THE SCOPE OF NATURE-STUDY 4 1 



city SO developed possesses the stability and the majesty of a 

 mountain, and it bears no more relation to the sporadic growth 

 of the illy considered "boom town" than the towering oak does 

 to the made-up plant with paper leaves. The result of such study 

 will be to unite the interests of the city and country in the minds 

 of the pupils, not to separate them. The life of each will become 

 less strange to the other, and every step taken will tend to develop 

 and strengthen the bonds of sympathy necessary to a happy social 

 life and to strong political existence. 



VII. NATURE-STUDY AND HISTORY. 



In adapting the general plan of nature-study here suggested to 

 a particular region, it is evident that it will involve many mteresting 

 facts in history. Our country is so young that its history is com- 

 paratively simple, and the relationship of man to primitive natural 

 features may be easily traced from the earliest settlements. 



A study of boundary lines will usually show how the present 

 farms have been derived from those of larger areas which were 

 secured by original government grants. This will be true also of the 

 township and county lines. The history of all boundaries, political 

 or otherwise, will show the influence of topography and natural 

 products, in which ravines and ridges play a conspicuous part. 



From the first generation that devoted itself to pioneering and 

 the rudest agriculture almost everywhere, there have issued those 

 specialized occupations that mark at each step a close acquaintance 

 with nature. Each occupation has drawn to it men of a peculiar 

 type of mind and of a particular social grade from the Old World, 

 and each has exerted a unique influence upon the education of the 

 young. The undisturbed quiet of a strictly agricultural and graz- 

 ing region has produced a distinctly different kind of man from 

 the one developed in a mining or a manufacturing district. An 

 area not easily accessible by natural lines of communication lacks 

 the alertness and progressiveness in its people usually found in 

 communities having freer communication with social and indus- 

 trial centers of a somewhat dift'erent order. The effect of the 

 occupation upon the intelligence of the workmen is simple and 

 direct. It woula be unreasonable to expect the same mental and 

 moral character in a man who delves day after day in the gloom 

 of the mines, performing an endless task, every day's part being 



