The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-08-15
THE BOOK OF NATURE.
XH LIN the Greatest Of All-Study II
Love 1t.

XG LIN the Greatest Of All-Study 1t.
Love 1t.
Dear girls and women In the country,
can you name at sight every tree about
your home? When you see the leaf or
the wood OF one OF them, do you know
the variety 1t came from? Which of
the trees you have seen all your life
puts out its leaves first in spring and
sheds them last in autumn?
Did you ever observe how even so
homely thing as the potato grows
how 1t has root end and foliage end.
and that never by any possibility does
the sprout come from the end which
Is to produce the roots? Do you Know
@ snakes egg from Quail's egg? Can
you name and classify botanically ev-
cry wild flower and weed that grows
upon hill and plain In your neighbor-
hood? Do you know that some Of the
commonest, meanest weeds, SO called,
have rare medicinal virtues and that
in great laboratories these plants are
distilled and their healing essences
carefully preserved?
Do you know that the weeds, the in
sects and the grain and fruit blignts in
your region today are in some cases
quite different from those your ances-
tors were acquainted with in pioneer
days, and they are more destructive
than the pests of that time were?
Can you name at sight all the birds
that are common in your neighborhood,
and do you know their habits Of nest.
ing and bringing up their young? How
many of them are singers? How many
of them go away in winter and return
in summer? Which ones stay the year
through? How many species of these
beautiful feathered creatures has man
wantonly destroyed since the pioneer
days, and how many has the English
sparrow driven out? Did you ever sit
quiet in q nook In the bushes and wait
till the shy birds wore off the terror Of
your presence and skipped to and from
their nests. fearlessly feeding their
young and teaching them to fly? One
Of the most interesting stories ever
written is that of naturalist who used
to watch for hours the wild birds
humming birds among others, till at
last their fear of him was overcome,
and they would alight upon his Shout
der and arm and eat food from his
hand Then he photographed them and
has given to the scientific world the
most reliable bird pictures ever made.
nh or he
Have you ever done anything of this
sort?
Once more, did you ever go into the
fields or into the heart of the grand
wood and sit STILL doing it week after
week till the wonderful wild little ami
mails came to be familiar with the sight
Of you and looked on you as their
friend? Once l knew q little western
girl who had no playmates but young
Indians. and she used to wander In the
woods alone, all day sometimes. The
squirrels skipped around her fearless
ly, and sometimes she came into camp
with the wild birds upon her shout
ders or flying around her. The igno-
rant thought there was something I'M
canny about the child, but 1t was only
that she loved all life and these living
things knew it.
No doubt you have seen the long fur
rows plowed just under the earth by
the mole, which, possibly you are
aware, is a great pest to garden truck.
But that poor purblind mole knows n
scientific fact with which certainly not