SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 201 



climate. There are almost as many varieties as there 

 are localities. For instance, the north entry of the 

 Canal is much more rainy than the south end less than 

 fifty miles away, because the intervening hills help 

 to precipitate the rain from the moist winds off the 

 Caribbean Sea. Not nearly all the tropics are as rainy 

 as the country we describe here, but the most fertile 

 tropics are the most humid and they are also the most 

 troubled by insect pests. 



Commercial geography. We suggest also that the 

 Canal be considered as a commercial trade route, and 

 that the children search the markets for fruits, such 

 as bananas, avocado pears, or coconuts, that might 

 have come from its general region. Such exercises 

 could be admirably illustrated from the folders of 

 steamship companies plying to the Canal and the 

 shores of countries bordering the Caribbean Sea. These 

 are advertised in almost any good magazine. 



NATURAL HISTORY 



Importance of insects. xAfter the dramatic story 

 of the contest between man and mosquito for the 

 mastery of the tropics has been discussed, the student 

 niay proceed more easily to the importance of other 

 insect families like the ants and the termites. It is 

 of course true that in the temperate zone as well as 

 in the tropics, insects are in the ascendancy among 

 animals. One has onl}^ to recall the growing list of 

 fruit and grain pests, not to mention flies and our own 

 malaria-bearing Anopheles mosquito. The children 

 should be able to make a list of familiar harmful insects 

 which we do not have under control ; and they may well 



