collection of a few deserted nests. These the pupils
could use for special drawing work and for the study of

THE BIRD CENSUS AND FOOD CHART 321

form, structure, methods, and materials used by the birds
in building. Knowledge on all the above points will
find application in a succeeding sec-
tion, when we consider methods of
attracting the birds and of provid-
ing for their needs. Nothing in all
ornithology is better fitted to inspire
in a child the love of bird life than

the study of their wonderful nests. Fic. 123. Nest or Batt
MORE ORIOLE

If the children were given a course
in such study during February or March, they could hardly
be induced to molest a bird’s nest the following season.
A great deal of information, giving at a glance the
essence of years of study and hundreds of pages of bird

Nernst

ane

Fic. 124. Birp CENSUS AS KEPT ON BLACKBOARD, UPSALA STREET SCHOOL,
GRADE VII

322 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

books, has been collected by Miss Ball into the chart
opposite. We can see, for the various birds, so far as
is known, what the species does for man and what, in
turn, we may do for the birds by way
of insuring for them an abundant and
inexpensive supply of their preferred
foods. Birds have been persecuted and
slaughtered for generations because
they have been compelled to levy toll
in cultivated fruits for their invaluable services. I say
compelled, because we have hitherto paid no attention to
the natural sources of food supply for our birds and, in
clearing the land, have destroyed, often unnecessarily, the
native trees and shrubs upon which they depended. It
is now well known that birds prefer wild to cultivated
fruit, and that to protect our fruit the most effective and
humane way is to leave or plant such wild or valueless
fruits as ripen at the same time. In coming to realize
how recklessly the country has been stripped, the writer
considers it bad biology even to put scarecrows in the

Fic.125. VIREO AND Nest

cherry trees to frighten the
birds from our gardens until
we have planted wild cherries,
mulberries, and Juneberries
for the birds to feed on. We
can find plenty of other things
to eat, while the birds cannot.
All farms and many gardens

The little bird sits at his door in the sun,

Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,

And lets his illumined being o’errun

With the deluge of summer it receives;

His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,

And the heart in her dumb breast flutters
and sings;

He sings to the wide world, and she to her
nest, —

In the nice ear of Nature which song is the

best?
Lowe tt, The Vision of

Sir Launfal, p. 106.

and city lots have room for some tree or trees which

would furnish food for birds.

Our city streets, school

yards, and public parks might be planted most profitably

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324 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

with some regard to this matter, since, besides adding
pleasing variety, it would tend to fill the towns and even
cities with our native birds. No less an observer than John
Burroughs says: “Indeed, the food question seems to be
the only serious one with the birds. Give them plenty to
eat and no doubt the majority of them would face our
winters.” He goes on to describe how a pair of bluebirds
and even a mocking bird were induced, by the shelter of
his porch and the fruit of a hackberry tree that stood
close by, to spend the winter with him eighty miles north
of New York. With available room properly planted we
might have ten wild birds to one that we have now in
our towns and many of our cities; and those who favor
the English sparrow, because he is the “only bird we
have in winter,” might soon be consoled for his absence.

It would be ideal nature study if all the children in our
schools would learn the list of bird-food trees and plants.
By learning them I do not mean being able to say over
their names merely; but they should be able to recognize
each at any season of the year; they should know its
possibilities of growth for purposes of decoration and
ornament ; and, most of all, they should study how to propa-
gate each species, so that they can actually plant and have
a tree anywhere they wish.

Glancing down the first column of the chart, we see
that certain birds subsist on animal food, insects, worms,
etc. These birds are the house wren and cuckoo; and,
when it is determined, we may add to this list the chicka-
dee, vireos, swallows, swifts, martins, and flycatchers. We
could not have too many of these in this country. Another
larger class of birds takes 50 per cent or over of animal

THE BIRD CENSUS AND FOOD CHART 325

food but, even with the others, as well stated by Wood
(Theodore Wood, Our Bird Allies, p. 7), birds that take
but a small per cent of insect food may still destroy
insects which would have damaged fruits and crops much
more than the birds themselves. Birds that come early,
like the bluebird, robin, redwing, and grackle, may be of
especial service by destroying insects before they have
laid their eggs for the season.

For four years now the food chart has occupied a place
on the wall of my study. I have had occasion to refer to
it many hundred times, and never without learning some-
thing that IJ was glad to know. Still its best service,
after all, lies in showing us how little we know about the
foods of our birds. Each blank square is really a ques-
tion, a suggestion to try this or that, and an infinite
number of other things not mentioned in the chart, to
see whether any particular bird will eat it. And when a
child finds that any bird will eat something which it is
not shown to eat in the chart, he may have discovered
a fact which no one else in the world knows. If it be
some destructive insect, his observation may be very
valuable, and if he tells everybody about it, he may lead
people to protect the bird more carefully and so help to
make the world better.

As years go by and great numbers of our birds become
so tame that they will come to us and eat from our hands
and allow us to observe them as they hunt their natural
foods and feed their young, we may be able to discover
more in this important field, in possibly the next ten years,
than man has learned in as many centuries. Methods
suggested for taming birds may assist in this work,

126. SHELLEY’S PROPHECY F

326

CHAPTER XX
PRACTICAL DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS

No longer now the wing’d habitants,
That in the woods their sweet lives sing away,
Flee from the form of man; but gather round,
And prune their sunny feathers on the hands
Which little children stretch in friendly sport
Towards these dreadless partners of their play.
s : : : happiness
And science dawn though late upon the earth.

SHELLEY, Demon of the World.

THE process of domestication consists in three things :
first, in development of intelligence sufficient to discern
between friends and foes ; second, in development of a
sympathetic appreciation of the animal’s physical needs
sufficient to enable it to live with man in mutually helpful
relations ; and third, in so universalizing these attainments
and relations that all may work in unison, to the end that
what one builds up others will not tear down. The evi-
dence is already obtained to prove the value of a number
of the common species. On the esthetic side alone the
sentiment is growing rapidly that our birds are worth
their board and lodging, which they pay for many times
over with their beauty and their song. In addition to
this, recent discoveries as to their work in insect destruc-
tion should win for them an assured place in nature-study
courses; and, it would seem, that in no other way could

327

328 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

we bring about that universal regard for bird life that the
country needs.

Before giving them any of these data below, ask the pupils, as a
part of a writing lesson, to make a list of the birds they like best,
stating after each how much they would be willing to give to have a
pair nest by their home.

People buy birds and go to the expense and care of keeping them
in cages. How much more is it worth to have a pair of free birds
come and nest by your window, to have them sing to you the season
through and show you the secrets of their wonderful housekeeping !
Four of my friends have kindly given me estimates as to how much
they would be willing to give thus to have a pair of the following
birds. (We may compare the figures with Holden’s prices for choice
songsters of the same species.)

EsTIMATED VALUE HoLpEn’s Price

FOR A PAIR OF te 2D 3D 4TH FOR A MALE BIRD
Brown Thrashers . $5 $3 $3 £8 $5 to $ 8
Catbirds I [ AAS I 5 “10
Tanagers . I 10 3 4 3 eo Og
Grosbeaks I 8 oh 8 5 “« 8
Robins 5 5 I I 3 “ 5
Bobolinks 2 10 6 8 2 ue
Orioles 6 4 3.50 ie 5
Chickadees 2 I 2 2 —_—
Bluebirds . BS I 5 4 3 —
Mocking birds (not thought of as a possibility) 50:4 56

Anything that a man can avoid doing under the notion that it is
bad, he may also avoid undex the notion that something else is good.

1 [ had hoped to place alongside of the esthetic value the economic value of the different
birds; but our highest authorities in ornithology tell us that this is not known fora single
bird. If a toad may be worth $19.88 each season for cutworms alone which it destroys
(Kirkland's estimate, “The Common Toad,” Szdletin No. 46, Hatch Experiment Station,
Amherst, Mass.), many of our birds, like the chickadee, swallow, wren, robin, and others,
must be worth much more.

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS 329

Wean them [school children] from their native cruelty by
imparting to them jsome of your own positive sympathy with an

So ctpgiet A ‘
animal's inner springs of joy. JAMES, Talks to Teachers, p. 195.

What positive work can the children do for birds that
will tend to their increase and draw them closer and
closer about our homes year by year? Let us apply
ourselves thoughtfully to this question; for I am sure
we shall find increasing pleasure in following its varied
suggestions as long as we live. We have been chasing
the birds farther and farther back into the woods long
enough. Let us reverse all this and induce them to
come to us.

Food, Water, and Home, Essentials of Bird Life.— Since their
homes are such frail affairs, we should expect birds to
build where food and water are abundant. Still we should
remember that the idea of home, with birds as with men, is
intimately associated with a sense of security, and that the
predominant characteristics of birds are wings, timidity,
ability to flee. The sight of a cat, the careless throwing
of a stone, when a pair are seeking a nesting place, may
often influence them to go elsewhere. On the other
hand, no animals have eyes so quick to discern acts of
friendliness, and, if all appearance of hostility is avoided,
I doubt if we need to modify the daily course of our lives
essentially to have the birds come to us. Their nests
often stand close to railroads and overhang busy streets,
and if not directly molested, many of our most valuable
species seem quite content to take the world as they find
it. This is the result of my observations and experience
for the past ten years.

330 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Few people realize the importance of water to bird
life. How many times a day a bird drinks I have never
seen stated or even

mentioned in any of
the books.!' But we

1 Water may be pro-
vided by placing a shallow
dish on a short post, high
enough to be out of the

reach of cats. The water
should be from one-half
inch deep on the shallow
side to two or three inches
in the deepest part, which
may be accomplished by
either tilting the dish or
by partially filling it with
washed sand or fine gravel.
A large flowerpot saucer
makes a good dish, as it
is a little rough, and it is
said that birds do not like
a slippery floor to stand
on when they bathe. Few
people who have not tried
it can have any idea of the
satisfaction there is in see-
ing the thirsty birds come
down to bathe and drink.
For five. years past I

have had one by my study

Fic. 127. A Birp BATH window, and at the pres-
(Photograph by Timothy F. Myers) ent moment a robin is
making the water fly in
every direction. The next comer is an English sparrow, and the next
and the next and the next two, English sparrows, — while they are with
us we should not wish them to be thirsty,—and the next is a female

robin, the next a red-eyed vireo, the next an English sparrow, all within

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS 331

know they drink often, and they must have their baths
once a day and probably twice in hot weather.

Another kind of bath the birds know how to take, and
people should indulge in more, is the sun bath. The
bird leans over, broadside to the sun, the wings fall, the
bill opens, and every feather is raised to let the light strike
the skin. When we see it for the first time, we think the
bird is dying; but as the solid comfort of it is appreciated,

Fic. 128. MockinG BIRD TAKING A SUN Batu

we can hardly resist the temptation to go and do like-
wise, —bask in the sun.

The lack of pure water and suitable places to bathe
may go farther than anything else toward explaining the
disappearance of birds from our cities during the hot, dry
summer months. Wesee them drinking and bathing in the
gutters and mud puddles, and is it not natural that they take
their nestlings to the country as soon as they can fly ?

fifteen minutes, and so it goes in the noon hour whenever I have time
to watch. Nothing adds more to the comfort of birds in hot weather.

i)

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Ww
is)

As an outdoor lesson ask the class to hunt the district
over thoroughly and report on the number of suitable
places for birds to drink and bathe. Previously discuss
with them what constitutes a suitable place. Our park
waters are commonly too deep and, with their rock-bound
borders, seldom afford a bathing place. Birds recognize
their helplessness when their feathers are wet, so that
streams or pools whose
banks afford hiding
places for cats will be
avoided. Then the
water must be whole-
some, clean, and con-
stant, not likely to fail
on hot days. If there

is a lack of proper bird

Fic. 129. Birp Houses

fountains, call for vol-
Designed and made, at suggestion of Principal ah

J. Chauncey Lyford, by ninth grade manual unteers amon 18 the

training pupils, Winslow Street School, children who will see

Worcester, Mass. The bird house is now F "

adopted as one of the regular models in the to it that the birds of

ninth grade manual training course through- the district are well

out the city :
provided for.

Leaving the matter of food, as most important, to the
last we may next inquire what the children can do to
supply bird homes. The idea of building a bird house
and of having birds live in it has a great fascination for
children. The bare suggestion is sufficient, and off they
go, perhaps carrying the house and running after every
bird they see, calling ‘Come, birdie,’ and great will be
the disappointment at first that every imaginable bird

does not come forthwith and take up its abode.

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS 333

We should guard against such disappointments in con-
nection with the autumn bird census and during the

study of nests and nesting
materials. For each bird
included in their grade plan
they should have clear ideas
as to its preferences and be
led to accommodate them-
selves to the bird’s life,
rather than expect the bird
to do impossible things.
To supply homes, nest-
ing places, and materials
for nests is a fascinating
Trees may be
pruned to make inviting

study.

crotches, and a dark tangle
of bushes overgrown with
vines and sunflowers, dense
lilac bushes, or a “ syringa
thicket”? will be sure to
attract catbirds, brown
thrashers, and some others.
Bird houses furnish homes
for wrens, bluebirds, chick-
adees, nuthatches, tree
swallows, and purple mar-
tins, but here, again, Eng-

Fic. 130. BLUEBIRD

One of the author’s tenement houses.

There are five young ones inside, and
the pair reared three broods in 1901

lish sparrows are the omnipresent nuisance and must be

served frequent notice to quit the premises.

The proper

size for a bird house is six inches square floor space and

334. NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

eight inches high, and houses of more than one compart-
ment may be made by cutting the boards in multiples of

these numbers.
or, if painted, they should
be made the color of an old
tree trunk. A single open-
ing near the top should be
made, two inches in diameter
for most birds ; although, for

Old weathered boards should be used,

Alas, dear friend, that, all my days,
Hast poured from that syringa thicket
The quaintly discontinuous lays
To which I hold a season-ticket,

A season-ticket cheaply bought
With a dessert of pilfered berries,
And who so oft my soul hast caught
With morn and evening voluntaries.

LoweE.1, Nightingale in the Study.

wrens and chickadees, one
inch is sufficient and will serve to keepout English sparrows, |
and for wrens the house should be set in a shady place.
Besides being a cheery songster and a most sprightly
and fascinating fellow, the wren depends for practically
his whole food supply upon the insects of our grounds
and gardens. While wrens have become scarce of late
; years about our towns and cities, driven
out probably by English sparrows, a few
of the children in Worcester have reported
them as occupying their bird houses. No
doubt, we may soon have them common
again if we supply sparrow-proof homes
and get rid of the English sparrows.
Probably no bird possesses a higher
economic value than the chickadee. All
summer he feeds on insects and all winter
on the eggs which they lay on the twigs
and bark and around the buds of trees. Professor Forbush
reports finding 5500 eggs of plant lice in the crop of a
chickadee, this number representing what the bird had
gathered for a single breakfast. When heavy snow and

Fic. 131.
CHICKADEE

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS

335

especially sleet covers the trees, be sure to see that your

chickadees are provided with food.

marrow and meat on it or
a piece of suet fastened to
the limb of a tree and kept
free from ice from time to
time may save dozens of
these precious little lives
during a winter. Chicka-
dees are also among our
cheeriest and tamest birds,
and we could not have too
many of them about our
homes.

For swallows every barn,
and I am tempted to say
house attic as well, should
be provided with a hole high
up in the gables, which can
be left open the whole year,
or at least all the time the
swallows are with us. This
is a custom of our fathers
which should not be per-
mitted to lapse. It is some-
times objected that the birds
bring undesirable insects
into the house. The idea
is probably based on faulty

A fresh bone with

Among the dwellings framed by birds
In field or forest with nice care,

Is none that with the little Wren’s
In snugness may compare.

And when for their abodes they seek
An opportune recess,
The hermit has no finer eye
For shadowy quietness.
WorvswortH, The Wren’s Nest.

This poet, though he live apart,

Moved by his hospitable heart,

Sped, when I passed his sylvan fort,

To do the honors of his court,

As fits a feathered lord of land,

Flew near, with soft wing grazed my hand.
Emerson, The Titmouse.

Further on we found what we were chiefly
looking for—a flock of lively little chicka-
dees. ... They would light on our hands,
inspect the pieces of crushed nut there, knock
off the ones that did not suit them, and
finally fly off with one — usually the largest.

Fioyp C. Noste, aged 14, Bird-Lore,

Vol. I, p. 58.

On two occasions, Chickadees have flown
down and perched upon my hand. Dur-
ing the few seconds they remained there I
became rigid with the emotion of this novel
experience. It was a mark of confidence
which seemed to initiate me into the ranks
of woodland dwellers.

Cuapman, Handbook, p. 390.

Note also Chapman’s “The Legend of
the Salt,” Bird-Lore, Vol. I, p. 55.

Gentle swallow, thou we know

Every year dost come and go;

In the spring thy nest thou mak’st ;

In the winter it forsak’st,

And divert’st thyself awhile

Near the Memphian towers, or Nile.

Anacreon, XXXV, p. 89, Stanley’s

Translation (562 B.c.).

observations, but, in any case, the parasites may be easily
destroyed, and we should do this rather than not have the

336 NATURE

swallows.

STUDY

AND LIFE

Old barns are sometimes seen with this wise

provision, but it is seldom, if ever, found in the new ones

that are fast taking their places.

As the old barns fell to ruin,

New ones, raised to take their places,
Lacked the broad and generous shelter
Which the eaves had once afforded

‘To the owners of the mud huts,

To the swallows of the Saco.

Weary-winged, from distant Southlands,
In the spring have come the swallows,
Seeking hopefully their nestings,

Seeking eaves and sun-warmed barn sides ;
Come and found the crackless clapboards,
Come and found ill-odored pigments,
Come and found new barns for old ones,
Come and found no eaves for shelter,
Come with joy and met with sorrow,
Seeking vainly for old barn sides
Changeless as the cliffs of Paugus.

Weary-winged, the homeless swallows
Flutter on into the darkness —
Whither going? ‘That they know not.
Dut ‘tis certain that the S
That the fonely cliffs of
That the steeps below Chocorua,

Do not bear their cosy dwellings.

Years ago, on man depending,

Mother swallows taught their nestlings
3arns alone were made to build on —
Barns have failed them, man betrayed them.

Bo.es, Chocorua’s Tenants.

As well suppose the trees without leaves

as the summer air without swallows. Ever

BARN

Fie. 132,
SWALLOW’S
NEST

regularly for many years.

since of old time the Greeks went round
from house to house in spring singing the
swallow song, these birds have been looked
upon as the friends of man, and almost as
the very givers of the sunshine. ... The
beautiful swallows, be tender with them,
for they symbol all that is best in nature and
all that is best in our hearts.

Jerrriges, Field and Hedgerow, p. 100.
, § Pp

Then out of the high heaven above, at
once one hears the happy chorus of the barn
swallows; they come rejoicing, their swift
wings cleave the blue, they fill the air with
woven melody of grace and music. Till
Jate August they remain. Like the martins’,
their note is pure joy; there is no coloring of
sadness in any sound they make. ‘The sand-
piper’s note is pensive with all its sweet-
ness; there is a quality of thoughtfulness,
as it were, in the voice of the song sparrow ;
the robin has many sad cadences ; in the fairy
bugling of the oriole there is a triumphant
richness, but not such pure delight; the
blackbird’s call is keen and sweet, but not
so glad; and the bobolink, when he shakes
those brilliant jewels of sound from his
bright throat, is always the prince of jokers,
full of fun, but not so happy as comical.
The swallow’s twittering seems an expres-
sion of unalloved rapture, —I should select
it from the songs of all the birds I know as
the voice of unshadowed gladness.

Ceia THAXTER, Av Jsland Garden, p. 22

1 The nest in the margin was taken from such an old
barn, with swallow holes in the peak, belonging to Elliott
Moore of Worcester, and the swallows have nested in it

Paint and planed lumber are

fast making our buildings impossible for swallows. A
case has recently come to my knowledge, and they are
doubtless numerous, where the nests of a large colony of
eave swallows were scraped down in order to paint a barn.
They deserted the place and have never returned. It would
certainly pay to tack a rough board along under the eaves
of barns, to attract colonies of this most valuable bird.

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS — 337

Even the Indians used to hang gourds to their wig-

wam poles for the martins. The Greeks celebrated the

swallows in poetry and song as early
as the dawn of authentic history. We
cannot afford to let these deep lines of
sentiment and human good fail from
our lives. I have heard complaints
that our barn swallows are becoming
scarce, as though it were due to some
inevitable change in natural condi-
tions. Look at our barns, and the
whole matter is explained. Provide
homes, wherever this has been
neglected, and swallows will soon be
numerous again. It was indeed a
pathetic thing to see, as I did
recently, a fine colony of barn swal-
lows flying round and round a large
barn, examining every knot, clinging

about the too well elazed windows,

s
unable to findan entrance. Farmers
should realize the hot days of suffer-
ing and annoyance from flies, gnats,
and mosquitoes which a beautiful col-
ony of swallows would save.

The purple martin has been prac-
tically driven from our towns and
cities by the English sparrows. It
should be considered no mean public
service to keep a suitable house
clear of sparrows for these beautiful

Fic. 133. Birp House

Erected in the school yard
(Upsala Street). It was
taken by a pair of tree
swallows before it had
been up an hour

338

birds.?

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The bird house for purple martins should be

placed on a pole some distance from trees and buildings,

This guest of Summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve,
By his lov’d masonry, that heaven’s breath
Smells wooingly here. . . .
Where they most breed and haunt, I have
observ’d, .

The air is delicate.

SHAKESPEARE, Macbeth.

All the summer long the swallow is a
most instructive pattern of unwearied indus-
try and affection. ... The swallow is a
delicate songster.

GiLBeRT WuiTE, Selborne, 1767,
Vol. II, p. 5.

most carefully protected.

and the openings may be
three inches in diameter.
The little chimney swift
and the night hawk are
birds of wonderful power
and usefulness in sweeping
the air clear of insect pests.
Both have applied for homes
in our cities and should be

The night hawks nest on the

flat roofs of buildings, and the swifts in unused chimneys.

If every bird has his vocation, as a poetical
French writer suggests, that of the American
robin must be to inspire cheerfulness and
contentment in men. His joyous ‘‘ Cheer
up! Cheerup! Cheery! Becheery! Be
cheery !’’ poured out in the early morning
from the top branch of the highest tree in
the neighborhood, is one of the most stimu-
lating sounds of spring.

Besides admonishing others to cheerful-
ness, the robin sets the example. Not only
is his cheering voice the first in the morning
and the last at night, —of the day birds, —
but no rain is wet enough to dampen his
spirits.

Ouive THoRNE MILLER, Jz
Nesting Time, p. 2.

The swifts nest in colonies
in the same chimneys and
are often killed in great
numbers by fires that are
built during cold weather in
early summer. Great care
should be exercised to avoid
this whenever possible.

To one awakened at morn-
ing and cheered at evening

1It is often stated that purple martins are becoming rare, English spar-
rows being generally given as the cause. This is probably true in the main,
since the sparrows nest before the martins come north, and especially
because the sparrow nuisance has discouraged people from providing
martin houses. That the lack of suitable houses for martins may be at the
bottom of the difficulty is indicated by the fact that a martin house, erected
in Worcester, May 1, became within three weeks the home of nine pairs
of these “rare” birds. Within limits of food supply, we can doubtless
have as many purple martins as we furnish with sparrow-free houses.

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS 339

by their songs through years of childhood, robins are
necessaries of life. No summer is complete without a
pair of these rollicking birds nesting about the house.

Fic. 134. Ropin’s NEST IN THE CHERRY TREE

(Photograph by the author, igor)

But how to induce a pair of wild robins to do this is a
problem fascinating but as yet almost wholly unsolved.
In very dry weather, or where mud is not easily
obtained, it is a good plan to keep a pan of mud on the
post with the birds’ watering dish. Mrs. Treat has

340 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

described how robins take mud for their nests from her
flowerpots, and Olive Thorne Miller relates that a female
robin has been known to dip herself in water, fly directly
into the dust of the street,
and then pick off the mud
from her feet and feathers.
When it comes to this, we
may be sure that a little help
will be appreciated. Several
children in the Worcester
Ten to One Clubs have put
out pans of mud and have
been greatly delighted in a
number of cases by seeing
robins come and carry the mud away. But I hope the
one who first discovers how to make a nook so inviting
that a pair of robins cannot resist the temptation to build

Fic. 135. BLUEBIRD

their nest in it will tell A rout of evanescence
With a revolving wheel ;
me, and every one else, all A resonance of emerald,
c A rush of cochineal ;
about it. And every blossom on the bush
H Adjusts her tumbled head, —
It is almost as hard to do The mail from Tunis, probably,
without bluebirds, orioles, An easy morning’s ride.
< Emity Dicxrnson, Second Series, p. 130.
and vireos, and a host of
i A flash of harmless lightning,
others, and if plenty of nest- A mist of rainbow dyes,
: 5 ri The burnished sunbeams brightening,
ing material be provided at From flower to flower he flies ;
: “os While wakes the nodding blossom,
the proper time, it 1s per- But just too late to see
haps easier to attract orioles What lip hath touched her bosom
p And drained her nectary.

and vireos than any others. Joun B. Tans, p. 59.
They can build in almost any tree and find food in every
garden and orchard. Hence abundance of nesting mate-
rial, linen and cotton thread and strings, store twine, yarn,

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS 341

or tow, may decide a pair to build on the spot. A little
hair for a chipping sparrow is another thing not to be
forgotten, and plenty of honeysuckles and other nectar-
bearing flowers will be sure to attract humming birds.

Fic. 136. HumMminG Birp’s NEST ON AN APPLE LIMB

(About natural size)

Whatever we do to attract a pair of birds to nest on
the premises must be done, of course, at the proper time,
and to this end we should know when each species begins
to nest, and our preparations should be made a week or

342 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

LIFE CHART OF OUR COMMON

Arrive Depart panier pens vation
Broods Days
Bluebird A fewresident, March Nov. ip 23 May, early 12
Robin A few resident,March| Oct., Nov. 2-3 May 12
Wood Thrush May Oct. 2-? May, late 12
Brown Thrasher April, late Oct., late | 1 or 2 | May, early
Catbird April, late Oct., late 2-2 May, early
House Wren April, late Oct., mid. 3 May, early
Chickadee Resident 2 May, early
Vireos May Oct., late I May, early
Cedar Bird : Resident I June-Oct.
Barn April, mid.
Swallows | Eave April Sept., mid. 4
Tree April Oct.

Purple Martin April Sept., mid.
Tanager May Oct., early rf May, late
Grosbeak May, early Oct., early I
Orioles May 1 Sept. 1 1 aad 14
Bobolink May Oct., early I June 1
Kingbird April, late Sept., early | 1 (2?) | May, early | 12-13
Phoebe March, mid. Oct., last 2 May, early ie
Cuckoo May, early Oct., late 2 May, mid.
Chipping Sparrow April 9 Nov. 7 May, mid,
Song Sparrow Resident May 1

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS

343

BIRDS. (LatirupE oF NEw YorRK.)
Young
remain Nest Eggs
in Nest i
; Height 2 Num-
Days Location Feet Material ber Color, etc.
Hollow in tree | 4-10 | Grass 4-6 | Pale blue
or box
Crotch of tree 5-15 | Rootlets, grass, mud | 3-5 | Greenish blue
In sapling 8 Rootlets, mud, fine | 3-5 | Greenish blue
grass
Low, thick o-5 | Twigs, rootlets 3-6 | Grayish white, finely
bushes or on speckled with cin-
ground namon
Thicket ordense| 3-30 | Twigs, leaves, grass, | 3-5 | Dark greenish blue
tree rootlets
Hollow tree,box,| 1-? | Twigs, grass 6-8 | Wine or flesh colored,
or cranny finely speckled
Hollow trees, | 4-20 | Moss, grass, feathers, | 6-8 | White, spotted, and
birch stubs plant down speckled with brown
Pensile in fork | 15-70 | Bark fibers, paper, | 3-4 | White, black spots on
of branch plant down larger end
Fruit and shade | 3-25 | Twigs, bark, grasses, | 3-5 | Pale bluish green,
trees leaves, moss, rootlets spotted with dark
On rafters, etc., Mud, twigs, grass, | 4-6 | White, spotted with
ledges, eaves, feathers brownish
holes in trees, Same as above 4-7 White
bird houses Twigs, grass, feathers White
Bird houses Straws, twigs 4-5 | White
clear of trees
Trees 3-20 | Twigs, weed stems, | 3-4 | Pale bluish or green-
tendrils ish white, brownish
markings
Bushes or trees | 5-20 | Fine twigs, rootlets 4-5 | Pale blue, with brown
markings
14 Pendent from] 8-so | String, hair, plant | 4-6 | White, with dark
branches fibers scrawls and blotches
On ground, in Grasses 4-7 | Grayish white, with
grass brownish spots and
blotches
14 Trees 4-40 | Weeds, grass, moss, | 3-5 White, spotted with
plant down, rootlets umber
14 On beams or| 6-20 | Moss, mud, hairs 4-6 | White, rarely spotted
ledges with brown
Lowtreesorvine-| 4-10 | Sticks, grass 3-5 | Pale bluish green
covered bushes
Bushes and trees| 5-20 | Twigs, grasses, root- | 4-6 Bluish, brownish
lets, hairs markings
On ground, rare- Grasses, dead leaves, | 4-6 | White, or bluish white,

ly on bushes

bark

covered with brown-
ish markings

344 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

two before this occurs. The preceding table, which we
may call a Life Chart of a few of our commoner species,
may serve to bring a number of points of interest together
in convenient form for reference. It would be well if,
each spring, classes in nature study could make a table
of this kind for their own localities. This would bring
out variations in season from year to year, define these
periods more exactly, and furnish incentive and guidance
to active work in supplying homes and nesting materials.

Organized Bird Protection ; the Audubon Societies. — ‘‘ As for
the birds that are the special object of preservation of
your Society, we should keep them just as we keep trees.
They add immeasurably to the wholesome beauty of life.”

These words of President Roosevelt express the matter
in a nutshell. We should have birds about our homes
just as we have trees and flowers. In planning for farms
or gardens, for public parks or for homes, we should
always provide for birds. Bird life, in fact, is the natural
complement of plant life, both useful and beautiful.

