School Science and Mathematics Covers the World Here is the list of countries to which it goes each month L.oiy State in the United States, every Province in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil, Argentine, Cliile, Peru, Ecuador. Every country in Europe including Turkey. Egypt, Liberia, Cape Colony, The Transvaal, Persia, Ceylon, India, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii. Eight Departments: Botany, Chemistry, Earth SciencCj Mathematics, Problems, Physics, Science Questions and Zoology. Send in Your Subscription, $2.00 per Year SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS 2059 East Seventy-Second Place Chicago, Illinois WANTED Vol. I No. 1 The Nature Study Review The Editor will pay $1.00 each for copies of this number THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW MONTHLY EXCEPT JUNE, JULY, AUGUST Volume IX, 1913 INDEX ELLIOT R. DOWNING, Editor The University of Chicago. The School of Education CHICAGO, ILL. Published by The Comstock Publishing Co. ITHACA, N. Y. vi 9\3 INDEX TO VOLUME IX. 1913 Jan. p. 1-32; Feb. 3i-^\: Mar, 65-94: Apl. 95-120; May 121-145; Sept. 146-196; Oct. 197-234; Nov. 235-27 1; Dec. 272-312. (Names of contributors are printed in srnall capitols. Abbreviated titles of books reviewed are in quotations marks.) Davis, B. M., Summary of a Study of Instruction in Agriculture in Rural Elementary Schools, 2 Douglas, L. M., One Adjustment of the School Garden to the School Year, 66 Editorials, 92, 191, 226, 265,300 Election of Officers, i, 235, 274 "Evolutionary Biology, Outlines of," A. Dendy, 118 Farm, Common Insects and Birds of. Adjustment of the School Gardens to the School Year, 66 Agriculture for Rural Schools, 2, 68 "Agronomy, A Course in Practical Gardening for High Schools." W. N. Clute, 119 Animal Behavior, Simple Experi- ments in, 175 Allee, W. C, The Small Crusta- ceans, 69, 104 Am. N. S. Society, Annual Meeting of I- 235 "Animal Husbandry for Schools," M. W. Harper, 231 Announcement, 145 Barrett, Mary F., Spring of 1913 "Beaver World, In," E. A. Mills, 193 "Beginnings in Animal" Husbandry," C. S. Plumb, 230 Benedict, H. M., Will School Gar- dening Survive, 257 "Beyond War," V. L. Kellogg, 268 "Biology, an Introductory Study," Herbert W. Conn, 62 Bird Abundance, Natural Nesting Sites as a Factor in, 279 "Bird and N. S. Manual," Shinn and Abbott, 193 Birds of the Farm, 137 "Birds' Convention, The," Harriet Williams Meyers, 63 "Birds, Game, and Shore of Mass," Forbush, 305 Blakeslee, a. F., Tree Study in Winter, 13; Field Work on Trees, 121 Bluebird's Housekeeping, 10 1 Booklets, 213 Book Reviews, 61,93, 118,193,230,304 BucHHOLZ, J. T., The Glass" Snake" 296 Caterpillar, Way of, 85 Chicago, S. S. Section Field Trips, 262 Collector's Experiences, A, 215 CoMSTOCK, Anna B., The Bracket Fungus, 235; Gold fish and Geo- graphy, 275 ; The Leaf- Portfolio as an Aid in Tree-Study, 197; Lesson on Squirrel and Chipmunks, 147 "Country Life and the Country School," Mabel Carney, 267 Cromwell, A. D., Agriculture for Rural Schools, 68 Crustaceans, The Small, 69, 104 137 Farm, Natural History of, 170 Field Trip to Thornton, 111., 85 Field Work on Trees, 121 Field Work Records, 203 FiNLEY, C. W., Natural Nesting Sites as a Factor in Bird Abundance, 279 Fuel Wood of the Farm, 282 Fungus, The Bracket, 236 Garden of Wild Flowers, 160 "General Science," Bertha M. Clark, "Genetics and Introduction to the Study of Heredity," H. E. Walter, 231 Glaciers, Work of, 125 Goldfish and Geographv, 275 Gordon, Phylhs, A Field Trip to Thornton, 111., 85 Grand Rapids, N. S. Society Organiza- tion, 229; Election of Officers, 145 Gregg, F. M., Hygiene as Nature- Study, 28, 88, 134 "Guide to the Wild Flowers," Creevey 306 Hart, Chas. A., Common Insects and Birds of the Farm, 137 "Health in Home and Town," Brown 206 "Health and Medical Inspection of School Children," W. S. Cornell, 93 Hodge, C. F., The House Fly as a Practical Lesson, 245 Hygiene as Nature-Study, 28, 88, 134 "Hygiene for the Worker," Wm. H. Tolman & Adelaide W. Guthrie, 94. Ichabod Foundling, 168 Idaho,. School Gardens in, 207 Insects of the Farm, 137 Interests of Children in Nature Material, 150 Kanouse, Bessie B., Nature-Study Agriculture in Ruial School, iro 312 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW "Laboratory Manual of Agriculture for Secondary Schools," L, E. Call andE. G. Schafer,6i Lantes, Vernon, Criticism of School Garden Methods, i86 Leaf Portfolio, as an Aid to Tree- Study, 197 Local Sections, Directory of, 32 "Mechanistic Conception of Life," Loeb, 194 Meeting of American Nature-Study Society, i "Mendel's Principles of Heredity," W. Bateson, 232 "Michigan Bird Life," Walter B. Barrows "Mighty Animals, "Jennie Irene Mix, 234 Miller, Geo. J., A Study of Wind- Blown Sand, 43; The Work of Run- ning Water, 78; Work of Glaciers, 125 Miller-Robertson Ellen, The Way of a Caterpillar, 85; The Tobacco- Worm and Its Kin, 113 MosHER, Edith R., Correlating Tree- Study with Other Kindergarten and Primary Grade Subjects, 54 Moulds, How to Grow Common, Mr. Tabor, 222 Mouth, The, and Its Uses, 28 "Mouth Hygiene and Mouth Sepsis," John S. Marshall, 269 Natural History of the Farm, A Course in the, 170 N. S., The Present Status in Elemen- tary Schools, 237 Needham, J. G., Course in the Na- tural History of the Farm, 170; Field Work Records, 203; Fuel Woods of the Farm, 282; Pasture Plants, 251 Nelson, Norman E., A Wild Flower Garden, 160 News and Notes, 145, 227, 262, 301 Officers of Am. N. S. Society, i Pasture Plants, 251 Patterson, Alice J., The Present Status of N. S. in the EL Schools, 239 Patteson, S. Louise, The Bluebird's Housekeeping, loi; Ichabod Foundling, 168 Physical N. S. for the El. School, 290 "Plant and Animal Children and How they Grow," Ellen Torrele, 62, 269 "Plants, Their Uses," F. L. Sargent, 233 Pollard, Mamie Lee, School Gar- dens in Idaho, 207 Possums and Possum Hunting, 130 "Pure Foods," John C. Olsen, 94 Retrospect and Prospect St. Louis Section, Annual Meeting,263 Sand Dunes, Trip to, 50 Sand, Wind-Blown, 43 Sargent, Paul, Possurhs and Possum Hunting, 130 "School Agriculture," Milo Wood, 63 School Gardening, Will it Survive, 257 School Gardens, 224 School Gardens, One Adjustment of, to Year, 66 School Garden Methods, A Criticism of, 186 "Seeing Nature First," Weed, 195 Shilling, Wm. T.., Physical N. S. for the El. School, 290 "Soil Conditions and Plant Growth," E. J. Russell, 93 "Snake," The Glass, 296 Sparrows, Observations on, 302 Spring of 1913, 191 Squirrels, A Lesson on, 147 "Stories of Childhood and Nature," E. V. Brown, 270 "Story of My Boyhood and Youth, The," John Muir, 270 "Stories of Woods and Fields," Eliza- beth N. Brown, 233 Summary of a Study of Instruction in Agriculture in Rural El. Schools, 2 Tarr, W. a.. Common Rocks and Their Determination, 22, 33 Tobacco, A Study of, 134 Tobacco- Worm and Its Kin, 113 Trafton, G. H., Children's Interests in Nature Material, 150 "Trees in Winter," A. F. Blakeslee and C. D. Jarvis, 118 Tree-Study in Winter, 13 Tree-Study, Correlation of With Kindergarten Subjects, 54 Tree-Study, The Leaf- Portfolio as an Aid in, 197 Valentine, Florence, A Trip to the Sand Dunes, 50 Van Buren, Frances, A Grand Rapids School Garden, 95 Van Dyke, Henry, The Song vSpar- row (Poem), 65 Waite, C. M., a Collector's Ex- periences, 215 Water, A Study of, 78, 88 "Wilderness of the North Pacific Coast Islands, The," Chas. Sheldon 61 "Wild Life and the Camera," A. Radclyfife Dugmore, 61 Wind-Blown Sand, A Study of, 43 Work of Glaciers, 125 Work of Running Water, 78 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS w^^ ^ ^ Please note date of expiration of your subscription on the JUXipOriOIll label of the wrapper. Subscriptions must be paid in advance to comply with postal requirements. Subscriptions, Manuscripts for Publication and Books to be Reviewed should be sent to the Editor. Vol. 9 January, 1913. No. 1 Meeting of American Nature Study Society The Cleveland meeting of the American Nature-Study Society was held in conjunction with that of the American Garden Asso- ciation. The program was carried out as printed and in addition, a number of papers were presented on various phases of the garden work. The officers elected for the ensuing year are as follows: For President: Anna B. Comstock. For Vice-Presidents: E. B. Babcock, California; M. A. Bige- low, New York; Otis W. Caldwell, Ilb"'^.ois; Stanley Coulter, In- diana; B. M. Davis, Ohio. For Directors : E. E. Balcomb, North Carolina ; Ora M. Carrel, Michigan; Anna Clark, New York; Gene Patterson, Illi- nois ; Susan B. Seipp, D. C. For Secretary-Editor : Elliot R. Downing, Illinois. Instead of presenting any abstracts of the papers and dis- cussions, the President's address is printed in full. We sincerely hope the custom that President Davis has initiated may be estab- lished as a permanent custom, and all who read his address, as well as all who heard it, will appreciate the work involved and the value of his results. The following items from the report of the Secretary-Editor may be of general interest : Receipts from subscriptions, reprints, etc., $1,187.91 ; pre- ceding year, $1,122.64. Expense of printing, $1,132.17 ; preceding year $677.20. In spite of the increased expense the balance forwarded to 1913 is nearly as great as that carried over a year ago. New subscriptions, September-December. 274. Summary of a Study of Instruction in Agri- culture in Rural Elementary Schools^ B. M. Davis, Miami University. As member of the Committee on ''Course of Study in Agri- culture for Rural Elementary and Secondary Schools" appointed by the Department of Rural and Agricultural Education of the National Education Association, I undertook to prepare that part of the report relating to elementary schools. An examination of the literature of the subject left me much in doubt as to what would best serve the average school under average conditions. Many of the published courses of study examined were apparently based upon what was considered de- sirable rather than upon what might be reasonably expected. Several questions arose that seemed important to answer before much progress could be made toward outlining a course of study, and to which no satisfactory answers could be found in the various publications consulted. I therefore decided to go to the original sources — to the teachers themselves, who were hav- ing successful experience in teaching agriculture in the rural schools, and to others who were especially interested in the problems of rural education. Through correspondence with state and county departments of education, with agricultural colleges and state normal schools, and from other sources a selected list of about eight hundred names was obtained. From this list five hundred were chosen, according to geographical location, and to each the following questionaire was sent: 1. Do you regard it desirable to cover the whole subject of agriculture in an elementary way with pupils below high school? 2. Or do you regard the plan of selecting certain units or topics such as corn, milk, poultry, plant enemies, etc., more desirable. 3. Give list of topics or units that you have found or regard as most successful. 4. Is home-made or school-made apparatus used? If so, give examples of some used to best advantage. 5. To what extent has outdoor field work been used successfully? State nature of the work (subjects), and approximately the amount of time spent. lAddress of President, Annual Meeting of American Nature-Study Society, De- cember 30, 1912. 2 i.Avis] INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE 3 6. To what extent have farm animals been used in teaching, i. e., actual study of the animals themselves. 7. How did you manage this animal study? 8. How much experimental work on school grounds or in building have you done? 9. How was this experimental work managed ? 10. To what extent have you made use of borrowed apparatus such as farm machinery, scales, milk-testers, etc. ? 11. To what extent has the work in agriculture been a practical suc- cess judged by application at home, and in approval of patrons? 12. In what ways has agriculture been correlated with other school subjects? 13. Has it helped instruction in these subjects? 14. Mention some difficulties you have met with in the teaching of agriculture. 15. What has been your guide in selection of topics or units for in- struction, i. e., teachers' manual, textbook, community interests, etc. 16. Will you suggest on back of this sheet some things that should be included in a course of and study that would be most helpful to a teacher? It will be seen that the questions submitted cover six factors which should be taken into consideration in planning a course of study intended to help standardize instruction in agriculture in rural elementary schools. These factors are as follows : (1) Subject matter (1-3) ; (2) ways and means (4-10) ; (3) re- action on the community (11) ; (4) relation to other school sub- jects (12-13); (5) difficulties (14); (6) basis of selection of topics now being taught > (15). One hundred and seventy-two replies were received. Most of them were very complete, often accompanied by much addi- tional information. They showed interest and experience, and a faith in the possibilities of agriculture as a rural school subject. Thirty states were represented, including all sections of the coun- try from Maine to California, from Minnesota to Texas. I shall attempt in this paper to give a brief summary of the data obtained, and to present representative comments selected from responses to the questionaire. Elementary instruction in agriculture is given in two ways, one in which the whole subject is covered, the other in which only certain phases or units are considered. It is desirable to determine which of these ways is the better; especially if any attempt to standardize instruction is to be made. The first two questions were meant to secure an expression from teachers on this point. Of the one hundred and fifty-five answers to these questions fifty-seven favored covering the entire subject, while ninety-eight preferred to confine instruction to certain units. 4 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan, 1913 The answers to the third question, however, showed that many of these fifty-seven teachers found some topics more successful than others. In order to determine whether the answers were colored by local conditions a tabulation of answers from the leading agricultural states was made. The result showed ap- proximately the same ratio. This ratio holds for states requiring instruction in agriculture as well as for those that do not. The following are some typical answers representing both points of view : "I should question giving much time to study of animal husbandr}' or anything that would not tend to vitalize the other subjects in the curriculum." "A compromise of Plans 1 and 2 would be most desirable." '■'I think only the simplest forms of agriculture can be satisfactorily taught in grammar school." "Yes, with the exception of some technical subjects. Nature-study organized so as to present phases all through the grades would take care of much of it. If handled properly, any important agricultural subject may be presented intelligently in its essentials to grade pupils." "Make it as complete as possible, yet elementary. So many of our pupils never see a high school. They need more than a mere smattering." "I think it is all right if there is sufficient time. But I find that in a school with from forty to fifty pupils certain topics are more profitably used, such as live-stock, corn, wheat, sugar cane, etc." • "I believe to treat in an elementary way would be more profitable as the pupil does not know what he is best fitted for at this age, and the wider the scope the better the chance for the pupil." "I do not think so, because the subject is too extensive, neither is it practicable or practically useful." "I think certain topics like those suggested in question No. 2 should form the course of study, but it would be well to have the pupils read some book or books that cover the whole subject." "Depends upon the number later attending rural high schools with courses in agriculture, and degree of specialization. Danger in repeti- tion causing some bad results already seen in physiology." "I think type studies will have to be developed for both the elemen- tary school and those high schools that can give only one or two years work." "No, I do not ; I believe the average pupil will gain more when certain units are emphasized." "No, I do not for the reason that the minor and more important facts are slighted on the work." The third question was intended to determine what units were regarded as the most successful. Nearly all phases of agriculture are represented in the lists of topics given in the answers. The following topics are mentioned in order of frequency in answers : field crops, including corn, wheat, potatoes, alfalfa, clover, bar- DAVIS] INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE 5 ley, oats, vetches, peas, cotton, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, and tobacco; farm animals, including horses, hogs, sheep, and in- cluding also stock judging and rations; dairying, including Bab- cock test, care of milk, and rations; soils, including drainage, dry farming, irrigation, and texture ; insect enemies ; poultry ; horticulture, including budding, grafting, spraying, and pruning; gardening, including school gardens, plot experiments, and grow- ing contests ; weeds ; seed testing, including selection, germina- tion tests, and purity tests ; birds ; plant studies, including a va- riety of phases; flowers; plant propagation; farm management, referring especially to farm accounts ; fertilizers ; farm machin- ery ; roads ; bee-keeping ; weather ; farm buildings ; plant breed- ing; marketing. Most of the topics suggested were confined to the first half of the list. The great agricultural interests — field crops, especially corn and wheat, farm animals, dairying, and soils were mentioned far more frequently than any other topics. The answers clearly indicate that the phases of agriculture meet- ing with the greatest success in teaching were closely correlated with dominant local farm interests. A few quotations will illus- trate the character of the work done by teachers reporting: "All truck plants, fruit and nuts that are grown in this region only. Farm animals, some insects and soils." "This is a forest region and we have given the intensive study to timber production: (1) nuts, (2) enemies, (3) nurseries, (4) methods of reforestration, (5) age of trees, (6) harvest, (7) ranger method, (8) fire fighting." "Corn testing, selection for seed, storing seed. Milk, the Babcock test, care of milk. Weeds common to the vicinity, names of seeds, how to destroy. Poultry, right kind of poultry houses, care of chickens, marketing. Soil, principally in relation to drainage and maintaining fertility." "The topics I have found most successful are (1) study of corn from time seed is chosen to the finished products made from corn. Corn happens to be the main product of this part of the country. It might be some other product elsewhere. (2) Animal husbandry. (3) Rotation of crops, treatment of soils. In the lower grades- garden, flowers and birds." "Have not done much except in animal study except the study of the general purpose animal (horse). Been most successful along the line of soil study, plant food, legumes, regulation of soil moisture, for- estry and landscape." "We are going to try poultry raising because the children derive a financial benefit from it quicker than any other line." "The subject of cotton, corn, peas, vetches, and clover are of the most benefit to this section." "This is a horticultural region. Soil, pruning of trees and bushes as Avell as planting them. Budding, grafting and spraying. "Each child has his own plot for vegetable and flower growing. 6 NATURE STUDY REVIEW |9:1— Jan., 1913 Sells vegetables and keeps the money. Class "experiments show osmosis, conservation of soil moisture, etc." Probably most of the instruction in agriculture in the rural schools has been by text-book with little or no illustrative ma- terial. This practice is defended on the ground that it is too difficult in the average school to secure facilities for any other kind of instruction. The second group of questions (4-10) refer to methods used by successful teachers to present the subject concretely by dealing directly with the material upon which the subject matter is based. That such a procedure is feasible is indicated in the answers to questions of this group. The problem of apparatus necessary to perform simple ex- periments was solved by teachers in various ways. Very little purchased apparatus is possible in the rural school even if it were desirable. One teacher says : *T believe if the pupil can make his own apparatus, much of the unnatural coloring is eliminated from his results. He is likely to be influenced unduly by the fact that he is using a fine piece of apparatus and un- consciously feels that somehow a large portion of the results come from the apparatus rather than from operation of the natural law which is being investigated." Forty-two of the one hundred and forty-six teachers responding to this question (4) used home-made apparatus, sixty used school-made, thirty-nine used both, and five used some purchased. The use of home- made apparatus seems to have had two advantages, one in sav- ing school time, the other in carrying school interests into the home. The school-made apparatus brought more children in contact with the work, and gave the pupils the benefit of the teacher's suggestions. A few of the answers will be of interest: "Both should be used. In this connection we have constructed an unusually successful "go-devil" for diking land for irrigation, drawing plans in school and having the boys construct the machine in the home shop. Hot beds and cold frames have been built and used in the school. "Home-made, mostly, except the Babcock test, for which we use a small portable outfit. Home-made saw-dust seed corn tester. Home- made apparatus for soil experiments; models of chicken houses, silos, barns, etc." "In all cases when possible I use home-made apparatus — e. g. illustrat- ing tile draining, irrigation. Pupils make necessary apparatus." "Both are used : Corn tree ; corn germinating box ; model chicken house; soil and sand table, on which is fastened a top to be used for various purposes, as holding a milk tester, seeds, etc.; milk cabinet, as a model to be used in barn to hold records, etc." "Home-made corn tester, brooder, nest builder." DAVIS] INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE 7 "Home-made apparatus. Corn tree for curing corn, corn testers. We add five per cent to standing in agriculture if pupil has made and used apparatus at home." Agriculture deals with growing things. Field study, in which pupils may learn of these things, first-hand — by direct observa- tion— is quite as important as is apparatus to demonstrate cer- tain principles of agricultural science. In spite of the difificulties of this kind of teaching in the rural schools the successful teacher manages somehow to make more or less use of this method. Of the 142 teachers replying to this question (5), 131 did some field work ranging from a few hours in the spring months to five hours a week during the school year. Many used the time before school opened or after school closed, or recess and noon periods. The following are some methods used : "The element of time is our gravest problem as the enthusiasm is so great that w^e could w^ork out most any scheme 'if v^e had time.' We have one-half hour per v^^eek regularly for gardening, but many noon and recess hours are gladly — voluntarily given.. We have so far not found time for other outside lessons." "Have made the garden the unifying center for agricultural nature- study. Birds, insects, etc., have been studied as they touched the lives of the children. Two hours a v^eek." "Very few school excursions were taken. Most of the pupils- lived on farms, and by aid of some of the parents we were able to complete what we undertook." "The greatest part of the work is done at home through the en- thusiastic leadership of the schools. Home gardens, acre yield of corn, potato growing, dragging roads, etc." "Excursions are frequently made to some nearby field or fields to study the soil, effect of moisture, manures and heat upon the plant and soil, harvesting and condition of plants." Another phase of agricultural instruction that teachers often find difficult to handle is animal husbandry. Yet farm animals stood second in the list of topics reported upon as being successful- ly taught. Of the ninety-nine teachers who made use of this sub- ject in their schools, seventy-one indicated how they did it : six- teen at school having animals brought there, twenty-nine by hav- ing the children make certain studies at home and reporting at school, twenty-six through demonstrations by teachers at various farms, nineteen by means of pictures and reading to be verified at home, and two by demonstrations at fairs. The details of some of the methods used are as follows : "After a suitable introduction the class is taken to the animal or the animal to the class, just as seemed handiest." "All the home animals are judged and tested." 8 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 ''Points are discussed in class — then pupils are taken to nearby farms and animals judged." "Last term we studied the cow, the different build of the dairy and beef cow, etc. We also studied and took particular notice of the different types of horses, hogs, etc. This proved to be a very valuable study." "Special animals of different breeds were studied. Then as often as we could get conveyances we visited neighboring farms and then compared the stock found with the ideals formed in the mind. First studied the ideal form for the animal in the different classes, as beef, dairy; draft and roadster; lard and bacon; mutton and wool. Then started to find an example of that ideal (usually failed) but always succeeded in showing the possibilities of improvement by careful breed- ing." "Dairy cows have been used for demonstration purposes. These were brought to the class on the school premises. The study with the actual animals was mostly concerned with conformation to the dairy type." "I had the animals brought to the school yard, visited with the class at stock farms and required home studies of such studies on home animals." "Parents have furnished the animals providing school boys deliver them both ways and feed and water them while being used." "We have judged cattle by the score card sent out by the extension department of the university; also, when possible county fairs were visited by the class here." "Studied animals belonging to school patrons using judging blanks, then writing up defects, blemishes, good points, etc., and comparing various animals." "The pupils were taken to farms having best herds. Here regular stock judging on farms is done." One hundred and thirty-five made definite reports of use of experiments in their teaching. Some conducted the work in the school house, some on the school grounds or in school garden plots, and others by having experiments done by the pupils at home and results reported at school. Various plans were used, for example : "Different simple experiments were assigned to different pupils who worked them out and showed results to the class. One class instead of raising vegetables assumed the duty of covering an unsightly fence with sweet peas; in addition to studying up the nature of the soil, etc., they tested the seed before planting and determined the per cent germi- nating. Also valuable experiments in different methods of irrigation." "As a class demonstration and laboratory work on the part of the pupils. They glory in it. Eggs are regularly brought to the class for fertility testing before incubation." "Permitted the entire school to participate during such periods. They were done during regular school hours." "In my work I allowed the children to tabulate operations and re- sults, but children could do it as well and with probably better after results." DAVIS] INSTRUCTION IN AGRICULTURE 9 "Corn was tested in large quantities — boxes filled with different kinds of soil used to test different seeds, germination, the effect of moisture, etc." "The work was managed by both the pupils and the teacher in co- operation. One pupil would be given a certain experiment to perform and another pupil or group of pupils would be given another." "Dividing the school into three or four classes and allowing time each week to each class and when possible give each a plot of ground to care for and study. When with this class, others are left to do their own work." "Teacher illustrates the process and then asks pupils to perform similar operation with different materials. Their work is for most part done at home." "I appoint committees or certain pupils to do certain definite work. They are held responsible, and are expected to report at different times regarding their work." In making an estimate of the success of agriculture as a school subject patrons as well as pupils should be considered. Unless results reach beyond the school into the home its place in the curriculum can hardly be justified. All but four teachers responding to this question (11) regarded their work in agri- culture as successful in this respect. "One boy increased daily yield of milk about one-half in family cow by adopting feeding standard — great enthusiasm. Others tried other animals with varying success. Gardens at home and decoration of home grounds are carried on by pupils to the extent of perhaps 75 per cent." "One of my patrons whose home has never had any care and where there has never been any attempt at cultivating the yard, has made a flower bed along the front of the yard, and has planted out other flowers. They are now talking of fixing the house as soon as they can." "To a gratifying degree. Special crops are tried out in many in- stances ; rations for dairy, brood and draft animals are in use ; modified irrigation is being permitted for boys on their o'wn tracts, and remedies for animal diseases have w^on favor with the patrons." "hi one instance the farms at home were treated with lime as a result of the lime experiment on acid soils at school. Flowers were grown and cared for more intelligently." "By pupils planting experiment fields of their own and trying to raise crops that are not raised here; such as cotton, tobacco. By pupils grafting and budding different fruit trees." "Patrons have been extremely well satisfied. They help in every way posssible. In several cases tests have been made which disprove old theories held for years." "It has interested boys in school that were never interested before and the parents think it is grand." "Japanese plum trees set in connection with school. This has been the direct cause of setting at least five hundred in the neighborhood and the end is not yet. Pure bred Leghorn chickens have been introduced. Also alsike clover, deeper tillage, home mixing of fertilizers, etc." 10 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 "There are many instances of methods being changed by the fathers of children studying elementary agriculture in schools, such as under- taking to spray trees, changing methods of plowing, beginning to test cows and keep milk records, testing seed corn and other farm seeds, etc." "Very much. In a great many cases farmers have entirely changed their methods of farming. All the boys, and some girls have a garden plat of their own and have entire control of it. In the fall we have a garden contest, an exhibit in school where parents gather to inspect. The prod- ucts are judged and prizes given." "The patrons are all greatly interested in all our work, and approve of it. I notice the farmers are all testing their seeds after the manner we test it in school." "The seed testing this spring awoke a real interest and resulted in the purchase of hundreds of bushels of tested seed corn. This will be a poor corn year in Wisconsin when seed was not tested." Correlation of other subjects with agriculture may have a two-fold value, one in economy of time, the other in giving a practical turn to these subjects — especially to the formal studies such as arithmetic. All but one teacher found that instruction in other subjects was helped by correlation with agriculture. Arithmetic, language and geography were generally specified. History, reading, nature-study, manual training, domestic science, drawing, and physiology were also mentioned. The following are some of the answers to questions 12 and 13 : "The use of topics for language lessons, with geography and some arithmetic. This subject, agriculture, gives them something definite, some- thing practical and interesting to work with." "I believe agriculture should be a separate subject in the upper grades and not a 'correlated kink' to other subjects. However very good correlation with arithmetic, geography, history and manual train- ing is possible." "In arithmetic a study of the silo — lateral surface, foundation, con- ents and application of the cylinder. Language, geography, and reading." "In arithmetic it can always provide actual data for practical prob- lems. In geography it is rich in earth facts. In language it furnishes experiences to be expressed. In history it has helped make the present civilization possible. I have found agriculture or nature-study very help- ful, especially in teaching home geography, language, composition, and arithmetic." "In arithmetic through farm problems. In language through composi- tions on farm subjects. In geography by consideration of products and physical conditions. Reading supplemental in farm bulletins." "In geography, the subject of soils, climate, native and local vegeta- tion. In history, the introduction of tobacco, wheat, sugar, corn, etc., into United 'States. How, when, and where the growth of each ; annual output of each. It has made these subjects far more interesting." "With geography for location of thorough bred horses and cattle. With grammar and composition work. With arithmetic for farm com- putations." DAVIS] INSTRUCTIOX IN AGRICL'LTURE 11 "I tind that problems in arithmetic are being used that are of prac- tical value ; good product maps, etc., in geography ; reading connected with the study of birds ; food products, and charts connected with the study of physiology." "Taught farm problems in connection with arithmetic. Alade in- teresting subjects the basis of composition work. Prepared industrial, county and township maps." "A practical use made of the methods and materials of any subject at once raises the value of that work in the pupil's estimation." "It has. It makes them ask what the cube root is good for in the 8th grade." "It certainly has added new interest in subjects, therefore showing the necessity of other subjects." "It has not only helped instruction, but made the other subjects more interesting to pupils." "As we regard it an integral part of the instruction this question is much like asking does it help arithmetic to use figures." "It has brought far off things back to the pupils' own experiences." Although the teachers who responded to the questionaire have been succeeding well in teaching agriculture they have met var- ious difficulties. Most of these difficulties, however, are com- mon to all subjects of instruction in rural schools. Among those mentioned were lack of time, too many grades, too few books, too little material and apparatus, adverse attitude of patrons, course of study, long vacations interfering with garden and plot work, lack of preparation on part of teachers. A few examples will illustrate the difficulties as seen by the teachers themselves : "One of the most serious problems to be solved in connection with successful agricultural teaching is that of obtaining conditions which ap- proach somewhat the conditions actuall}' encountered on a real farm. Many more important operations must be left for the pupil to obtain at home, before and after school. Many parents will not take the time to make operations valuable and interesting to the boys." "Lack of apparatus, knowledge on the part of the teacher as to the essential topics to teach, etc." "Lack of time; no former teaching of the subject; no suitable text. Prejudice against the subject by not only parents but some teachers; the farmer's argument of "a book farmer." "None, only I have not time sufficient to get the. most out of it. What I have done is on borrowed time from recesses and noons." "Opposition of our teachers in the system. Pupils always become enthusiastic, and then occasionally some of the teaching force becomes jealous of the success. Lack of time under present course of study caused some difficulties." "The greatest difficulties are in overcoming old prejudices which have been handed down from father and son for generations." "Lack of time : school houses not being warm enough in winter to prevent freezing the plants started in the fall." 12 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [«):l— Jan., 1913 "The lack of good apparatus and a convenient school house for such work are some of the difficulties which I have met in my teaching agri- culture." "Lack of time to apply to the work; insufficient apparatus; lack of suitable texts; school closes too early to do the amount of outside work that should be done; hired for but for the school year." "Lack of good types of stock; lack of real interest on the part of the farmers." "Lack of time according to our own course of study; much of our work must be done after school hours, but have no difficulty with com- plaints from patrons for so doing." "The pupils take great interest in it, but unless it is disguised under the head of language, etc., the parents are much against it." "Lack of time to give to it and to the practical work in it as we would like to do owing to the demand of our high schools that our pupils be well grounded in true discount, bank discount which, if they were better prepared to earn a living, they would have little demand for in after life."" "My own lack of special training. The lack of good text-books. The fact that there is no definite syllabus in elementary agriculture." "Never had any. Everybody likes it. Can't get time enough." "Lack of agricultural sentiment in the community; lack of text and reference books for the pupils. School in session at the time of year when practical work cannot be done." "Our teachers are high school graduates who do not know the differ- ence between a silo, whether a silo is a machine or kind of sheep, and our greatest difficulty is teaching them, and putting them into the right atti- tude." "The principal one is that each part of the country presents dif- ferent problems and it is hard to be posted on the needs of different parts when you change so often." Tn the selection of topic or units for instruction, most teach- ers were guided by local or community interests, some followed the text-book, others a course of study prepared by state or county departments of education. While getting the experiences of so many teachers who were actually engaged in teaching agriculture in the rural elementary schools it seemed desirable to get an expression from them re- garding a course of study in agriculture. They were asked to indicate what would be most helpful to them. Many valuable suggestions were made in response to this question, among them r arrangement of subjects in the order which they should be taught, a summary and explanation of experiments to be performed, some scheme to meet local needs, some definite statement of correlation with other subjects, means of securing illustrative material, and sources of information on various topics. Although this summary includes responses from less than two hundred teachers it is representative of the most successful WINTER TREE STUDY 13 agricultural teaching in rural schools extending over a wide range of territory, and under a great variety of conditions. The testimony of the teachers themselves is the best indication of the possibilities as well as of the limitations of the subject in the average school. It will be a long time before centralization of rural schools will become general. In the meantime every means should be employed to make the existing schools more efficient. Teachers in these schools need all the help and en- couragement they can get. They need to see the teaching pos- sibilities, even under adverse conditions, of country-life sub- jects, and to appreciate the value of such teaching not only in relation of the school to the community but also in its reaction on other subjects. This summary is presented in advance of a more complete discussion of agricultural instruction in rural schools, to be published later, with the hope that some teachers may be encouraged by seeing what is now being done by others in the same class of schools under similar conditions to introduce this kind of teaching. Tree Study in Winter A. F. Blakeslee. FIRST PAPER. Most students begin their acquaintance with trees in summer and use leaves as the earmarks of identification. The forester and lumberman, however, are more called upon to distinguish trees in winter when leaves and flowers are fallen than in sum- mer. Trees, as the most conspicuous elements in the winter land- scape, must also appeal to the student of out-door life. The interest shown by classes of school teachers in the Summer School in identifying specimens of twigs collected the previous winter indicated to the writer that the winter study of trees can be taken up with enthusiasm by teachers in their schools. Those who have reported trying the work have met with success. In our experience, the winter identification of trees has proven to students one of the most interesting subjects of their course; It is of decided value for its training in the power of accurate observation. The work comes at a time when material for natural history study seems scanty and might therefore be used to bridge over the period between fall and spring which are unfortunately considered by many the only seasons when study of out-door life is possible in the schools. A tree in winter is far from being 14 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 Figure 1. — White Elm. the characterless object many beHeve. Freed from its covering of leaves, the skeleton of the tree is revealed and with the method •of branching thus clearly discernible, the species may generally be more readily identified at a distance than in its summer garb. There are many forms, moreover, that are difficult to distinguish from summer features alone but which in winter have twig, bud or other characters which make their separation comparatively easy. Jn the present brief article only the identificational side of WINTER TREE STUDY winter tree study can be taken up and a few of the winter marks of distinc- tion suggested. The aim toward which this type of study should tend is the abiHty to recognize a tree at a distance by the gener- al ''habit" of growth or by bark characters. Habit and bark characters, how- ever, are difficult of pre- cise description, and mark- ings on the twigs must be used as a means of identi- fication in the early stages of our knowledge. In the following paragraphs some of the identificational characters of value will be discussed under the prop- er headings. Habit — By the word habit, we denote the gen- eral appearance of a tree seen as a whole. A tree strictly speaking is gener- ally considered as a woody growth having an undivided trunk at the base and rising to at least twice the height of a man. A shrub on the other hand is low-growing and may branch from the very base. No hard and fast line, however, can be drawn between a tree and a shrub. Many trees at the limit of their range or under unfavorable conditions are reduced to the form and dimen- sions of a shrub and some forms growing as shrubs in New Eng- land become trees in states outside this group. Two general habit types are recognized — the spreading and the erect — often termed deliquescent and excurrent, respectively. The former is well represented by the Apple and White Elm (Fig. 1)"^ and the latter by the Evergreens and those of the Poplars that form narrow conical heads (Fig. 2). By its more erect habit of growth the Sweet Cherry is readily distinguished from the *NOTE. — That illustrations are from Bulletin 69, New England Trees in Winter, Storrs Experiment Station, Storrs, Conn. Figure 2. — Carolina Poplar. 