STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY^ 85 



of which are bright-colored, as, for instance, those of the potato 

 beetle. The upper wings of the bees and wasps have Httle 

 hooks on them. When a bee wishes to fly faster than it can 

 go when using its two larger wings, it hooks the smaller onto 

 the larger and so increases its speed. 



After returning from a collecting trip the insects should be 

 kept in the poison jar until the muscles have relaxed before 

 mounting. This generally takes about twenty-four hours. 

 They should remain on the mounting boards until thoroughly 

 dry — the time generally being two weeks — then removed to 

 cases as near insect proof as possible. Great care should be 

 taken in handling the moths and butterflies so as not to brush 

 the scales from their wings and bodies. Even while looking 

 at the mounted specimen one cannot help but notice the perfect 

 blending of colors, the exactness and beauty in each curve and 

 line, and when studying the live specimen, how many examples 

 of industry, how many lessons of love and patience, they show 

 and teach to those who are so far above them in the scale of 

 animal life. This is one of the reasons why I think Nature 

 Study should be taught in the public schools. It broadens the 

 child's ideas and makes him understand more fully his place in 

 the animal kingdom. The regular teacher should devote a 

 short period each day to talks on these things, and once a week 

 a Nature Study teacher should come to bring and explain speci- 

 mens and assign a subject for the next week's study. She 

 should be one who can devote her time to the study of insects 

 and plants and be familiar with their habits and homes, who 

 can tell of the things she sees to her pupils in a way that will 

 enable them to see and understand her meanings. 



Many of our regular teachers have had no especial training 

 in lines of Nature work, and because of this lack they fail to 

 interest their pupils on this grand subject. Every town, there- 

 fore, should employ a special Nature Study teacher who should 

 go about, from school to school, visiting each room in turn at 

 least once a week. 



During the Nature Study period the children's thoughts 

 should be wholly on the subject under discussion, and if the 

 teacher understands and is interested in her work she 'cannot 

 fail of success. It is the child in the primary grade who should 

 be taught the things that are all about him. In childhood he 



