STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. IO5 



in our own door-yards the most effective material with which 

 to interest children. And let me say, lest I should forget, that 

 nature study is after all the beginning of agricultural knowledge. 

 This point has been well brought out. We sometimes introduce 

 it into schools under the name of "nature study," but we are 

 really teaching agriculture and perhaps more effectively than 

 if it were put into the curriculum as such. It is in fact agri- 

 culture disguised. Although "the first farmer was the first 

 man," and although agriculture is the oldest of the arts, it is 

 probably the youngest of the sciences, for it is only within the 

 last twenty years that there has been an awakening to the dignity 

 of farm labor and to the necessity of severe study if one would 

 succeed in agriculture. Just think of it, the student cannot touch 

 a thing in the realm of natural science that does not affect the 

 operations of the farm. So that when the child is admiring the 

 blossom of the apple tree in his father's garden he is uncon- 

 sciously learning something which will help that child to grow 

 fruit in the future. And the animals. I heard of a curious little 

 incident the other day, and it was told me as a fact by some 

 friends who invited their city cousins to come and visit them. 

 You are aware there is a common notion that the city girls and 

 boys are the smart girls and boys, that the country boy is the 

 boy who knows very little. This notion has grown up because 

 the country boy does not at first shine in the city, but just change 

 the positions and you will get a pretty accurate idea of the real 

 knowledge of each. This particular city child of which the story 

 is told visited her country friends and was very fond of milk. 

 The first day she drank greedily, the second day she liked it very 

 much, but the third day she absolutely objected to taking any 

 milk at all. They asked her why, and she said : "Why, I have 

 been out to the barn, and that milk came from a dirty old cow, 

 and I am not going to take it." That is perhaps an exaggerated 

 illustration of the ignorance of city children regarding the things 

 on the farm ; but it is as fair as some of the illustrations which 

 are used to show the ignorance of the country boy when he goes 

 to the city. 



Illustration : Wayside Flowers, 



The woods furnish many of these charming studies. It does 

 not make any difference whether we go out in lady slipper season, 

 in golden rod season, or in aster season, or whether when the 



