294 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



Kalamazoo river and many picturesque 

 creeks. The accompanying photo is the 

 camp scene of an outing on last Labor 

 Day. At a near-by lake, by the side of 

 a large spring of clear cold water, a 

 camp fire was made and a dinner cooked 

 for the entire party by Mr. Green. Beef- 

 steak, corn, bacon and potatoes were 

 cooked and excellent coffee made. With 

 this menu were served the usual acces- 

 sories brought to a picnic by the ladies. 

 The dessert consisted of a big load of 



¥ 



water and musk melons obtained at a 

 nearby farm. The dinner was served to 

 the ladies by the gentlemen, so that the 

 former had nothing to do but to partake 

 of the novel repast, and to enjoy it, which 

 they did. Only those who have cooked 

 over a camp fire in the woods know how- 

 good such a meal is, and how heartily 

 it is relished. This outing is typical of 

 those taken by the club, only no mention 

 is made of the field work accompanying 

 them. 



( ORRESPONDENCE 





AND 



Information 



APPRECIATES NATURE 



Apollo, Pa. 



To tiik Editor: 



'"Devoted to commonplace Nature" at- 

 tracted my attention to the first number 

 I saw. That is what I think is needed. 

 To attract the masses to an appreciation 

 of common natural life. It is not neces- 

 sary to know the botanical name of a 

 flower to appreciate its beauty or enjoy 

 its fragrance, nor to be schooled in the 

 scientific classification of birds and but- 

 terflies to know their common names and 

 enjoy their acquaintance. How gladly 

 we welcome even a slight acquaintance 

 in a strange city. Thus does one feel 

 who meets a bird or butterfly and can say, 

 "There goes a grosbeak, catbird or vireo, 

 or a monarch, an admiral or an angle 

 wing. In one of my daily routes while 

 attending a fever patient in the country a 

 distance of four miles, in less than two 

 weeks' time I noted thirty species of 

 birds. A farmer, an intelligent man, 

 who saw me with a young cedar 

 bird asked me if it was a native. 

 He was surprised at my statement 

 that I had seen a large flock on his farm. 

 "Still," he said, "I know a blackbird, a 

 crow or a robin and that's about all." 

 All along the roads every summer we see 

 the mangled remains of snakes, not ven- 

 omous but useful ones. They are killed 

 by the passerby as a matter of course. 



He gives no thought as to their harm- 

 lessness nor usefulness. The old Hebrew- 

 notion that the serpent is responsible for 

 the sins of our race has much to do with 

 the bruising of their heads even unto this 

 day. Nine out of every ten persons 

 would spare the white cabbage butterfly 

 which causes the destruction of thous- 

 ands of dollars' worth of cabbage every 

 year, yet crush the life out of a salaman- 

 der or a harmless snake which lives on 

 vermin or worms and beetles. The 

 economy of Nature would be better fur- 

 thered if we interfered less with her 

 laws. 



Very truly yours. 



T. J. Henry. M. D. 



A BEAR "ON A DRUNK" 



Margaretville, N. J. 

 To The Editor: — 



Farmers have considerable trouble 

 during the autumn months with their 

 cattle which devour large quantities of 

 apples. These apples ferment in the 

 stomachs of the cows and cause them to 

 have all the appearances of being drunk. 

 The animals will stagger from side to 

 side, hang their heads and are unable to 

 walk. Scarce a farmer in a section where 

 apples grow in the pasture fields but has 

 the experience some time during the fall 

 of one or more of his cows becoming 

 drunk on apples. The debauch of the 



