CORRESPONDEXCE AND INFORMATION 



369 



But inv good mother understood 

 this situation also,, and putting her 

 arm around me, she gently said : "You 

 must hurry through your dinner and 

 go to school this afternoon." That is 

 the only reference she made to my 

 truancy and that was the only time in 

 my life I played hookey from school. 

 But I really learned more in the corn- 

 field than I did at the little brick school- 

 house, and thereafter all insects pos- 

 sessed a permanent charm and interest. 



It was after this my mother taught 

 me where to look for the chrysalides 

 of the Monarch butterfly or, as we 

 called them, the milkweed butterfly, 

 on the underside of the top rail of the 

 white, paling fence in front of our lit- 

 tle cottage. These green and bejewel- 

 ed chrysalides were to me fairy cre- 

 ations ; I thought them even prettier 

 than the butterflies themselves. After 

 that, I became interested in the beetles 

 on the grapevines and the study of the 

 grubworms and their transformation 

 into the beetle. Later, as a young man 

 in the city engineer's office in Cincin- 

 nati, I made a habit of collecting all 

 the caterpillars and putting them in 

 the drawer of my drafting table. All 

 the other surveyors used to add to that 

 collection ; it was then that I spent 

 some of the first money I ever earned 

 in buying a "Packard's Introduction 

 to the Study of Insects." 



I had no desire to be a scientific en- 

 tomologist, I only wanted to know the 

 habits of these creatures and to be able 

 to identify them at sight. I looked up- 

 on them as one of the branches of nat- 

 ural history and an important branch. 

 The birds, the beasts, the reptiles and 

 the plants were all equally attractive, 

 but there was no Packard's Introduc- 

 tion to the study of birds, beasts or 

 reptiles. However I did secure Dana's 

 geology which was of great aid to me 

 with the fossils with which the hills 

 of Cincinnati abounded. 



Ever since those days, I have looked 

 upon the insect world as the kindergar- 

 ten and grammar school for nature 

 study ; little things always attract 

 little folks ; a little horse or pony, a lit- 

 tle man, like Tom Thumb or Commo- 

 dore Nut, a tiny woman like Mrs. Tom 

 Thumb or Minnie Warren, a wee little 

 coach like that in which these dwarfs 

 used to drive through the city streets, 



all possess a greater charm for the chil- 

 dren than do any giants or the big ani- 

 mals like the moose, the elk or the buf- 

 falo. As for the elephant, that has al- 

 ways been a source of terror to little 

 people. 



A little playhouse will attract the 

 attention of all the children who may 

 pass by, while a magnificent palace, up- 

 on the groimds of which the playhouse 

 may be situated, will be unnoticed by 

 them. Fairies have more charm for 

 children than giants; hence.it is that I 

 am satisfied that in the study of nature, 

 the natural way and the proper way is 

 to begin with the insects while the stu- 

 dents are very young. As they grow 

 older, the larger animals will be of in- 

 terest to them. But wild flowers, ane- 

 mones, bloodroot, jack-in-the-pulpit 

 and violets are more charming and 

 more attractive to children than the 

 most magnificent forests or even the 

 big trees found in the mountains of 

 California. 



Insects interested me when bears,, 

 deer and buflfalo would have frightened 

 me. Even Santa Claus' rig, in order 

 to please the children, is described as- 

 consisting of "a miniature sleigh and 

 eight tiny reindeer, with a little old 

 driver." 



This is a psychological phase of the 

 childish mind which has not been taken 

 advantage of heretofore in nature 

 study, but which induced me to write 

 my books on "Bugs, Butterflies and 

 Beetles," for the boys. 



Dan Beard. 



A new disease of the orange and 

 other citrus fruits is reported from 

 Florida, introduced apparently from 

 Japan. 



The Roval Ontario Museum has 

 lately acquired a set of minerals from' 

 Baffin Land, which lies west of Baffin 

 Bay in about the latitude of the North 

 Magnetic Pole. The specimens include 

 scapolite, rose quartz, serpentine, spi- 

 nel, actinolite, graphite, cordierite and 

 garnet. The deposits of the last three 

 mav be commercially valuable. The 

 rocks are in general about like those of 

 Canada and northern New England — 

 largelv gneisses and limestones of Ar- 

 chean age. 



