DOCUMENT RESUME 
ED 328 369 RC 017 782 


AUTHOR ~* Bathurst, Effie G., Ed. 

TITLE Conservation Education in Rural Schools. Yearbook. 
February 1943. 

INSTITUTION National Education Association, Washington, D.C. 
Dept. of Rural Education. 

PUB DATE Feb 43 

NOTE 125p. 

PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060) 


EDRS PRIC MFO1/PCO5 Plus Postage. 

DESCRIPTOE xClass Activities; Community Education; «Conservation 
(Environment); *Conservation Education; Depleted 
Resources; Elementary Secondary Education; 
Environmental Education; Experiential Learning; Human 
Resources; Learning Activities; *Natural Resources; 
Program Development; *Rural Education; Rural 
Environment; School Activities 


ABSTRACT 

This 1943 National Education Association yearbook was 
written to teach rural educators about conservation education in the 
United States. The general purposes of the book are: (1) to describe 
the major problems of conservation education; (2) to give specific 
illustrations of what specialists believe rural schools should teach; 
(3) to present reports from teachers, principals, and supervisors 
telling what children are doing and learning; and (4) to furnish 
sources of information for teachers and students. The book focuses on 
activities of teachers and children successfully engaged in actual 
conservation projects, describing existing conservation education 
programs that may prove stimulating to schools and communities 
considering similar programs for their own classrooms. Chapter 1 
offers a general overview of conservation with examples of existing 
threats to the environment. Chapter 2 discusses conservation 
education, issues and resources, and some conservation organizations. 
Chapter 3 contains examples of actual children's projects, as 
described by their educators. Chapter 4 discusses human resources 
conservation, focusing on health and education, and reports on 
several successful efforts to raise communities' living standards and 
awareness through conservation education projects. Chapter 5 provides 
a general summary of the book and a bibliography of approximately 180 
publications on conservation. (TES) 


RRR KKR KEKE KEKE REE RRR ERK KR ERK KR KERR RRR KEKE KRREKKKREERRRRREAK 


x Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * 
* from the original document. * 


RAKE KAKKKEKKK KEKE KERR KKKEEEKKRAKRRRRRKERRERRRRRRRARRRRRRE 


U.8. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 
Office of Educational Research and improvement 
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION 

CENTER (ERIC) 
his document has been reproducec as 
received from the person or organization 


oniginating it 
C Minor changes have been made to improve 
reproduction quality 
A 
@ Ponts of view or opinions stated in this docu- 
ment do not necessarily represent official 
OER! position or policy 


ED3 28369 


f cs 7 b CONSERVATION 


aT sip “oe 


mee, EDUCATION 


in Rural Schools 


“PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS 
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 


Leonore Edited by EFFIE G. BATHURST 


Lob ins™ 


TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES 
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).” 


YEARBOOK February 1943 


THE DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 
National Education Association of the United States 
va 


Large cover photograph by U. S. Forest Service 


Small cover photograph by Jarett Brixnor, Albuquerque, New Mexico 


CONSERVATION EDUCATION 


in Rural Schools 


Edited by 
EFFIE G. BATHURST 


YEARBOOK 
February 1943 


THE DEPARTMENT OF RURAL EDUCATION 
National Education Association of the United States 


First Printing February, 1943 
Second Printing October, 1946 


Copyright, 1943, by 


National Education Association ot the United States 
All Rights Reserved 


Yearbook of 
The Department of Rural Education 


FEBRUARY 1943 


Published by the Department of Rural Education of the National Education 
Association of the United States and sent free of charge to all 1943 members. 


Executive and editorial offices, 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washing- 
ton, D.C. 


Sale price per copy, 50¢. Discounts: 2-9 copies, 10° >; 10-99 copies, 25 
or more, 33 1/3 


HISTORICAL NOTE 


The Department of Rural Education of the National Education Association 
was organized at the Chicago meeting in February 1919. It was an outgrowth 
of the former Department of Rural and Agricultural Education, authorized by 
the Board of Directors in 1907. Its chief purpose is “to promote the general 
advancement of rural education thruout the United States.” The Department 
meets twice a year in February and in June, and welcomes all persons inter 
ested in rural education. 


COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS AND CONSTRUCTIVE STUDIES 


Kate V. Worrorp, Chairman J. E. Burrerwortu 

Director of Rural Education Protessor of Rural Education 
State Teachers College Cornell University 

Buffalo, N.Y. Ithaca, N. Y. 


Frances L. Battey, President (\ROLINE Evingson 


Western State Normal School County Superintendent ot Schools 
Gorham, Maine Fargo, N. Dak. 
L. S. TimemMan 


College of Education 


University of New Mexico 
Albuquerque, N. Mex. 


Department of Rural Education 
Officers 1942-43 
PRESIDENT VICEPRESIDENT 


Barton Morcan, Head Exotse Mays 
Department of Vocational Education General Supervisor 
Iowa State College Marin County Schools 
Ames, Iowa San Rafael, Calif. 


SECRETARIES 
RECORDING EXECUTIVE 
Lots M. Crakk, Adviser Howarp A. Dawson 
Early Childhood and Elementary Education Director of Rural Service 


Department of Public Instruction National Education Association 
Harrisburg, Pa. Washington, D. C. 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Dwicurt L. Baicey, Director, Rural Education, Western Illinois State Teach- 
ers College, Macomb, IIl.; Cutoet C. Batprince, Director, Rural Education, 
State Department of Public Instruction, Lincoln, Nebr.; R. D. Batpwin, Pro- 
fessor of Education, West Virginia University, Morgantown, W. Va.; Lots M. 
Crark, Adviser, Early Childhood and Elementary Education, Department of 
Public Instruction, Harrisburg, Pa.; Frank W. Cyr, Professor of Education, 
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N. Y.; A. F. Ersea, Di- 
rector of Rural Education, State Department of Education, Jefferson City, Mo.; 
Epwin R. Emre, President, Julius Rosenwald Fund, 4901 Ellis Ave., Chicago, 
Ill.; Norman Frost, Professor of Rural Education, George Peabody College 
for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn.; Rex Hatcut, Director, State Correspondence 
School, Missoula, Mont.; Frank C. Ranspevt, Superintendent, Hardin County 
Schools, Kenton, Ohio; President, Vicepresident, and Retiring President (Mrs. 
Datsy E. Howarp, County School Commissioner, Genessee County, Flint, 
Mich.), ex officio members. 


MEMBERSHIP 


Eligibility—All persons engaged in rural education work and others inter- 
ested in this field are eligible for membership, provided they are members of 
the National Education Association. 

Benefits—Attendance at the biannual convention meetings of the Depart- 
ment. 

The right to vote and hold office and have a voice in shaping departmental 
policies. 

Opportunity for service to rural children thru active participation in a na- 
tional organization. 

Membership (dues $2) entitles you to receive the following publications: 

1. The 1943 Yearbook, Conservation Education in Rural Schools 
2. Official Proceedings of the Department 

3. Research Bulletin of the NEA (four issues a year) 

4. Other publications as available. 


[vi] 


7 


May Lanpers ADAMs 


Epona Barnes 


Jay N. Daruinc 


Mrs. Leone Davison 


CuHarces N. Evuiotr 


Ortivia Friscu 


KATHALINE G. GABRIEL 


R. W. Ho iincswortu 


R. S. IHLENFELDT 
FLorence K. JENKINS 


Cuarces F. Martin 


E. Laurence Parmer 
Anne RayMonp 

J. Guy RowLanp 
Jutta B. Tappan 
Frep Watt 

Henry Wattact 
Jutta B. Ware 


Epwarp YEOMANS, JR. 


OTHER CONTRIBUTORS 


Contributors 


Supervisor of Fayette County Schools, Fayette, Ala. 


-County Superintendent of Schools, Adair County, 


Greenfield, lowa 

Conservationist, Cartoonist. Editorial staff, Regzs- 
ter and Tribune, Des Moines, Iowa 

Teacher, One-Room School, Zumbro Falls, Minn. 

Conservationist, Author. Special Assistant, Na- 
tional Park Service, Richmond, Va. 

