828 BOARD OF AGRlCULTUnr:. 



s?o mauy oi" our institutions of liigber learning as well us the grades. 

 For instance, I was taught Avhen in the grades how to parse and diagram 

 and mauy other things which I have had no occasion to use since that 

 time. The same way in the high school. Had I been taught some of the 

 interesting things of nattire, things I could see and handle, I would have 

 taken much more interest in them and in my school work. Had I been 

 taught that the ground mole is an immense destroyer of insects, there- 

 fore a friend of the farmer, 1 would not have killed any. I used to won- 

 der how it was that a snake could swallow a frog when the body of the 

 victim Avas twice as large as that of the victor. When I was taught in 

 college that the jaw of the reptile is attached to the skull by means of 

 an elastic cord I could understand how he got that frog down his throat. 

 I used to marvel at the snake charmers in the side shows at the county 

 fair. It's all simple now, as snakes never bite, they strike. As long as 

 they are not coiled they are harmless. Had I known that I might have 

 found Mr. Streaked Snake a congenial companion in place of a deadly 

 enemy. 



One of the greatest objects of education is to train the seeing eye. 

 That is an eye wliich pierces to the depth of things, an eye which can see 

 beauty in every object in nature and a mind which understands the 

 "why" of the different actions of man and nature. How many of our 

 college graduates know that insects breathe through pores in the sides 

 of their bodies? And yet they will go back to ancient Greece and Rome 

 and find something to study about. He doesn't care Avhether it is lace- 

 winged or scale-winged, whether it feeds upon fruit or upon weeds. He 

 thinks he is doing mankind a great service by deciphering hieroglyphics 

 which treat of events which happened centuries ago. I appeal to you. 

 are not the things which God has made more interesting and more ele- 

 vating than that which insignificant man has made"? Then let us have 

 more nature study and less of that which trains for training's sake. 

 There is another reason why we should have nature study. It will help 

 to stop the emigration from farm to village, from village to town, from 

 town to city. A few statistics from Wright's Sociologj' show the city- 

 ward tendency in the United States. In 1790, 3.35 per cent, of the total 

 population lived in cities of 8,000 or more; in 1850. 12.49 per cent.; in 1880. 

 22.57 per cent., and in 1900, 33.1 per cent. This transplantation has far- 

 reaching results. Politically it gives the cities the predominance and 

 increases tlu; urgency of municipal laws. There are many times more 

 laws on our statute books to protect city citizens than country citizens. 

 They are needed more where people have less respect for the rights of 

 others. Socially it increases the number of classes most exposed to agi- 

 tation and discontent, intciisllies the danger of social upheaval and widens 

 the chasm betAveen the two classes. It tends to bring the wealth of the 

 nation into fewer hands and react profoundly upon the material as well 

 as the social and political life of the nation. 



