224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



and should be brought out in all the public schools. Now so 

 much for the sake of the birds. They are interesting for their 

 beauty, but they are exceedingly interesting and important 

 from the standpoint of what they do and of their value to agri- 

 culture and to man. What is a robin good for? What is the 

 chipping sparrow good for? How many plant lice does a 

 chickadee eat during the winter and spring? What is a quail 

 good for, other than to be served up on toast? Of course, I 

 can't go into a discussion of these things. My time is too 

 limited. But I speak of this simply to suggest that there is a 

 line of work, which, if carefully worked out in detail, would 

 give the teacher a whole year's work, and which will be impor- 

 tant as having an effect, and a beneficial effect, upon the life of 

 the people. 



Then as to the growing trees; that would be an important 

 phase of work to take up — how to grow trees. I would teach 

 a child how to grow plants in the schools, especially in the city 

 schools, where they have never grown plants at all and know 

 nothing of the enjoyment and instruction which comes from 

 their cultivation. You will find many children that have never 

 grown a plant in their lives, and it does seemi to me that a 

 child will derive great benefit by such instruction ; by watching 

 them grow they will procure not only enjoyment, but will 

 always experience a thrill of pleasure from seeing a thing grow 

 that really belongs to them. They take an interest in a thing 

 like that to a greater degree than in many other pleasures. I 

 was at a flower show last season, a year ago, in which I was 

 asked to judge some flowers, and afterwards I was to make the 

 speeches of presentation of prizes in a school. In the first 

 grade I simply asked how many children ever grew a plant 

 before. They came from some of the homes that were not the 

 best in the city, and only two or three little hands went up in 

 that room of about forty children. They never had grown a 

 plant. When I got into the second grade I asked how many 

 of them had ever grown a plant, and quite a number of little 

 hands went up. You see some of them had had instruction 

 upon that line from some source. If you can get a child to 

 plant a tree, or to grow a plant, which they own themselves, it 

 will develop in them the instinct of ownership, such as was 

 referred to by the speaker. My time will not permit me to 

 speak at length upon this point. There can be no question, 