Commissioner of Education, Saginaw County, Sagi- 
naw, Mich. 

Teacher, One-Room School, Johnson City, N. Y. 

Principal of Hubbertville School, Route 3, Fay- 
ette, Ala. 

State Supervisor of Conservation Education, Madi- 
son, Ws. 

Principal and Teacher, Two-Room School, Canaan, 
N. Y. 

Conservationist, Author. County Superintendent 


of Schools, Maquoketa County, Maquoketa, Iowa 


Conservationist, Biologist. Professor of Rural Edu 
cation, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 


Division of Education and Information, Soil Con 


servation Service, Albuquerque, N. Mex. 
~ 


Elementary and Junior High School Supervisor, * 
State Education Department, Olympia, Wash. 


Division of Education and Information, Soil Con- 
servation Service, Albuquerque, N. Mex. 


Director for Rural Education, Julius Rosenwald 
Fund, Chicago, Il. 


Principal and Teacher of Upper Grades, Two- 
Teacher School, Zena, Okla. 


Acting Supervisor of Elementary Education, State 
Board of Education, Richmond, Va. 


West Georgia College, Carrollton, Ga. 


Recognized in footnotes in connection with their 
contributions. 


[ vii ] 


Foreword 


pe AMERICAN PEOPLE have been blessed by a vast. rich, and beautiful 


continent. It is theirs to use wisely, to cherish, and to hand on to future 
generations without waste and despoliation. The ideals, knowledge, and 
skills of the 12,000,000 rural-school children of our country will have much 
to do with what happens to our land and its resources now and in the 
future. Conservation is a prime obligation of American citizenship, 

This yearbook is for the use of rural teachers and others working in 
rural education. Its purpose is to present existing phases of conservation 
education that may prove strmulating to schools and communities desiring 
to put a functional program of conservation into their own schools, It does 
not show the status of conservation education in the United States, but 1 
suggests sources where this can be ascertained. 

The general plan of the yearbook is to indicate the major problems ot 
conservation education, Chapters I and IV; to give specific illustrations 
of what specialists believe rural schools should teach, Chapters II and 1V; 
to present reports from teachers, principals, and supervisors telling what 
children are doing and learning, Chapters HI and IV; and to furnish 
sources of information which teachers and pupils can consult, Chapter V. 
The vearbook is not intended to be a compilation of exhortations, bur 
rather a motion picture of the process of conservation education, with the 
spotlight on the activities of teachers and children successtully engaged in 
actual conservation 

In organizing this vearbook and selecting the ntributors, the editor 
and the Committee on Publications and Constructive Studies have in 
tended to have every area of conservation represented by articles or by 
publications listed in the bibliography. Within the limitations of spac 
permissible for this public Wion it has not been | ict rEpresc nta 
tion to all states and communities engaged in conservation work 

To Efhe G. Bathi ~ who planned ind edited this vearbook, and to 
each of the contributors, ge the gratitude of the Department of Rural 


Education for this usetul ntributios » conservation education 


Howarp A. Dawson 
Director of Rural Service 
National Education Association 


January 19, 1942 


Contents 


Foreword 


CHAPTER |! 
Why King Midas Starved—Darling . 


CHAPTER Ill 


Teaching Conservation of the Natural Resources—Palmer . 


CHAPTER III 


How Children Are Learning To Conserve . 
Conservation thru the Year—Davison 
We Help Our Community Conserve—Martin 
A County Program in Soil Conservation—Barnes 


Young Southwestern Conservationists—Tappan and Raymond 
Short Reports from Schools—Ihlenfeldt, Frisch, Jenkins, 


Gabriel, and Rowland 


CHAPTER IV 


The School's Responsibility for the Nation’s Human Resources 
Conservation of Human Resources—Wale . a 
Human Resources in the School Program—A Group of Teec hers 


Community Schools Improve Human Resources—Adams, Hol 
lingsworth, Yeomans, and Ware 


Conservation Means Better Rural Living—Wallace 


CHAPTER V 


Summary and Sources of Information—Eliiott 
The Outlook for Conservation Education 
Bibliography 
Visual Aids 


