58 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [8 :2— Feb.. 1912 



lively easy and effectual way of various pests. The invasion of 

 their gardens by weeds will afford the strongest kind of incen- 

 tive for the study of the means by which plants, especially weeds, 

 are disseminated, the need for co-operation among all the mem- 

 bers of an entire community in the war against weeds, the need 

 for protection of birds which eat weed seeds, and the various 

 means by which weeds may be eradicated or effectually con- 

 trolled. The dependence of successful plant growth upon the 

 weather furnishes the pupil with a motive for the study of 

 weather conditions generally. All these topics will be found to 

 oft'er the most intensely interesting kind of materials for nature 

 study lessons and since they all, as has been seen, grow naturally 

 out of the school garden, it would be regrettable loss to take them 

 up in any other connection. Hence a second reason for making 

 the school garden the center for the teaching of nature study. 



Not only does the garden supply the children with motives 

 for making a careful study of nature, but the parents are more 

 likely to show a sympathy for, at least, a fair degree of tolera- 

 tion for nature study work. There are comparatively few parents 

 who cannot see a certain amount of benefit in teaching the chil- 

 dren how to prepare, plant, cultivate, harvest, and market the 

 ])roducts from the school garden. On the other hand many of 

 them can see little real benefit to their children in studying ob- 

 jects of nature in isolation, bearing as they seem to do in so 

 many cases when thus studied, little or no relation to man's wel- 

 fare. The school garden is thus seen to give us a means of en- 

 listing the sympathy and co-operation of the home in nature study 

 work. 



Again the school garden furnishes easily accessible material 

 for the nature study lessons and usually an abundance of it. The 

 problem of supplying each pupil with a specimen of the thing 

 studied (something much to be desired in nature study), is thus 

 greatly simplified and in most cases entirely eliminated. In a 

 similar way the practical problem of studying things in their 

 natural environment and of keeping them under continuous ob- 

 servation within their natural environment are minimized. The 

 study of things occurring naturally within the immediate environ- 

 ment of the pupil is also guaranteed as well as the things which 

 stand in vital relation to him. The teacher who uses the school 

 garden as a center for the work in nature study will experience 

 comparatively little difficulty in preparing the field lesson, a 

 problem not so easy of solution when the work is taken up in 

 miscellaneous fashion, especially when the teacher is following 

 a ready-made course which is not based upon the school garden. 

 By such previous prejiaration of the lesson the field work is given 



