252 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



And these methods are happily displacing those that suggested if not 

 required the death of every bird studied. We are well aware of the 

 fact that it is not so much the killing of birds for study that theatens 

 the extinction of some species, as the wanton killing for the sake of 

 killing, and, as in the case of birds of fine plumage, the killing for the 

 money value of the dead birds. Yet we realize that the place to begin is 

 to educate the children of the schools not to kill birds for any purpose. 

 When they have regard for the life of a bird they may be trusted not 

 to kill one needlessly. 



(e) Geology. In this the pupil comes to see the foundations of the 

 earth, fortunately little of which man may injure or deface. And yet 

 how thankful we are that on the hills of New England there have been 

 preserved in their original ruggedness the great masses of granite that 

 have withstood the elements for millions of years. And who is not 

 gratified that the great wall of the Palisades on the Hudson river has 

 been saved for all time? These cliffs were valuable for crushing into 

 gravel for road-making and for the quarrying of building stone, but 

 certain men of fine sensibilities felt that the Palisades had a far higher 

 value for their grandeur and beauty. And so the Palisades were saved. 



We need more of this fine sense of the value of rocks, and lakes, and 

 waterfalls, and cliffs, and mountains, and of the need of their preservation. 



(f) Conservation Clubs. Aside from much that may be done in 

 school classes to foster a spirit of conservation something further may 

 be accomplished by taking advantage of the club-forming instinct of 

 children. Conservation clubs, conservation leagues, conservation guilds, 

 pacts, societies, or what-not, may be suggested by the wise teacher, who 

 can discreetly keep himself in the background while the youngsters do 

 the work. If a nauseating namby-pambyism can be avoided such clubs 

 may be joined by even the most vigorous of boys, the very class in whom 

 it is desirable to develop the spirit of conservation. 



III. WORK THROUGH LEGISLATION. 



What has been already outlined is probably enough for the present, 

 but the American people are not satisfied unless something is done in the 

 way of enacting our ideas into laws. In the present condition of society 

 we act as though we thought it quite impossible to do anything on a large 

 scale without having the sanction of a direct law in regard to it. We are 

 only very slowly learning that some of the best of human activites have 

 been developed independently of legislation, and no doubt the time will 

 come when we shall not be so anxious to have our plans formulated into 

 laws found in our statute books. Rut for the present we may suggest 

 the following legislation as helpful. We purposely avoid suggesting 

 the passage of laws dealing with details. They must come later, when 

 the conservation sense of the public has been adequately aroused. Here 

 we may consider state and national laws. 



(a) State Laws. These may well include those intended to preserve 

 rare birds, and in some places certain rare plants which are in danger 