To impart to our work for the birds the universality
that shall render it effective for the whole country we
need organization. Happily, this is provided for in the
Audubon Societies, now established in twenty-two states.
Both teachers and pupils may join the societies of their
respective states, and it would be none too many if every
nature-study class should form a branch Audubon Society.
The teachers receive suggestion and help, and the chil-
dren feel the inspiration there is in all working together
for a cause of truly national importance, — the universal
protection, domestication, and increase of our native birds.

1 From a letter of Theodore Roosevelt, Bird-Lore, vol. ii, p. 98.

DOMESTICATION OF OUR WILD BIRDS 345

Objections have been raised to the usual Audubon Society pledges,
due to the negative elements that enter largely into all those I have
seen. The objections do not hold with regard to a clear, positive
statement of purpose, which is always of value in active organizations,
and as such a pledge I would submit the following :

L promise to do all [ can for our native birds by treating them
with kindness and by providing them with food, water, and homes.

The official organ of the Audubon Societies is Bzra-Lore (The
Macmillan Company, Harrisburg, Penn.), each number of which con-
tains an Audubon Society directory. From this any who wish infor-
mation about organizing branch societies may obtain the address of
their State Secretary.

Mrs. BRIGHTWEN. JVld Nature won by Kindness. London, 1898.

Cuares A. Bascock. 47rd Day. Silver, Burdett & Co., rgor.

F.E.L. Beat. “Some Common Birds in their Relation to Agriculture,”
Farmer’s Bulletin No. 54, United States Department of Agriculture,
Washington, 1898.

D. Lance. Our Native Birds. The Macmillan Company, 1899.

346

Goob SAMARITANS

Fic. 137.

CHAPTER XXI

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,

And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.
Emity Dickinson, /n the Garden.

FEEDING and taming go together, for the only way to
a bird’s heart is through his crop. If we have a tempting
morsel in the palm, they will fly toour hands. Had Emily
Dickinson offered a meal worm instead of the “crumb,”
the result might have been different (see Fig. 138). We
must learn enough about a bird’s food to know what to offer,
and we need to come into sympathy with a bird’s life to
know how to offer it so that the proffer may be accepted.

As indicated on the chart, bird foods may be divided
into vegetable and animal, and among the latter different
kinds of insects form the most important part. Artificial
foods will also require a little attention for reasons to be
developed later. It is a fortunate coincidence that many
of the most useful birds are also the most beautiful and
our best songsters. We may divide them into three classes.

347

348 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

The first class includes those that are wholly or almost
wholly insectivorous: the swallows and martins, wrens,
vireos, flycatchers, warblers, cuckoos, night hawks, whip-
poor-wills, swifts, and humming birds. We cannot have
too many of these birds. All they need is safe homes and
water, and they should be encouraged and protected up
to the very limit of insect food. We should not attempt

Fic. 138. ©. 5. D:
A wild robin tamed to come at call by means of a few meal worms.

(Photograph by the author, 1901)

to keep one in confinement for any length of time unless
we have an enormous supply of suitable insects, and
even then, with some of them, their manner of snapping
insects on the wing is so different from that of picking
them up from the ground that we could hardly expect to
feed them adequately or give them sufficient freedom for
health. Those birds, however, that do not catch their
food on the wing, such as the wrens, vireos, warblers,

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 349

cuckoos, and the humming bird, are easily tamed and may
be fed successfully and kept in comfort, if accidentally
disabled for flight.

The second class includes birds that by preference feed
on insects but are able to vary their diet to fruits, nuts,
or grains when insects fail. The bluebird, robin, wood
thrush, mocking bird, brown thrasher, catbird and all other
thrushes, chickadee, cedar bird, grosbeak, meadow lark,
grackle, oriole, and woodpecker
belong in this class. For these
the best work must consist in
planting and preserving such
trees, shrubs, and vines as will
insure them an abundant supply
of their favorite fruits. If de-
sirable, any of this class may be
fed in confinement on fruits,
meats, bread, eggs, potatoes,
and meal worms, as will be
described presently. The birds

in this class that spend the F's. 139. Portrait or A Young
BLUEBIRD

(By Myron W. Stickney)

winter with us — chickadees,
nuthatches, brown creepers, and
woodpeckers — may be attracted to our window sills and
made very tame by supplying them with cracked nuts, suet,
meat, bones, doughnuts, etc., during severe weather.

The two classes already described are commonly known
to bird fanciers as ‘‘soft-billed”’ birds. To the third class
belong the seed-eating, “hard-billed”’ birds, the canary,
goldfinch, song and chipping sparrows; in short, all the
finches and sparrows. These birds are most easily

350 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

and hence most commonly kept in confinement, because
they can be fed almost entirely on seeds. Outside, it is
only necessary to keep a pile of hay-loft sweepings, with
its grass and weed seeds, or to scatter millet, sunflower
seeds, or grain in some sunny, sheltered spot to have such
as remain with us all winter long or arrive early in the
spring feeding under our windows.

To effect the practical taming of the wild birds about
our homes we should do everything calculated to attract
them and to give them a feeling of security in our pres-
ence; and food is the great loadstone. When we begin
this positive work little attention need be given to the
negative side, z.e., refraining from such things as disturb
and frighten them away.

It is comparatively useless to attempt to tame an old
bird. A bird is a quick-lived, extremely sensitive creature,
keenly intelligent within narrow limits. The ability to
help itself within this narrow range, that a child takes
years to learn, the little bird masters in so many weeks or
even days; hence a bird’s brain is so organized that one
decisive lesson commonly lasts its lifetime. This fact
we must bear in mind when we seek to tame a bird, and
one other fact also, which is that a bird is a timid,
defenseless creature whose life for ages has depended
chiefly on ability to fly. With so many enemies on every
side, a bird must interpret any quick movement as a hos-
tile act. Its eyes are probably keener than ours. So in
approaching a bird we can come quite near if we are
careful not to look at it and if we zigzag toward it or
pretend to be looking for something else. For a bird to
stop singing is a signal that we have come as close as we

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 351

dare until we reassure it of our good intentions, possibly
by withdrawing a little or by sitting down and pretending
to look the other way. We must always remember that
one careless or hostile act
may make a bird “wild”
for life.

I mention these points
in order that we may
unite intelligently in
taming the birds about
our homes by doing only
those things that assure
them and make them feel
that we are their friends.
Among the little acts by
which we are able to
give this assurance the
proffer of food is the
most effective. Our
little friend in the
picture proves that we

may have them coming
to our hands, and this Fic.140. Cuppy TAMED TO FEED FROM
is now such a familiar eKouraaiagala
experience that there is
no longer any doubt that
a general movement to domesticate our common wild
birds would be successful. John Burroughs had the
robins in his garden so tame that they would perch on
his knee, waiting for him to turn up a worm. The song

sparrows and humming birds perched upon Celia Thaxter’s

From Bird-Lore, Vol. I. By permission.
(Photograph by Mr. George B. Wood)

a5 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

arms as she busied herself with her flowers, and Mrs.
Treat has long had the birds as tame around her home.
These are leaders who have shown how readily the birds
respond to domestication.

People not infrequently say that wild birds should be
wild. It is not “natural”? for them to be tame. Why
man’s best friends, so beautiful, so graceful in every act,
so harmless and so important, should not be sufficiently
domesticated to look upon man as a friend rather than
as an enemy is a mystery indeed. That it is “natural”
for birds not to fear man is abundantly attested by
their behavior on islands to which unnatural human
abuses have not extended and in wildernesses where
man is seldom seen. Furthermore, I have never known
young birds in the nest to show “instinctive” fear of
man. If a nestling be taken without the least fright
and without hearing the cries of-the parents, it is
practically a tame bird from the first. It will take food
eagerly from the hand, follow one about, beg, and from
the first day act toward a person as toward its own
parent. The same is true of nestlings not quite able
to fly that are picked up on the ground. If this can
be done without frightening them, they will often immedi-
ately perch on the finger and feed from the hand. I
have tested this with young vireos, chipping sparrows,
orioles, grackles, and repeatedly with young robins, which
some even put down in their books as untamable. To
demonstrate this let any one use ordinary care not to
startle or try to grab the little stranger. Think what a
monster the open hand must seem toa bird. The grabbing
of a bird must be, from its point of view, nothing short of

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 353

being swallowed alive. It is a rare lesson in gentleness
to capture a young bird without frightening it, but if
successfully done, your bird is practically tame. If even
a young bird is caught after a severe chase, it is likely to
be days, weeks, and even months, before the effects of
its fright can be obliterated,

EE

and I have known one case
of a young robin that had not
recovered from the effect of
such treatment in connec-
tion with its capture after
more than a year.

I have one reason for
mentioning these facts. It

is not that I wish children
to catch and tame birds to
keep in cages. One tame
bird at liberty about a home
is worth a hundred in cap-

tivity. The reason is, in Fy. 141. A Goop OrpHAN’s HOME
a word, that thousands of — FoR A Day or Two unTIL THE

, WINGS GROW STRONG
fledgelings yearly leave the (Photograph by Myron W. Stickney)
nest a day or two before

their wings are quite strong enough to fly, and fall a
prey to cats. No work in the entire nature course is
more valuable either in humanizing influences for the
children or in practical service in fostering and increas-
ing our valuable bird life than this tiding of the little
orphans over these first hard days out of the nest.
With our rapidly decreasing bird life, the children

owe this work to the birds, to the community, and to

354 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

themselves. But in order that it may effect the desired
saving of birds, the children should be carefully instructed
in the work.

A nest of robins is in the cherry tree. We have been
careful to disturb them as little as possible. We have
kept the water fresh, dug worms for them in the garden,
and with every look and movement have tried to assure
them that they are welcome. Stray cats that have worried
them we have driven off. Finally the most ambitious
cf the overflowing nest tries his wings too soon and falls to
the ground. Both birds are in a panic of alarm, and the
little wide-eyed adventurer, with spotted breast, nest-down
sticking to his feathers, and stubby tail just starting to
grow, sits in the grass and calls loudly for help. Now is
the time to cultivate patience and tact. In afew minutes
the old birds will probably quiet down and go off in search
of food. Then if we approach slowly, the youngster will
quite likely open his bill to swallow us, when we can let
a bit of earthworm or a crushed raspberry fall into the
yawning chasm. He is ravenous. The chasm yawns
again, this time with a new purpose, and in less than five
minutes the nestling is sitting contentedly on our hand
and gulping down berries and worms. Then the little
head grows heavy, the eyelids droop, and Bob is asleep in
our hand.

What we do now depends upon how much time we
have and on whether or not we wish to make a study of
the food of a young robin. Certain it is that returning
it to the nest will avail nothing. If our time is limited,
we may place it in a cage with some green oilcloth for a
roof and hang in the tree near the nest. We may put

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 355

worms and berries around the base of the cage, outside
the wires, to show good intentions, and we shall have
the pleasure of secing the parent birds coming regularly
to feed its occupant. In two or three days the wings
will be strong enough to try again, and if the bird can
fly and has sense enough to take refuge in the trees, it
may be given its liberty.

Any one who has once reared a young bird by hand,
even from the time it leaves the nest until it is able to
shift for itself, will appreciate the fact that we should leave
this work to the parent birds whenever possible. Still an
experience of this sort is a revelation of the mysteries of
bird life.

The first thing we learn is that a nestling does not
know how to feed itself. We may pile all sorts of ber-
ries and worms around it, but it simply sits and clamors
for food. Innumerable young birds have died of starva-
tion at this juncture in the hands’ of well-meaning chil-
dren, much to their discouragement, simply because they
did not think how young and ignorant their pensioners
really were. The bird is probably not more than twelve
or fourteen days out of the eggshell; and for those few
days it has sat in the nest, with nothing to do but to
open its mouth and swallow what its parents put into it.
Suddenly it sees the wide world around it. Its mouth
has always been so wide open that it could not see what
was being put into it. How is it to know berries or
worms or to know how to get them into its bill? I am
convinced from careful study of a number of young birds
of different species that the day they leave the nest they
do not know either of these things, and how could we

36 NATOGRE SiCDY AND-EIFE

so

expect them to, — twelve days out of the egy and part of
one out of the nest?

It is a fascinating study to discover how the parent
birds tide their nestlings over this most difficult period of
their lives. Ask the pupils to watch a familv of birds as
the young leave the nest and to describe what they see.
Olive Thorne Miller writes of seeing one parent bird
call her voung one into a berry bush, and while the
youngster clamored for food and held its mouth wide
open, she quietly helped herself, as much as to say:
« This is the wav we doit. See?” But the young one
could not “ see"; for the only thing it had ever done or
knew how to do was to hold its mouth open and flutter
its wings and beg; and it must have thought the mother
cruel when she slipped away, leaving it alone to study the
lesson. One of the most interesting lessons I ever saw
was given by my big cock robin to his class of four young
ones. The task for that morning was evidently to learn
how to catch and eat earthworms. It was a drizzling
morning in June. All the youngsters were fully fledged,
and each appeared about as large as the daddy. They all
hopped along in a group, the parent a little in the lead.
Soon he pounced upon a large worm, and while he tugged
it out of its burrow, what did the young ones do but sit
back, hold their mouths open, flutter their wings, and beg?
He threw the worm, squirming, among them. Not one
attempted to touch it. He picked it up again and, whack-
ing it on the ground, broke it into bits. Not one of his
class offered to help. They, every one, simply held their
mouths open and begged. He tossed the squirming bits
on the ground before them. Not one caught the idea,

TAMING AND FEEDING BERDS 357

and finally he fed a piece of the worm to cach onc, The
sine tesson was repeated with the next worm, and the
next, and so on for newly an hour; but never a youngster
offered to do anything but sit up and beg. That teacher
will remain a model of patience as long as TE live. It
was the most amusing and most instructive bit of bird
lite Poever observed, and To saw in a flash just why it
is that a young bird may starve with food piled high
around it,

Hlow long this period of helplessness lasts for different
birds Po have never found stated in the books. —[ have
found it fo be from two to five days with young robins.
During this tine every morsel must be placed fv (Ae yomny
bird's mouth, and it should be fed at least once an hour
from sunrise to sunset,

What is a nestling’s menu for a day? No one has
answered this question.£ There are about sixteen meals to
be accounted for, Are they varied course dinners, with
insects and fruit for dessert? Are they rather monotonous
alfiits 2 Does a parent bird bring worms to its young
for one neal, grasshoppers for the next, and berries for
the third or do they pet the same thing all day long?
Do they make no intelligent choice, but feed whatever
they find first? “These questions may seem farfetehed,
but to one who has been trying his hand at feeding young
birds they become intensely practical, None of them have
been answered, so far as T know; but the fact seems to

NT owns ones watching five young cedar birds justont of the nest, when
the mother bird thew down to them. ‘“Phey were all ina row on ae twig,
and Tsaw her drop a ced carrant into each of the open mouths in’ turn,
Pahould tike to have known what their next moal was,

358 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

be, that while different species doubtless have quite differ-
ent habits of feeding, all birds seek and enjoy great variety
in foods.

As to the choice we make, the only rule to follow is to
provide as nearly as possible the natural foods of the
species. The food chart tells us nearly all that is known
on this subject. With any species we have only to fol-
low out the line from the name and read at a glance what
the bird is known to eat. If the exact species is not on
the chart, we may study the foods of closely related birds
and not go far astray. We should also bear in mind that
even the finches and sparrows feed their young as long
as they are in the nest, chiefly, or wholly, on insects.
Spiders are often called, among bird fanciers, the best
medicine a bird can have, and J have found this true. If
your bird seems to be inclined to droop, a meal of these
will almost invariably act like magic. It will be noticed’
that every bird in the chart eats grasshoppers. These
can generally be caught in abundance toward the end of
summer. At this season they are filled with eggs and
form a most nutritious diet. Grasshoppers would make
a most valuable insect bird food for winter use if caught
at this time and dried. They should be scalded and dried
thoroughly, and then if scalded again a short time before
feeding, they are nearly as good as fresh. « Ants’ eggs,”
which are the pupz of ants, are also a valuable bird food.
They may be had of bird dealers for about a dollar a
pound, but for a dry food I think grasshoppers may well
take their place. For the sake of variety the children
may be encouraged to try gathering a few from under-
neath stones and logs or from ant-hills.

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 359

The best insect food for all soft-billed birds is meal
worms, and every child that wishes to help young birds in
the way suggested or care for any wounded bird that may
fall in his way should learn how to rear them and keep a
supply on hand. They are also excellent food for winter
birds and for robins and bluebirds and many others that
come early in the spring. We do not always have the
time to collect insects in sufficient quantity, but we can
always have a supply of meal worms if we once learn how
to rear them.

The meal worm is the larva of a black beetle which
can be found from May to October about granaries, mills,
where feed is kept in stables, in the dust of haylofts, in
pigeon lofts, and meal chests. The eggs are laid in these
places and when hatched and fully grown the larvze are
smooth yellow, Zenebrio molitor, or blackish, 7. obscurus,
“worms,” about an inch in length. While commonly
looked upon as pests, for feeding birds they are well-nigh
indispensable. The writer has paid twenty-five cents a
dozen for them to feed mocking birds, and the market price
by the wholesale is $1.50 per thousand. If we know how
to use them, the worms ina meal chest may thus be worth
many times the value of the meal, chest and all.

Directions in the bird books for raising meal worms are
quite misleading, and in order to go to work intelligently we
must learn the life story from egg to egg. The first fact to
learn is that the insect is single brooded, z.2., it requires an
entire season to complete its growth. The beetles may be
found laying eggs from May until freezing weather in
the fall. The early eggs will produce larve that are full-
grown by September or October of the same season, and

360 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

larve from the late eggs do not attain their growth until
about midsummer of the next season. A female beetle
lays from twenty to fifty eggs. While practically any fari-
naceous material—corn meal, ground feed, cracker crumbs,
bread crusts —is suitable, feeding experiments have proved
that wheat, in some form or other, is preferred and yields
the best specimens.

The easiest way to rear a supply is to imitate nature,
z.¢., make a heap of bran and shorts in some out-of-the-
way corner inthe barn. Ground feed, corn meal, oatmeal,
flour, bread crusts—any of these, discarded for fresher
supplies — may be used. The beetles will find it and do all
the rest. It is well to tuck into different parts of the pile
raw potatoes or apples to supply water from time to time
as they are eaten, and the whole should be covered with
sacks or pieces of carpet. Woolen rags are called for
in the usual directions, but the number of clothes moths
that they may breed makes their use unadvisable, and cot-
ton cloths or burlap seem to answer about as well. The
only difficulties with this method are that other insects
are apt to find the material and become a nuisance and
that rats and mice, if they are allowed on the premises,
may devour practically the whole crop.

Perhaps a better way is to fill a tight box or earthen
jar half full of the food material, put in scraps of old
leather, cover with woolen cloths, and have a lid of wire
screen. Put in a few hundred larve or beetles and leave
undisturbed, except to insert a raw potato from time to
time. If this be done about April, a good supply of
larvee will be obtained for use the following fall, winter,
or spring.

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 361

Where natural insect food is not obtainable a number
of artificial bird foods are available, the chief of which
is the so-called “mocking-bird food” of the bird stores.
But if we bear in mind what has been said of variety, the
use of this somewhat troublesome mixture is not a neces-
sity. The people in Ireland, it is said, feed their pet
birds chiefly on mashed potato; in Scotland, on oatmeal;
in China, on rice. Bread and milk form a good staple food
for young soft-billed birds. Vary this diet with berries,
a few insects, the yolk of hard-boiled eggs, scrapings from
raw beefsteak or finely chewed or minced cooked meat, and
almost any bird of this class will thrive. Finely chewed
nuts are also eaten with great relish and may be given with
advantage once or twice a week.

These directions are given with the primary purpose of
teaching children enough to enable them to save fledge-
lings and wounded birds, tame them, and let them go
when they are able to take care of themselves. If they
remain tame, so that they will come at call, build their
nests near by, and allow us to study their foods and habits
at close range, they will be the most interesting pets in the
neighborhood; and in this way practical domestication
may be extended to many of our valuable wild birds.

A secondary purpose has to do with practical lessons
upon bird foods. Numbers of birds have been shot in
different parts of the country, and the contents of their
stomachs have been analyzed to discover what the species
feeds upon. This has resulted in acquisition of much
valuable knowledge, which has stimulated interest in
better laws and in the more efficient protection of bird
life. But this method is quite imperfect and cannot be

362 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

recommended for school use; while feeding tests with nest-

lings, conducted in the manner suggested for the toad,

gs
would open the eyes of children to the work birds. per-
form in nature as no amount of book work could do.
Toward the end of the spring term the fledgelings that the
children are rescuing should be utilized for such study,
and not infrequently a crippled bird that could not be

Fic. 142. A ConrrRAST IN HOUSEKEEPING

Nests of chipping sparrow and English sparrow

safely liberated may come into the possession of the school
and may be kept for such tests. The usual objections to
caged birds would not apply to such cases.

But, after all, the taming of a bird is the great lesson,
—great chiefly for its influence upon the child. It isa
lesson in gentleness, tact, and patience that cannot be
excelled in the whole realm of nature study. If a child
has once accomplished this feat, its civilizing influence
may go with him as long as he lives.

Books about birds are now so numerous and so acces-
sible to all that I hesitate to name any, since space forbids

TAMING AND FEEDING BIRDS 363
giving a complete list. A few hours spent in the public
library with the different authors may spare the purse and
save the shelves from a burden of books that will be opened
but once. We may leave to specialists the treatises which
deal chiefly with classification and museum methods of
bird study. Happily, we have a goodly number of books
that enter into the spirit of bird life. We will follow these
and still bear in mind that the great book lies daily open
before us in the bird life about our homes.

Natural history is taught in infant schools by pictures stuck up
against walls, and such like mummery. A moment’s notice of
a redbreast pecking at a winter’s hearth is worth it all. WuILLiam
WORDSWORTH.

364

4
“
i]

ee

HILLs GATE

Forest

OM

ARNOLD ARBORETUM F

FG. 143.

CHAPTER XXII
ELEMENTARY FORESTRY

THE CULTURE AND APPRECIATION OF TREES

Who does his duty is a question
Too complex to be solved by me,
But he, 1 venture the suggestion,
Does part of his that plants a tree.
LoweLL.

To surround the home and schoolhouse and to shade
the roadsides with trees is a worthy purpose about which
to group our studies, and without some such aim what is
learned about bark, leaves, and forms of tree tops one day
may be forgotten the next. As with flowers the inner
purpose is to develop an enduring interest, love, and appre-
ciation of trees that shall make impossible their so com-
mon injury and abuse. To this end we must again have
recourse to the fundamental principle of “doing.”

Ask the pupils to write a description from memory of
the trees about their homes, telling the different kinds they
know, giving the story of their planting, the rapidity of
their growth, their present size, and other points of inter-
est. For another writing lesson the pupils may sketch a
plan giving the kinds of trees they would like to rear and
plant about the schoolhouse. These exercises will serve
to bring out what the children know about trees, and by
giving some attention to the subject each year, according

365

366 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

to the grade plan, we may teach a working knowledge of
from twenty to forty important forest trees during the
school course.

It has seemed to me that the key to the situation lies
in a knowledge of the seeds of trees and methods of
saving and germinating them. A tree seed in the act of
sprouting is one of the inspiring things in nature. The
possibilities contained in it, the size to which it may
grow, the beauty it may develop, the long years it may
live, the infinite numbers of seeds it may produce, all
stretch out into a vista
before us. It is here,
too, that we grasp the

lever with which to do
something worth while.
Too much of our tree
study is passive and
selfish and lacking in the
ideality and altruism of
our grandfathers who
planted the trees we now enjoy. A bright young man
recently said to me: “I would have as soon thought

Fic. 144. SEEDLING TREES

Reared in a schoolroom

”

of planting a gold mine as of planting a chestnut tree.
And so we have “four boys to one chestnut.”” But why
should this be so? What a tremendous force in nature
we lay hold of if we have the faith to place a seed in the
earth and give it a chance to grow! Centuries of sunshine
and rain will do the rest.

Beginning, then, with the seeds let the children bring
such as they can find to make a school collection of
the kinds most desirable to plant in the neighborhood.

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 367

Encourage them to notice when each species blossoms
and ripens its seed. A calendar, like that suggested for
the flowers, may be put on the blackboard as a stimulus
and reward for diligent observation. Many trees have
such inconspicuous flowers that the children may need
some help, especially in the lower grades; and often the
stamens and pistils are borne on separate flowers and
sometimes on different trees.!

The next topic is methods of germinating tree seeds.
When we relegate the discussions of “cotyledons,” “ plu-
mules,” and ‘radicals” to high-school or college botany
we may utilize some of the wealth of tree seeds that fall
on our streets and forests every year for truly elementary
studies in germination, instead of confining the work to
beans, peas, squashes, and corn. The first suggestions as
to methods of planting may well be taken from the trees
themselves. Encourage each child to observe and reason
for himself and then write, or tell in the lower grades,
how the tree plants its own seeds. This is a fine study.
Each kind has a method of its own, but they all may be
grouped for convenience as follows.

I. Trees that ripen their seeds in the spring. — Among these
are the elms, soft maples, poplars, cottonwoods, and wil-
lows. They all scatter their seeds to the winds. The
seeds are light, and when they reach the ground they are
floated by the rains to low, moist places,—the banks of

1 My attention has been called to the fact that single nut trees, espe-
cially the chestnut, where they are not indigenous, fail to mature nuts.
This is probably due to the necessity of cross-pollination. Thus, instead
of planting a single tree, or single trees far apart, better results might be
obtained by planting in groups.

368 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

streams, the shores of ponds, the gutters of city streets, —
where they quickly germinate (except the red elm, which
will not sprout until the following spring) and, if condi-
tions remain favorable, produce vigorous seedlings the
same season.

2. Nut seeds that ripen in the fall. — Oak acorns, chestnuts,
black walnuts, butternuts, hickories, hazels, and lindens
fall under their parent trees, and their rounded forms
enable them to roll into holes or down the hillsides. The
trees cover them with their leaves, and the winter snows
bury them. The spring freshets carry many of them down
the gullies and ravines and leave them buried in masses
of dead leaves, leaf mould, and rubbish along their courses.
This class of trees also, by their nutritious nuts, seeks
the aid of animals in the dissemination of the seeds; the
rows of nut trees along our stone walls show how well
the squirrels, especially, have done their work. To this
class may be added also the seeds of our cone-bearing
trees, the pines, spruces, and larches, but they are largely
disseminated by the winds.

3. Seeds in fleshy fruits. — Among these are the wild
cherries, hawthorns, hackberries, plums, mulberries, dog-
woods, and crab apples. The fruits of most of these roll
into holes or down the streams with the nuts, but they
also hire the birds to plant and scatter, and most of the
trees of this class that we have were probably cared for in
this way.

4. Dry seeds that ripen in the autumn. — The ashes, birches,
hard maples, box elders, and ironwoods, like the soft maple
and elm, trust their seeds to the winds and waters to dis-
seminate and plant.

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 369

5. Seeds borne in pods. — The locusts and coffee tree, the
catalpa, the Judas tree, and acacias have hard, dry seeds,
difficult and slow to germinate, which they scatter to the
winds.

Taking our primary suggestions from the trees them-
selves, we may next ask the children to observe, in case of
certain trees in the neighborhood, about how many of
their seeds produce trees. Is the small proportion due
to failure in securing favorable conditions to germinate,
or are the seedlings dried up or overgrown with weeds
before they become strong enough to take care of them-
selves? We may answer this question in a general way
by saying that the trees have done their best to secure
the germination of the seeds, but that they are forced to
depend largely on accidents of wind and water. These
may take them to unsuitable places, may bury them too
deep, or leave them exposed to dry up. What, then, may
we do to assist the trees in their work? We may help
them save their seeds, we may plant them under the most
favorable conditions, and protect the seedlings until they
are strong enough to take care of themselves.

Methods of saving tree seeds is a large subject, and I
shall give only a few hints, in the hope that they may be
helpful in making a beginning.

The first fact to bear in mind is that most tree seeds
lose their vitality rapidly and hence should be planted
as soon as possible after ripening. Drying is the thing
chiefly to be guarded against, especially with nuts, acorns,
and similar seeds; these and fall-ripening seeds may best

1¥For further instructions, see Forestry in Minnesota, Samuel B. Green,
Delano, Minn., 1898.

370 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

be planted as soon as ripe. If it be desired to keep them
until the following spring, they should be mixed with moist
sand and left out of doors through the winter. Small
quantities may be covered with a flat stone or an over-
turned sod in a place where water is not likely to stand.

Seeds of fleshy fruits should be washed clean of pulp
and planted in the fall, or they may be kept under stones
or sods and planted in the spring. Many of these — the
pits of cherries, plums, and peaches — germinate better
if allowed to freeze while moist.

A number of the tree seeds are said to be “refractory”
from the fact that they insist upon lying dormant one
or two years before germinating. The locusts, redbud,
thorn apples, red cedar, and lindens belong in this class.
If seedlings do not appear the first year, keep the rows
in the seed bed well marked and watch for them the
following spring. Germination may be hastened with
the leguminous seeds and the lindens by pouring boil-
ing water over them just before planting. To germi-
nate the red cedar soak the berries in strong lye for
twenty-four hours, rub off the pulp, and then mix with
moist sand and let them freeze during the winter. Even
after this, they will probably not germinate until the
second spring. Unless magnolia seeds be thoroughly
cleansed of their gummy coverings, they will not germi-
nate at all.

Seeds of coniferous trees should be gathered in the
early fall, before the cones open. As soon as the cones
dry they open and release the seeds. They should be
mixed with dry sand and kept in a cold place until the
following spring.

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 371

After directions for saving the seed, the next topics
are naturally the seed bed and methods of planting.

For the school bed select a strip of ground about three
feet wide, sheltered on the north and west by a hedge or
fence. Make the soil mellow to a depth of from twelve to
fifteen inches and enrich it with leaf mould or rotted sods.
Sow the seeds in drills eight inches apart across the bed,
quite thickly since many tree seeds are imperfect. When

Fic. 145. A TREELESS STREET

they come up, thin to about an inch apart by removing
the weaker seedlings after danger of damping off is past.

