FORTIETH ANNUAL REPORT. 207 



nature not only teaches us religion, but that it is also an answer to that much discussed 

 question of the present time, "How shall we keep the young folks on the farm?" 



There is an old saying to the effect, "Bachelors' wives and maidens' children are always 

 well trained," and, being an old maid, of course I believe I know how the children can be 

 kept on the farm. My solution of the difficulty would be to give them a course of nature 

 study. 



We all know that God reveals himself to us in his great out-of-doors. The more we love 

 the great open, the nearer we are to him. 



Life in the country is usually considered uninteresting and monotonous; while, had the 

 horticulturist eyes to see, and ears to hear, he would figid himself surrounded by wonders 

 on all sides. 



The city child is taken into the country to learn botany, geology, zoology, and numer- 

 ous other oligies. The country child in the midst of these lessons all the time, seldom learn 

 them unless he come to town to school. 



Now I am not looking at this from a stand point of dollars and cents; but from a desire 

 to rear a child so that he may be equipped to get all the happiness he can out of this world, 

 all the contentment he can in his environment, and to be a good man. I believe I could 

 also show you, if I had the time, that this would be a paying proposition from a monetary 

 point of view. 



What I want you to do is this. When your son, and this applies to your daughter as 

 well, is old enough to read, buy him a few books. Books are so cheap now, the only thing 

 I know of that has not advanced with other high prices, that there is no reason why a 

 child should not have a few books, that are all his own. in which he may stamp his name 

 and which are his sole property. Start his collection by buying him some simply told 

 story of the formation of the earth, how it is effected by heat and cold, by wind and water, 

 what changes have taken place and are continually taking place upon its surface. You 

 will soon find the river, the hill, the meadow and valley have taken on a new aspect to 

 him. They begin to mean something. He begins to think as he goes about. The walk 

 after the cows is no longer a task, it is a pleasure. 



Get him a book on trees. What is there in nature that is more interesting? Teach 

 him, how they are almost human, how they need room and light to grow just as people 

 do, or they become dwarfed and stunted. Let him read how they eat and sleep and 

 breathe. You have but to start a child on a subject like this, and he will find so much in 

 it, that he will go on of his own accord. There are no idle rambling thoughts in the brain 

 of the boy who is ever on the alert to identify a strange leaf or a bare brown tree trunk. 



Then there are the stories of the plants and flowers. They eat, grow, marry and rear 

 families in our very midst; yet we give them no heed. Call them to the attention of the 

 boy and he will do the rest. 



And last, but not least, do not let the bird life about him escape unnoted. Teach him 

 the names of these "great commoners." Train his ear to know their songs and calls, his 

 eye to recognize at sight, the architect, from the construction of the little nest. 



The boy, whose soul has been awakened to the wonders about him, has learned some- 

 thing to make him happy. If fortune is kind to him, he has an increased joy in the world; 

 if she does not favor him, he forgets his disappointments in the attractions dame nature 

 spreads before him. There is no lodgement for sorrow, grief, hate or revenge in the mind 

 of the boy who sees what is constantly going on about him in the streams, earth, and 

 sky; who knows the birds, trees and flowers. This boy has a source of happiness and 

 contentment within himself that no money can buy. 



The boy to whom a love of nature has been taught has faith. He has seen and knows 

 how all things are planned and, he soon believes that he is a part of this great scheme and 

 must do his best. He has reverence. He is so impressed by the great growing world 

 about him, so throbbing with life, that he respects all hving things. He has love, and it 

 is such a love for the open that there is no charm for him but in the wide fields. Prayer 

 is in his heart at all times for as the poet says: 



"He prayeth best, who loveth best, 

 Both man and bird and beast." 



A boy equiped with a thorough love of God's beautiful world has a religion on which 

 may rest any creed to which he belongs. 



See that you teach it to him. A. I. HEFFERAN. 



