CORNELL 



R\jral ScKool Leaflet 



Published Monthly by the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University, 

 from September to May. L. H. Bailey, Director. 



ALICE G. McCLOSKEY, Editor. 

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



Vol. I. ITHACA, N. Y., SEPTEMBER, 1907. No. i. 



THE POINT OF VIEW. 



By L. H. Bailey. 



A fundamental necessity to successful living is to be in sympathy 

 with the nature environment in which one is placed. This sympathy is 

 born of good knowledge of the objects and phenomena in the environment. 

 The process of acquiring this knowledge and of arriving at this sympathy 

 is now popularly called nature-study. 



The nature-study process and point of view should be a part of the 

 work of all schools, because schools train persons to live. Particularly 

 should it be a part of rural schools, because the nature-environment is 

 the controlling condition for all persons who live on the land. There is 

 no efifective living in the open country unless the mind is sensitive to the 

 objects and phenomena of the open country ; and no thoroughly good 

 farming is possible without this same knowledge and outlook. Good 

 farmers are good naturalists. 



For many years it has been one of the purposes of the College of 

 Agriculture in New York to point the way to this nature-sympathy ; and 

 inasmuch as this nature-sympathy is fundamental to all good farming, 

 it was conceived that the first duty of any movement was to lend the 

 effort to the establishing of an intelligent interest in the whole environ- 

 ment, — to knowledge of fields and weather, trees, birds, fish, frogs, soils, 

 domestic animals. It would be incorrect to begin first with the specific 

 agricultural phases of the environment, for the agricultural phase (as 

 any other special phase) needs a foundation and a base; it is only one 

 part of a point of view. Moreover, to begin with a discussion of the 

 so-called " useful " or " practical " objects, as many advise, would be 

 to teach falsely for, as these objects are only part of the environment, 

 to single them out and neglect the other subjects would result in a partial 

 and untrue outlook to nature ; in fact, it is just this partial and prejudiced 

 outlook that we need to correct. 



In our own work, we have always had in view the agricultural aim 

 or application. We should have been glad if there had been sufficient 



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