Cornell Study Clubs 1201 



Yearbook reprints: 



37 Part 2. The meadow lark and Baltimore oriole 



66 The blue jay and its food 



132 Danger of introducing noxious animals and birds 

 194 The food of nestling birds 

 197 How birds affect the orchard 



247 Two vanishing game birds — the woodcock and the wood duck 

 443 Does it pay the farmer to protect birds? 

 486 The relations between birds and insects 

 504 Plants useful to attract birds and protect fruit 

 545 The migratory movement of birds in relation to the weather 



TREE STUDY 



" And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant 

 to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, 

 and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.'' 



Winter is a good time to begin to get acquainted with the trees. Their 

 characteristic outlines and manner of growth can best be observed when not 

 obscured by their covering of leaves. It is the best time, too, to note the 

 differing color of trunk, branches, and twigs; the shape, color, and arrange- 

 ment of the leaf and flower buds, which, though they will not unfold until 

 next spring, were all formed during the last summer. Even though unskilled 

 with the pencil, the attempt to reproduce what one sees helps to fix it 

 in the memory, and it is well to try to make drawings showing the relation 

 of trunk and branches, whether springing upward in a tapering shaft 

 or forking into an open and wide-spreading head. Draw also the buds, 

 showing, if possible, how the protecting scales are arranged. The leaf 

 scars, too, are characteristic; they are to be seen most plainly in early 

 winter when the leaves have lately fallen, and to try to draw them helps 

 one to remember their form. 



Winter is a good time, too, to study the history of trees from an economic 

 point of view : to find out, if possible, all the industries in which wood of 

 certain species is used; or the bark or leaves, as in tanning; or the pliant 

 twigs, as in the basket-willow industry; or whether the fruit only is valuab*-^ 

 It is a good time to make special studies, as of sugar-making in connec- 

 tion with the maple tree ; of the nut bearers and their economic value ; 

 of the special fitness of some woods for particular purposes, such as the 

 very hard, strong, yet fight-weight wood of the black walnut, which has 

 caused it to be turned into rifle stocks for the armies of the world. Pro- 

 cure, if possible, a piece of the wood of each tree studied, in lengthwise 