16 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 Sour Cherry and in like manner the Pear from the Apple. It is these habit differences that form the most ready means of separat- ing the contrasted trees just mentioned which may closely re- semble each other in twig characters. The angle which the branches make with the trunk is frequently a diagnostic character of considerable value. For example, the ascending and grace- fully outward curving limbs of the American White Elm stand in contrast with the sharply divergent limbs of the English Elm. Likewise the horizontal branches of the Tupelo and the strongly pendant lower limbs of the Swamp White Oak are characteristic of these species. The relative thickness of the branchlets con- trasted in the Sweet Cherry and the Black Birch and the arrange- ment of the branchlets whether opposite or alternate and whether erect or drooping, may further be mentioned as habit characters. The method of branching and other features included in the habit do not furnish such precise marks as do the twigs, and cannot, therefore, be of much value in a descriptive key. In fact, the habit varies considerably among individual trees of the same species, no two trees having exactly the same method of branching. Moreover trees grown in woods in company with other trees are prevented by lateral shading from developing their normal form and produce tall trunks with but little branch- ing. The age of the tree is also an important factor in the out- line, young specimens being in general narrower and more coni- cal than in later life while those in old age may have lost shape through ice storms, high winds and the attacks of fungi. Trees grown in the open, however, despite the vicissitudes to which they may be subjected, tend to assume a characteristic appearance. As one becomes more familiar with trees in their winter aspect, the number that cannot be recognized at a distance be- comes greatly diminished. We come to know trees by hardly definable traits, much as we recognize our friends at a distance by some peculiarity of form or gait. Watching the trees from a car window is a great help in acquiring this familiarity with the habit characters. Bark — Although it is upon the appearance of the bark more than upon any other character that the woodsman depends in his recognition of timber trees, the bark shares with the habit the misfortune of being difficult of precise description. A study of photographs, however, in connection with descriptions of the color and texture will enable one to recognize a large proportion of our trees by the appearance of the bark alone. WINTER TREE STUDY 17 Figure 3. — Yellow Birch. \\"hi:c A.h. The color of the outer bark is an important mark of distinction and is the chief means of separating the different species of the Birches. The color and taste of the inner layers of the bark are in some cases also characteristic. The Black Oak, for ex- ample, is best distinguished from other Oaks by the yellow and intensely bitter inner bark. Similarly, the Black Birch, the Sas- safras and the genus Prunus, including the Cherries, have barks with characteristic flavors. The swamp-loving Poison Sumach is the only poisonous tree in New England so that after this shrubby form is known there need be no fear of tasting bark and twigs of any unknown tree-like species. 18 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 The bark varies in character according to the age of the tree. In the young tree it is smooth, but, as the trunk expands from the growth of the wood within, the covering of dead bark out- side is forced to crack in a variety of ways, giving rise to char- acteristic fissures and ridges which become more prominent as the tree grows older. The bark of few trees such as the Beech and the American Hornbeam remain smooth, their outer layers expanding with the growth of the tree. The barks of others as the Yellow Birch (Fig. 3) stretch and peel ofif in thin papery layers. In the Birches and Cherries the breathing pores (len- ticels) become horizontally elongated to form narrow transverse streaks which are characteristic for these forms. When ridges or scales are formed they may be close and firm and with diffi- culty removed from the trunk as is the case with the bark in the Black Oak group or, on the other hand, they may be easily rubbed ofT as are the scales of the bark of the White Oak and of most members of the White Oak group. Bark of this latter type is called Haky and this distinction between barks that are flaky and those that are not flaky is of considerable importance in classifica- tion. The bark may come oiT in large sheets as in the Shag-bark Hickory and the Sycamore, and the ridges may be long as in the Chestnut or short and run together to form more or less perfect diamond-shaped areas as in the White Ash (Fig. 4). Tzmgs — The Horse-chestnut (Fig. 5) may be taken as a con- venient form to illustrate the various markings found on the twig. The large triangular patches resembling somewhat closed horse-shoes in shape are the leaf-scars showing where the bases of the leaf-stalks were attached to the twig before their fall. The little dots corresponding to the nail holes in a horse-shoe are the bundle-scars and mark the location of the so-called fibro-vascular bundles. The leaf-scars are located at the nodes and the portion between the nodes is called the internode. Scattered along the twig are little dots, the lenticels, which are openings that func- tion to a certain extent like breathing pores. Above each leaf- scar is normally produced an axillary bud. The lateral buds are in distinction to the terminal buds at the ends of the twigs. The bud-scales at falling leave a ring or band of scale-scars mark- ing the limit of each year's growth. These bands often remain distinct for many years and by coiintino^ their number the age of the branchlet may be estimated. Thus it can be readily seen that the .figure of the Horse-chestnut represents growth made during three years. WINTER TREE STUDY 19 Terminal Axillary Bud Fruit Scac .Internode _ Node .Lenticel Leaf Scar Bundle Scar Scale Scars __ Dormant Bud— --^._.-Pith Figure 5. In some species, such as the cultivated Cherry, a sharp dis- tinction can be drawn between r a p id 1 y- grown long shoots which have elongated inter nodes and continue the growth of the twig and slowly grown short spurs which have greatly ab- breviat e d .. internodes V.l years growth ^^^^^^^^_ " ed leaf-scars. The fruit- spurs of the Apple and Pear are of this latter type. Of the distinctive char- acters given under the head- ing tzvigs may be mentioned the relative thickness, whether stout or slender, the presence or absence of thorns or prickles, the col- or, the taste as indicated under the discussion of the bark, and the character of the surface, whether smooth or more or less covered with hairs. The color, size -Twig of Horse-chestnut and shape of the pith are often characteristic as seen in the wide salmon-colored pith of the Kentucky Cofifee Tree and the star- shaped pith of the Oaks. Some few trees have their pith sep- arated by hollow chambers such as the Butternut. Leaf-scars — The arrangement of the leaf-scars form primary divisions in the classification. They may be opposite with two scars at a node as in the Horse-chestnut, or alternate with only one scar at the node as in the majority of species. Alternate leaf- 20 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 Figure 6. — Twig of Carolina Poplar. sx — Stipule Scar. p — Star- shaped Pith. 7. — Twig of tr — terminal bud. ax — axillary bud. sp superposed accessory- bud, p — cnambered pith. Figure 8. — Twig of Red Maple, ax — axillary bud. cl — collateral acces- sory bud. axr-^-sc. Figure 9. — Twig of Mulberry, ax — last axil- lary bud often mistaken for a terminal bud. sc — self-pruning scar left by fall of real terminal bud and tip of twig. scars may be arranged along the twig in two longitudinal rows when they are said to be 2-ranked, as in the mulberry (fig. 9), or in several rows when they are more than 2-ranked as in the Pop- lars (fig. 6). The size and shape of leaf-scars are important factors in identification. They may be very narrow as in the Pear and their upper margins may be flat or convex as in the Black Ash or deeply notched as in the White Ash or form a band nearly surrounding the bud as in the Sycamore. At the bases of the leaves of some species a pair of small leaflets called stipules are regularly formed and leave, at the fall of the leaf, more or less definite stipule-scars at either side of the leaf-scar as shown in the Carolina Poplar (fig. G). WINTER TREE STUDY :i) The number, the size, the relation to the surface of the leaf- scar, whether sunken or projecting, and the distribution of the bundle-scars form important points of distinction. When they are indistinct, as is frequently the case, they may be revealed if a thin slice is taken off the surface of the leaf-scar. Buds — Buds produced at or near the nodes but not in the axil of a leaf-scar are called accessory buds. Of these there are two kinds : Superposed buds located above the axillary buds and collateral buds located at either side of the axillary buds. The former are shown in the Butternut (fig. 7) and the latter in the Red Maple (fig. 8). Most species by the end of the growing season have formed terminal buds which remain through the winter and are destined to continue the growth the following spring. In some species, however, such as the Mulberry (fig. 9) the terminal bud together with the tip of the twig dies away and drops off before the be- ginning of winter leaving a small scar at the end of the twig. The presence or absence of the terminal bud is a very valuable point of distinction and is used throughout in the keys. Un- fortunately it is not always possible at a cursory glance to say whether the terminal bud is present or absent and a hand-lens must generally be used for an accurate determination of this point. In the Mulberry figured, the self-pruning scar formed by the dropping off of the terminal bud is perched on the tip of the twig with the topmost lateral bud obviously in the axil of the last leaf-scar. Frequently, however, the self-pruning scar may be nearer the lateral bud which bends in and gives the ap- pearance of being terminal. The presence of a leaf-scar below it shows that it is in fact axillary, but since leaf-scars are some- times present toward the end of twigs without buds in their axils the presence of the self -pruning scar at the twig end must be used as the decisive sign that the terminal bud is really absent. Aside from the color, the presence or absence of hairs, sticki- ness, fragrance and other such surface characters, the position of the buds in relation to the twig may be of importance. Buds that lie close up against the twig as those of the Small-toothed Aspen are called appressed, while those that project more or less away from the twig as those of the Carolina Poplar (fig. 6) are called divergent. In the Common Locust and a few other forms the buds are sunken below the surface of the twig, and can be found only by cutting the twig lengthwise through the leaf-scar. Common Rocks and Their Determination By W. A. Tarr, University of Missouri. SECOND PAPER. A working knowledge of the more common minerals would naturally lead us to study their associates, the rocks, which are composed of minerals. Some are composed of a single mineral and some of several. The opportunities for studying rocks are even greater than for studying minerals, as the former are pres- ent in every locality in abundance, although the actual number of varieties may not be many. The hills and the valleys, the moun- tains and canyons are features on the earth's surface which are formed by the two agents, wind and water, which cut away parts of the rock. A stroll through the fields or a walk along a nearby creek will usually reveal several kinds of rocks. They will be found out- cropping along the banks and small gullies and in the creek beds. Sometimes a very hard layer will cause a small fall in the brook. Along railroads there are usually good exposures of rocks. In some flat regions where the soil is thick there may not be very good exposures, but wells in the neighborhood or a large river may supply material for the students to work upon. Exchanging specimens with the children of another region will give a greater variety and number of rocks to work with and study, though in this case they will not have the benefit of seeing the rocks in place. But suppose we do see the rocks and minerals in the fields what do they mean to us unless we know something about them ? Nothing at all. But if we know that one, for example, is an igneous rock, and that it probably came from many miles below the earth's surface, we may infer something about the rocks on the interior of the earth. Or limestone with its many fossil shells tells us of a time, possibly millions of years ago, when ani- mals lived in those same shells which now go to make up the limestone. And we find fossils of animals and plants in other rocks, in shales and sandstones and in coal, and these all tell of times long since past, when these forms of life flourished on the earth. And these sedimentary rocks tell us also that the sea or some large lake has been over the very place where we are stand- 22 tarr] common rocks 23 ing. This is a wide view into the past to be gained from an uninteresting looking piece of rock, is it not? Suppose we find a metamorphic rock, say a schist, in which there are beautiful crys- tals of garnet. What does it suggest? It tells us that the rock was buried miles below the surface of the earth where the pres- sure was so great that the original rock from which the schist was formed was crushed and broken and new minerals formed. And then the earth's crust was folded and broken and mountains were formed and after a long period of erosion the rocks were exposed as we find them today. The rocks as we find them exposed at the surface are full of joints and cracks. Water gets into these openings and dissolves out some of the material and carries it away. In winter the water freezes and this helps to widen the joints and cracks and causes the rock to crumble and break up. The summer heat expands the rocks then they contract and break and split up. The roots of plants and trees also get into these openings and aid in prying the rocks apart. Through the mechanical action of the freezing, thawing, etc., and the chemical action of the water and the acids it contains the rock is decomposed. Much ma- terial goes in to solution and is carried away by the streams to the ocean. Many minerals are changed, but some, such as quartz, are not attacked by the solutions very much. These various products of decay form the rock debris of which the upper por- tion is called soil. In some areas that are nearly flat the soil is thick, in other areas that are rough much of it is carried away by the streams. Evidence of this is shown by the muddy streams after every rain. The forests and grasses aid in keeping the soil on the slopes by holding the particles together with their roots. As soon as the forests are removed the streams begin to remove the soil. In some areas, the Southern Appalachians, for example, thousands of acres are worthless now for this reason. Many places can be found where the gradation of the unaltered rock into the soil may be seen. The study of this change is very interesting. There is a constant but usually very slow movement of this decayed material to the sea. In the sea it supplies the material for the future beds of limestone, shale and sandstone. There are various estimates of the rate at which the surface of the United States is being lowered. A recent estimate by the United States Geological Survey is that one foot is bein? removed in 9,120 years. 270.000,000 tons of dissolved matter and 513,000,- 24 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 000 tons of suspended matter are carried to the sea every year. Another esthnate, but only for the Mississippi valley, is one foot in 3,500 years. Whatever the rate may be, the constant wearing away of the land supplies material for beds of sediments now being deposited in the sea. As a definition for a rock we may use the following : a rock is a mineral or a mass of minerals that forms an essential part of the earth's crust. By this definition many things that are not commonly regarded as rocks, become rocks, such as the soil, sand hills, and clay deposits. The important feature is that the rock shall be an essential part of the crust. (By crust we mean merely the outer part of the earth and do not in any way refer to its origin.) The size of a rock cannot be arbitrarily fixed. Gypsum, salt, and limestone (which consists almost entirely of calcite) are examples of rocks that are composed of one mineral. The greater part of the rocks of the earth's crust is composed of more than one mineral. All the common minerals that are found in rocks are included in the table of common minerals in the previous paper on this subject, hence any one should be able to determine the minerals in the more common rocks, and knowing these, the rock name can be easily found. Familiarity with the common rock-forming minerals should be acquired by all before begin- ning to work with the rocks. There are three principal classes of rocks. They are as fol- lows: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Ninety-five per cent of the outer ten miles of the earth is estimated to be igneous rock and five per cent is sedimentary. The metamorphic rocks are also included in this estimate. Of the sediments four per cent is shale, three-fourths of a per cent sandstone and one-fourth lime- stone.^ The igneous rocks are those that have been formed by the solidification of molten masses from within the earth. They are the primary rocks from which all others have been derived, in fact they were once called "primary rocks." When the igneous mass solidifies below the surface it is called an intrusive rock. Since the process of cooling under these conditions would be slow, the minerals that compose it would have an opportunity to grow large, hence intrusive rocks are generally coarse grained. The intrusive rocks have various modes of occurrence. When they fill long narrow fissures or joints cutting across the other rocks they are called dikes. When they are in thin layers between beds of other rocks they are known as sills. Large irregular iClarke, Bulletin 491, p. 32, U. S. Ceol. Survey. COMMON ROCKS 25 Figure 1 — Massive Granite Stone Mountain, De Kalb County, Ga. (Walson, U. S. Geol. Sur.) forms are known as batholiths. When the molten mass flows cut upon the surface of the earth it is called an eruptive or volcanic rock. Such rocks are also known as lavas. They may occur either as great flows covering many thousands of square miles or the molten material may pile up forming mountains which are commonly known as volcanoes when lava is still erupted. Since the molten mass which flows out on the surface cools quick- ly, the various minerals that would have formed had the mass been an intrusive one, do not have time to grow so such rocks are generally glassy or the crystals are so very fine that they cannot be seen with the naked eye or even with a good lenses. Igneous rocks are distinguished from other rocks by their massive and usually grained character. (See figures 1 and 4.) There are no bedding planes such as are found in sedimentary rocks and they are not banded like the metamorphic rocks. Since each rock is composed of varying proportions of the rock-form- ing minerals and since the rate of cooling is not the same for all rocks it is to be expected that the sizes of the minerals and their relation to each other will vary widely. This feature is known as the texture of rocks. Thus, we have coarse-grained textures, fine-grained textures, glassy textures, porphyritic textures, etc. We have a porphyritic texture when some of the crystals of the rock are larger than the remainder. (See figure 5). Such a 28 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 Figure 3. — Gneiss from Leete Island Quarry. Showing gneissoid texture due to squeezing and stretching of granite. rock is sometimes called a porphyry. It is better though to use the term in connection with the proper rock name, thus, granite- porphyry, syenite-porphyry, etc., or basalt-porphyry. A rock is said to be coarse-grained when the crystals are larger than peas and fine-grained when they are smaller than fine shot. It should be noticed that the crystal grains that go to make up the rock are rarely ever perfect in shape. As they grew they crowded against each other and were thus prevented from assuming their true form, so that they appear in the rock as more or less irregular grains. Joints are very common in the massive igneous rocks. They may be at all angles, from vertical to horizontal. These joints are often of great assistance in quarrying the rocks. There are a great many varieties of igneous rocks because there is a wide variation in the mineral composition, but for general use and in the field a series of names have come into use that make it possible to bring similar rocks together into groups under a few simple names, as the following table shows. COMMON ROCKS 27 CLASSnaCATlON OF IGNhOUS ROCKS, (atter Tirrson) I Grained, constituent grains recognizable. Mostly intrusive. Non- porphyritic Porphyritic Feldspathic rocks, usually light in color With quartz Granite Granite- porphyry With little or no quartz Syenite Syenite- ]X)rphyry Ferromagnesian rocks, general- ly dark to black With subordi- nate feldspar Dolerite ])olerite- porphyry Without feldspar Peridotite (rare) II Dense, constituents wholly or partly unrecognizable. Mostly extrusive rocks. Non-_ porphytitic Porphyritic Light-colored, white, light gray, red, yellow, brown, light and medium green. Usually feld- Tipathic Felsite l-'elsite-porphyry Dark-colored to black, very dark green or very dark gray. Usual- ly ferromagnesian Basalt Basalt-porphyry III Rocks composed wholly or partly of glass. Extrusive. Obsidian, pitchr.tone, pumice, rarely porphyries of thes;. I'\' Fragmertal volcanic material, tuff, volcanic ash. F;gukk 4. — Granite from the Booth Quarry, Waterford. Show- ing granitic texture. 28 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 191:? The feldspathic rocks are those that contain feldspar. The ferro-magnesian rocks are those that contain a considerable amount of the minerals that contain iron and magnesium. They are as follows : hornblende, pyroxene, biotite, and olivine. One or more of these minerals is nearly always found in the feld- spathic rocks but in small amounts, less than one-fourth of the rock usually. Since the color of a rock is the color of the mix- tures of the various minerals it contains, it is readily seen that the rocks that contain very much of these minerals would be dark. The same reasoning applies to the feldspathic rocks. The above table is not only a general classification of igneous rocks but is also a determinative table. Thus a light colored rock which has grains that can be distinctly seen and which con- tains feldspar and quartz, all the grains being about the same size, or non-porphyritic, is a granite. It is a very good plan to memorize this table then it is always ready for use. Hygiene as Nature-Study F. M. Gregg. Peru (Nehr.) State Normal. IV. A Study of the Mouth and Its Uses. Next in magnitude to the proportion of people afifected by germ diseases comes the proportion of people who are affected by the ills to which flesh is heir in consequence of bad feeding. In more exact diction, flesh is not ''heir" to either of these causes of human illness, except in so far as there is a figurative heritage of customs and environment, for diseases due to the two general causes named are in large degree, if not wholly, within the con- trol of the individual. The matter of feeding is so largely sub- ject to modification through habit that it is manifestly a part of the school's duty to supplement the efforts of the home in securing right habits early in the life of the pupil, with respect to eating. Fourth and fifth grade pupils are none too young upon whom to operate for the end desired in feeding practices. Malnutrition, alleged to characterize one pupil in four in America, is in part, at least, traceable to undesirable habits of eating. This may in turn be traced to various causes, among them to decayed teeth and rapid eating. (a) THE NATURE-STUDY APPROACH. 1. A study of the mouth cavity. — (a) As an important pre- GREGG] HYGlENli AS NATURE STUDY 29 liminary study pupils may be directed to take a hand mirror and examine the mouth cavity. The effort here should be to have the pupils discover and describe the different structures found in the mouth. It will help to motivate this study if it be turned into a kind of contest to see who can make the greatest number of such discoveries. The pupils should be particularly directed to discov- er the places in the mouth at which saliva is seen to empty into it. To this end he should be directed to take a small bite of crack- er, in order to start the flow of saliva, and then to note the points of salivary inflow. (b) After the teacher has gotten from the pupils the re- ports of the results of their studies, she may summarize by placing on the blackboard a sketch of the figure given below (a diagrammatic representation of the mouth opened so wide as to show its upper and lower parts as if they were hinged back into one plane). Indeed, the sketch may well be on the board when the pupils' reports are called for, the final summarizing consist- ing of a tabulation of the structures that may be seen. 2. Uses of the mouth. — (a) Pinch the nose shut for a min- ute or two. What use is the mouth now serving? After one has been running hard for some time is it possible to get sufficient breath merely through one's nose? Summarize in one state- ment one of the uses of the mouth. (b) Give all the elementary sounds you can of each of the letters of the alphabet. What difference do you observe in the use of the mouth in the making of the sounds of the consonants and of the vowels ? (c) Have you noticed how chickens and birds drink water? Why do not people also have to throw back their heads as much as birds when they drink? What use does this suggest for the human mouth? ( d) After having taken a good big bite of cracker can you swallow it at once even if it is well crushed? What use have we here for the mouth ? (e) What uses does the mouth serve in connection with the eating of apples and such things? (f) Put some raw corn starch and some cooked corn starch (starch paste) in water and see if it dissolves. Could food of exactly this sort be easily gotten into and carried along by the blood ? Put some cane or grape sugar in water and note whether it dissolves or not. Now give each pupil a ''bite" of raw corn starch, and let him chew it but not swallow it for a minute or 30 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:1— Jan., 1913 two. How does it now taste? What does the saliva seem to be doing for the starch ? Why ? Now try some of the cooked starch and see if there is any difference in the time it takes till the sweetish taste begins to appear. What do you learn from this? 3. The mouth in relation to foods other than starch. — (a) Provide each pupil with a small mouthful of clean wheat grains and let him chew until a small mass of "wheat gum" remains that will not dissolve in the saliva. Explain that this is a kind of food that the mouth will not digest. It is called gluten and be- longs to a group of foods called proteids (be sure to pronounce the word in three syllables if you use it at all) such as are digested in the stomach and small intestine. Similarly try a bit of the white of a hard boiled tgg and see if it dissolves in the mouth. Is the white of ^gg a starchy food? Try dried beef also. (b) Direct each pupil while at home to put a bit of butter alone in the mouth. Did it dissolve, or did it just melt? Butter belongs to a group of foods known as fats, and these are not digested until they reach the small intestine. 4. Simple studies of starch. — (a) Does one find much starch in foods and is it present in many foods? There is a liquid we can get at the drugstore called iodine solution that we can easily use to find out whether the various foods we eat con- tain much or little or no starch. Putting a few drops of iodine on bread or potatoes we notice that it turns dark blue, which is a sign of much starch. Thoroughly cooked beans or peas will turn but slightly blue with iodine showing little starch. Raw ap- ple will not turn at all, showing that it has no starch. Try a number of common foods and make a list of those containing much, little and no starch. Is starch present in any great degree in what we eat ? (b) Try starch in some form to see if it can be burned. (h) HYGIENIC CONCLUSIONS. Men who have studied the question of foods very carefully tell us that for adults to live healthily they need to eat six times as much of starchy foods as they do of proteids and of fats. They say that for a day's feed one needs fifteen ounces of starchy food (carbohydrate) to two and a half of proteid and two and a half of fat. That is, for an average meal, one needs a little less than an ounce of proteid and of fat and five ounces of starchy food. Since starch is present in so many foods, do you see any reason why food generally should be thoroughly chewed GREGG H'YGIENE AS NATURE STUDY 31 before it is swallowed? It is true that starch is also digested in the small intestine, but then it is in the road in the stomach and interferes with the chief work of the stomach — the digestion of meats. Besides, if one does not take time to chew food well what else does he lose by it, judging from your experience with 2(f) ? They also say that if one has but little to eat he can get much more good out of it if he chews it thoroughly. You can prove this for yourself by eating, say, a single sandwich for (J/ooeT' tcetjj Oi)tletof z)piocT3 <5diiWd^v\j_ d\bjv)^ Of i-piyi^ to -flje tljr'ooo t ijo d^ licl^to v4ice.-loqX fs:'«ff€:-loi)ck5 (t.TTM T?ecl' 5/Oots) ^hv^6rW of t^eloT)\j plgoiiii; t^oiJcT? teeth X.^oi3eT? 1 ip luncheon quickly one day and very slowly another day and com- paring your states of hunger by supper time for the two days. They also say that one is not nearly so apt to overeat and thus bring on dyspepsia if one eats slowly. You can easily try this out also. Eat all you want, say at noon of two successive days, one day slowly and with much chewing, and the other day rapid- ly and with little chewing. Compare the quantities eaten at the 32 NATURE STUDY REVIEW' [9:1— Jan., 1913 two meals. After all this study, what do you think is the wisest way to eat? What will you do about it? (c) SOME FOLLOW-UP STUDIES. 1. The pupils will be further motivated into habits of thor- ough mastication by a study of the story of Gladstone and his chewing each bite thirty-two times — one chew for each tooth, combined with the fact that he lived to a vigorous old age. The story of Horace Fletcher should come in here. The best ac- counts are found in the magazines of a few years ago. Fletcher's wonderful endurance as related in the Popular Science Monthly for December, 1907, page 537, is sure to interest boys. 2. These studies may be advantageously followed by other food studies, with simple experiment, as given in the physiologies generally. After the nature-study introduction the pupils may be sent to the books for additional information. They can then be trusted to read rapidly and understandingly. Local Sections The Nature Study Society is justly proud of the several thriv- ing local sections that are cooperating to increase the interests in nature and nature study. The following are the efficient officers : Chicago, III. — Grant Smith, President ; Mrs. May R. Spens- ley. Secretary, 1763 Ainslie St.; John W. Shepherd, member Na- tional Council. Grand Rapids, Mich. — Mrs. Lou I. Sigler, President; Miss Qara Ward, Vice-President; Miss Grace F. Ellis, Secretary; Miss Ora May Carrel, Corresponding Secretary-Treasurer, 310 Lafayette Ave., S. E. Hamilton and Overpeck, Ohio — Dr. Dan Milliken, Presi- dent ; Miss Carrie M. Jacobs, Vice-President ; Miss Dora Hargitt, Secretary, 619 Dayton St. Indianapolis, Ind. — William W. Woollen, President ; Miss Florence Nicolai, Secretary-Treasurer, 1914 Broadway. New York, N. Y. — Dr. A. Mathewson, President; Helen F. Tredick, S,ecretary, Erasmus Hall High School, Brooklyn; Gus- tav Straubenmuller, member National Council. Rockford, III. — Miss Ruth Marshall, President; Miss Vera Sheldon, Secretary, Kent School. St. Louis, Mo. — Mr. L. M. Dougan, President; Miss Elyse C. Crecelius, Secretary, Harris Teachers' College; Mr. W. J. Stevens, member National Council. LANTERN SLIDES and PROJECTION For Nature- Study and Science Teachers Our Bookl( PROJECTION FOR SCIENCE TEACHERS 6c LECTURERS. ^^^____^_^_____^_^___________^___ in addition to observations on projection, contains descriptive matter and lists of Fifteen Sets of ELducational Slides — more than 800 slides and over 4000 illustrations. This booklet will be sent to 'any one who will send name, position and address plainly written, and mention Nature-Study Review. Address CONRAD SLIDE AND PROJEQION COMPANY 4028 Jackson Boulevard ..... Chicago [Authors and Manufacturers of the Conrad Slides] For Wildflower Lore Get The American Botanist If there is anything you want to know about plants, you will find it somewhere in its pages. More than three thousand articles on every phase of botany have already been published. Eighteenth volume begins February 1912. 