jackson] FORESTRY IN NATURE-STUDY 153 



merely show purposes. Children soon lose interest in blocks 

 of wood or other objects shut up in glass cases or protected by 

 the warning sign of "Hands Off!" As far as possible, the 

 specimens should be so arranged that they can be handled and 

 passed about from pupil to pupil without injury. The children 

 should be encouraged to feel that the museum is their own pro- 

 perty to use and examine as freely as they desire, — of course, 

 under such reasonable limitations as may be necessary for the 

 discipline of the school. 



Field trips are another essential to the best success of forest 

 studies, but field excursions should never be undertaken until the 

 interest and co-operation of the pupils have been secured. The 

 pupils should first be brought to the attitude of looking upon 

 the field work as a part of their regular lessons as much as a 

 blackboard exercise in numbers or map-drawing. The trip must 

 be carefully planned, and the person who is to have charge should 

 be thoroughly familiar with the ground to be covered and well 

 informed as to the things of interest about the trees that are to 

 be brought to the observation of the pupils. Finally, the trip 

 should have a definite aim. An aimless trip will almost surely 

 be a disastrous one. Some definite undertaking should be as- 

 signed to the pupils, and some sort of written or oral report re- 

 quired of each one. This cannot be too strongly emphasized. 



As a final suggestion by which I believe the study of forestry 

 can be made useful, I wish to suggest the possibility of devoting 

 a part of the school garden to a tree nursery, in which trees may 

 be grown from seed, just as vegetables and flowers are ordinarily 

 grown. Scarcely any more work will be required for the nursery 

 than for the ordinary garden, and the trees will form a much 

 more permanent product which can be utilized for the beautifi ca- 

 tion of the school grounds or the lawns about the homes of the 

 children.* 



In all the work with the trees and the forest, the teacher has 

 an opportunity to impress upon the minds of the children a 

 lesson which should be thoroughly learned by every young 

 citizen, which is that the forest is a very important contributor 

 to our national wealth and one of the chief reasons why our 

 nation is so prosperous is because we have been bountifully sup- 



*Full direction for the establishment and maintenance of a school 

 nursery will be found in Farmers' Bulletin 423, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 

 "Forest Nurseries for Schools." 



