146 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Artists have learned to appreciate 

 the value of the natural beauties in and 

 about Old Lyme, and the rides 

 through the surrounding country are 

 full of charming surprises, but there 

 is to me a no more restful and typical 

 New England street than the wide 

 main street of Old Saybrook with the 

 tall elm trees standing guard on each 

 side of the road, and the quaint houses 

 with their flower gardens. 



Other villages can boast of a more 

 cultivated beauty, but the naturalness 

 of this spot attracted me and made me 

 linger for a day when I should have 

 been on with my journey. 



Even the weeds grow with an un- 

 disturbed freedom that gives them a 

 peculiar beauty of their own. (One of 

 the prettiest flowers ever created and 

 classed as a weed is the one called, fa- 

 miliarly, the Queen's lace handker- 

 chief.) These prolific blooms spring 

 up unexpectedly — behind a rock, along 

 a miniature canal, and in the face of 

 the dusty roadside. 



Situated so near the sea and the 

 river the air has a poignant freshness 

 mingled with the sweet clover and 

 mignonette. 



which is a very new country with im- 

 mense possibilities, and yet more than 

 one-third of all its people are gathered 

 in four large cities, disproportionately 

 large, a fact which threatens the future 

 as well as the present of that great 

 community. All over Europe, the 

 same problem exists — how to get back 

 the farmers? One part of the solution 

 certainly rests in the kind of work 

 which you are doing in awakening 

 among boys and girls a real interest in 

 the realities about them. 



David Starr Jordan. 



We Influence Boys to Stay on the 

 Farm. 



Bettersycoed, Wales. 

 To the Editor : 



I think it undoubtedly true that if 

 farmers and their families were more 

 interested in nature, they would more 

 readily stay on the farm. The rush to 

 the cities is becoming one of the great 

 problems of our time. 



I have just returned from Australia 



Growing Corn With Brains. 



Corn, like Opie's paints, should be 

 mixed with brains to produce the best 

 results. Mr. G. L. Kerlin of Indiana, 

 won the prize in the corn contest for 

 the grand champion bushel of the 

 world. This award was made at the 

 National Corn Show at Dallas, Texas. 

 This corn was grown on the black and 

 clay soil of Johnson County, Indiana, 

 and is of the Johnson County White 

 variety. The ground was broken for 

 about nine inches deep and thoroughly 

 harrowed and rolled until a fine seed 

 bed was obtained. On account of the 

 weather, the ground was worked down 

 level as soon as plowed. 



A Ford touring car was awarded for 

 the best bushel in a variety contest 

 open to the world. Mr. Kerlin attrib- 

 utes his success to well selected and 

 carefully tested seed, to well fed soil, 

 and to proper cultivation through the 

 entire growing season. The accom- 

 panying illustrations are lent to The 

 Guide to Nature by "Corn'' Magazine 

 at Waterloo, Iowa. 



champion ten ears of yellow corn of the world at the national corn show 



at dallas, texas. 



These remarkably fine samples were raised by Mr. G. L. Kerlin of Franklin, Indiana, and show the 

 tresult of years of careful selection and breeding. The variety is Reid's Yellow Dent. 



