172 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [9:6— Sept., 1913 



for study are mainly the edible ones. Edible (and poisonous) 

 or otherwise useful (or harmful) things were chosen throughout. 

 Students have been encouraged to see that these wild things 

 were once the only things available for human sustenance : to see 

 that among them are many good things that man has as yet in no 

 way improved, and to observe that variations in nature offer the 

 same materials for selection and improvement as in the artificially 

 propagated forms. So, while this course deals with natural history 

 piu-e and simple, it is not the natural history of the whole range of 

 things curious and interesting in nature, but rather of those things 

 that human kind has chosen to deal with as a means of livelihood 

 and of personal gratification in all ages. 



Field trips in sections of twenty students with one instructor 

 were conducted on appointed afternoons every week. No trips 

 were omitted on account of bad weather, but the physically unfit 

 were not registered for the course. Furthermore, three optional 

 studies were offered any one of which might be done by a student 

 privately and substituted for any one (excepting the first) of the 

 fifteen regularly scheduled. These three optionals were done by 

 many students in addition to all the regular work. They were 

 as follows : 



1. A record of farm operations — October to January inclusive. 

 This was the student's own record of date and place and relevant 

 weather conditions week by week through the term, together 

 with what he saw the farmers doing, their doings being provided 

 for in the blank furnished, under the following subdivisions : work 

 with cereals, forage crops, root crops, fruits, timber crops, other 

 crops, live stock, poultry, other animals, soils, roads and fences, 

 domicile, and other activities, business, civic, social, and miscel- 

 laneous. This optional was not chosen by many students, few 

 having opportunity to see what the farmers were doing. But 

 the few who elected to keep this record, did it well and found it 

 significant. 



2. Noteworthy views on the farm. — "Best examples I have 

 seen of: i, a wide panorama; 2, a long vista; 3, a woodland 

 aisle; 4, undulating fields; 5, a small sheltered valley; 6, a crop 

 in the fields; 7, a meandering brook; 8, a pond scene; 9, a water- 

 fall; 10, rocky cliffs; 1 1 , a foliage picture ; 12, a scene with farm 

 animals; 1 3 , a snow scene ; 14, a homestead." The data concern- 

 ing these "best views" called for is indicated by the table headings 