The depth to which the seeds are covered is a matter
of great importance, more tree seeds being killed by too
deep covering than in any other way. Elm seeds, for
example, are unable to germinate if planted half an inch
deep. A good general rule, as with many other seeds, is
to cover them about their own diameter. The ground

372 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Fic. 146. ABUSED STREET TREES

should be neither wet nor dry, but mellow, and after the
seeds are planted it should be lightly rolled or packed
and then well wet down. If the bed is likely to dry out
quickly, it is well to sprinkle over it a thin layer of pine
needles or sphagnum moss, but this should be drawn aside
when the plants appear, to avoid mould and damping off.

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 373

Most tree seedlings start in spots partially shaded by
other trees, and, if possible, the bed should be located
where it will be shaded in the afternoon. The two dan-
gers to which the little trees are subject are drying and
burning up in the sun, and damping off in the shade
and wet. If natural shade be not at hand, a convenient
screen may be made by nailing laths on a frame the width
of a lath apart. Supported on little posts one or two feet
above the bed, this will give half-shade.

Where land is not available the children may rear their
trees in flowerpots or in window boxes, and the main idea
be attained,—that of planting and rearing trees from
the seed.

The next topic is the treatment and care of trees. Are
there trees enough on the streets? Ask the children to
investigate the conditions prevailing in the locality, and
let them write or tell how street and roadside trees,
especially, may be protected from injury. Have them
learn the city or town ordinance with reference to injury
of shade trees and the rules of the tree warden of their
neighborhood. The chief object of these inquiries should
be, not to threaten or suggest punishment in case they
injure the trees, but to develop their ideas of the public
values of trees for shade and beauty and make them
active protectors of the trees in their own town or city.
Let each member of the class examine one hundred
roadside trees and state how many are horse-gnawed or
barked by wagons, how many have tree guards around
them, and what kinds are used. Do the tree guards add
beauty to the street? These studies may be used to
interest the public in the proper care of shade trees.

374 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Instead of inclosing the trees in guards, it has always seemed more
fitting the crime if those who injure them were put into the guards
for a while. Still, accidents are likely to happen, and cheaper and
less conspicuous guards may be made with strong wire netting fas-
tened around the trunk, as shown in Fig. 148. However, in my vari-
ous travels I have found
at least one city where
public sentiment ade-
quately protects the shade
trees of its beautiful streets.
This city is Richmond,
Indiana, and it may well
stand as the ideal for less
favored cities in this re-
spect. Its wide streets,
with their four rows of

beautiful trees, without
guards of any sort, and
none of them injured, make
its residential sections
practically forest parks,
shady and cool by day

and a fairyland under the
electric lights at night.

Nut trees and their
planting and _treat-
ment should form a
study well calculated

Fis. 147. to appeal “to the Fie. 148.
TREE GUARDS children. Nuts are a WIRE GUARDS

delicious and wholesome food for the fall and winter

months, and nutting parties are outings with exercise
and purpose in them. Are there nuts enough, and a
good variety, for all the children to have a supply from

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 375

October to May?
not. Let them ask
their parents about
the history of nut
trees in the neigh-
borhood to find out
whetherthey havein-
creased or decreased
in number during
their recollection.
Let them ascertain,
so far as possible,
the causes for de-
crease in nut trees,
if such has occurred,
and encourage them
to reason out the
best ways by which
these causes may be
counteracted and
nut trees increased.
In the writer’s
experience abuse of
nut trees, and of
those who own
them, is the chief
reason why we do
not have as many
as we could wish.
Is that true in the
neighborhood ? The

If not, ask the class to explain why

Fic. 149. THANKS FOR BEARING CHESTNUTS
(Photograph by the author)

376 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

accompanying photographs tell the story. It is certainly
a brutal recompense when a tree has borne its load of
nuts to stone it or pound it with iron sledge hammers,
to throw ropes over it and tear off its branches. So
it has come to pass that farmers in the neighborhood
of towns, at least, cannot raise chestnut timber, because
the trees are bruised, growth is stunted, and at the
wounded places decay develops, which soon renders the
whole tree worthless. Thus nut trees must be ruled
out from roadside planting,
simply on account of thought-
less abuse, and year by year
fine bearing trees are cut down
on account of the clubbing and
stoning and nuisance that rages
around them while the nuts
are ripening. If this senseless
process goes on, many districts
will be wholly reduced to deserts
as far as their nut trees are

concerned, as some already have
Fic. 150. Marxs or Ancient been. Our only hope is again
AS on the positive side. Set the
ae ey eee children to planting nuts. Can-
near-by houses not they do what the squirrels
have done so well? It is a

little thing to plant a nut in a sheltered place by the
edge of a flat stone along a roadside wall, but there is
altruism and ideality in the act, and the child who has
done it will begin to love and appreciate the trees as

never before.

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 377

A generous portion of the propagation bed may be
devoted to nut raising, and the seedlings may be used
in lessons on grafting with the best varieties and, later,
be transplanted into favorable locations. We must, then,
study what the best varieties are. Nut culture is a sub-
ject that has been neglected in this country, and, as a
consequence, we annually import about $4,000,000 worth
of nuts and then do not have enough to go around,
Little is known as to best varieties of any kind of native
nut. No two trees of any given kind produce nuts
exactly alike, in size, shape, flavor, and other qualities.
Which is the best chestnut, hickory nut, black walnut,
butternut tree in the neighborhood? A nut show in the
school, similar to the fruit and flower exhibitions spoken
of in previous chapters, will prove an instructive bit of
nature study and may serve to awaken interest in the
possibilities of their rational culture.

1 Nut Culture in the United States, Department of Agriculture, Wash-
ington, 1896, should be referred to in this connection. See also “The
Forest Nursery: Collection of Tree Seeds and Propagation of Seedlings,”
by George B. Sudworth, Bulletin No. 29, United States Department of
Agriculture, Washington, 1900.

WU I
J THY ANVIONY MAN V dO SATAL "1ST ‘DIG

378

CHAPTER. XXIII
ELEMENTARY FORESTRY (Continued)

INFLUENCES OF FORESTS ON SOIL FORMATION, SURFACE
WATERS, AND ON CLIMATE; FOREST FIRES

Ask the class to observe freshly cut banks, railroad
cuts, quarries, excavations, washouts, etc., in forest land
to learn two things, not sufficiently appreciated in this
country: (1) formation of humus or leaf mould; (2) dis-
tribution of roots below the surface. With a sharp tool,
when the ground is wet, cut out a square foot of the
“forest floor,” — leaves, dead sticks, leaf mould, — down
to solid earth; mount in a box with at least one side
glass for study and for experiments to be described below.
Beneath this covering the soil is black for some distance,
— “surface soil” or “loam.” Take a pound or so of this
also for study and experiment, and, to compare with it,
secure a similar specimen of loam from a field long under
cultivation. Compare the two as to color, appearance,
and consistency. Which seems to be “richest”? ? Which
would be best to plant seeds in?

What makes the loam black and rich? Suppose we
take an equal amount, say 100 grams (one of the chil-
dren can get it weighed at the nearest drug store, if there
are no scales in the school), of leaf mould, of loam from
the forest and of soil from the field) We know thae

379

380 NATURE, Si WIDY VAND Se EE

wood, leaves, and all kinds of vegetable matters burn
up readily; and we know that coal is vegetable matter
that has been buried in the earth. We must be sure
that the samples
are dry before
we weigh them ;

L4F iy

then we will
see how much
of them we can
burn away. To
do this we will

place the sample
on a clean piece
of tin or sheet
iron and heat it
red hot over a
gas stove or over
a bed of coals in
the furnace, and,
after we are sure
no more can be
burned away,
we will weigh
again. We saw
that the leaf
mould burned
brightly and left
alight mass of ashes onthe tin. These weighed 22 grams,
which means that leaf mould is 78 per cent vegetable
matter. The black loam from the woods left more earth
and ashes behind. This remainder weighed 89 grams,

Fic. 152. How a CHESTNUT TREE HOLDS SOIL
TOGETHER

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 381

which proves that forest loam is II per cent vegetable
matter. The soil from the barren field did not burn and,
on weighing, we found

99 grams, giving only I
per cent organic matter.
Put the burned samples
away in dry bottles,
of clear glass and simi-

lar size and shape, for

the school collection.
These arevaluable speci- .

Fic. 153. RELATION OF Humus To
mens that tell a long GROWTH OF Co
story. Compare again

as to color and composi-

tion, so far as this can be
done by the unaided eye and by feeling with the fingers.
Are the samples not more alike than before they were
burned ?

Have a few of the class fill a series of flowerpots or
boxes with different kinds of soil, as shown in Fig. 153,
and in them plant corn or other seeds. This work may
be varied in regard to soils and seeds planted. The plants
should stand together in one of the schoolroom windows,
where they may receive equal light and care. Observe
and possibly measure the growth from time to time.

We have thus found that vegetable matter is the chief
constituent that makes the soil black and rich; and we
know that this comes from falling leaves and twigs and
from decaying roots of the forest. How long does it take
the trees to make rich loam? In the main, this is a ques-

a

tion that the children will not find time toanswer. They

382 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

may find freshly cut stumps near some of the sections of
the soil that they have been studying, and, by counting the
annual rings, they may arrive at some idea as to how long
the forest has been at its work. Their fathers may also
tell them something about the woods in the neighborhood.
The following answer (from Green, p. 36) is the most

Fic. 154. APPARATUS FOR TESTING RETENTION OF WATER BY
DIFFERENT SOILS

The figure represents 100 grams each of gravel, sand, barren soil, loam, and leaf
mould, and 25 grams of leaves
definite that I have been able to find. He says: “It has
been estimated that after a sandy soil in New England is
so exhausted that it will produce nothing but red mosses
it may be renewed to its pristine vigor and productive-
ness by the growth of trees on it for thirty years.”’
Let us next see what relations soils of different kinds
bear to the water that falls upon them. These questions

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 383

are of interest in connection with all the foregoing work in
gardening and the cultivation of plants, for water, in con-
nection with rich soil, is the great essential to plant growth.

Let us take again 100 grams of gravel, sand, soil from
the barren field, rich loam from the woods, leaf mould, and
25 grams of dry pulverized leaves. Knock the bottoms
out of six tall, slender bottles (the common olive-oil bottles
are well adapted for this experiment, or large glass tubes
may be used). Dry before weighing and put the samples
each into its bottle, inverted, with the neck stoppered with
a notched cork. Shake the different materials so that
they lie evenly and compactly, and then from a measuring
glass pour in water slowly, so that the whole mass is wet,
and see how much water each will absorb before the water
begins to run out at the bottom. Or we may pour into
each a known amount, say 100 cubic centimeters, and then
measure all that runs through. The quantity absorbed is
known as capillary water or film moisture. It is this that
constitutes the water supply for the roots of plants in the
soil. Fertility, the power of the soil to support plants,
thus depends largely upon its power to retain water.

In the experiment represented in Fig. 154 the results
were as follows:

GRaAMs ABSORBED
Gravel 100 8.5 grams
Sand 100 36 te
Barren Soil 100 40 “
Rich Loam 100 69 “
Leaf Mould 100 210 “
Leaves 25 120 “

To make the result still clearer we may take a piece
of punk, or partially decayed wood, dry thoroughly and

384 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

cut down until it weighs 100 grams; soak in water and
weigh again. We thus find that the vegetable matter in
the soil is one of the chief elements that enables it to soak
up water.

From the data gained in the above experiments
encourage the children to estimate the influence of the
forest floor on soaking up and retaining the water that
falls in the form of rain or snow upon it.

Next, ask the class to describe the springs and streams
in the neighborhood. This will form a valuable coérdina-
tion with their geography lessons, and they should draw
maps showing the woods, springs, and streams. Ask them
especially to note whether the spvzmgs are muddy. Are
the streams of the neighborhood muddy? Are they
muddy all the time or only after heavy rains?

With a series of tumblers of water, into which a little
gravel, sand, loam, and leaf mould have been stirred, study
the way different materials settle to the bottom. How
does this illustrate the way we find such materials depos-
ited in sand banks along a stream? Some part of the
district may afford a good example. Let the children,
from time to time, bring in bottles of water skimmed
from the surface of the stream and have them study what
the stream is doing,—what it is carrying away. Wood
and leaves, stubble and cornstalks, with now and then an
acorn or a nut —everything that floats—is going down
stream. Examine the banks of the stream, where often
tons of this rich material have been lodged during a
freshet. Lead the class to reason from these observa-
tions and experiments that the best part of the soil is
being washed away.

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 385

In connection with geography lessons trace the journey
of the soil that is being carried from the district, until it
reaches the ocean. Has the teacher or have members of
the class visited any of the cities along the route and

Fic. 155. TENEMENT HousES MADE BEAUTIFUL

(Photograph by Louis P. Nash, Holyoke, Mass.)

observed the working of dredges in deepening the chan-
nels and cleaning the mud out of the harbors? Many
millions of dollars are expended annually in river and
harbor improvements, much of which might be saved by
keeping the soil at home.

Now follow this material back into the fields and hills,
where the forest has been recently cleared away, and
where the ground is bare and has been washing badly.
Show how, after the lighter constituents of the soil have
been washed away, the sand and gravel are taken up and
carried over the fertile ground below. Compare the way

386 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

the soil washes in the woods, in grass land, and where the
‘ground is bare.

Next let us study how we can keep the soil at home
and make the water clear as crystal. Pour a tumbler of
muddy water into a filter and catch the water in a clean
glass as it comes through. In one of the bottles with the
bottom out make a filter of leaf mould, pack it well and
wash the dust out of it, if necessary, and then see how
clear muddy water may be made by passing through it.
Can we make it as clear as the water from the spring or
well? Why not? How deep is the filter through which
the spring water passes? Do we need a very thick filter,
if it is fine enough ?

Find a pond in the neighborhood with an inlet and outlet;
a temporary one will serve the purpose if no permanent
ponds are available. Study the water that flows in and
compare it with that which flows out. Refer back to the
experiments of settling muddy water in the tumblers, and
call attention to the fact that the lighter particles remain
floating a long time and may even leave the pond by
the outlet. There are other ways of keeping the water
pure, which will be taken up when we study aquaria, but
these two, filtering and settling, are the chief methods
with which every plan for purification of surface waters
must begin.

The water supply to a district is another topic closely
related to the foregoing. Does the water run off in
torrents after a rain and when the snows melt in the
spring? Do the springs and wells go dry and the streams
fail in a long period of drought? Are the springs and
streams generally lower than they used to be? If this

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 387

is so, why is it? What do the children know about
the way the snow melts in the spring? Where does
it melt first? Where can they find the last snow bank
in the spring? Bring out the fact that the snow melts
slowly in the woods, allowing the water to soak into the
ground.

We have already seen that the leaf mould, with its mass
of tangled roots, and the loam of the forest floor absorb
water like a huge sponge and give it up slowly to the
springs below and to the leaves of the trees above. It
has been found that only from one-half to one-quarter as
much water evaporates from forest land as from land
under cultivation, and to gain a hint as to one of the
factors that cause this we may make some further experi-
ments upon soil of different kinds in the tumblers.

Let the class arrange and label eight tumblers of the
same size and shape and, having the materials dry, fill to
within one-half inch of top with the following materials :
gravel, No. 1 ; sand, No. 2; barren soil, No. 3 ; rich loam,
Nos. 4 and 5; about one inch each of gravel, sand, and
loam in order, the loam on top, No. 6 ; two inches of rich
loam with one inch of finely pulverized leaf mould on top,
No. 7; water, No. 8. Weigh each and, unless it is
desired to study fractions, bring them all up to even
grams to start with by adding a little of the appropriate
dry material. Then pour into each, except the last, an
equal amount of water, say 100 cubic centimeters. Place
the tumblers somewhere in the schoolroom where the sun
will not shine on them and every day at the same time
weigh them all carefully to see how much water has
evaporated from each. Set down the weighings on the

388 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

blackboard in the following form. If desired, the children
may copy them into their notebooks.

WEIGHT

TWENTI-
ETH Day,
ETC.

First Seconp | Turrp | FourtH | Firtru TENTH
Day Day Day Day Day Day

With No. 5, keep the top, to a depth of about half an
inch, loose and fine by stirring.
The influences of trees on weather and climate are topics

1 These observations may be repeated in various ways that will readily
suggest themselves to the teacher. The two main facts that the children
should get, are, first, that loam and leaf mould protect the water in the
soil from drying up; and, second, that a covering of fine dry dust serves
this purpose most effectually. They should thus learn, as Professor Bailey
puts it, how to water their gardens with a rake instead of with a watering
pot. It would also be well, in clayey districts, to have a third tumbler of
loam and stir it thoroughly, after adding the water, to show the effect of
working the soil while wet, it will then dry in hard lumps.

In this connection, too, it is well to repeat the common experiment of
wetting two spots on the blackboard and fanning one to show how much
more rapidly it dries. The trees thus prevent the winds from drying out
the water in the soil.

Shade is another important influence that trees exert. If possible, to
the above eight add three tumblers filled respectively with gravel, sand, and
loam and set in the sunniest window of the schoolroom. This will demon-
strate, aside from the influence of forests, the value of planting gardens so
that the ground may be well shaded in districts where drought is common.

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 389

of great interest, but the problems are so large that the
children cannot do much practical work with them. Cool
shade, however, is appreciated by all in hot weather, and

two thermometers,
one hung intheshade
of a tree, the other in
the open sunshine,
will tell an interest-
ing story. Protect
two thermometers
with a bit of paper
and bury the bulbs an
inch in the ground,
one in the sun, the
other in the shade.
If we do this about
three o’clock on a
warm day in June,
it will show how hot
the unprotected soil
becomes. Let as
many of the children
as have thermome-
ters in their homes
take a careful read-
ing at exactly 12.30
P.M., on some hot
sunny day, compare

1
pedisosuiry

Fic. 156. A FACTORY COVERED WITH
WOoDBINE

(Photograph by Louis P. Nash)

the temperatures, and try to explain any differences that

may have been observed.

hot day.

This should be done on a clear,

390 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

If the school possesses a hygrometer, an instrument
for measuring moisture in the air, it will be interesting
to test the relative humidity in woods or well-planted
districts and in the hottest and driest place available, the
business portion of a city, for example. Without instru-
ments this difference is often appreciated in the moist,
“soft” air of the forest.

It has been estimated that forest fires cause a loss of
not less than $30,000,000 annually in this country. Ask
the class to collect all the data possible as to such fires in
the neighborhood. We have seen that not only may the
trees be destroyed, but the leaf mould and even the loam,
representing the work of the trees in enriching the soil
for many years, may be burned away. If practicable,
make an excursion to some tract that has been recently
burned over and study on the ground the damage to
timber and soil that has resulted. Inquire particularly
into the causes of such fires in the neighborhood and
consider the means of prevention ; and, finally, obtain a
copy of the law against setting forest fires in your state
and discuss its provisions with the class.

Forest Resources. — As a national industry, forestry stands
second only to agriculture in number of people and
amount of capital employed and in value of product. In
connection with language lessons develop all that the chil-
dren know about the uses of wood and the adaptation of
different kinds to various purposes. A part of the work
in manual training may well be devoted to making a col-
lection of native woods to show cross, slab, and quarter-
cut sections, in natural state and finished in various ways.
Study in this connection the market price of different

ELEMENTARY FORESTRY 391

woods. What determines price? According to the price
of lumber, what is the value of different trees in the
neighborhood? How long has it taken for them to grow?
What is the difference in price between clear lumber and
knotty lumber? How may we grow clear lumber?

It has been estimated that we have 500,000,000 acres
in growing forest, and that 35 cubic feet of wood are
annually produced per acre. Annual consumption of
wood, according to Professor Fernow, is probably double
the amount produced. Inferences from these facts are
obvious.

Interesting geography lessons may be made by asking
the children to draw in their maps the ranges, as given in
Sudworth’s Check List, of the trees included in their
grade plan.

For additional information on the topics of this chapter,
consult :

GerorGE B. SupworTH. “Check List of the Forest Trees of the United
States,” Bulletin No. 17. This contains the scientific and common names
of 495 species and gives the geographical range of each. Washington,
1898.

E. B. Fernow. “Suggestions to Lumbermen of the United States in
Behalf of a more Rational Forest Management,” Circular No. ro.

E. B. Fernow. ‘Facts and Figures regarding our Forest Resources
briefly stated,” Circular Wo. rr.

E. B. Fernow. “ Forest-Fire Legislation in the United States,” Circular
No. 13.

E.B.Fernow. “Forestry for Farmers.” Washington, 1895. (Reprint
from Yearbook, 1894.)

N. H. Ecieston. “Arbor Day: Its History and Observance.” Wash-
ington, 1896.

For all the above, address United States Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D.C.

WaAINWNOY IOOHOS ‘LSI ‘DIY

SS RN,
<a ; :
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392

CHAPTER XXIV
AQUARIA

THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT

No one piece of nature-study apparatus is capable of
serving so many and so various uses as an aquarium. It
may be used wet or dry; filled with water it becomes the
means of practical acquaintance with all kinds of aquatic
life, both plant and animal; managed as a vivarium, or
terrarium, it makes.a fine insect-breeding case, a fernery,
a place for a collection of living mosses, the home of frogs,
tree frogs, turtles, salamanders, snakes, slugs, and land
snails. With one end arranged for water and the other
for land, and filled with mosses and ferns, pitcher plants,
and sundews, it may be at once a paradise for all kinds of
things, both aquatic and terrestrial. Filled with earth, it
may be used to germinate seeds in. By planting them
against the glass and darkening with a black cloth we may
study “root and all” in its natural environment, observe
the root systems of various plants, and make all sorts of
interesting experiments. If we wish, we may plant a hill
of potatoes ; and we must certainly plant against the glass
all sorts of seeds of our forest, fruit, and nut trees.

Every schoolroom should have at least two good-sized
aquaria for general purposes, and then if each child could
have a little one, on his desk or in a window, for his own
use, there would be none too many. We now furnish books
in abundance, but here is a book of fascinating continued

393

394 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

stories which a child could read, one after the other, in the
reality of nature itself for the entire eight or nine years of
his primary and grammar-school life.

Aquaria are ordinarily too expensive (or so considered)
to be used in the way suggested. The usual directions
for making them, with wooden frames, result in aquaria
that are always cracking and leaking and hence are unsat-
isfactory and generally discouraging. Our first topic is,
thus, the best way to make an aquarium.

Instead of wood for the frame, which will never stop
warping, swelling, and shrinking, and is wholly discarded
by all makers of aquaria, we will use angle tin, and the
only other materials needed are glass, of the desired size,
aquarium cement, and solder with soldering fluid or resin.
A few tools will be required, most or all of which may be
borrowed for the occasion, —a wheel glass cutter, a pair
of tinner’s snips, a pair of pinchers, a soldering iron, and,
last and most important of all, a carpenter's square. A
small anvil or block of iron with square corners and a
light hammer are convenient to square up the corners
nicely, but this may be done with the pinchers. The
angle tin, solder, and soldering fluid! we will get at the
tinner’s. For the glass, we will ask the children to bring
all the broken window panes and spoiled photographic
negatives that they can find.

The temptation of beginners is to make the aquarium
too large. It is then hard to fill, hard to keep clean, hard
to move, and is apt to be an elephant inthe way. A good
size for general purposes is 13 inches deep, 15 inches long,

1 Soldering fluid is made by dissolving pieces of zinc in hydrochloric
acid to saturation.

AQUARIA 395

and 8 inches wide. Where a larger aquarium is desired,
which may be partitioned off with panes of glass to keep
a variety of specimens, a good size is 12 (or 15) inches
deep, 24 inches long, and 8 (or 9) inches wide. As it is
often desirable to use this as a terrarium for turtles, frogs,

EE

Fic. 158. MAKING AN AQUARIUM

1, angle tin; 2, glass; 3, soldering outfit ; 4, frame in process of construction ;
5, completed frames.

toads, or plants, when floor space is a desideratum, it
may be well to make at least one 12 inches wide. For
individual pupils, or even for school use, it is surprising
how many interesting studies may be carried on with
smaller aquaria, made from waste negatives 8 x 10, 7 X 9,
or even 5 X 7, having them 4 or 5 inches wide. In fact,

396 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

these little aquaria are so convenient that they will be
used much oftener than the larger ones for definite
experiments, like germination of seeds, rearing insects,
feeding tests with toads, frogs, and salamanders, purifica-
tion of water by tadpoles, fresh-water clams, mosquito

Fic. 159. FORMS AND SIZES OF AQUARIA

1,574, in which meal worms are being reared; 2, §x 10x 4; 3, same, with
flytrap attachment; ¢, 12 x 24x12; 5, 8x 10x 4, made flat and set up for
toads’ eggs.

larve, etc. They are useful at every season and easily
changed from one kind of work to another.

Suppose we have decided on 10 x 8 x 5, the size
shown in course of construction in Fig. 158, and have our
glass cut square to these dimensions. We go to a tin-
ner’s and ask him for two strips of 2-inch, “three-cross ”
angle tin the length of the sheet, which is 28 inches,
and four pieces 10} inches long. These should be made

AQUARIA 307

of “three-cross”’ tin by cutting strips § inch wide and
folding to a right angle along the center. We must allow
% inch for thickness of cement and interference of the
glass at the upright corners; so that we will now cut the
long pieces halfway in two with the snips, z¢., in as far
as the angle, at exactly 83, 138, 224, and 274 inches, cut-
ting off the end at the last mark. We thus have the
top and bottom of our frame each in one piece. We next
bend them to a rectangular figure, squaring the corners
neatly, and, holding the open corner inside the square,
solder this joint. We now have the top and bottom of
our frame. Taking the four vertical corner pieces, we
solder them over the corners, holding each carefully in
the square while we solder, and the frame is done. With
tools and materials at hand, it should take about ten
minutes to make the small frame. If we do not wish to
have the children learn to solder,! or cannot get the tools,
the tinner will do this in a few minutes.

If we wish a cover to keep insects, frogs, toads, and
even fishes from jumping out, we solder two small brass
hinges to the frame. We may use for the cover per-
forated zinc or tin, folded over one-quarter of an inch all
around to strengthen the edges, or wire screen in a
wooden frame. The perforated metal makes a neat cover,
with hinges soldered to one edge and a handle ring to the
other. To hold it shut it is well to solder a little ring to

1 Soldering is a good exercise in patience; the secret of getting a smooth
joint is to heat the iron properly and to hold it still long enough and
to move it slowly enough to melt the solder thoroughly. The iron will then
leave the surface perfectly smooth, without wrinkles or points that will be
likely to break the glass.

398 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

snap over the edge of the frame, as shown in Fig. 160. If
a handle is desired, solder wire eyes into the middle of
each end of the frame. The bale should be made of stiff
galvanized wire, bent at right angles, with the drop just
long enough to let it fall
Sage neatly along one corner
of the frame.
Fic. 160. CovER OF AQUARIUM To set the glass lay
sy. snap ring; 4.7., handle ring. aquarium cement evenly
in the bottom of the frame and press the bottom glass
into place; lay the sides in the same manner, and finally the
ends. Then, very carefully, for this is the point where
some glass is likely to break, spring in some limber green
twigs to press the glass gently against the frame and hold
it in place while the cement hardens. Cut off all super-
fluous cement and then smooth neatly along the angles
and seams, inside and out, and set away todry. Aftera
week it is ready to fill with water.

Larger sizes may be made, and at least the bottom of
the largest size should be made, of double-thick glass. As
in any case the glass is likely to be warped and bent,
we should select plane pieces if possible, but if curved a
little, the convex surface should be placed inside. For
the larger sizes we naturally use wider angle tin. The
table below represents my own experience in this matter.
Length, depth, and width are given in order.

Ar

ce

For aquaria 5x 7x4 to 8xX1I0X 5 use 3-inch angle tin for frame.

ag “ 10x 12 x6 Se oe fr

“ “ 15x1z2x8 to18x13x g “* 3 ss Se an
use either 1-inch angle tin for

“ “ = 20X12XQ to 24X13 X12 frame or 1 inch around bot-

tom and $-inch for the rest.

AQUARIA 399

For larger sizes it is safe to say that angle iron or
aluminium bronze, either cast in a single piece or riveted
at the corners, would be preferable.

The corners of all sizes larger than 8 x 10 x 5, around
the bottom and up the vertical angles, should be laid as
represented in cross-section in Fig. 161, with a prism of
cement in the angle, covered by a narrow strip of glass.
This greatly strengthens the joint and protects the water
from the cement.!

A good aquarium cement, for either fresh or salt water,
is made by mixing dry ten parts each, by measure, of fine,
dry, white sand, plaster of Paris, and litharge, and one part
powdered resin. Mix as required, to a stiff putty with
boiled linseed oil. (This must be warranted free from
any trace of adulteration with fish oil, and it is commonly
necessary to buy raw oil of a practical painter, who should
know that it is pure, and boil it for
a few minutes, to drive off the water
in the raw oil.) The simplest and
best aquarium cement, the formula
of which has been given me recently
by the United States Fish Commis-
sion, is made as follows : Stir together
dry, by weight, eight parts putty (dry
whiting), one part red lead, and one Fic. 161. Section oF
part litharge. Mix, as wanted foruse, CNR OF Agvarrum
with pure raw linseed oil, to consistency of stiff putty.

1 Although not necessary, I generally put one or two coats of copal, or
spar varnish, around the angles on the inside. No aquarium has leaked
when this has been done; and if a leak occurs, it is necessary only to dry
very thoroughly and varnish on the inside around the angles.

