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 tolook 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. 
