Nature-Study Agriculture 97 



Inasmuch as this nature-sympathy is funda- 

 mental to all good farming, the first duty of 

 any movement Is to establish an intelligent inter- 

 est In the whole environment, — In fields and 

 weather, trees, birds, fish, frogs, soils, domestic 

 animals. It would be Incorrect to begin first 

 with the specific agricultural phases of the en- 

 vironment, for the agricultural phase (as any 

 other special phase) needs a foundation and a 

 base: it is only one part of a point of view. 

 Moreover, to begin with a discussion of the 

 so-called "useful" or "practical" objects, as 

 many advise, would be to teach falsely, for, as 

 these objects are only part of the environment, 

 to single them out and neglect the other subjects 

 would result in a partial and untrue outlook to 

 nature; in fact, it Is just this partial and pre- 

 judiced outlook that we need to correct (p. 32) . 



The colleges of agriculture have spread the 

 nature-study movement. Such work was begun 

 as early as 1895 and 1896 by the College of 

 Agriculture of Cornell University. The col- 

 leges would have been glad If there had been 

 sufficient nature-study sentiment to have enabled 

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