4 NATURE STUDY AND AGRICULTURE 



foundation upon which to build the "practical" work, and 

 they come to it with live interest and questioning minds. 

 Then the work is educative from the outset; broadening, 

 not narrowing. We do not want our country boys to 

 become merely efficient farmers who have learned to do 

 certain things that they may make more dollars. We want 

 them to be men who realize the larger applications of the 

 laws and principles they are following, men who see and 

 discriminate, who grasp situations, who think for them- 

 selves, and who have an abiding interest and enthusiasm 

 for their profession, looking upon their fields, orchards, 

 and meadows somewhat as laboratories in which to work 

 out experiments to the end that they may do their work 

 more profitably and enjoyably. We w r ould have them men 

 who take a keen pleasure not only in making their soil more 

 productive, and in raising better crops and stock, but quite 

 as much in making the home and its surroundings and the 

 life within it more comfortable, more interesting, and more 

 beautiful. In so far as nature study does not contribute 

 directly to these ends it is not justified, but if it does con- 

 tribute to them, who shall say " it is not sufficiently related 

 to life"? 



