128 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



Optional Study 2. Noteworthy Views of the Farm 



The object of this study is merely to set the student to 

 observing the beauties of his immediate environment. Let 

 him not be troubled about artistic standards. Nature 

 furnishes the artist with his models. Art grows, like agricul- 

 ture, by the selection and intensifying of the best that nature 

 offers. Let the student merely select and locate what appeals 

 to him as being good to look upon. Let him record his choice 

 in some such table as is outlined on pages 130 and 131, each 

 view after its kind. 



Optional Study 3. Noteworthy Trees of the Farm 



One does not know trees until he knows individual trees; 

 until he has compared them, and has noted their personal 

 characteristics; has observed the superior crown of this one, 

 the symmetrical branching of that one, the straight bole of 

 the other one. There are trees that each of us know 

 because accidental planting has placed them where we have 

 found it convenient to rest in their grateful shade. 

 There are fine trees made famous by their historical asso- 

 ciations, and endeared thereby to a whole people; such 

 is the Washington Elm at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the 

 tree under which George Washington took charge of the 

 colonial armies at the beginning of our war for independence. 

 But there are yet finer trees remote from human abode and 

 unknown to fame, standing in almost any original forest, that 

 appeal as individuals to a naturalist. They are tree per- 

 sonages worth knowing. The work outlined in the table on 

 page 129 will lead to acquaintance of this desirable 

 kind. If the student does not already know the different 

 kinds of trees by sight, this study should not be undertaken 

 until after the work outlined in class exercise 9 on page 76 has 

 been completed. A few subsequent rambles among the trees 

 of the farm will then give opportunity for locating and getting 

 acquainted with the fine specimens of each species. 



