Reading in the Farm Home 1087 



Smith Economic entomology. J. B. Lippincott Company. 



Spillman Grasses. Orange Judd Company. $1.00 



Stevens and Diseases of economic plants. The Macmillan Company. 



Hall $2 . 50 



Vivian First principles of soil fertility. Orange Judd Company. 



$1.00 



Voorhees Fertilizers. The Macmillan Company. $1.50 



Voorhees Forage crops. The Macmillan Company. $1.50 



Warren Elements of agriculture. The Macmillan Company. $1.10 



Wing Alfalfa in America. Saunders Publishing Company. $2 . 00 



Mrs. Anna Botsford Comstock, in the ' ' Handbook of nature-study, ' ' says : 

 " Luckily, thumb-rule agriculture is being pushed to the wall in these 

 enlightened days. Thumb rules would work much better" if nature did 

 not vary her performances in such a confusing way. Government ex- 

 periment stations were established because thumb rules for farming were 

 unreliable and disappointing; and all the work of all the experiment 

 stations has been simply advanced natvire-study and its application to 

 the practice of agriculture. Both nature-study and agriculture are based 

 upon the study of life and the physical conditions which encourage or 

 limit life ; this is known to the world as the study of the natural sciences ; 

 and if we see clearly the relation of nature-study to science, we may under- 

 stand better the relation of nature-study to agriculture, which is based 

 upon the sciences." 



The value of nature-study books in the home is expressed in the following 

 words by Mrs. Anna Botsford Comstock in the " Handbook of nature-study" : 



" Nature-study cultivates the child's imagination since there are so 

 many wonderful and true stories that he may read with his own eyes, 

 which affect his imagination as much as does fairy lore; at the same time 

 nature-study cultivates in him a perception and a regard for what is 

 true, and the power to express it. All things seem possible in nature; 

 yet this seeming is always guarded by the eager quest of what is true. 

 Perhaps, half the falsehood in the world is due to lack of power to detect 

 the truth and to express it. Nature-study aids both in discernment and 

 expression of things as they are. 



" Nature-study cultivates in the child a love of the beautiful; it brings 

 to him early a perception of color, form and music. He sees whatever 

 there is in his environment, whether it be the thunder-head piled up in 

 the western sky, or the golden flash of the oriole in the elm; whether it 

 be the purple of the shadows on the snow, or the azure glint on the wing 

 of the little butterfly. Also, what there is of sound, he hears; he reads 

 the music score of the bird orchestra, separating each part and knowing 



