KN()\VIX(,; HOW TO KNOW HoW :l')\ 



[)ubli('ation of tlic Department is the Wcfkli/ Xrn-s Lrttrr, 

 which eontaiiis brief, timely articles and notes. Some mem- 

 ber of the class mi^-Jit subscribe for this and kccj) it in 

 orderly lile on the bookshelf. 



The (jnestion with which we starte(l i>, ijow ciin we ^el 

 the best iid'ormation most (piickly? A concrete case will 

 answer this question for thousands of similar problems. 



A botany class in a city was be<,anninj^ the study of finij^i. ami in 

 addition to the elementary book work each nienibiT was assig^ned an 

 interesting fungus to work up and rei)ort upon. ( )uc of thn boys, instead 

 of the t'ungiis assigned him, asked i»erniission ti> take llic black knot. 

 The teacher was wise and honest enough to t«'ll liiiu that siie knew 

 nothing about it, but would be glad if he would learn all he could and 

 give them all the benefit. He went to the library with a pack of postal 

 cards and, going through the recent numbers of th«' Kjperimtut Stat'uni 

 Record, took down on the cards references to all likely articles on the 

 black knot, addressed them, and within a week he had everything that 

 everybody knew about the black knot. 



The bov then went to work out doors, hunted through the woods, and 

 collected the fungus on native wild i>lums and cherries, and he ma<le u 

 survey of the city in order to form an intelligent estinuite of the damage 

 caused to cultivated fruits. He mounted a tyi»ical series of speeinnMis 

 in a glass case, all neatly labeled. He studied the fungus with the 

 microscope and made careful drawings of all the imi>ortant stages in its 

 growth and reproduction. He drew colored wall charts fr<»iu his pictures, 

 supplemented by those in the books, and fimdly j)resent«'d his result.^ 

 on the life history, distribution, and treatment of the Idack knot in a 

 carefully i)repared lecture which oct iipird an entire ]>cri(»d of the class. 

 One of his classmates hui»i>ene(l to be a reportii- mi a local daily, and 

 she presented the subject to tlie public in a well-w riltea article «»f about 

 two colunnis, and there followed such a cleaning up of black kn<tt as 

 that city had not seen in at least fourteen years. 



" What do you think about that work vou did in school on the black 

 knot?" the boy was asked some years later, lb* n'j.lied. "it exactly 

 fitted my bent, and on that account I think 1 got more real good out of 

 it than from any other one thing in my high-school course." Better 

 than all, this wholesome little try at real study (piite jtrobably heljH'd 

 him to decide what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. 



