146 THE NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [1, 4. July 1905 



things which we must, as farmers, cultivate or destroy. We do 

 not care for the butterfly, but we wish to know about the plum- 

 weevil ; we do not care for the trillium, but we do care for the 

 onion ; we do not care for the meadow-lark, but we do care for 

 the gosling." To say nothing of the sordidness of this view, it 

 is a physical or mental impossibility for any one to discriminate 

 between two things when he sees only one. In order to under- 

 stand the important and economic relations to the world of one 

 plant or animal, it is absolutely necessary to have a wide knowl- 

 edge of other plants and animals. One might as well say to 

 begin with, " I will look at the approaching cyclone, but never 

 see the sky ; I will look at the clover but never see the dandelion ; 

 I will look for the sheriff when he comes over the hill, but will 

 not see any other team on the road." 



So in nature-study we strive to keep the child's eyes open to 

 all things so that when he becomes a farmer he may be able to 

 see all things and discriminate wisely. To one thus trained the 

 farm is the most interesting place in the world, and the farmer 

 has the best opportunity for continuing his education in connec- 

 tion with his work of any man in any vocation. All of the scien- 

 tists of the world have spent their lives solving problems which 

 nature presents ; and as agriculture is based upon the sciences, 

 and as nature is the impartial teacher, so she ever presents prob- 

 lems to the farmer, and well is it for him when he is able to 

 solve them successfully. Such an one feels that on the farm is 

 a life work that demands all his intelligence, and the widest 

 knowledge, and in exercising these he finds supreme satisfaction. 



Nature-study is the effort to make the individual use his senses 

 instead of losing them ; to learn to keep the eyes open to all things 

 whether it be the thunder-head piled up in the western sky or the 

 flash of oriole gold from the elm ; to keep the ears open to the 

 voices that call, whether it be the song of the cricket in the path, 

 or the song of the hen on the sunny side of the barn. Eyes open, 

 ears open and heart open are all that nature, the teacher, requires 

 of her pupils, and in return she will reveal to them the marvels 

 of life, the riches of the world, and the beauty of the universe. 



Nor is the appreciation of beauty in nature's realm the least 



. valuable factor in nature-study. While dollars and cents are 



necessary to success and must be looked after, yet the man or 



woman who looks for them alone is narrow and sordid, and lives 



