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.