THE IVASHIXGTOX MEETIXG 5 



at home, barns and fields and kitchens are the nature-study lab- 

 oratories where the children observe and even exepriment. 



"From my point of view alliance and co-operation between 

 a Xature-Stud} Society and a Garden Association would be 

 natural — should be mutually beneficial/' 



At the Thursday morning session E. R. Jackson of the For- 

 estry Department, Washington, discussed Forestrv and Nature- 

 Study. 



Forestry seems perhaps a little out of touch with nature- 

 study. We can hardly teach nature-study without teaching ag- 

 riculture and gardening. When we come to forestry it seems as 

 if we were dealing with a professional subject. Yet the gist of 

 Modern Education seems to be to put the child in touch with the 

 things immediately about him. Most teachers use the trees in 

 nature-stud\- work. Why not go a step farther and study the 

 forest ! First, teach the child to know the trees just as he knows 

 his friends. Do not expect him to relish learning them by means 

 of a key any more than you would enjoy the attempt to recog- 

 nize your friends by a description based on the Bertillion Sys- 

 tem. So lead on to the forest. It contributes to our comfort with 

 food, furniture, houses. It protects and enriches the soil, it 

 regulates water flow and so enters as a prominent factor in our 

 daily lives. He called attention to Farmers Bulletin Xo. 408 

 just issued. Forestry as Xature-Study. 



Mr. F. B. Dressier and W. S. Small made clear that many of 

 the topics considered in nature-study may have a bearing on 

 health instruction. Thus if we teach well that warm air rises and 

 cold air flows in to take its place we establish the foundation for 

 practical ventilation. The average individual has yet not learned 

 the fact well enough to really use it. Along with insect studies 

 we should teach their role as disease carriers and the imperative 

 need of extermination. Havana has not had a case of yellow 

 fever in four years because some eflFective nature-study work 

 was done and applied. 



The problem of sex hygiene has its solution in nature-study 

 as far as biologic instruction can solve it. We must remember that 

 there are industrial, social, moral conditions involved in this, 

 however, so that the know^ledge of normal functions is onlv one 

 factor, even if an important one. 



C. F. Hodge (Mass.) spoke on the Civic Relations of Xa- 

 ture-Study somewhat as follows: 



"All the great topics so far discussed in our program have 

 their vital civic elements and relations. When we studv them 



