Cornell Study Clubs 



1219 



Study of the small wild animals about the farm 

 Spring is the season when family cares come on the dwellers in the 

 field and wood, and the necessity of getting food for their Httle ones makes 

 them very bold. Raccoons, woodchucks, and ground squirrels have left 

 their winter quarters, and the marauding skunks, foxes, and weasels that 

 have levied tribute all winter 

 on the poultry yard, and even 

 more heavily on their wild 

 neighbors, the field mice and 

 the rabbits, grow still more 

 daring in their efforts to keep 

 a hungry family well fed. 

 They may not be so interest- 

 ing to the hunter and trapper 

 as they were in the winter, 

 when the peltry was in finest 

 condition, but for the nature 

 student now is a good time for 

 the study of their life and 

 habits. 



Care 



and 



Fig. 75. — Black ■walnut in blossom 



of young poidtry 

 domestic animals 

 Like their wild kindred, 

 the domestic birds and 

 animals begin the rearing of 

 their young in the spring ; and 

 learning how to care for them 

 properly is not only a most useful accomplishment for ever}^ farm boy 

 or girl, but it should be a pleasant pastime as well. A sense of ownership 

 helps wonderfully in removing the feeling of drudgery from such responsi- 

 bilities; and if the children are given proper rights to a brood of chicks or 

 ducklings, or a wabbly-legged calf or lamb, the desire for knowledge of 

 the best way to make them comfortable and happy comes with the delight 

 of possession. But " Mary's httle lamb " should belong to her always 

 and not become her father's property when the time arrives for shearing 

 the wool or marketing the mutton ; too often the only return for her service 

 is the gift of another little lamb to pet and rear. 



SUMMER WORK 



Spring is a pleasant season of planning, and of sowing and planting, but 

 the beginning of fulfillment comes with the summer. 



The first of the 



