128 RuRAi, School Leaflet. ^ 



ANIMAL STUDY 

 Ada E. Georgia 



Editor's Note.— In the required work of the Syllabus for this year, the 

 children in the more advanced grades are to study the Horse, Cat, Rabbit, 

 Squirrel, and Mouse with reference to their use and harm to man. Fol- 

 lowing are some suggestions that may be helpful to teachers in such study. 

 By means of the questions teachers can lead the children to make observa- 

 tions on facts given. It is siiggested in the Syllabus that comparison be 

 made between the dog and the animals considered in this lesson. 



It is not enough merely to be able to tell the name of an animal when 

 we see it. We should know not only its size and structure, but its 

 home, its habits, its food, its clothing, its rate of increase, its friends, 

 and its enemies. 



The intelligent farmer will try to get all the forces of nature to work 

 with him and for him in his great task of feeding and clothing the world. 

 To grow up with mistaken ideas about the forces that are for him or 

 as'ainst him might be a great misfortune. It, therefore, pays the farm 

 boy or girl to study the insects, birds, and animals about the home 

 with a view to getting acquainted with them. Then the girl will not 

 *ear the warty toad that she meets in the garden, or the harmless bats 

 that flit through open windows after flies or mosquitoes; and the boy 

 will not destroy bumble-bees' nests in the spring nor kill the screech- 

 owl that lives in the barn loft, — for without the bees, the clover field 

 could not produce seed, and the owl is a better mouser than a cat. 



The Horse. — In spite of steam engines, motor cars, and electric power, 

 the number of horses in the service of men throughout the world, con- 

 stantly grows larger. iVn animal so powerful, so intelligent and so 

 faithful is not likely to be set aside for even the most remarkable of 

 machines. True the machine is more enduring and after a supply of 

 coal or gasolene can go on with its work, while the horse must have 

 time to rest its tired muscles in addition to food and drink. The most 

 costly machine, however, can generally do only the one thing that it 

 was made to do, while the well-trained horse is able to do a great many 

 things in many different places and under different circumstances. 



The horse is useful for labor and for pleasure driving. The manure 

 is used to enrich the farm. After death the hoofs are ground into glue 

 and the bones into fertilizer, the skin is made into boots and shoes, 

 "jid the body becomes fertilizer. 



