CORNELL 



R\iral School Leaflet 



SUPPLEMENT FOR THE CHILDERN 



Published monthly by the New York State Colege of Agriculture at Cornell University, from 

 September to May and entered as second-class matter September 30, 1907, at the Post Office 

 at Ithaca, New York, under the Act of Congress of July 16, 1894. L. H. Bailey Director 



ALICE G. McCLOSKEY, Editor 

 Professors G. F. WARREN and CHARLES H. TUCK, Advisers 



Vol. I. 



ITHACA, N. Y., NOVEMBER. 1907. 



No. 3 



THE NATURE-STUDY CORNER. 



There are so many interesting things to be 

 found out-of-doors in November for the nature- 

 study corner, that it is difficult to select one sub- 

 ject for special observation. When the leaves 

 have fallen from the trees and wayside plants, 

 many things are exposed to view that were hid- 

 den ill the summer. Out-door folk have man\- 

 enemies and so they try to hide their dwelling 

 places and store-houses. In fall and winter, 

 however, very strange homes are often exposed 

 and naturalists make most interesting discoveries. 



As you walk along the road-sides you will 

 probably notice what children call little "bunches'' 

 on the golden-rod stems. We are often asked 

 what there are, and why they are there. To the 

 naturalist the- bunches are known as galls, and 

 they are the homes of insects. You will be in- 

 terested to learn something about the lives of 

 the little creatures that live in them. 



There are two very noticeable galls on the 

 golden-rod stems : one. elongated or spindle- 

 shaped ; the other, round. In this lesson I shall 

 speak of the spindle-shaped gall, for having 

 learned the history of this one, you will probably 

 be interested to find out the story of the other 

 yourselves. 



Before you can understand the history of the 

 little inhabitant of the golden-rod gall, you must 

 know that there are four periods in the lives of 

 many insects ; that is, four periods in each of which the insect appears 

 in a different form. The moths have these four periods, and the insect 



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Fig. 22. — The golden- 

 rod gall. 



