^66 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



to the grade plan, we may teach a working knowledge of 

 from twenty to forty important forest trees during the 

 school course. 



It has seemed to me that the key to the situation lies 

 in a knowledge of the seeds of trees and methods of 

 saving and germinating them. A tree seed in the act of 

 sprouting is one of the inspiring things in nature. The 

 possibilities contained in it, the size to which it may 

 grow, the beauty it may develop, the long years it may 

 live, the infinite numbers of seeds it may produce, all 



stretch out into a vista 

 before us. It is here, 

 too, that we grasp the 

 lever with which to do 

 something worth while. 

 Too much of our tree 

 study is passive and 

 selfish and lacking in the 

 ideality and altruism of 

 our grandfathers who 

 planted the trees we now enjoy. A bright young man 

 recently said to me : "I would have as soon thought 

 of planting a gold mine as of planting a chestnut tree." 

 And so we have "four boys to one chestnut." But why 

 should this be so.' What a tremendous force in nature 

 we lay hold of if we have the faith to place a seed in the 

 earth and give it a chance to grow ! Centuries of sunshine 

 and rain will do the rest. 



Beginning, then, with the seeds let the children bring 

 such as they can find to make a school collection of 

 the kinds most desirable to plant in the neighborhood. 



Fig. 144. Seedling Trees 

 Reared in a schoolroom 



