CHAPTER XIII

NATURE

I--TREES

1. _Trees That Are Familiar to Us_--Our home varieties: nut-trees, foliage-trees, evergreens, etc.; fruit-trees and their care.

2. _Trees That Are Strange to Us_--Mahogany and other Central and South American trees; teakwood; cedars of Lebanon; redwoods of California.

3. _The Art of Forestry_--Need of forestry; history of the movement; the United States Department.

4. _The Tree in Sentiment and Literature_--Famous trees (the Charter Oak, King Arthur's Oak, the Washington Elm, etc.); poetry about trees; Tennyson's trees; Shakespeare's trees.

READINGS--W. C. Bryant: A Forest Hymn (in part). Longfellow: Evangeline (opening lines). Whittier: The Palm Tree.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Julia E. Rogers: The Tree Book. What is Forestry? (U. S. Div. Forestry Bulletin 5). G. Pinchot: A Primer of Forestry (U. S. Dept. Agri. Farmers' Bulletin 173, 358).

There are magazines which may easily be consulted for subjects for discussion on landscape-gardening, the grouping of shrubs and trees, and similar themes. There may be a valuable paper on Insects Which Destroy Our Trees, and How to Deal with Them; the Agricultural Department at Washington will gladly send pamphlets which will be of great use. There might also be a talk on The Lumberman and the Government, and another on The Paper Manufacturer and the Government, and a third on Forestry as a Profession for Young Men.

II--LOCAL GEOLOGY

1. _Geologic Ages Represented in the United States_--Estimate of geologic time. Characteristics of the particular ages in this locality. Volcanic action and its effects, with local illustrations. Action of water.

2. _A Geological History of the Local Region as Far as It Can Be Constructed_.

3. _Fossil Remains of Plants and Animals in the Neighborhood_--Contents of local collections and museums described.

4. _Value of Local Rocks and Soils_--Use of rocks for building, for roads, for chemical purposes. Analysis of soils and description of their best use in agriculture. Defects of local soils from the agricultural standpoint, and the remedy for them.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Dana: Manual of Geology. Shaler: Outline of the Earth's History. U. S. Geological Survey. (Get local reports.)

Discuss the importance of interesting the school-children in the local geology. What excursions may they take in the vicinity for this purpose? The value of making collections for school or town use is also a suitable topic. Are there readable books on geology in the public library, and are they read? In preparation for this meeting the chairman may obtain literature from the Secretary of Agriculture in Washington, on soils, and what can be done to improve them.

III--WATER IN NATURE

1. _The Distribution of Water on the Globe_--Water in prehistoric times. Geological action. The Ice Age. The unceasing circulation of water: clouds, rain, streams, etc. The coloration of water (blue lakes, green seas, brown streams, etc.).

2. _The Ocean_--The open sea. Movement of tides. Famous tides. The beach: sands, pebbles, shells, seaweeds, etc. The surf. Ocean traffic. Lighthouses and lightships.

3. _Lakes_--The great lakes of the United States. Differences between them. Their commerce. Small lakes. Great Salt Lake. Lakes in Maine, Wisconsin, Canada, the Adirondacks, etc. Ponds. Famous ponds (Walden, etc.).

4. _Rivers_--The Mississippi. The Hudson. Canal-boat life. Little rivers and their charm. The river as a highway. River-craft (canoes, etc.).

6. _Relation of Water and Human Life_--Water in hygiene. Famous springs. Irrigation and forestry. The revival of the canal as an instrument of commerce. Water in literature and art.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Wright: The Ice Age in America. Reclus: The Ocean. Russell: The Rivers of North America. Fuertes: Water and Public Health.

A practical paper may be prepared on the Local Water-Supply and the Danger to Health from Well-Water and Impure Ice. Have a brief paper on the Suez and Panama Canals, with illustrations of the latter. Describe the systems of locks in the Sault Sainte Marie. Consider the subject of house-boats on rivers. Have readings from Byron on the ocean; from Clough's Bothie (the idyll of swimming); from Van Dyke's Little Rivers, and from Thoreau's Walden.

IV--INSECT-LIFE

1. _Beetles_ (_Coleoptera_)--Great tropical beetles. Common local varieties: ladybugs, the potato-bug. Wood-beetles and their destructiveness.

2. _Ants, Bees, and Wasps_--Their life-history, habits, and products. Relation to man. Readings from Lubbock, McCook, and Maeterlinck.

