1028 



Rural School Leaflet. 



" Nature-poetry has a special mission, also, in this era of scientific 

 nature-study. Already Mr. Burroughs, who can speak with the voice 

 of an oracle, has sounded a note of warning: ' We approach nature 

 in an exact, calculating, tabulating, mercantile spirit. We make an 

 inventory of her storehouse. Our relations with her take on the air 

 of business, not of love and friendship. ***** jf nature is to be a 

 resource in a man's life, one's relation to her must not be too exact and 

 formal, but more that of a lover and a friend.' Against this danger of 

 too formal nature-science the poet stands as safe-guard. He is the loving 

 interpreter of sky and meadow, he is the artist who paints many varieties, 

 and cultivates our tastes as well as our observation. Against too close 

 nature-dissection, he offers to guide us into nature-communion," 



To encourage the children in their general out-of-door observation 

 many teachers have found it helpful to have in the schoolroom a nature- 

 study corner. This place is fitted up with a table on which specimens 

 may be kept. Above it is a shelf containing nature-study books. 

 The children may be taught to bring to the schoolroom specimens of 

 plants that interest them and place them neatly on this table until the 

 teacher has time to identify them. If neither teacher nor pupil should 

 know the names of any plants brought to the schoolroom we shall be 

 glad to have the plants sent to the University for identification. 



A terrarium, 

 which is an 

 inclosed bit of 

 earth on which 

 things may live 

 and grow, has 

 been found 

 very interest- 

 ing in many 

 schoolrooms 

 in New York 

 State. Many 

 kinds of ani- 

 mal life have 

 been housed in 

 terraria. I have 

 seen salaman- 

 ders, toads, 

 snakes, butter- 

 FiG. I. — A terrarium in the schoolroom ilies, caterpil- 



