60 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [16:2— Feb., 1920 



and still have as productive a garden or as healthy a pig, as the 

 hard worker. Club work permits the broad-minded boy and girl 

 to excel and so gives them courage and inspiration to remain in 

 school. It also proves to the child the usefulness of reading, 

 spelling, writing and arithmetic. It is a good thing to know how 

 to read or one cannot read the government bulletins that are such a 

 help. It is a good thing to know how to spell and write or one 

 cannot write letters to ask for these bulletins or to ask for special 

 seeds or stock. It is also a good thing to understand arithmetic or 

 one cannot figure one's accounts. 



The same advantage in healthfulness holds good in club work. 

 The successful garden of the boy or girl makes the father want to 

 show what he can do in gardening. The man who works in a 

 noisy mill or smoky forge or f oimdry can find no recreation that will 

 build him up physically and refresh him as gardening. Inciden- 

 tally there are fresh vegetables for the home table which means less 

 meat and which in turn means healthier bodies. 



Again we have the same influence along moral lines. Besides the 

 moral development one secures true love of nature by living closely 

 to her, we have the added advantage of occupation thru the sum- 

 mer months. In these days of colossal expense most children are 

 obliged to work during vacation. Some are working in an environ- 

 ment that is bad for them, both physically and morally. Some are 

 working for small wages. Many club children cleared over $ioo 

 in club projects last year and they did it by working right in their 

 own back yard and were discussing their problems with children 

 of their own age. 



A man's early training influences his character in after life. 

 A man of honesty, industry, integrity and ability is the man who 

 learned, when a boy, to be industrious, regular, prompt and to 

 finish faithfully a given task. Club work develops these charac- 

 teristics in a boy and helps to produce a good citizen. 



The second group of club leaders is largely interested in the 

 economic value of the work. They are largely the product of the 

 agriculture college. It is the business of the agriculture colleges 

 to produce farmers and the students are given the economic point 

 of view entirely with no mention of the ideals of nature-study and 

 no training in pedagogy. They claim that the economic system 

 that is running society today is not interested in life fulfillment. 

 The few men who are dominating business want willing efficient 



