1344 



Rural School Leaflet 



fanning; and it has served in Europe to prevent millions of acres from 

 becoming useless, barren waste. 



2. Forestry helps to regulate the distribution of water and to lessen the 

 rigors of climate, and in so doing it aids all forms of agriculture. It cares 

 for nature's greatest means for beautifying the earth. 



3. It provides a local supply of timber and protects the farmer and the 

 townsman against exorbitant prices of importation; it stimulates local 

 industries, :md thus creates a local market for produce. 



4. It is not a new and untried industr}^ but has been in actual practice 



for more than a thousand 

 ^xars and has not failed in 

 any locality where it has been 

 correctly and consistently 

 practiced. 



5. It is of particular interest 

 to farmers, since it adds to 

 the value and the beauty of 

 the farm and to the safety, 

 the comfort, and the income 

 of the farmer; and it does all 

 this without great expenditure 

 of capital or labor. 



6. It is well suited to state, 

 count}^ and townshij? owner- 

 ship and enterprise, and could 

 well be utilized in this State, 



A plantation of Nonvay spruce, twenty-two 

 years old 



as it is in the Old World, to maintain larger tracts of inferior lands in 

 useful condition and at the same time lessen the tax burden in the very 

 locality where the taxes weigh heavily. 



To sum up, then, the forest is needed everywhere because people must be 

 supplied with wood and timber; it makes the best crop on all rough and 

 poor lands; it regulates water disttibution and local climate; and it 

 beautifies the land. The question now comes. What can the rural school 

 do in forestry? This question has not yet been answered, nor will it be 

 until much thought and experiment have developed good pedagogy of 

 forestry. All teachers in niral schools can help in this, and it is hoped 

 that some useful and interesting work will result this year. The following 

 are a few suggestions: 



I. Help the children to organize what they already know of trees and 

 woods, and by demonstrations help them to knowledge that wnll be more 

 definite and exact. Most farm boys know an oak from an elm, but the 

 knowledge is not clear, exact, and reliable as it may be. A few questions, 



