A NATIONAL GAM^ POLICY 769 



the autumn hills, summer and the country were always sensual living, 

 while winter was always compulsory learning. Summer was the multi- 

 plicity of nature ; winter was school." 



Here, there is a definite expression of the old order of things. Edu- 

 cation was work in winter. Summer was for sensual life of no edu- 

 cational value. Today work is play and play is work, with a growing 

 realization that the greatest progress in educational fields is made 

 through play. 



A National Park is created to preserve natural phenomena of na- 

 tional importance so its curiosities may be perpetuated for the pleasure 

 of the people. How much stronger would be the argument for this 

 park with its purpose to serve as a culture area for human betterment 

 and not merely to protect natural beauties? 



A National Forest is created to preserve the resources of the lands 

 embraced. Complete use of these resources by the public is encouraged 

 and every efifort is put forth to develop the lands in the interest of 

 industry. In some cases the demand for use is so intense that preser- 

 vation of original values is possible only with constant diligence. While 

 the preservation of the forest resources as a national asset is important, 

 how much greater purpose they can be made to serve for building 

 human qualities, both mental and physical. We are inclined to define 

 recreation for pleasure and enjoyment, failing to weigh the develop- 

 ment from such activities which extend over a wide field. The ever- 

 changing prospectus as one proceeds through the forest, the form and 

 grouping of the tree trunks, the variety and intricate detail of the 

 topography and undergrowth of woodland shrub and young trees, and 

 the delicate forms and infinite variety of the ferns, mosses, creeping 

 vines, in fact, every phase of vegetable and animal life calls forth 

 observation and response from human nature with ever-increasing 

 benefits. 



There may have been a time, centuries ago, when the study of nature 

 was limited to the study of uncanny things, and practiced so that it 

 marked the individual who dealt with the subject as an oddity set 

 apart from his fellows. But nature study, like everything else, has 

 been permeated by the spiri-t of the modern, utilitarian age until, from 

 things of perhaps of little importance, if limited to miserly collecting, 

 it has come to be a most important factor in modern training. Think 

 how big a part of the child's time ihc so-called nature study now takes 

 up in school. It is used not only to fix a knowledge of the land in 

 which the child lives, but there is no known factor of education that 



