The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1877-06-07
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sStudies ON the Farm.

The farm is probably the best school
for studying nature, for although there
are high grades of scientific institutes
which, so far as chemistry and a few other
branches of natural philosophy are con-
cerned, give minute instruction, yet the
farm offers wide field for practical OBJ
iservation. We have before us a little
book of letters M.ltten hundred years
ago by Gilbert White, entitled Natural
History of Selborne." It has become an
English classic. Mr.. White lived in "a
little village in Hampshire, England,
and it was his habit to 90 out every day
to study natural history He kept men,
loranda of little events, and he wrote
occasional letters to men of letters and
science in a very nice style. He thus,
lin modest way, did much for science.
He studied the habits of birds and ami
mails, and sought to know the uses of the
common plants and trees. 1t would be
we'll if our boys on farms made study
of the familiar objects around them. 1t
will make their minds acute. The trou-
ble is that so familiar sre the farm scenes
to the country boy that he does not stop
to inquire into them. Does he know
that the familiar art lives in colonies
almost as well regulated as those Of men,
so far as pursuing tf:e right to live IS
concerned? ? The ant will climb plant
ito find one of the light green insects that
may be seen plentifully on the under
sides of rose leaves. He pricks one of
these aphides and obtains q sort Of milk.
Ants have workers, slaves, aristocrats,
oueens and soldiers. Sir John Lubbock
has written book en- this subject from
simple patience and observation, and
what man so great as he can apply
himself to is not unworthy any ones
attention. Look, too, at Thomas Ed
wards, the great Scotch naturalist. From,
his boyhood he has been investigating
the lives and habits Of insects, fishes and
birds, aud. yet he worE.i on shoemaker's
bench for living. Great scientific men
consult him. Hugh Miller, the great
geologist, was a poor stone-cutter. Yet
he made geology possible to many who
were not scientific. How few of our
boys study botany or pursue interesting
discoveries in the plants around them.
DO you know that seeds in plants are
produced only by the female flower, and
then only by the sprinkling Oh them of
the powder or pollen that the bee or
other insect gets on its wings from one
plant and which it cannot help carrying
to another? Bundle bees and red clover
are particular friends of each other. Let
a boy get familiar book on botany and
60 to work for himself. 1t is the chill
dren who have not the fine appliances
of study who usually dig out the most.
Audubon, who became the great author
ity on birds, was of this kind. However,
he could paint we'll. It is not uninter-
esting to learn that bright colored birds
usually make a nest that conceals them,
and lay light eggs, while dull colored
birds, having no need for concealment,
usually make more open nest and lay
dark eggs. How many of our children
know the names or the meanings Of the
earth and rocks around them, when no
farming rneighborhood is without inter
estiug specimens? We knew a fairly
educated young lady of twenty who did
not know what fern was, although she
was treading on half dozen different
varieties. every day. Our farmers do not
interest their children in the farm life,
and then wonder why their children do
not love the farm ~. Y. Herald.