Address of the President 285 



of birds that glean the major part of their food from the enemies of the tree. 

 The same condition obtains on the ground, in the air, and on the water, — all have 

 their bird-workers, who have well been called "policemen of the air." 



Nature study is engaging more and more the attention of the public, and it 



is an elementary part of the work of this Association to encourage 

 How to the study of bird life, especially in its relation, to mankind, or at 



Knowledge 1^3,st in its bearing on agriculture and forestry. Many of the 



teachers of the country in the rural schools are expected to be 

 able to give some sort of instruction on nature subjects. At least one state, 

 Illinois, has recently passed a law which went into effect as late as June of the 

 present year, two of the sections of which are as follows: 



Section II. "In every public school within this state, not less than one- 

 half hour of each week, during the whole of each term of school, shall be devoted 

 to teaching the pupils thereof kindness and justice to, and humane treatment 

 and protection of, birds and animals, and the important part they fulfil in the 

 economy of nature. It shall be optional with each teacher whether it shall be a 

 consecutive half-hour or a few minutes daily, or whether such teaching shall 

 be through humane reading, daily incidents, stories, personal example, or in 

 connection with nature story. 



Section V. " The principal or teacher of each public school shall state briefly 

 in each of his or her monthly reports whether the provisions of this Act have been 

 complied with in the school under his or her control. No teacher who knowingly 

 violates any provision of Sections I, II or III of this Act shall be entitled to receive 

 more than 95 per cent of the public school moneys that would otherwise be due 

 for services for the month in which such provisions shall be violated. " 



The object of the Act above quoted is to raise the standard of good citizenship. 

 Undoubtedly, the desired result will be secured if the teacher is prepared to in- 

 telligently carry out the full requirements of the Act ; but it seems premature to 

 require a teacher to impart knowledge that he or she does not possess, and it is 

 an injustice to exact such a heavy penalty as 5 per cent of the salary of the teacher 

 for failure to give to scholars what they never received themselves. 



There are nearly six million farms in the United States, which means that 



at least that number of adult males are engaged in agriculture. 

 To Adults It is too late to undertake to give them a thorough training about 



the value of wild birds. This knowledge should have been given 

 them as a part of their common-school training. However, it is not too late 

 even now to make them fairly famihar with this important subject. Through 

 the medium of the printing-press and the widely extended rural free delivery, 

 educational bird literature may be disseminated to the greatest advantage. In 

 addition, men and women fully equipped as lecturers can be sent into the rural 

 districts and, with the aid of the stereopticon and colored slides of birds, plants 

 and insects can instruct in an entertaining manner hosts of farmers and their 

 wives. Such valuable work entirely changes the viewpoint of the hearers; as soon 