Conservation Agencies 


WHAT WE HAVE DONE TO THE NATURAL BEAUTIES 
OF OUR LANDSCAPE . 
AR a SS ERENT 


j Y jill?” 7 


Courtesy Jay N. Darling 


CHAPTER | 
Why King Midas Starved 
Jay N. Darling 


A’ LONG as we could pick up the telephone and get anything we wanted 
delivered to our door for the asking—whether it was fresh straw 
berries in midwinter ripened in Texas sunshine, or two-inch sirloin steaks 
from corn-fed beef—it seemed almost impossible to get the people of the 
United States to think there was any limit to our natural resources, or to 
take seriously the subject of guarding against rapid depletion. Since we 
seemed to have plenty of everything, why worry about it? Were we not 
the richest country in the world? Then why all this bother about conser 
vation ? 

Unulsthis war, we thought we had so much of everything that our 
resources would last forever. Within one short year we have tumbled from 
this dreamy height in the clouds and landed, none too comfortably, in a 
bramble bush of painful shortages, which have scratched and jabbed us in 
a lot of places we never even suspected had feelings. 

Do you remember the old Mother Goose rhyme: 

There was a man in our town, and he was wondrous 
Wise; 
He jumped into a bramble bush and scratched 
out both his eyes; 
And when he saw his eyes were out, with all his 
might and main, 
He jumped into another bush and scratched them 


in again. 


We ought to be able to improve on the wise man of Mother Goose and 
do it all in one jump instead of two. Certainly we ought not to have t 
wait until it happens before we recognize the big hole we have made in 
the stock of natural resources we had two hundred years ago when we 
began to develop this continent. What we have already used up is going 
to make a lot of difference in our own living conditions and that of future 
American generations, who are going to have to live on what is lett over 

Up to the present time we haven't thought we needed to take the warn 
ings seriously about disappearing forests, soils, and mineral deposits 
Neither did the majority of our people take this World War seriously 
until our Pacific islands were attacked. We like to think of ourselves as 
having been treacherously set upon without warning; but the warnings 
were plentiful enough if we had but heeded them. Ever since the powers 


[| 


LZ 


of aggression started to move in on their neighbors, beginning with Man- 
churia almost ten years ago, first the Japanese, then Mussolini and Hitler 
fairly shouted from the housetops what they intended to do to this world 
of ours. 

‘A HERITAGE SPENT 


The warnings that our natural resources are being rapidly depleted and 
have reached the danger point are written just as plainly everywhere 
across the face of our continent—in million-acre patches of denuded for- 
ests, abandoned farmlands, dust bowls, and dried-up rivers, springs, and 
lakes. These warnings likewise have been shouted from the housetops 
by the prophets of conservation, while tens of thousands of so-called 
“okies” (refugees from wrecked land) within the last decade have paraded 
back and forth before our eyes on the public highways crying for “relief.” 
If we were really interested in anything but our immediate, short-sighted 
individual comfort, we would have heeded these unmistakable warnings 
of disappearing resources long ago. 

Perhaps we should revise our hymn book of national anthems to include 
that old-time song, “You'll never miss the water ‘til the well runs dry.” 
Nothing that has been written describes more perfectly the typical Amer- 
ican attitude toward our mad—yes, criminal—waste of natural resources, 
unless it be Benjamin Franklin’s paragraph in Poor Richard’s Almanac: 
“Forever taking out and never putting in soon discloses the bottom of the 
meal barrel.” 

For the last two hundred years we have been skimming the cream off 
the top of our continental resources at an alarming rate. We are vainly 
proud of the wealth thus secured but remain completely oblivious to the 
skimmed milk we have left behind. There is not much nourishment in 
skimmed milk. National malnutrition is a certain consequence, and social 
upheaval and economic rickets are its unmistakable symptoms. This de- 
pletion has been accomplished with greater speed and efficiency than any- 
where in the previous history of mankind. 

