vi PREFACE 



No course of study in the form of a series of models 

 is presented. It is hardly possible for any two schools 

 to follow the same series of models. Local conditions 

 necessarily affect the choice of a course, while new and 

 better designs are being brought out continuously. 



The order in which the tools are described in the fol- 

 lowing pages is the one that has seemed most natural. 

 They may be taken up, however, in any convenient and 

 logical order. 



It is with the earnest hope that nature study and 

 manual work may be closely correlated, that Part II is 

 added. No better period can be selected in which to 

 study trees, their leaves, bark, wood, etc., than when 

 the student is working with wood, learning by experi- 

 ence its grain, hardness, color, and value in the arts. 



Occasional talks on the broader topics of forestry, its 

 economic aspects, climatic efEects, influence on rainfall, 

 the flow of rivers, floods, droughts, etc., will be found 

 interesting as well as instructive, and such interest 

 should be instilled into every American boy and girl. 



The writer is indebted to the Fish, Forest, and Game 

 Commission of New York state for the series of Adiron- 

 dack lumbering scenes, and to the United States Bureau 

 of Forestry for the views of California Big Trees. 



EDWIN W. FOSTER. 



