S76 



Rural School Leaflet. 



Fig. 26. — Where cottage cheese is made 



and the practice of forestry deal with the relations of trees, their com- 

 petition for ground and light, the adaptations which fit them for special 

 conditions, and the collective life which results. A knowledge of 

 tree botany does not make a forester, who must have his eye on the 



woods first of all. 



It follows from this 

 that, to be of much 

 practical value for the 

 prospective owner of 

 woodland, the study 

 of plant life in the 

 rural school curriculum 

 must be planned to 

 extend well into the 

 field of ecology. From 

 the standpoint of gen- 

 eral scientific training 

 as well as from that of 

 industrial education 

 such an extension 

 opens large possibili- 

 ties. The fundamental principles involved are basic in modern scientific 

 thought. Considered as a biological laboratory, the forest provides rare 

 facilities for pointing out the visible workings of the competitive struggle 

 for life. The boy who learns to pick out the dominant and suppressed 

 trees from those still fighting for their place has learned an important 

 lesson, which will apply to much besides the management of the woodlot. 

 The forest is always changing. The unthinking observer regards it 

 as fixed. He has not learned to read its life history as it unfolds before 

 him, and is surprised to find the open spaces filling with thicket and then 

 clearing into good young timber after the first rush for possession has 

 been followed by the race for light. Forestry requires the habit of look- 

 ing into the future. The young growth, down to the little seedlings, 

 must be protected to replenish the stock of timber when that now ap- 

 proaching maturity is cut. 



To inculcate these principles, a beginning should be made in the 

 nature-study course. Herbert A. Smith, 



COTTAGE CHEESEMAKING 



Object of lesson. — ^To acquaint the pupil with one of the uses of 

 skimmed milk and buttermilk. 



