6 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [13:1— Jan., 1917 



may realize how beneficial it would be to Milwatikee to give the 

 young instruction in the care of trees. Were we to teach otir 

 children to thoroughly admire and respect a noble tree, to call it 

 by name, to know how many years it has taken it to arrive at its 

 beautiftil maturity, to know something of the insect pests that 

 infest it and the best methods of eradicating these pests, we might 

 one day rear a generation of citizens whose legislation would 

 provide Milwaiikee with a chief forester and enough assistants to 

 prevent the devastation of hundreds of our trees by the cottony- 

 scale and the white-marked tussock moth. How Milwaukee 

 people respect an old tree was shown last year when two noble 

 elms on the comer of State and Twelfth Streets were felled for the 

 accommodation of the streetcar compan}^ because the beautiful 

 intricate lace-work of their branches interfered with the hideous 

 trolley wires; and scarcely a protesting voice was raised against 

 this outrage on two trees that had given a protecting shadow to 

 Milwaukee pedestrians when the city was in its youth. 



The education given in our common schools is supposed to 

 provide the child of the masses with the rudiments of what he will 

 need in his struggle for an existence. Yet the great agriculttiral 

 United States has not, until quite recently, seen fit to introduce 

 into its courses of study for elementarv^ schools an^^thing that will 

 incline a child to agricultiire. A city boy who is interested in the 

 planting of trees, shrubs, vegetables, and flowers is learning prac- 

 tical lessons everv^ day that are not only useful to him as a child 

 but will lay the foundation for more extensive work along that 

 line for the future whether his manhood is to be spent in tirban or 

 in rural districts. The majority of people have no use in after 

 life for a large percentage of the arithmetic and the geography 

 taught in the grades. Could not the time be better employed by 

 giving the child something more practical and enjoyable? And 

 why should a child not be directed toward horticulture or bee 

 culture rather than toward some unrenumerative city employ- 

 ment^ — a position as dr^'-goods clerk or the work of a pale-faced, 

 emaciated bookkeeper? Even city people may successfully 

 carry on some branches of farming, such as the raising of mush- 

 rooms, celer>% or poultrv'. 



I believe also that nature-study will gi\^e a student a good 

 foundation for the biolog>" and geology of the college, because 

 he will have a broader understanding of plant and animal life and 



