Page:Natural history of the farm.djvu/16

12 our race, and that is still fundamental to a good education, and that contributes largely to one's enjoyment of his own environment.

The best place to begin is near home. Any large farm will furnish opportunities. It is the object of the lessons that follow to help you find the wild things of the farm that are most nearly related to your permanent interests, and to get on speaking terms with them. You will be helped by these studies in proportion as your own eyes see and your own hands handle these wild things. The records you make will be of value to you only as you write into them your own experience: write nothing else.

Suggestions to students: The regular field work contemplated in this course makes certain demands with which indoor laboratory students may be unfamiliar. A few suggestions may therefore be helpful:

1. As to weather: All weather is good weather to a naturalist. It is all on nature's program. Each kind has its use in her eternal processes, and each kind brings its own peculiar opportunities for learning her ways. Nothing is more futile than complaint of the weather, for it is ever with us. It were far better, therefore, to enter into the spirit of it, to make the most of it and to enjoy it.

2. As to clothes: Wear such as are strong, plain and comfortable. There are thorns in nature's garden that will tear thin stuffs and reach out after anything detachable; and there are burs, that will cling persistently to loose-woven fabrics. Kid gloves in cold weather and high heels at all

1. Metric and English linear measure.