400 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

How to set up or fill the aquarium for general purposes
is the next topic. First put in about two inches of sand,
washed until a stream of water runs off clear; then,
with the sand only moist, set the plants about the corners,
making furrows in the sand in different directions and
laying the roots in them; finally, arrange pebbles, shells,
and larger stones about the bottom where they will
keep the plants in place. Next pour in the water up to
within an inch
of the top, hold-
ing the hand or
a piece of thin
board so as to
break the force
of the stream,
and avoid wash-
ing the plants
loose. Finally,
put in a fresh-
| water clam or

Fic. 162. A FROG WITH Six LEGS two, some snails,

A curiosity for the aquarium a few tadpoles

(if the fishes
will allow of it), to keep the water clean, and, after a day
or two, such fishes — not more than two or three —as it
is desired to study. Overcrowding is the common temp-
tation to be resisted. Allow one gallon of water to each
fish three inches long, and where enough water plants are
present to oxygenate the aquarium, the fishes will show by
their actions, quiet movements, and breathing that they are
comfortable. If they come to the surface and gasp for air,

AQUARIA 401

we may know that the water is not properly oxygenated,
and we must take out some of the animal life or put in more
plants, or do both. Children will be much more inter-
ested in the plants and animals that they have collected for
their aquaria themselves ; and for other reasons we should
use chiefly the native life of our ponds and streams.

A large aquarium should be permanently located before
it is filled. The best place is near a light window where
the sun shines but a few hours during the day, and then
it must be placed so that most of the time it may be
shaded from direct sunlight. It is generally stated that
an aquarium should stand where the sun will not shine
directly on it, but the plants are then apt to grow weak;
hence it is desirable, and should be possible, to admit
sunlight without moving the aquarium. However, a more
serious difficulty in properly locating the aquarium is that
of too much light. A pond receives light only from
above, and even there the water is generally the clearest
and the plants freest from overgrowths of slimes in shady
nooks along the shore. We must study nature closely
and try to imitate the conditions that produce the best
results in the ponds of the neighborhood. The growth
on the glass and plants of green or brown alge, often in
slimy masses that fill the water, indicates too much light.
Shade well for a time and put in tadpoles and snails to
feed upon the algee. While difficult enough to make it
interesting, it is a valuable study, —that of balancing the
life and managing the light in an aquarium so that the
water will remain clear and sweet; and the knowledge
thus gained will be found applicable to the conditions of
park waters and ponds in general.

402 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

How often does the water require changing? This is
the question often asked by those who wish to start an
aquarium. The answer is: “Not once a year, if the ani-
mals and plants and light are properly balanced and regu-
lated.” In doing this it is best to use the plants and
animals that live in still water, in ponds and quiet pools,
rather than those characteristic of the running streams.
Aquaria with running water are more difficult to manage
and are expensive in use of water. They are, moreover,
a constant menace as to flooding the building, and cannot
be recommended for school use.

What causes the water to become cloudy or milky?
This is the next troublesome question, and with fifty chil-
dren all anxious to feed the fishes something, it would
seem that every school aquarium must be in this condi-
tion all the time. But one of the chief uses of an aqua-
rium is to make the children careful and thoughtful, and as
experience has shown, they readily learn that giving more
food than the fishes and other animals will eat clean, gen-
erally before it sinks to the bottom, is the quickest way to
make the water foul and, possibly, to kill their pets. We
shall learn more of this when we study about bacteria in
the water. Fishes, and aquatic animals in general, should
not be fed oftener than once a day, and then only so much
as willbe eaten clean. If mistakes are made in their eager-
ness to feed bountifully, the children who do it should be
asked to remove all surplus food with a siphon or dipping
tube before it has had time to decay.

What animals can be safely kept together in the aqua-
rium is another frequent question. The general rule of
keeping predaceous species by themselves, except while

AQUARIA 403

we are making definite feeding tests, is the best one to
follow. The vegetable feeders, or those that eat only
animals not larger than worms and insects, may be kept
together. If we are not certain what a new specimen
may do, it is best to partition off one end of the aquarium
for it while we study its foods and habits. This may be
done by forcing a pane of glass into the sand below and
wedging it at the top with bits of cork. Goldfishes and
other varieties of carp, shiners, dace and all kinds of
suckers, darts, orfs, frog and toad tadpoles, young newts,
and salamanders may be kept together. Bass, perch,
sunfish, trout, pickerel and pike, pouts and eels, stickle-
backs and paradise fishes, turtles, water snakes, large
salamanders and frogs, leeches, water beetles and dragon-
fly larvae must generally be kept by themselves. Clams,
snails, and tadpoles form the scavenger brigade for every
well-ordered aquarium.

A few simple pieces of apparatus will aid greatly in
management of the aquaria. A shallow dip net is indis-
pensable in catching specimens. It may be made accord-
ing to directions for the insect net, except that it should
not be deeper than about the diameter of the ring. A
small rubber scraper will probably be needed to keep the
slimes off the glass until animal scavengers and light can
be properly regulated. A dipping tube, z.¢., a piece of
glass tubing, about fifteen inches long and a little less
than one-half inch in diameter, with nicely fused ends,
will be used daily. A piece of half-inch rubber tubing
about two and one-half feet long may serve as a siphon
to draw off the sediment from the bottom from time
to time.

NIMS SLI GHHS AXVWNS NMOUG V ONIHOLVAA “£91 ‘DIq

404

CHAPTER XXV
MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS

A NUMBER of animals, too important to omit from
nature-study courses but not fitting in with those already
treated, may be grouped together in this chapter. Each
may be taken up as occasion presents itself during the
year and season indicated in the grade plan.

The Bat.— This is an interesting but misunderstood ani-
mal. Not infrequently one drops out of a ventilator into
a schoolroom or is brought in as a curiosity, too often dead,
by one of the pupils. Suppose we have a live bat, let us
see what it will eat. It may open its mouth and chatter
in a most threatening manner, but while we should not put
our fingers in the way of its sharp teeth, it can be handled
in a towel or handkerchief. It may be tamed, gener-
ally in a few minutes, by gentle treatment and feeding, so
that it will take insects and lick drops of water from the
fingers. It is only necessary, when it opens its mouth to
defend itself, to drop in a fly, meal worm, spider, or even
a bit of raw meat, possibly at first on the end of a tooth-
pick or hat pin. It will soon understand, and then feed-
ing tests may be made with whatever bugs or insects the
children can find.

1The writer has not been able to find any insects that a hungry bat
refuses to eat; but we must be a little careful not to overfeed; on one
occasion he fed a bat 243 flies, but, while it apparently ate the last one
with relish, it died a few minutes afterwards.
405

406 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Whether or not we are able to do any of this practical
work, we should strive to gain Gefinite knowledge of the
réle these animals play in nature. So few of our birds
are truly nocturnal, and so many of our worst insect pests
—the codling moth, tent-caterpillar moths, the white-
marked tussock moth, owlet moths, parents of the cut-
worms, June beetles, mosquitoes, and a host of others —

Fic. 164. FEEDING A BaT

have taken refuge in the darkness, that we need the bat as
the night police of our gardens. They should be accorded
much the same protection as our most valuable insectiv-
orous birds. Koebele describes bats flitting about an
infested apple tree catching codling moths on the wing
and even snapping them from the leaves, and the writer
has repeatedly fed these moths and their larve to bats in
confinement.

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 407

An instructive problem may be made as follows: If a bat catch
one female codling moth every night from May 20 to July 1, how
many bushels of apples may be saved, allowing that each moth lay
fifty eggs on as many apples and that there are two hundred apples
to the bushel? 4Axs. 273 bushels.

An unwarranted fear and dislike of bats seems to be general in
this country. They are said to fly into people’s hair, necessitating
cutting it off, if long, in order to get them out. The writer has had
bats for months at a time given full liberty of the house, but has
never known of such an accident. Even if one should get into the
hair, it would do no harm and could be easily removed if the person
were not frightened. It is also said that they carry vermin, especially
bedbugs, but I have examined dozens and never found a single speci-
men ; and, further, I have found that they actually eat bedbugs with
apparent relish. Bats are known to live in caves, hollow trees, and
the crevices about barns and houses, often in colonies of scores or
even hundreds. The fact that such numbers are able to find sub-
sistence is sufficient proof that a family of bats is a valuable acquisi-
tion to a farm or garden.

Squirrels. — These are graceful pets and, next to the
birds, form the most animated life of parks and wood-
lands. It is one of our crimes against nature that they
have been so nearly exterminated in many sections. What
the children can do to bring them back is the ques-
tion for nature study. Their food consists chiefly of
nuts and acorns, which fall in such abundance that we
should not begrudge them the few they need, and they
undoubtedly plant enough to repay the trees for those
they eat.

Perhaps one of the pupils has a tame squirrel that he
can bring to school for afew days. If so, we shall be able
to study its foods and habits in such wise as to enable the
children to form a genuine acquaintance with it. If there

408 NATURE SaU DY, VND Solis:

are squirrels or chipmunks about the schoolhouse, it is
generally an easy matter to tame them by leaving nuts or
bits of bread in some convenient crotch, and soon they
will be coming regularly to share the children’s lunch.

Fic. 165. TAMING A CHIPMUNK

(Photograph by Miss Jessie Gelston Whiting)

As to the different species, a few facts should be devel-
oped in connection with rearing them, especially in towns
and city parks.

The common red squirrel, or chickaree, is the living
impersonation of mischief. He will cut every pear from

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 409

a tree, — to eat the seeds of a few perhaps, — apparently
for the mere fun of seeing them drop. This alone makes
it inadvisable to have him around. But a more serious
crime of which this little rogue has been convicted con-
sists in robbing nests and eating birds’ eggs and young
birds; so, in general, the fewer red squirrels we have the
better for our birds. Have any of the children observed
this for themselves ?

Our gray squirrel is commonly accredited with neither
of these injurious traits and, together with the large fox
squirrel, may be freely encouraged to come and live with
us. In a single instance, among many that the writer
could cite, in which gray squirrels became too numerous,
some damage was done to fruit; but this may have been
due to lack of food or, more probably, to lack of water.
It would be advisable, at least, to bear these points in
mind before passing final judgment. That both food and
water in plenty have no influence in reducing the mis-
chievous propensities of at least one red squirrel the
writer has had abundant proof.

The flying squirrel, though it is nocturnal in its habits,
is one of the most interesting of the group and is easily
domesticated.

Rats and mice are too common intruders to be omitted
from a course in nature study. We sometimes find them
recommended for pets, and they both have some interest-
ing traits; but they have long been recognized as hostes
humani generis, enemies of the human race, and the plain
truth may as well be taught. By the skillful and persistent
use of traps and poisons these pests may easily be exter-
minated. No less than this should be aimed at, as they

410 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

multiply with such rapidity, and when this is accomplished
there will be one less argument for keeping cats.

Several other common animals may be studied as occa-
sion offers, among them, woodchucks, muskrats, minks,
otters, skunks, moles, shrews, and weasels. For the char-
acter of the latter the description of Kagax given by Long
in Wilderness Ways is admirable. To his graphic account

Fic. 166. TAMING A Woop TURTLE

the writer may add that one morning, when a boy, he found
six sheep dead near an old straw stack ina field. The only
marks of violence in each case were four little cuts behind
the ear, where an artery had been severed. The straw stack
was burned during the day, and two old weasels, with a
litter of half-grown young, were found and killed.
Turtles. — These may be brought in by the pupils and
acquaintance made with a few of the commoner species.

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 411

Most of them are aquatic or semi-aquatic and may be
kept in the aquarium. Their habit of crawling out on rocks
and logs to sun themselves should be borne in mind in set-
ting up the aquarium for them. As some are terrestrial,
a good rule to follow is the one already given for other
animals: Study the environment in which they may be
found and make that of the aquarium, or vivarium, as nearly
like it as possible. Little seems to be known about the food
of even the commonest turtles. The aquatic forms —snap-
ping turtles, painted and spotted turtles, and the soft-shelled
turtles —are carnivorous and feed mainly on fishes, although
they often take young ducks and goslings. The fact, as
every fisher boy knows to his chagrin, that they are often
caught with the baited hook demonstrates their fondness
for earthworms, and this is the food upon which they may
be most easily kept in confinement. The box and wood
turtles subsist chiefly on worms, slugs, and insects, but
also eat succulent leaves. They should be given lettuce
or cabbage, together with earthworms, and if some child has
a tame turtle, interesting feeding tests may be made. Young
turtles will be found to eat mosquito wrigglers with great
avidity.

Not the least interesting things about these queer ani-
mals are their nests and eggs. What boy or girl will
volunteer to find some turtles’ eggs and bring them to
school? They may be found, often in great numbers,
buried in the sandy banks of ponds or streams. It is said
that young turtles as soon as hatched crawl toward the
nearest water. Test whether this is true.

Lizards. — These are different from salamanders, which
they resemble in form, in having the skin covered with

412 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

overlapping scales. Very few are found farther north
than Pennsylvania, being chiefly tropical or subtropical in
distribution. They are insectivorous, and in the Southern
States, where they abound, valuable feeding tests may be
made as suggested for toads, frogs, and birds. The manner
of catching insects with their long tongues is interesting,
as are also the rapid changes of color of several species.

Snakes. — Many of the common species are among our
most beautiful animals. A strange fascination seems to
attach to them, which is almost certain to result in their
intrusion into the nature-study course whether the teacher
wishes it or not. The fear of anything is a heavy burden
to carry through life. The lurking fear of something that
we are likely to meet in our daily walks in the fields. or
woods may spoil much of our enjoyment in nature or, at
least, hem us in on every side. If for no other reason
than to cast out this fear, we may introduce a reasonable
study of these animals.

While some may be inclined to consider the fear of snakes heredi-
tary, it may quite as well be explained as a matter of suggestion.
The fact, to which my own experience attests in many instances,
that it can be thrown off by a moment’s exercise of the will, and
also the fact that children who have never been frightened by the
fears of others may show no traces of it, render this explanation
the more reasonable. My own children, for example, have always
handled and played with our harmless little snakes as freely as with
kittens. A single concrete instance will make my meaning clear.
I was demonstrating our common green snake, when one of the
members of the class asked if I would hold it while she touched it.
After touching it she asked if she could take it in her hands. A
year or two afterwards she referred to the circumstance and said that
she had never since felt the least aversion for snakes but had thor-
oughly enjoyed studying them. She expressed her thanks for being

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 413

helped over her “last nature fear.” Was not the momentary effort
well worth the while?

This study is the more to be recommended because so
little is known about the food and habits of even our com-
monest species. Any child who tames a snake and finds
out what it eats is quite likely to discover facts that may
extend the range of knowledge. This in itself is a keen
incentive. Are they valuable or harmful animals? We
cannot tell until we learn their foods, and this, according
to the Washington authorities, ‘is not known for a single
species of North American snake.”

We know, in general, that all snakes feed upon living animals,
which they swallow whole, and very often alive. Garter snakes feed
largely on toads and frogs; water snakes are known to destroy
great numbers of fishes; and the black snake has the well-earned
reputation of killing birds and robbing their nests. Whether they
do enough good to offset this harm, or whether they do any good
at all, remains to be discovered by patient observation and study.
As far as the evidence goes at present, however, it seems that the
fewer we have the better.

No such harmful traits can be attributed to our green, or grass,
snake or to the little brown snakes, since they probably feed exclu-
sively upon worms and insects. As they are gentle and harmless,
never attempting to bite or to defend themselves, they are the best
forms with which to begin acquaintance. They may be readily found
under flat stones. In June or July they deposit their eggs under the
stones where they live. The eggs are white, irregularly oblong, few
in number, and about the size of sparrows’ eggs; the shells are thin
and papery, and a little later, when we hold them up to the light, we
may see the young snakes coiled up inside.

Fishes. — The original plan of this book included a
chapter on the common fresh-water food and game fishes.
As it is, a few of the more important are distributed

414 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

through the grade plan, with the understanding that the
pupils shall study them alive in their aquaria, and in the
ponds and streams by the general methods suggested for
frogs and salamanders. Feeding tests will be found
especially interesting. Ask the pupils particularly to
observe the spawning seasons and habits of the different
species. These matters should be as thoroughly learned
as the nesting seasons of the birds, in order that we may
give fishes the universal protection which may result in
restocking our barren waters.

Botflies. — A family of flies which do not belong properly
with household or garden insects, may be introduced here.
The botflies are large brownish hairy flies, found buzzing
about horses and cattle. There are a number of species.
The ox bot, or heel fly, lays its eggs on the hair about the
fetlocks. The eggs are licked off and soon hatch in the
animal’s mouth or stomach. The larve bore their way
through the tissues and finally reach the skin, which they
perforate, probably to obtain air. After attaining their
growth they crawl out, drop to the ground, burrow under
the surface, and transform into pups. The following
spring they emerge to repeat the story. The elk in
Fig. 167 is seen to be afflicted with bots.

Other botflies lay their eggs in the nostrils of animals,
and the larve develop in the cavities of the head. They
attack sheep especially and cause not only much loss to
the farmers, but great suffering to the animals as well.
Several kinds attack our native wild herbivora. The elk
in Fig. 168 was thus killed by “grubs in the head.” A

, kingbird on every mullein stalk in the pasture would
possibly be the best- remedy for these pests.

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 415

Ants. — No insects, excepting the honeybees, have
proved more interesting to study than the ants. Turn
over a flat stone any time after the middle of May and
you are almost certain to find a colony of ants. As the
stone is lifted, if the day be warm, you will see little piles
of whitish oblong bodies, — the pupze, — commonly called

—

at TE

Fic. 167. Cow ELk
The lumps in the skin are caused by botflies. (Copyright by Charles Irving Rice)

eggs; and immediately the workers seize them and hasten
to carry them down into the nest. Besides these you may
often find smaller masses of shining black eggs. These,
probably eggs of plant lice, the workers also carry into

416 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

their holes. At this season you will commonly find at the
surface only workers, pupz, and eggs. If now a spade
be deeply thrust into the earth and the whole nest turned
out, you may be able to discover the queens, much larger
than the workers, and the white maggot-like larve. At
this season you are not likely to find any winged ants in
the nest, but later, in August or September, the air may
be filled with them, flying in every direction, If we now
visit an ants’ nest or some ant-hill in the neighborhood,
we may see swarms of winged males and females issuing
from the ground and taking flight. This is their wedding
journey, and after it the males soon die. The females
either join a colony of the same species as one of its
queens or found a new colony. They tear off their wings
as of no further use, or the workers do this for them.

Any species that is common in the neighborhood may
serve as the basis for these lessons, but perhaps the best
ones to work with, aside from the ants that infest the
house, described in Chapter V, are the following:

The carpenter ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, one of
our largest black ants. Its nests are built in timbers of
buildings, logs, and even trees, by excavating a complicated
series of passages and chambers. A nest of this species
may be arranged for study, if one is not convenient out-
side, by bringing the wood in which they are working
into the schoolroom and mounting it on two bricks which
stand in shallow pans of water. This latter is to prevent
them from escaping into the room.

The mound-building ant, Formica exsectoides, is perhaps
our most conspicuous species on account of its large hills,
often from one to two feet in height and five or six feet

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS AY7.

in diameter. The head and thorax are dull red, and the
abdomen and legs black.

The slave-maker ant, Formica difficilis, resembles the
above in size and appearance, but builds its nests almost
wholly underground, often beneath large flat stones.

The slave ant, Formica subsericea, is found in colonies
of its own under stones and commonly, also, as slaves in
the nests of the last-named species.

Fic. 168. ELK KILLED BY GRUBS IN THE HEAD

(Photograph by Charles Irving Rice)

The corn-louse ant, Laszus brunneus, is the brown ant,
about one-eighth of an inch in length, so common about
roads and pastures. Many, if not all, ants attend aphids,
in order to obtain the sweet secretion, commonly known

418 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

as honeydew, which some species discharge. For this
reason aphids are sometimes called ‘ant cows.’ The
milking of their cows is readily observed. Practically all
the ants seen about trees are tending their herds of cows,
and if we follow one we may soon see her come up to an
aphid and stroke it gently with her feelers. In response
the aphid emits a little droplet of honeydew from two
minute tubes on its back, and this the ant eagerly licks up.
A destructive species of aphid, the corn louse, feeds upon
the roots of corn, and it has been found that the brown
ant collects the eggs of this aphid in the fall, takes care
of them in its nest during the winter, and carries the
newly hatched plant lice back to the corn roots in the
spring. It is possible that this or other species of ants may
distribute plant lice in a similar manner to the leaves of
trees or shrubs, but this has not as yet been discovered.
An ants’ nest may be made with a slate and a pane of
glass large enough to rest upon the frame all the way
around. Cut one or more little passageways in the
frame, have a board just as large as the glass to keep
the nest dark when not under observation, and stand the
slate on two bricks in a shallow pan of water. To fill
the nest select a hot, sunny afternoon, turn over a flat
stone quickly, and with a spoon first scrape up as many
ants, pupz, and eggs as possible into a wide-mouthed
bottle; then dig open the nest and be sure to catch one
or more queens, with as many more ants, eggs, and larve
as possible. Cork the bottle and, without more delay than
necessary, turn the contents upon the slate, spreading it
out so that the glass will rest on the frame, and cover
up. By the next morning you will find a well-ordered

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 419

ants’ nest, with its chambers and passageways, the queens,
eggs, larve, and pupz all nicely arranged in the center.
By feeding with sugar, crumbs of cake, insects, or bits
of meat placed on the board cover or around the edges
of the frame, they may be kept as long as is desired.
In this way the whole life and work of the colony
may be observed and studied in the most convenient
manner.

An ordinary roofing slate, about twelve inches square,
with strips of one-quarter inch wood glued to it so as to
include a rectangular area a little smaller
than the slate, say ten inches square,
and arranged as above described, makes
a most satisfactory ants’ nest.

Spiders. — These interesting creatures
play too important a réle in nature to
omit fromthe course. To gain an idea of
how many spiders there are, look out
on some grassy meadow on a dewy morn-
ing. The grass is carpeted with webs. Fic. 169.

On the one side, spiders destroy winged — AN INTERESTING
insects — flies, mosquitoes, gnats, and Serena
moths. Let each one of the children examine some con-
veniently placed spider web from time to time for two or
three days and report, as nearly as possible, how many
and what insects are caught in it. On the other hand,
spiders are most valuable food for birds. Bird fanciers,
in fact, consider them the best medicine for birds, acting
like magic to make them well.

While the class is studying spiders, which should be in
September, have them collect all the different kinds of

420 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

spiders’ eggs they can find. They are laid in little bags
of spider web, hung up in the web, as with the common
house spider, or placed in cracks, under boards, scales of
bark, or under stones. If the eggs are kept in a cold
place, the hatching in the spring will furnish interesting
lessons.

A spider may be encouraged to spin in one of the
schoolroom windows, or one may be confined for this pur-
pose in a dry aquarium, and then, with the aid of their
insect nets, the children can bring in flies and mosquitoes
to feed it. Besides the common house spider for these
observations, be sure to have an orb weaver, as its web is
the most interesting and beautiful of all. By studying
a jumping spider, a running spider, a cobweb or funnel
weaver, an orb weaver, and a gossamer or flying spider
a fair idea of the life and habits of this group may be
obtained. The jumping spiders are found on plants, logs,
sides of buildings, etc. They are usually hairy, are very
agile, and catch their prey by springing upon it. They
spin webs only as egg sacs or as shelters in which to
moult or hibernate. For the South the trapdoor spider
should be added to the list.

An interesting lesson with the spider. Have a pan or basin filled
with water on a table in the largest open space in the schoolroom.
By using an ink bottle or even a potato to hold it upright, erect in
the pana stick twelve or fifteen inches high. Have the children bring
in various kinds of spiders, — almost any kind will do for this experi-
ment. Select one and place it on the top of the stick and let the
class watch the spider’s movements. It will first run down the stick,
but will find that it cannot escape, because this is surrounded by
water; it will then mount to the top again. After several more
trials to escape, the children will notice that the spider is spinning a

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 421

fine silken thread. This grows longer and longer and floats out into
the schoolroom. It floats to and fro and at last is caught on some
piece of furniture, perhaps adesk. The thread, which extends from
the top of the stick to the desk, is very slack, and now the little
weaver is seen to
tighten and fasten it.
This done, he quickly
runs across and makes
his escape.

The story of the
first suspension bridge
is thus told, ‘¢ an engi-
neering feat of which
the spider was the
earliest discoverer.”

How many of
the class think
that spiders are
insects? What is
an insect? What is
a bug? What isa
worm? These are

questions relating
rather to the right
use of language

than to compara-
tive zodlogy, and
we may as well clear them up. Ask each child, after
putting these questions and letting him try to answer
them, to bring to school a worm, a bug, another kind of
insect, and a spider. It is convenient to have them
brought in dry, clean bottles for ready observation and

Fic. 170. AN ORB WEAVER

1 Read Gibson’s “The Spider’s Span” in Sharp Eyes. (Mary C. Henry.)

422 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

comparison. Has every one a worm? They should all
have an earthworm or a leech. What is the main differ-
ence between the worm and all the rest? While it is
made up of segments, somewhat like many caterpillars
and grubs, z7¢ has no legs. What difference can the
children discover between the mouth of a worm and that
of a grub or caterpillar? The children have had occasion
to observe various caterpillars as they eat the leaves by
gnawing off particles with their sharp jaws. What does
an earthworm eat, and how does it manage without either
jaws or teeth? What child will volunteer to find out and
tell the class? What does a leech eat? Boys who have
been in swimming or who have caught fishes with leeches
attached to their gills can tell. Hereafter we shall try
to distinguish between worms and the larvz of insects,
and we can tell most of them apart at a glance. Several
marine worms are provided with sharp hooks or teeth,
but they have no legs.

Next, what chief differences do they see between a
spider and an insect? The insect is divided into three
parts, viz., a head, chest, or thorax, and abdomen; the
spider into two, —head and chest united and abdomen.
Further, all insects have six legs, no more nor less, and
most of them have one or two pairs of wings. Do any
spiders have wings? How many legs do spiders have?
fight. Hereafter, then, we will try to call spiders,
spiders, and not insects. We have found, too, that
insects go through wonderful transformations, the egg
hatching into a larva, the larva changing into a pupa,
the pupa finally transforming into the perfect insect like
that which laid the egg. What hatches from a spider’s

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 423

egg? It is never a wormlike larva but always a little
spider.

Nearly every small creeping thing is called a bug.
All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs. The
distinction is more difficult than those we have just made.
Are any of the class sure that they have a bug in their
bottles? Good examples are the giant water bug, Be/os-
toma americanum, water boatman, Corisa undulata, squash

Fic. 171.

a, centipede; 4, millipede; c, sow bug.

bugs, soldier bugs, lice, bedbugs, plant lice, leaf hoppers,
and scale insects. Bugs may or may not have wings, but
all agree in having mouth parts for piercing and sucking.
If some child will volunteer to bring in eggs of the squash
bug, we will watch them hatch and thereby gain one of
the distinguishing characters of the group. If a good
magnifying glass is at hand, the eggs of plant lice will
do. The eggs of bugs hatch into forms more nearly like
their parents than is the case with most other insects.
They have no wings at first, but otherwise resemble
their parents. We will thus understand by bugs certain
kinds of insects that do not undergo a complete change in

424 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

passing from the egg to the adult and that live by suck-
ing the juices of plants or animals. They stand low in
the scale of insect life.

The children will doubtless have brought in, for worms
or insects, a number of forms that do not fit in any of the
above groups. They are probably wormlike but have far
too many legs to be classed with the insects or spiders.
If not garden slugs, which will be described under the
head of mollusks, they are probably either centipedes
(hundred legs), millipedes (thousand legs), or “sow bugs.”
These are figured above, and when we speak of them here-
after we shall call them by their right names and not call
them insects, worms, or bugs.

The centipedes live in damp places, under logs and
stones, and feed on insects. The millipedes live in simi-
lar places and eat decaying vegetable matter principally,
but sometimes living plants. They may become a serious
pest in a strawberry bed by eating holes in the ripest
berries. The sow bugs are often found in great numbers
under rotting boards and logs. They undoubtedly find
plenty to eat, but to discover just what it is we shall have
to make feeding tests. Sow bugs belong to the great
group of Crustacea along with the crayfishes and crabs.

Earthworms. — Every boy has made the acquaintance of
these animals as bait for a fishhook, but how many know
or realize the réle they play in nature? Says Darwin!:

When we behold a wide, turf-covered expanse, we should remem-
ber that its smoothness, on which so much of its beauty depends, is

mainly due to all the inequalities having been slowly levelled by
worms. It is a marvellous reflection that the whole of the superficial

1 Vegetable Mould and Earth-Worms, p. 313.

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 425

mould over any such expanse has passed, and will again pass, every
few years through the bodies of worms. The plough is one of the
most ancient and most valuable of man’s inventions ; but long before
he existed the land was in fact regularly ploughed, and still continues
to be thus ploughed by earth-worms. It may be doubted whether
there are many other animals which have played so important a part
in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures.

Earthworms burrow into the soil to a depth of from
three to eight feet, making channels for water, air, and the
roots of plants to penetrate. In order to study this sub-
ject have each child count the worm burrows in a square
foot of ground. They may be found by the little piles of
castings at the mouth of each burrow and also by the
leaves and grass that the worms have pulled into the
opening to feed upon and to close the door. If a box
be turned over the area a day or two before the count
is made, so that the surface will not be disturbed or the
castings washed away by rains, the burrows will be more
easily found.

Next fill a small aquarium with fine sand or garden
earth and place three or four large worms on the surface.
Study the way they burrow. After they have established
themselves in their burrows scatter a little grass or a few
dead leaves on the surface and observe from day to day
what the worms do with them. If sand and leaves be
used, and the aquarium be left for a number of weeks,
the formation of vegetable mould may be observed in a
striking manner.

Von Hensen placed two worms in a vessel eighteen inches in
diameter, which was filled with sand, on which fallen leaves were

strewed ; these were soon dragged into their burrows to a depth of
three inches. After about six weeks an almost uniform layer of sand,

426 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

a centimeter (.4 of an inch) in thickness, was converted into humus
by having passed through the alimentary canals of these two worms.
DARWIN, @oc. cit., p. 310.

To see the earthworms at work under natural condi-
tions, since they are nocturnal, we must ask the pupils to
take a lantern in the evening and study this lesson, for
at least fifteen minutes, out on the ground. Just after a
good rain in June is the time; for if it is dry, the worms
will be feeding on the materials they have drawn into
their holes and will not come to the surface. They may,
however, be induced to come out by wetting down a
flower bed with the garden hose. Let each child tell
what he has observed.

