302 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of its guests? Why are gnats and flies seen aljout certain flowers, 

 bees, butterflies, luotlis or hummingbirds about others, each visitor choos- 

 ing the restaurant most to his likingV With what infinite pains the 

 wants of each guest are catered to! How relentlessly are pilferers 

 punished! The endless devices of the more aml)itious flowers to save 

 their species from degeneracy by close inbreeding through fertilization 

 with their own pollen, alone prove the operation of the mind through 

 them. How plants travel, how they send seeds abroad in the world 

 to found new colonies, might be studied with profit by Anglo-Saxon 

 expansionists. Do vice and virtue exist side by side In the vegetable 

 world also? Yes, and every sinner is branded as surely as was Cain. 

 The dodder, Indian pipe, broom-rape, and beech drops wear the flower 

 equivalent of the striped suit and the shaved head. Although claiming 

 most respectable and exalted kinsfolk, they are degenerates not far 

 above the fungi. In short, this is a universe that we live in; and all 

 that share the One Life are one in essence, for natural law is spiritual 

 law. "Through Natuie to God,' flowers show a way to the scientist 

 lacking faith." 



In 1897 I prepared a paper for the Indiana Audubon Society, which 

 was published In the Inland Educator, in which I advocated a change 

 In the system and conduct of our country schools. The paper was 

 well received. In it, in brief, I said that we have too many schools 

 and that necessarily the cost of maintaining them makes of them inferior 

 schools. To remedy this I advocated the abolishing of many of these 

 schools, and the estal)lishing of a high school in each township. For 

 each of the high schools, I would have from twenty to forty acres of 

 land, one-half of which should be devoted to forestry and the birds, 

 and one-half to agriculture and gardening. The paper was in line 

 with the thought that now is being successfully carried into execution 

 in many of the European countries. That thouglit is based upon the 

 other that it is desirable to raise the standard of these studies and 

 thereby make country life attractive to our children, and thus prevent 

 them from leaving our farms and flocking to tlie towns and cities. By 

 pursuing this course the salaries and the standard of our teachers could 

 be raised, and we would have many persons who would make the 

 profession of teaching a life work instead of a makeshift to get Into 

 some otlier avenue of life, and oar children would I)ecome attached 

 to country-life. How the departments of agriculture and gardening 

 should be conducted in such schools would require more time and space 

 than can be allotted to this paper. Suffice it to say that I would have 

 them conducted closely along the lines that I have outlined for home 

 gardening. In either case. 1 would not have too much time and atten- 

 tion given to the study of bonks; on the contrary. I would, as I have 

 already said, give much attention to the study of tlie open outdoor 

 book of nature. 