75 cents a year. A complete set for $9.00. 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Subscriptions, Manuscripts for Publication and Books to be Reviewed should be sent to the Editor. Vol. 9 February, 1913. No. 2 Common Rocks and Their Determination By W. a. Tarr, University of Missouri. THIRD PAPER. The sedimentary rocks constitute the second class. The word sedimentary is appHed to these rocks because they are lain down or deposited in water. This entire class of rocks is de- rived from other pre-existing- rocks. All rocks when exposed to the various agents of weathering, such as the air, water, changes of temperature, acids, etc., at the surface, alter to sim- pler minerals that do not decompose under the conditions that exist there. The most of the minerals so formed are kaolin (the mineral which clay is very largely composed of), calcite, limonite, salt (which goes into solution and is carried down to the sea or to lakes) and some other less important minerals. Quartz, as mentioned above, does not alter except very slowly. We can only trace briefly, in this short paper, the history of these various products before their deposition, however interesting it may be. The wind and the water work upon the rock debris and the various particles are separated, usually according to size. The particles that are small enough are carried away by the streams to the sea, along with the material that was taken into solution. This material carried by the streams is commonly called sediment and on reaching the quiet waters of the sea or lake it settles down to the bottom. The first material dropped is the sand, which will become standstone later on ; the fine ma- terial will form the mud, which will become shale ; while the 33 34 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb, 1913 calcium carbonate in solution becomes limestone. When the sea water is evaporated in a basin the salt and gypsum which it con- tains are precipitated and form beds of these rocks. The loose plastic materials become hard and firm by being cemented by various materials and squeezed together by pres- sure. The coarse material such as the pebbles of a conglom- erate and the coarse sandstones must be cemented to become hardened, while pressure will compress the soft muds and cal- careous material into firm rocks. Some of the more common cements are calcium carbonate, iron oxide, silica, and sometimes mud. These cements may be' introduced into the rock while it is yet in the sea or they may be buried and consolidated while under the water and after they are raised above the sea bottom to form land the water may deposit the cement in the openings between the particles. As more material is brought into the sea and deposited, it buries that below, and the weight of the overly- ing beds is in most instances sufficient to consoHdate the beds of soft material into firm rocks. The enormous pressures that the rocks are subjected to when they are folded into mountains also aids in consolidating the rocks, in fact, the pressures and heat developed during the formation of mountains are sufficient to change the rocks so much that they become metamorphosed into very different rocks which will be described later. It is thus that the soft sands and muds become the usually firm hard rocks that we know. The sediments are always in beds or layers and are com- monly spoken of as being stratified. (See figure 2.) It is in this feature that they differ from the igneous rocks. Their com- position is also very different from that of the igneous rocks. The limestones and dolomites are carbonate rocks which are easily dissolved in acids and are also usually soft, about three or four in the scale of hardness. The shales and sandstones also differ in composition from the igneous rocks and can also be readily distinguished from the igneous rocks and each other, the former by its well marked bedding planes, its softness and clayey odor, and the latter by its being composed of rounded grains (these may be of quartz, feldspar and various other minerals), its friableness and its bedded character. There are all gradations between the various sediments so that one could get a complete series between any two sediments. The shales may be calcareous and with an increasing amount of calcium carbonate and a decreasing amount of clay they would pass into a limestone, or if sand became abundant it would be tarr] COMMOX ROCKS 35 ■ M^«<^ ■ 1 E ^s ^ ^ n ■"^y.. m [iijiii ji^^^^^^B|i, 1 1 1. .* % ^^ l^^msm JIEmhi ^ 4 Figure 2. — ^Sedimentary Rocks Showing- Horizontal Stratification, Penn. (Campbell and Battis, U. S. Geol. Sur.) called a sandy shale and might even pass into a sandstone, and this might in turn, by an increase in the size of the particles composing it, grade into a conglomerate. Likewise, we have sandy limestones and calcareous sandstones. A very fair esti- mate of the amount of the various materials in the rock may be obtained by carefully noting the hardness, for the presence of the sand grains would increase the hardness of a shale or limestone, or the calcareous cement in a shale would make it harder. Treatment with acid also suggests the amount of the impurity. But taken as a whole, the majority of the sediments are nearly pure so that not a great deal of difficulty will be ex- perienced in determining them. The sediments are of a great many colors, white, gray, red, yellow, brown, green, black, and many others are very common. The red, yellow, green, and brown are due to iron oxides. The red is due to hematite and the yellow to limonite (iron rust). 36 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb., 19i:5 The various shades of these are due to mixtures of the oxides. The gray and black colors are due to carbonaceous matter in the rock. The color of the fresh rock is usually different from that of the altered part at the surface. This change in the color is very noticeable in the quarries where the fresh and altered rocks are exposed. Various minerals are occasionally found in the sediments. Some of the most common are the chert and flint in limestone, pyrite in shales, limestones and coal, quartz crystals in cavities in the limestones, shales and sandstones, gypsum crystals in shales and coal, and limonite and hematite in shales, sandstones and limestones. The character of the underlying rock determines the kind of soil above it. The shales give rise to a clayey soil as would naturally be expected, while the sandstones make sandy soils. Limestone generally decomposes by the calcium carbonate going into solution and any insoluble impurities in it remaining behind as a residual soil. Limestones and dolomites are calcium carbonates, and cal- cium-magnesium carbonates respectively. They are usually dense fine-grained rocks (see Fig. 9) although dolomites are often porous and limestones, rarely. They break with a sub-conchoidal fracture (see Fig. 9). Both rocks may contain a great many fos- sils, and when they do they are often called fossiliferous lime- stone or dolomite. Sometimes the amount of organic matter in the limestone is high and then it is called carbonaceous lime- stone. Lithographic limestone is a very dense, fine-grained lime- stone used in lithographing. There are numerous other varieties. Limestones and dolomites occur in layers or beds often hundreds of feet thick. There is a series of limestone beds over a mile thick in the western part of the United States. Shales, sand- stones and sometimes conglomerates are found with limestones. Occasionally valuable ores are found in them, but they came from associated igneous rocks. In the following arrangement of the sediments it is seen that the carbonate rocks originated through organic processes. This is probably true in many in- stances but not always as some limestones and dolomites are probably of chemical origin. The uses are the same as those given for calcite in the paper on minerals. The shales and clays consist of various minerals but the chief ones are kaolin and quartz. The particles are very fine and are deposited in quiet waters, hence shales are dense fine-grained rocks. Shales occur in beds, the layers of which vary in thick- ness from a sheet of paper to many feet. Some shale forma- Figure 5. — Porphyry Showirijj Large Crystals of Feldspar. Figure 6. — Closely Folded Schist. Figure 7. — Conglomerate. Figure 8. — Sandstone Showing Thin leavers and Small F'"ault on the Left Side. Figure 9. — Limestone. (All figures are reduced to about one-fourth natural size.) 38 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb., 1913 tions are hundreds, even thousands of feet thick. The clays are about the same as the shales in structure. Fossils are very common in shales and are usually well preserved. The grading of shales into other rocks was mentioned above. There are various kinds of shales, some of the more common being: cal- careous, carbonaceous, ferruginous, arenaceous (sandy) and fos- siliferous. Shales are used for making brick and pottery and are mixed with limestone for Portland cement, etc. They are fre- quently called by the name of the product they are used to produce, as brick clay or shale, pottery clay, etc. Sandstones and conglomerates differ from each other in the relative size of the materials composing them. When the parti-" cles are larger than a pea (they may be twenty feet or more in diameter) the rock is called a conglomerate (see Fig. 7), when the particles are smaller than a pea it is called a sandstone (see Fig. 8). It can be designated as a coarse, medium or fine- grained sandstone. The sandstone may be in very thhi or in very thick beds, but the conglomerates form a single bed which may be hundreds of feet thick. Cross-bedding, where there are diagonal bedding planes crossing from one horizontal bedding plane to another, is a common feature of sandstones. Sand- stones are deposited near the shore where changes in the direction of the currents are frequent and the cross-bedding is due to these changes. Sandstones are often named from their cement as, calcareous, ferruginous, and argillaceous (clayey) sandstones. They are commonly used for building purposes, more rarely for grindstones and in the manufacture of glass, etc. Salt beds are rarely exposed at the surface but their presence is often indicated by salt springs. Salt in beds occurs in New York, Michigan, Louisiana, Ohio, Kansas, Utah and Texas. In some of the states it is more than one hundred feet thick. Gypsum is very often found associated with salt. It is known to occur in beds one hundred or more feet thick and is found in New York, Michigan, Virginia, Iowa, Kansas, California, Texas and many other states. Both these rocks occur interbedded with shales and sandstones and sometimes with limestones. The lime- stone is generally found with the gypsum. When gypsum is found in sufficiently large amounts and pure enough it is used in the manufacture of cements and plaster of Paris. Coal is formed by the accumulation of vegetable matter in swamps such as the Dismal Swamp. The water prevents the ma- terial from decaying as it would if it were exposed to the air. Evidence of this rapid decay is seen in every forest. It is esti- tarkI common rocks 39 mated that it requires fifteen to thirty feet of peat to produce one foot of coal and that the process takes three hundred years. Another estimate, probably nearer correct, is that it requires eight or nine thousand years for the formation of one foot of coal. About three hundred feet of coal (the total thickness of all the beds) is known in the Appalachian region, hence the time required to deposit it varies from 90,000 to 2,700,000 years, if we base our estimate on the above rates of accumulation. Some single anthracite coal seams are sixty feet thick, so we can get some idea as to the great length of time it required to make this one seam. After accumulation has gone on for a long time sands and muds may be washed into the swamp and the ac- cumulated material buried. Various gases are driven off and the carbon of the original wood with some of the hydrocarbons and the ash are left behind to form the coal as we find it today. The two common kinds of coal are soft or bituminous coal and hard or anthracite coal. The bituminous coal fields are found rather widely distributed in the United States, but the productive area of the anthracite is confined to 480 square miles in eastern Pennsylvania. The United States produces more coal than any other country in the world. Bituminous coal breaks into cubical blocks, is soft, brittle, appears banded and burns with a long smoky flame. Anthracite has a shell-like frac- ture or break, is hard and shiny, very brittle, does not ignite easily and burns with a short flame. Summarizing then, the sediments can be arranged according to origin as follows : Mechanical deposits of residual material. Conglomerate. Sandstone. Shale. Chemical deposits of dissolved material. Salt. Gypsum. Some limestone and dolomite. Deposits made through the agency of life. Coal. Limestone and dolomite. Siliceous rocks, as diatomaceous earth. The last division of rocks is the metamorphic class. This group includes rocks which have originated by the changing of the other two classes, hence the name metamorphic which means ''change of form." By means of great heat and pressure and 40 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb., 1913 the presence of water the granites and other igneous rocks may be made to change into gneisses and schists, while the sediments become slates, marbles and schists. The original rock and its metamorphic equivalent are given in the table below : Original state. Intermediate form. Metemorphic rock. Clay Shal2 Slate Sand .Sandstone Quartzite Gravel Conglomerate Conglomerate schists Calcareous material, shells, Limestone Marble etc. All feldspathic rocks Cneisfi Ferromagnesian rocks and Schists of various kinds other igneous rocks. This outline shows at a glance the relation of the metamor- phic rock to the original rock. It must not be thought that there is a distinct dividing line between the original and the metamor- phic rock, for there is not. The one grades insensibly into the other so that all gradations are found. This need not present any difficulty for our purpose. If the features commonly seen in a gneiss can be determined in the specimen in hand, even thou,s;h faintly, call it a gneiss. This is satisfactory for a field classification such as the one given here. If the gneissic features are developed, as noted above, and the minerals are those of a grani'te, the rock may be called a gneissic granite. The distinctive features of gneisses and schists are the ar- rangement of the minerals into more or less parallel bands and the development of a fairly good cleavage in the rock. (See figures o and G.) This cleavage is due to the fact that minerals with good cleavage are developed during the process of metamor- nhism. The micas with their perfect basal cleavage and the long slender hornblende crystals with their good cleavage are the most common of these minerals. Gneisses always contain feldspar and are nearly always more coarsely blended than the schists. This fact should be noted in determining a gneiss. The schists very commonly show a great deal of mica on the cleavage plane and are often very thinly banded, as thin as a sheet of paper or thinner. (See fieure G.) The bands in both rocks are often bent and folded. (Figure G.) Garnets and crystals of magnetite very often occur in gneisses and schists. These rocks are very commonly found in reo^ions where mountains have been formed, hence we find them from Maine to Georgia and Ala- bama, and in a great many localities in the western part of the United States. In areas where the very oldest rocks we know are found there are always a great many metamorphic rocks as in Wisconsin, Michigan. Minnesota and many other states. takk] com mo X rocks 41 The color of the metamorphic rocks vary as widely as the igneous rocks. The gneisses usually have colors similar to the granites, etc., from which they have been derived. If there is an abundance of the dark minerals the rock is dark gray, or sometimes it is greenish, or nearly black if the dark mineral is biotite. The schists are light-colored also, if the predominating mineral is light colored. This is especially true of those schists which contain a large amount of white mica. Many schists are greenish in color and still others are almost black. Schists and gneisses may be given a more specific name if it is so desired. If some mineral is very abundant in the rock the name of this mineral may be prefixed to that of the rock, thus : garnet-gneiss, or hornblende-gneiss, or biotite-gneiss, etc. Simi- lar names are applied to the schists. If two minerals are abund- ant then both names are used, as, biotite-muscovite-gneiss. The soils that are derived from the metamorphic rocks vary as widely as the nature of the rocks from which they themselves have been derived. Very frequently the gravel in the streams which flow from gneisses and schists contain many of the harder minerals that were in them, such as garnets, magnetite, etc. When limestone is metamorphosed it becomes marble. The change that takes place is not a change of material, but is a rearrangement of the material already there; thus larger crystals of calcite (for limestone is composed of calcite) are formed. This is what gives the coarse texture to many marbles, although the texture of marbles varies from very fine to very coarse. When the original limestone is very impure then the resulting marble will contain many minerals as impurities. These usually make the stone unfit for use. A great deal of the marble pro- duced in the United States is quarried in Vermont, but it is also found in Massachusetts, Maryland, Xew York, Georgia, Cali- fornia, Colorado, and many other states. Marbles are easy to distinguish because they are crystalline, easily scratched with a knife and effervesce with acids. Ouartzite is formed by a sandstone being cemented with silica. It is a very hard, dense rock, having various colors. It can be distinguished from a sandstone by the fact that it breaks through the grains of which it is composed while in a sandstone the break is around the grains. Quartzites are very common and are found in nearly all the states. The Indians used quartzite sometimes to make their arrow heads. Slate is a rock that has a very remarkable cleavage so that it splits easily into very thin, large sheets. It is a dense, fine- 42 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb, 1913 grained rock and is usually gray, black, green or red in color. Slates are formed from fine-grained rocks, chiefly shales and clays. They may be told from shales by their more perfect cleavage, shiny surface on the cleavage face and their superior hardness. Slate is used for roofing, for school slates, slate pen- cils, blackboards, wash-tubs, for lining refrigerators, and has a great many other uses. It is found especially in Pennsylvania, Vermont, New York and Maine. The first thing to do on finding a rock is to decide into which of the three groups it belongs. Not only should the texture and the minerals of the rock be observed, but the structure of the rock in the field should be observed, if possible, as it will be a great aid in determining the rock. As soon as it is known into which group the specimen belongs, the descriptions of the members of the group should be applied to it. If it is an igneous rock it will be found to fit intO' the table given above. If it is a sedi- ment, there will be no difficulty in telling the conglomerates and the sandstones, but it is harder to distinguish the limestones and the shales, especially to tell them from one another. Since the limestone is easily soluble in acids this test can be used to distinguish them, if there is some acid at hand. A few cents' worth of dilute hydrochloric acid purchased at a drug store will be found to be a great aid in working with the sediments. But sometimes shales are very calcareous and under such circum- stances the ease with which they effervesce will aid in separating them. There will also be considerable insoluble matter left if it is a calcareous shale. Another feature of shales is their clayey odor when moistened either by breathing upon them or by wet- ting them. Shales are usually more finely laminated than lime- stones. Only the more common kinds of the metamorphic rocks have been mentioned because in a short time the list would have become entirely too long for this short paper. The knowledge of a few of the common rocks is very useful and important. Familiarity with a few will lead to the acquain- tance with more and will give the student a better understand- ing of the composition of the earth around him. The real student does not stop with learning the few. They are merely the stimulus to search for more information, for a wider working acquaintance. It is sincerely hoped by the writer that all who read this paper will be helped, and that all will unite in bringing the children into a closer working relationship with the rocks and minerals that are around them. A Study of Wind-Blown Sand Geo. J. Miller [Editor's note. — The following article outlines some work in geogra- ph}^ b}^ the "nature study method." The second article is the work of a student, showing the reaction to such instruction.] OijjECT AND Method of Field Work. The primary things to be gained by a field trip in geography is ability to interpret correctly a geographic feature in all its relationships and to learn geographic facts first hand. It is obvious that the training involved in field work is far more im- portant than the learning of facts. The student, therefore, should be led to discover and interpret the field matter. The teacher should be the leader, but should give information only when it cannot be gotten from the students themselves. If necessary let them work on a problem during the entire trip or for several days thereafter. If field work is done before the subject has been studied in the class room more information will have to be supplied by the teacher, but, even then a surprisingly large amount can be supplied by the students. So far as possible it is best to study the subject in the field first. Wind-Blown Sand. What subjects are to be investigated in a study of wind- blown sand? The subjects do not change materially whatever the age of the student, but the variables are the amount that can be accomplished and the quality of the work done. In general the following topics or problems are considered : 1. Sources of the sand. 2. Movement of the sand. 3. Work done by wind-blown sand. 4. Life of a dune area. 5. Human relations. Sources of the Sand. The immediate source of the sand may be sandstone rock, lake or ocean shores, or rivers. If from sandstone, exposures of the rock probably will be found within the dune area or to the windward of it. If from lake or ocean shores, or from rivers, the sand may have been derived from distant or local sandstone or sorted from soil by wave or stream action. If Lake Michigan be taken as an example the immediate source is the soil along its shores. The soil in this case is almost entirely glacial drift and the sand is sorted from the drift and carried along the shore by shore currents. When washed upon the beach it soon dries 43 44 NATURE STUDY REVIEW |9: :3— Feb., 19i; Fk;urk 1. — Dune advancing over the Calumet River. Partially buried cottonwoods are shown on the active dunes and an oak forest on the stable dunes. and is then blown about by the wind. Since the wind prevails from the west in this latitude few dunes are found along the west shore of the lake. Movement of the Sand. The great motive ix)wer in moving sand on the land is the w^ind. Any small obstacle will cause upward ctu-rents in the wind and it is these currents that enable the wind to pick up and keep up the sand grains. But since each grain has a very small surface in proportion to its weight it is not caried very high, hence the movement consists primarily in rolling the grains along the sur- face or, at best, in carrying them only a short distance and then repeating the operation. The movement of sand, therefore, takes place only in the lower air. If, for any reason, the wind is checked the grains will fall and a pile of sand may accumulate. Work Done by Wind-Blown Sand. It is obvious, therefore, that a permanent or semi-permanent checking of the wind will result in building a sand dune. Among the most common obstacles that start a dune are young shoots of trees, shrubs, and grasses. Some, as the cottonwood and dog- wood, have the ability to send out roots from their trunks and keep above the accumulating sand, thus formins: a constant ob- struction to the wind and aiding rapid dune building. However. Figure 2. — Diagram illustrating the gentle windward (a) and steep leeward (b) slopes of a dune. mil]j:r] WIND-BLOWN SAND 45 such growth cannot go on indefinitely (1) as there is a hmit Ije- yond which plant life cannot sustain itself under such conditions, and (2) if a dune grows beyond a certain height (varying with the local conditions) the top will be blown off since the velocity of the wind increases rapidly with altitude. it frequently happens that the climate is too arid to support plant life on dunes, or that the dunes themselves are too active. When such conditions exist the dune travels across the country with the prevailing wind, covering everything in its path. Farm lands, buildings, forests, and rivers, offer little resistance (Fig. 1). Desolation reigns supreme in its path. Such movement does not occur rapidly as we are wont to think of speed, but by the relatively slow process of carrying sand grains up the wind- ward side (a. Fig. 2) and dropping them again on the leeward side. Thousands of dollars are spent in some localities in plant- ing sand reeds upon the drifting dunes to stop this movement. When the wind prevails from one direction the dune acquires the characteristic shape indicated in Fig. 2, viz., gentle windward Figure 3. — Wind ripples. These ripples were formed b.v a wind blow- ing from right to left. The first and second vegetation zo'nes are shown also. (Caldwell.) 46 NATURE STUDY REVIEW -Feb., 19 J 3 Figure 4. — Roots growing from the trunks of cottonwood trees and exposed by migration of the dune. (Fuller.) and steep leeward slopes. Since the lee slope is protected from the wind it will be just as steep as loose sand can stand. This shape is represented in miniature by the wind ripples frequently seen on a sandy surface (Fig. 3). If a dune acquires a protective covering of vegetation it will stop traveling and become stable. But when for any reason plant life ceases to protect it, or man carelessly cuts into it, the wind soon attacks the exposed part and dune-destruction and WIND-BLOWN SAND 47 movement begins. As pointed out above many plants are able to sustain themselves in competition with a growing dune, but they are helpless when a dune is blown away from around them. The roots which were sent out from the trunk are exposed to the air and the tree perishes. Examples, as shown in Figure 4, are com- mon in a dune region where trees grow. Plant life, however, es- pecially the sand reed, resists dune-destruction and remnants of the dune may be found held together by the closely woven root system of the plant (Fig. 5). Aside from dune-building and dune-destroying wind-blown sand acts like a ''sand-blast" and frequently cuts the bark from the windward side of tender branches and shrubs; erodes away the softer parts of tree trunks; polishes rocks and pebbles, or the bones of some unfortunate animal that has perished in the sand; or carves the exposed rock ledges into many fantastic forms. Plant Life. The plant life of a dune area will vary with the prevailing climate hence one description will fit only the specific case. If the south end of Lake Michigan be taken as an illustration the principal floral units are as follows : The beach is without vegeta- tion, as the sand is alternately dry and wet and is affected severe- FiGURE 5. — Sand reed and other vegetation actin< binders and preventing dune migration. (Fuller.) as sand- 48 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb., 1913 Figure 6. — Dune advancing over a forest. The tops of partially buried trees may be seen in the middle background. (Caldwell.) ly by ice action during the winter. No dunes occupy this area as there is no vegetation to start them, and the wave and ice action are severe enough to destroy any that get started. The second belt from the lake is occupied mostly by annual plants and small dunes may be built here. Young cottonwood and sand reed seedlings are common. The third belt includes the active dune building area, and the characteristic plants are the sand reed, cottonwood, dogwood, willow, balsam, aspen, and sandcherry. The cottonwood, willow, and dogwood usually start in the wet sand near the base of the dune and grow upward with the growth of the dune, constantly keeping their upper parts open to the light. When the dune becomes more stable and shade is cast by the moving-dune plants, the pine seedlings are able to germinate, ^nd the jackpine, whitepine, red cedar, and juniper become char- acteristic. This stability leads to the fourth stage, as humus is allowed to accumulate and oaks thrive. In the oak and pine for- est may be found such common plants as bearberry, grasses and sedges, wild rose. New Jersey tea, prickly pear, mosses, straw- berry, black haw, etc. It is evident, therefore, that four com- millkr] WIND-BLOWN SAND I'.i paratively distinct vegetation belts or zones exist in this region. The facts and principles illustrated in this specific case can be adapted to other localities. Human Relations. The influence of a sand dune region upon man is both nega- tive and positive. If a man's good farm land lies in the lee of a dune area it may be entirely buried by the advancing sand, his farm buildings and fences may be covered and he will be forced to seek a home elsewhere. The sand area itself is of low agri- cultural value and will support only a very sparse and nomadic population. Further, the drifting sand is very destructive to forests as few trees can survive even a partial burial and the densest forest is no obstacle to an advancing dune (Fig. 6). Rail- roads, wagon roads, and streams traversing a dune area have to be guarded constantly if they are to remain in service. Re- gions of wind blown sand, therefore, offer little inducement to human occupation. However, dune areas if favorably situated may be very valuable. Such is the case with the dune area at the south end of Lake Michigan. Here the sand is used ex- tensively for railroad grading, concrete and brick manufacture. The region itself is the site of many manufacturing plants, towns, and cities. This value, of course, is not due to the pres- ence of the sand but to the location. As previously pointed out dunes may be made stable by planting them with suitable vege- tation, and where the climate is favorable they may be convert- ed into good pasture land and forest reserves. In general, the latter is probably the most important way in which dune areas can be made useful to man. He who knows the most, he who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments is the rich and royal man. — Efiicrson. A Trip to the Sand Dunes Florence Valentine. [See note at beginning of previous article.] One crisp Saturday morning our teacher of physiography, took the class on a field trip. We took the train to a small town about half a mile from the sand dunes at the lower end of Lake Michigan. The first question one asks is what the dune is com- posed of and where it gets its material. It is a mound of sand, the material of which is blown up in small quantities from the lake beach by the wind. The sand is weathered rock washed by the lake currents from the bluffs upon the western shore to the south- ern shore of the lake. The sand does not remain long upon the beach but is con- stantly moving inland. It is rolled or blown by the wind close to the ground until it meets with some obstacle. A fence or tree trunk often causes the sand to lodge, though a small shrub is the most common. Here the sand lodges and a small mound is formed. The sand is then rolled up the leeward side, which is gradual and falls upon the windward, standing as high as sand will stand. The sand is so fine that even the wind leaves its im- print upon it, in miniature dunes which are sand waves with windward and leeward slopes. This may be seen in Figure 1 to a small degree. The plant life on a sand dune area is more varied and fas- cinating than one would suppose possible. Upon the shore of the lake there are no vegetables whatsoever, due to the washing of the water and temperature of the ground in that vicinity. A short distance inland there is a sand reed which seems to be native to this region. There are two varieties of this reed, their difference lying in the direction in which their roots grow. The one grows perpendicular, holding the sand from the very base of the small mound, the other spreading its roots wide holding the sand upon the surface compact. One of these reeds is il- lustrated in Figure 2. Thus far we have seen only the beginnings of dunes or small mounds. These mounds grow inland in proportion to their height until they become dunes. As they recede from the lake region the vegetation becomes more plentiful and on the dune flourish dogwood and cottonwood. Although the dogwood is but a shrub, it attains the height of a well grown tree and is not so often buried in the sand as is the cottonwood. This special variety of vegetation has a peculiar power which is particularly necessary to plant life on the ever growing sand dune. As the 50 valentine] a TRir TO THE SAND DUNES 51 Figure 1.* — Top of dune held in place by vegetation. Wind ripples and exposed roots are shown in tlie foreground. dune grows in height it covers the trunks of the trees and shrubs which we find on them. The tree fights to maintain Hfe, and in order to five it must keep its head above the top of the dune. To enable it to gain this end, nature has provided it w^ith the power of sending forth new roots from that part of the trunk which has been buried, giving the tree a new start. The tree must not only keep its top branches above the sand in order to retain life, but also the sand about its roots is equally as essential. In Figure 3 we have an illustration of the roots sent forth from the tree trunk. The roots of the plant life tend greatly to hold the sand about them more or less com- pact, but are not suffi- -r^ ^ \ i i > i r *i V Figure 2. — A sand reed iiokhng the rem- cient proof, however, nant of a dune in place. photographs made by the student writing- this artick-. Illustrations are 52 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb., 1913 l^^ua'Kr: ."). — Roots growing from trunk of a cottonwpod tree and exposed l)y migration of the dune. % against the driving wind. And in time the dune moves on leaving the bared roots as in Figure :^ Upon the leeward side of the dune there are distinct tree lines of Pine, Willow, Juniper and others, which may be seen in Figure 4 to some extent. Across the river is a grove of sturdy oak trees and several varieties of berries and wild grapes. The vegetation on sand dunes should always be encouraged Figure 4. — Advance of dune over Calumet River show- ing moving dunes on the left and stable forest covered dunes on the right. VALENTINE] A TRIP TO THE SAND DUXES 5:{ for without it the dunes move rapidly. The sand dune is cross- ing the river at one place (Fig. 4) and at another has dammed it forcing an underground outlet to the lake. If the plant life upon the sand area just described were to be removed, it would cause great destruction, to the town and railroad near by. Sand dunes influence the interests of man though little for his good. They may furnish material for making mortar with which to construct buildings, and grading railroads. The laying- out of towns and railroads are greatly influenced by the sand dune region. In this case we found the town and railroad situ- ated about half a mile from the immediate dunes. The side walks running for a short distance out of the town in the direc- tion of the lake, are but half of their original width owing to the wide distribution of sand. Other dunes in the course of migra- tion have buried railroads, forests, and towns in which the loss of property was considerable. There are a few less important but interesting facts in con- nection with the sand region. We found the sand in one place deposited in layers, and learned that when such sand became cemented it became sandstone. The constant wind blown sand upon the trees tend to strip them of their bark and if dead, to polish them smooth. Stones also, are polished and sharp edges worn upon them in this manner. Another interesting feature of the sand dune and its vegetation is that it serves all of one's needs for a fire to prepare a good meal. The dead wood served to build the fire quickly and the slim twigs which were polished by weathering made excellent forks for roasting sausages and marshmallows. The position of the dunes in ranges made the finding of a sheltered spot from the cold lake breeze very easy, and the lack of luxuriant undergrowth prevents conflagration. The trip was a very interesting one and after learning all that was to l)e gained by exploring the dunes wx enjoyed a social hour, about the camp fire. The Editor will pay $1.00 for each copy of Vol. 1, No. 1 sent him. Correlating Tree Study with Other Kindergar- ten and Primary Grade Subjects Edith R. Mosher. The curriculuin of our ordinary schools is ah-eady well filled, but tree study may be taken up as a part of other established courses. It fits admirably and logically into many of these, mak- ing them more attractive and giving them vital interest, thus cor- relating the lessons with the activities of the outside world. These precious moments given may result in a systematic, progressive unfolding of tree knowledge. Every teacher should gladly welcome the subject. Trees are the most numerous of all objects, and no other study so readily places within the teacher's grasp that with which to quench the child's insatiable thirst for variety. It has to do with a thrill- ing, throbbing, beautiful life, and brings into the schoolroom the sweet and fragrant air blown from God's great out-of-doors. In- deed, it seems to me quite impossible to teach little children with- out the aid of tree study. The various phases of the subject which invite research are almost limitless, and seem to unite to inspire suggestions of all sorts of uses in the schoolroom, not only for lessons, but for busy work and guessing games, their uses depending only upon the interest, ingenuity, and skill of the teacher. Tree Studies Without Extra Time. There is perhaps no subject in which such rapid advance- ment can be made with a minimum amount of supervision and time. During the regular morning exercises some song, rhyme, or quotation may be learned about a particular tree. There are wonderful tales about trees, for the story hour : How they scatter their seeds. How they protect their buds in winter. Stories of the carpenter and what he makes of wood. Stories of toys, household articles, and paper making. Of lumbering, and building houses and bridges and railroads and boats. Stories of the log from forest to furniture. From oak tree to armchair. From the big tree to the tiny shoe peg. From the tree to the violin or piano. From summer sunshine to winter's warm fire The tree home of the birds and the squirrels. The dream of the old oak tree. .54 MOSHER CORRliLATINii TR/i/i STrJ))' uSSWOOD Sprig in Blossom Have a forest museum in which each child can take a per- sonal pride and bring specimens gathered perhaps on the way to school. In this way daily lessons are given by visual impression. Select a tree near the schoolhouse and encourage the children to watch its growth, and to look at home for a particular tree, and to bring leaves and branches which can be used for decora- tive purposes around the schoolroom. Every school should plant trees and learn to care for them, or each class may have its own tree and watch and care for it, and each progressive little tree immediately takes up the impor- tant duties of Assistant Instructor in Tree Study. Correlating Tree Study With Language Lessons. Language lessons based on the color of the leaves, for in- stance, afford ample opportunity for the child to express him- self. Stories about when and where the leaves were gathered may he given in short, complete sentences, or in longer and more dif- ficult stories. Easy sentences may be written upon the board and used for reading lessons. Older children can write their sentences and stories them- selves. Illustrating them with trees and leaves will stimulate in- terest and originality. 