No. 7. DEPARTMEiNT OP AGRICULTURE. 679 



By the time that February has come, although the day is cold 

 and the snow drifts linger, there is sometliiug about the sunshine 

 that makes us think of June. Nothing else does^ — only the sunshine. 

 We wade through snow, we shiver, we hear the winds whistle, trying 

 to make us believe that winter is not half through with us yet; and 

 then we look at the sun. No calendar is needed to tell us that those 

 warm beams of his through the lengthening days, must waken the 

 spring flowers from their long nap, if only to see what is going on. 



With March the return of the birds has begun. Before you expect 

 him, the Phoebe-bird will be heard from a-top of a tall tree, or the 

 peak of the barn, "pewee, pewee," tenderly, cheerily, over and over. 

 It is just his way of saying, "spring is here." And the song sparrow 

 ^vill warble by the roadside almost like an canary. You will then 

 begin to dream of a new phase of nature. 



Winter melts away, and one by one, the flowers, the leaves, the 

 birds, return to greet you, like old friends. They all were here a 

 3'ear ago, yet there is nothing to weary you in a renewal of old 

 acquaintance, and there is always much to interest and to enjoy. 



The most entertaining, as well as instructive writer on nature, 

 of whom I know, is John Burroughs. He never dips so deeply into 

 science that the average reader cannot follow him, and yet you feel 

 that he knows all about it. His books are very simple, and very 

 thorough, better than Thoreau, to me, and a chapter by a cosy fire, 

 with him, is quite like a brisk out door walk. 



Colored plates are of great assistance to the bird student, even 

 though they are somewhat expensive in books and out, and a good 

 opera glass is of great value. Clothing, subdued in color, like the 

 woods, and very quiet manners, are two more great essentials. If 

 you doubt your liking for the studj^, place three birds and all their 

 habits correctly in your mind, and see how your interest in all the 

 others will grow. 



Unlike the majority of patent medicines, nature study is not war- 

 ranted to cure everything from a pain in the head to a corn on the 

 toe, but out of doors one forgets dyspepsia, and you will find in the 

 bird's world, many feathered creatures, in habits, in character, I had 

 almost said looks, similar to persons in your own. You will find 

 the industrious one, the solitary one, the quiet one, the beauty, the 

 sweet singer, the chatterbox, the thief. There must be a sort of bird 

 politics, for you will not even fail to find the "boss." He is in the 

 woods of Pennsylvania, the same as in town and county. Adapt 

 vourself to circumstances and vou will find vourself at home. 



THE COUNTRY TEACHER AS A SOCIAL FACTOR. 



By KSTELLA U. YOCUM SelUrsviUe. Pa. 



The existence of the human race is, to a very large extent, depend- 

 ent upon the farmer. Go where you will, you must find that the 

 farmer is an important quantity in tlie woof and fiber of the entire 



