121 



sons who insist that every statement about nature must be literally 

 true, take the life and spirit out of writing and conversation. They 

 might say that Bryant's lyric, " Robert of Lincoln," is untrue ; the 

 bird is not "drest" since he has no clothes; he has no " Quaker 

 wife " since he is mated, not wed. Yet there is more real bob-o- 

 link in Bryant's poem than in the formal description of the bird. 



Yet we wish to protest against that teaching of nature which is 

 mere sentimentalism, which makes the " goody-goody " part of the 

 work so prominent that it becomes the child's point of view. Intei'- 

 est in things themselves should be the primary motive : sentiment 

 comes chiefly as a result. But if there is danger of making senti- 

 ment too prominent, there may be equal danger in insisting on a 

 perfunctory scientific point of view. 



*?v 77 *;v 



The publications of the Cornell Bureau of Kature-Study and 

 Farmers' Reading-Course are four: jSTature-Study Quarterly, for 

 teachers ; Home Nature-Study Lesson, for teachers ; Junior Natu- 

 ralist Monthly, for children ; Farmers' Reading Lessons (with quizzes), 

 for farmers. Aside from these, the College of Agriculture pub- 

 lishes the regular Experiment Station Bulletins. With so many 

 publications, it is desirable to keep the mailing lists as small as pos- 

 sible and yet serve those persons who earnestly desire them. The 

 lists are revised, in order to eliminate " dead " names. The lists as 

 thej'' now stand are " live " lists. They are approximately as follows 

 (March 9, 1900) : 



Teachers' leaflets 26,000 names 



Teachers' home lessons.. 2,000 



Junior naturalists 30,000 " 



Farmers' Reading-Course 17,000 " 



Bulletins 20,000 



95,000 " 



The incidental personal requests for the publications considerably 

 increase this constituency. 



L. H. BAILEY, Cidef, 

 JOHN W. SPENCER, Deputy Chief, 

 Of Bureau of Nature- Study am,d Farmers' Reading-Course. 

 33 513 



