STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 1 65 



all about her. But if you are introduced and call on her at home 

 and know of her work and family, you gain a delightful friend. 

 Just the same with the birds, flowers, animals and insects. If a 

 child brings into the house a bug or flower and asks you about 

 it, if you cannot even tell him its name (that is always the first 

 question a child asks) he soon loses his interest and is not as 

 likely to bring in another. But if you can tell him its name and 

 life habits, then he feels acquainted and will go on studying it. 

 Or if no one in the family can tell him about it, if he has an 

 illustrated book, in which he can hunt it up by himself, he is 

 even more interested. There are books so finely illustrated on 

 all Nature subjects, that a child can study at home. 



Realizing the value of these things, for the last eight years at 

 various times, I have held Nature classes at my home, for all 

 the children w^ho care to come. I have a collection of birds' 

 eggs and some nests and stuffed birds, minerals, plants and 

 insects from which we have our lessons mostly. Sometimes we 

 have a teacher in our local school who will work with me, but 

 that is seldom. One summer I gave prizes to the two scholars 

 who found the greatest number of wild flowers. Eight years 

 ago this fall I gave them some chestnuts to plant and a few 

 weeks ago I saw that one boy had a tree twelve or fifteen feet 

 high. Last spring I gave them all some cabbage seeds and told 

 them I would give a prize to the one who would raise the 

 heaviest cabbage. About three weeks ago we had a cabbage 

 party. About twenty-eight children came to my home. One 

 boy had a cabbage which weighed eight and a half pounds and 

 a girl had an eight pound one. So I gave them each a book. 

 Then I had them each tell how they raised them. One poor 

 boy had his eaten by a stray cow. Then they played games in 

 which cabbages figured and then had refreshments served on 

 cabbage leaves. 



By having these classes I not only enjoy Nature with my own 

 children but get acquainted with all the children within a radius 

 of two miles. Although they cannot learn a great deal from 

 me, they get awakened to the possibilities about them and thus 

 are an influence in the community. The great thing is to get 

 them interested. 



It seems very small and egotistical for me to stand here and 

 tell of the little things I have done with these few children, but 