56 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb., 1913 The child world has much to do with trees, and the child's curiosity and imagination are ever active. Such questions as the following may be asked : What color are the leaves in summer? Are they all the same shade of green? What do the leaves do m summer? In winter? What color are the leaves in autumn? Does each tree have its own autumn color? What color do hickories turn? Do you know any leaves that do not change color? What do we call them? Pistillate Spray of Scotch Pine. If the leaves remain on the tree all winter, do they ever fall off? Why do you like the trees? Would you like to have your dooryard without trees? Do you like to go to the woods to play? Does the grass grow under the trees just the same as it does out in the sunshine? moshek] correlating TREE STUDY 57 What gifts does the tree bring to us? What does the tree give you to eat? Name the fruits. Name the nuts. To how many of God's creatures does the tree give food? Does the tree help them in any other way? What do you see in this room that the tree gives to us? Name everything in the dining room at home that the tree gives to you. Tell me all the things you see on the way to school that the tree gives to you. Name all the things that you use in one day that the tree gives to you. Name all the things that you used when you went away from home on a trip that the tree gives to you. Name all the things you ever rode in that are made of wood. What musical instruments can you think of that are made of wood? Name five things that you like best that are made of wood. Name five things that you use most that are made of wood. What things does the baby use that are made of wood? What things does grandpa use that are made of wood? In introducing tree subjects as language lessons, we should keep within the child's knowledge and use his interest simply as a basis for language work. Criticism should never be such as to make him conscious that he is having a language lesson. Tree study, however, offers unlimited selection of subjects by which to develop spontaneous expression. The teacher should have some fundamental facts at her dis- posal which will interest the child and lead him into accurate channels of thought. For this she must depend largely upon books especially prepared for the instruction of children. The language lesson can then fulfill its double mission in carrying with it some little important tree study information. Correlating Tree Study With Drawing. The correlation of nature-study and drawing is so natural and inevitable that the pupil need not suspect that he is having a drawing lesson. When he is interested in any subject he enjoys illustrating his observations — it is a natural self-expres- sion. The picture of what he sees is in his mind and his imita- tive impulse prompts him to tell you about it by making another picture, and he draws before he knows it. The making of drawings should always be encouraged for illustrating what is observed, as a graphic presentation is far bet- ter than a long description of natural objects. Everything about the tree inspires a drawing: the tree outr lined against the sky ; the leaves in spring, summer and autumn ; the buds and blossoms ; and the various fruits. Nature surely 58 NATURE STUDY REVIEW 1 9 : 2— Feb, 1913 furnishes the source of suppHes for developing the artistic sense. We have the beauty, forms and conventional designs, and the natural studies in form and color which are always ready for a drawing lesson. Here, where nature bestows her abundance in fascinating va- riety, the teacher, in order to give to the lesson its greatest value, should have at hand the basis of scientific fact, which is a con- stant quantity. This can be found in books prepared especially for the subject. We then have a study not only in artistic ef- fect, but our drawing is accurately based upon fact, and is in ad- dition a valuable tree-study lesson. Tree Study by Blackboard Illustration. The importance of blackboard drawings can hardly be over- estimated. Visual impressions are constant educators and fix the con- cept permanently in the mind of the child. In my own experience, I was continually using tree materials for decorating the blackboard. In the spring it is the buds and blossoms, and in autumn the pretty colored leaves — whatever the children bring that can be used. In order to make a complete and instructive lesson, you wish to show more of the fife history than is given in the branch brought in. Scientific drawings are heavy with detail and lacking in artistic effect. Even the knowl- edge of what a characteristic leaf is reaches quite into the realm of science — far beyond the province of the regular teacher. What is needed is an artistic drawing^ simple in outline, accurate in the essentials that are imiportant to the primary teacher, together with a statement of the elementary details within the comprehen- sion of children. The drawing can then be a valuable lesson in visual instruction. We may be making a border, or decorating the blackboard at the back of the room which can't be used for lessons, or ornamenting a calendar, or making use of a leaf in the language or number lesson — in whatever way we use the tree material, we are giving to the child a mental concept, and if clear and accurate, our drawing stands as a silent educator, giving its lesson of last- ing value. Tree Study by Visual Instruction. The teacher can accomplish much by appreciating the value of visual instruction. There should be an effort to give single ideas so as not to confuse. If the lesson is on the Red Maple, the Red Maple should be used to the exclusion of all other trees mosher] correlating TREE STUDY 59 Catalpa Blossoms. until the children have the concept firmly fixed. Perhaps for a week the Red Maple leaves can be used for decorating the school- room. The children should be encouraged to bring in some- thing from the Red Maple, to tell something about the Red Maple. The story should be about the Red Maple. The drawings should be of the Red Maple leaves. The leaves can be mounted on card- board and placed around the room. The children can mount their own specimens, and with the main characteristic noted or an appropriate quotation, it can be one page of the leaf portfolio for the child to carry home. The Red Maple leaf can be out- lined on cardboard and used for the sewing lesson, or colored with crayon. The blackboard decorations should be of the Red Maple leaves. In this way the concept of the Red Maple is firmly fixed with little or no botanical information for the child ; but it is important that the teacher have the typical Red Maple leaf in mind, and while the fascination is in the variety, it should be the constant aim of the teacher to lead the child's thought into accurate chan- nels and to fix, as a permanent concept, the characteristic Red ]\Iaple leaf. Tree Study as a Reward of Merit. Nature-study ofifers such an excellent rczi'ard of merit sys- tem. The entire school will do better work during the day in 60 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb, 3913 anticipation of gaining a few extra moments for the nature-study lesson. While other lessons are looked upon as more or less of a task, and the child is sometimes kept after school in punishment to learn his lesson, the tree study can be given as a reward for good work. It helps in discipline since it keeps the child interested and gives him something to do. It fills the extra moments by sup- plying busy work for idle fingers. After he has finished his al- lotted task — and I have in mind how my children one by one would sit back in position with expectant eyes fastened for ap- proval upon the teacher, well knowing that something interesting was in store for those who applied themselves well and finished early — he may go' to the table and sort piles of pretty autumn leaves, or with colored pegs make the colored maple leaf, or with pencil and ])aper make a border design from the large outline maple leaf upon the blackboard, or write a short story of yester- day's lesson illustrating it with drawings of leaves or fruit. With the trees there is always inspiration for dehghtful les- son surprises, which are like little prize packages for the chil- dren; and their reward for hope and expectation is a small bit of tree knowledge. Tree Study as a Recreation Lesson. The tree lesson may be reserved for that time of day when the pupils are weary and restless and the hours drag. At such a moment it afifords immediate relief. The lesson can be short; at least one point should be learned and the appetite whetted. If rightly presented the subject awakens the interest of the pupil, and this should be sustained throughout the entire course. Implanted deep within the child is the instinct to investigate — to get through his own experience a knowledge of his environ- ment— and intuitively the teacher will make at least some use of materials brought in by the pupils. The child should never be made to learn nature-study. He has a natural curiosity and interest in everything he sees, and this activity law of his growth is utilized. He feels a joy in ac- quiring knowledge — in making a discovery ; and there is in tree study a constant, changeful contact with his environment which is ever operative ; so that unless the lesson is spoiled in the teach- ing, the children will always be enthusiastic. It is a recreation, an outing, an excursion into fairyland, if you please, from which we return refreshed to regular lessons. Book Reviews The IVilderness of the North Pacific Coast Islands. E>y Charles- Sheldon. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Pages XM+$6, $2.00. Th|| is a narrative of experiences while exploring and hunt- ing foril^apati, caribou and bear on the large islands off the coast o'i British Columbia and Alaska. The sportsman will find some thrilling tales, especially of the bear hunts, but the natural- ist will be charmed mostly by the excellent descriptions of the country and the splendid photographs that illustrate the book. The nature lover will appreciate this sentiment. 'T was again installed in the wilderness; a sense of deep contentment stole over me as I sat looking out on the calm water of the beautiful bay. . . . The feeling of freedom cast a soothing spell over me as I fell asleep that night while rain-drops were pattering against the canvas,'' A Laboratory Manual of Agriculture for Secondary Schools. By Leland E. Call and E. G. Schafer, both of Kansas State Agri- cultural College. The Macmillan Co. Pages XIV+344. $0.90. This seems a very serviceable manual of directions for actual work in the elements of scientific agriculture. Some 65 pages are given to soils, 20 to germination, 84 to studies of corn, rye, barley, etc., 50 pages to stock judging. A few pages are de- voted to the plow and corn planter. The exercises are arranged seasonally. Blank pages are provided for notes and records and score cards are printed to be filled in by the student. The chap- ter on tree identification might as well be omitted. It simply tells the pupil to go to the park or woods and identify all species possible. It makes no suggestions of books to be used or other aids to identification. Wild Life and the Camera. By A. Radclyffe Dugmore. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. 332 pages. Those who know Dugmore's previous volumes will antici- pate that there will be some charming sketches of bird life in this one. "l\Iy Chickadee Friends'' and ''The Warbler Family'' are chapter titles of bits of description quite as good as anything Dugmore has done. But this book oversteps the bounds of bird- land and we have results of camera studies of larger game and of some game fish. The record of what the author evidently regards as his chief achievement is given under the title of "The 61 62 NATTRli STUDY REVIEW [9 : 2— Feb, 1913 Caribou ^ligration in Newfoundland." It is an excellent example of what a sportsman can accomplish with a camera. It repre- sents the achievement of six years of effort, five fruitless, one finally successful. The admirable pictures are so infinitely su- perior to the caricatures that illustrate so many books on animal life, pictures of an animal first killed by a rifle and then photo- graphed either as a carcass or stiffly-posed in a propped-up attitude. Speaking of the caribou, he says, "The leads or roads which they follow have been in use year after year, perhaps for hundreds or thousands of years, for in many places deep fur- rows are worn in the rocks by the hoofs of the countless thousands.'' There are suggestive chapters on methods in bird and animal photography and on camping out. Biology, an Introductory Study. By Herbert W. Conn. Pages X+425, Silver, Burdett & Co.' This book seems like almost an ideal text to put into a high school course. It gives in an entertaining way, at the same time with scientific accuracy, the main themes of modern biology. One misses with gratitude the stereotyped morphological treat- ment of plants and animals, — the customary university and col- lege course suitably attenuated for high school purposes. Direc- tions are given for laboratory work on a few types studied and the attempt is to present the reactions and functions of the organisms and to point out the chief applications to human prob- lems both social and industrial. Dr. Conn is to be congratulated on his ability to exclude the non-essentials. Plant and Animal Children and How They Grozv. By Ellen Torrele. 230 pages. D. C. Heath & Co. This book is written especially for the pupils of the ele- mentary schools. It aims to make clear the ideas of evolution, heredity, variation, effect of environment, and the evolution of sex, without once mentioning these names. In this it is a de- parture from that tradition in education which has held that such ideas are the exclusive prerogative of the college-bred. There is no doubt that children are greatly interested in the study of plant and animal life and are quite able to comprehend the subject matter of botany and zoology, as the author states in her preface, but it is quite questionable how much the average teacher will be able to get out of the class with this book as a text discussing such forms as the green algae, fungae, marchantia and its reproduction, amoeba and its allies, hydra, etc. The work BOOK RliVIEWS 0:5 on the higher plants and animals is ])resented simply and should be of service to the average teacher although the reviewer is inclined to think that the same matter given from the functional view-point would be better than when thrown into systematic form. However, we may welcome all these experiments in the pedagogy of plants and animals in our attempts to find the really good methods of procedure. School Agricultural By Milo Wood. Pages XV+3;39, Orange Judd Co. This book is intended as a text for rural and graded schools and it seems to meet the requirements as such about as well as any agricultural text that has yet appeared. Some fifty pages are devoted to soils, including drainage, irrigation and tillage; plants occupy 100 pages ; animals 145 ; then there are chapters on farm implements, roads, beautifying the home and school grounds and three pages on country life. This book is to be commended for even this brief chapter for most of these texts are concerned exclusively with the means of getting a livelihood rather than stimulating the child to think along the lines of improvement in the problems of rural living. Fifty pages are given up to a valuable appendix containing reference tables on nutrients, weeds, fruits, insecticides and fungicides. The Birds' Convention. By Harriet Williams Alyers. 81 pages. Western Publishing Co., Los Angeles, Calif. This is a report of the first annual convention of the birds called because "our human brothers hold meetings which they call conventions." It jars the nerves of the average naturalist to have birds talking together, making sage remarks and gossiping. The child apparently sees little incongruous in this. The pro- ceedings of this "convention" impart considerable bird lore in- cidentally, and the report is accompanied by numerous very good illustrations from photographs by the author, who is Secretary of the California Audubon Societv. American Fern Journal An illustrated quarterly devoted to the general study of ferns. Subscription, including membership in the American Fern Society, $1.00 a year, should be sent to H. G. Rugg, Treasurer, Hanover, N. H. Matter for publication should be addressed to Philip Dowell, Port Richmond, N. Y. SPECIAL OFFERS Membership in the School Garden Association and the Nature-Study Society, with the Review $1.25 The Elementary School Teacher - $1.30 The Nature-Study Review - ■ 1.00 Both for $1.60 to New Subscribers Education - - - $3.00 The Nature-Study Review l.OO Both for $3.00 to New Subscribers The American Botanist - $0.75 The Nature-Study Review 1.00 Both for $1.30 Subscriptions must be sent direct, not placed through an agency The Nature-Study Review The University of Chicago The School of Education Kindlv mention Nature-Study Review when replying to advertisements UNTERN SUDES and PROJECTION For Nature-Study and Science Teachers Our Booklet, PROJECTION FOR Science teachers & Lecturers, observations on projection, contains descriptive matter and lists of Fifteen Sets of Educational Slides — more than 800 slides and over 4000 illustrations. This booklet will be sent to any one who will send name, position and address plainly written, and mention Nature-Study Review. Address CONRAD SLIDE AND PROJECTION COMPANY 4028 Jackson Boulevard ..... [Authors and Manufacturers of the Conrad Slides] Chicago For Wildflower Lore Get The American Botanist If there is anything you want to knov/ aboui plants, you vi^ill find it somewhere in its pages. More than three thousand articles on every phase of botany have already been published. Eighteenth volume begins February 1912. 75 cents a year. A complete set for $9.00. Add it to your list. Address Willard N. Clute & Company JoHet, liiinois This Magazine and Nature-Study Review one full year for $1.50 Kindly mention Nature- Study Review when replying to advertisements Pennsylvania School of HORTICULTURE FOR WOMEN Prepares educated women for attractive and profit- able vocation. Training in home gardening and com- mercial horticulture. Salaried positions now open to graduates. Attractive country home life near Phila- delyiliin in Mo'iv-vincry County, Kle^'tives: Bees, Poii; ,, ;■;,-.. i. ■.:.a:-M:. \i;ri], Aiav, liinr, l!)13. Amble, Pennsylvania No. 9781, Specimen Mounts Riker's, i'^r i^^^-'^v^ or thick bulbs or ;. . box with glass c(^\vi These ii-'-nt'^ - ■' specimens, ;_: .Ji:;c:'-^:' serve the speciir)' ■ • sects, occupy less • ; Histories may' bf ■ ivp for display insects, fungi, shells, •;*-. '/\ ;;sist^- I'f well made cardbo^ird ; '■.:.!■ ::n ^y rr ;-:.-alt:d on. ' ' found very useful for preserving : :, Xalure Sludy Classes, as they pre- '■■■ m sudden jars and destructive in- ;( ■ , ''O'Tnit free examinations and Life Size, inc' .,':^:..:- I--::: :'>:G (Ux8^ 8x1:: 12xlG 1"> -, „ ,.S - , ,, c^ ... ■■;:: ": ^^: z z CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC COMPANY 1 ppci7att,:s Kind Laboratory Supplies \ a45 \\'&%i Mlch:H^:-« St., CHICAGO, I.LL. Kindly mention Nature- Study Review when repbdng to advertisements PPIJE-STODY gEtflEW ^ Devoted Primarily to all Scientific Studies of Niiture |j fin F lpimp>nfarv Srhnol« M Vol studies of Natu re- in Elementary Schools OFTICIAL Oi?GAN OF THE ^^^ /AMERICAK march 19 o. 72 ( Ml NATOUESTODY CONTENTS ■<9I Frontispiece — The Song Sparrow. 65 68 The Song Sparrow- Henry VanDyke. The School Garden Lewis M, Doiigan. Agriculture for Rural Schools Arthur D. Cromwell. The Small Crustaceans Bf^ W. C. Allee. The Work of Running Water - rs Geo. J. Miller, A Field Trip ------.«.. gy Phyllis Gordon. The Way of a Caterpillar - Ellen Robertson-Millei Hygiene as Nature Study - F. M. Gregg. Editorial. Bock Reviews. - 85 Pab'ished Monthly except June, July -And August ElHot R. Downing, Editor The Utiiiersily of CMcago The School of Educstio; Chicago, 1)1. 15 jCents copv Entered as scccnd-class matter Oct. 25. 1911, at the Postoffice at Mount Monis. 1.1!.. under the' Act of March 3, 1S7'\ School Science and Mathematics Covers the World Here is the list of countries to which it goes each month Every State in the United States, every Province in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Porto Rico, Brazil, Argentine, Cliile, Pern, Ecuador. Every country in Europe including Turkey. Egypt, Liberia, Cape Colony, The Transvaal, Persia, Ceylon, India, China, Korea, Japan, Philippines, New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii. Eight Departments: Botany, Chemistry, Earth Science, Mathematics, Problems, Physics, Science Questions and Zoology. Send in Your Subscription. $2.00 per Year SCHOOL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS 2059 East Seventy-Second Place Chicago, Illinois The first volume of Bird-Lore Contained 206 pages and no colored plates. The latest volume contained 469 pages and 14 colored plates. The magazine has grown but the price re- mains the same. $1.00 a year; single numbers, 20 cents. D* Appleton & Co. Crescent and Mulberry Sts. - Harriaburg, Pa. or New York City Kindly mention Nature-Study Review when replying to advertisements Minerals and Rocks Popular and Scientific Collections N S 1 b Kindergarten Coll. 25 minerals in case, (postage 15c) $0.75 N S 1 c Kindergarten Coll. 49 minerals in case, (postage 25c) 1.50 N S 1 Beginners Coll. 36 spec. 1^x1, in wooden box 1.00 N S 1 a Beginners Coll. 36 spec. l| x 1, in polished case 1.50 N S 2 a Beginners Coll. 36 spec. 2x1^, in polished case 2.50 N S 2 b School Coll. 40 minerals, 2i x IJ, in cloth board case 2.00 N S 2 c School Coll. 20 minerals and 20 rocks, in cloth board case 2.00 N S 2 d School Coll. 40 rocks, in cloth board case 2.00 N S 13 School Coll. 50 minerals, 23 x IJ, wood trays and case 5.00 N S 5 Students Coll. 216 minerals, J x |, wooden case 8.00 N S 10 Museum Coll. 125 minerals in trays 2x3. No case 12.50 N P 4 Scale of Hardness Series, (postage 15c) 75 Mineral Crystals and Cabinet Specimens of all kinds. Price lists and circulars free. Ward's Natural Science Establishment 84-102 College Avenue Rochester, N. Y. More Birds and Nature Pictures In full colors, absolutely true to life and nature. Size, 7x9 inches. The only color plates of the kind in the world. Made by the recent improvements in the art of color photography. You should have them (1) because of their value, (2) you can have them because of the price. Prices: — Assorted as desired, 2 cents each, postpaid. No orders taken for less than 13. $1.80 a hundred; $8.50 for 500; $15.00 a thousand. Com- plete set of the 648 subjects $6.48. Special prices in large quantities. Order by Number. 132-Red-bellied Wood- pecker. 133-Sawwhet Owl. 134-Black Swan. 135-Snowy Plover. 136-Lesser Prairie Hen. 137-Black Duck. 138-Wilson's Petrel. 139-Blue-Gray Gnat- catcher. 140-American Coot. 141-Ivory-billed Wood- pecker. 142-American Sparrow Hawk. 143-Silver Pheasant. 144-Scaled Partridge. 145-Ovenbird. 146-A m e r i c a n Three- toed Woodpecker. 147-Bartramian Sand- piper. 148-Nightingale. 149-Roseate Spoonbill. 150-Dickcissel. 151-Dusky Grouse. 153-South American Rhea. 154-Bay-breasted War- bler. The above 78 pictures for $1.50. Send for order blank. A. W. MU]\EFORD, Publisher, 536 South Clark St. Chicago, ni 107-Yellow-billed Tropic Bird. 108-European Kingfisher. 109-Vermilion Flycatch- er. 110-Lazuli Bunting. Ill-Mountain Bluebird. 112-English Sparrow. 113-Allen's Humming Bird. 114-Green-winged Teal. 115-Black Grouse. 116-Flamingo, 117-Verdin. 118-Bronzed Grackle. 119-Ring-necked Pheas- ant. 120-Yellow- breasted Chat. 121-Crowned Pigeon. 122-Red-eyed Vireo. 123-Fox Sparrow. 124-Bob-white. 125-Passenger Pigeon. 126-Short-eared Owl. 127-Rose Cockatoo. 128-Mountain Partridge. 129-Least Bittern. 130-Bald Pate Duck. ' 131-Purple Finch. 155-Black-necked Stilt. 156-Pintail Duck. 157-Double Yellow-head- ed Parrot. 158-Magnolia Warbler. 159-Great Blue Heron. 161-Brunnich's Murre. 162-Canada Goose. 163-Brown Creeper. 164-Downy Woodpecker. 165-Old Squaw Duck. 166-White-faced Glossy Ibis. 167-Arkansas Kingbird. 169-Wilson's Snipe. 172-Prairie Hen. 177-Wilson's Tern. 180-L,oon. 183-Least Sandpiper. 185-American Herring Gull. lS8-Red-s houldered Hawk. 192-Pectoral Sandpiper. 193-Kingbird of Para- dise. 196-Tufted Puflln. 199-Red-headed Duck. Kindly mention Nature-Study Review when replying to advertisements American Fern Journal Official Organ of the American Fern Society Issued quarterly: Subscription, ninety cents per year. Includes articles of both technical and popular interest with illustrations. Editor, R. C. Benedict, High School of Commerce, N. Y. City. Busi- ness Manager, E. J. Winslow, Lasell Seminary, Auburndale, Mass. Wanted voi. ii, no. i The Editor will pay $1.00 for each copy of this number sent him. 25c each for copies of May and December, 1912. .^sK'i' Handbook of Nature-Study By Anna Botsford Comstock Based on Cornell Nature -Study Leaflets More than two hundred lessons on common birds, animals, insects, plants and trees, worked out in detail for teacher and pu- pil. 950 pages, more than 1,000 illustrations. Send for Circular and Sample Pages Price $3.25 Postage 40c COMSTOCK PUBLISHING CO., Ithaca, N. Y. Kindly mention Nature-Study Review when replying to advertisements THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 1 rr%w\ f^vi^ctrti- Pl^^se note date of expiration of your subscription on the •••nip"n<**ll label of tlie wrapper. Subscriptions must be paid in advance to comply with postal requirements. Subscriptions, Manuscripts for Publication and Books to be Reviewed should be sent to the Editor. A'or.. !) March, 1913. Xo. 3 The Son^ Sparrow* Henry Van Dyke. There is a bird I know so well, It seems as if he must have sung Beside my crib when I was young; Before I knew the way to spell The name of even the smallest bird His gentle-joyful song I heard. Now see if you can tell, my dear. What bird it is that, every year, Sings ''Sweet — sweet — sweet— very merry cheer.' He comes in March, when winds are strong. And snow returns to hide the earth ; But still he warms his heart with mirth, And waits for May. He lingers long While flowers fade; and every day Repeats his small, contented lay; As if to say, we need not fear The season's change, if love is here With ''Sweet — sweet — sweet — very merry cheer." He does not wear a Jacob's coat Of many colors, smart and gay; His suit is quaker brown and gray. With dark patches at the throat. 'From John Burrough's Songs of Nature. McClure, Phillips & Co. 65 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar, 1913 And yet of all the well dressed throng Not one can sing so brave a song. It makes the pride of looks appear A vain and foolish thing, to hear His "Sweet — sweet — sweet — very merry cheer." A lofty place he does not love, But sits by choice, and well at ease, In hedges, and in little trees That stretch their tender arms above The meadow-brook ; and there he sings Till all the field with pleasure rings ; And so he tells in every ear. That lowly homes to heaven are near In "Sweet — sweet — sweet — very merry cheer." I like the tune, I like the words ; They seem so true, so free from art, So friendly, and so full of heart. That if but one of all the birds Could be my comrade everywhere. My little brother of the air, This is the one I'd choose, my dear, Because he'd bless me every year With "Sweet — sweet — sweet — very merry cheer." One Adjustment of the School Garden to the School Year Lewis M. Dougan. At the Henry Shaw public school in St. Louis, the year ends about June 15th and begins again on the first Tuesday in September. Between these dates, for two and a half months of the best of the growing season, the pupils are widely scattered and regularity of attendance upon garden work is practically impossible. Some are out of town, some are employed during the hours when the garden needs them, and there are some who are indifferent. So, during vacation, our garden work as done by classes is suspended. I mention classes because under our conditions it seems best for the children to work in groups of twenty-five or fifty at a common plot in all grades below the sixth. By this method we give some garden practice to a larger DOUGAX] THE SCHOOL GARDEN 67 number than would otherwise be practicable and avoid the waste and confusion which would result if the forty per cent who do not understand English very well were to be given individual gardens. The spring thus automatically ended on June 15th may be said to open April 3rd, the average date of our last kill- ing frost, leaving us a growing season of approximately ten weeks. Some early springs, like that of 1911, may lengthen the season by a fortnight or more, and some backward ones, like that of 1913, may shorten it by an equal period; but both these seasons were exceptional and we may reckon three-score days and ten as our allotted time for spring gardening. Within this period, we can safely bring to table stage, peas, string beans, lettuce, beets, onions from sets, radishes and turnips. Last year our beets and turnips were not sufficiently mature at the close of the season, but we shall find a way to hasten their growth during another such season by improving the condition of the soil or by the use of a hot bed for starting the plants. Meanwhile, we shall further experiment with varieties. With the gathering of the above crops, the boys spade the ground and plant it in sweet corn and pumpkins. These are cared for during the summer by volunteer boys and the gardener in charge of the grounds. Corn is so well suited to our soil and summer heat that it is easily grown if sufficiently watered. In case of drouth following planting, city water is used for starting the crop. At the last hoeing, turnips are sown wherever the corn has failed. On the opening of school in September the corn is nearly ready for picking and later in the month the pupils have green corn to take home, besides some problems in arithmetic and botany. Our first killing frost does not occur on the average until October 27th, and never, according to the rec- ords, before September 30th, so that we have ample time for growing corn after June 15th. We are, also, practically sure of time to ripen our Thanksgiving pie material, but the tender vines are sure indicators of the advent of the first serious frost. The pumpkins we allow to remain till the ground freezes somewhat — generally about December 1st — and then the garden is spaded for the winter's freezing. Out of three years' experience, we find the long summer vacation is a smaller obstacle than it seems in the way of school gardening. As a stimulus to the study of specific conditions it is a help. It forces us to a study of the time required by different plants and different varieties to reach a given stage; it makes us put our ground in better condition for seed germination in 68 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar., 1913 cool weather; and it makes us test our seeds indoors to insure against delay and loss after planting. In a word, it has made us better gardeners than we might otherwise have been under easier conditions. Agriculture for Rural Schools Arthur D. Cromwell. Why should we teach Agriculture in the rural schools ? Because : — ■ The whole child and not his head only should be educated. We should teach more in terms of the child's life. We should go from the known to the unknown and abstract. We should enrich the course of study, by teaching more of the concrete, by making our school problems the child's life prob- lems, and by giving motive to school work. We should give strength through doing something worth while. We should teach Agriculture because it makes for better citizenship, economically, intellectually and morally. Some Principles of Teaching School Agriculture. School Agriculture is the study of how to make a living in the country. This living is partly industrial or economic and partly social; therefore the study of school Agriculture should include both the economic and social sides of life in the country. We should teach from things largely instead of from books. We should prefer ''bulletins" to books for bulletins are apt to be nearer up-to-date and may be so selected as to be applicable. We should teach things to do instead of things to know. We should teach subjects in their seasonal sequence or fol- low the dominant home or community interests. This enables us to get material, to get interest and co-operation of parents, and to teach children to do things in a systematic and orderly way. We should have pupils make "booklets" on the lessons or subjects. The "booklets" enable us to make sure that the pupils understand clearly, correlate the work with other subjects; such as writing, spelling, arithmetic, geography, etc. The "booklets" enable us to make sure that the pupils organize their knowledge. Then, too, the "booklets" make attractive records of the work. These records may be used for school exhibits at teachers' insti- tutes, farmers' institutes, grange meetings, county fairs, etc. CROMWELL] AGRICULTURE FOR RURAL SCHOOLS 69 A Course of Study for the North Central States. SEASONAL sequence. September and October. — Seed selection, especially seed corn; birds; insects; weeds; the plant and how it grows; plant breeding, especially potato. November and December. — Housing farm crops and animals ; feeds and feeding; stock judging; scoring corn, fruit, domestic science products, and potatoes. January and February. — Care of farm animals ; ventilation ; dairying; farm acounts ; farm machinery; seed testing; repair of farm equipment. March and April. — Field management; crop rotation; poul- try ; care of vegetables and eggs ; landscaping ; gardening ; weeds ; fruit growing; flies and mosquitoes. It will be noticed that by the above course, we study gathering seed corn when that is the dominant home interest, and then we learn to score corn at the time when the farmers are trying to pick corn for the various corn shows. Again we study weeds in both fall and spring for there is something to do in both fall and spring in order to keep down weeds. Birds may well have a place in our course both fall and spring. If we are to improve our potato seed, we must pick potatoes from those hills that have five or more good sized and good shaped potatoes in them. Hence plant breeding, especially potato breeding, must come in the fall. - The Small Crustaceans first paper. W. C. Allee. The crustaceans are to the water of our small lakes and ponds what the insects are to the air. The two groups are closely related, both belonging to the phylum Arthropoda; that is, to the group of animals that have a hard external covering, usually divided into easily apparent segments, and that have jointed appendages. The crustaceans may be distinguished from the insects because they have two pairs of antennae in front of the mouth while the insects have but one pair. These differences may be readily seen by examining an ordinary crayfish, which is the best known and largest of our fresh water crustaceans, and comparing the anten- nae with those of a grasshopper. This paper deals with certain facts concerning the small crustaceans (crayfish excluded) that may be of use to the amateur collector. 70 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar., 1913 Figure 1. — The Isopod, Asellus communis 9X4. Figure 2. — The Isopod, Mancasellus Danielsii. (After Richardson. ) X 31/2. ISOPODS. Isopods (Fig. 1 and 2) are commonly known as "sow bugs'' or "pill bugs." The land representatives of the group are quite common and are usually known, since they occur in damp cellars, in green houses or under damp boards. Water isopods resemble their land relatives in a general way and will be immediately recognized if one is acquainted with the land isopods. The name "sow bugs" comes from the fact that th,e female deposits her eggs in a brood pouch on the under side of the thorax. This pouch often gets so large that the animals are scarcely able to walk. Here the young hatch and are carried until they are about one twenty-fifth of an inch long, when they are liberated as small white animals much like their parent in essential features. Usually about forty young are liberat;ed at a time, although two hundred have been taken from a single brood pouch. Isopods are called "pill bugs" because, in common with amphipods, and many other animals, they have the habit of rolling into a "pill" when disturbed and lying quietly until the effect of the shock wears away. Isopods are flattened as if a weight had been placed on their backs. The thorax (Fig. 1) bears seven pairs of legs that are very similar and hence the name iso-pod, meaning like — or similar — footed. allee] small crustaceans 71 The thorax is plainly segmented, since the hard chitonous covering is divided between each segment. The abdomen is also segmented but this is not visible on the upper side, since the segments are fused together and covered by a single plate. The gills are located on the under or ventral side of the abdomen and are covered by large plates which keep up a continual waving motion. Two branched appendages called uropods extend be- hind the abdomen. These are sensitive to touch and thus serve the same purpose as the antennae. Hairs are scattered all over the body and these are also sensitive. A dark median line is often visible, extending the full length of the body. This is the ali- mentary canal and its color is due to food that has been recently taken. The isopods of the Chicago area are brown with a rather faint color pattern. The adults vary in length from two-fifths to two-thirds of an inch, depending upon the conditions in which the animals have been living. There are only two species found near Chicago. Their distinguishing characters follow : 1. Extremely flattened wide isopods with the upper cover- ing (carapace) extending far beyond the body proper and having a well defined reddish color pattern on a darker background. Mancasellus Danielsii (Fig. 2). 