284 KEPOKT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



GROUP II. 



As the puj)ils advance from one grade to another their nature 

 study work should be better systematized, their observations should 

 include more details, and greater attention should be given to the 

 comparison of physical and other readily-discerned differences in 

 the species. Besides being more thorough, the nature study survey 

 should be extended somewhat beyond the limits of the school district, 

 and some study should be made of life histories of plants and animals, 

 so that these may be recognized in all stages of their development 

 and their economic relations determined. This wdll enable the pupils 

 to decide whether a given species is mainly beneficial or harmful and 

 will set them to thinking about means of perpetuating or extermi- 

 nating the species. This last consideration is the one which mainly 

 determines the attitude of the farmer toward his field crops, domestic 

 animals and fowls, as well as toward the weeds and other pests that 

 annoy him. 



To illustrate by a specific example: It would be interesting to 

 study and compare the teeth of difl'erent animals, such as the cow, 

 horse, cat, scpiirrel, and mouse, not for the purpose of discovering 

 anatomical curiosities or cataloguing specific markings, but for the 

 purpose of getting at the food requirements of these different animals, 

 and the ability of a given animal to survive under given conditions. 

 A dog would starve in a rich pasture where a cow would thrive. 

 Why? Myles, shrews, and field mice occupy the same underground 

 tunnels in our lawns. The first two eat grubs, worms, and other 

 insects and do no harm except to raise unsighth^ ridges on the la\Mi. 

 The field mice, on the other hand, eat our crocus and jonquil bulbs 

 and the tender roots of our rose bushes and other shrubbery. Exam- 

 ine the teeth of these different burrowers. Wliat differences that 

 would help to account for their habits? 



When the nature study teacher and her pupils have arrived at 

 this point of view, where the different objects are studied, not as 

 curiosities, but as components in a complex environment, each ele- 

 ment of whicli has its own function to perform, a definite influence 

 upon all other factors, they will be in a position to pass over as unim- 

 portant such details as color of hair, length and number of teeth, 

 number of leaves, length of petioles and internodes, and a hundred 

 other peculiarities of plants and animals, except as these peculiarities 

 have a direct bearing upon the perpetuation of the species or upon 

 their usefulness or harmfulness to man. Such a point of view and 

 such an attitude it is desirable that the pupils should reach before 

 they take up the more formal study of agricidture, which is pursued 

 "for the purpose of finding out how to enhance the animal and plant 

 values to man." 



