134 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
A friend living in New York city laughingly tells of her efforts to help 
a poor woman with a large family of children. They seldom had enough to 
eat, little to wear and were frequently without shelter, and on account of 
their extreme poverty the privileges of school were not available. A place 
was found for them about fifty miles in the country on the farm ofa friend 
who gave them the use of a neat little cottage free, and who also was willing 
to pay for all the work the mother and older children could do about the 
house and farm. The children were to have the privileges of the nearby 
school. Everthing worked well, apparently, for a time, until one fine morn- 
ing no “friendly smoke” appeared from the chimney of the little cottage, 
and no one came to the farm house to assist in the work. Inspection of the 
little home showed that the mother and her children had literally flown from 
the scene. A week later, my friend met the woman on one of the busy 
streets of the city. To the questions propounded came the reply—“Oh, sure! 
and it was too lonesome out there to stay! There was nothing going on! 
No parades, nobody going by on the streets, no neighbors droppin’ in to 
talk over miseries with, no fights and murders, no fires to run to,” ete. 
Well, right there was the key to the situation! Unable to read and write, 
with no knowledge of anything, except what was gathered from the city 
pavements, “misery and trouble” around them at all hours of the day and 
night, they missed the horrible excitement of discussing the misfortunes and 
crimes of their fellow beings. Although only so many infinitesimal atoms, 
whose loss from the complement of city vitality would be no more noticed 
-than the annihilation of so many motes in a sunbeam, yet they felt the at- 
traction of friendly intercourse with kindred atoms and so gravitated back 
to their natural element. Taken without due preparation to the country, 
it proved an utter blank to them. Barring the creature comforts of life, it 
was like placing them on a desert island in mid-ocean. 
It is not necessary to consider the conditions of city life except to profit 
by the lessons that may be learned therefrom. 
Returning to the consideration of the great drawback to the content and 
happiness of the farmer and his wife in that they cannot hold their sons and 
. daughters to farm life, it will be advisable to reflect upon the condition of 
their surroundings and then search out the reason for their aversion to it. 
It is easily found and defined as a lack of interest in, due to the ignorance of, 
the details of daily life. Their city cousins come to visit them, and they are 
full of animation and narrate many stories of the wonderful things they have 
seen at school, at the museum, in the parks, etc., and the poor little country 
bumpkins are speechless in blank wonderment and envy. They have nothing 
to relate. Everything is so simple and commonplace around them; nothing 
but grass, trees, bushes, creeks, meadows, orchards, nut trees, fields of wheat, 
rye, oats, barley, fragrant buckwheat, clover, towering stalks of corn, hills, 
immense rocks, a river, perhaps, or maybe a lake full of fish, a windmill, a 
spring, horses, cows, pigs, sheep, hens, chickens, dogs, kittens, lots of pets, 
bees, insects, birds in variety, animals of the forest and prairie, beautiful 
wild flowers all around. No! Nothing to speak of! Poor litéle mortals! 
A thousand things around them, but all so common that they are not worthy 
of mention or even of notice, and for the simple reason that they know 
nothing of them! 
Right here is where Nature Study comes to the rescue. These restless, 
active minds must be supplied with the wherewithal to satisfy the craving 
