NATURE-STUDY IN RURAL SCHOOLS 



BY A. B. GRAHAM 



Professor in Agricultural College, Ohio State University 



The old saying, "Things seen oftenest are seen least," applies 

 quite as well to the very common things in nature as to the 

 things of art. Because children are reared in the country or 

 country villages is no evidence that they have become acquainted 

 with common things about them. 



There is no one who is not willing to testify that real pleas- 

 ure is experienced from just a slig-ht acquaintance with those 

 things of nature that are so near us. The roadside, the rock- 

 pile, the narrow stream, the woods and other places contribute 

 something that reveals much of the handiwork of our Creator. 

 The pleasure of the moment passes into joy which is abiding. 



We should learn to know nature, that we may the better 

 understand the relation and dependence of one thing upon an- 

 other: the animal whose life is dependent upon the plant for 

 food ; the plant that must depend upon the animal for seed dis- 

 tribution ; the fertilizing of plants by insects that visit them ; the 

 place for the com-mon fly and ichneumon to lay eggs ; the ex- 

 change of carbonic acid gas which is produced by animals, for 

 the oxygen which is given ofi by plants, etc., etc. In short, 

 to furnish a basis for the future study of ecology. 



In literature many allusions to nature are made ; nature fur- 

 nishes material upon which many very forceful rhetorical figures 

 are based. The reader selections are read with much more 

 pleasure and are understood much more easily from knowing 

 nature. 



Nature-study furnishes much material that may be used 

 in drawing exercises. What is learned from very ordinary 

 observation also aids in criticising drawings and statements 

 made in literary selections. 



In the rural school, where there is a crowded program, every 

 minute of the time must be used for some definite purpose. It 

 must not be forgotten that the regular studies are to have pri- 