3. _Butterflies_--Life-history and transformations. Gorgeous varieties of equatorial regions. Local varieties described.

4. _A Practical Knowledge of Insect-Life_--For the farmer: protecting crops, animals and trees. For the town resident: care of trees and plants. For the housewife: household pests, and how to deal with them: the moth, the cockroach, etc.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Comstock: Manual for the Study of Insects. Buckley: Insect Life. Holland: The Butterfly Book. Osborn: Insects Affecting Domestic Animals.

This meeting may be made a very practical one. Begin with the life-story of the bee as helpful to mothers and teachers in explaining to children the meaning of sex. Read from The Bee People, by Morley, to illustrate the point. Have a paper on The Danger of Contagion from the House-fly and the Mosquito; give preventives for these pests, the red ant, the moth-miller, and the bedbug.

V--FISH

1. _Introductory Paper_--The place of fish in the scale of life. Their structure and habits. Fossil fish. Peculiar fish: of the tropics, of the deep sea, of caves. Flying fish.

2. _Local Fishes_--Description of varieties and their habits. Stocking of local waters by the United States Fish Commission. Fish culture.

3. _Commercial Fisheries_--Whaling and its romance. Cod, mackerel, and herring. Reading from Kipling's Captains Courageous. Salmon-fishing on the Pacific coast. The Canneries. International laws about fishing.

4. _Angling_--The ethics of the sport. Methods of equipment: fly-fishing, trolling, chumming, etc. The literature of fishing. Read from Walton's Angler and Henry Van Dyke's Fisherman's Luck.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Guenther: Introduction to the Study of Fishes. Goode: American Fishes. Louis Rhead: Book of Fish and Fishing. Bullen: Denizens of the Deep.

A talk on Fish as Food might be introduced into this program, or a reading from Atwater's book entitled, The Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value of American Food and Fishes Invertebrates. In a farming community the value of fish as a fertilizer might well be considered. Fishing birds, kingfishers, gulls, pelicans, and cormorants, especially the trained cormorants of China, are of interest. The program might close with some stories, perhaps, of the old whaling days of Nantucket, or some from the book called, Fish Stories, by Holder and Jordan.

VI--WILD ANIMALS

1. _Local Wild Animals_--Squirrels, rabbits, moles, hedgehogs, woodchucks, gophers, etc. Their habits. What they mean to the farmer.

2. _Large Game in the United States_--Deer, moose, elk, buffalo, mountain sheep, wildcats, bears. The preservation of wild animals. The Yellowstone Park. Private preserves in New England, etc.

3. _Beasts of Prey_--Lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, wolves, etc. Moving pictures of animals in a wild state. Skins and their value.

4. _Monkeys_--Varieties and description of them. Capacity for training. Discuss Garner's theory of a monkey language. What about the Darwinian theory?

5. _Zooelogical Gardens, and Menageries_--Le Jardin des Plantes. Amsterdam. Berlin (largest in the world). London (second largest). The Bronx Zoo in New York. Its architecture.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Flome and Lydekker: The Study of Mammals. Elliot: Synopsis of the Mammals of North America. Romanes: Animal Intelligence. Roosevelt: The Wilderness Hunter, and African Game Trails.

If there is time, have an introductory paper on fossil wild animals, especially those of the Carboniferous Age, with pictures of such skeletons or reproductions of skeletons as those in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Give also a resume of Huxley's essay on the horse. Close with a discussion of the psychology of animals. Do they think and reason? Refer to Darwin's Origin of Species and Descent of Man. Read from Maeterlinck's essay on the dog.

VII--DOMESTIC ANIMALS

1. _Horses_--Origin of the horse. Varieties in different countries: the Arabian horse, Norman draft-horses, the American trotting-horse, the broncho. Readings from Huxley's essay on The Horse, and Black Beauty.

2. _Cattle_--World-wide use and value. Sacred bulls of Egypt and cows of India. Famous breeds: Jerseys, Alderneys, Holsteins. Pure milk, and how to get it. Butter and cheese making. The world's beef-supply. Meat as a diet.

3. _Swine_--Comparison of surviving wild and domestic varieties. History of the use of pork as a food. Commercial uses of the several parts of the pig (skin, bristles, bones, etc.).

4. _Sheep and Goats_--Characteristics and varieties. Raising sheep or goats as a business: the best regions, and the best breeds of animals for commercial purposes. Conditions of success.