2. Less flattened, narrower isopods, with the carapace ex- tending only a little beyond the body; color markings faint and of a dull cream color on the smoke colored background. ASELLUS COMMUNIS (Fig. 1). Of the two species, Asellus communis is the more widely distributed. This is true not only in the Chicago area but in all of the northeastern states. The males of this species are dis- tinctly larger than the females and have a different body form. Usually thie females are almost as broad at the anterior end of the thorax as at the posterior end, while the males taper gradually from the extreme posterior end to the head. This distinction is not so marked in the other species. Asellus is abundant in temporary and permanent ponds and in small streams and is present in protected embayments in small lakes. It is most abundant in the spring in the temporary road- side ponds which hav.e the bottom thickly covered with leaves. In the early spring the isopods may be collected by the hundreds from these ponds by dipping up the wet leaves with any close meshed net and picking out the isopods with the fingers. Later in the season as the ponds dry the Aselli retire under the leaves 72 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar, 1913 and find there enough moisture to keep alive until the following rainy season. Isopods do not occur in young ponds that have sandy bot- toms. But whenever the bottom has begun to be enmeshed by interlacing roots, Aselli appear and once present they remain until the pond is reduced to a mere vernal pool corresponding to the roadside ditches just mentioned. They are most abundant, however, in grassy bottomed ponds that contain water a greater part of the year. In lakes they are limited to the pond-like em- bayments where conditions are essentially the same as in a true bond. The Aselli found in streams average from one-eighth to one- sixth of an inch longer than those of ponds, and are more vigorous in their reactions. They are most common in those streams hav- ing a slight sewerage contamination but even then they do not extend along the entire stream, but are most abundant in the pools among the leaves or other debris that protects them from the sweep of the current. They ar,e common in small brooks that alternate pools and rapids. They also occur in streams that are twenty feet or more across. Isopods are scarce in the larger streams about Chicago. Asellus is also present in old base-leveled rivers, but here pond plants grow along the margin and it is obvious that the conditions approach those of ponds. Asellus inhabits one other type of habitat, that is the spring-fed marsh. In such a water cress marsh near Gary, 111., they are abundant although smaller than those found in ponds. Mancasellus, the extremely flattened isopod, is found wher- ever Asellus occurs except it is not present in the larger, rapid- flowing streams. It is reported only from small grassy brooks near the Naval Station at Great Lakes, 111. Neither is this form found in the small summ,er-dry ponds of this locality. In general it is more limited to the grassy regions of the ponds than is Asellus. The breeding season of the isopods begins in the early spring as soon as the ice leaves the water and continues until about the middle of July. More than one brood is brought forth by the same female in one season. Many adults die at the close of the breeding season, although some of them live over another winter. The isopods are negative to direct sunlight ; that is, they avoid it and collect in dark areas or in regions of faint light. Isopods kept in aquaria will be found wandering around over the bottom at night, while in the day time they retire under leaves and into crannies. In ponds containing vegetation the isopods are nearer allee] SMALL CRUSTACEANS 73 the surface at night and on rainy days than they are in bright sunlight. This means that there is a daily vertical migration that depends, in part, at least, on light conditions. One other factor helps cause them to collect under leaves in the day time, — the fact that they are positive to touch stimuli. This means that, other things being equal, the isopods will come to rest where they can get most of the surfaqe of their body in contact with some object. In pans they collect in corners; in ponds they are under leaves or in the hollow stalk of a decaying plant. In this respect Mancasellus shows an interesting reaction. When the animals are brought into the laboratory they crawl up along the edge of the containing vessel (other than smooth glass) until they are one, two, or even three inches out of the water, and often remain hanging there until they die of suffocation. Both species of isopods are easily kept alive and in good condition in the school room. Pint Mason jars are very con- venient for transferring isopods or any other small water animals from the field. The jar should be filled with water from the place in which th,e animals are taken and some of the live or decaying plants on which the isopods are found should be added. If possible stream isopods should be kept in running water. When this is impracticable they may be kept in standing water providing that at first it is changed frequently. After a time the isopods may be acclimated to unchanged water, if the transi- tion is made gradually. A little soil and a few dead leaves, pref- erably those that have been taken from a small pool, should be placed with the isopods to furnish them shelter and food. Figure 3. — An Amphipod. (After Emerton.) Amphipods. ^ X 4. Amphipods (Fig. 3) are also flattened crustaceans but unlike the isopods they are laterally compressed. In other words, the 74 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar., 1913 amphipods are flattened as if they had been placed with their sides against the jaws of a vise and pressure appHed. They also differ from isopods in the manner of locomotion ; instead of crawl- ing, th,ey usually swim. This swimming is accomplished as in the crayfish by bending the abdomen against the under surface of the thorax and then straightening it. The color varies in these animals more than in isopods. Th,e older animals are a dull brown, while the younger ones are usually a pale whitish green. They may be an inch long, but are more often taken about a quarter of an inch in length. Nine different species of amphipods occur near Chicago. Two are present only in the deeper parts of Lake Michigan; four other species are found in wells, so that only three species occur in the surface waters. There is no easy way to distinguish these species as was true of the isopods of the region, but the following general characters may h,elp give an idea of the species at hand: 1. Gammarus fasciatus is a stream inhabiting species and is most abundant in small swift-flowing streams. This species usu- ally swims on its side, although at times some individuals will swim ventral side down. 2. Hyallella knickerbockerii occurs most often in slow-flow- ing but not stagnant streams, as in the Calumet River at Clark Junction, Ind., and in young ponds such as those near Pine, Ind. About fifty per cent of these swim on their side. 3. Eucrangonyx gracilis is found in ponds, especially in old forest ponds such as contain isopods. Thus they are present in the ponds near Hessville, Ind., and in pools in tamarack swamps. These very often swim ventral side downward when first taken and may be distinguished in this way. The manner of swimming is easily modified by external con- ditions and is only of value as a suggestion of the species at hand if observed when the amphipods are first taken. Gammarus is abundant in the city park lagoons, especially among water plants. They are best collected by means of a tow net. This kind of a net is made by fastening a tapering bag made of a good grade of cheese cloth to a round or square wire support. Strings are fastened to the wire in three or four differ- ent plac,es and united to one long cord by means of which the net may be drawn. For collecting from a bank it is better to place a stone in the apex ; with the aid of this weight the net may be thrown som,e distance from the bank. The breeding season of these animals begins as soon as the ice is out of the water in the spring and two or three broods are allee] SMALL CRUSTACEANS 75 produced each season. The young of all the broods normally live past the first winter, at least; many of them live about eighteen months. As with the isopods, these animals are usually found in shaded water. Thus in Gary Brook hundreds may be taken with a single dipping of a net made under the overhanging bank, while a similar collection from the exposed part of the stream will give only a few individuals. This reaction is in part a negative reaction to light. Like the isopods, the amphipods give a daily vertical migration, coming nearer the surface in the evening and when the weather is cloudy than at noon or on bright days. Amphipods are also strongly positive to tactile stimuli. This is shown by the fact that they are found under gravel grains or bur- rowing under sand or silt of stream bottoms or among leaves and other vegetation in ponds. In the school room they have a marked tendency to collect in corners of the containing vessel. Stream amphipods are more sensitive than stream isopods and after collection they should be kept in running water al- though they can gradually be acclimated to quiet water. Care must be taken to avoid a sudden change of temperature. Aquaria containing amphipods should be provided with a few sprays of water plants, such as elodea, to furnish resting places and food Figure 4. — The Shrimp, Palaemonetes. (After Herms.) 76 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar, 1913 materials, and should have th,e bottom covered with sand or silt, whichever was present in the original habitat. Palaemonetes. The shrimp (Palaemonetes, Fig. 4) is most nearly related to the common crayfish of any of the small crustaceans with which this paper deals. The head and thorax are covered by a hard chitonous layer, the carapace, but unlike the crayfish the large pinchers are lacking. Those found in this r,egion are about one to one and a half inches long and usually colorless or a light green color. These shrimps are hard to see in their native habitat because th,ey are so nearly transparent, being almost as clear as the water in which they are found. Palaemonetes is very readily obtained in late spring and summer. They may be se^en swim- ming over the submerged vegetation in water four to five feet deep, where the vegetation reaches close to the surface. They are easily captured with dip, tow, or ordinary minnow nets. Although they may be seen and taken over the vegetation, yet a greater number may be found midway between the surface and bottom among the water plants. Some may be found on the bottom itself. Since the abdomen is well developed they have good powers of springing and readily jump from a shallow net. These shrimps are positive to light of the intensities usually found in nature. Evidently, however, this is not their strongest reaction since they do not crowd to the surface in their native haunts. They are also sensitive to vibrations produced by jar- ring. This reaction is easily observed if the aquarium containing the shrimps is struck lightly, although it is also apparent in natural conditions when th,e water is disturbed. The shrimps may be kept in the laboratory in running water in jars containing plants like those of their habitat if the tempera- ture does not greatly differ from that in which they w,ere taken. Sand should be used to cover the bottom of the aquarium rather than silt, although when glass jars are used no bottom covering is needed. These animals are rather hard to keep long in good condition in the school room, because they are more sensitive to changes than either isopods or amphipods. EUBRANCHIPUS. Eubranchipus or Branchipus (Fig. 5), as it was formerly called, is also known as the fairy shrimp. This common name should not be taken to mean that Eubranchipus is closely allied with the shrimp (Palaemonetes) for the two are really widely separated in their relationships. Eubranchipus is a greenish or allee] small crustaceans 77 Figure 5. — Eubranchipus, the Fairy Shrimp whitish, semi-transparent crustacean about an inch to an inch and a half long. It is distinguished from Palaemonetes by the absence of the carapace, by the presence of eleven pairs of flat- tened leaf-like appendages, and by the entire absence of the more usual crustacean appendages such as Palaemonetes possess. Eubranchipus swims about on its back and the waving appen- dages are one of the first things about it to attract attention. These leaf-like legs of the fairy shrimp are used primarily for breathing purposes. Eubranchipus is found only in the spring of the year in small summer-dry pools or in ponds that recede greatly in the summer. In order to hatch, the eggs have first to be dried and then frozen. It is supposed these processes break the outer covering of the tgg and thus permit entrance of sufficient air and water for growth to start. These fairy shrimps may be found in any of the rather extensive summer-dry ponds or ditches. Fairy shrimps are positive to light of ordinary intensities, but in spite of this they are found nearer the bottom of ponds in the day than at night. This is because under the influence of light they are positive to gravity while in darkness they are negative to the same gravity stimulus. This reaction may be proven by covering the eyes with shellac and lamp black, upon which treat- ment the animals swim near the top, although if untreated they would be near the bottom of the container. These animals are more active in light than in shadow as may be seen by placing an animal in a glass dish in sunlight and cutting off the sun's rays from time to time with an opaque object. Eubranchipus may be easily kept in running tap water or in standing water that is not allowed to become suddenly warm. The temperature should be kept within four or five degrees of that in which the animals were collected. The Work of Running Water George J. Miller. [Editor's Note. This article and the one that follows give an out- line of the nature-study method of presenting a geography topic by field work and a student's reaction to the same.] No attempt is made in this article to discuss all phases of the work of running water, but rather (1) to outline what may be studied readily along nearly any river to be found in a climate having sufficient rainfall for a permanent stream, and (2) to suggest a method of studying such work in the field with a class. Each of the topics here discussed may be presented to the student as a problem to be answered by studying the subject in the field. Each phase of the subject may be studied on separate field trips, e. g., a trip to study the work of erosion, the work of deposition, etc., or all phases may be studied at once. The method to be followed will depend upon the ability of the class and the object sought by the instructor. Personally, I have my classes study all phases of the subject at once, and require an organization of the field work in a written report. For field study of running water the small stream is better than a large one. Running Water. What are the sources of running water? How does the water run off? What makes it run? To the first problem the student will answer rainfall (including snow and ice), to the second rivers, and to the third gravity. The study of a small permanent stream during the dry season, however, will convince him of the vital importance of ground-water — springs and seep- age— in the maintenance of stream flow. He will learn also that seepage is far more important than springs in maintaining most streams. A tributary of this stream may be dry. If so, he will solve the problems — When does a valley get a permanent stream? Was a valley there before the permanent river? Why do some valleys have streams only when it rains ? Why do some streams become dry during the summer ? In general, his answer that the water runs off in rivers is correct, but observation during a heavy rain will convince him (1) that some of it runs off in sheets, (2) that slight irregularities in the land surface cause the water to concentrate in the lower places, (3) that these concentrated parts flow faster, erode faster, develope small gul- lies or "washouts," and (4) that these gullies grow in size with successive rains. May they grow into ravines and large valleys? 78 miller] running water 79 In answering this question he will solve a large percentage of the problems of running water. Work of Erosion. Carrying and using sediment. How does a stream get sedi- ment to carry? How does it carry it? What determines the amount of sediment that it can carry? How does it utilize the sediment in its work of erosion? What affects the rate of erosion? These are typical problems bearing on this phase of the subject for the student to solve. The study of a small brook will show (1) the current swing- ing across the stream channel from the outside of one bend to the outside of the next lower bend, (2) that in striking the bank it cuts away small particles, and (3) that small particles are torn loose from the bed of the stream. If there has been a recent rain the muddy water will suggest that wash from the valley sides is an important source of sediment. In arid localities the wind may be as effective as the rain. In determining these facts the student has noticed (1) that small particles are carried in suspension, (2) larger particles of the same material are rolled along the bottom, (3) that some are picked up, carried a short distance and dropped again. A little experimentation shows him that upward currents are produced by irregularities on the stream's bed and that it is these upward currents that enable a stream to pick up and keep up sediment heavier than water ; that if the coarse material is powdered, so that each particle has a large surface in proportion to its weight, the stream can carry it easily. A little further study shows him that the amount which a stream can carry depends upon its velocity, its volume, and the kind of material — coarse vs. fine. It is this material carried by the stream that enables it to erode. It is the tool with which the stream works. Delicate plants may be found growing on the bed of a stream which carries no sediment, yet if the stream acquires a load those plants will be destroyed and erosion of the bed and banks will begin. Combining these facts he con- cludes that the rate of erosion will be affected by (1) the velocity and (2) volume of the stream, (3) the amount and (4) kind of sediment carried, and (5) the character of the material being worn away. Forming gidlies, ravines, valleys. — How does running water develop a valley? The student has learned already how the run-off from a rain collects in a depression and flows off as a streamlet. He will find in the field many examples of the work 80 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar., 1913 — gullies or ''washouts" — accomplished by these little temporary streams. A study of a series of gullies, or the same one at inter- vals, reveals that (1) they grow in length by head erosion caused by in-flow of rainwater, (2) they become deeper by erosion on their bottom, (3) they grow wider by side-wash from rains, by slumping and creep, (4) they are V-shaped with steep sides and that the sides become less steep as the gully increases in size, and (5) they have a stream only when it rains. Passing from the largest gully with no stream to the ravine with its little brook, he recognizes the ravine as a grown up gully. He also recognizes that it is different. Although still V-shaped, it has a flat bottom, a permanent and slightly meandering stream, perhaps a small terrace and a flood-plain. How have these changes been pro- duced? is now his problem. He learns that the gully acquired a permanent stream when its bed was eroded deeply enough to secure a constant supply of ground-water, i. e., below the ground-water level. He learns that the current cuts continually on the outside of the bend and makes the stream more crooked, and in doing so it (1) has undercut the sides of the ravine making it wider and flat bottomed, (2) has produced the Hood-plain, (3) coupled with erosion on the stream's bed, has sunk the meander belt (belt in which the bends occur) below the level of its surroundings and formed terraces. \i the stream has swung to one side of the ravine he finds that side steep and actively eroding and finds the terraces on the opposite side (Fig. 1). But if the stream is in the middle of the ravine he may find terraces on both sides of it. \i the stream is a very crooked one he probably can find places where it has cut across the narrow part of the bend and abandoned the meandering channel forming an oxbow lake. After the above study a visit to the valley of a large river will show it to be like a ravine only on a larger scale, i. e., a gully represents infancy, a ravine middle age, and a valley old age. These terms, of course, are only relative in value and apply to the stage of erosion and not to years. Are all valleys grown up gullies ? and Do all gullies form valleys ? are problems that should not be overlooked at this point. That many gullies on a side hill perish as the result of the more rapid growth of one can be demonstrated easily in the field, and that many streams flow away from glaciers, snow fields, and from lakes without ever having occupied gullies will be recognized by the student. Work of Deposition. Causes of deposition. — During the study of erosion the fact RUNNING WATER ^k.^^ mm Figure 1. — Tchucl- along the side of a isi of deposition has become apparent to the student. He has noticed deposits at the month of the gully, on the inside of the meanders, and at the mouth of the stream where it flowed into quiet water. What causes a stream to drop its load? is evidently the key to an explanation of these deposits and is the problem that he must solve first. He observes that the current goes slower on the in- side of the bend than on the outside, that it is checked when it flows into a body of quiet water or when it flows from a gully onto the more gentle gradient at the base of the slope. In other words he has learned that, a stream drops sediment when its current is checked, and some of the ways by which the current may be checked. From these facts he can reason out other causes if field examples are not available. For example, such causes as : gradient of the valley becomes less toward the mouth , loss of volume due to sinking into the ground, to evaporation, to withdrawal for irrigation, to the dividing of the stream into many channels; and overload. Places of deposition and types of deposit. — That there are three chief places of deposit by running water, viz., at the base of slopes, on valley bottoms, and at the mouths of streams, be- 82 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar., 1913 comes clear to the student as he continues his field work. It remains for him to determine what these deposits are, and their characteristics. On the gentle gradient at the mouth of the gully he finds a fan-shaped deposit extending away from the gully's mouth (1) with a comparatively uniform slope, (2) with the coarsest material at its apex and the finest around its outer margin, and (3) with numerous little stream channels extending from tlie apex to all parts of the fan. He notes that the fan-shape M due to the shifting of the temporary streams from one side IP the deposit to the other. Why do they shift? An application W§ what he has learned makes it clear that a single rain shower may build up one side so high that the water from the next rain will go down the other side. This deposit is an alluvial fan. At the mouth of the stream, where the current is checked by coming in contact with quiet water, he finds a deposit of fine alluvium. This is the delta. Above water it resembles the alluvial fan but a few soundings off its outer edge will show it to have a steep front slope. Usually it is composed of finer sediment than the fan. Miniature deltas may be found frequently in shal- low pools formed during a rain shower. Figure 2. — Natural levee along Thorn Creek, near Chicago, 111. GORDON] A FIELD TRIP TO THORNTON 83 In the valley bottom the student finds fine sediment on the Hood-plain and terraces and learns that those features may be the work of both erosion and deposition. He needs little assistance now to explain this situation or the presence of sand bars in the channel. But when he approaches the stream and finds that the flood-plain is higher immediately along the bank than back from the river he discovers a new and often a perplexing prob- lem. This feature is a natural levee (Fig. 2). Why in flood times, did the stream deposit more along its banks than farther back? The fact that the overflowing current is checked there first, by coming in contact with vegetation and the quiet flood waters is easily within his reasoning ability. Life Relations. During all field work the relationship of the work of running water to plant and animal life, especially human life, should be kept constantly before the student. It is desirable in the study of each feature to raise the question of its importance, both posi- tive and negative. The agricultural value of flood-plains, deltas, and alluvial fans ; the use of streams for power, commerce, boun- dary lines, irrigation, pleasure, sewage disposal, and for drinking water, is known to most boys and girls, yet it is doubtful if they have ever really correlated them in the field. A Field Trip to Thornton, Illinois Phyllis Gordon. On our way to Thornton we saw the old lake Michigan outlet, and shore line. The outlet is a long, wide flat, bounded on either side by low hills which mark the old shore line. The topography of the Thornton region is slightly rolling, and is called a ground moraine. The debris which the glacier deposited when it melted back is the origin of the hills. The soil is made of sand, clay, and loose rocks of every kind and size. The region is in youth, while the river is in a slightly later period of development. Running water in this case has not cut out the hills, the glacier deposited its load in hill form. Erosion by running water is well shown in this region. The strongest current is on the outside of a bend and therefore, there is where the most erosion will occur. At one place the river meandered over a good sized flood plain. On one side the bank rose almost perpendicularly, but on the other there was a small 84 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar., 1913 natural levee, and after that a broad flood-plain. The steep bank was on the outside of the bend in the stream. A river carries its sediment according to the amount of sur- face in comparison to the weight. The heavier load is rolled along the bottom of the river, while the lighter is carried suspended in the water by means of small currents made by boulders or irregularities in the surface of the stream bed. The amount of load a river carries greatly controls its cut- ting ability. Sediment is the tool of a river in erosion. The river got most of its load from banks and the stream bed. The growth of a gully was very plainly illustrated on the Thornton trip. One of the principal ways of a gully growing is by head erosion. The stream soon cuts back and the property at the gully's head will be broken up. We saw a good example of this. A farmer wished to drain his land and so dug a ditch which he connected with the head of a small gully which was on his property. When we saw the place the gully had been cut back so far that a great hole had been made in the farmer's corn field. The addition of the extra water from the draining ditch had hastened the development of the gully very much. Another way of gully growth is by widening. The stream does this by undercutting its bank, and with the help of ground water, which is very instrumental in making slumps and creeps, the banks fall slowly into the stream and are carried away. As I have said before, the current is stronger on the outside of a bend than on the inside, and therefore, if the river meanders, the work of side cutting will go much faster. An illustration of cutting on the outside of a bend was shown on this trip by seeing a farm house on the edge of a cliff-like bank. The farmer who owned the house said, that a few years ago when he had come to live there, a grove of trees separated the house from the river. Now he expected to see the house, too, go soon. The third way a stream enlarges a gully is by erosion on the bottom. When the stream carries much heavy sediment which is rolled along the bottom the stream bed is quickly deepened. When a river has widened its channel enough to meander it has a flood plain which is usually very fertile. When a stream is near enough base level to have large meanders, in times of flood the swift current often cuts off one of the meanders by making a new channel through the narrow divide. The elim- inated meanders are filled with water and because of their form are called ox-bow lakes. Terraces are formed to a large extent by a meandering miller] the way of A CATERPILLAR 85 stream. When the stream has cut down to a certain level and changes its course the new level which it makes will form a terrace. Another way in which terraces are made is found where the underlying layers of rock are horizontal. The river can not cut so quickly through the second layer of hard rock as it could through the first layer which was soft. The river in that case may cut down more rapidly than sideways and so form a terrace. The main place of deposition of the Thornton stream is on the valley bottom and takes the form of islands and sand bars. When a branch, or some other obstacle, is caught, the water in striking it is checked, and drops some of its load. As the stream drops its sediment around the branch, the obstacle grows and more water is checked thus an island may be formed. When a stream is overloaded, or its velocity is checked it must drop some of the load in the stream bed. This is how sand- bars are made. Natural levees are formed in flood time. When the stream overflows its banks and still water is standing on either side of the main channel, the swift loaded current strikes the still water, its velocity is checked and it drops its load right on the edge of the main channel. As a stream cuts on the outside of a bend it de- posits on the inside and so land is formed on the inside of a bend. There are many causes of stream deposition, but the main cause of the Thornton river's deposition is loss of velocity. Vegetation is a great hindrance to erosion. The roots of trees hold the soil, and even grass makes erosion more difficult. At one place, where the river had washed away the soil in widen- ing its valley, only the soil around the roots of the trees re- mained. The Way of a Caterpillar Ellen Robertson-Miller. It is worth while to stop occasionally and take note of how the insects manage to get on in a world filled with enemies. We soon learn that every species has its special methods of evading or combating animals bent upon its destruction — and the methods used often prove a fascinating study. I have found the behavior of caterpillars especially interesting. Take for example, the common Mocha-stone, Ich-thy-u-ra in-clu-sa. These lavae live in family groups, and frequently in rather crowded quarters, but they seem never to show irritability, no matter how much crawling over and under each other occurs. The nests of the Mocha-stone may be seen on poplar and 86 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar., 1913 other kindred trees throughout the summer, although I have found them most numerous early in September, when the cater- pillars are about grown and the cocoon-like nests quite con- spicuous. The Mocha-stone moth deposits her eggs in a mat-shaped group, and when these hatch the little crawlers draw the edges of the leaf on which they chance to be born together and snuggle down within, eating the green tissue of the leaf until lack of food forces them to add a second leaf to the first, or, more fre- quently, they migrate to a larger leaf. This leaf they line with silk and web together in such a way that it forms an oval room which at first glance appears not unlike the cocoon of a big silk- spinning caterpillar known as Telea polyphemus, but its walls are not so dense and the silk is more like that spun by spiders. The resemblance is intensified by the fact that the Mocha-stones carry the threads from the lining of the leaf around and around its petiole and then they fasten these about the parent twig, much as do some of the polyphemus larvae. The shape of the leaf when rolled is such that there seems always to be an open space at the upper end of the cocoon. Ap- parently the caterpillars realize that a bird which had discovered their whereabouts could secure each and every one of them through this opening much more easily than it could if the open- ing were closed, for we find in the nests of the grown larvae, at least, a piece of densely spun silk stretched across the opening and fastened to its edge, but in such a way that a round hole is left at the side of the petiole, and through this the caterpillars go to and return from their feeding gounds. The doorway is too small to allow more than a single larva at a time to pass, and it is amusing to see how one will poke out its head as if reconnoitering, then, if the road is clear, it will crawl up the stem to a leaf and begin to eat. Occasionally, however, two individuals meet at the threshold, but when this occurs there seems never to be any caterpillar controversy as to which shall go first. One or the other yields its place instantly and waits his opportunity. Such a meeting occurred between the larvae shown in the illustration. The returning caterpillar in this instance crawled to the side of the nest and remained there until his fellow had passed out and left the opening free for him to enter. Now, have these Mocha-stone larvae a vague notion that a squabble over their rights might attract the attention of bird enemies, or are they instinctively the Gastons and Alphonsos of the caterpillar world? Mocha Stone Caterpillars and Nest. (Life size.). Hygiene as Nature Study F. M. Gregg, V. A Study of Water. It is not to be expected that pupils in the fourth and fifth grades shall figure in a campaign to improve the water supply of a community, but there is a good deal of valuable information that can be given them in such an impressive way as to make it accrue to their own personal health, and, in time, to the very great advantage of the community. (a) THE NATURE-STUDY APPROACH. 1. Properties of zvater. — (a) The boiling point and vapori- zation of water can advantageously be studied by putting a pint of water into an empty can, such, for instance, as has had linseed oil or liquid paint in it. A larger can would serve even better. By suitable means bring this water to the boiling point, and with a thermometer (a cream thermometer is convenient) determine the temperature of the vapor and of the boiling water by lower- ing the thermometer into the can. That the can is now practically filled with water vapor will come out impressively by taking the can from the heating flame, stoppering tightly the mouth, and then pouring cold water over the outside of the can so as to cool the vapor within. Ordinarily, the can will weirdly collapse with startling contortions, due to the removal of pressure from the inside to counteract that of the air without. (b) The freezing point of water may be determined by tak- ing the temperature of water that has plenty of ice floating in it, or by the employment of simple freezing mixtures in the pro- duction of ice, for which see any good text-book on Physics. (c) The solvent power of water can easily be shown by taking say two glasses of clear water from any ordinary source. Into one put a teaspoonful of salt and into the other a tea- spoonful of sugar. Stir till both are as clear as before. If it is felt to be worth while and ''straws" enough can be inexpensively secured, such as are used at the soda fountains, the pupils by tasting may verify the fact that the waters are now different from what they were before, though they look the same. (d) The power of water to absorb gases, such as oxygen, comes out by taking two small bottles of water that has had a chance to take up the oxygen of the air, boiling one for several GREGG] A STUDY OF WATER 89 minutes, taking now some bright new shingle nails and putting two or three in each bottle, and then corking up tightly. In the course of a day the nails in the unboiled water will show rust, while the others will show little if any rust. Have you noticed that fish in an ordinary aquarium sometimes keep their mouths steadily near the surface? Why is this and when does it occur, answered in terms of the length of time the fish have been in the water? Have you noticed that sometimes when water "looks good" it may *'smell bad?" Explain. (e) It is worth while to give the pupil a concrete demon- stration of the power of water to carry particles in suspension, and especially some idea of the relation of velocity to the size of particle that can be carried. The cut here presented shows the means by which the gross facts can be set forth interestingly and luminously, provided access may be had to a water supply through a faucet and under pressure. {B) is a glass tube four or five feet long and about an inch and a half in diameter, and is held in a vertical position by a suitable device. Inserted in the lower end of the tube (C) is a stopper having a hole into which is thrust a short tube such that it can take on a rubber tube {G) leading from the faucet (£). A handful or two of sand, gravel and fine dirt are thrown clown into the tube and a stopper like the one at (C) inserted in the top {A) and connecting by a rubber tube (F) with the basin {D). Turning the water on slowly so as to produce a current through {G), (B) and (F), the finer particles of dirt in the tube are now carried up. Now doubling the velocity of the current by turning the faucet so as to have the water rise from (C) to (A) in half the time it did at first (the amount of turning neces- sary should have previously been determined), note that the larg- est particles now carried up are about four times the diameter of the particles carried up at first. Increase the velocity to three times that at first and the largest particles will now be about nine times the diameter of those at first carried up. Stop the flow of water and watch the stratification of the particles as they settle. What sizes drop first? What later? Why? 2. Kinds of water. — (a) Prepare some soap solution by dis- solving a small piece of soap in a bottle of hot water. Get a sample of water that is called "hard" water and into a small quantity of it put a little of the soap solution. Notice how the mixture curdles and does not form good soap suds. (b) Take an equal amount of ''soft" water, such as clear rain water, and put into it, a similar amount of soap solution as 90 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar, 1913 before. Shake and compare the suds now gotten, with the re- suUs from the ''hard" water. Which of the two kinds of water is best adapted to washing and cleaning where soap must be used ? 