122 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Life, everywhere, has been growing too artificial. People 

 now are beginning to turn back to Mother Nature. What 

 brings a host of summer tourists to your beautiful lakes and 

 hills? It is not wholly to escape the heat of the cities, it is a 

 desire to get out into the heart of nature, with peace and quiet. 



What would our agriculture be today better than that of our 

 ancestors if there were not people everywhere studying seeds, 

 plants, fruits, insects and animals? The love of flowers and 

 animals is born in every child and should be fostered and 

 encouraged from infancy, otherwise childhood loses its greatest 

 value. 



Only a few days ago a neighbor said to me "My little girl 

 brought home a lot of dirty bugs and water in her dinner-pail 

 last night and I didn't know it and spilled it on the table and 

 I told her to throw them away and not bring home any more." 



"O, why did you do it?" I said. "Now you have nipped her 

 study in the bud. My little girl brought home some too, they 

 were tadpoles and caddice worms and diving beetles, and I put 

 them into a jar of water so the children could watch them." 



It is the very foundation of a farmer's success that he 

 becomes interested in nature study when a boy. When taken 

 up in a school it is wonderful how it will unite the scholars. I 

 have found some boys who seem almost ugly and unapproach- 

 able to become so interested that they will do any amount of 

 work and be the most interested in fixing up schoolhouse 

 grounds or searching for rare specimens. At this time of year 

 especially when everything is coming into life children will spend 

 their recesses and noons in exploring all the nearby woods, 

 brooks and fields. It gives them interest, exercise and knowl- 

 edge ; improves their health and moulds their characters. They 

 have no time for quarreling or low thoughts when interested 

 and busy out of doors. 



Maine has a wonderful variety of wild flowers unknown to 

 most people except the real flower lovers. It is not wild flowers 

 alone which I would advocate teaching. It's not every farmer's 

 boy or farmer himself who knows that the perfect flower must 

 have both stamens and pistils and that sometimes these essen- 

 tial organs are found in separate blossoms and on separate 

 plants. I know a man who set out a fine strawberry bed which 

 grew handsome plants and blossoms but no fruit and he did not 



