30 THE THIRD YEARBOOK 



fact, and so to arrange the lines that each farmer may get land 

 that can be worked to the best advantage. Farmers who do not 

 recognize these general facts soon find themselves in possession 

 of undesirable areas, and consequently they suffer actual financial 

 loss and physical discomfort from their failure to observe the char- 

 acter of the natural features. 



The different soils and locations are always considered in the 

 choice of crops. The lower lands are chiefly for grass ; the higher 

 for grain ; the warmer southern slopes for corn and early pasture ; 

 the cooler northern hillsides for wheat and oats ; the alluvial bot- 

 toms for gardens and vegetables, and the well-drained uplands for 

 orchards and fruits. This distribution does not represent the arbi- 

 trary choice of man, but rather his implicit observance of the 

 general facts of temperature, moisture, and soil. In short, all the 

 rural occupations of agriculture, horticulture, and grazing should 

 be determined upon beforehand by a scientific investigation of 

 natural conditions. It would be preposterous for a man to erect 

 an elaborate and expensive gold-mining plant on a spot that had 

 not been thoroughly prospected. But many thousands of dollars 

 are spent and endless disappointment results from a failure on the 

 part of farmers to " prospect " similarly their farms before they 

 begin their work. These financial losses, and the infinite social and 

 physical discomforts of country life, will not be relieved until people 

 are recreated by that rational study of nature which it is the func- 

 tion of nature-study in the schools to stimulate and direct. 



It is important, too, to study the relation of the farm as a unit 

 to all other sources which minister to the comfort and happiness of 

 people. The country roads which radiate in different directions 

 from it as a center are but the beginnings of lines that may connect 

 it with the ends of the earth. Along these simple paths of trans- 

 portation may begin the flow of aid, comfort, and blessings to people 

 of every degree of need and in every station in life. This should 

 be made in the lives of the children a personal matter. Upon their 

 personal effort, their personal industry, honesty, honor, and integ- 

 rity, depends the welfare of those more or less distant people to 

 whom they are thus related. The fact that their productions are to 

 be consumed by people in a remote quarter of the earth, savage or 

 civilized, instead of by neighbors on an adjoining farm, lessens not 

 one whit the obligation that such productions shall be prepared as 



