jackson] FORESTRY IN NATURE-STUDY 151 



based can be brought within the comprehension of young children. 

 But, clearly, to begin with, the pupil in the lower grades should 

 be made familiar with the life history of the trees and the nature 

 of tree growth. 



Perhaps the first step in this direction should be the identi- 

 fication of our common trees. However, I do not believe this 

 should be done by means of botanical analysis or with the aid of 

 a "key" based on botanical or structural features of leaves or 

 other parts of the tree. The young child is incapable of distin- 

 guishing morphological features, and scientific accuracy is not to 

 be expected of him. Much better results will be accomplished 

 if the child is simply led to know the trees just as he knows his 

 friends — by their forms, features, and general appearance, with- 

 out even being able, perhaps, to tell as yet how he knows them. 

 That will come later. For example, a child will soon become 

 able to sort out a pile of leaves placed before him and say, "This 

 is a maple leaf", or, "This is an oak leaf," even though he is un- 

 able to tell how to identify such leaves by their veinings or 

 marginal features. 



The pupils should also learn some of the simple facts as to 

 the life processes of the tree. He should know, for example, 

 that the tree gets its food through its roots and its leaves from 

 the soil and the air ; that this food is prepared in the leaves by 

 the aid of the sunlight ; and how the tree grows in girth by adding 

 ring upon ring of wood cells to its trunk and branches, and in 

 height, not by lifting its whole trunk and crown, as often be- 

 lieved, but rather by adding on to the tips of its twigs. There 

 are numerous fallacious beliefs about tree growth common to 

 children that should be corrected in the minds of all public school 

 pupils — such for example, as the idea that the brilliant colors of 

 the autumn are due to frosts ; that girdling a tree checks the 

 rising current of crude sap in its ascent to the leaves ; and that 

 the leaves never fall from evergreens. 



Then, too, there are some wonderful stories to be told about 

 the trees ; how they scatter their seeds, for instance, or how they 

 battle with one another in the forest, each one struggling for the 

 best position, like people in a crowd jostling one another to get 

 sight of some common attraction before them. 



Another feature of the forest which should be brought out, 

 and which can easily be made interesting to children, is the use- 

 fulness of the forest to mankind. The story of a log, from 

 forest to furniture or from tree trunk to toothpicks, through all 



