THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



DEVOTED TO ALL PHASES OF NATURE-STUDY IN SCHOOLS 



Vol. 3 FEBRUARY, 1907 No. 2 



TYPES OF THE BEST NATURE-STUDY 



I. PRACTICAL WORK WITH MOSQUITOES 



BY C. F. HODGE, Clark University 



[Editorial Note, — As announced in the editorial note in December, it is 

 planned to publish under the general heading "Types of the Best Nature- 

 Study" accounts of the best practical nature-study done during the past year. 

 What have you done ? How did it go ? In short, here is an opportunity for a 

 lively and helpful "experience meeting;" and if you have worked out any prac- 

 tical lessons nezv to your school, send a note or an article to The Review at once. 

 Bear in mind that something new to nature-study literature is not demanded. If 

 it is new to your school, then we want it for publication. Your experience will 

 encourage other teachers and help the great movement for the advance of which 

 this journal stands.] 



The work which I shall describe was carried out at the Downing 

 Street School, in Worcester, Mass., largely under the direction of 

 Miss Edna R. Thayer with the hearty cooperation of the Principal, 

 Miss Katharine Smith. In deciding what is "best" in the great 

 mass of good nature- study that we see being done we must, of course, 

 take conditions and needs of the neighborhood into the account as 

 well as the lessons themselves. Exactly the same lessons in a local- 

 ity to which mosquitoes had to be imported for the purpose would 

 have to be rated as the worst piece of nature-study imaginable. I 

 consider this the best piece of insect nature-study because inexcusa- 

 ble abuses of a once beautiful brook had made the mosquito pest the 

 greatest nuisance and a serious menace to health in the district. 



The stream in question, known as Beaver Brook, flows with very 

 little fall for more than a mile through the heart of the district. It 

 had cut a channel three or four feet deep below the lowest meadows 

 and woods along its course, and had thus been able to do its work of 

 draining the land efiiciently. As the settlement approached the 

 brook the low places were made dumping grounds for ashes and rub- 