5. _Dogs and Cats_--Antiquity of their domestication. Varieties and their qualities. Dogs as pack-animals, as hunters, in police work, as pets. Readings from Agnes Repplier, The Household Sphinx, and Maeterlinck on the Dog.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Olive Thorne Miller: Our Home Pets. N. S. Shaler: Domesticated Animals. C. A. Shamel: Profitable Stock Raising. Theophile Gauthier: My Household of Pets.

One paper might be written on the horse in mythology and literature (Pegasus, Bucephalus, etc.); another on famous race-courses and racers. In farming communities take up the subject of horse-raising, sanitary barns, etc. A third paper may be on American packing-houses; a fourth on shepherds, ancient and modern, and stories of shepherd-dogs; a fifth on famous dogs. Illustrate the last with a reading from Rab and His Friends.

VIII--BIRDS

1. _Birds of the Water and the Shore_--The sea-gull, loon, wild geese and ducks. Herons, pelicans, curlew.

2. _Birds of Prey_--Eagles, vultures, hawks.

3. _Birds as Game_--Pheasants, pigeons, quail, grouse, wild turkeys.

4. _Birds of the Night_--Owls, night-hawks.

5. _Birds and Insects_--Woodpeckers, bee-eaters, swifts.

6. _Birds of Song_--The nightingale, the mocking-bird, thrushes, warblers.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Robert Ridgway: Manual of North American Birds. H. K. Job: How to Study Birds. Chapman: Bird Life. Beetham: Photography for Bird Lovers. Weed and Dearborn: Birds in Their Relation to Man.

If there is time, have these papers also: Birds' nests in the different climates; the coloring of birds' eggs; the plumage of birds and its use in millinery; bird songs; bird study with opera-glass and camera. Have several readings from Burroughs' Wake Robin, and Mrs. Olive Thorne Miller's Little Brothers of the Air.

IX--FLOWERS

1. _The Study of Botany as a Recreation_--Character of the local neighborhood. The humble plants and flowers: grasses, mosses, ferns, and water plants. The herbarium.

2. _Wild Flowers of the Forest, the Swamp, the Mountain, and the Prairie_.

3. _Cultivated Flowers_--House plants. The amateur greenhouse. Window boxes. Curious flowers and orchids.

4. _Gardens and Gardening_--Literature (Evelyn, etc.). Cultivation of annuals. Raising of spring flowers. Flowers for market. Italian gardens.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--Gray: Botanical Text Book. Mrs. W. S. Dana: How to Know the Wild Flowers. Caroline A. Creevey: Flowers of Field, Hill and Swamp. H. L. Keller: Our Garden Flowers. Kerner: Flowers and Their Unbidden Guests.

The subject of gardens can be extended to cover an entire program. The literature of the subject has become very great, and many interesting and beautiful readings may be chosen from such books as Ruskin's Proserpina, Elizabeth and Her German Garden, and Mabel Osgood Wright's Garden of a Commuter's Wife. An entire paper might be given to the fascinating subject of sun-dials. Another might deal with the literature of the rose, or the relation of plants and insects, or the color of flowers (consult Grant Allen).

X--SHRUBS, VINES, FERNS, MOSSES, LICHENS

1. _Shrubs_--Flowering shrubs suited to the climate. What shrubs are best adapted for hedges locally? Do hedges pay? The grouping of shrubs on lawns, and the principles involved. Landscape-gardening and its history and local application.

2. _Vines_--Ornamental and fruit-bearing varieties. The Japan ivy, English ivy, woodbine. Care of vines and covering in winter. The enemies of vines. Pasteur and what he did for France. The English sparrow. Arbors and their construction and style. Value of the quickly growing vines, honeysuckle, moon-vine, etc.

3. _Ferns_--Local varieties. Description of tropical ferns. Ferns in the house, and their care. The Boston, sword, and asparagus ferns. Ferneries and how to make and care for them. Fern balls.

4. _Mosses and Lichens_--Description of varieties. Remarkable mosses of the arctic and the tropic zones. Edible mosses. The reindeer and its modern propagation.

BOOKS TO CONSULT--W. C. McCollum: Vines and How to Grow Them. N. L. Marshall: Mosses and Lichens. W. I. Beecroft: Who's Who Among the Ferns. D. C. Eaton: Ferns of North America.

This meeting may be made practical by considering how to beautify unattractive houses and grounds by the use of vines and shrubs. Inartistic verandas may be covered with Japanese ivy, unsightly fences taken down and replaced with hedges, and back yards concealed by screens of large shrubs. Photographs of transformed houses and yards may be shown.