Sometimes, especially after heavy rains, the worms are
seen crawling all over the ground; but generally they
will be found with the tail end clinging to the burrow,
the body stretched out over the ground, and with the
mouth sucking and pulling at bits of leaves or grass.
When a hold is obtained on a leaf the body contracts
and the leaf is drawn toward the burrow. If the children
have learned their lesson properly and have observed
this, ask them why the worm clings to its burrow. Can
they find eyes, nose, or ears anywhere in the body of
an earthworm? Cana worm see? Can it hear? Can
it smell? Let them try to answer these questions for
themselves by appropriate experiments and observations.
If they turn the light of a lantern on the head end of
a worm, after a few seconds it will generally draw back
into its burrow. This proves that it can slowly distin-
guish light from darkness. This is further shown by the
fact that earthworms are nocturnal. As to hearing, one

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 427

may whistle, shout, or even fire a toy pistol, but the worms
give no response. They cannot hear at all. To test for
smell, place a bit of onion a little to one side and near
the head of the worm. It soon reaches about and finds
it. It can smell a little. This experiment may be made
with the worms in the aquarium, as Darwin has shown, by
burying the onion, when it will always be found and dug
up by the worms. Lacking all
the special senses that higher
animals use so much, if a worm
lets go the burrow, it cannot find
it again, but is obliged to make
anew one. It may be lost within
an inch of its home, and most of
those we see about the pave-
ments die by drying up before
they can find a place to bur-
row. Lacking the other sense
organs, earthworms have a most
delicate sense of touch. Jar
the earth a little, stroke with

i " Fic. 172. EARTHWORMS “ RAIN-
a feather, blow lightly; in re- ANGE NEON CaN” TRA TICAG

sponse to all these stimuli the PANE OF GLAss
worm dashes like a rabbit into its burrow.

Earthworms lay eggs almost too small to see with the
unaided eye, but they are done up in capsules about
the size of mustard seeds, which may be found by sharp
eyes near the openings of the burrows along in June.
They may be hatched in a watch glass, and a little
fine, moist earth may be added as soon as they come
out.

428 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

It is a common belief that earthworms “rain down.”
What do the children think about it? The evidence that
is popularly assumed to prove this consists in finding
worms in rain-water barrels or gutters. Let the class
observe how easily a worm can ascend a vertical surface,
even a pane of glass, and then decide whether the worms

“rain down”’ or “rain

up.”

Hair Worms. — These
strange creatures resem-
ble animated hairs so
closely that it is not
strange that the myth
should arise as to their
origin from hairs left
in the water. If the
children insist upon this
belief as strongly as
some grown people do,
it might be well to let

them put some hairs in
water and see if they
turn into hair worms.

Fic. 173. THREE HArR WORMS REMOVED
FROM A GRASSHOPPER
a,a specimen 22} in. long, from a katydid. But the true life story

of hair worms is more

wonderful than the fiction. They are usually found in
one of two places, —in roadside or meadow pools after a
rain, in the spring and summer; in the bodies of insects,
late in the summer and fall. In the insect’s body they
are long white threads. I have found one in a katydid,
more than twenty-two inches long. In the pools they are

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 429

dark in color and continually writhing and twisting about,
tying themselves into knots. This peculiarity has given
them the generic name “ Gordius,” from the Gordian knot.

In a word, the life story of one of our common forms is
simply this: The mature worm lives in the ground and
comes out into the pools to lay its eggs. The egg is very
minute, and the tiny worm that hatches from it bores its
way into some insect, usually a grasshopper, and lives as
a parasite within its body. The insect dies, and the worm
enters the ground to pass the winter.

The nematodes, to which the hair worms belong, are a
large class of lowly organized worms. Most of them live
in water, soil, or decaying matter and are harmless.
Many are almost or quite microscopic in size, the “vinegar
eel” being one of our most common forms. <A few are
parasitic in animals, living either in the intestine or in
the flesh. It is these latter, especially the trichina of
pork, that make it unsafe to eat meat that has not been
thoroughly cooked. Other nematodes are parasitic in
plants, especially in the roots, where they produce swell-
ings or galls. They are particularly destructive in the
greenhouse and window garden in the North, where the
eggs are killed by freezing during the winter, but they
often seriously injure field and garden crops farther
south.}

Mollusks. — These form one of the largest animal groups,
there being 21,320 living species and an almost equal
number (20,895) of extinct fossil species. How many
kinds do the children know? They may be defined as

1 George E. Stone and Ralph E. Smith. “Nematode Worms,” Bulletin
No. 55, Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, 1898.

430 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

soft-bodied animals without segments and without jointed
limbs. Generally the body is protected by a shell, either
single and coiled spirally, as with snails, periwinkles, and
conchs, or composed of two pieces or valves, as in clams,
oysters, and mussels. A few have no shell, as the garden
slugs and the most highly developed of the whole group,
the octopus and ink squid.

While the children may be encouraged to collect fossil

i ma ute

i Yee? =!
t Eun waste allies MULititaa
PH

te
“lt yaennerny yp ets toe AMMA nugyyy, Wy ce
wo ————— ler”

Ze

Fic. 174. TYPE Forms oF MOLLUSKS
a, fresh-water clam; 4, pond snails; c, garden slug; d, octopus.

shells and the many species that they may find during
their summer vacations at the seashore, we will confine
our attention to four of the commonest and most widely
distributed kinds.

Can some boy or girl bring in two or three specimens of
the common garden slug, with a nest of eggs, if they can
be found? They may be kept in a small aquarium and
fed on lettuce leaves or fresh young radishes to show what

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 431

havoc they may make in a garden or greenhouse. It is
interesting to watch their movements in gliding over the
glass. How do they do it? Not like a leech or meas-
uring worm, by looping the body and holding on with first
one end, then with the other; not like an earthworm, by
stretching the body and catching hold and drawing the rest
of the body up. But they remain apparently motionless,
neither longer nor shorter, and still glide smoothly and
rapidly along. They are nocturnal, feeding by night and
lying hidden in damp places during the day ; but a telltale
trail of slime is left wherever they go, and if they have
been doing mischief in the garden, they may easily be fol-
lowed home. The eggs are found under boards in damp
places, but instead of describing them I will ask the children
to find them, if they can, and keep them to make sure that
they hatch out into little slugs. The pupils may observe
how a slug eats, and they are sure to be interested in the
way it breathes, — through a large hole, or spiracle, on
the right side.

In order to keep the algze from overgrowing the sides of
our aquaria we need some snails, which the children can
find in any fresh-water pond or stream. The two kinds
that are most useful are represented in Fig. 174. Their
eggs are laid in glairy masses fastened to the water plants
or often to the glass where their development may be
easily watched.

Among the bivalve mollusks are the oyster, clam, quahog,
scallop, and mussel, all valuable for food and connected
with interesting methods of cultivation and with fishery
industries. Where these can be studied alive, as along the
coast, they may be brought into the course. But the

432 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

bivalves of most importance for the school aquaria and for
the work of purifying surface waters are the common
fresh-water mussels, or clams. They may be found in any
pond or stream. Ask the children to bring in a few and
keep three or four large ones in each of the larger aquaria
and one in each of the small aquaria. Now ask a group of
the class to test the puri-
fication of water by clams.
They may do this by ar-
ranging two small aqua-
ria, exactly alike, with
sand and plants, filling
them with water that is
turbid from growth of
alge or bacteria. Put a
clam in one but not in
the other and watch the

Fic. 175. FRESH-WATER CLAM
a, inhalant siphon ; 4, exhalant siphon; result. Generally the

epenlsy ay mouths) tee water with the clam in it
will become perfectly clear in a few hours or days, accord-
ing to the size of the aquarium, while the other grows

more and more turbid.

Next we will try to discover how the clam works. If
we look at the clam from above, we notice two openings
between the posterior ends of the valves. These are sur-
rounded with a fringe of dark papillz which are sensitive to
light. This may be demonstrated by suddenly cutting off
the sunlight, when the valves will close. With a fine straw,
or a glass tube drawn to a fine opening, let fall close to
the upper siphon a little colored liquid, — carmine or dilute
India ink. It is sent whirling away from the clam. Now,

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 433

without touching the tentacles, let a little more fall near
the lower opening. It is all drawn into the clam, and if a
solution or a very fine suspension of inert matter, like car-
bon, chalk, clay, etc., it is soon seen streaming out of the
upper siphon. If this prove irritating to the clam, it will
shut up with a snap, throwing clouds of the liquid out of
both siphons. We thus see that a stream of water is being
drawn into one siphon and thrown out at the other. Next,
take a suspension of yeast plants, small algze, or bacteria,
let it pass into the inhalant siphon, and watch the exhal-
ant siphon. It goes in turbid and comes out perfectly
clear. This shows what the clam feeds on, — minute floating
particles inthe water. The currents are set up by the gills
of the clam, the water being passed through while the food
material is strained out and carried up to the mouth. A
culture of typhoid fever bacteria, for example, flowed through
the gills of an oyster, which are quite similar to those of a
clam, came away sterile, z.¢., with all the bacteria filtered
out. Clams are thus living filters, and in a pond well
stocked with them they must exert considerable influence
in keeping the water cleansed of floating organic matter.?

1 The structure of the clam is explained somewhat in Fig. 175, and, if
the school possesses a compound microscope, the action of the gills may
be demonstrated, but this may as well be left to later courses in zodlogy-

A WOooDLAND SPRING

Fia. 176.

434

CHAPTER XXVI
FLOWERLESS PLANTS

Ferns, Mosses, LIvERworts AND LICHENS, ALG#,
MusHROOMS

ELEMENTARY studies of plants commonly include only
those that bear flowers and produce seeds. The impor-
tance attaching of late years to many of the lower forms,
together with their educational values, renders it advisable
to include their study in a course that pretends to give
adequate elementary instruction in the natural environment
of a community.

Ferns. — These form a natural introduction to this group
of plants. Gray’s Botany gives sixty-two species native
to the United States. How many different kinds can
the pupils find in their neighborhood? A bed or rockery
of ferns will make a beautiful nook in the school garden.
Have the children notice and describe the places where
they grow best; then select the most favorable spot for
the bed, generally a corner on the shady side of the school
building. If the soil is not suitable, have a load of black
leaf mould from the woods put on the bed and arrange
naturally a few moss- and lichen-covered rocks to give the
ferns their appropriate setting. Since the ferns are all hardy
perennials, a bed once planted will continue with little care
from year to year and yield good material for drawing and

435

430 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

language lessons, and for study and genuine acquaintance.
A small pool in one edge of the bed will add to its beauty
and may support a collection of interesting water ferns.
Aside from their grace and beauty the interesting fact
connected with the study of ferns is their method of repro-
duction by spores. Watch the underside of the leaves,
and when the fruit dots, or sori, as they are called, turn

Fic. 177. COLLECTION OF FERNS

George Putnam School, Roxbury, Mass.

brown and appear to be ripe, distribute pieces of the leaf
to the class and let them pick out some of the spores on a
sheet of white paper to gain a definite idea of what is meant
by the much-used term “spore.” The finest dustlike par-
ticles that they find in the sori are the spores. If a few
leaves are permitted to dry over a sheet of paper, spores
may be obtained in quantity. It may be too difficult a task
for the children to undertake, but if any wish to volunteer,

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 437

let them try to rear some fern plants from the spores.
To do this the spores must be kept uniformly damp. Have
an inch of wet sand in a small aquarium and lay on this
a fragment of mossy flowerpot, thickly dusted over with
spores. Cover the aquarium with a piece of glass; keep
the sand wet and watch carefully to see what grows on it.
It might be well to set the aquarium in a greenhouse, if
one is available, so that it may be kept at a constant tem-
perature. If the experiment succeeds, the strangest thing
of all will come to light, viz., that the spores do not produce
ferns but, instead, tiny little plants, consisting each of a
single heart-shaped leaf. This is called a “ prothallium,” and
from the underside of this a little fern will finally grow.

Mosses. — The mosses are still smaller plants that do not
bear flowers but reproduce by spores. These are often
borne on slender stems in little capsules. A collection of
as many of the common sorts as the children can find may
well be transplanted to the fern bed. There are 6750
species known. How many different kinds can the chil-
dren find in their school yard?

Liverworts. — These are little mosslike plants, but their
stems are always flat, or, in other words, carry a leaf-like
expansion on either side. Their fruiting capsule opens by
two or four valves and never by a lid such as we find in
the mosses. There are several beautiful little plants of
this kind well adapted for the school aquaria. How many
different kinds can the children find ?

Lichens. — These are a step lower in the scale of plant
life. They have no stems but are leaf-like growths, gray or
yellowish green, on rocks, boards, the bark of trees, or the
ground. Their spores are borne in little cups on the surface.

438 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

An abundance of these plants will probably occur on the
stones in the fernery or on the tree trunks in the school
yard. It is not intended, for these elementary lessons, that
any of the different species be learned, for we have no
common English names with which to designate them.
There are 5600 named species, but it will be sufficient if the
class study and draw two or three of the commonest in the
neighborhood and learn to associate the name “lichen” with
them. It may be possible to explain to the class that
a lichen consists of two different plants living together :
a white fungus, consisting of a felt work of minute threads,
such as we shall see in the moulds and mushrooms ; and
much smaller, generally greenish plants, algae, entangled
in the meshes of the fungus. The fungus furnishes sup-
port and moisture to the algze, and, in return, the algz by
means of their green coloring matter and sunshine supply
food to the fungus. The algze can live without the fungus,
for they can find support and moisture for themselves, but
the fungus invariably dies if deprived of the help of the
algze, for it cannot get food enough from the stone to which
it clings, and without chlorophyll it cannot draw food from
the air by the aid of light. From this point of view the
lichens serve as an introduction to the two next plant
groups, —the alge and the fungi.

Alga. — We can always find algze in the school aquaria,
often as incrustations or velvety growths on the glass, or
as green slimes attached to the plants or floating on the
surface. Snails, tadpoles, and clams will be required to
keep the aquarium clear. Algze vary in size, from plants
as small as a fern spore to the large brown rockweed, fucus,
that clings to the rocks and piles all along the coast. As

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 439

Dr. Brooks has shown, they supply, directly or indirectly,
the food for all animal life of the ocean. Oysters feed upon
little else, and their quality is influenced by the kinds of
algze that grow in the water over their beds. Algze may
be classified according to color: (1) the blue greens, found
as slimy patches on damp wood or stones, or in shallow fresh
water ; (2) the green algz, found in fresh water chiefly ;
(3) brown algze, kelps, rockweeds, etc., found on the coast,
chiefly marine; and (4) red alge, the “seaweeds,” or “sea
mosses,” also mostly marine. Ask the children who go to
the seashore to bring back a few handfuls of such as they
can find. They may be dried as they come from the salt
water and at any time floated in fresh water upon cards or
white paper. To come to know them as objects of beauty
is deemed sufficient. There are at present described and
named 14,854 species of alge. How many kinds have the
class been able to discover?

Fungi. — In descending the scale of plant life, from trees,
wild flowers, and garden plants, we left flowers and seeds
behind when we came to the ferns. In passing now from
the alge to the fungi we leave the green coloring mat-
ter, the chlorophyll, by which these higher plants use the
sunshine to help them build wood, leaves, and fruit from
water, soil, and air.!

The fungi form an enormous group of most interesting
and important plants. Numbering the 970 species of

1 To illustrate this important relation between green plants and the sun-
shine ask a few of the class to sprout a number of plants — potatoes, beans,
corn, squash, and peas— and keep them for a week in the dark. Then let
the class watch them from day to day to see them develop the green color

and begin to grow as they are exposed to the light. A few may be kept in the
dark by inclosing them in tubes of black paper for still further comparison.

440 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

bacteria with them, 43,830 different kinds are now described,
nearly one-quarter of all the plant species known to science.
In size they range from large mushrooms and giant puff-
balls, of many pounds in weight, to moulds and bacteria,
so small that it would require 10,000 placed side by side to
measure an inch, — far too minute to see with the unaided
eye, even as a speck of dust on a polished mirror. The
prime characteristic of this large group is absence of the
green coloring matter, chlorophyll, of the higher plants.
Lacking this, the fungi are unable to build up living matter
from the elements by the aid of sunlight; hence, they
commonly grow in dark or shady places, and they must
depend for their food upon other organisms, animals, or-
plants, either dead or alive. While we shall find many
and beautiful colors, the prevailing tone throughout the
whole group is white or gray. A few of the higher
plants, notably Indian pipe, pine sap, dodder, have lost
more or less of their chlorophyll and, at the same time,
have become parasitic upon other plants. Those fungi
that live upon dead matter are saprophytes,; those that live
upon the tissues of plants or animals to their detriment are
parasites. Still other species, especially bacteria, subsist
upon or in living organisms with mutual benefit and are
called symbzotes, 2.e., together-livers.”

When we inquire what this group of plants does in the
economy of nature, we must study them in connection with
their foods, as above specified.

By far the greater number subsist upon dead matter —
the remains of animals and plants. Imagine all the trees,
plants, and animals that have died since the world began,
whose bodies did not happen to have been burned or eaten,

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 441

still lying as they fell, and we have a picture of what nature
would be without the beneficent work of fungi; that is,
they cause decay. They return to Mother Earth the mat-
ter which has lived, that it may live again. Without them
all available food in the world would soon be locked up in
dead forms, and new life would be impossible.

This is a rather knotty point; but it may be attacked in a direct
and simple manner by asking the children: ‘Where does our food
come from? What is its last
or ultimate source?” They
will say: “It comes from
plants, wheat, corn, fruits,
vegetables; and animals,
beef, mutton, pork, fish, fowl,
etc.” “But where do the
animals that we eat obtain
their food?” “It comes
from the plants ; so that, in
the last analysis, the food of
animals, man included, comes
from plants, directly or in-
directly.” The next question
is: ‘Where, then, do the
plants get their food?”
“With the help of sunshine n, n, represents free nitrogen drawn in
green plants derive the food “frown theaaie
with which they build up
leaves and grains and fruits and woods from the soluble materials
in the soil and from the invisible matters in the air.” Now comes the

Fic. 178. THE CIRCLE OF PROTEID Foop
MATERIALS

crucial question: “Can a green plant grow in wood, or leaves, or
fresh meat, z¢., in the undecayed body of an animal or plant?
Have any of the class ever seen a green plant, not a parasite,
growing in this way?”

The diagram, Fig. 178, will make these relations plain. In their
elementary physiology lessons the children may have had simple

442 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

discussions of the three classes of foods: fa¢s and o7ls, starches and
sugars, and, most important of all, Avotezds, or nitrogen-containing
foods, such as flesh, the white of egg, or the gluten or similar sub-
stances of wheat and other vegetable foods. This is the great essen-
tial food for all animal life. On no amount of fats or sugars can any
animal sustain its life for more than a few days.

Without the help of the fungi we might, with a great deal of
labor, burn everything that died and thus return the elements to the air
and to the soil; but in burning nitrogenous compounds we should return
their nitrogen to the air along with all the other gases, and the green
plants are not able to take nitrogen directly from the air. They
require nitrogen in some soluble form, as nitrates in the soil; so that
the burning of nitrogenous compounds is a most wasteful process. In
fact, up to within a few years it used to be said that when a rifle is
fired a man is killed, whether the bullet strikes one or not. This
was thought to be true, because it was supposed that in burning the
soluble nitrate in the powder, thus returning the nitrogen to the air,
the nitrate could not be recovered and that eventually some one
would starve for the lack of it. How certain bacteria are able to
take free nitrogen from the air, and thus give food to plants and
everything that lives, we shall discuss in the next chapter.

Another line along which this may be explained to the children in
a practical way has reference to their plant lessons. When the chil-
dren were given seeds and asked to see who could rear the best
plant, many of them immediately asked: “What will make a plant
grow best? What can I feed my plant to make it grow fast?”
The answer is zz¢razes, chiefly of potassium and sodium. These are
the main constituents of chemical fertilizers, now so commonly used.
No knowledge of chemical formulas is necessary to make this plain.
Simply get a little potassium nitrate, let the children see, handle, and
taste it, burn a little of it, and, finally, dissolve a teaspoonful in a quart
of water and treat a certain plant with it once a week. It would be
well to have two similar plants growing in two pots of rather poor
soil and give this solution to one and not to the other, to let the class
see how it makes the plant grow. This is a simple elementary les-
son in fertilization of the soil and will serve to show the réle that
nitrates play in plant growth.

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 443

Thus we see in a general way that the fungi reduce dead nitroge-
nous matter to soluble plant food in the soil. Leaves, twigs, and
wood decay to form vegetable mould and animal matters ; manures
and composts must be thoroughly rotted before they become available
for plant foods.

A smaller group of fungi live as parasites upon or within plants
and animals, and thus cause the majority of those diseases commonly
known as contagious or infectious. We should know something
about these and how they may be controlled, and to this end we
may describe a few that commonly attack garden plants and trees, as
well as some that are of great importance in relation to home and
school sanitation.

Finally, a small group of bacteria are truly symbiotic and live
within the roots of plants, especially of the clovers and peas, and
possess the power of absorbing nitrogen from the air and of fixing it
in soluble form as food for the plants. As with the lichen and the
algze, the root supplies moisture and support, while the microbe manu-
factures plant food in return. It has long been known that clover,
for example, enriches the soil in which it grows, and this fact is now,
in a measure, explained.

The above facts are given to aid the teacher in planning the les-
sons and in appreciating the value of the observations and experiments
that follow.

Mushrooms. — The best time during the school year to
study mushrooms is in the fall, after a spell of wet weather.
We may begin by asking the class how many know mush-
rooms and have found them growing in the neighborhood.
The children may know them better by the popular name
“toadstools,”” which is commonly used to designate poi-
sonous or worthless mushrooms; but, since this is not a
helpful term, we had better make the distinction by calling
them “poisonous mushrooms ” instead. Possibly one of the
-class knows some one who is raising mushrooms and can
tell the rest how it is done. Ask the children each to dig

444 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

up one or two mushrooms, being sure to get the “roots,”
and bring them to school for the next nature-study period.
Look over the specimens and place the amanitas by
themselves. Then have the class sort the others into piles
according to their characteristic forms and structures, put-
ting the puffballs, the gill-bearing kinds, all having tubes,

Fic. 179. THE DEADLY AMANITA
The gills; a button just pushing out of the cup; a mushroom showing cap, or
pileus, stem, and cup, or volva at base of stem

and those with fine pores underneath, and such as present
branching forms, the Clavarias, each ina pile by itself. We
thus see that there are marked and interesting differences
in form and structure.

To understand the growth of these strange plants have
some of the children carefully wash the earth away from

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 445

the base of the stem, selecting specimens with a large ball
of earth. They should find an irregular mass of white
threads, some of them running into the bottom of the stem.
They may also find among these threads “buttons” of
various sizes. These are young mushrooms that will grow
larger and finally push their way up into the air, —for what
purpose we shall see in a moment. Have the class com-
pare their specimens and try to find a series from the
smallest “button” to a full-grown mushroom. Do any in
the class know what relation the white threads bear to the
mushrooms? While not conspicuous these are really the
main part of the plant. They are called the “mycelium” of
the mushroom. This mycelium may grow for months or
even years, sending thread after thread in every direction
through the soil or through the wood of a tree, absorbing
food and increasing in size. It is thus the vegetative or
nutritive part of the plant. We shall find something
similar when we study the moulds. When the proper con-
ditions arrive, generally after heavy rains (for mushrooms
are almost all water), the “buttons”’ enlarge and push up
through the surface, often ina night. Fig. 179 will serve
to explain the conspicuous parts of a mushroom — stem,
cap or pileus, gills or spore-bearing structures. Emphasize
the fact that the mushrooms that we ordinarily see are only
the spore-bearing, or reproductive, part of the plant. They
are pushed up into the air by the mass of the mycelium, in
order that the spores may be carried in every direction by
the winds.

Let us next ask the children to study the sporing of
their mushrooms. From any large specimen the spores
are probably being shed, from between the gills or from

446 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

within the tubes or pores, in a constant shower; but they
are far too small to see. Cut off the stem close to the
gills and lay the mushroom, gills down, on a piece of paper
and cover it with a glass so tight that not the slightest
current of air can enter. The spores will then fall straight
down and draw a picture of the under surface of the mush-

room. We make, in other words, a ‘spore print.’’ A few

Fic. 180. THe DEADLY AMANITA

Spore print

of these will greatly aid the children in forming clear ideas
about spores as we have found them in the ferns and mosses
and are soon to study them in the moulds and bacteria.
The spore dust of a ripe puffball should also be studied in
this connection. The important fact to be brought out is
that spores are so small that they become invisible as they
disperse in the air and are so light that they are readily

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 447

carried by air currents. Thus they form a constituent of
dust. If the gills or tubes of a mushroom are dark colored,
we will make the spore print on white paper, if white, on
black paper, and if we care to keep the spore prints, we
will use paper over which a thin coating of mucilage has
been laid. This may be allowed to dry, as the moisture
in the spores will cause them to stick to it.

The food value of mushrooms has been exaggerated by
popular writers. Chemical analyses have shown that they
are about as nutritious as cabbage. Rated at twenty-five
cents a pound, which is from one-fourth to one-tenth the
usual price, they cost about ten times as much for actual
nutrition obtained as beef at fifteen cents per pound and
124 times as much as wheat flour at two and one-half
centsa pound. However, they afford variety; a few species
are said to be “delicious,” and a very few are poisonous.
As a people we are behind most European nations in
knowledge of mushrooms and, hence, in ability to utilize
them for food. The main reason for introducing their
study into nature-study courses is to give definite instruc-
tion, first, about the few poisonous species and, second, to
point out a number of the more valuable kinds that now
go to waste in large quantities in our woods and pastures
and even city lawns and gardens. To do this adequately
would require a book, but a few points of general impor-
tance may be given in connection with the following partial
outline of their classification.

Since the conspicuous part of a mushroom is a mechanism
for producing and disseminating the spores, they are natu-
rally classified by the position and form of the spore-bearing
surfaces or parts.

448 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Puffballs, Lycoperdacee. — Puffballs have a rind or wall
and produce their spores within a closed cavity. When the
spores are ripe the wall ruptures, and off they go with every
puff of wind in the well-known clouds of dust. No puff-
ball, so far as known, is poisonous if taken while the flesh
is perfectly white, but some caution must be observed not

Fic. 181. PUFFBALLS

to mistake for a puffball
a “button” or “egg”
of some other kind of
fungus.

Coral Mushrooms, or Cla-
varias, Clavariacee. — These grow either
in the form of single clubs or many-
branched masses. The spores are shed
from the entire surface of the branches.
So far as is known, all the clavarias that
are of any size are edible.

Morels, Cup Fungi, Dzscomycetes. — These have a stem
and cap, but unlike most mushrooms the spores are borne
in pits distributed over the convex surface. They appear
early in the season, May and June, are generally free from
insects, and may be dried for future use; all the common
species are edible. A morel may be recognized by its resem-
blance to Fig. 183, which is Morchella contca. Morchella

Fre. 182,
A CoRAL MusHROOM

Fic. 183. A MoreL

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 449

esculenta, the esculent morel, has an oblong or egg-shaped
cap, and in JZ. deliciosa, the “delicious” morel, the cap is
nearly cylindrical.

Stinkhorn Mushrooms, P/al/oide@.— These might be
omitted, did they not too often force themselves upon our
attention. Their vile odors, suggestive of decaying animal
matter or escaping sewer gas, strike consternation to the
householder, and he is likely to begin a vain, because mis-
directed, search for the cause of offense. The odor prob-

ably serves the plant by attracting
insects, Which in return for their
feast disseminate its spores. While
there are several kinds, differing in
color and somewhat in structure
and form, the general appearance of
the plant as shown in Fig. 184 will
be sufficient to classify any specimen
that may be brought in. The stink-
horns are not given in the books as

poisonous; in fact, most of them have
the reputation of being “edible” if Fis. 184. StinxHorn
taken in the egg stage. The most ae ean
frequent question about them, however, relates not to their
edibleness, but rather to methods by which they may be
exterminated. They are apt to grow about rotting wood in
damp places, and since we know that the main portion of
the plant, the mycelium, consists of a mass of fine threads
beneath the surface it will probably be necessary only to
scrape up and clear away any decaying wood and possibly
turn over the soil to a depth of a foot effectually to rid the
place of the nuisance.

450 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Trembling Mushrooms, 7veme//inee. —These strange fungi
derive their name from their gelatinous consistency. The
spores are borne over the entire surface. They occur
generally on decaying twigs or wood, drying up so as to
be scarcely distinguishable and swelling again when wet.
Little or no food value attaches to the group, but none
have been reported as poisonous.

Agarics, Agaricacee. — Any mushroom having the spore-
bearing surface arranged in folds or gills radiating from
the stem, or from the point of attachment when no stem
is present, is an agaric. Possibly the chief reason for
introducing the study of mushrooms .into elementary
courses is to enable the pupils to distinguish certain
extremely poisonous plants of this group, ¢he amantitas.
The distinguishing features of Amanita phalloides, our
most deadly species, are sufficiently well indicated in Fig.
179; but the way to teach them is to have the specimens
brought in wherever this is possible. Amanita verna,
appropriately called the “destroying angel,” so closely
resembles A. phallocdes that it may be considered, for ele-
mentary purposes, a white variety of it. A. muscaria, the
fly agaric, is generally larger than A. phalloides and differs
from it in having the cap bright yellow, varying to orange
and even red. Crumbled into a saucer of sweetened water,
it serves as an effective fly poison, whence its name. The
gills are white, rarely yellowish, and the cap is typically
dotted over with whitish flocks or scales formed from the
part of the volva that clings to the cap as it expands.
These may dry up and blow off and hence be absent from
old specimens —a fact that should be borne in mind if we
are to make the acquaintance of A. cesaria.

FLOWERLESS, PLANTS ASI

Two or three amanitas are edible, notably A. rudescens
and A. césaria, but the variations in size, color, and other
characteristics that occur, as they grow under different
conditions of soil and weather, are so great, and their resem-
blance to the poisonous species so close, that we must pass
them over to the specialists.

