EXPLORERS OF A XEW KIXD 



67 



made in New Hampshire from the colo- 

 nies of this species that were planted a 

 year before, and examination showed 

 that they were practically all successful. 

 In these collections 100,000 parasitized 

 eggs were secured and will be used this 

 season for colonization in New Hamp- 

 shire. 



LOSING THEIR EVIIv POWERS 



On the whole, then, the outlook is fa- 

 vorable. The work of the government 

 and the different States has resulted in 

 bringing about infinitely better conditions 

 in New England, so far as these pests are 



concerned, during the past nine years; 

 and while it is practically certain that 

 both gipsy-mcth and brown-tail moth will 

 gradually spread to the westward, it is 

 equally sure that the imported natural 

 enemies will come with them and the wilt 

 disease and the fungous disease of the 

 brown-tail as well ; and this, with the 

 knowledge which we have gained as to 

 the best handling of the pests, will pre- 

 vent in all probability in any part of our 

 country the disastrous results which we 

 saw in JMassachusetts in the years prior 

 to 1905. 



THE NEED OF CONSERVING THE BEAUTY AND 

 FREEDOM OF NATURE IN MODERN LIFE 



By Charles W. Eliot 



President Emeritus oe Harvard University 



THE past hundred years have sup- 

 plied civilized mankind with a 

 complete demonstration that the 

 evils which attend the growth of modern 

 cities and the factory system are too great 

 for the human body to endure; yet these 

 evils are the consequences, or results, of 

 nineteenth-century civilization, and par- 

 ticularly of that form of liberty which 

 the first half of the century developed — 

 individualism. Within the last 40 years 

 a different form of liberty, the liberty of 

 association and collective action, has be- 

 gun to check some of the evils fostered 

 by individualism, and so to improve the 

 human environment. 



The sources of the evils which afflict 

 the population massed in cities are partly 

 physical and partly mental or moral. The 

 collective energies of society are now ac- 

 tively directed to the amelioration of bad 

 physical conditions, and considerable im- 

 provements in this respect have already 

 been made ; and more are in sight. The 

 study, even, of remedies for wrong men- 

 tal and moral conditions has hardly be- 

 gun ; yet these are the fundamental evils 

 which must be eradicated, if improved 

 physical conditions are to produce their 

 desired effects. 



It is therefore a very practical and ur- 

 gent inquiry: What influences in the en- 



vironment of civilized mankind make for 

 mental health, for wholesome interests, 

 for rational pleasures, and for exalting 

 delight in the beauty, grace, and splendor 

 of nature? 



By far the most important social study 

 today is the study of the means of im- 

 proving men's emotion and thought en- 

 vironment from earliest 3^outh to age. 

 These means are both negative and posi- 

 tive — on the one hand they must shut 

 out poisonous excitements and injurious 

 pleasures, on the other they must develop 

 all wholesome mental interests and en- 

 joyable activities of observation, memory, 

 and imagination. 



IMPROVE OUR environment POSITIVELY 

 AS WEEE AS NEGATIVELY 



In order to cure the destructive evils, 

 of present urban life and the factory sys- 

 tem, it will not be enough to restrict the 

 vices, to diminish the pressure of poverty, 

 to prevent destructive diseases, and pro- 

 long the average human life. The human 

 environment must be not only negatively 

 but positively improved ; so that the 

 whole people ma}^ have the opportunity 

 to cultivate healthy tastes and interests, 

 to acquire just ideals of pleasantness and. 

 beauty, and to learn the value towr^rd 

 tranquil happiness of that living with 