3. Common sources of water and their impurities. — (a) Secure a sample of water from a well or spring. Pass some of this water through clean filter paper into a bottle. Is there any solid stuff left on the filter paper? Are there any 'higglers" in it? Any germs? You could find out by "planting" some of the stuff on a germ culture medium. Let the water that passed through the filter onto the bottle either dry away or be boiled away, and see if any stuff is left on the glass surface. Where was it before the water dried up ? (b) Similarly treat water from a cistern. Compare the cKKGc;] A STUDY OF WATER 91 quantity of stuff in solution and in suspension with that in the well water. (c) So also a sample of tap water, if it is at hand. 4. Purification of water. — If water is to be purified at the point where it is delivered for use, one or more of the following methods are employed : (a) Filtering may be impressively illustrated by taking sev- eral ordinary flower pots that will hold a quart or more, each, fill- ing them each with a different grade of material, from very fine sand to course gravel, and then pouring a pint or less of very mud- dy water in each and collect the water as it comes through the hole in the bottom of each vessel. What makes the difference in the clearness of the waters that come through? Can you make use of what you learned in experiment 1(e) to explain it? Examine a commercial filter if one is available. (b) Even though the water that comes through the fine sand is clear, we are not yet sure that it may not have live germs in it. What can we do to kill the germs and still preserve the water? Yes, if we boil the water long enough we can kill all the germs that may be there. (c) But even now the water may still have minerals in solu- tion, and to get perfectly pure water we must distill it. Nine and ten year old boys will be glad to make a distilling apparatus, if the teacher will encourage them and show them pictures of how distilling apparatus may be made. The books on physics will describe the process. But better than the practice of purify- ing the water at the point of delivery is that of purifying it at its source. Here the pupil may be sent to the books and to various wells and cisterns, to see how they can best be arranged so as to guarantee reasonably pure water. If a city waterworks is accessible, of course an excursion to such a place would next be in order. Our experiments up to this point should help make the processes clearer. {h) HYGIENIC CONSIDERATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS. Do you think it makes much difference what kind of water one drinks? Why should we be particular about this matter? What is the objection to taking a drink with a cup that some one else has just taken a drink with? What is the advantage of the drinking fountain ? Are there any disadvantages ? What should be done with a boy or girl who persistently "fingers" the cup of a drinking fountain? About how much water do you drink in a day? Suppose we all keep track of it for a week and then 92 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 ::5— ^lar., 1913 divide the number of cupfuls by seven. May be it will turn out that some of us are not drinking our share of water. If so, we shall not be at our very best until we do. All people are not agreed whether we shall drink most of our water at meal times or between meals, though all say that we should not drink at meal time merely to help swallow our. food quickly. Can you think of reasons why it might be better to drink most of our water at meal times if we do it properly? Editorial This Nature-Study Review is "devoted primarily to all scientific studies of Nature in elementary schools" ; so it is and always has been declared upon the title page. The essence of scientific study is this — to observe for one's self, to achieve, upon the basis of the facts so discovered, conclusions that are secure. The scientific spirit implies a reverence for and loyalty to such opinions that makes for a fine devotion. And truly w^e need to cultivate such a scientific attitude of mind in a democracy. Our opinions are too prone to be resultants of caprice and prejudice rather than rational conclusions, based on an adequate mass of data. The scientific spirit needs be cultivated in the child in the grades, else the average citizen is likely never to acquire it. Nature study is method rather than content. The chief aim in instruction is not to impart a mass of information but to give to the pupil a mental attitude; habituate him to think clearly upon a wide range of personally acquired facts, to marshal them wisely, to relate them cautiously, to draw conclusions discreetly. Until he can do this, let him reserve judgment and refrain from an opinion. When this has been done, inspire boldness to make his assertions, tenacity in his adherence to them and a will- ingness to revise his opinions upon the presentation of new facts. We stultify our pupils, crush their expansive minds with the weight of ready-made, second-hand opinions we force upon them. Then we bemoan their lack of virility, acumen and stamina. Nature study is a protest against formalism, book- ishness and education by accretion. It stands for direct con- tact with materials, the absorption of essential data and mental growth by the solution of real problems. Book Reviews Health and Medical Inspection of School Children, Walter S. Cornell, M. D. Pp. xiv+614. F. A. Davis Co., Philadelphia. $3.00. This is a very timely book. School authorities are every- where interested in the conservation of the child's health. The great mass of data presented makes the need of inspection ap- parent. The ways and means of accomplishment are clearly pre- sented. The method adopted to eradicate the evils detected are forcibly indicated and enough of the results already achieved is given to make the book a valuable force in the crusade for health- ful schools and healthy children. Dr. Cornell is Director of Medical Inspection of Public Schools in Philadelphia and lectur- er on child hygiene in the University of Pennsylvania. Pie there- fore writes with a wealth of information at his disposal. At points one needs a medical dictionary handy to get at his mean- ing but usually he is quite clear to the lay reader. The book is marred by the imperfections of some of the numerous half tones. Several are too indistinct to make apparent the point they are supposed to illustrate. Soil Conditions and Plant Growth, Edward J. Russell. Pp. 168. 59 Tables. Longmans, Green and Co. $1.50. It is always of interest to teachers to find in a single compact volume a comprehensive survey of a single subject. In the book in question the author has endeavored to "give a concise account of our present knowledge of the soil as a medium of plant life." The subject is a particularly complex one and many important facts await satisfactory explanation, but Dr. Russell has succeeded in giving a coherent and comprehensive account of the matter. An immense amount of information is com- pressed within the small volume, and much of it is tabulated in very convenient form for reference. Discussions of theory are clear and concise. Since the author is an Englishman it is natural that British data are largely used particularly those from Roth- ampstead, but this does not make the book less valuable to Ameri- can readers. That the author's conclusions will pass unquestioned is not to be expected. There are many unsettled questions in soil study and the chapters which touch these questions are sure to be criticized by one school or the other. In particular is the theory of fertilizers here presented out of harmony w^ith the views of a large number of modern investigators. — W. L. Eikenberry. 93 94 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :3— Mar., 1913 Pure Foods, John C. Olsen. 210 pages. Ginn & Co. $0.60. This is a very excellent simple presentation of the sub- ject. Dr. Olsen is Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He writes clearly, concisely yet interestingly. Here are some of the chapter headings: What is Pure Food; Standard Rations and the Cost of Food; Milk; Butter and Its Substitutes; Meats; Candies ; Fruits, Jams and Jellies; Bread and Cereals; Spices and Condimental Foods. He adopts a standard ration of 100 grams of protein, 100 of fat and 420 of carbohydrates — a generous ration. In the preface are these significant sentences which suggest the purpose of the book: "The steel for our bridges and buildings is bought and sold on the chemist's certificate of its composition to the thou- sandths of per cent. The coal for our engines must be tested and analyzed but the far more precious human organism is loaded with a heterogeneous mixture of fuel of unknown composition. We should not be surprised at low efficiency, inability to work, sickness, even premature death of an organism which is given so little intelligent care. Hygiene for the Worker, Wm. H. Tolman and Adelaide W. Guthrie. 231 pages. American Book Co. $0.50. It is important to the laborer, to his employer and to so- ciety that he keep well. This little volume tries to emphasize those rules of hygiene and sanitation that apply particularly to the worker. Aside from the chapters one would ordinarily expect in any hygiene there are some suited especially to a work of this type: Applying for a Position; Preparing for the Day's Work; The Noon Hour; Hygiene of the Workroom; Occupational Dangers; First Aid to the Injured. The book is well written, lucid, emphatic and may well be added to every school library to be read in whole or in part by every boy and girl. The chap- ter on the "Choice of an Occupation" is especially suggestive to those who are anticipating life's toil. The Nature- Study Review, Ithaca, N. Y. Gentlemen : Enclosed find for which please enter my name as subscriber to. . . ....:. ....;.- <•/. . . .and The JMature- Study Review for one year.' '-t -^ k ifoSigned , Street. City i'; . . .State. Date. The NaturcjStudy Review,. 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It Flavors of Nature Just as She Is Not of the shop, the laboratory, the library, the schoolroom; Not of this ism or that hypothesis; Not hysterical nor hypocritical; But it is a sincere, honest, faithful magazine, true to its name. THE GUIDE TO NATURE It tells of the woods and fields; of valleys, ravines and meadows ; of underfoot and overhead. It represents the students and lovers of nature who are members or friends of The Agassiz Association. Send $1.00 for a year. Edward F. Bigelow, Managing Editor. Address : The Agassiz Association Arcadia: Sound Beach Connecticut Kindly mention Nature-Study Review when replying to advertisements THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS T^^ ^-^—-j. Please note date of expiration of your subscription on the •■•IIipOriaDl label of the wrapper. Subscriptions must be paid in advance to comply with postal requirements. Subscriptions, Manuscripts for Publication and Books to be Reviewed should be sent to the Editor. Vol. <) April, 1913 Xo. 4 A Grand Rapids School Garden Frances Van Buren. how we started a garden. When we began our school garden at the Oakdale School of Grand Rapids, Michigan, we encountered many difficulties. The school house, just completed, was on the outskirts of the city, the land having been a common that had never been im- proved. A great deal of sand had been thrown out by the workmen in the only desirable place for a garden. So, starting one under these conditions was rather hard, as two enemies, sod and sand, had to be conquered before anything would grow. A small garden containing bulbs, perennial plants and a few shrubs had been started near our old building two blocks away. These formed the nucleus of our present garden. Our greatest problem during the first summer was how to protect the garden from roving animals, chickens, etc., for there was no fence around the school property. Our entire allotment per room for gardening was spent that summer in building a one- board fence. Several rows of corn that served as a hedge and kept oflf the wind, were planted just inside the fence. In spite of all difficulties we were rewarded that first summer by a great mass of bloom although we had few varieties of flowers or vegetables. The next spring we were able to persuade the Business Manager of our schools that we were actually making good and could have still better results if a strong wire fence were built around the place. This was done and the space was enlarged until we had a plot of ground ninety feet square. 96 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April, 1913 DIVISION OF GARDEN SPACE. It seemed advisable to have quite a large general garden, so half the space was used for that purpose. Each room in the building, including the kindergarten, was assigned a portion of this space about fifteen by twenty feet. Plans for their gardens were made by the children as a part of their regular work, the work including problems in arithmetic, drawing, language and spelling. After deciding what they would plant they were taken out-of-doors where they spaded, laid out and planted their gar- dens working as a room. The large boys with the janitor's help also spaded the rest of the ground, measured and jaid out the beds with paths between. At first the beds were elevated, but we found it much harder to keep them well watered. Last sum- mer we had them nearly level with the paths which proved more satisfactory. About a fourth of the space was given to children for individual gardening. The second summer we had sixty varieties of flowers and sixteen kinds of vegetables. TRANSPLANTING. We have had good success planting the seeds out-of-doors and then transplanting later. This last spring as the season was so late much of this had to be done after school closed. Many times I went out to school where I was always joined by ten or fifteen children and sometimes some of the teachers also assisted in the work. They were greatly interested and helped to stimulate the interest of the children. To avoid transplanting after school closes we have had a small cold frame about 4 by 12 feet built at the rear of the garden, where we can raise seedlings that will be ready to trans- plant as soon as it is warm enough in the spring. These can be planted about the 10th of March. If this proves feasible we shall build more of them next year. VARIETIES OF FLOWERS. Last summer we raised a great many hardy perennial plants from seeds, such as sweet Williams, oriental poppies, lychnis, anchusa, etc. These made fine young plants that were carefully protected last fall. Many of them that we raised from a ten cent package of seeds would bring fifteen or twenty cents apiece at the florist's. We shall change the plan of our general garden greatly this spring, as we have so many of these perennial plants to use. When the men are hauling away dead leaves in the fall if you can secure a load or two, they make an ideal covering for your flower beds. We did this. vanburen] a grand RAPIDS SCHOOL GARDEN 97 At the back of the garden we have a long row of hollyhocks, golden glow and fleur-de-lis, and as each blooms in turn, it forms a splendid mass of color extending across the garden's entire width. At the south side we planted our shrubs that came from the grounds of the old building. A number of these were the snowberry bushes and they were particularly beautiful last fall. In front of the shrubs are tulips, crocuses and narcissus. Vines were planted to cover the wire fence and rows of sunflowers were placed outside. Our dahlias, gladioli and cannas were all carefully lifted by the janitor and children and stored away in the basement ready for spring. BULBS. Two years ago we began raising bulbs in the winter. These were purchased by the Civic Health and Beauty Committee of one of our literary clubs and came from Holland. They were fine large bulbs and were sold to the chil- dren for a small sum. We had a florist come to school and explain the method of raising them. We potted the crocuses, hyacinths and tulips in pots solicited from my friends, many of whom were glad to get rid of them. A junk dealer in the neighborhood gave me thirty or forty pots and he was remembered when the bulbs were in bloom. The children brought very few of them. When the supply was ex- hausted we used chalk boxes, cheese boxes, In Bloom. Feb. 20, 1912. anything we could get. A trench was dug in the garden, lined with boards, filled with several inches of dirt and left until the first of February. When that time came the pots were brought into the house and placed in a cool dark room for two weeks and occasionally watered. Many of the bulbs had grown an inch or more. The tulips we learned, should be kept in a cool place until the leaves were well developed; other- wise the buds blasted. They were gradually brought into a warmer, lighter place and watered more frequently in order to have them in bloom at a desired time. Keeping them longer in a cool place delays the blossoming. We found they thrived bet- ter if kept in a sand table in several inches of sand. WINTER EXHIBITS. For two years we have had a bulb exhibit in the Assembly 98 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April, 1913 Hall of our school, once in March and once in April. Last April we had hundreds of blooms, pots and boxes of trumpet daffodils, poets' narcissus, crocuses, tulips and hyacinths. Each room raised one particular bulb and as theirs were planted in boxes it was a gorgeous sight to see thirty or forty orange tulips or twenty or thirty hyacinths blooming in one box. Our school secured a prize of five dollars, offered by the club selling the bulbs, to the school having flowers in bloom the greatest number of days in the school year. Beginning with the 10th of December they bloomed continuously for 142 days. This year our first pot of paper white narcissus was in bloom Decem- ber 6th. It occurred to me last spring that we might be able to sell some of our flowers so they were offered for sale just to our patrons, a single hyacinth in a pot selhng for 10 cents, a pot of daffodils, 25 cents, etc., the price being less than half charged by the florists. Ours were in bloom at Easter time, when flowers are in great demand. We sold ten dollars worth of flowers besides having a large exhibit and having them in bloom in the house all winter. We used the money to purchase bulbs for this winter. As there seemed to be a greater demand for hyacinths we have potted two or three hundred that we hope to sell at Easter time. INDIVIDUAL GARDENING. Last spring we determined to pay more attention to indi- vidual gardening. So the Business Manager was persuaded to fence a piece of land half as large as the first adjoining it on the north. This we had plowed, as it was nearly all sod, and divided into twenty plots of ground, about 7 by 18 feet. The garden plots were given to the children only upon request and a note was sent to each parent making them, together with the child, responsible for their care. They were given permission to do as they pleased with what they raised. We had almost everything in the gardens from cabbage to sweet potatoes, and zinnias to forget-me-nots. They planted just what they wished. As long as the supply lasted they were furnished with govern- ment seeds, but many purchased their own. As far as possible we tried to assign the plots to needy children. To stimulate interest I offered a prize of a dollar to the child having the best garden in the fall. This amount was di- vided by the judges between the two children having the best vegetable and flower garden. This same sum has been offered for their next summer's gardens. vanbuken] a grand RAPIDS SCHOOL GARDEN %9 We tried to teach them to have a succession of things grow- ing and when one was exhausted to plant another. One boy sold a bushel of beans and one girl a bushel of lettuce after supplying their mothers and neighbors all summer. This spring we want to give a garden plot to each child wishing one. About 100 of our children each want one and as we have as large a space in use now as our school property will permit, I have secured the use of a vacant lot across the road from the school- house. It has already been plowed by a neighbor who donated his services. In the spring it will be fenced in and laid out by the children as before, and we hope to obtain better results after our experience last summer. PRIZES. The fall after we were established in our new building, we received the first prize for the best school garden in Grand Rapids at the West Michigan fair. One of the officers of the fair noticing the exhibit urged me to enter the flowers in competition with other amateur florists in the horticultural building and referred me to the man in charge of this exhibit. I went to him, found him greatly interested and was urged by him to enter the flowers, late as it was. Although I had never seen him before, he loaned me the In Bloom, March, 1912. entry money and the day given to teachers to visit the fair was spent in preparing for this competi- tion. We secured five dollars at the horticultural building in addi- tion to a three dollar prize for the best school garden. We also had a prize of three dollars given by one of the literary clubs for raising the best bouquet of bachelor's buttons. This gave us a bet- ter financial basis upon which to work and enabled us to purchase a better collection of seeds and plants for the following spring. With our prize money we purchased half a dozen ramblers, peonies, phlox, shasta daisies, pyrethrum, etc. Some of our patrons were market gardeners and they sent us tomato, cab- bage and pepper plants which thrived splendidly. One of the members of the Board of Education offered a prize of fifteen dollars to the school having the best general garden,, which prize we were fortunate enough to secure last fall. This, in addition to eleven dollars won at the fair and, the five dollar prize for 100 • NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April, 1913 bulbs, netted us thirty-one dollars that we shall use this coming" spring in making the garden still more attractive. Some of our money we shall use in purchasing garden tools which children rarely bring from home. DISTRIBUTION OF FLOWERS AND VEGETABLES. We have a thriving Mothers' Club in connection with the school and a committee was appointed from the club to distribute the flowers around the neighborhood or take them to the hos- pitals during the vacation. Many of them were given to the churches for decoration. We have given away many plants, bulbs and seeds to the children and neighbors. Now that our garden is so large there are many seeds that can be saved in the fall. The children make seed boxes or envelopes and go out with the teachers and gather them. When giving a drawing lesson it is of inestimable value to the teacher to be able to have a garden at hand where specimens enough for an entire class can be secured instead of having to depend upon the possible chance of the children bringing them. Each fall we have sent a load of vegetables to the Children's Home of our city and sometimes the parents supplement this offering with vegetables from their own gardens. We have never failed to find some kind neighbor who will loan his horse and wagon to us for such occasions. The garden has proved to be a veritable beauty spot for the entire neighborhood and seldom is anything molested, although it is rarely locked. On Sunday afternoons any number of the people may be seen strolling around but never offering to touch a flower. They know that it belongs to the neighborhood and respect it accordingly. CARE IN SUMMER. One of the greatest problems confronting us is the care of the garden in summer. No one is regularly employed to have charge of it and unless you have a summer school or have the janitors there it is a problem, as children certainly need super- vision and encouragement in caring for their gardens. Our Mothers' Club helps to some degree in this respect. A shed for the garden tools should be built that is accessible to the children, and some person understanding children and gardening should be with them part of each day. Much better results would be obtained if this were possible. The Bluebird's Housekeeping S. Louise Patteson. A Bluebird pair, on returning from their southern home one February, found a new bungalow under their last year's nest tree. Near by there was also a feeding board with a piece of suet on it, over which was a scattering of raw rolled oats. All of which looked very friendly; but Bluebirds never did care for alms, and not until the Song-Sparrow arrived did the lunch counter get a patron. One April morning the Bluebirds found a neat birdhouse and then there was a flurry of excitement. The house had two compartments, one in front, the other at the rear. The birds favored the front one, and after spending a few moments inside, hopped out onto the porch and talked it over. "Ji-^st right for our nesting," said the darker of the two, whom the lady in the bungalow called Girlie. ''Let's move in before someone else does," assented the other. With this Girlie flew to the ground and gathered the first billful of grasses for the nesting, while Boy Blue, as the lady named him, stood guard. For the lady had a cat that sometimes crouched on a low fence rail, or hid in the weeds, and watched the birds as they hunted for food. Once she almost caught Boy Blue, and he meant to see to it that she shouldn't get his Girlie. One day, after the nest building had been going on for a while, the cat did climb up the tree on which the house stood, smelled around, reached inside, and perhaps would have spoiled Girlie's work if the lady hadn't come with a long handled rake and poked the intruder down. After that a sheet of tin was nailed around the tree, and the cat couldn't climb it any more. Boy Blue had a long, wordy, tender song : "Deary dear deary dear, oh deary dear deary !" with all sorts of variations. But he sang it so softly and low, evidently it was meant for Girlie's ears, and nobody's else. Sometimes she answered him with a curt but sweet *'dee-ar," which always made him fly to her; and at his approach she twittered softly, and joyfully fluttered her wings. They certainly loved each other, and he was quite as proud of her as she of him, although her back was only a slatey blue, and her breast a dull 101 102 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April, 1913 brick red, while he had a bright salmon front, and a back the color of the sky. Boy Blue's' job as guard and entertainer kept him very busy, and still he wanted to do more. Several times he brought some material for the nesting ; but it never suited Girlie, and he always had to drop it to the ground instead of being allowed to toss it into the house. But presently another job opened up for him. The English Sparrows tried to nest in the rear and had to be routed. No doubt it was due to Boy Blue's watchfulness that that other part was never occupied, and the lady took the hint to make no more double birdhouses. In a fence corner Girlie found the matted feathers of a chicken just as they had been dumped from the dish-pan. As sun and wind dried the topmost of these feathers she soon had enough to line her nest soft and downy. This saved her from doing what is said of birds, namely, that they will pull out some of their own feathers if they can find no others to finish the nest. Many spring flowers were in bloom by the time Girlie had her house furnished to suit her. Then she loved it so well that for a fortnight she stayed in it almost constantly, and Boy Blue fed her as one would a helpless baby. But sometimes when he had an extra nice worm he wanted to enjoy it himself a while : he would alight on the edge of the platform and wait until Girlie came to the entrance and chirped something to him. Perhaps she said ''Hurry, dear, I'm starving," or something like that. Then if he didn't go to her she came out, and with a saucy air snatched his catch from him. After a while both parents were carrying food to the house, and in another week sounds like z-z-z were heard from within — the babies begging for food. From the bean poles in the garden, from posts in the vineyard, or from fence pickets the parents would pounce on anything that moved on the ground, or upon things that flew about. If a field was being plowed near by, they were there hunting in the furrows. Any big catch like a beetle or a grub they took to a fence post and beat it till it was soft and juicy. One June morning two bright, wondering eyes peered out of the bird house. The next second a tiny birdling stood on the little porch, and after resting a moment flew into an adjoining tre.e. When the mother returned he called to her "terwee," as much as to say, "Here I am." Mother answered ''dee-ar," and the little fellow fluttered with joy. Perhaps he had expected a scolding for being so precocious. PATTESON THE BLUEBIRD'S HOUSEKEEPING 103 Both Parents Were Carrying Food to the House. Evidently those inside had heard and understood, for pres- ently another appeared at the opening, and without as much as stepping on the porch, flew straight to the fence shrubbery where the mother was trying to attract the first one. By this time father had arrived, and his notes of surprise at what had happened brought two more out of the house, one of whom flew on the bungalow roof. The other, trying to fol- low him, was less sure of wing and fluttered to the ground, where he was picked up and taken to his brothers in the fence shrub- bery. Father then went to the one on the bungalow roof and coaxed him up into the maple, while mother stayed with the three, and instantly the calling ceased. The parents had their young where they considered them safe, and didn't think it wise to advertise the places. As for the house, it was deserted, and the Bluebirds' beau- tiful housekeeping was at an end. The Small Crustaceans SECOND PAPER. W. C. Allee. Small Entomostracans. The other crustaceans to be considered are those usually called entomostracans. This group contains the smaller, less highly developed crustaceans. To be exact, the fairy shrimp would have to be included in this class, but on account of the obvious difference in size it is better to consider them separately. These entomostracans make up the majority of the animal plank- ton of our lakes and ponds. Plankton, it may be explained, is the term which includes all those plants and animals that live in the water independent of the bottom, that is the floating or swim- ming organisms that do not come to rest on the bottom. Since these small crustaceans are easily compared as to habits and habitats, they will be considered mainly as a single group. In the first place all are very small; some are microscopic, while the largest are not over one-fourth of an inch long. The three groups may be distinguished as follows : I. Segments showing plainly on the surface. Copepods (Fig. 6, 7, 8). II. Segments not showing on the surface. 1. The body completely enclosed in a bivalve chitonous "shell." Ostracods (Fig. 9 and 10). 2. Body not completely enclosed in such a shell. Claderocera (Fig. 11, 12, 13). The copepods are more or less cylindrical crustaceans with a plainly segmented body and usually with long well-developed antennae, and poorly developed feet. The antennae serve as organs of locomotion and the animal swims by a series of rapid darting movements. Copepods have a single eye which is placed near the center of the head. There are three main groups which can be easily recognized by the differing lengths of antennae : I. Antennae very long, 23-25 jointed. Family Calanidae, Representative genus, Diaptomus (Fig. 61). II. Antennae shorter, not reaching to the abdomen, 8-18 seg- ments. Family Cyclopidae, Representative genus, Cyclops (Fig. V. 104 allee] SMALL CRUSTACEANS 105 III. Antennae short, not more than ten segments. Family Harpacticidae, Representative genus, Can- thocampus (Fig. 8). These distinctions can be made out with the naked eye and are easily apparent when a hand lens is used. As is shown in Figure 8. — Copepod. Canthocampus. (After Whip- ple.) X 25. Figure 6. — Copepod. Diaptamus. (After Herrick.) Figure 9. — Ostracod. (After Turner.) Figure 7. — Copepod. Cyclops. (After Herrick.) Figure 10. — Ostracod. (After Turner.) Side view. 106 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April, 1913 Fig. 7 and 8, the females of this group carry their eggs in ovisacs. In the Cyclopidae family this sac is double, while in the other two groups it is usually single. The ostracods (Fig. 9 and 10) are easily mistaken for small bivalve molluscs in as much as the body is entirely covered by a bivalve shell, closed by powerful muscles. However, the shell is not made of lime but of chiton, and a close examination shows that jointed appendages extend from the body, some of which may be used for swimming or craw^ling. Here as in the copepods the major swimming organs are the antennae, which are pro- vided with a number of long hairs, forming a dense brush, which acts as a paddle. In size the ostracods vary from about a fourth of an inch in diameter to mere specks in the water, scarcely ap- parent with the naked eye. Almost all of the ostracods known in North America belong to one family, the Cyprididae. The genera are hard to distinguish even with a microscope so that it is sufficient merely to be able to recognize them as ostracods. The cladocera (Fig. 11, 12, 13) have a shell which consists of two thin plates that usually do not cover the entire body and sometimes are reduced to small plates near the posterior side and may be embedded under the external covering. They have sev- eral pairs of leaf-like feet and, as in copepods, there is a single median eye. The antennae also serve this group as swimming organs. The cladocerans ordinarily collected may be as large as one-eighth inch in diameter though they are usually much smaller. There are several kinds commonly taken, but since these are not as easily distinguished as is the case with the copepods, no descrip- tion of them will be attempted. Some of the different types may be seen in Fig. 11, 12, and 13. These smallest crustaceans, like all the others considered here, are to be found as soon as the ice begins to thaw in the spring and continue abundant throughout the summer season. They may be found 'in Lake Michigan, in any park lagoon, or in any pond that lasts a month or more. The ostracods are more often found on the bottom and are more common proportionate- ly in temporary ponds. Cladocera reach their best develop- ment in smaller permanent ponds, while copepods are dominant forms in the larger bodies of water and in temporary ponds. The number of these small animals that may be present in the water is rather surprising. Thus from representative counts taken from a standard collection from Lake Michigan it has been estimated that over 5,250 copepods alone are present in 100 liters (approximately 28 gallons) of lake water. It is estimated that ALLEE SMALL CRUSTACEANS 107 over two quarts of these three groups of small crustaceans are contained each day in the drinking water of the people of Chi- cago. Figure 11. — Cladoceran. Daphnia. (After Smith.) X 40. Figure 12. — Cladoceran. Seda. (After Herrick.) These entomostracans may best be collected with a tow net made of miller's bolting cloth which may be drawn through the water or, still better, may be used as a strainer through which water from different parts of the pond may be poured. The net is easily emptied into a Mason jar by filling this two-thirds full of water and turning the apex of the net wrong side out into the jar. In the laboratory it is often advisable to concentrate before 108 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April, 1913 studying the material. This may be done as follows : Fasten a thistle tube to the apex of a small miller's bolting cloth net, cut off the thistle tube close to the bowl and place a rubber tube over the free end. Close this with a pinch cock. Pour the water containing the entomostracans into this net and carefully wash all down into the bowl of the thistle tube. In this way a great many animals may be secured in a small amount of water. These animals may be collected from any Chicago city water tap by allowing the water to run over night into one of these mil- ler's bolting cloth nets. Cladocera, copepods, and ostracods all exhibit a daily vertical migration such as has been noted for most of the other groups. As before, light is probably the major cause of this migration. However, it has been shown that for some at least of the copepods this reaction has a different explanation. The females were found to be positive to gravity in the light and negative in darkness and the males simply follow the females but have no other reaction that would cause them to give this migration if isolated. All three of these groups are positive to light of a medium intensity and will collect just at the edge of a shadow. Al- though they are normally positive to Fig. 13.