MEANING OF NATURE-STUDY 33 



method it is opposed to the pouring-in-and- 

 dipping-out process. 



My own work in nature-study centers chiefly 

 about its value as a means of improving country 

 living. It may tend distinctly toward the 

 improvement of the farmer, and thereby of 

 farming. Go into a potato-growing community 

 and ask the farmers where the roots of the potato 

 plants are — whether above or below the tubers — 

 and you will puzzle them nearly every time. And 

 yet, a knowledge of the position of the roots is 

 essential to the best potato-growing, for upon this 

 position depend in part the principles governing 

 the depth of planting, hilling, and, to some 

 extent, of tilling. At a farmers' meeting in an 

 apple-growing section, I asked how many apple 

 flowers are borne in a cluster. Every man guessed, 

 but no man knew. One man said that the limbs 

 of some of his apple trees had died ; he asked me 

 why. I asked him the symptoms : but he did 

 not know as they had any symptoms — they had 

 only died. Had he looked at the limbs ? Yes, 

 he had seen them from the barnyard ! 



Now, I do not care whether nature-study 

 teaches where the potato roots are or not. The 

 point is, that nature-study teaches the importance 

 of actually seeing the thing and then of trying to 

 understand it. The person who actually knows a 

 pussy-willow will know how to become acquainted 

 with the potato-bug. He will introduce himself. 



In recent years there has been great activity in 

 disseminating information amongst the farmers. 



