October, 1905 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



101 



Nature Club of America 



PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT 



THE identification of our house with Nature publications has 

 brought us into intimate relations with those who are inter- 

 ested in the furtherance of what may be called the " out of 

 doors " movement. Our aid in this connection has been con- 

 stantly solicited in one form or another, and it is with the utmost 



pleasure we respond whenever practicable. 

 NaTur^Cliib idea 0n one P oint in particular requests for sug- 



gestions occurred with such uniformity that we 

 at last came to look upon it as a feature naturally incidental to 

 the distribution of the Nature Library and began to prepare 

 in advance from time to time outlines for courses of investigation 

 and study appropriate to the particular season of the year that 

 mi°-ht be pursued with the Nature Library as the principal 

 text-book. We learned also that teachers in various districts had 

 organized classes for this purpose, while in others congenial 

 spirits, linked by a common enthusiasm for Nature study, had 

 formed clubs for its furtherance and the mutual exchange of ideas 

 and experiences. 



The potentialities of such clubs, socially, educationally, and 

 even patriotically, struck us forcibly, and we resolved to interest 

 ourselves actively in their extension. 



Following out this project, we have undertaken the publication 

 of a periodical pamphlet giving all the information necessary 

 for the formation of such organizations, and for 

 The Nature Club p r0 gj- ams an d CO urses of study calculated to sus- 

 tain interest and direct their activities along the 

 most fruitful lines. To confer the authority of science and 

 scholarship upon this publication, we secured the services of Mrs. 

 Anna Botsford Comstock, the noted author, entomologist, lecturer 

 and illustrator, of Cornell University, as editor. 



This delightful little publication under her able direction is 

 not only a very valuable instructor to serious Nature students, 

 but will prove entertaining — indeed, we believe, in many ways a 

 revelation — to the unfortunately large class of people who live 

 oblivious of the marvelous ways of Nature. 



Though associations for this purpose need little in the way of 

 formal organization, it is desirable, in order to give definiteness 

 and precision to their aims, to adopt a constitution 

 Club . . and appoint executive officers. We have therefore 

 Organization drafted a {orm w hi c h is just sufficient to stiffen into 

 consistency what otherwise might be desultory and haphazard. 



We referred above to "the social, educational and even patriotic 

 potentialities of such clubs." Their social possibilities are 

 obvious. They need not be exclusively for the purpose of Nature 

 study, but may be associated with reading societies, sewing circles, 

 and similar organizations for the promotion of culture and sociability. 



The educational value of Nature study has become so gener- 

 ally recognized as to need but a word here. There is no form of 

 information which is such a perennial source of the 

 Charm of purest pleasure as that bearing on the woods, fields 



Nature Study and streams and their denizens. To the man 



equipped with such knowledge innumerable " still small voices," 

 inaudible otherwise, tell charming tales. The chirp of a bird, the 

 fall of a leaf, the flash of an insect, suggest fascinating histories to 

 his mind. To him the world is the most entrancing of libraries. 



For the young there is no study comparable in educational 

 value to that of Nature. The childish mind fails to grasp the 

 bearing of the disciplinary courses of the school. 

 The Truest of ^hey are dead and meaningless to him, but once in- 

 Educators terested in Nature an insatiable curiosity is awakened, 



leading to that independent investigation and correlating of facts 

 that is the chief end of all true education. 



Whatever is beneficial socially and educationally is of course 

 important from the patriotic view point, but there are other reasons 

 When Nature wn Y the promotion of Nature study has a patriotic 

 Study Becomes significance. Humanity after all is but a part of 

 Real Patriotism Nature, and she bears in upon us on all sides. In 

 some of her forms she is beneficial to us, in others harmful. A 



thorough knowledge of her is essential to our greatest comfort and 

 prosperity, but it is a fact that useful creatures are being ruthlessly 

 extirpated under the mistaken notion that they are harmful, while 

 noxious varieties flourish either through ignorance of their injurious 

 character or the manner of exterminating them. Of the latter the 

 mosquito is a notorious example, while from the Nature Library 

 we learn that most varieties of hawks, instead of being enemies to 

 the farmer or wholesale destroyers of innocent bird life, render an 

 ample margin of real service over the little harm they do. 



By promoting exact knowledge of forms of life that are bene- 

 ficial or prejudicial to human activities in their various forms, and 

 means of destroying and encouraging them as the case may be. 

 Nature Clubs may render patriotic service of a positive character. 



One of the great charms of such study lies in the fact that its 

 field is but partially explored. In other sciences the beginner can 

 Nature Students do no more than traverse ground already minutely 

 as Promoters charted, but in Nature study a wide-awake boy 



of Science ma y unearth a fact of novel interest to veteran 



naturalists. For example, in the Nature Library we read a 

 complete life history of the " Spittle Insect," which every country 

 lad has amused himself by picking out of his odd little patch of 

 froth, yet is here first written, and there are many other such 

 opportunities for contributions of real value to the general store of 

 human knowledge. 



Naturally it is chiefly to young folk and those interested in 

 their up-bringing that such clubs will be of the greatest service, 

 but their value is by no means confined to that class. A taste for 

 natural history once formed never stales. Nature is multiform and 

 inexhaustible, and she is as new after a life-long friendship as in 

 the first flush of new-made acquaintance. 



Knowing that there were many who would like to avail them- 

 selves of the advantages offered by our Nature Club project, but 

 who would prefer not to identify themselves with 

 The " National i oca } associations of that kind, we have formed 

 what we call the "National Nature Club," which 

 entitles its members to our booklets of Nature studies and will link 

 them with others of similar interests all over the continent. 



Any works on botany, zoology, geology or horticulture may be- 

 used in connection with such clubs, but there are no books with so- 

 Appropriate sympathetic a spirit toward this form of inves- 

 Text-books for tigation as the series which form our Nature. 

 Nature Study Library. The books having given the impetus- 

 to this very idea, it is natural that they should be relied upon as 

 the groundwork for its promotion. 



It is gratifying indeed to us that our publications are proving 

 so potent a factor in the popularization of Natural History in this 

 country and we have no diffidence in acknowledging that our 

 efforts toward the extension of Nature Clubs are largely due to 

 the fact that as publishers of the Nature Library we secure a 

 direct advantage from every movement that tends to increase the 

 interest in Nature subjects. With this fact in mind, we are prepared 

 to quote reduced prices and special terms to those who take the 

 initial steps toward forming new clubs in localities where none 

 now exist. Write for full particulars. 



THE GARDEN 

 MAGAZINE 





COWTRY LIFE 

 W AMERICA 



THE WORLDS 

 WORK. 



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CUT OFF HERE AND MAIL TO US 



If you will send us this coupon or drop us a post-card, we shall be 

 pleased to send you full particulars of the Nature Club, and quote special 

 prices at which the Nature Library is offered to charter members of new 

 clubs. 



Name in full. 



Mail address. 