— Cladoceran. Bos- light they are easily reversed in their mina. (After Herrick.) reaction to it. Thus when daphnia are placed in a dish lighted from one side at first they will all swim to the lighted side, but after being exposed a time some become negative to light and sooner or later all become negative. Thus it is possible to remove all the daphnia from such a dish by picking out the negative ones with a pipette. Shaking some ostracods or even picking them up in a pipette and dropping them out has been shown to reverse their reaction to light. Economic Importance. These crustaceans are of importance economically. All are food for fishes and in fact they make up the major part of the food of most of our important food fishes. Although all are eaten by fish, yet the distinction of being the real basis of fish food supply is held by the small entomostracans. Not only are these eaten directly by the fishes, but they are the basis of almost every allee] small crustaceans 109 line of fish food that may be traced to its beginning. Thus fish eat crayfish, crayfish eat isopods and amphipods, which in turn eat entomostraca. The entomostraca live on smaller organisms, as, for example, the protozoa, and are reported to be able to absorb, through their external covering, food substances dissolved in the water. One other example of the importance of entomostraca as animal food is that they are almost the sole food of the fresh water clam. In fact they are the basis of the food supply of all the animals living in our fresh waters, and in addition are im- portant as water scavengers. Although many other representa- tives of each group are parasitic, yet, so far as I know, none of these fresh water forms are harmful to man. Summary of Characteristics. 1. Isopods have a plainly segmented body. The thorax bears seven pairs of similar legs. They are strongly flattened dorso- ventrally. They move by crawling and seldom if ever swim. The adult size is from two-fifths to two-thirds of an inch in length. 2. Amphipods also have a plainly segmented body, the legs are less prominent than in the isopods and they are flattened laterally rather than dorso-ventrally. They move mainly by swim- ming and often swim on their side. They may reach an inch in length but are more often taken about a quarter of an inch long. 3. Palaemonetes, the common shrimp, closely resembles a small crayfish except that it is a semi-transparent light green color and that it lacks the large pinchers of the crayfish. The adult is from one to one and a half inches long. 4. Eubranchipus, or the fairy shrimp, is about the same size as the common shrimp, but it has no carapace, the thorax is plainly segmented, the appendages are leaf-like, and the animal swims on its back. 5. Copepods are very small, about one-sixteenth of an inch long. They have cylindrical bodies that are plainly segmented, and carry their eggs in sacs that hang from the under side of the animal near the posterior end. 6. O'Stracods vary in size from microscopic animals up to those a quarter of an inch long. The body is entirely enclosed in a chitonous bivalve shell which may be closed as in the fresh water clam. 7. Cladocerans are usually less than one-eighth of an inch in diameter. The body is not completely enclosed in a shell and the shell may be reduced to a small plate completely covered by the body wall. Nature Study-Agriculture in Rural Schools Bessie B. Kanouse. If you are a rural school-teacher and you have never tried to arouse the interest of the children in the wonderful, mystifying beauties of nature that are unfolding day by day, begin tomorrow — just begin. Until you have tried it, you can not know, and I can not tell you just how much pleasure it will give, nor the in- spiration and good-feeling it will lend to the ordinary routine of a school day. You may think the children already know by instinct about these lovely country wayside things, and the ordinary farm crops, because they live among them and have the chance of seeing them every day. Surely they have the chance, but do they really see? One first day of a fall term, I asked if anyone had seen anything on the way to school that morning that he had never noticed before. Not one new thing had been seen. A short time after we began collecting our nature material of which I am to tell you directly, one of the girls exclaimed, ''Why I never dreamed that so many beautiful things grew on our road- sides and in our fields!" So you see it may be possible that there are many, many marvelous things growing within forty rods of your schoolhouse that you never supposed were such near neighbors. No mind seems so responsive to nature as the child mind. There is a charm about the study that appeals strongly to the heart and soul of a child, when he knows it is his to find and his to enjoy. I quote here from Mrs. Wm. Starr Dana, when I say that, ''Through the neglect of nature-study, the wits of the country child lose just the sharpening they most need, to say nothing of a stimulus and delight which can ill be spared by one whose mental life is apt to be monotonous." The work I am describing was accomplished in a very ordinary eight-grade one-room country school. No special time was allotted for the work. The instruction took the form of oral and written language work in all grades, morning exercises, or informal talks about the material when it was brought. While it is not nearly all that might be accomplished along this line, it seemed to fit the time, the place and the pupils with whom I. had to deal. Early in the spring before the leaf buds had opened, I asked the children to bring branches of as many kinds of trees and shrubs as they could find. We labeled them and put them in 110 kanouse] nature-study AGRICULTURE 111 a large jar of water. Each one contributed a share until we had a fine display. The jar was left in the school room for weeks. Each day brought a change, but the children were con- stantly on the alert and were always the first to discover the change. From this source we had a splendid chance to study the kind of bark, the kind of branching, the bud protection, the use of the tree from which it was taken and later, to watch the buds unfold and grow into leaves. We noted, too, the flowering of the different trees, how some blossomed before the leaves opened and others not until later. The fifth grade made excellent booklets on trees, and the whole school had lessons in free hand outline drawing from the work on trees. About the same time that we collected our branches the primary class had a few language lessons in spring work on the farm, leading to crops their fathers raised. So each one was asked to bring seeds from home, and our sand table was trans- formed into a miniature farm. The sand was divided into lots, one being reserved for the cardboard farm house and barn. The children planted their own seeds in the miniature fields. We had on our farm, corn, popcorn, wheat, oats, barley, peas, beans and clover. It was of great interest and value to the whole school. It is so much easier for the number class to think how many pecks there are in a bushel of corn if a thrifty little plot of their own corn is growing near by. Every few days, we took up some of each kind of plant to find which were making the most rapid root growth, what kind of roots they were, what became of the seeds, just where the root and stalk left the seed and — well, many more things that will occur to you when you try it for yourself. The previous fall the pupils furnished a cent apiece, and with the money we purchased some bulbs. These added much to the happy spring and truly tulips never looked so lovely to the children as the ones that blossomed then. A trip to a near-by brook gave us a plentiful supply of minnows, crabs and snails. One of the boys brought a clam. We put the snail on our farm and the children watched it crawl through the oat field and eat a few petals that had fallen from a branch of cherry blossoms. Some cocoons and later some luna and cecropia moths were brought. They gave an excellent chance to teach the story of the moth, butterfly, silk worm, and also to teach the destructive work of the gypsy and coddling moths. As soon as the wild flowers appeared, we began our com- positions in fifth grade language. We secured a good specimen, 112 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April, 1913 root and blossom, and from outlines the pupils wrote some fine papers. Some of the plants studied successfully were the violet, dandelion, jack-in-the-pulpit, buttercup and wild-strawberry. These furnish a nice variety. I give here the outline we used for the dandelion: Dandelion. I. Where and when found? (a) Soil. II. Root (Fleshy, long, many feeders. Why this kind?) III. Plant (Stemless). (a) Leaves — (1) number, (2) ar- rangement (in circle to keep space from year to year, and allow much sunshine), (3) shape (notched to crowd grass away) ; (b) Blossom (closed on rainy days) — (1) stem, (2) color of flower, (3) perfume, (4) number on each plant (as many as 200) ; (c) Seed — (1) appearance of seed ball, (2) seed carriers. IV. Use of plant, (a) Greens and salad (food), (b) medi- cine, (c) no use to animals; great pest, hard to kill. The readers furnish many poems on our common wild flow- ers which we saved and studied when we could have the real flowers at hand. One opening exercise was a general talk on grasses. I had given a short list and asked the children to make it as complete as they could, naming all the common varieties in the neighborhood. We not only discussed the valuable ones, but the pests as well. The return of the birds naturally furnished some more de- lightful oral and written language lessons. The third grade made bird booklets and decorated the covers with free-hand pa- per cuttings of birds. They wrote descriptions of common birds and copied a few choice poems and verses. One story that they especially liked was the story of Louise Alcott when she wrote her first poem, "To A Robin." The booklets were illustrated with miniature bird pictures in colors. In the fall we continued our work along these same lines. We collected and kept in one corner of the school room the seeds and fruits of all the plants in the neighborhood. Not mere- ly the fruits of our fruit trees, but fruits of every weed, wild flower, farm crop, or tree. The result was surprising. No one even supposed that the witchhazel, teazel, wild ground cherry, black osier, false Solomon's seal, dog-berries and many others lived any nearer to us than in the land of story books. Some of the brightest pupils did not even know that wild roses had beau- tiful shiny hips or that pine cones had little winged seeds. People in the district helped in the collecting until quite a kanouse] nature-study AGRICULTURE 113 museum was started. The children label, arrange, and care for the specimens and so feel a responsibility in the work. 1 attribute the success of our work to the perfect freedom the children have had in the work. I saved all poems, pictures and articles that would be of value and let the children study them in the five or ten minute periods before recess or at noon when there was no necessity for preparing the next lesson. The material was always before the children. I never compelled them to do the reading, I merely suggested and left the decision with them, but they were always eager for the chance. There are a great many national and state bulletins sent free that furnish- ed valuable reading. Aside from the oral and written compositions nothing was required. Do not attempt to crowd in many technical terms. Let the pure, simple charm of the study be the controlling mo- tive. It is there, and those who seek may find it, and use it to unlock a world of knowledge and quicken the power of observa- tion. Ouincy, Michigan. The Tobacco-Worm and Its Kin Ellen Robertson-Miller. The changing of a tobacco-worm into a beautiful, big moth with velvety wings, is one of Nature's fairy-like achievements. This strange transformation can usually be observed, with little effort, where tobacco, tomatoes, or potatoes are grown. But if these plants are not accessible, the larvae may be seen upon jim- son-weed, a plant which takes root and flourishes on the rubbish heaps of our city lots. There are two varieties of the insect, both of which are commonly spoken of as the Tomato-worm, the Potato-worm, or the Tobacco-worm, according to the larva's feeding habits. One variety, Protoparce Carolina, is found largely in the tobacco fields of the South, while Protoparce celeus is the more common North- ern species. The two varieties, sometimes living close together, differ slightly in appearance, although their general character- istics are similar. I have gathered eggs of both celeus and Carolina from the same tomato plant and at the same time, those of celeus being oval and those of Carolina ovoid. A moth mother in ovipositing usually places but a single egg upon a leaf. At first the egg has a green color, but this 114 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April. 1913 Jim SON Weed. changes to yellow before hatching. The ^gg period averages about seven days. When the little crawlers emerge they begin life by eating holes in very tender leaves. While they are rave- nous feeders, the inroads which the caterpillars make on the tomato or potato plants is rarely serious, for while the so-called "worm" eats both green and ripe tomatoes, it lives chiefly upon the foliage, and this, as a rule, is sufficiently abundant to nourish a few insects without sapping the vitality of the plant. When present in numbers, however, they damage the tobacco, because the leaves of the plant and not its fruit constitutes the crop. The caterpillars are nocturnal in their habits. They feed for about a month, during which time they undergo several molts. When fully grown they measure from three and a half to four and a half inches in length. With the exception of an occasional black or brown specimen, all have green skins, surprisingly like the shade of the plant on which they feed. They have large spiracles, or breathing holes, along the sides of their bodies, and each flaunts its caudal horn — that of Carolina bemg reddish and miller] the tobacco WORM 115 that of celetis blue-black. The obliques on the sides of the cater- pillars differ also. Those on celeus are yellow and supplemented by horizontal lines, which form a triangular figure on each abdominal segment ; those on Carolina are white edged with black, and there are no horizontal lines on this insect. When resting, both species assume a sphinx-like attitude, but if annoyed or angered they throw the front portion of their bodies from side to side and spit out a green liquid, which is not poison but undigested food. The ''horn" of the caterpillar being soft and without an opening, has neither the power to sting nor eject poison, newspaper stories to the contrary. The larva is perfectly harmless aside, from the damage which it does to vegetation. We find that when the plans of Dame Nature are left un- disturbed by man they are so adjusted that each organism fills the place allotted to it. and with such nicety that no one form of life will, either from lack or over-supply, throw the great whole out of balance. On every plant and animal live other organisms which tend to control the growth and development of their host. Among the natural enemies of the Tobacco-worm and its race are the little Braconids, tiny winged creatures that deposit their eggs under the skin of a caterpillar. Here the eggs hatch into maggots and feed upon the tissues until they no longer require nourishment. When fully grown these parasites come to the surface and each, standing upon its caudal extremity, begins to weave a fairy structure of pure white silk, the cocoon in which it is to await the development of its small wings. The rapidity with which these wee creatures emerge and envelop themselves in their cocoons is surprising. I have fed an apparently healthy caterpillar and in two hours found it literally covered with these Braconid cradles, that by many are errone- ously believed to be the eggs of the insect. It is not wise to kill such a ''worm," for the parasites will be ready to fly from their cocoons in about three days, and if allowed to do so many another big caterpillar will be obliged to serve as "bed and board" for their descendants, while the larva that nourished them, already exhausted by their feeding, soon perishes. Where the Braconids are not sufficiently numerous to keep down the Tobacco-worms, Dr. Howard, the government entomol- ogist, advises the destruction of solanaceoiis weeds — natural food-plants — from the margins of fields where tobacco is grown, 116 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :4— April, 1913 clean cultivation and, when necessary, hand-picking. He also suggests that it might prove feasible to grow a few clumps of jimson-weeds in or near the fields as trap crops for the cater- pillars, the plants to be thoroughly poisoned in the early summer before the tobacco is set out. Another method of dealing with the caterpillars when they become real pests, is the application of Paris green, either dry or in liquid form. Fortunately a few tomato-, potato- and tobacco-worms evade their foes, and so enable us to learn how they burrow into the ground, and pupate within an earthen cell. The record of my observations on one specimen reared from the tgg shows that the caterpillar went below on the thirtieth of July. Seven days later, when I broke through the cell wall that surrounded it, I found that the pupa had just emerged from the larva skin. It was still green and soft, with the head projecting forward and the limp tongue-sheath flat upon the wing covers. During the next three hours, however, the pupa gradually assumed the char- acteristic ''pitcher" form, with its gracefully curved tongue-case handle. It is not unusual to plow or spade up these brown ''pitchers" in the late fall or early spring. If a specimen is kept until the moth emerges, the moth will be found to have a very trim and tailored appearance. The wings and body of celens are gray in color with touches of vivid yellow and black along the back, while Carolina has brownish scales among the gray. The eyes of both are prominent, the antennae stiff and club-shaped, while the tongue when uncurled measures from three and a half to four and a half inches in length. The insects in their adult form are called "hawk" or hum- ming-bird moths, because they fly with the strong, swift move- The 'Titcher" Tomato Worm. (Pupa cone, natural size.) MiLLKk] THE TOBACCO WORM 117 ments of the hawk and poise above the blossoms as do the hum- ming-birds. Unhke the silk moths, they have well-developed mouth-parts, and their tongues probe many a narrow corolla which opens after the butterflies have gone to sleep. As the insect flutters hither and thither, sipping the sweet- ness that is offered by the flowers, it pays for its treat by carry- ing load after load of yellow pollen to the ripened and waiting pistils of other blossoms — blossoms that we should be sorry to lose from our gardens, but which, without the moth's aid would be obliged to alter their floral arrangement or become extinct. Truly, "More servants wait on man Than he'll take notice of. In every path He treads down that which doth befriend him." You should have heard him speak of what he loved ; of the tent pitched beside the talking water; of the stars overhead at night; of the blest return of morning, the peep of day over the moors, the awaking birds among the birches ; how he abhorred the long winter shut in cities; and with what delight, at the return of the spring, he once more pitched his camp in the living out-of-doors. — Robert Louis Stevenson. Book Reviews Outlines of Evolutionary Biology, Arthur Dendy, Univer- sity of London. P. xxxixH-454. D. Appleton & Co. $3.50. This is a very readable and well balanced book. The author is a zoologist and yet enough of plant evolution is given so that the reader realizes that evolution is a biological, not a zoological problem. The book is as nearly up-to-date as can really be expected in a subject advancing with such rapidity as biology. New facts are coming to light so rapidly that only current maga- zines can represent the real status of biological thought. Part I is devoted to the Cell Theory; II, the Evolution of Sex; III, Variation and Heredity; IV, Theory and Evidence of Organic Evolution; V, Factors of Organic Evolution. In the last part, when presenting the views of the earlier biologists, extensive quotations are made from Buff on, Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, Charles Darwin, etc., making these chapters among the most valu- able. The author believes "that suddenly and exceptionally ac- quired characters, such as mutilations, are occasionally but rarely inherited, while, * * * characters which are due to the con- tinued action of some external stimulus '^ "^ ^' become so firmly impressed upon the organism that they affect the germ cells as well as the somatic cells." The book can be commended as one of the best outlines of evolutionary problems, perhaps the best, that has yet appeared in the compass of a single volume. Trees in Winter, A. F. Blakeslee and C. D. Jarvis. 445 pages. The Macmillan Co. $2.00. There are two parts to this book. The first is on the ''Plant- ing and Care of Trees" ; the second, ''Identification of Trees." In Part I are found an interesting chapter on "Structure and Growth of the Tree," ingenious devices for measuring the height of a tree, and all sorts of tricks of the trade in transplanting and caring for trees. Here are suggestive lists of trees and shrubs for ornamentation with planting plans for the yard. Injuries and insecticides have ample treatment. Part II contains the keys for identification and the descrip- tions of species. The keys are based on bark, twig and bud char- acters and are exceedingly convenient. The descriptions are ac- companied by superior illustrations. The whole book is amply illustrated. The book can not receive too warm commendations ; 118 BOOK REVIEWS 119 it is invaluable to the student of our trees native to northeastern North America. General Science, Bertha M. Clark. 363 pages. American Book Co. $0.80. A text book in general science is a rather new thing and correspondingly difficult to write. This difficulty arises main- ly from the abundance of material and the doubt as to which should be excluded. The fields of all the sciences are open for use and as yet there is no common consent regarding the ap- propriateness of particular materials, such as prevails in some measure in the specialized sciences. In this case the material has been selected largely from chemistry and physics. Only four chapters out of a total of thirty-five, are principally biological, and physiography seems not to be represented in any important way. The sequence of chapters is largely that which obtains in texts of physics. The chapters are in general well written but rather brief averaging less than ten pages to the chapter. While the book cannot be accepted as an ideal text in general science, it will serve a useful purpose. It is adapted to use in the first year of the high school or in the upper grades of the ele- mentary school. — W. L. Eikenberry. Agronomy, A Course in Practical Gardening for High Schools, Willard N. Clute. P. xvi.+296. Ginn & Co. This book can almost be read by its illustrations. They are numerous, well selected and clear. The text is well written and is a brief, well motivated presentation. If the teacher will use the practical exercises appended to the chapters first and the text as supplementary reading the book will serve an excellent purpose. The early chapters on the soil seem particularly good. There follow several on the organization and activities of the plant. Then Chapter IX is on Garden Making, X Tillage, XII Weeds. Propagation, Pruning, Decorative Planting, Plant Diseases and Pests are other chapter headings. Plant Breeding is given four- teen pages ; the Origin of Specie, five. It is questionable if even a high school senior can gain a clear notion of the present status of the origin of species in so brief a treatment. Teachers' Course in Natural Science Y^ URING the forthcoming SUMMER QUARTER of the UNIVERSITY TJ y of CHICAGO, the department of Natural Science of the School of Education offers several courses designed especially for teachers. For grade teachers there are introductory courses (1 and 2) which present respective- ly a general study of plant and animal life and a study of the experimental aspects of physics and chemistry as they may be used in the grades; and for special teachers of nature-study and supervisors there is a seminar course (7) which considers the principles, purposes, methods of organization and presentation of the different phases of the course in nature-study in the schools. 'J'here is an elementary course in botany (1 Dept. of Botany;, a course (21) specially designed for those who teach botany in the secondary schools and a similar course in zoology. A course (24) in biological evolution is given for students in education who desire first-hand contact with some of the illustrative materials and with the literature of modern theories of evolu- tion. Laboratory, field, museum, and library are arranged with special refer- ence to the most effective work of students in the above courses. For further information apply to. The School of Education The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois Courses in other departments of science in the University will be found to correlate well with these teachers' courses. Students registered in science may elect courses in all other departments of the University including Educatory Arts and Social Science. TREES IN WINTER THEIR STUDY, PLANTING, CARE AND IDENTIFICATION Cloth, 12 mo. 446 pp., 112 full page plates, 103 text illustrations by Albert F. Blakeslee Professor of Botany and Director of Summer School at the Con- necticut Agricultural College. and Chester D. Jarvis Horticulturalist of the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station. The book by the aid of keys, descriptive text and photographic illustrations of habit, bark, twigs, and fruit gives a ready means of be- coming familiar with all the common trees, both wild and cultivated, in northeastern America. Chapters on the methods of tree study and on the life and growth of trees will add to the value of the book for use in schools. The book also gives information in regard to the kinds of trees to select for different purposes, where to locate them, when and how to plant them, how to take care of and protect therr. from insects, fungus and other injuries. Winter, as the authors use the terfn, is that period when the tree is in its resting condition and the general rule is brought out that the buying, planting and care of trees should take place only dur- ing this resting period. Published by the MACMILLAN CO. For sale by BLAKESLEE & JARVIS, Storrs Station, Conn., and sent upon receipt of $2.00 and 24c postage. Special discount on club orders. The Nature-Study Review, Ithaca, N. Y. Gentlemen: Enclosed find for which ])lease enter my name as subscriber to and The Nature-Study Review for one year. Signed , Street. City State. Date. The Nature-Study Review, Ithaca, N. Y. Gentlemen : Enclosed find $1.25 for which please enter my name as a member both of the School Garden Association of America and the American Nature Study Society (including the Nature-Study Review). Signed. Street, City State. Date The American Botanist Again Increased In Size The combination of The Fern Bulletin with this publication has warranted us in again increasing the number of pages. It is now the largest and best illustrated magazine of popular botany in the world. Pays special attention to rare plants, unusual plant habits, ornamental gardening, and methods for teachers. Quarterly $1.00 a Year With Nature-Study Review $1.50 Willard N. Clute & Company [ Joliet, Illinois^ It Flavors of Nature Just as She Is Not of the shop, the laboratory, the library, the schoolroom; Not of this ism or that hypothesis; Not hysterical nor hypocritical; But it is a sincere, honest, faithful magazine, true to its name. 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World ^B ^^^^^^^Bt 1 Bird mm THE RURAL EDUCATOR ,-fe^ . *. -.- ij^ ^l-,(j National Journal of Rural and Agri- cultural Education for Teachers, Preachers, Rural Leaders and Progressive Farmers. It is attuned to the Rural Idea. Send for specimen copy and our three months special offer. Those who cannot go to college should join our Correspondence School of Agricultural Education. Full information on request. Special to Teachers and Lovers of Nature-Study. For $1.50 we will send both The Rural Educator and The Nature-Study Review for one year. Don't delay. THE RURAL EDUCATOR, Ohio Stale University, COLUMBUS, OHIO NEW NATURE BOOKS THE SPIDER BOOK By John Henry Comstock The only work of its kind in any language "A rare requisition to a long list of science literature. Students have long desired such a compre- hensive book on the habits and classification of spiders and their relatives, scorpions, harvestmen, and others of the class Arschnida. 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Illustrated - - Net $4.00 HOW TO KEEP BEES By Anna Botsford Comstock Mrs. Comstock carries the same wise and witty style of narration past her opening chapter, telling of the initial steps in the art and cataloguing the tools necessary, as well as directing the care of the bees and the extraction of ti^ honey in a way so de- lightful that it will repay the attention even of city dwellers who have no expectation of putting her precepts into practice." — Philadelphia Public Ledger. Illustrated Net $1.00 DOUBLEOAY, PAGE & CO., Garden City, New York The Nature Study Review offers to old or new sub- scribers the following attractive combination prices on the leading educational magazines. ^^^ ^^^^n^s. R-iew^^^ ^^^ Primary Plans I1.25 $1.00 $1.90 Normal Instructor 1.25 i.oo 1.90 Canadian Postage on above combinations 40c each. With cither of the above, we offer free a copy of "The School Year," 256 pages, bound in silk, published by F. A. Owen Pub. Co. A splendid book. 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At prices quoted, the quantities will go quickly. Order at once. Make drafts payable to and send orders to the Publishers. The Comstock Publishing Company, Ithaca, N. Y. THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS See Important Announcement, Pa^e 145 Subscriptions and advertisements should be sent to the Comstock Publishing Co. Ithaca, N. Y. Manuscripts for Publication and Books to be Reviewed should be sent to the Editor. Vol. 9 May, 1913 Xo. .-> Field Work on Trees A. F. Blakeslee. In a previous paper in this journal, attention was called to some of the chief characters of value for the identification of trees in winter. In another place, the writer has discussed in some detail various ways in which the study of trees may be car- ried on. The present brief article must confine itself to some of the methods of tree study that have been suggested by experience with elementary students. No apology need be given for making identificational studies take a prominent part in a child's introduc- tion to the world out of doors. The natural first approach to learning about a tree is finding its name. Familiarity with trees may be advanced by class exercises in the field and in the laboratory as well as by individual work un- dertaken by the student. Field Work — Field w^ork to be successful must be fully as carefully planned as indoor laboratory work. In order to pre- vent the exercise from degenerating into a mere picnic, the pur- pose of the trip should be definite and the objects to be observed or the problems to be studied not too numerous. It is as important to decide what to leave out as what to include. The ground to be visited should be gone over by the teacher before each excursion for the same reason that demonstration experiments in physics or chemistry must be tried in private in order to insure their success- ful performance before a class. Experience has shown that some form of report, though but brief, is as necessary with students out of doors as their records made within the laboratory. Further, the number of students that can be successfully handled on a field trip is a matter to be . 121 122 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :5— May, 1913 considered. It will differ with the character of the work and the skill of the teacher. Lack of proper regard for some of the re- quirements of outdoor work with students has often foreordained well-meaning efforts to failure, but such failures do not detract from the education value of the work when properly planned and executed. The writer has conducted his identificational tree study in the following manner. A squad of students provided with writing material is brought to the first tree to be investigated and without being told its name they are asked to write down independently, each for himself, what they think the tree is. After they have made their guess, its correct name is given and they are led to work out the distinguishing characteristics of the tree taking with them for later comparison specimens of leaves, twigs or fruit ac- cording to the season. Each tree on the trip is first guessed by the student before it is discussed by the instructor. A correct guess counts 1 for such forms as the Tulip Tree, which is the only one of its genus in the region. Sugar Maple if correctly guessed would score 2, since there are several Maples to be dis- tinguished. The guess. Maple or Red Maple for the Sugar Maple, would score 1, or one-half the value given the full correct name. At the end of the trip the trees are reviewed from the specimens collected and the individual scores of the students calculated and reported. Naturally these scores are not counted at all as marks in making up the class standing, but the scoring: game has been found to add a decided zest to the exercises. The report called for consists of a Hst of the trees studied with a very brief charac- terization of the distinguishing features of each. At the beginning of each new trip, the trees of the previous exercises are reviewed from specimens. These frequent reviews are essential. Occasion- al quizzes consisting in identifying actual specimens on exhibition or the trees themselves are of value. In winter the distinguish- ing characters have been taken from the twigs. These, from reas- ons of convenience, have been studied largely in the laboratory. Ability to distinguish trees from a distance by habit and bark characters has been much more readily acquired by students than was at first thought possible. On account of weather considera- tions, this work has been carried on chiefly in March and April, before the opening of the buds and while the method of branching in consequence is still discernible. The process has been the same as in the field exercises already described, except that the student's guess must be made before coming near enough to see the detailed marks of distinction. A closer approach determines the correct- blakeslee] field WORK OX TREES 123 ness of his first im])ression. In review, unfamiliar photographs, respectively of the habit and the bark of the tree in question are exposed together and slowly carried from one end of a row of students to the other. This method is in imitation of the car window identification of trees, and it is surprising how readily photographs can be thus recognized when once a familiarity with the distinguishing habit and bark characters has been acquired. Lantern slides would doubtless be of much service in this connec- tion. Laboratory Work — In the first paper, the Horse-chestnut twig was used to illustrate the markings on a typical twig. There is probably no better form for an introduction to winter tree study but twigs of other large-budded species such as the Shag- bark Hickory, the Mocker nut, the Norway Maple and tlie Caro- lina Poplar also show all the typical markings clearly. Laboratory work with twigs should not consist merely in finding the marks of identificational value and their significance in the life of the tree. The twigs studied should be made to reveal their past history by their markings. What happened each year in the life of the twig examined? How many leaves were formed? How many buds? How many of the latter developed into branches? If the slow-growing spurs of such forms as the Beech, or the Black Birch be investigated, a bit of human interest may be given the history study by asking such questions as, — how many inches did the twig grow during your lifetime? How many leaves did it produce the year you were born, etc.? A slow-growing twig of Beech was found to be 29 years old although it had grown only 4^ inches in length during this period. Consequently if proper material is obtained, there is little fear of any student not being able to discover what the twig did during his year of birth. By a regard to the size of the fruit-scars on an Apple twig, one can dis- cover for several years back, how many flowers were produced each year and how many of these developed into mature fruit. Individual Work — ^A personal first hand appreciation of nature is an ideal of nature study and individual outdoor study is therefore to be encouraged. Too much, however, must not be ex- pected of the student's unguided efiforts.. The collecting instinct can be taken advantage of. The old style herbarium work that entailed a disproportionate amount of labor in mounting speci- mens can be replaced by collections of leaves and twigs which re- quire little labor in preparation. Twigs sewed or glued on small sheets with a brief description of the distinguishing characteris- tics are a required collection in the writer's classes. 124 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 lo— May, 1913 A chart of some limited area, such as a street of the school grounds, with the trees located and named furnishes another means of getting the student familiar with forms out of doors. One of the writer's correspondents reports arousing con- siderable interest in winter tree study by exhibiting in a store window numbered twigs taken from trees grown in the streets of the village and offering some simple prize for their identifica- tion. Photographs of habits and barks might be added to such an exhibit to advantage. In some of his classes the writer has assigned to each student or allowed him to choose for himself an individual tree species to be investigated and reported upon from the tree itself independ- ently of text books. Such a scheme discovers the student with powers of independent observation but it has been found neces- sary to post a rather full set of questions to guide this elementary research work. A tree book on a limited group or for a limited locality may be gotten up by the more enthusiastic students embodying line drawings or specimens and a short descriptive text for each spe- cies represented. Keys may be devised for the familiar genera but work of this kind cannot be expected of younger students. As an ex- ample of a key such as has been suggested, there is appended one made out for the Maples. Key to the Maples (Acer).* Leaf-scars opposite, narrow U or V-shaped ; bundle-scars conspicuous, equidistant, typically 3, though sometimes each of these becomes com- pounded ; fruit winged, in pairs. 1. Conspicuous, narrow tooth present between leaf-scars, 2. 1. Conspicuous tooth absent from between leaf-scars, 4. 2. Buds white-downy, collateral buds generally present, twigs gen- erally with a bloom. Box Elder (Acer Ncgundo). 