I044 



Rural School Leaflet 



Now, I have at last come to say a word about the out-of-door and 

 home study for the next few months. In this leaflet there are many 

 suggestions that you will want to follow. If any of you have never found 

 the joy of studying the life in the open, loegin now, for it cannot be 

 possible that all who love the world of nature are in the wrong, and that 

 there is nothing for you too. Take, for example, your weed seed collection. 

 Did you start making it after reading about the work in the November 

 leaflet ? You should have at least the five kinds of seeds given there, and in 

 this leaflet there are five more, illustrated on page 1037, that you can find 

 even in the dead of winter and can add to the collection. Read the article 

 about seed study. I feel sure that this is a chance for some very interest- 

 ing and valuable work. Lay your plans well and do not rush ahead 

 without knowing where you are going, because when we are preparing 

 to do work for others, we owe it to them to be careful and res]:)onsible. 

 You will be pleased and astonished at the report on collecting the egg 

 clusters of tent caterpillars. Perhaps your school has never done much 

 with this piece of work. Begin now and help to control this serious 

 pest. Read very carefully the article on page 1031, and write to me 

 that you have done some of the things suggested. Stait your plans for 

 next year's garden. The March leaflet will have something about gardens. 

 Continue with the study of the trees and see whether you can do as well 

 as the four boys I know who can tell fifty kinds of trees by their twigs 

 in the wintertime. Make friends with the birds and have a bird calendar 

 ready for the first rol:)in, blucl)ird, and tlie others that follow. Work 

 hard, |)lay hard, remember the things I have said in this letter, and write 

 often to 



Your friend, 



■f 



