3i6 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



thering of community welfare. He 

 cites our possibilities and tells us that 

 we should produce far more milk, 

 sheep, alfalfa and even beef, which we 

 have been thinking is hopelessly rele- 

 gated to the west. Let us hear his 

 words : 



"He (the farmer in New England) 

 can, however, supply, I believe, profit- 

 ably a much larger part of its beef, mut- 

 ton, pork and poultry. There is no log- 

 ical reason why New England should 

 not produce all the fruits and vegetables 

 adapted to its climate that it requires, 

 and have a goodly supply left for its 

 neighbors — New York, Philadelphia 

 and other cities." 



But the Eliot and the Elliott are, in 

 the final analysis, practically pleading 

 for the same thing. They are asking 

 for the abandonment of traditional for- 

 malism and antiquated methods. Both 

 are pleading for the fundamental pro- 

 ducts of nature, the one Eliot as a fac- 

 tor in education, the other Elliott as a 

 factor in food supply .These men have, 

 in two distinct fields and within a few 

 months, aided in the great work of pro- 

 mulgating and of putting into practice 

 the ideals of The Agassiz Association. 

 For decades we have stood for the 

 training of the child in a knowledge of 

 the things around him, as being more 

 important than the traditional school 

 methods of the past. Howard Elliott 

 sees that defect as we have seen it. 

 He pleads in pamphlet after pamphlet, 

 and in newspaper article after article, 

 for the developement of a greater agri- 

 cultural interest in New England. We 

 Members of The Agassiz Association, 

 hail with delight the cooperation of 

 President Eliot and of President Elliott. 



When may we have the cooperation 

 of the public schools of New England? 

 Only here and there do we see that a 

 knowledge of the woods and fields is 

 taught to the young people. We ven- 

 ture to state that a large part of the 

 schools, even those of the country, are 

 citified and with city ideals ; that there 

 is even in the rural districts far more 

 manual training and far more training 

 for a position in the city store than 

 there is for the holding of the plow 

 liandles or the making of an ideal coun- 

 try home. We appeal to our New 

 England educators to put into practice 



in the schoolroom these thoroughly 

 practical methods of President Eliot 

 and of President Elliott. 



We Supply All Three. 



It is encouraging to note how the 

 authorities are advocating and advanc- 

 ing the principles of The Agassiz As- 

 sociation, sometimes even when they 

 do not realize what they are doing in 

 that direction, nor how much. There 

 is Superintendent Frederick S. Camp 

 of the Stamford, Connecticut, schools. 

 He recently sent a series of questions 

 to the leading business men and manu- 

 facturers of Stamford. These questions 

 were discussed at a meeting of the De- 

 partment of Education of the Stamford 

 Chamber of Commerce. Superinten- 

 dent Camp thus appeals for informa- 

 tion : 



"Please number the following in the 

 order of their importance to you, filling 

 in any omitted general qualifications 

 that } ou deem important. 



"( ) Powers of concentration — ab- 

 solute attention to the job till 

 it is done. 



"( ) Power of observation. 



"( ) Resourcefulness: 'gumption' 

 — must not run to the boss for 

 help for every problem." 



These points, which are supposed to 

 sum up all that business men require 

 from the boys and girls sent out from 

 the schools, are for the doing of some- 

 thing with things rather than to the 

 saying of something correctly in words. 

 This is exactly the fundamental ideal 

 of The AA. We believe in going to the 

 concrete and not to the abstract. From 

 that to see the thing and make the cor- 

 rect statement and so finish the job. 



"Absolute attention." That is one 

 of the essential qualities of a good nat- 

 uralist. 



"Power of observation." That means 

 to see the things that are around you. 

 But what is around you? The greatest 

 thing is the world of nature, and toward 

 it is best directed our observation. 



"Resourcefulness." That is only an- 

 other name for good, old-fashioned 

 "gumption." The very ideal of The AA 

 is that the youngest child should be a 

 learner and mav become a teacher bv 



