Individual Exercises for the Fall Term Five studies follow, which are intended to be used by the student, individually, and at his own convenience. The data called for may be picked up during the course of walks afield for air and exercise; but serial or extended observations, that cannot all be made in the course of a single class exercise, are in all cases demanded. Personal initiative is desired. An instructor may be asked to name plants or animals, but the student should learn by these exercises to consult nature independently. He should work alone, or with not more than one or two companions. A good idea of the continuity of nature's processes and of her limitless perseverence in carrying them forward can be gained only by oft-repeated serial observations. Optional Study 1. A Student's Record of Farm Operations It is the object of this study to discover how the farmer as an organism fits his environment. The student may learn that there is a natural history of the farmer as well as of the farm. He may see that the farmer's affairs, commercial, civic, social, and religious, all have their seasons, even as leaves have their time to fall; that light and temperature and rainfall condition his activities, as they do the growth and the labors of his plant and animal associates. The work of this study will consist of weekly observations extending through the term or year. In such a table as is indicated on the next page, there is to be provided one column for the observations of each week. The student will need to be so situated that he may readily observe week by week what the farmers are doing; else he would better omit this study, for secondhand information is not desired. Optional Study 2. Noteworthy Views of the Farm The object of this study is merely to set the student to observing the beauties of his immediate environment. Let him not be troubled about artistic standards. Nature furnishes the artist with his models. Art grows, like agriculture, by the selection and intensifying of the best that nature offers. Let the student merely select and locate what appeals to him as being good to look upon. Let him record his choice in some such table as is outlined on pages 130 and 131, each view after its kind. Optional Study 3. Noteworthy Trees of the Farm One does not know trees until he knows individual trees; until he has compared them, and has noted their personal characteristics; has observed the superior crown of this one, the symmetrical branching of that one, the straight bole of the other one. There are trees that each of us know because accidental planting has placed them where we have found it convenient to rest in their grateful shade. There are fine trees made famous by their historical associations, and endeared thereby to a whole people; such is the Washington Elm at Cambridge, Massachusetts, the tree under which George Washington took charge of the colonial armies at the beginning of our war for independence. But there are yet finer trees remote from human abode and unknown to fame, standing in almost any original forest, that appeal as individuals to a naturalist. They are tree personages worth knowing. The work outlined in the table on page 129 will lead to acquaintance of this desirable kind. If the student does not already know the different kinds of trees by sight, this study should not be undertaken until after the work outlined in class exercise 9 on page 76 has been completed. A few subsequent rambles among the trees of the farm will then give opportunity for locating and getting acquainted with the fine specimens of each species. |