252 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



The question, what has become of the 

 potato-bug's ? suggests another : can it 

 be the crows to whom thanks are due for 

 the green, undamaged potato vines 

 growing luxuriantly though unprotected 

 through human agency ? 



We are disposed to add a new feather 

 —a very white one — as a possession of 

 our friend the crow, and are wondering 

 if anywhere else he has been observed 

 under conditions calculated to attribute 

 to him equally important service of like 

 character. 



George Klingle. 



INTERESTING PHOTOGRAPH OF MOTHS. 



141 Milk Street, 

 Boston, Massachusetts. 

 To the Editor: 



Enclosed find photograph of telegraph 

 post at corner of Broadway and West- 

 minster Street, West Somerville, Massa- 



THE GYPSY MOTHS ON A POST. 



chusetts, with its swarm of brown-tail 

 moths, as it appeared on the morning of 

 July 1st. 



There were myriads the evening be- 

 fore about the electric lamps, which ap- 

 peared as if they were in the midst of a 

 heavy snow-storm. All the surround- 

 ing towns were visited and they were to 

 be found even in Boston itself. 



I understand that Mr. Forbush, in 

 charge of the gypsy and brown tail moth 

 work in this State, pronounced them 



mostly males, so perhaps no great harm 

 will result, and a great many of them 

 were destroyed. 



Yours truly, 



H. E. Valentine. 



APPRECIATION AND SUGGESTIONS. 



Cincinnati, O. 

 To the Editor: 



The September number of The 

 Guide to Nature has appeared. As 

 you so truly say, it is larger and better 

 than any that has preceded it. I must 

 reiterate that The Guide fills a long- 

 felt want. It tells us things or rather 

 facts, which one can not glean from 

 any other source ; no text book gives 

 them ; no other journal mentions them. 

 And so it behooves us not to criticize 

 The Guide, but to praise it; and this 

 we do unstintedly. 



We, who are interested in Nature 

 know the w r oeful lack of knowledge 

 extant on this, our favorite topic. Why 

 is this? Is the environment at fault? 

 No. The trouble lies in our schools 

 and educational institutions. It is true 

 that nature study is being introduced 

 in different cities ; but the old-time 

 teachers are not prepared to teach it. 

 They themselves had been so thor- 

 oughly drilled in the three R's, that 

 their knowledge, as a rule, does not 

 extend much beyond this. And as to 

 teaching a topic so new, so complex, 

 and so "utterly absurd" as nature 

 study, the result can be clearly fore- 

 seen. 



Here, it seems to me, your valuable 

 Guide might be of inestimable service, 

 if you were to introduce a department 

 of teaching nature study, or "How to 

 teach Nature Study." 



I have spoken to many teachers, and 

 they seem so helpless in trying to 

 teach this topic. So few have even the 

 first conception of animate and inani- 

 mate things about them. Their lack 

 of knowledge concerning the Rowers, 

 the grass, the trees, the worms, the 

 butterflies, is pitiful. What a pity 

 that the old idea is still so firmly root- 

 ed in the minds of most educators that 

 there is but one subject which will 

 develop the mind, viz., mathematics. 