A. rubescens is dingy red, and the flesh quickly turns red when
broken. The gills are white, and there is scarcely any trace of a cup
at the base of the stem, since nearly the whole of the volva is carried up
and remains as warts scattered over the cap. A. c@saria, the imperial
agaric, cidus deorum, reddish or orange
fading to yellow with age, is one of the
most beautiful and “delicious ” of mush-
rooms. While its cap resembles some-
what A. muscaria in color, it rarely has
any flocks from the volva on it, and the
gills are bright yellow.

From Figs. 179 and 180,we see
the general characteristics of this
group of deadly plants. No one
infallible rule or test can be given
to distinguish an edible from a

F Fic. 185. ComMMON MEADOW
poisonous agaric; but the death Nic soon
cup or a scaly bulbous stem, the veil
or annulus, and the white spores, taken together, indicate
that a specimen belongs to the amanita family and must
be avoided. These poisonous mushrooms are common in
the woods but occur on open meadows or lawns. The
common meadow mushroom, Agaricus campestris, the spe-
cies raised for markets, has brown spores, flesh-colored to
dark-brown gills, and, since it is not inclosed in a volva or
sac in its early stages, it has no cup at base of stem or

452 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

warts on the cap, but has a well-marked veil on the stem.
It grows in open meadows and pastures, though species
much like it are found in woods.

This is considered far enough for elementary pupils to go in the
classification of the agarics. Still, many others are likely to be brought
in, and it may be helpful, rather than otherwise, to distinguish a few
of the more prominent groups.

The shaggy mane and ink cap, of the genus Coprinus, are com-
mon about rich lawns and barnyards after wet weather. The spores
are black, and the gills turn black and liquefy as the plant reaches
maturity. The black fluid thus formed, mixed with the spores, falls in
inky drops from the cap. If taken before the gills turn black, they
are edible.

The milky mushrooms, of the genus Lactarius, form an interest-
ing group, easily distinguished by the milky, or colored, juice which
exudes from any part of the plant when it is broken. The juice of
these mushrooms may be tasted if care is taken not to swallow any
of it, and those that are not bitter or peppery may be considered
edible.

The Russulas (Lat. russus, red”) are the brilliantly colored mush-
rooms — red, pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow — that enliven the
woods of summer and early fall. In form and fragile structure they
resemble the milky mushrooms, but none of them exude any milky
juice when wounded. One of them, A. emetica, is rated as poisonous
by most authors, but its acrid taste is sufficient to prevent a person
from eating enough to do serious harm. In color it passes from rose,
when young, to blood red and finally to tawny or yellow when old.
Other species of russulas which have a mild and agreeable flavor
are considered edible.

Pore or Tube-Bearing Mushrooms, Polyporacee. — Numbers
of mushrooms will probably be brought in which resemble
the agarics in form but, instead of gills, have innumerable
tubes or pores, from which the spores are dropped. Most
of these, except the Boletz, grow upon wood, stumps, and

FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 453

trees, both dead and alive, and many are directly respon-
sible for the death of trees upon which they are found.

Boleti. Jf the mushroom is soft, not woody,
and has tubes easily separable from the rest of
the cap, it belongs to the genus Boletus. Several
Boleté are pronounced edible, but, as with the
amanitas, taste is not a safeguard against the
poisonous kinds. Satan’s Boletus, 2. satanus,
B. luridus, B. alveolatus, and other allied species
are set down in most of the books as poisonous.
Mcllvaine pronounces them “remarkably fine
eating.” 2B. satanus is a large mushroom, three Fic.186. A BoLEtTus
to eight inches in diameter, brownish yellow to
dull white in color. The tubes are yellow, except at their mouths,
which are bright red. The stem is thick and swollen and is marked
with red reticulations near the cap. The flesh is whitish but changes
to reddish or violet when wounded. JB. /uridus is similar, but smaller,
two to four inches broad, brownish olive above, and the flesh turns
blue when broken.

Fistulina. Vf the tubes hang separate, ze., are not cemented
together in a mass, the mushroom is a Fistudina. The common spe-
cies is /. hepatica, the beef tongue, or beefsteak fungus, which
grows sometimes in huge masses on oak and chestnut stumps. Its
color is red, variegated above and streaked in lines of growth.
Below, the spore surface is pale, tinged with
yellow or pink. The beefsteak mushroom is
certainly not poisonous, and some consider. it
edible in spite of its marked acidity.

Polypori. If the tubes cling together, are
inseparable from the cap, and the plant becomes
woody or corky with age, it is probably a

Fic. 187. A Potyrorus, Polyporus. These are the “bracket fungi,”
OR BRACKET MuSH-
ROOM

?
“ punks,”

and “conchs” often found growing
upon trees. A few Polyfori are “edible,” after
a fashion, when young and tender, but the chief reason for studying

them relates to their injury of trees. Have the class examine the

454 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

trees in the neighborhood and report the number attacked by these
fungous growths. Can the children discover how the fungus gains
access to the wood? They may find some broken limb or some
place where the bark has been injured, to account for the infection.
With shade and garden trees all wounds should be painted over as
soon as made, to protect the trees from the spores of fungi. In gen-
eral, decaying wood, stumps, branches, or trees upon which these
fungi have begun to grow should be cut and burned, to prevent
infection of healthy trees. Any piece of rotten wood will show
how the fungous growth affects the tree. Seek for pieces that con-
tain plainly visible mycelium, white threads, permeating the wood.
These, as with mushrooms that grow on the ground, form the nutri-
tive part of the plant, absorbing certain elements from the wood
cells, thus causing them to soften and crumble.
At certain seasons the spore-forming portion is
pushed out into the air.

Spine-Bearing or Hedgehog Mushrooms,
fHydnacee.— If a mushroom, instead of
gills or tubes, has spines that point
toward the earth, it may be called by
either of the above names, or, botanic-
ally, it is a Hydnum. The class contains
most variant forms. Some are umbrella shaped with central
stems, others grow on wood and may form a mere flattened
layer closely attached to it, while others may develop shelf
or bracket forms, like many of the Polyport. Other species
grow in branching forms, like the coral mushrooms, but
are distinguished from them by the fact that the teeth or
spines always point earthward instead of upward. Several
common species are said to be edible, and no Aydnum
described in the books is stated to be poisonous.

I have endeavored to give a few suggestions that may
form an introduction for a child to a large, interesting, and

Fic. 188. A HEDGE-
HOG MUSHROOM

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 455

important group of plants. It has been done with the
purpose of preventing accidents from mushroom poisoning,
and at the same time of opening the way toward a study of
fungi that may lead to better utilization of the valuable
kinds. In any favorable locality a continued search would
probably be rewarded by finding at least five or six hundred
different species of mushrooms. It is not strange that a
few out of this number should be poisonous. If we are to
use mushrooms, we should know them as we know apples
and potatoes. They are fragile and plastic, vary under
differing conditions, change color with age, etc., so that
to know a species means ability to recognize it in all its
different guises, and this is no slight task. TZake one at
a time is a good rule, and be sure you know it whenever
and wherever met with. Soon you will have become
acquainted with a group of interesting friends and acquaint-
ances and fascinating enemies.

The way mushrooms have been tested to ascertain whether they are
edible has been described somewhat as follows: Take a bit of the fresh
mushroom the size of a pea, chew it and hold in the mouth for a minute
or two, reject, wait twenty-four hours and note whether any bad effects
supervene. If not, chew another bit of a perfectly fresh specimen the
size of a pea and swallow. Wait a day and note effects.

Mushrooms often change their flavors on being cooked. If no
bad effects have been produced thus far, cook and eat a small piece.
Do not season, so that you may be able to describe the flavor accu-
rately. If the tests indicate that the species may prove a valuable
addition to the common dietary, gradually increase the amount eaten
until thoroughly convinced that it is wholesome. The final step in
the procedure is to try the mushroom on your friends.

I give these directions with the view not of encouraging people
to begin testing mushrooms promiscuously, but rather of preventing
accidents from careless or ignorant testing.

456 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

When we come to know them as well as we do the
common nuts and wild berries and fruits of the fields and
woods, mushrooms will add spice, interest, and variety to
every walk, excursion, hunt, or camping trip. But a few
gencral precautions should be added, and those already
given may be briefly summarized.

1. Never be tempted into cating a mushroom in the
“button” stage, especially one found in the woods. At
this time the marks by which the different specics are
distinguished are not developed. Many accidents have
happened from disregard of this sensible precaution.

2. Reject all mushrooms that show signs of decay.
Any food may become unwholesome or cven poisonous if
tainted. All specimens infested by insects should also be
discarded.

3. Reject all mushrooms that have a cap or sac or scaly
bulb at base of stem, a veil or annulus, and white spores.
These three characters combined point infallibly to the
deadly amanitas ; but, at first, reject all that show any trace
of a cup and use extreme caution in dealing with any
members of this group.

The statement of Dr. George Francis with regard to all
other mushrooms is: “Being certain that you have no
amanitas, it is not unsafe to make cautious trial of any
species whose raw taste is not objectionable.”

CHAPTER XXVII

FLOWERLESS PLANTS (Continued)
Movu.tps, MILpDEws, YEAST, BACTERIA

Ir we have studied the mushrooms and have seen
the mycelium, it will be an easy step to understand the
moulds, and from these, through the familiar yeast plant,
we may pass to the study of the bacteria. We shall not
have far to seek for specimens of moulds and mildews.
We may find them too often on plants and trees that we
are trying to rear. After a period of wet weather they
may cover the books on our shelves, the clothes in our
closets, — not to speak of the eternal vigilance necessary
to prevent them from appropriating any food that is not
sealed against their attacks. While many may be inclined
to consider them too minute for elementary lessons, in
the mass they are easily seen, and their relation to proper
sanitation of the home and to fungous diseases of plants
makes them an essential part of the plan for nature study.
As a whole, too, the group plays a necessary and benefi-
cent réle in nature.

Moulds.— A jelly glass, or even a medicine vial, furnishes
ample room for a garden of these instructive plants, and
they may be cultivated on almost anything for soil. First
we will take some kind of liquid culture medium in which
we can see all the different parts of the mould plant as it

457

458 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

grows. Fruit juice as it comes from preserves, —as clear
and colorless as possible, —diluted one-half and filtered
or strained through fine cheese cloth, makes an ideal
medium. Fill the vial or glass half full and sprinkle a
little dust from the schoolroom over the surface. Cover
and set aside to observe from day to day. Three such
cultures should be made, one of which should be kept in
a dark place, one in a room where direct sunlight does
not fall upon it, and the
third should be kept in
the sunshine as much
of the time as possible.
It would be better if
each of the pupils had
a vial and one-third
kept theirs in the dark,
another third, on their
desks, in the shade, and
the other third, in the
sunshine. Then let
them compare notes
during the nature-study

Fic. 189. Mourp GARDENS

The liquid culture is seen at the right. The
others show arrangement for solid cultures. A period and decide under

little water is put in to keep the alt moist, and what conditions moulds
the material is supported on a piece of glass
grow best. Let them
vary the experiment to see if they can discover conditions
under which moulds are unable to grow at all. Experi-
ment by leaving the dust in the bright sunshine for one,
two, or three days before planting it in the fruit juice.
It should be kept in a dry vial stoppered with a plug of
cotton batting. But before we can go further with this

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 459

experiment we must be sure that we have killed all the
germs that may be in the culture medium. Can any of
the children suggest a way to do this? How is it done
in their homes in the canning of fruit ?

A convenient way is to plug the bottles with a wad of cotton
batting and let them stand in a tightly covered steamer over boiling
water for half an hour. This kills growing mould plants and bac-
teria, but not all the spores that may be present in the liquid. The
heat will be likely to start any such spores into growth, so that if they
are steamed again on the following day, or before the spores have
had time to germinate and form spores again, we may be reasonably
sure that no germ remains alive in our cultures. Two or three of
these vials should be set aside to compare with others that are
planted with dust or with the spores of different moulds; and, if all
the germs have been killed and the cotton is not removed, the cul-
tures will remain clear, and no growth of any kind will appear in
them. This is known as “sterilizing.” With a number of the cul-
tures thus sterilized we may plant them with dust or the spores of any
mould we wish to study. To do this, pick up a little of the dust or
spores with the point of a clean needle and apply to the culture.

After a day or two, if there are any mould spores in
the cultures, we should see a fine woolly growth spreading
over the surface and sending its delicate threads down
into the liquid. This is the mycelium, and the threads
are known as hyphz. The function of the mycelium, as
in the mushrooms, is to absorb nutriment. Next we
observe that a number of the hyphz near the center of
the mycelium are growing up into the air, and the forms
they assume are characteristic of different species of
mould. Four of these typical forms are shown in Fig. 190,
but it is not intended to go farther into any details that
require the use of the microscope. A number of the
larger moulds, however, have fruiting hyphz an inch or

460 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

two in length, on the tips of which the beadlike spore
cases are plainly visible to the naked eye.

We may next have the pupils substitute for the culture
medium in their bottles various solid materials — bread,
potatoes and other vegetables, meats, and a variety of dif-
ferent fruits. Each pupil may provide a different mate-
rial, and in this way the class will gain a notion of how
omnivorous the moulds are.

An experiment that must not be omitted consists in
inoculating a number of different fruits with mould spores,

Fic. 190. DIFFERENT KINDS OF MouLpD

a, milk mould; 4, blue mould; c, black mould; d, white mould

to observe the process of decay. Here again the children
may take different fruits for variety’s sake — some apples,
some pears, others plums, peaches, grapes, each child
taking different varieties so far as practicable. We will
suppose that the pupils have each three fruits of the
desired variety. Having cautioned them to secure per-
fect specimens with stems attached and no breaks of the
skin, let them each put one fruit aside, perfect; let them

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 461

make a single puncture with a pin in the second and
rub in some mould spores or a little dust ; put this away
with the first; and let them puncture the third, but,
instead of inoculating it, let them leave it, puncture side
up, exposed to the air on their desks. They may vary the
experiment still further by having different pupils use for
their inoculations a number of the moulds described
below. This experiment coédrdinates itself with practical
fruit culture and the need of “hand picking” of choice
fruit. It also carries a larger lesson related to intelligent
cleanliness in care of the skin and treatment of scratches,
cuts, and bruises, since in this function of protection the
skin of an apple and that of a child are much alike.

Our experiments and observations cannot go far before
we see that there are many different kinds of moulds.
We notice, first, that while the mycelia of all appear much
alike to the naked eye (generally white, like cotton bat-
ting), the spores are of different colors; and these may
serve as a basis for elementary classification.

Blue Mould, Penzcillium glaucum.— This is the commonest mould
we have, and its blue velvety growths over bread and all sorts of foods
and on the leather of shoes and gloves have made it only too familiar
to all. Its manner of spore formation is shown in Fig. 1go, 4.

Black Mould, Aspergillus niger.— This is another common house-
hold form on bread, vegetables, and fruits.

White Mould, 47ucor mucedo. — The white moulds are especially
good for elementary lessons on account of their comparatively large
size. They grow on all kinds of food, and after covering the mass
with a white cottony mycelium they send up fruiting hypha, often
one or two inches in height, which terminate in little black beads
—miniature puffballs —in which the spores are produced. These
are seen, enlarged in Fig. 190, d, and natural size in the “mould
gardens” in Fig. 189.

462 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Mildews, or Moulds of the Garden.— The moulds that attack
plants are commonly known as mildews, rusts, blights, or
smuts. The number of these minute parasitic fungi is
legion, and as a group they rank with destructive insects
in rendering the raising of flowers and fruits difficult and
interesting. We can introduce into the course only a
few of the more important, such as are most closely asso-
ciated with the children’s garden studies. They may be
considered as types to indicate methods of study that can
be applied to many other kinds. The methods of uni-
versal application, for preventing fungous diseases of
plants, relate to intelligent cleanliness of garden and
premises (the burning of rubbish and dead leaves that
may harbor the spores) and to so planting and pruning
as to admit sunlight and air. to every part of the plant.
For recent information about more special methods we
should send to our State Experiment Station for the
latest Spray-Calendar.

The Black Knot, Plowrightia morbosa. — Request the children to
search their plum and cherry trees, bring in specimens, and report
the distribution and prevalence of this fungus in the neighborhood.
The summer crop of spores is produced in June. The knot at this
time is greenish brown and velvety. The winter spores are produced
in capsules in the black mass. From about December and for the
rest of the winter these capsules are perforated and the spores are
shaken out by every puff of wind, like pepper out of a pepper box.
The spores that happen to lodge behind a bud or in a crotch or
crevice send their mycelial threads into the living wood, where they
multiply greatly and thus cause the swelling or knot. Finally, they
send fruiting hyphz to the surface, and the life story is repeated.
A single knot is thus a menace to an orchard or neighborhood; one
should never be permitted to develop spores, but should be cut off
and durned as soon as any swelling appears.

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 463

The Brown Rot, MJonilia fructigena. — Plum, cherry, and peach
trees are often stripped of their entire crop by this destructive fungus.
It probably consumes more of these fruits than all the boys and girls
in the country. The class should study its prevalence and distribu-
tion in the neighborhood along with that of the black knot. It is
characteristic of this
fungus that affected
fruits cling to the
branch over winter,

often cemented to-
gether in clusters.
In this condition
they are said to be
“mummied” (see
Fig. 192). The life
story of the brown
rot is like that of all
moulds: a spore
lodges on a fruit,
germinates and fills
the fruit with its
mycelium, and the
fruiting hyphe grow
out to scatter the
spores. If the pupils
will inoculate a few
plums, they will see
how rapidly this

fungus works, and
by so doing appre- Fic. 19t. THE BLAcK KNOT

ey 5
ciate the necessity of (Photograph of collection prepared by Burton N. Gates,

picking and burning aged sixteen, for his class in the high school)

affected fruits before the spores are cast. Remedies for A/onzlza are
pruning to let in light and air, thinning plums and peaches so that
no two fruits touch, picking and burning all diseased fruits as soon
as detected, and burning all mummified fruits in the fall, since they
produce another crop of spores in the spring.

464 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Peach-Leaf Curl, Eroascus deformans.— By attacking the leaves,
blossoms, and growing twigs of the peach this fungus sometimes
causes the loss of the entire crop, and great damage to the trees. If
present in the neighborhood, the pupils will have no difficulty in
finding specimens for study. Peach-leaf curl is so easily prevented
by spraying that there is no excuse for allowing an orchard to be
affected by it.

Peach Yellows. — No fungus has been discovered in connection
with this disease, although it has been sought for with great diligence.
Expert testimony inclines to the view that it is not due to a germ of

Fic. 192. PLUMS DESTROYED BY BROWN Rot

any kind. Still it is clearly contagious, is transmitted by seeds or
buds, and probably by the mere presence of a diseased tree in the
orchard. How these facts can be explained on any other theory
than that of the germ origin of the disease, it is difficult to imagine.
Affected trees ripen their fruit prematurely, and many of the buds
intended for the following spring burst into a spindling, sickly, yellow
growth during the summer. No tree has been known to recover
when once attacked, and since the fruit is worthless, the sooner it is
uprooted and burned the better. Laws compel a man to do this in
a number of states where peach raising is an important industry.
Other garden fungi that should be observed and studied are:
Downy Mildew, Peronospora viticola.— This fungus attacks
grapes, especially vines allowed to grow without proper pruning.

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 465

Orange Rust, Ceoma nitens. — Raspberry and blackberry bushes
are often attacked by this fungus, the leaves and young shoots com-
ing out bright orange in the spring. The appearance is so striking
as to need no description. Affected plants should be uprooted and
burned before the spores ripen.

Rose Mildew, Spherotheca pannosa.

Apple Scab, Fusicladium dendriticum.— This fungus is commonly
found as black scabby patches on the leaves and fruit and has been
estimated to injure from one-sixth to one-half of the entire apple crop.

The Grain Smuts.— A conservative estimate of the damage
caused by fungi attacking corn, wheat, oats, barley, and rye is said
to be $200,000,000 annually ; and this amount is stolen so stealthily
that few realize their loss. In grain-raising sections have each pupil
gather one hundred heads of wheat and oats at random, and estimate
the percentage destroyed by smut.}

Yeast. — Moulds and mildews are plants, many of which
we can see without difficulty. We now descend a step
lower to forms that we cannot see without

a microscope, except in the mass. Greatly a Q
magnified, yeast plants have the appearance 0

of tiny ovoidal bodies, of which it would — ry6, 193,
take about 3000 placed side by side to Y#4sT PLants

measure an inch. Still, small as they are, Showing manner
. k of growth (mag-
we can study them in a practical way. nified)

We may use our medicine vials again for this purpose. Suppose
one-half of the class have their vials each partially filled with diluted
fruit juice, such as we used in the study of moulds; and the other
half, after thoroughly cleansing and scalding their bottles, have a
large drop of freshly scalded flour or starch paste. It should be
made as transparent as possible, be free from air bubbles, and be
spread out evenly in one side of the vial. Let the pupils provide
themselves with needles mounted in sticks and pieces of clean glass,

1 “The Grain Smuts: how they are caused and how to prevent them,”
by Walter T. Swingle, Washington, 1898, Farmer's Bulletin, No. 75.

466 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

and we will place upon each of the glasses a bit of compressed yeast
the size of a pin head. Ask each to divide his yeast, first in halves,
then one-half in halves again, and so on until he has a particle that
he can just see. Let the pupils now plant these just visible particles
in their vials. They may then cork them and observe the growth
that takes place from day to day. If a piece of rubber dam is
stretched over the top of one of the bottles containing fruit juice
and tied tightly, the gases produced by the growth of the yeast will
puff up the rubber and thus help to show that something is going on
inside. The liquid will soon become turbid, full of bubbles, and at
last a mass of white substance will settle to the bottom. This is
composed of yeast plants, but may be many thousand times the
amount with which we started. The liquid will have lost its sweet
taste and will smell and taste of alcohol, or possibly of vinegar. The
particle on the starch paste will gradually overgrow the whole drop,
changing it to a whitish mass of yeast plants.

de Bre & |
a aq ! aN
a &b Cc d

Fic. 194. Forms OF BACTERIA

a, grippe; 4, bubonic plague; ¢, diphtheria; d, tuberculosis; e, typhoid fever;
J; spiral types.

Bacteria. — The smaller a living particle is, the more
powerful may it become. This is because the smaller a
cell is, the more surface it has in proportion to its bulk
for the absorption of food. Bacteria are the smallest liv-
ing things we know and, in many ways, the most power-
ful. Different forms of bacteria are shown in Fig. 194.
Some are spherical and so minute that it would take
125,000 of them placed side by side to measure an inch.
Others are rod shaped, but so short that 1500 placed end
to end would make a line only across the head of a pin.
Many of the elongated forms are bent into commas or

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 467

twisted into spirals or corkscrews. Minute as they are,
many bacteria have threadlike appendages, with which
they swim actively about.

It has been difficult to decide whether we should class
bacteria as plants or animals. Their food and what little
structure they possess are considered to show, however,
that they are plants, related more closely to the fungi
than to any other group.

Bacteria are practically everywhere in nature. They
exist in the air as dust ; they swarm in all surface waters ;
the top layers of fertile soil are literally alive with them,
almost all of them harmless or beneficial. The udders of
healthy cows, the healthy human mouth, the healthy
stomach and intestines, all support varied flore of these
ubiquitous plants. Normally, however, they are not pres-
ent in the blood or other tissues of a healthy animal.

Bacteria were discovered by Anton van Leeuwenhoek
in 1683, but were known merely as curiosities until about
1880, when Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur demonstrated
their power to cause disease. For a time people were
greatly alarmed; they next bethought themselves that
humanity had fared well before the bacteria were discov-
ered and would doubtless continue to fare as well, or bet-
ter, thereafter. As knowledge accumulated, they realized
that there is no reason why bacteria should not be as good
to eat as other vegetables ; and finally arrived at the view
as expressed by a leading scientist, that a healthy human
body is, after all, the best microbe destroyer in the world.
Fresh air and sunshine, exercise, good food, vigor, and a
high health level give us these, and with a few reasonable
precautions we have practically nothing to fear.

468 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Small as bacteria are, they possess powers of growth
and multiplication not paralleled by any other living forms.
It is estimated that if all the oceans were nutrient broth,
with an average depth of one mile, the progeny of one
microbe might fill them full in less than five days.

By precise methods it is possible to rear as pure a cul-
ture of a desired kind of bacteria as of any garden plant.
While we shall not be able to do this, we may make a num-
ber of instructive observations if we are on the alert and
know what to look for. The phosphorescence of decay-
ing wood, fish, or meat is due to bacteria of decom-
position. The red color, known in superstitious times as
the “bleeding Host,” that sometimes overspreads bread
and other foods, is caused by other harmless bacteria.

It will be difficult or impossible, without expensive
microscopes, to distinguish bacteria from yeasts and
moulds. Still, a few simple experiments may be tried.
We may use our vials again, —this time filled with hay
infusion! or with a dilute, perfectly clear broth. We may
sterilize, as before described, by boiling on two succes-
sive days, and then sow a minute quantity of dust from
the schoolroom or the street, keeping other vials stop-
pered with cotton for comparison. The vials in which
dust is sown will soon grow turbid, a scum will form on
top, and an offensive odor of decomposition will probably
make it necessary to wash the vials out before the experi-
ment has continued too long. A boiled potato cut in two

1 Hay infusion is made by soaking a handful of hay in a quart of warm
water for an hour and filtering. Bread water, potato water, or meat juice
diluted — any clear solution containing a little organic matter — will serve
the purpose.

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 469

with a sterilized knife (a knife that has been held in a
flame for an instant or in boiling water for a few seconds)
makes a good field on which to sow dust and observe the
growth of bacteria. The best culture medium, however,
is gelatine,! which may be used in the pupils’ vials after
the hay-infusion experiment. Dust sown on its trans-
parent surface will leave little doubt in their minds as
to the reality of microbes.

Some of the gelatine poured while warm upon a small
pane of clean glass may be made to yield a most instruct-
ive demonstration. Touch the hand, soiled and dusty as it
ts, to the solidified gelatine for a few seconds; then wash
the hands with soap and apply to a fresh surface of the
gelatine; keep protected from dust for two or three days.
The soiled hand will be outlined by colonies of bacteria,
while possibly none or few will grow where the washed
hand touched the gelatine. I know of no experiment
which demonstrates so forcibly the reason for washing
the hands before breaking bread.

Pear Blight. — The leaves and bark on branches of pear
trees sometimes turn black. This is due to the work of
bacteria which gain access to the tree through the blos-
soms or through some wound in the bark. It was thought
that bees were largely to blame for carrying the germs of
blight from blossom to blossom, and the experiment has
been tried of removing them entirely from the neighbor-
hood of pear orchards during the blossoming period. This

1 Gelatine for study of bacteria is prepared by dissolving in 200 cubic
centimeters of water 1 gram each of Liebig’s beef extract and common salt
and 2 grams of peptone, adding 20 grams of gelatine. Dissolve and neu-

tralize, or make slightly alkaline with sodium carbonate. Stopper the bottle
with cotton batting and boil for fifteen minutes on three successive days.

470 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

resulted in greatly impaired fruit, from lack of cross-polli-
nation, and apparently little difference in the distribution
of the blight. Affected limbs should be cut off a foot
below any traces of the blight and promptly burned.

Foul Brood. — Large numbers of young bees are sometimes
found dead in the cells. This may be due to chilling,
but if the larva have turned dark brown and softened to
the consistency of ropy mucus, and if the hive smells like
a glue pot, we have to do with the most fatal malady that
can attack a colony of bees. The disease is caused by
bacteria, and an affected hive may be the means of killing
all the bees in the neighborhood. California, Colorado,
Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Utah, Wisconsin, and
Ontario, Canada, have passed laws relative to foul brood,
which should be studied in connection with the lessons on
the honeybee.

Symbiotic Bacteria. — Have members of the class prepare
a demonstration of the nodules found on the roots of
clover or peas. These are filled with bacteria, which we
here find in the new réle of helpers and food producers
for the plant and for man. If time permits, we may try a
most instructive experiment. Wash thoroughly and ster-
ilize two flowerpots full of sand. Sow clover or peas in
both alike, except that the seeds for one pot should be
thoroughly washed with boiled water and soap, and those
for the other moistened with water in which root nodules
have been crushed. Let the plants stand side by side,
sprinkle with boiled or distilled water, and watch the dif-
ference in growth. Plants in the one pot can use only
the food stored in the seed; those in the other will grow
with the aid of their symbiotic bacteria by receiving
nitrogen from the air.

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 471

Intelligent Cleanliness. — Incidentally, and with a reason-
able amount of tact, make plain the relation of certain
bacteria to disease, laying all the emphasis on intelligent
cleanliness as a means of prevention. Our lessons on
moulds and mildews and other fungi will have done much
to define the problem. I do not know of a better plan
than to study with the class the board of health regula-
tions of the city or town with regard to cleanliness of
premises, isolation and control of contagious diseases, and
practical methods of disinfection. Then, in order to test
the efficiency of these health measures, take the published
reports of the board of health. Are there cases of pre-
ventable contagious disease? Comparing recent reports
with those of former years, has there been improvement ?
The story of epidemics in the neighborhood will be
instructive.

Ways by which Bacteria enter the Body.— Ask the pupils to
think of a way by which bacteria may gain access to the
body. After our experiments with dust they should be
able to do this intelligently. The various answers may
be grouped as follows.

The Air Passages. — Since bacteria, as we have seen,
form part of the dust, they may enter the body with the
air we breathe. In elementary physiology lessons the
children have learned that the nostrils are provided with
curved and folded surfaces moistened with mucus, one of
the functions of which is to catch all particles of dust-and
so prevent them from reaching the lungs. People who
breathe through the mouth are continually taking dust
into their lungs. Diphtheria, tuberculosis, pneumonia,
and, especially, grippe are some of the diseases that may

472 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

be transmitted by dust in the air. The bacteria get into
the air chiefly, if not wholly, from sputum, which after
drying may be taken up by the wind. For many localities
the board of health reports will show that more than one-
seventh of all the deaths are caused by the bacteria of
tuberculosis. Regulations of the authorities with regard to
spitting in public places should be heeded most carefully.

The Skin.—If cuts or scratches become inflamed, “sore,”
fester, and discharge pus, we may know that bacteria have
forced an entrance. Thus, all breaks in the skin should
be kept clean and carefully protected from dust.

