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 

 efificient. 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 