2. Buds smooth, collateral buds never present, twigs without bloom, 3. 3. Buds with only one pair of scales visible, older branchlets white- streaked, Striped Maple {Acer pennsylvanicum). 3. Buds with several pairs of scales visible, branchlets not white- streaked, Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) . 4. Outer single pair of bud-scales equalling the bud in length, their edges meeting and enclosing the bud, therefore generally only one pair of scales visible; pith brown; shrubs or at the most small trees, 5. 4. Outer pair of scales shorter than bud, their edges not meeting, therefore several pairs of scales visible; trees, 6. 5. Buds and twigs stout, smooth ; young bark with longitudinal white lines. Striped Maple {Acer pennsylvanicum) . (*From Blakeslee & Jarvis's "Trees in Winter" with permission of the Macmillan Company.) MiLLKRj IVORK OF GLACIERS 125 5. Buds and twigs more slender, both buds and twigs (at least to- ward tip) white-downy, white lines absent from bark, Mountain Maple {Acer spicatum). 6. Buds brown, narrow, sharp-pointed, generally 4-8 pairs of close- ly over-lapping scales visible, collateral buds absent, Sugar Maple {Acer saccharum). 6. Buds red or green, broader, blunt-pointed, fewer scales visible, 7. 7. Terminal buds small, red, generally under 5 mm. long and not distinctly larger than lateral buds ; collateral buds generally present ; pith often pink; native trees, 8. 7. Terminal buds large, stout, generally over 5 mm. long and gener- ally distinctly larger than lateral buds ; collateral buds never present ; European trees, 9. 8. Broken twigs with rank odor, bark falling away in large, thin flakes on old trees, branchlets strongly tending to grow downward and curve upward at their tips. Silver Maple {Acer saccharinum). 8. Broken twigs without rank odor, bark rough on old trees but generally not flaking in large thin scales, branchlets less markedly curved. Red Maple {Acer riibrum). 9. Buds red. inner scales covered with rusty wool ; adjacent edges of leaf -scars meeting and forming a slight projection; bark closerridged, not flaky. Norway Maple {Acer platanoides) . 9. Buds green, inner scales white-woolly, edges of leaf-scars not meeting. Ijark flaking off in squarish scales. Sycamore Maple {Acer Pscudo-Platanus). Work of Glaciers Geo J. Miller. This article has been arbitrarily limited to a discussion of the more common glacial features to be found within the area cov- ered by ice during the Glacial Period. Since few of the evidences of glaciation can be brought into the school-room the field is the only place to gain any true concept of the work of glaciers. On the other hand the large area of some of the common glacial fea- tures necessitates considerable traveling in order that the student may see enough to comprehend them. Nothing but continued field experience can give familiarity with glaciation. For con- venience and to secure definiteness the subject is discussed under two headings, viz.. Work of Erosion and Work of Deposition. WORK OF EROSION. Let us assume that the class enters a glaciated valley at its lower end and ascends to its head. What is the first large feature to be noted? If a good view point can be secured the characteris- tic U-shape (Fig. 1) will be observed. This should be contrasted with the V-shape given to a valley by running water. Is this U-shape sufficient proof that a glacier ever occupied the valley? 126 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :5— May, 1913 Fig. 1. A mountain valley which has been made U- shape by glaciation. Note the comparatively smooth sides and bottom. What further proof can be found? Note that the valley floor and sides (at least part way up) have been swept clean and that nearly all sharp angles are gone. In other words the loose boul- ders have been rounded and the solid rocks have been worn smooth. Could this be done by any other agency than ice ? Now take the student across the valley floor. What formed those grooves and scratches (striae) on the solid rock: and on many of the loose boulders? Would clear ice cut such grooves? He learns here that the great erosive power of ice is due to the boulders that it carries. A little questioning will elicit how the glacier secured the boulders. As he ascends the valley he may find its head to be like a great amphitheater, i. e., a cirque, in the bottom of which the great glaciers of past ages joined and passed down the valley. This will be true if the valley studied is in the mountains where local glaciers have existed. How did the glacier or glaciers make it amphitheater-shaped? How did they make those basins in the solid rock floor of the cirque that now contain beautiful lakes? From this little trip up the valley he has learned of U-shaped valleys, smoothed rock surfaces, grooves and striae, the absence WORK OF GLACIERS 127 or scarcity of sharp angled rocks, and cirques. How is he to rec- ognize glacial erosion in other regions? A trip to a region con- taining rock exposures such as rock hills but not rock valleys will convince him that the facts already learned can be applied. In traveling over such a region, however, he observes that the rock hills have a gentle slope on the side from which the glacier came (stoss side) and a steep slope on the other (lee) side (Fig. 2). Why do glaciers give this characteristic shape to a rock hill? Are there exceptions? Can this shape be used as a proof to show the direction of ice movement? Can the grooves and scratches be used for the same purpose? are some of the prob- lems that confront him. Fig. 2. Rock hill shaped by a glacier passing over it from right to left. WORK OF DEPOSITION. Let us secure a good view point near the lower end of the same mountain valley where we can look up the valley and also out upon the plain. How was that semi-circular ridge (Fig. 3) around the mouth of the valley — the terminal moraine — formed? From this position he can form a mental picture of the ice mass that occupied the valley, depositing great quantities of loose rock Fig. 3. Terminal moraine around the lower end of valley shown in Fig. 1. Both pictures were taken from the same point. 128 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :5— May, 1913 Fig. 4. Gently rolling ground moraine around the rock hill shown in Fig 2. material at its terminals and along its sides. He can see how the lateral moraines of two minor glaciers came together and formed the medial moraine of the larger one. In the case of valley glaciers he learns that moraines are commonly distinct ridges. A few journeys over portions of the glacial plain covered by drift of the Glacial Period soon con- vinces him that, (1) terminal moraines are rarely distinct ridges but belts of highly rolling topography which (2) grade off into gently rolling topography or ground moraine (Fig. 4), and (3) that there are no medial or lateral moraines present. How did the glacier form the ground moraine? How has this unequal deposition of the drift influenced the formation of lakes and swamps? What further proofs are there that the material was deposited by the glacier and not by some other agency? This leads to an examination of the deposit. A gully, or "cut" along a railroad or wagon-road afford excel- lent places for study of the deposit. Is there a separation of the fine clay, sand, gravel, and coarse boulders into layers or are they mixed together in- discriminately (Fig. 5) ? Do some of the boulders show striae? Are there many different kinds of rock present? Are the deposits formed by any other Fig. 5. Seciion of gla- agency than glaciers so indiscrimi- cial drift showing its nately mixed? How will this kind of structure. Note that the ^jeposit affect the fertility of the. soil fine and coarse are indis- \ . , -> ^ i • i • i criminately mixed. and agriculture? On this plain he may MILLER WORK OF GLACIERS 129 find hills of drift similar in shape to the rock hills previously described except, that the lee side has the gentle slope. These are drumlins. Why are the slopes opposite to those of a glaciated rock hill? FLUVIO-GLACIAL DEPOSITS. Where great quantities of ice melt the work of running; water tends to modify that of the glacier. Along the glacier front much water flows away from the terminal moraine, carrying; large quantities of sediment. If this water deposits the sediment as a relatively flat plain an ontwash plain is formed. If the de- posit is confined to a valley it is a valley train. How would the structure of these deposits differ from glacial drift? Under what conditions will these plains be good agricultural land?" Will they be any better land than the drift from which they were derived? are a few of the many problems to be considered. Per- haps the student has been fortunate enough to find a meander- ing ridge of stratified sand and gravel extending across the ground moraine (Fig. 6). This is an esker and was probably formed by an overloaded stream flowing in a tunnel beneath the ice. How is it possible for the esker to run up and down hill if it was formed by a stream of water? is always an in- teresting problem. Mounds or short ridges formed by glacial waters are called kames and like eskers are of small importance except as gravel and sand pits. Fig. 6. An esker. This esker occurs at intervals for about four miles extending through marshes and up and down hill. Possums and Possum Hunting Paul Sargent. It was several years ago in the latter part of a foggy, rainy night that I was awakened by the wail of a hen in distress — there was no doubt about that. As it promised adventure I dressed hurriedly, finally found a lantern in the dark, and called the dog Bobby, an intelligent collie, always anxious to take part in activities. After some scouting around in the blackberry briars and bushes Bobby located the hen, much bedraggled and injured. He also found a fresh trail leading away from the hen, through a paling fence to an oak tree ten yards the other side. Bobby followed it several times as far as this tree, circled many more times, finally after one wide circle, nose high in air, came back to the oak and sat down, barking and looking up the tree. His judgment proved to be correct as the increasing light of a gray dawn revealed a large possum perched upon the first branch. He was soon dislodged by shaking. This was the first ^'treeing" by a developing possum dog — a thing he was to repeat many times later for we gave him plenty of opportunities. We went often and captured from none to three a night, and no doubt the first figure more often represented our nightly catch. One November night we started out. A rather brisk south wind was eddying the dry leaves in all directions. By all the tra- ditions of possum hunting we should not have gone this night on account of the wind, the blowing leaves destroying the trail. While crossing a pasture Bobby, without warning, caught a pos- sum on the ground — a very large one. As usual with hunting dogs, other than hounds, he did not bark on trail and Mr. Possum was overtaken in a treeless and bushless pasture. We first knew of this when we heard a mixture of growling and shaking of which Bobby was doing the active part. We went on. Half way through a large tract of timber Bobby ''barked treed" a hundred yards to the left of our line of march. Hurrying pellmell in that direction we found Bobby doing his best to climb a tree while ten feet above him sat a possum, his round, black ears erect and small black eyes shining like beads in the light of the lantern. A short climb by one of the boys and he had him by the tail — a perfectly safe handle usually. This possum was a medium sized one, about half the size of the first one caught. Several hundred yards further on in the same woods another trail was found by Bobby. After long waiting we moved in the direction we thought him to be, and found him sitting quietly, looking up among the trees but at no tree in particular. After examining 130 POSSUMS AND POSSUM HUNTING 131 in / y' t |ig ■ '1 closely all the trees near, in a hickory bush fifty feet away we found the possum, a young one the size of a rat, hardly enough, it seemed, to make a trail. Thus in about an hour quite a range in sizes had been caught. Another night while following a brushy creek bottom, we came across a much-surprised possum. For almost a minute, ten feet away he stood there in the glare of the lantern, his mouth half open and teeth bared, bewildered by the light. Some dis- tance down the creek came Bobby hard on the fresh trail. The possum having by this time recovered his senses, made for the creek, promptly rolled in to our great surprise, and swam across as easily as a muskrat could have done. Bobby crossed over 132 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :5— May, 1913 above and almost met the possum as it came from the water. The possum promptly climbed a whip of willow, barely strong enough to support his weight. Bobby jumped for him and both fell into the water. By considerable coaxing Bobby carried the possum over to our side of the creek. The possum when close pressed by a dog will invariably climb a small tree if there is one to be found. In this respect he differs radically from the coon who is a good judge of timber and picks the large ones. He seems also to prefer a leaning one and very brushy, or a grapevine, which he c 1 i m b s with great ease, using his specially adapted tail to cling to branches as a meas- ure of safety. Very often instead of climbing a tree, he goes into a hollow log or stump. ]\Iore or less timorous at other times this is the place where he asserts himself for he is a scrapper in his own right when a dog can approach him only from the front. A hollow log, tree, or stump, is the usual den of a possum, but they are not over particular as to their quarters as they use them mostly to sleep in and often make their bed in a brush pile, and more rarely in a corn shock or take possession of a squirrels' nest of leaves in a tree. If a den is in a tree the hollow is usually near the base, or in the large roots. Occasionally it is high up in the tree, but in this case the tree is usually a leaning one, making it easy to climb. One morn- ing, after a light snow in the night, I tracked a possum into a POSSUMS AND POSSUM HUNTING 133 fallen, leafy tree top where he was found curled up asleep. His back track showed that he had vacated a very commodious and comfortable hollow hickory for his cooler quarters in the tree top. The food of the possum in the Fall season is principally fruit. In the winter time he must obtain considerable food among the leaves of the woods for his very crooked trail when not alarmed indicates that he does much nosing around in the brush. With the coming of Fall he regales himself on apples and wild grapes, and persimmons are proverbial as possum feed. Whatever may be his food he invariably waxes fat and thereby conserves a supply of bodily energy to tide him over the winter months of cold and deep snow when his journeys in search of food are far between. But he does come forth with the warmer nights of rain or melting snow. Next morning one may sometimes see his tracks in the snow where he meandered down the top rail of the fence a hundred yards or more, paused here and there, pondering the weather, perhaps, then meandered back again to his den in the maple against the fence, without finding anything eatable. He does occasionally turn up in a hen house but his raids there do not compare wnth the damage done by a mink or weasel sometimes. A possum — because of his dazed condition when confronted with a bright li.2:ht— is almost always captured, dead or alive, in spite 134 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :5— May, 1913 of the fact that his chances of escape from the hen house are good, the more so if he is threatened with obhteration by means of a revolver held in the hands of an excited woman by flickering lantern light, amid squawking, flying hens. When captured the possum is usually in the "p^^-y dead" stage. In this condition he is rolled more or less into a ball, head pulled under, eyes half closed, mouth slightly open, rows of sharp, white teeth much in evidence and the corners of the mouth are pulled back into a grin. When touched his only response is to widen the grin. As a rule when he isn't playing dead he is in a state of strenuous activity, and he oscillates between these two extremes. The majority of possums play dead readily, but I remember one that would not play dead at all ; it was al- ways in fighting spirit. When carrying one by the tail on the hunts at night he sometimes indicates that he has come out of the former stage by trying to gorge himself on his captor's leg. He clings to brush as one goes along occasionally getting away and disappearing at surprising speed for such short legs. The fur of the possum is a silvery gray in color, white short hair underneath with longer black ones on the surface. But I remember when a small boy of looking into the depths of a barrel at an entirely white possum, with several young ones, that was caught in the neighborhood. Hygiene as Nature Study VI — A Study of Tobacco. F. M. Gregg. Peru (Neb.) State Normal. The subject upon which we venture a study this month is one that presents many difficulties as a public school subject. Perhaps chief among these is the risk that the teacher runs in providing suggestion that may result in greater harm than good. Then there is the impossibility of making a school-room study of the physiological eflfects of the substance under consideration. Still again, the subject of the use of tobacco is one about which so many extravagant things have been said on both sides of the question, that it is difficult to select the middle ground of truth upon which one feels that one can stand with confidence and certainty. Upon one point however, all writers are agreed, namely, that the use of tobacco by the young is undesirable and positive- GREGG] HYGIENE AS NATURE STUDY 135 ly injurious. And upon another point there is practical unanimity, and that is, that if the tobacco habit could be eliminated entirely from mankind civilization would profit by it in many ways and lose in none. The writer holds with many others, that it is therefore a proper subject to consider in a public school course on hygiene, while admitting that the teaching thus far has not been highly efficacious, though still worth while. If one sets out to ask his tobacco-using friends why tobacco is used and what benefits come from it, he will get almost a hun- dred diiYerent answers from a hundred different users of the weed. Not that there are a hundred benefits, but that there is little positive argument for its use beyond the fact of a certain soothing effect that is said to attend its use. Ask these same one hundred friends, how they came to be users of tobacco, and they will nearly all agree that it was the social influence and sug- gestion that impelled them to it. The problem of the schools, then, is one of establishing a strong enough counter social in- fluence, if its teaching on this subject is to become effectively embedded in the lives of its pupils. Here as elsewhere in hygiene, the more effective appeal is social rather than individual. The following simple studies are offered as a partial basis of departure in the study of tobacco and the tobacco-habit, but the teacher is urged to be on guard lest she make the work with tobacco and its discussion a source of positive and indirect sug- gestion of the very end she wants to avoid. Let the justification for the studies be an effort to supplement the efforts of the home in preventing fourth and fifth grade pupils from contracting the tobacco habit, an end with which every rational parent will be in hearty accord. A. The Nature-Study Approach. /. A study of the tobacco plant. (a) Secure a small packet of tobacco seeds and give the pupils an opportunity to examine them through a simple magni- fying glass. (b) Provide a suitable receptacle and start some of these seeds to growing. They will germinate and develop sufficiently to be of interest to the pupils while their later studies of tobacco are being made. (c) Many greenhouses will have some species of these plants growing, and here a plant can be obtained for examination and study. Note the generally disagreeable odor of the plant, particularly of a crushed leaf. Something of the history of the plant may well come in at this point, supplied by the teacher. 136 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9 :5— May, 1913 Are any insects found around this plant other than the green- house white fly? 2. A study of commercial tobacco. (a) A bit of plug tobacco as big as half a pea, in an inch of water in a test tube or other glass vessel, will soon give the water a dark brown color, showing that tobacco contains sub- stances that are highly soluble in water. The most important of these substances is, of course, nicotine. (b) Try a similar amount of tobacco in about a half-inch of saliva collected in a test tube, and note that saliva also dissolves the substances in the tobacco. (c) Take a bit of the raw white of Qgg and on it place a drop or two of the liquid from (a). Note that the white of tgg takes this into itself. Point out that this white of ^gg is not un- like the living matter that makes up the cells of which our bodies are made up. (d) Put a drop of the solution from (a) on a fly or other insect and note the result. If you think it not unwise, take a medicine dropper and inject some of the solution in the mouth of a mouse. Keep the animal out of sight of course, till ''all is over" and then present the final result for examination. (e) Have a little girl with a particularly white and clean little finger, immerse it in some of the tobacco solution for a few minutes, and note the discoloration. (f) Now take a bit of tobacco no larger than a pea and place it on a thin metal plate supported over an alcohol or other flame. Place flies or other insects caged in wire screening, over the fumes, and note results. The odors that come from the heated tobacco disclose the volatile character of nicotine. (g) A bit of tobacco may now be held by pliers and burned in the alcohol flame, the odors again being noted and any other facts considered that the teacher deems it wise to present, such as the effect of this burning on the nicotine itself. B. Hygienic Considerations and Conclusions. Why do housewives sometimes take a solution of tobacco and sprinkle it on houseplants? Why are pieces of tobacco some- times placed among articles of clothing that have been laid away for the summer or winter? Why do entomologists (bug-men) find empty cigar boxes especially good for keeping their pre- served specimens in? Do you know of any other good uses to which to put tobacco? Would you think tobacco a good thing to feed to your pet animals, especially young ones? Why do not foot-ball trainers HYGIENE AS NATURE STUDY 137 Hcs-vfc/' Amift£ BJLDG, 0£/V\^£n, COLO. The Nature-Study Review, Ithaca, N. Y. Gentlemen: Enclosed find for which please enter my name as subscriber to and The Nature-Study Review for one year. Signed Street, .City State. Date. The Nature-Study Review, Ithaca, N. Y. Gentlemen : Enclosed find $1.25 for which please enter my name as a member both of the School Garden Association of America and the American Nature Study Society (including the Nature-Study Review), Signed , Street, City,. State. Date. A See special club offers in front of magazine. 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Order by Number. 132-Red-bellied Wood- pecker. 133-Sawwhet Owl. 134-Black Swan. 135-Snowy Plover. 136-Lesser Prairie Hen. 137-Black Duck. 138-Wilson's Petrel. 139-Blue-Gray Gnat- catcher. 140-American Coot. 141-Ivory-billed Wood- pecker. 142-American Sparrow Hawk. 143-SiIver Pheasant. 144-Scaled Partridge. 145-Ovenbird. 146-A m e r i c a n Three- toed Woodpecker. 147-Bartramian Sand- piper. 148-Nightingale. 149-Roseate Spoonbill. 150-Dickcissel. 151-Dusky Grouse. 153-South American Rhea. 154-Bay-breasted War- bler. i pictures for $1.50. Send for order blank. MUMFORD, Publisher, 536 South Clark St. 107-Yellow-billed Tropic Bird. 108-European Kingfisher. 109-Vermilion Flycatch- er. 110-Lazuli Bunting. Ill-Mountain Bluebird. 112-English Sparrow. 113-Allen's Humming Bird. 114-Green-winged Teal. 115-Black Grouse. 116-Flamingo. 117-Verdin. 118-Bronzed Grackle. 119-Ring-necked Pheas- ant. 120-Yel)ow- breasted Chat. 121-Crowned Pigeon. 122-Red-eyed Vireo. 123-Fox Sparrow. 124-Bob-white. 125-Passenger Pigeon. l?fi-.«hort-eared Owl. 127-Rose Cockatoo. 128-Mountain Partridge. 129-T.east Bittern. 130-Bald Pate Duck. 131-Purple Finch. The above 7 A. W. 155-Black-necked Stilt. 156-Pintail Duck. 157-Double Yellow-head- ed Parrot. 158-Magnolia Warbler. 159-Great Blue Heron. 161-Brunnich's Murre. 162-Canada Goose. 163-Brown Creeper. 164-Downy Woodpecker. 165-Old Squaw Duck. 166-White-faced Glossy Ibis, 167-Arkansas Kingbird. 169-Wilson's Snipe. 172-Prairie Hen. 177-Wilson's Tern. 180-Loon. 183-Lieast Sandpiper. 185-American Herring Gull. 188-Red-s houldered Hawk. 192-Pectoral Sandpiper. 193-Kingbird of Para- dise. 196-Tufted Puffin. 199-Red-headed Duck. Chicago, m. Kindly mention Nature-Study Review when replying to advertisements It Flavors of Nature Just as She Is Not of the shop, the laboratory, the library, the schoolroom; Not of this ism or that hypothesis; Not hysterical nor hypocritical ; But it is a sincere, honest, faithful magazine, true to its name. THE GUIDE TO NATURE It tells of the woods and fields; of valleys, ravines and mea- dows ; of underfoot and overhead. It represents the students and lovers of nature who are mem- bers or friends of The Agassis Association. Send $1.00 for a year. Edward F. Bigelow, Managing Editor. Address : The Agassiz Association Arcadia: Sound Beach Connecticut Handbook of jj^^^^^^^BH Nature-Study ^^^^^HB| By Anna Botsford Comstock ^Hl^^^^l Based on B^M^B^Hrii^H Cornell Nature -Study Leaflets H"^^'- ^HSHf^P^^^^^^^^^^^^H^I More than two hundred lessons on common birds, animals, insects, plants and trees, worked out in detail for teacher and pu- pil. 950 pages, more th^n 1,000 illustrations. m^H Send for Circular and Sample Pages ^^^^^^^^^Hl Price $ 3.25 Postage 40c COMSTOCK PUBLISHING CO., Ithaca, N. Y. Kindly mention Nature-Study Review when replying to advertisements THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW DEVOTED PRIMARILY TO ALL SCIENTIFIC STUDIES OF NATURE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS Ixn'nfWfii'nf Please note date of expiration of your subscription on the label of the XIlipUI Lctiil wrapper. Subscriptions must be paid in advance to comply with postal requirements. Subscriptions and advertisements should be sent to The Comslock Publishing Co., Ithaca, N. Y. Manuscripts for Publication and Books to be Reviewed should be sent to the Editor. Vol. 9 September, 1913. No. 6 A Lesson on Squirrels and Chipmunks for Elementary Grades Anna Botsford Comstock Children are constantly observing life out-of-doors and teachers have found it difficult to utilize these observations in the school The Gray Squirrel Photo by A . A . A lien work because they are desultory and unrecorded. We have been for years trying to bring into the schoolroom this fresh and rich material and make it an organic part of the nature-study work. This can be accomplished only by arranging the desultory 147 148 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:6— Sept., 1913 observations so that they may be consecutive and systematized to form a complete story. In this work the field note-book is the greatest possible help. If the pupils have the note-books they will describe what they see while they are seeing. This adds greatly to their powers of observation and is also most excellent drill in writing English. The squirrels and chipmunks are attractive subjects for Septem- ber study. At this time of year these active little creatures are happy gathering nuts and busy putting them away, each in his own fashion. Those pupils who get their natiire-study in city parks are likely to study chiefly the gray squirrel. But, fortu- nately, these beautiful animals are quite as interesting and "squir- relsome" in their behavior as are their smaller wild cousins, while in country places the red squirrels and chipmunks are sufficiently common as to be easily observed by the children on their field excursions. On the Great Plains the striped gopher might be substituted for the chipmunk. In case a locality has only one species, this may be studied by itself. The following plan has been found practical and the children seem to have greatly enjoyed the work: The lesson begins with a discussion between the teacher and pupils as to how many squirrels there are in a locality. The first part of the lesson is given to distinguish these species. The following questions may be written on the blackboard for the children to copy in their note-books or to get firmly fixed in their memory : 1. What is the difference in size between the red and gray squirrels? or between the red squirrel and chipmunk? 2. Describe each carefully as follows: Note the colors of the ears, top of the head, sides of the head, nose, back, sides, breast, the under parts, the legs, and the tail. 3. Describe in detail the stripes on the chipmunk and tell just where they occur on the animal. 4. What are the differences in size and color between the tails of the red squirrel and the chipmunk? It might seem that the above questions were very simple but there are very few grown people, who have known these animals aU their lives, who can give an accurate description of their colors. There are very few people, for instance, who have noticed the dark stripe along the side of the red squirrel where the tawny color of the sides meets the whiter under parts. comstock] lesson ON SQUIRRELS AND CHIPMUNKS 149 The next lesson should be on the habits and the following questions may be asked : 1. Are the front legs as large and strong as the hind legs? Does this mean that the squirrel is a good jumper? 2. Does the squirrel trot along or leap when running on the ground ? 3. When crossing an open space does it stop at intervals to make observations? Describe its attitude when doing this? The Chipmunk Photo by A. A. A lien 4. Describe how the squirrel climbs a tree. Does it keep its feet under it as when running on the ground or does it spread the legs out widely ? 5. Does it go down a tree head first? Is it able to climb out on the smallest branches ? 6. Does the squirrel follow the same route always when pass- ing from one tree to another, either on the ground or the branches ? 7. Does the chipmunk climb as freely in the trees as the red squirrel ? Have you ever seen a chipmunk in the top branches of a tree? 8. What do the squirrels and chipmunks eat during the autumn, winter, spring, and summer? 9. Does the chipmunk carry its food in the same way as the squirrel? (This should bring out the fact that the chipmunk has cheek pouches while the red squirrel carries the nuts in its 150 , NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:6— Sept., 1913 teeth.) Where do they find their food? Describe their attitude while eating it. Have you ever seen one wash its face? 10. How does the squirrel express excitement, anger, or joy? 11. How does the squirrel's language differ from the chip- munk's language? 12. Describe or sketch the tracks made by the squirrel. 13. Where do the squirrels spend the winter? The chip- munks? Where do each lay up their winter stores? It is possible that the children may not be able to find for themselves the nests of the squirrels. In case one should make these observations, he should tell his story to the class. How- ever, the homes of these animals may be written up by consulting books and may be a part of an exercise in English. In fact, the best way to round up a lesson after the children have made their observations is to let them read all that they can find about these animals and write the story. The summer nests of the squirrels made in the tops of trees and their winter nests in protected places, like hollow trees, and the chipmunk's cave with its pro- tected entrance are all excellent topics for exercises in English. The following books may be consulted: "Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers," John Burroughs; ''Wild Life in Orchard and Field," Ernest Ingersoll; "Little Beasts of Field and Wood," Cram; "FamiHar Wild Animals," Lottridge; "American Ani- mals," Stone & Cram; "Secrets of the Woods," Long. Children's Interests in Nature Materials Gilbert H. Trafton [Editor's Note. The following article by Mr. Trafton appeared in 1904 in a local publication of practical studies in Passaic Public Schools. It deserves a wider publicity among those interested in nature-study.] The child is Nature's direct product, developing and evolving for unknown ages from the lowest form of animate and perhaps inanimate creation. When the product is finished and the child comes into cognizance of that Nature of which he is a product, what shall be his relation to his ancient mother? The characters which first appear in the child and many of later developments are heritages from this Nature, some good, to be encouraged. trafton] CHILDREN'S INTEREST IN NATURE MATERIALS 151 others bad, to be repressed. Nor should we forget that the child conies by both characteristics as a result of his inheritance and is no more to be blamed for the latter than for the former. The first instincts of the child show his kin to Nature. The child desires to be put out in the open air, and where circumstances allow, he grows up with his pets, the plants and the wild animals. In thickly crowded cities, untoward surroundings tend to check this natural tendency, but it still manifests itself, though re- pressed. After a few years of this free life, the child is introduced into our system of civilization through the educating agencies of our republic, partly in the home, chiefly in the schoolroom. Often- times this change has been abrupt and the child has been almost rudely torn away from his early attachment, and no opportunity is allowed for contact in later years with those phases of nature with which the growing child and youth ought to be in touch as he develops into manhood. The development of the child and the demands of our civiliza- tion necessarily require the child to spend a large amount of his time in preparing to become a part of that civilization, but just as truly do they demand that these ties which bind the child to Mother Nature shall not be e ntirely broken, but that these chords from Nature's heart shall be fastened more securely to the child's life in order that through them may be absorbed the inspiration that Nature can furnish. How to teach Nature so that these ends may best be accomplished is the problem that teachers are now solving. To make a local study of some of the problems involved in the relation of Nature and the child, questions were sent to the four upper grades of the Passaic schools to be answered by the children. Altogether the papers of a little less than one thousand children have been examined in preparing the results tabulated below. The questions sent out were formulated with two special objects in mind, first to test the children's knowledge of animals and plants, and second, to see Nature from the child's standpoint. The first object was easily attained and the results are of local interest as matters of information, but they also may suggest the subject-matter which should be taken up in Nature teaching in the Passaic schools. The second object was much more difficult of attainment, but the results may be of more than local interest 152 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:6— Sept., 1913 and also may suggest some important principles of Nature teach- ing, although one must be cautious about drawing any very general conclusions from so limited a study of local conditions. In the discussion of these results it will be understood that the conclusions drawn are intended to apply only to the cases ex- amined, although perhaps more extended study in other schools may show some of them to be of general value. The questions sent out to the children were divided into four sets, the first dealing with the children's knowledge of individual animals and their noticeable characteristics, the second with the children's likes and dislikes among the animals, the third doing about the same for plants as the first two for animals and the fourth deahng with the children's conception of animal intelligence. First Set of Questions 1. Make a list of all birds, insects and other animals that you have seen living in Passaic. (Do not name animals that you may have seen in a menagerie.) 2. Describe briefly the one most noticeable thing about each. It was foimd necessary to insert the explanation put in paren- theses in the first question, as in a previous set of questions sent out without restriction the lists were made up very largely of menagerie animals. In stud3dng the results comparisons have been made along two lines, age and sex. The general results are shown graphically in the figures but a few answers are given verbatim. "The most noticeable thing I know about a blue-bird is that he is blue and that if you kill him you get $25 fine." "The most noticeable thing I know about a yellow-bird is that when he sits on a thistle, he does not prick his legs." * * Man — Sivilised annimal . ' ' "Fly — has compressed eyes and for me they are no use." "The most noticeable about the mosquito is it bits and has no teeth, about the fly is it sticks on fly paper." "The most noticeable thing about the Donkey is he won't do any work as soon as he knows it is time to eat." "The most noticeable thing about a grasshopper is that when you hold his head under water he does not drowned." trafton] CHILDREN'S interest in nature materials 153 "We keep dogs for tramps, cows for milk and cats for mice." "A colt is a animal jest bom." In the figures the sexes may be contrasted by comparing the two lines, and the different grades by following the lines across the figures, in which the vertical distances represent per cents of all the answers which apply to the subject under consideration. Figures I and II and tables i and 2 indicate the results from the second question showing the various characteristics that appealed to the children. In making figure II all these features which relate to the appearance of the animal are represented by one line and those which relate to its activities by the other line. Grades; Boys, Girls, 4th 27 per ct. 33 " TABLE ONE. 5th 13 per ct. 7 " 6th 14 per ct. II " 7th 7 per ct. 13 " The color of animals as the most noticeable feature. TABLE TWO. Grades: 4th 5th 6th 7th Boys, 14 per ct. 2 per ct. 3 per ct. 3 per ct. Girls, 10 " 4 " 4 " 5 " The size of animals as the most noticeable feature. 4tA. GRADES St/v. 6th.. 7tk. 20 7o IS% fO% S7o < ^ 4 / / • > • / / X / y^ — — / Fig. I. Sounds made by animals as the most noticeable feature Boys Girls 154 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:6— Sept., 1913 4th, GRADES Sth.