The Mouth.—This is perhaps the most important por-
tal of infection, especially with children. Typhoid fever,
cholera, dysentery, and similar intestinal diseases com-
monly enter the system by this channel, and generally
either with drinking water or with food. Ascertain from
the board of health any local history there may be about
typhoid fever outbreaks.

An instructive fragment of such local history happened in
Worcester, Mass., in 1896. Three cases of typhoid fever, all on the
same milk route, were suddenly reported to the board of health.
The clerk of the board hastened to the milk farm and found its pro-
prietor sick with typhoid fever. By completely cleansing everything
connected with the dairy and by insisting on its removal to a neigh-
boring farm, the milk route was not interfered with, and no other
cases developed. What might have proved a serious epidemic was
nipped in. the bud.

An epidemic with which the above should be contrasted happened
in Stamford, Conn. In the spring of 1895, 386 cases and 25 deaths
occurred, practically all of them on the milk route of a man who dis-
tributed less than one-tenth of the milk supply of the town. The
investigation indicated that all this suffering and loss of life was

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 473

caused by rinsing the milk cans in water from a shallow well, prac-
tically a cesspool. The few bacteria clinging to the cans multiplied
rapidly in the warm milk.?

The typical case in which typhoid fever was distributed through
the water supply is that of 1885 in Plymouth, Pa., a mining town of
about 8500 inhabitants on the Susquehanna River. A case of
typhoid fever, contracted in Philadelphia, had been cared for during
the winter in a house standing close to a stream that flowed into the
town reservoir. The waste from the patient had been thrown out
on the snow zzsterilized. When the snow melted, this was carried
down and mingled with the water supplied to the town. After about
ten days cases of typhoid fever began to appear at the rate of from
50 to 200 a day until 1104 had been taken ill, and as a result 114
died. This calamity befell the town because some one was negligent
or did not know how to destroy a few germs of typhoid fever or
prevent them from gaining access to a water supply.

The school is a natural mingling place for the germs of
a community, and it is time that parents, teachers, and
pupils should combine to make it the most ideally clean
place in the neighborhood. Attention has often been
called to the fact that diseases of children point to the
school as the great center of infection. I dare say that
the statistics of any town or city will show this; and until
the feather duster is banished and intelligent cleanliness
is secured, this will go on. Fig. 195 is plotted from the
monthly reports of the Worcester Board of Health for the
three children’s diseases specified.

Why do we go to the expense of providing tools for
manual training, household furniture, and materials for
sewing, cooking, and domestic science, and leave the most
important work of all — cleanliness of the schoolroom—to

1 Prof. Herbert E. Smith. Report on the Stamford Typhoid Fever Epi-
demic. Published by the State Board of Health, New Haven, Conn.

474 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

the janitor? Why do we fail to give the lessons that will
flow out in health and cleanliness into all the homes of the
district and go with the children as long as they live ?

3121 1267,

1
CASES
190

MEASLES.

DIPHTHERIA

SCARLET FEVER

=a

ee

SI

FF

—
|

/\ a
A | /s\

ENE

<x

7

793-94 "94-95

SCHOOL YEARS

Fic. 195. THE SCHOOL AND CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF CHILDREN

The upper line for diphtheria gives the number of cases, the lower, the number of
deaths. The summer vacations are indicated as breaks between the school years
The following, published by the Health Department of
Providence, marks an advance in rational teaching of
cleanliness and personal hygiene.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT

SUGGESTIONS FOR THE TEACHING OF CLEANLINESS AMONG
SCHOOL CHILDREN

The poisons of some of the common and also of some of the most
loathsome diseases are frequently contained in the mouth. In such
cases anything which is moistened by the saliva of the infected per-
son may, if it touches the lips of another, convey disease. The more
direct the contact the greater the danger.

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 475

It is the purpose of health officials to keep in isolation all persons
having communicable disease during the time that they are infectious.
But in many cases this is impossible. Little restraint is put on cer-
tain mild diseases, as measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, and
mumps; and even such diseases as diphtheria, scarlet fever, and tuber-
culosis are frequently so mild as to be unnoticed, and children affected
with them mingle freely with others. It is probable that in such
cases one of the chief vehicles of contagion is the secretion of the
mouth and nose. It is believed that much can be done to prevent
contagion by teaching habits of cleanliness. But if such instruction
is to be effectual it must be continuous. The teacher must notice
and correct violations of those rules as habitually as the violation of
the formal school rules are corrected.

Even if the question of disease and contagion did not enter into
the matter at all the subject ought to be given more attention by
teachers. Our schools should not only teach reading, writing, and
arithmetic, but it is perhaps quite as important that they should
inculcate cleanliness, decency, refinement, and manners. Cleanliness
should be taught for its own sake, even if it had no relation whatever
to health.

TEACH THE CHILDREN

Not to spit; it is rarely necessary. To spit on a slate, floor, or
sidewalk is an abomination.

Not to put the fingers into the mouth.

Not to pick the nose.

Not to wet the finger with saliva in turning the leaves of books.

Not to put pencils into the mouth or moisten them with the lips.

Not to put money into the mouth.

Not to put anything into the mouth except food and drink.

Not to swap apple cores, candy, chewing gum, half-eaten food,
whistles or bean blowers, or anything that is habitually put in the
mouth.

Teach the children to wash the hands and face often. See that
they keep them clean. Ifa child is coming down with a communi-
cable disease it is reasonable to believe that there is less chance of
infecting persons and things if the hands and face are washed clean
and not daubed with the secretions of the nose and mouth.

Teach the children to turn the face aside when coughing and
sneezing, if they are facing another person.

Children should be taught that their bodies are their own private
possessions, that personal cleanliness is a duty, that the mouth is for
eating and speaking and should not be used as a pocket, and the lips
should not take the place of fingers.

PROVIDENCE, May, I9gol.

476 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

I may add to the above Miss Henry’s solution of the
schoolroom dust problem. At the beginning of the school
year 1900-1901 all the feather dusters in the building
were collected and burned. Dusting cloths were pro-
vided, and two girls in each room were honored by being
appointed dusters for the month. They are given instruc-

Fic. 196. THe HEALTH BRIGADE

Upsala Street School, Worcester, Mass. (Photograph by Katherine E. Dolbear)

tion on dusting and on the care of the dust cloths and uni-
forms. The dusters come fifteen minutes early each
morning, take their cloths to the sink, moisten them,
wipe the desks and furniture of their schoolroom, rinse
their cloths, and hang them up to dry. Once a week the
cloths are laundered.

The result of the year’s experiment was, ot a case of
contagion in a school of 425 pupils during the entire school

FLOWERLESS PLANTS 477

year, —the first year in the history of the school of which
this is true, The girls are eager to do the work and enjoy
wearing the uniforms. In this way twenty girls, prac-
tically all in the class, are taught this element of domestic
science and hygiene. Some slight objection has been
made by a few parents on the ground of menial service
or of soiling clothes. The little uniforms shown in the
picture, it is hoped, may meet the one objection ; and
some appreciation of the value of the lessons and the
dignity of the service, the other.

“I myself have washed a flight of stone stairs all
down, with bucket and broom, in a Savoy inn, where
they had n’t washed their stairs since they first went up
them, and I never made a better sketch than that
afternoon.” RUSKIN.

«‘But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will
be great among you, shall be your minister : and whoso-
ever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.”

CHAPTER XXVIII
THE GRADE PLAN

For a graded system of schools a few suggestions may be
required as to the distribution of topics throughout the course.
The following grade plan is offered, merely as a suggestion,
by which progression and codrdination of subjects may be
secured, and confusion and repetition may be avoided. If I

GRADE I
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

DomeEstTic ANIMALS: The dog; traits, uses, care, kinds

Birps: Robin Chickadee English sparrow
Bluebird Chipping sparrow Crow

FrRoGS AND SALAMANDERS:

Tree frog
Toad Feeding with insects; learn notes
Red and green newts)

FisHES: Goldfish Shiners Sunfish

InsEcTS: Milkweed butterfly Cecropia moth Isabella tiger caterpillar
Promethea moth Io moth Flea

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS: Turtles
Snakes
478

} Living specimens, care and food

THE GRADE PLAN 479

thought that it would exert an undue influence toward rigidly
fixing and mechanizing the course, I should leave it out.

Do not attempt too much at first. To begin with, select
such topics under your grade as you are most familiar with,
and such as are related to the interests of your pupils, and
carry these through to a definite result. Gradually, as ease
and familiarity are acquired, increase the number of subjects.
For different parts of the country, as suggested throughout
the book, free substitution of topics, different species of
insects, birds, trees, flowers, etc., will be necessary. With
the methods of study given for similar subjects, any such
substitutions may be made without difficulty.

GrabDeE I
LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING: Dwarf nasturtium

STUDY OF WILD FLOWERS:

Arbutus A golden-rod Dandelion An aster
Anemone Oxeye daisy Bluets Burdock
A blue violet Buttercup Milkweed Poison ivy

FLOWER CALENDAR
GARDEN WorK: Vegetable garden; radishes, onion sets, rhubarb
Fruit: Peach (or plum); rear from seed

TREES: Soft maple

Chestnut } Save and plant the seeds

FLOWERLESS PLANTS: Ferns; acquaintance with a few kinds

Mytus, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE PLANTS
AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE

480 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Grave II
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

DomEsTIcC ANIMALS:

The cat (Tame white mice ?)
BIRDS:

Baltimore oriole Goldfinch

Song sparrow Blue jay

Snow bunting White-breasted swallow

Downy woodpecker Scarlet tanager

FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:

Bullfrog ; feeding with insects; learn notes

FISHES :

Dace) Acquaintance with living fishes in aquaria and in native

Pout haunts

INSECTS:
Grasshoppers Black swallowtail
Crickets Polyphemus
June beetles Luna
Flies Elm-leaf beetle
Lice Potato beetle

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:

Rats, mice; habits, destructiveness, methods of trapping

THE GRADE PLAN 481

GrabD_E II
LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Calliopsis

STuDY OF WILD FLOWERS:

Cone flower Iris

Trilliums Mallow

Wild geranium Yarrow
Robin’s plantain Tansy
Marsh marigold Healall
Bloodroot Poison sumac

FLOWER CALENDAR

GARDEN WORK:
Vegetable garden; lettuce, carrot, potato, onion (from seed)

FRUIT:
Grapes; layers and cuttings; save and plant the seeds

TREES:

Elms

a Collect and plant seeds

FLOWERLESS PLANTS:

Ferns |
Mosses Acquaintance with a few kinds

Liverworts

Mytus, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE
PLANTS AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE

482 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

GrabeE III
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

DomEsTiIc ANIMALS:

Rabbit; foods, habits, care

BIRDS:
Barn swallow Cedar bird
Night hawk Phoebe
Whip-poor-will Chebec
Chimney swift Junco
Humming bird Meadow lark

FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:

Leopard frog; live specimens, feeding tests with insects; learn
notes

FISHES:

Pickerel | Acquaintance with living fishes in aquaria and native

Pike haunts

INSECTS :
Mourning cloak Caddis flies
Imperial moth Water bugs
Meal worm Strawberry insects
Rose beetles Dragon flies
Clothes moth Damsel flies

Asparagus beetle

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:

Squirrels

eoaaul Taming, habits, storing and planting of nuts

THE GRADE PLAN

GrabeE III

LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:

Mimosa

STUDY OF WILD FLOWERS:

Solomon’s seal Chickweed
False Solomon’s seal Mountain laurel
Hepatica Lambkill
Cinquefoil Bellwort
Fringed polygala Bittersweet

Bur marigold Wild carrot

FLOWER CALENDAR

GARDEN WORK:

Vegetable garden; asparagus, beets

FRUIT:

Strawberry ; varieties, propagation by runners, seeds

TREES:

Hard maples
Horse-chestnut $ Save and germinate seeds
Hickory

FLOWERLESS PLANTS:

Lichens and alge; recognize as classes of plants

Mytus, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE
PLANTS AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE

483

484 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Grave IV
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS:

Fowls ; kinds, habits, care, food, rearing

BIRDs:
Vesper sparrow Brown thrasher
Catbird White-breasted nuthatch
Kingbird Red-breasted nuthatch
Cowbird Quail
Red-winged blackbird Partridge
Redstart Prairie chicken
Flicker

FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:

Green frog Learn notes and make feeding tests with
Spotted salamander J insects
FISHES :

Suckers ; living fishes in aquaria and in native haunts

INSECTS:
Codling moth Fall webworm
Tent caterpillars Apple-leaf crumpler
Cankerworm Carpet beetles
Apple-tree borer Red admiral

White-marked tussock moth

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:

Spiders and harvestmen

THE GRADE PLAN 485

GraDE IV
LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:

Centaurea, Emperor William
FLOWER CALENDAR

STuDY OF WILD FLOWERS:

Meadow rue Lady’s slipper
Purple avens Blue-eyed grass
Indian pipe Thoroughwort
Sundew Jack-in-the-pulpit
Shad bush Corn cockle
Saxifrage

GARDEN Work:

Vegetable garden; parsnips, sage, horse radish
Wild-flower garden; lessons on transplanting

FRUIT:

Apples; save and plant seeds, and learn varieties

TREES:

Butternut; germinate nut Mulberry; propagate from cuttings

FLOWERLESS PLANTS:

Mushrooms; collect specimens, learn to recognize poisonous
Amanitas

MytTus, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE PLANTS
AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE

486 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

GRADE V
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS:

The horse; origin, domestication, traits, uses, care
Laws regarding cruelty to animals

BIRDs :
Bobolink Red-eyed vireo
Kingfisher Indigo bunting
Chewink Brown creeper
Ovenbird Purple martin
Purple finch Sparrow hawk

FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:

Brown frog

. Feeding tests with insects, notes, rear from eggs
Red triton } 8 : 88

FISHES :

Perch; feeding tests, spawning season, and habits

INSECTS :
Plant lice Honeybee
Lady beetles Bumblebee
Mosquitoes Mud wasp
Regal moth Paper wasp
Curculios

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:

Clams and snails Slugs
Muskrat

THE GRADE PLAN 487

GRADE V
LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:
Balsam

STUDY OF WILD FLOWERS:

Evening primrose Sarsaparilla
Meadow lily Elecampane
Buttonbush Columbine
Jewelweed Blueberries
Bishop’s cap Checkerberry
Snake’s-head Spurges

FLOWER CALENDAR

GARDEN WORK:

Vegetable garden ; spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers
Wild-flower garden ; ferns, spore formation

FRUIT:
Plums Learn varieties, and study buds, terminal, lateral,
ee pieols fruit
Nectarines
TREES:
Black walnut Cedars
Hackberry Juniper + Study and germinate seeds
Willows Larch
FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Moulds and yeast Black knot
Foul brood Monilia

MytTHs, LEGENDS, STORIES, POEMS, AND PICTURES OF THE PLANTS
AND ANIMALS FOR THIS GRADE

488 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

GrabDE VI
LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

DOMESTICATED ANIMALS:

Pigeons; domestication, habits, feeding, and care

BIrDs :
Maryland yellowthroat Veery
Rose-breasted grosbeak House wren
Hairy woodpecker Warbling vireo
Crossbills White-throated sparrow
Wood pewee Fox sparrow

State laws for protection of birds

FrRoGs AND SALAMANDERS:

Wood frog Rear from eggs and make feeding
Red-backed salamander tests with insects
FISHES:

Bass ; rock, large and small mouth, black

INSECTS:
Borers; peach-tree and others Botflies
Cabbage worm and parasites Apple maggot
Tiger beetles House ants

Squash bugs

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:

Earthworms Moles and shrews

THE GRADE PLAN 489

GrabDE VI
LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:

Petunia

STuDY OF WILD FLOWERS:

Foam flower Celandine

Early rue Willow herb
Dogbane Clematis

Daisy fleabane Sand spurry
Speckled alder Butter and eggs
Purple Gerardia Poison hemlocks

FLOWER CALENDAR

GARDEN WORK:

Vegetable garden; cabbage, turnip, mustard
Wild-flower garden; collect wild-flower seeds and plant

FRUIT:

ee, Study varieties, grafting, budding, pruning
TREES:

ae a Og } Study and germinate seeds

City or town ordinances with reference to injury of shade trees

FLOWERLESS PLANTS:

Apple scab Rose mildew Peach-leaf curl Peach yellows

490 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

GraDE VII

LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

BIRDS :
Tree sparrow Yellow-billed cuckoo
Grackles White-crowned sparrow
Wood thrush Ruby-crowned kinglet
Yellow-throated vireo Golden-crowned kinglet
Black-billed cuckoo Myrtle warbler

FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:

Life story of common toad; rear from eggs, make feeding tests
with insects
Newts

FISHES :

Trout
Salmon ; spawning seasons, habits
State laws concerning fishes

INSECTS :
Cutworms Ichneumon flies
Lion beetles Gypsy moth (in eastern Mass.)
Army worm Brown-tailed moth (in eastern Mass.)
Corn worm Household pests; bed bug, kissing
Sphinxes bug, roaches

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:

Woodchuck Mink and otter
Centipedes and millipedes

THE GRADE PLAN 491

GRaDE VII
LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:

Ten-weeks stock
FLOWER CALENDAR

STUDY OF WILD FLOWERS:

Ragwort St. John’s-wort
Milkwort Pitcher plant
Chicory Sweet vernal grass
Clethra June grass
Baneberry Timothy grass
Star grass Fescue grass

Blue curls Jimson weed

GARDEN WORK:

Vegetable garden Common weeds
Wild-flower garden

FRUIT:

Grape, raspberry, blackberry
Grapevine culture ; layers, runners, cuttings, seeds

TREES:
Chokecherry Box elder
Red cherry Ashes Study and germinate seeds
Black cherry Poplars

FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Moulds Orange rust
Grain smuts Grape mildews
Review mushrooms
State laws concerning fungous diseases of plants

492 NATURE S'TRUDY AND LEE

Grape VIII

LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

Bikps :

Chestnut-sided warbler Water thrush
Blackburnian warbler Bank swallow
Magnolia warbler Hermit thrush
Vellow-breasted chat Marsh hawk
Solitary sandpiper Wild ducks
Littl: preen heron Wild peese
Red-headed woodpecker Wild swans

Study game Luws

FROGS AND SALAMANDERS }

Pickering’s tree frog Mud puppy
Cricket frog

Iersines :

Hels

INSECTS :

Aphids Pear slug:
Currant worms Am. copper buttertly
Rose slug Painted besuty

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS}

Hat Weasel

Porcupine

THE GRADE PLAN 493

GRADE VIII
LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:

Carnation
FLOWER CALENDAR

STUDY OF WILD FLOWERS:

Spring beauty Cassandra
Gentians Cohosh

Pale Corydalis Foxglove
Cardinal flower Loosestrife
Groundnut Herb Robert
Green brier Gold thread
Viburnum Nightshades

GARDEN WORK:

Vegetable garden
Wild-flower garden

FRUIT:

Currant, gooseberry
Methods of propagating fruit and forest trees

TREES :
pniees Dee nes } Study and germinate seeds
Tupelo Lindens

State laws concerning forest fires

FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Bacteria Foul brood

Pear blight

494 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

GRaDE IX

LESSONS WITH ANIMALS

BIRDS:
Northern shrike Herons
Pine grosbeak Eagles
Pine siskin Hawks
Sapsucker Owls
Loon Gulls
Grebes Terns

FROGS AND SALAMANDERS:

Spadefoot frog
Review and make feeding tests with frogs, toads, and salamanders

FISH:
Stickleback

INSECTS:
Scale insects Wood nymphs
San José scale Fritillaries
Honeybee and cross-fertilization Swallowtails

MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS:

Skunk Fox

THE GRADE PLAN 495

GrRaDE IX
LESSONS WITH PLANTS

COMPETITIVE FLOWER REARING:

Tea rose
Review and classify a number

StubyY OF WILD FLOWERS: of the common plants under :

Rhodora Dodder ‘Rose family

Pipsissewa Blazing star Lily family

Pyrola Meadow beauty Mustard family

Pimpernel Lobelia Pulse family

Spicebush Clover Parsley family

Arethusa Pokeweed Aster family

Larkspur Sunflowers Grass family

FLOWER CALENDAR

GARDEN WorRK:

Vegetable garden
Wild-flower garden

Fruit:
Quince Review fruits, varieties, culture
and propagation
TREES:
Sassafras Locusts \
é Study and germinate seeds
Hornbeam Fir y &

Influence of forests on: soil formation; surface waters; climate

FLOWERLESS PLANTS:
Bacteria, intelligent cleanliness Symbiotic bacteria
Board of Health regulations and statistics

INDEX

[Numbers in blackface type indicate an illustration on the page cited. |

A, B, C of landscape gardening, 136.
Abused street trees, 372.
Acadian hairstreak, 268.
Achemon sphinx, 209.
Acris gryllus, 300.
Active education, 132.
Egeria pyri, rgt.
polistiformis, 191.
tipuliformis, 191.
fEsculus pavia, 114. ;
Esthetic values of nature study,
20-22.
Agarics, 450.
Agrostemma githago, 113.
Agrostis, 198.
Aims and purposes of a nature-study
course, I.
Alder aphids, 209.
Alexander the Great, 4o.
Algz, 103, 438, 483.
Amanita casaria, 450.
muscaria, 450.
phalloides, 450.
rubescens, 451.
verna, 450.
Amblystoma punctatum, 302.
American copper butterfly, 264, 492.
false hellebore, 117.
laurel, 114.
Pomological Society, 150.

497

Amphicerus bicaudatus, 193.
Anacreon, 3365.
Anarsia lineatella, 193.
Anasa tristis, 225.
Anemone, 479.
Angelus Silesius, 102.
Animal species, 7.
Anisopteryx pometaria, 196.
Anopheles, 68-70, 70.
Anthonomus quadrigibbus, 204.
Anthrenus scrophulariz, 59, 75-78,
76, 78. :
Antiopa, 47, 262, 268.
Ants, 86-88, 86, 87, 415, 488.
Ant’s nest, how to make, 418, 488.
Aphids, 210, 214, 486, 492.
Aphis maidis, 210.
mali, 210.
Apple, 485.
curculio, 204.
leaf crumpler, 206, 484.
maggot, 202-204, 203, 482
of Peru, 115.
root plant louse, 215.
scab, 465, 480.
Appleseed, Johnny, 158, 159.
Apple-tree aphid, 210.
borers, 191, 192, 484.
Apple tree, how to rear, 169.
tent caterpillar, 195.

498

Apricot, 152, 180, 457.
Aquaria, feeding of the animals in,
403-
construction of, 394-399, 395)
396, 398, 399.
Aquarium, scavengers of, 403.
cements, 399.
how to stock, 400.
Arbor day, 391.
Arbutus, 479.
Arethusa, 495.
Army worm, 225, 490.
Arnold Arboretum, 364.
Arnold, Edwin, 274.
Ashes, 491.
Asiatic crab apple, 158.
Asparagus beetle, 222, 482.
Aspidiotus perniciosus, 219.
Asters, 479, 495.
Astragalus ILambertii, 117.
mollissimus, 117.
Audubon Societies, 344.
Society, proposed pledge for,34 5.
Australian roach, 85.

Babcock, Charles A., 345.
Bacteria, 103, 440, 466, 466, 493, 495.
ways by which they enter the
body, 471.
Balsam, 96, 97, 487.
Baltimore oriole, 480.
nest of, 321.
Banded hairstreak, 268.
Baneberry, 491.
Bank swallow, 492.
Bark lice, 215.
Barn swallow, 342, 482.
— swallow’s nest, 336.
Basilarchia arthemis, 268.
agtyanax, 268.

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Bass: rock, large and small mouth,
black, 488.
Bat, as insect destroyer, 187, 405,
4092.
feeding of, 406.
Beal, I’. H. L., 345.
Bear corn, 117.
Beaver poison, 111.
sedbug, 82, 82, 490.
Beeches, 493.
see hunting, 240.
Bees, races of, 241.
Bellwort, 483.
Big ivy, 114.
Biological type, 289.
Birches, 489.
Bird bath, 330.
census, 314, 320, 321.
food chart, 323.
homes, 332.
house, 337.
houses, 332.
Bird-Lore, 344, 345, 351-
directory of State Audubon
Societies, 345.
Birds, climatic influences upon, 311.
decrease of, 311.
eating codling moth, 187.
enemies of, 312-317.
food for the young, 361.
foods of, 322, 347.
nesting materials, 340.
rate of increase, 308.
Bird taming, 347.
Bishop’s cap, 487.
Bismarck apple, 157, 158.
Bittersweet, 117, 483.
Black ant, small, 86, 86.
bee, 239, 241.
Blackberry, 491.

INDEX

Black-billed cuckoo, 490.
Blackburnian warbler, 492.
Black cher1y, 113, 4or.
knot, 462, 463, 487.
mercury, 107.
mould, 461.
nightshade, 117.
roach, 85-S6.
swallowtail, 268, 48o.
Thalessa, 247.
walnut, 487.
Blanks for lessons with plants, 139,
T45, 148.
Blazing star, 495.
Blissus leucopterus, 226.
Bloodroot, 102, 481.
Blood-sucking cone nose, 83, 83.
Blowpipe, 57.
Blueberries, 487.
Bluebird, 333, 340, 342, 349, 478.
Bluebottle fly, 63, 64.
Blue curls, 491.
emperor, 268.
jay, 323, 480.
mould, 461.
Mountain Forest, 9, 16.
swallowtail, 268.
Blue-eyed grass, 485.
Satyrus, 266.
Bluets, 479-
Board of health regulations, 474, 495.
Bobolink, 323, 342, 486.
Boleti, 453, 453-
Bolles, Frank, 336.
Bollworm, 225.
Bombardier beetles, 256.
Bordered skipper, 270.
Borers, 488.
Borer signs around base of peach
tree, Igo.

499

Botflies, 414, 488.
Box elder, 491.
Brackett, G. B., 173.
Braconids, 250.
Branch ivy, 117.
Brightwen, Mrs., 345.
Brinton, Dr., on property, 127.
Broad-leaf laurel, 114.

necked Prionus, 192.
Brown creeper, 349, 486.

elfin, 268.

emperor, 266.

frog, 298, 486.

rot, 463, 464.

tailed moth, 490.

thrasher, 323, 342, 349, 484.
Browning, Mrs., 33.
Brunella, 481.
Bucephalus, 4o.
Budding a peach tree, 175-179, 175,

489.

Budding knife, 175.
Buds, lessons on, 161, 487.
Buffalo herd, g.

moth, 75.
Bufo lentiginosus, 297.
Bug, correct use of word, 423.
Bugbane, 117.
Bull, Ephraim, 159.
Bullfrog, 298, 480.
Bumblebees, 242, 486.
Buprestis divaricata, 193.
Burbank, Luther, 159.

plum, 160.
Burdock, 479.
Bur marigold, 483.
Burnham, Wm. H., 23.
Burroughs, John, 302, 309, 324.
Butter and eggs, 489.
Buttercup, 479.

500 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Butterflies and moths, 260.
Butterflies, table of, 264-273.
Butternut, 485.

Buttonbush, 487.

Cabbage butterfly, 225, 262, 266.
Plusia, 225.

worm and parasites, 61, 488.

Caddis flies, 258, 482.

Czoma nitens, 465.

Cajeput, oil of, 82.

Calico bush, 114.

California poison sumac, IIo.

Calliopsis, 481.

Calliphora crythrocephala, 63.

Calosoma calidum, 256.
scrutator, 255.

Canary, 349.

Cankerworms, 196, 484.

Caper spurge, 115, 116.

Carbon bisulphide, 74.

Cardinal flower, 493.

Care of young birds, 354-357-

Carlyle, 144.

Carnation, 493.

Carniolan bee, 239, 241.

Carpenter ant, 416.

Carpet beetle, 75-78, 76, 78, 484.

beetle, black, 78.
beetle, remedies, 77.

Carpocapsa pomonella, 181, 182.

Cashes, IIo.

Cassandra, 493.

Cat, the, 41-43, 342, 349, 480.
destruction of birds by, 312.

Catalogue of fruits, 150, 152.

Catbird, 323, 342, 349, 484.

Caterpillars, 49, 265-273, 421.

Catopsilia eubule, 266.

Cecidomyia destructor, 226.

Cecropia, 47, 48, 49, 259, 260, 272,
478.

Cedar bird, 319, 342, 349; 482.

Cedars, 487.

Celandine, 489.

Centaurea, Emperor William, 93,
485.

Centipede, 423.

Chalcis fly, 251.

Chapman, Frank C., 335.

John, 158, 159.

Chebec, 482.

Checkerberry, 487.

Checkered cabbage butterfly, 266.

skipper, 270.

Cherries, 157, 180, 489.

Cherry aphid, 211, 212.

Cherry twigs, 160, 162.

Chesnut, V. K., 106.

Chestnut, 479.

Chestnut-sided warbler, 492.

Chewink, 486.

Chickadee, 334, 334, 342, 349, 478.

Chickweed, 483.

Chicory, 491.

Children’s bane, 111.

Chimney swift, 338, 482.

Chinch bug, 226.

Chipmunk, 408, 482.

Chipping sparrow, 478.

Chippy tamed to feed from a child’s
hand, 351.

Chlorippe clyton, 266.

Chloroform for killing insects, 52.

Chokecherry, 4gr.

Cholera, 472.

Chorophilus triseriatus, 300.

Chrysalis, 48, 49.

Chrysobothris femorata, 192.

Chrysophanus epixanthe, 268.

INDEX

Cicindelidz, 256.

Cicuta maculata, 111, 112.
vagans, I17.

Cimex lectularius, 82, 82.

Cinquefoil, 483.

Clam, 432, 486.

Clapp, Henry Lincoln, school gar-

dens, 132, 133.

Clavarias, 448.

Cleanliness, 471.

Clematis, 489.

Clethra, 491.

Climbing cutworms, 199.

Clisiocampa Americana, 195.
disstria, 196.

Clothes moth, remedies, 73-75.
moth, southern, 72, 72.
moths, 71-75, 71, 482.

Cloudless sulphur, 266.

Clover, 495.

Cobweb skipper, 270.

Coccus cacti, 216.

Cochineal insect, 216.

Cockroaches, 84, 85.

