HOW SCHOOL CHILDREN STUDY TREES 



293 



coaches, steamboats, on the farm in implements, fences, 

 fuel, etc. 



The pupils were asked for the following information : 



Name all the streets within five blocks of your school 

 that are planted with oaks. 



Find the diameter of the largest oak in this section. Be 

 sure to include the parks. Measure the tree four feet 

 above the ground. Report the kind of oak, its location, 

 its diameter, its circumference. 



Learn one-half of the kinds of oaks around the 

 District. 



What are oak apples? 



What is meant by the term "quartered oak?" 

 THE DOGWOOD 



In the study of the dogwood the pupils were required 

 to answer the following questions : 



WHITE OAK CHART 



This not only has articles made of oak but has also a chart showing 

 location of white oak trees in a section of Washington. 



What is there about dogwood that is the cause of its 

 destruction ? 



Would it be better protected if it became the national 

 tree? 



Forty-seven kinds of birds eat its fruit. Can you use 

 this in your argument for it as the national tree? 



Why should Washington and Baltimore people espe- 

 cially protect it? 



Why is its bark very easily recognized? Try to go to 

 the Zoological Park before its berries fall to study 

 the bark. 



Its name is odd. Can you find a reason for it? 



Is the wood of any commercial value? 



THE APPLE 

 The apple lesson was most satisfactory as city chil-, 

 dren had never thought of apples by individual name or 

 eating qualities. The Horticulturist of the Department 

 of Agriculture furnishes each teacher with a named set 

 of the commonest apples in the Washington markets. The 

 children were required not only to know these apples 



ARTICLES MADE FROM OAK 



Furniture and other things made from oak by pupils who prepared a 

 chart to show- both use and identification. 



when they saw them in the stores and on the fruit stands, 

 but two others in addition. Interest in apples waxed 

 high during that period which incidentally happened to 

 be the National Apple Week. The health in apple eating 

 was emphasized and re-emphasized by the use of the 

 following quotation from John Burroughs in "Winter 

 Sunshine:" 



"The boy is indeed the true apple-eater, and is not to 

 be questioned how he came by the fruit with which his 

 pockets are filled. It belongs to him, and he may steal 

 it if it cannot be had in any other way. The apple is 

 indeed the fruit of youth. As we grow old we crave 

 apples less. It is an omnious sign. When you are 

 ashamed to be seen eating them on the street ; when you 

 can carry them in your pocket and your hand not con- 

 stantly finds its way to them ; when your neighbor has 

 apples and you have none, and you make no nocturnal 

 visits to his orchard ; when your lunch-basket is without 

 them and you can pass a winter's night by the fireside 

 with no thought of the fruit at your elbow, then be 

 assured you are no longer a boy either in heart or years." 



