8 Trees, Stars, and Birds 



If you wish to preserve for a time the autumnal tints 

 of the foliage, gather leaves that are free from blemishes 

 and ragged edges, and press them for a day or so be- 

 tween blotters. Then dip them in barely melted paraffin 

 and press them between papers with a hot iron. Leaves 

 prepared in this way look very pretty mounted on green 

 cardboard. 



Collections of woods. In Europe so few kinds of 

 wood are in common use that woodworkers soon learn 

 to recognize the different kinds. But the number of 

 woods in use in America is so large that even lumber- 

 men, carpenters, and cabinet makers rarely are able to 

 distinguish closely related kinds. They know red oak 

 from white oak, but do not distinguish the various 

 species that are sold under the name of red oak or of 

 white oak. 



To learn to recognize a dozen or more kinds of wood is 

 easy. The best way to do this is to get samples from 

 persons who know what they are, label them, and then 

 find articles that are made of these different kinds of 

 wood. Every pupil should have, either at home or in 

 the schoolroom, a collection of this kind, and the school 

 should have a larger collection. The samples can be 

 obtained from various sources, some of which will be 

 suggested by the uses of the wood given for the different 

 species in this book. At a woodworking shop it is often 

 possible to obtain small pieces of a dozen kinds, some of 

 them in sufficient quantity for a class. By visiting more 

 than one such shop quite a variety can be procured 

 without any expense. If the manager is willing to have 

 the whole class visit the factory at one time, much can 



