112 STATE POMOLOGTCAL SOCIETY. 



this I suppose is intended to be a honey bee. Here is another 

 one. There the thing under observation was a pea; the seed 

 was planted and here we have the various steps in the germina- 

 tion of the plant, described by drawings. Here is the seed, and 

 as it began to spring from the ground notice the crook that first 

 appears above the ground. These things bring the child pretty 

 close to agriculture. 



Now the clubs send in their dues — we call these letters their 

 dues — once a month. Every time a naturalist publication 

 appears, it means that they are called upon for dues. They send 

 them in in clubs, the letters all packed together under one cover, 

 and I have shown you a number of sample covers. They are 

 tastily gotten up. The grades are shown on the covers, so you 

 can get an idea of the age of the scholar. Here is another one 

 showing the development of the corn plant, and then some 

 observations on birds, the orioles, catbird, blackbird, bluebird, 

 kingfisher, etc., and notes on insects. When a club which has 

 been formally organized has sent in one set of dues, they obtain 

 this charter, — when they send in their dues with a list of the 

 names as appearing on this roster. Each Junior Naturalist is 

 distinguished by wearing a button. That button is sent to each 

 individual member of the association and is worn with a great 

 deal of pride. They are then attaches as it were of Cornell 

 University. 



These clubs are not carried on from year to year. They are 

 disbanded at the end of the school year, so that each season we 

 have a new class of boys and girls coming up, and in that way 

 we reach a large number. Last year we had about nineteen 

 hundred of them in the state, aggregating something over thirty 

 thousand in membership. Of course the great dil^culty in 

 organizing these clubs is to find teachers who have the requisite 

 amount of training and who have the desire to take up the work, 

 but teachers who do take it up find that it is no added load, but 

 that it is a great help. They use the organizations for various 

 purposes. If their children are tardy in the morning, they will 

 say, "Now we will have a Junior Naturalist exercise the first 

 thing in the morning," observation on something interesting, 

 and they invariably report that this brings the children in on 

 time. They enjoy it. 



