Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets: Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904New York State College of Agriculture
History
Cornell Nature-Study Leaflets: Being a selection, with revision, from the teachers' leaflets, home nature-study lessons, junior naturalist monthlies and other publications from the College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., 1896-1904
New York State College of Agriculture
Natural history; Nature study
The companionship with a plant, as with a bird or an insect, means more
than the feeling for the plant itself. It means that the person has
interest in something real and genuine. It takes him out-of-doors. It
invites him to the field. It is suggestive. It inculcates a habit of
meditation and reflection. It enables one to discover himself.
I wish that every child in New York State had a plant of his own, and
were attached to it. Why cannot the teacher suggest this idea to the
pupils? It may be enough to have only one plant the first year,
particularly if the pupil is young. It matters little what the plant is.
The important thing is that it shall be alive. Every plant is
interesting in its way. A good pigweed is much more satisfactory than a
poor rosebush. The pupil should grow the plant from the beginning. He
should not buy it ready grown, for then it is not his, even though he
own it.
It is well to begin with some plant that grows quickly and matures
early. One is ambitious in spring, but his enthusiasm may wither and die
in the burning days of summer. If possible, grow the plant in the free
open ground; if this is not feasible, grow it in a pot or box or tin
can. Take advantage of the early spring enthusiasm. Choose hardy and
vigorous plants: sow the seeds when the "spirit moves."
If a pupil is interested in kitchen-garden vegetables, recommend lettuce
and radish, or a potato. If in flowers, suggest sweet pea, bachelor's
button or blue-bottle, annual phlox, candytuft, China aster. If in
fruits, suggest strawberry.
* * * * *
We desire to inaugurate a general movement for the planting of plants.
The school ground should be planted. Private yards should be planted.
Roadsides should be planted. In some cities and villages there are
committees or other organizations whose object it is to encourage the
planting of public and private places. Sometimes this organization is
connected with the school interest, sometimes with a local horticultural
or agricultural society, sometimes with a business men's organization.
There should be such a committee in every village and town. We wish that
the teachers might help in this work, for they would not only be lending
their aid to planting, but also be interesting their pupils in some
concrete and useful work, and teaching them the value of public spirit.
Arbor Day should be more than a mere ceremonial. It should be a means of
awakening interest in definite plans for the adornment of the
neighborhood and of directing the attention of the children
nature-ward.
LEAFLET XXXVII.
CUTTINGS AND CUTTINGS.[51]
BY L. H. BAILEY.
[51] Nature-Study Quarterly No. 3: Leaflet 16, January, 1900.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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