And now the war has hit us like a great hurricane. It is sweeping great 
paths of destruction thru what remains of our forests, our livestock, our 
granaries, and our mineral storehouses. We are confronted with the prob- 
lem of feeding not only ourselves and our armies, but our allies and the 
starving millions of those little countries of the Old World whose own 
worn-out soils and denuded forests have been depleted thru centuries of 
man’s consuming existence. There is no time now to stop and mend our 
ways of extravagant waste and unintelligent misuse of the vast blessings of 
nature’s endowment. Our very existence is at stake and there is no alter- 
native. We must meet this storm of necessity with everything we possess. 
But with this object lesson before us we can, if we will, reach a clear under- 
standing of the fundamental principles of conservation and what they 


[2] 


i3 


mean in terms of human happiness and be ready to apply them when the 
war has ended. We will need to do so, for the final exhaustion of our 
national resources has probably been moved one thousand years nearer by 
the excessive demands made by the war. It is estimated that in one day of 
intensive fighting on all fronts during this war there is used up more of 
nature's storehouse of chemical energy, without recompense, than in a year 
of normal human consumption during peacetime. 

It took Pearl Harbor to awaken us to the dangers of a three-vear-old war 
which threatened our democratic way of life. With sufficient courage, de 
termination, and sacrifice of blood and national treasure we can recover 
from that blow and win the war against our human enemies, but if we do 
not take warning and defend our natural resources from this headlong 
race of waste and depletion we will lose a battle from which our continent 
will never recover. The road back from Pearl Harbor is short and easy 
compared to the road back from a continent shorn of its natural resources. 
The Prodigal Son was lucky. He went back home to the fatted calf after 
he had squandered his all in riotous living. When we have spent our 
heritage of natural resources in riotous living, wars, and criminal waste, 
there won't be any fatted calf or sympathetic father to whom we can return. 
When we have spent our natural resources we have spent everything, and 
we have been and are now doing just that, with utter disregard of the 
consequences. 

Just as it was difhcult tor us to believe that we were vulnerable to at 
tack from a nation across the Pacific professing friendship, so it is almost 
impossible to realize that this continent, so richly endowed with natural 
resources, could by any stretch of the imagination exhaust its plentiful 
supply to the point of rationing food and gasoline, and the prohibition of 
articles made of iron, copper, and aluminum. No one could thoughtfully 
look at this continent as it stood prior to the war and compare it with the 
virgin continent we inherited—uncut forests, undepleted topsoils, vast 
mineral treasures, and rivers and coastal waters teeming with aquatic life 
—without serious doubts as to its eternal endurance. 

Note that we are speaking of the “source” of riches rather than money, 
which too long has been commonly considered the mark of wealth. It is 
dangerous to confuse the two terms. All the money in the world would 
not buy King Midas a hamburger sandwich. In America today we have 
more money per capita than any nation of people ever had in the history 
of the world, but we cannot buy many of the things we'd like to have in 
the quantities we want. To be sure, the food shortages of today are caused 
to some extent by the abnormal demands of a world war, but the same 
shortages of the necessities of life can and will come about when our nat- 
ural resources of rich productive soils have been exhausted by vears of 


careless and wasteful practices. Productive soil, after all, is only a thin coat- 


[3] 


14 


ing on the surface of the earth and can be worn out just as surely as a 
suit of clothes can be worn thin on the human body. 
WHAT OF THE FUTURE? 

An ever-ncreasing population and an ever-decreasing supply of natural 
resources simply cannot continue indefinitely without the most serious re- 
sults. That old familiar boast that “America can feed the world” is like 
the old adage that if you start to lift a calf the day it is born and lift it every 
day until it is full grown, you can lift a cow. Both feeding the world and 
lifting a calf every day until it matures may be easy enough to start but 
they are going to be hard to finish. 

It seems strange that we are not more concerned over this inevitable 
prospect, especially in this day of horrors when we see the cumulative 
results of worldwide surplus populations’ seeking to extricate themselves 
from the pinch of worn-out soils and shrunken resources by wholesale 
mmurder and international burglary. Whatever the pretexts may be by 
which Japan, Italy, and Germany attempt to justify the slaughter of their 
neighbors and the seizure of their lands, the undisputed facts are plain 
that Japan could no longer sustain her bulging population on the de 
creasing resources within her island boundaries. Italy had to have expan 
sion of both territory and food supplies or suffer ever-increasing national 
poverty. Germany must have land, food, and a place to send her surplus 
of people or accept a gradual decline in living standards and face eventual 
national disintegration. Each seeks now to supply her own needs by fore 
bly taking them from her neighbors. 

