CONES OF THE RED PINE ( PINUS RESINOSA ) PICKED UP IN THE ROAD TO THE 

 ESTATE DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE. 



The Guide to Nature. 



EDUCATION AND RECREATION 



Vol. I 



AUGUST, 1908 



No. 5 



OUTDOOR WoRLD 



Nature in Decoration and Pleasurable Resource. 



(STUDIES ON A FINE ESTATE) 

 BY EDWARD F. BIGELOW, STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT 



HAT nature does in some 

 of her aspects need im- 

 provement is self-evident. 

 Wonderful as is the hum- 

 an eye, the skilled optician 

 might improve it. De- 

 lightful and picturesque 

 as is the tangled thicket 

 that pushes itself close to the gutter of 

 a country road, it would not be well to 

 allow the hedge to advance so far as to 

 destroy the utilitarian drain. Here it 

 becomes a contest between beauty and 

 service, and in this particular case, 

 beauty must be sacrificed. Yet it is possi- 

 ble to be too eager in behalf of the 

 strictly useful. Sometimes it occurs 

 that the utilitarian may be as service- 

 able and as sanitary after it has been 



made beautiful as it was when it was ugly 

 as well as healthful. There is often a 

 happy medium, but in nine instances out 

 of ten that happiness is overlooked, de- 

 liberately omitted or intentionally ob- 

 scured. Beautv as well as sanitary ser- 

 vice has an educational value, but as 

 ugliness is usually attained with less 

 effort and less muscular fatigue, not to 

 say with less mental wear and tear, we 

 bury the beautiful with our spade and 

 shovel, leaving the ugly in conspicuous 

 heaps and piles and irregular mounds 

 of gravel. 



The unskilled optician and the inex- 

 perienced road trimmer each makes a 

 bad job of his special work. Too often 

 injur\- occurs where improvement was 

 intended. In many attempts to im- 



Copyright 1908 by The Agassiz Association, Stamford, Conn. 