Codling moth, 181-187, 182, 484.

Cohosh, 493-

Coleridge, 287.

Colias eurytheme, 266.
philodice, 266.

Colorado potato beetle, 222.

Columbine, 487.

Common frog, 297.

Competitive rearing of flowers, 94—

IOI, 98.

Comstock, 61, 71.

Cone flower, 481.

Conium maculatum, I10, I10.

Conorhinus sanguisuga, 83, 83.

Conotrachelus crategi, 204.
nenuphar, 204.

501

Contagious diseases, 471, 474.
Contrast in housekeeping, 362.
Coprinus, 452.
Coral hairstreak, 268.

mushrooms, 448, 448.
Corbin preserve, 9, 16.
Corn cockle, 113, 113, 485.

louse ant, 417.

root aphid, 214.

worm, 225, 490.
Cottony cushion scale, 218.
Cowbane, III.
Cowbird, 484.
Cow elk, 415.
Cragin, Belle S., 61.
Craponius inzqualis, 204.
Creative effort for good, 30.
Cricket frog, 300, 492.
Crickets, 201, 480.
Crioceris asparagi, 222.
Crossbills, 488.
Cross-pollination, 46, 229.
Crotalaria sagittalis, 117.
Croton bug, 85, 85.
Crow, 323, 478.

poison, 117.
Cuckoo, 323, 342, 348, 490.
Culex, 70, 70.
Cultivation of plants, ro.
Cultures of bacteria, 458.
Cup fungi, 448.
Curculios, 204, 204, 486.
Currant, 493-

borer, I9I.

worm, 223, 492.
Cutworms, 174, 198, 199, 490.

climbing, 200, 490.
Cyanide bottle, 51, 52.
Cyprian bee, 240, 241.

502

Dace, 480.
Daisy fleabane, 439.
Damsel flies, 257, 482.
Dandelion, 479.
Darapsa myron, 208.
Dark fritillary, 266.
Darwin, on earthworms, 424, 426.
Datana ministra, 224.
Datura, 114.
stramonium, IIS.
tatula, 115.
Deadly amanita, 444, 446, 450.
Death of man, IIT.
Death-cup mushrooms,
446, 450.
Debis portlandia, 266.
Definition of nature study, 1.
Delphinium menziesii, 117.
tricorne, 116, 117.

117, 444;

Desmia maculalis, 207.
Devil’s apple, 115.
bite, 117.
Dewey, Lyster H., 119.
Diabrotica vittata, 222.
Dickinson, Emily, 307, 340, 347.
Diemyctylus viridescens, 301.
Diphtheria, 471.
Discomycetes, 448.
Divaricated buprestis, 193.
Dodder, 440, 495.
Dog, the, 37, 478.
Dogbane, 489.
Dogwood, 109.
Domestication of animals, 3, 293.
of birds, 327.
of toads, 293.
Downy mildew, 464.
woodpecker, 323, 480.
Dragon flies, 257, 482.
Dreamy dusky-wing, 270.

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Duckretter, 117.

Dull-eyed satyr, 266.

Dust in schoolroom, 476, 476.

Dwarf larkspur, 116, 117.
laurel, 115.

Eagles, 494.
Early hairstreak, 268.
rue, 489.
Earthworms, 424, 427, 488.
Eave swallow, 342.
Economic values of nature study,
17-20.
Ectobia Germanica, 85, 85.
Educational values of nature study,
22-28.
Edward’s hairstreak, 268.
Eels, 492.
Eggs of Antiopa butterfly, 47.
of codling moth, 182, 154.
of malarial mosquito, 68.
Egleston, N. H., 391.
Elecampane, 487.
Elementary botany, 10, 102.
zoology, 5.
Elk, herd of, 5.
Elk killed by grubs in the head, 417
Elm-leaf beetle, 223, 480.
Elms, 481.
Emerson, 104, 305, 309, 335-
Enemies of San José scale, 221.
English sparrow, 313-316, 323.
Epargyreus tityrus, 270.
Epidemics, 471.
Eriocampa cerasi, 224.
Erynnis attalus, 270.
leonardus, 270.
meta, 270.
sassacus, 270.
Esopus apple tree, 160.

INDEX

Ethical and social values of nature
study, 28-30.
influence of school garden, 136.
Euchloé genutia, 266.
Eudemis botrana, 207.
Euphorbia bathyris, 115, 116.
marginata, 117.
Euptoieta claudia, 266.
Evening primrose, 487.
Example of tasteful planting, 138.
Exoascus deformans, 464.
Extermination of plants, 105.
of mosquitoes, 67.
of species, 8, 9.

Factory covered with woodbine, 389.
Fall webworm, 198, 484.
False Solomon’s seal, 483.
Feeding a bat, 406.
Fernald, Professor, 222.
Fernow, E. B., 391.
Ferns, 103, 434, 435) 479, 481, 487.
-school collection of, 436.
Fescue grass, 491.
Fir, 495.
Fishes, 413.
Fiske, John, 14, 17.
Five-spotted sphinx, 209.
Flat-headed apple-tree borer, 192.
Flea, 78-81, 80, 478.
trap, 81.
Flicker, 323, 484.
Flies, 62-64, 63, 480.
Flower calendar, 104.
garden, I4I.
Flowers for competitive planting,
“96-97.
Foam flower, 489.
Food chart of common birds, 323.
Forbes, Professor, 214.

593

Forest, influence on water supply,
382-388, 495.
fires, 390.
resources, 390, 495.
tent caterpillars, 196.
Fossil species, 8.
Foul brood, 470, 487, 493-
Fowls, 484.
Fox, 494.
sparrow, 488.
Foxglove, 493.
France, C. J., 127.
Francis, Dr. George, 456.
Fringed gentians, 106.
polygala, 483.
Fritillaries, 464, 466, 494.
Froebel, 22, 25, 26, 129, 130, 131, 143
Frog with six legs, 4oo.
Fruit culture, 148-153.
exhibitions of, 149.
garden, trees for, 134.
spurs of pear, 163.
Fruits, best varieties of, 152.
improvement of varieties, 156-
159.
Fungi, 103, 439.
Fusicladium dendriticum, 465.

Garden fruits, 147-153.
spurge, 116.

Gartered plume moth of grape,

205, 206.

Gentians, 493.

German bee, 239, 241.
roach, 85, 85.

Giant swallowtail, 268.

Gibson, Hamilton, 278, 421.

Goethe, 121.

Golden-crowned kinglet, 490.

Golden-rod, 479.

504 NATURE
Goldfinch, 349, 480.
Goldfish, 478.
Gold thread, 493.
Goodrich, C. L., 381.
Good Samaritans, 346.
Gooseberry, 493.
Gopher plant, 116.
Grackles, 323, 349, 490.
Grafting an apple tree, 169-174,
170, 171, 172.
Grafting wax, 170.
Grain smuts, 465, 49I.
Grape curculio, 204.
mildews, 491.
phylloxera, 210, 214.
shoots, 205.
Grape-berry moth, 207.
Grape-cane borer, 193.
Grape-leaf folder, 206, 207.
Grapes, 481, 491.
Grapevine cuttings, 164, 165.
flea beetle, 223.
how to rear, 164.
pruning of, 167.
root borer, 191.
sphinx, 208.
transplanting, 166.
Grass family, 495.
Grasshoppers, 200, 480.
as bird food, 201, 323, 358, 480.
Gray squirrel, 409.
Great laurel, 117.
Grebes, 494.
Green brier, 493.
Greene, Samuel B., 369, 382.
Green frog, 298, 484.
swallowtail, 268.
Grippe, 471.
Grosbeak, 323, 342, 349, 488.
Groundnut, 493.

STUDY AND LIFE

Gulls, 494.
Gypsy moth, 490.

Hackberry, 487.
Hair worms, 428, 428.
Hairy woodpecker, 323, 488.
Haltica chalybea, 223.
Hard maples, 483.
Harvester caterpillar, 209.
Harvey, F. L., 204.
Hawk moths, 209.
Hawks, 494.
Hay infusion, 468.
Head louse, 81-82, 480.
Hedgehog mushrooms, 454, 454.
Helenium autumnale, 117.
Heleothis armigera, 225.
Hemlock, rio.
Henry’s hairstreak, 268.
Hepatica, 483.
Herb bennet, 110.

robert, 493.
Hermit thrush, 492.
Herons, 494.
Hesperia centaurez, 270.
Hessian fly, 226.
Hickory, 483.
High laurel, 114.
Hoary-edge, 270.
Home, a, 11.

and school gardens, 121.
Honeybee, 228, 229, 486, 494.
Honeydew, 210.
Hop aphid, 210.
Hop hairstreak, 268.
Horace’s dusky-wing, 270.
Hornaday, Wm. T., 310.
Hornbeam, 495.
Horse, the, 38-41, 39, 486.
Horse chestnut, 114, 483.

INDEX

House ants, 89, 488.

wren, 223, 342, 348, 488.
Household insects, 89, 490.
Howard, L. O., 69, So.
Humming bird, 349, 352, 482.
Humming bird’s nest, 341.
Humus, and growth of plants, 381.
Huxley, 21, 28.
Hyla pickeringii, 300, 492.
Hyla versicolor, 299, 478.
Hypha, 459.
Hyphantria textor, 198.

Icerya purchasi, 218.

Ichneumon flies, 210,246,248,249,490.

Imperial moth, 482.

Indian pipe, 440, 484.
poke, 117.
skipper, 270.
uncus, II7.

Indigo bunting, 486.

Ink cap, 452.

Insect, how to define, 422.
collection, 60.
net, 50, 51-

Insects, destructiveness of, 46.
method of spreading, 55.
methods of controlling, 226.
mounting of, 52-61, 53.
number of species, 7.

Intelligent cleanliness, 471.

Invitation to the birds, 304.

Io moth, 478.

Iris, 481.

Isabella tiger caterpillar, 478.

Italian bee, 239, 241.

Itch weed, 117.

Ivy, 114.
bush, IT 4.
wood, II4.

505

Jack-in-the-pulpit, 485.

Jackman, 33.

James, Wm., 329.

Jamestown lily, 116.
weed, 115.

Jeffries, 336.

Jewelweed, 487.

Jimson weed, 114, 115, 491.

Junco, 482.

June beetles, 480.

Juniper, 487.

Junonia ccenia, 268.

Juvenal’s dusky-wing, 270.

Kalmia, 114.
angustifolia, 115.
latifolia, r14.

Kermes, 218.

Kingbird, 323, 3

Kingfisher, 486.

Kirkland, A. H., 288.

Kissing bug, $4.

Kline, Linus W., psychology of

ownership, 127.
Koebele, observations of bats, 187.

2, 483.

Lactarius, 452.

Lady beetles, 254, 254, 456.
Lady’s slippers, 485.
Lambkill, 115, 483.

Lamb laurel, 115.
Landscape gardening, 136.
Lange, D., 312, 345.

Larch, 487.

Larkspur, 116, 117, 495.
Larva, 48.

Laurel, ote

Layers, propagation by, 165.
Least copper, 268.
Lecaniums, 216, 218.

506 NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Leonard’s skipper, 270. Marlatt, C. L., 89.
Leopard frog, 297, 482. Marsh hawk, 323, 492.
Leucania unipuncta, 225. marigold, 481.
Leucothoé catesbei, 117. Martial’s dusky-wing, 270.
Libythea bachmanni, 266. Martin house, 318.
Lice, remedies, 81-82, 480. Martin, purple, 337, 342, 486.
Lichens, 103, 437, 483. Maryland yellow throat, 488.
Light blue, 266. Masked bedbug hunter, 84.
Lily, 92, 495- Meadow beauty, 495.
Linden, 493- lark, 323, 349, 482.
Lion beetles, 255, 490. lily, 487.
List of animals, 6. mushroom, 451.
Little green heron, 490. rue, 485.
silver spot, 264. Meal worms as bird food, 359, 360,
sulphur, 266. 482.
tree frog, 300. Mercury, 107.
Liverworts, 103, 437, 481. Metamorphosis of insects, 49.
Living species of animals, 7. Mice, 409, 480.
Lizards, 296, 411. Mildews, 462.
Lobelia, 495. Milkweed, 479.
Locusts, 200, 495- butterfly, 264, 478.
Long, William J., 410. Milkwort, 491.
Long-dash, 270. Milky mushrooms, 452.
Longfellow, 307, 309. Miller, Olive Thorne, 338.
Loosestrife, 493. Millipedes and centipedes, 423, 424,
Lowell, 91, 322, 334, 365. 490.
Low laurel, 115. Mimosa, 483.
Lucilius’ dusky-wing, 270. Mink, 410, 490.
Luna moth, 480. Miracle of blossoms, 154.
Lyczena comyntas, 266. Mocking bird, 328, 349.
pseudargiolus, 266. Mocking bird’s sun bath, 331.
Lycoperdacez, 448. Mole plant, 116.
Moles, 410, 488.
Macrodactylus subspinosus, 194. Mollusks, type forms of, 7, 429, 430.
Magnolia warbler, 492. Monilia fructigena, 463, 487.
Making an aquarium, 395. Monomorium pharaonis, 86, 87
Mallow, 481. minutum, 86, 86.
Many-eyed satyr, 266. Monostegia rose, 223, 492.
Marks of ancient abuse, 376. Monthly list of publications, Depart-

Markweed, 107. ment of Agriculture, 89.

INDEX

Morels, 448, 448.
Morgan, L. H., on property, 127.
Mosquito hawks, 71.
pupa, 66.
Mosquitoes, 64-71, 65, 66, 69, 70,
89, 486.
and malaria, 68, 68.
Mosses, 103, 437, 481.
Mould gardens, 458.
Moulds, 103, 457, 460, 487, 491.
Mound-building ant, 416.
Mountain laurel, 114, 483.
Mourning cloak, 268, 482.
Mucor mucedo, 461.
Mud puppy, 302.
wasp, 486.
Mulberry, 485.
Mummied fruits, 463, 464.
Musca domestica, 62, 63.
Museum pests, 59.
Mushrooms, 103, 443, 485, 491.
spore prints of, 446, 446.
Muskrat, 410, 486.
weed, III.
Musquash root, III.
Mustard, 495.
Mycelium, 445, 459.
Myrtle warbler, 490.
Mysus cerasi, 211, 212.
persicz, 210.
Mytilaspis pomorum, 216, 217.

Narrow-leaf laurel, 115.

Nash, Lewis P., 385, 389.

Nasturtium, 479.

Nasturtiums and mimosas, go.

Nature-study property of children,
139, 154.

Nectarines, 148, 152, 180, 487.

Necturus maculatus, 303.

507

Nematodes, 428, 429.
Nematus ventricosus, 223.
Neonympha eurytus, 266.
Newman, S. M., gt.
Newts, 301, 478.
Night hawk, 338, 482.
Nightshade, 493.
Nitrates, 442.
Northern dusky-wing, 270.

frog, 298.

shrike, 494.
Nucleus beehive, 233.
Nut culture, 377.
Nuthatches, 349.
Nuts, 368.
Nymph, 49.
Oaks, 481.
Observation beehive, sectional plan

of, 238.

(CEdemasia concenna, 224.
Olive hairstreak, 268.
Orange rust, 465, 491.

sulphur, 266.

tip, 266.
Orb weaver, 421.
Oregon water hemlock, 117.
Organized bird protection, 344.
Orgyia leucostigma, 198.
Oriental roach, 85.
Oriole, 323, 342, 349) 352, 480.
Orphans’ home for nestlings, 353.
Osborn, H., 89.
Otter, 410, 490.
Ovenbird, 490.
Owlet moths, 198.
Owls, 494-
Oxeye daisy, 479.
Oxyptilus periselidactylus, 206.
Oyster-shell scale insect, 216, 217.

508

Painted beauty, 266, 492.
Paleacrita vernata, 196.
Pale Corydalis, 493.
Palmer, Alice Freeman, 23, 130.
Pandorus sphinx, 208.
Paper wasp, 244, 486.
Papilio asterias, 268.
cresphontes, 268.
philenor, 268.
troilus, 268.
turnus, 266, 494.
Paradise for children, 146.
Parsley, 495-
Partridge, 484.
Peach, 479, 480.
Peach-leaf curl, 464.
Peach tree, how to raise, 174, 174.
twigs, 164.
yellows, 464.
Peach-tree aphid, 210.
borer, eggs, larva, pupa, and
cocoons, 187-191, 186, 188,
189, Igo.
Pear blight, 469, 493.
slug, 492.
twigs, 163.
Pearly eye, 260.
Pear-tree borer, 191.
slug, 224.
Peckham, G. W. and Elizabeth G.,
243.
Pediculus capitis, 81.
Pepper and salt skipper, 270.
Perch, 486.
Periplaneta Americana, 85.
Australasiz, 85.
orientalis, 85.
Peronospora viticola, 464.
Persius’ dusky-wing, 270.
Pets, 33-37, 43-44

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Petunia, 489.
Philampelus achemon, 209.
pandorus, 208.
Phlegethontius celeus, 209.
Pheebe, 342, 482.
Pholisora catullus, 270.
Phorodon humuli, 211.
Phosphorescence, 468.
Phylloxera vastatrix, 210, 214, 492
Physis indigenella, 206.
Phytolacca decandra, 111.
Pickerel, 482.
frog, 298.
Pickering’s tree frog, 300, 492.
Pieris mariana, 117.
napi, 262, 266.
protodice, 262, 266.
rapx, 225, 262, 266.
Pigeons, 488.
taming the, 43.
Pike, 482.
Pikry, 107.
Pimpernel, 495.
Pimpla inquisitor, 248.
Pine grosbeak, 494.
sap, 440.
siskin, 494.
Pines, 489.
Pipsissewa, 495.
Pitcher plant, 491.
Plant breeding, 158-160.
lice, 210, 486.
parasitized, 250.
Planter and owner of peach trees,
126.
Plants, list of all known, 103.
Plowrightia morbosa, 462.
Plum, 204, 487.
curculio, 204, 204.
Plume moth, 205.

INDEX

Plums destroyed by brown rot, 464.
Plusia brassicae, 225.
Poison ash, 109.

elder, 109.

grain for English sparrows, 315.

hemlock, 110, 110, 489.

ivy, 107-109, 108, I10, I14, 479.

laurel, 114.
oak, 107.
root, IIo.
snakeweed, IIo.
sumac, 109, 109, 481.
sumac, Californian, 110.
Poisonous plants, 106-118.
Pokeroot, 117.
Pokeweed, III, 495.
Polyphemus, 480.
Polypori, 453, 453-
Poplars, 491.
Porcupine, 492.
Pore-bearing mushrooms, 452.
Portrait of a young bluebird, 349.
Potassium cyanide, 51.
Potato beetle, 222, 480.
Pout, 480.
Primitive German home, 3.
Prionus imbricornis, 193.
laticollis, 192.
tile-horned, 193.
Promethea, 272, 478.
just emerged, 46.
Propagation of fruits, methods of,
180.
Property of children, 125.
Proteans, 302.
Protective coloration, 288.
Proteid foods, circle of, 441, 442.
Prothallium, 437.
Pruning a grapevine, 167.
Prunus serotina, 113.

509

Psychology of ownership, 127, 128.
Puffballs, 444, 448, 448.
Pulex irritans, 79-81.
serraticeps, 79-81, 80.
Pulse family, 495.
Pupa, 48.
Purple avens, 485.
finch, 486.
Gerardia, 489.
larkspur, 117.
martin, 486.
Pyrameis atalanta, 268.
cardui, 266.
huntera, 266.
Pyrethrum powder, 81, 83.
Pyrola, 495.
Pyrus baccata, 158.
malus, 156, 158.

Quail, 490.
Quince, 495.
curculios, 204, 486.

Rabbit, 482.

Ragwort, 401.

Railroad worm, 202.

Rain crow (cuckoo),

348.

Rana catesbiana, 2098.
clamata, 208.
palustris, 298.

323) 342,

septentrionalis, 298.
sylvatica, 299.
virescens, 297.
Raspberry, 491.
rust, 49I.
Rats and mice, 409, 480.
Rat-tailed maggot, 252.
Rattlebox, 117.
Réaumur, 214.

510

Rearing a peach tree, 174-179, 126,
174, 75) 176, 177; 278.
Red admiral, 2638, 484.
ant, $6, 87.
backed salamander, 302, 488.
breasted nuthatch, 484.
buckeye, 114g.
cherry, 491.
eyed vireo, 486.
headed woodpecker, 492.
humped caterpillar, 224, 224.
shouldered hawk, 323.
squirrel, 408.
triton, 302, 456.
winged blackbird, 323, 484.
Redstart, 484.
Reduvius personatus, 84.
Regal moth, 486.
Religious values of nature study, 30.
Research, spirit of, 14.
Rhododendron maximum, 117.
Rhodora, 495.
Rhus diversiloba, IIo.
radicans, 107.
vernix, 109, 109.
Riley, James Whitcomb, 139.
Professor, 46.
Roaches, 84, 84, 85, 85.
Roadside flowers, 105.
skipper, 270.
Robin, 342, 348, 475.
Robin’s nest in the cherry tree, 308,
339-
plantain, 48r.
rate of increase, 308.
Roosevelt, Theodore, on bird pro-
tection, 344.
Rose, 495.
beetle, 194, 482.
breasted grosbeak, 488.

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Rose chafer, 194.

mildew, 465, 489.

slug, 223, 492.
Ruby-crowned kinglet, 490.
Ruskin, 17, 22, 477-
Russulas, 452.

St. John’s-wort, 491.
Salamanders, 296, 301.
Salmon, 490.
Sand spurry, 489.
San José scale, 219-222, 219, 494.
Sanninoidea exitiosa, 187.
Saperda candida, 191.
Sapsucker, 494.
Sarsaparilla, 487.
Sassafras, 495.
Satyrodes canthus, 266.
Satyrus alope, 266.
Saunders, William, 168, 173, 195.
Saxifrage, 485.
Scale insects, 215-222, 404.
Scaphiopus holbrookii, 299, 494.
Scarlet tanager, 4So.
Scene on K Street, Dayton, Ohio,
120.
Schizoneura lanigera, 210, 215.
School and contagious diseases of
children, 474.

aquarium, 392.

beehive, 234, 235.

gardens, 132, 133, 135.
Seedling trees, 366.
Seeds of fruits, 155-157.
Selandria cerasi, 244, 399.
Shad bush, 485.
Shaggy mane, 452.
Shakespeare, 338.
Shaler, 293.
Sheep laurel, 114, 115.

Sheep poison, 115.
Slivllew, 4283
Shelley's propheey tulttled, 326.
Shiners, pos.

Shrews, gto, pds.
Silver-spotted skipper,

Shunk, prey pop.
Shave ant, pus.
Watker ant, pup.

Sloopy dusky wing, 250.

Slingerlind, ML VAS, 188, 1S8e,

Oa, TOT, baa, 200,
Slugs, 270, geo, pSo.
Small laurel pepe arg.
Smith, Herbert lo, yr
Ss.

Ni
Sratkes, {le

Snake'’s-lead, Nn.
Snakeweed, Ptr.
Sueceseweed, bir.
Snont beetles, 204.
battortly, 200,
Snow bunting, qse.
on the mountain, rig. vis.
Soft maple, pro.
Soik go.

Soils, apparatus fortesding retention

of water hy, 38a.
study of, yro 38s,
Solanum duleamaia, rir,
Higrum, LUT.
Solitary sandpiper, gos.
vireo, 4Ods
Solomon's seal, 483.
Song sparrow. F ps. G4. do.
Sooty wing, 270.
Sor, 4 3O.
Sow buys, 423. 424:
Spadetoot frog, sou, faq.
Sparrow hawk, 48o.
Speckled alder, 48g.

INDIEX

Spelerpes ruber, joe.
Sphaerothees panos, qos,
Sphinxes, 205, foe.
Spicebush, pos.
Spider, net an insect, pas.
Spidees, lessons with, gg, 420,
Spoomwood, ttf.
Spore prints, | po. qqo.
Spores, bog, {go
Spotted cowhane, eit.
parsloy, tbo.
salamander gaa qe.
SPP Cacenaian, 2r.
Spreading of insects, §§ On,
Spring bewudy, yo.
cankermvormn, tao,
Springwort, Lebo,
Spruces, fog.
Spurge, pSo,
Squash bug, 27

Squirrels, ory ydo.

Stable tly, 63.

Stagperbush, vis

Stugper weed btn,

SOUP Qiass, fOr,

State Experiment Station, rsa,
204,

Stemless loco weed, tir,

Stickleback, foy.

Stinkhotn mushroom 4fo. 449.

Stinkweed, blo, Phy, VO,

Stinkwotl, bio,

Stomosys calettrans, 03.

Stone, Coorge Be, WOR, fea.

Stramonium, vs.

Strutt, We MA ge.

Stawherty, 1g 15s. 1

crown borer ta3.
insects, ys.

root borer, 103.

A844.

1

512

Striped cucumber beetle, 222.
hairstreak, 268.
Strychnine for use with English
sparrows, 315.
Subjugation of animals, 2.
Suckers, 484.
Sudworth, George B., 377, 391.
Sundew, 485.
Sunfish, 478.
Swallows, 323, 335, 337) 342-
Swallowtail, 266, 494.
Swamp hellebore, 117.
sumac, 109.
Sweet vernal grass, 491.
Swingle, Walter T., 465.
Sycamore, 489.
Symbiotic bacteria, 470.
Syrphus flies, 251, 252.

Tabb, John B., 340.
Table of best fruits, 152.
for methods of propagating
fruits, 180.
Tachina flies, 253, 253.
Tailed blue, 266.
Taming a chipmunk, 408.

a wood turtle, 410.
Tanager, 323, 342, 480.
Tansy, 481.

Tasteful planting, 138.
Tea rose, 495.

Tenebrio molitor, 359.
Tenement house, a, 13.

houses made beautiful, 385.
Tent caterpillars, 195, 484.
Ten-weeks stock, 491.
Terias lisa, 266.

Terns, 494.
Tetramorium ccespitum, 86.
Thalessa atrata, 247, 248.

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Thanaos brizo, 270.
horatius, 270.
icelus, 270.
juvenalis, 270.
lucilius, 270.
martialis, 270.
persius, 270.
Thanks for bearing chestnuts, 375
Thaxter, Celia, 99, 276, 292, 336.
Thecla acadica, 268.
augustus, 268.
calanus, 268.
damon, 268.
edwardsi, 268.
henrici, 268.
irus, 268.
leta, 268.
liparops, 268.
melinus, 268.
niphon, 268.
titus, 268.
Thistle butterfly, 266.
Thoreau, Henry D., 309.
Thorn apple, 115.
Thoroughwort, 485.
Thorybes pylades, 270.
Three-leaved ivy, 107.
Thrushes, 349.
Thunderwood, 109.
Thymelicus ztna, 270.
brettus, 270.
mystic, 270.
Tiger beetles, 256, 488.
swallowtail, 266, 494.
Timothy grass, 491.
Tinea pellionella, 71, 72.
Tineola biselliella, 72, 72.
Toad, 274, 478, 490.
enemies of, 284.
feeding, 276.

INDEX

Toad, life story of, 278, 490.
protective color of, 287, 288.
song of, 278.

Toads, a pair of, 275.
aquaria for rearing, 282.

Toad’s eggs, 279, 280, 281.

Toadstools, 443.

Tomato worm, 20c.

Treat, Mary, 2o1.

Tree frog, 295, 299, 478.
guards, 374.
roots, retention of soil by, 380.
seeds, how to save and plant,

367-37 3-
sparrow, 490.
swallow, 342, 480.

Treeless street, 371.

Trees, care of, 373.
dissemination of seeds, 367,

368, 369.
for school gardens, 134.
of a New England hill farm, 378.

Trembling mushrooms, 450.

Tremex columba, 248.

Trichophaga tapetzella, 72, 73.

Trilliums, 481.

Trout, 490.

Trypeta pomonella, 202.

Tube-bearing mushrooms, 452.

Tulip, 489.

Tupelo, 493.

Turtles, 410, 478.

Tyloderma fragariz, 193.

Typhoid fever, epidemics of, 472,

473.

Upsala Street School, bird census,
321.
school garden, 135.
Urodela, 301.

513

Van Dyke, Henry, ror, 105
Vanessa antiopa, 268.
Variegated fritillary, 266.
Vedalia, 218.

Veery, 488.

Vegetable garden, 145.
Veratrum viride, 117.
Vesper sparrow, 484.
Viburnum, 493.

Vireo and nest, 322.
Vireos, 323, 342, 348, 352.
Virginia deer, 15.
Volcanic skipper, 270.

Walking sticks, 53.

Warblers, 348.

Warbling vireo, 488.

Watching a brown snake shed its

skin, 404.

Water bug, 85-86, 85, 482.
dog, 303.
hemlock, I11, 112.
thrush, 492.

Weasels, 410, 492.

Weed, C. M., 61.

Weeds, 118, 491.

Whip-poor-will, 482.

Whirlabout, 270.

White admiral, 268.
breasted nuthatch, 484.
breasted swallow, 342, 480.
crowned sparrow, 490.
faced hornet, 244.
hellebore, 117.
man’s plant, 116.
marked tussock moth, 198, 484
throated sparrow, 488.

White, Gilbert, 338.

Wicky, 114, I15.

Wild carrot, 483.

514

Wild cherry, 113.
flower garden, 132.
geranium, 481.
sunflower, 495.

Willow herb, 489.

Willows, 487.

Winchel! grape, layer of, 166.

W ode-whistle, 110.

Wolfsbane, 117.

Wolf’s milk, 116.

Woodchuck, 410, 490.

Wood frog, 299, 488.
laurel, 114.
nymphs, 266, 494.

thrush, 323, 342, 345, 349, 490.

Woodland spring, 434.

NATURE STUDY AND LIFE

Woodpecker, 323, 349-

Wood pewee, 488.

Woolly aphids of apple, 215-
loco weed, 117.

Wordsworth, 335, 363-

Worms, defined, 421.

Wrens, 348, 488.

Yarrow, 481.
Yeara, 110.
Yeast, 465, 465, 487-
Yellow-billed cuckoo, 489.
breasted chat, 492.
necked apple-tree caterpillar,
224.
throated vireo, 490.