NATURI STUDY l\ MILWAUKEE I \/> Vh I 5 



with aversion will, under tin- wise instruction of his teacher, show 

 their economic value; and the child will take steps toward their 

 conservation rather than their destruction. My pupils were very 

 much interested in a colony of earthworms that they had set up 

 in a lamp chimney where they could observe their burrowing and 

 also their feeding on dead carnation leaves. Thus they had a 

 miniature exhibition of what the earthworms in the garden do in 

 making passages for the rain to descend to the roots and in mixing 

 humus and loam. The general ignorance of the value of the toad 

 as an indispensable garden assistant is often quite surprising. I 

 once asked a class of seventh and eighth grade Milwaukee boys to 

 bring me what they thought a toad would eat. I received bits of 

 roast beef, bread, cake, and candy. Not a child thought of an 

 insect or a worm. The toad, of course, remained immovable on 

 the presentation of the children's delicacies; but when I set before 

 it a caterpillar and it snapped up the wriggling creature with 

 quick intelligence, there was great surprise and excitement among 

 the audience. I asked the same class if it was true that toads 

 gave people warts. They firmly declared that it was, while 

 several of them pointed out certain warts they had received from 

 toads, stating the time and occasion of the transfer. 



In connection with the garden work we should teach the little 

 one how birds are of personal use to him both as insect and as seed 

 eaters. Let him study preferably those birds that he is likely 

 to meet in his yard, in the trees about his residence, on the margin 

 of river and lake. He should be taught how to attract desirable 

 birds to live about his home. 



It has been my experience that a child is more interested in a 

 garden of his own at his home than he is in a class garden on the 

 school ground. Some of the rural schools are giving credit 

 toward graduation to those children who do successful home plant- 

 ing and cultivating. This of course, requires inspection by the 

 teacher. Perhaps teachers may imagine that their poorest j 

 cannot find a place about their homes for this work; but it would 

 not be difficult for such people to secure window boxes. Mr. 

 Peaslee of the Milwaukee Public Museum saw and took a picture 

 of one child's garden that was made in an old shoe. 



If we look about our city streets to see how sadly Milwaukee 

 trees are neglected, — some of them allowed to be overcome by 

 disease, others mutilated by the work of ignorant trimmers — we 