Only a few centuries ago hungry, barbaric hordes trom the worn-out 
lands farther east invaded what is now German and Italian territory and 
fattened on the plenty they found there. We read about them in history 
as the invasions of Genghis Khan, the Tartars, the Goths, and the Van 
dals. Since then the populations of Central Europe, Italy, and the Medi 
terranean states have multiplied a millionfold. The once rich and well- 
stocked cupboard of Mother Nature in Central Europe has begun to show 
empty shelves. Instead of possessing rich prizes for the invader, the peoples 
of Germany and Italy have become themselves the hungry invaders who 
_prey upon the resources of others. We call it fascism, but fascism was born 
of shrinking resources and expanding populations 

Germans, Italians, and Japanese have learned by sad experience that 4 
loaf, however large, can be cut into only so many slices. With all duc 
reverence to the parables of Holy Writ, mere man has found no way to 
feed an ever-increasing multitude with tewer and fewer loaves and tishes. 

That is the lesson which conservationists are trying to drive home to the 
people of this continent before it 1s too late. The rich topsoils, sparkling 
waters, abundant growth of vegetation, and minerals, which made this 
continent the richest prize in the history of civilization, are not inexhausti 


t 


r 


[4] 


15 


ble, in spite of our common habit of thinking so. Fertile soils, vegetation, 
and surface moisture are like beauty—only skin deep. If intelligently cared 
for they can be made to last indefinitely and produce abundantly. But if 
any one of the three is depleted by wasteful practices and slothtul mis- 
management, our American continent, whose “skin we love to touch,” 
will be broken out with a rash which no sociological salve can cure. When 
that day comes America will not only be unable to “feed the world” but 
by its own standards of living will be unable to feed itself. We are already 
feeding more and more people on less and less soil each year. In following 
that procedure indefinitely we will eventually reach a danger point, if 
indeed it is not alreadv here. Then economic depressions, revolutionary 
uprisings, and internal discontent will follow as surely as night follows 
day, just as these same symptoms have marked the decline of every center 
of civilization since the beginning of history. Many of the tragedies which 
have come upon poruons of our population during the heartbreaking years 
of depression were the direct results of disregard or ignorance of the sim- 
plest conservation principles, which might have saved the dust bowl and 
the abandoned farms from which so many unfortunate human beings 
were driven . 


CONSERVATION BOTTLENECK 


“Bottleneck” is our tavorite term right now to describe a crucial pinch 
in production, which chokes the war mechanism in our struggle against 
the Axis powers. We have been at times almost hysterically aware that 
a bottleneck might strangle us before we could bring our full strength to 
bear upon the enemies of democratic existence. “Bottleneck” packs into 
one word all the agony of suffocation while trying to breathe thru a too 
constricted aperture. 

Productivity of soil is the “bottleneck” of human existence. It has been 
sO since man’s sojourn on earth began. History is one continual succes- 
sion of migrations from exhausted soil to new fertile fields which nature 
has spent millions of years in creating. There is only one formula for 
production of fertile soil.” Chlorophyl, that green pigment in vegetation, 
plus sunshine, has laid down all the topsoil, all the coal, all the food 
products of every organic living thing on which mankind has subsisted 
and must subsist forever. For chlorophyl is that magic green element in 
vegetation which alone can capture the carbon dioxide from the atmos- 
phere and combine it with hydrogen to make all the carbohydrates which 
enrich the soil and keep us alive. Without the previous cooperation of 
chlorophyl and sunshine we could have no food, no fire, no crops, no life 
—nothing. When we inherited this continent we fell heir to a hundred 


1An excellent book to help the teacher answer the children’s questions about the care and 


improvement of nl 4 souls / Men. Yearbook of Agriculture, 1935. This can be pur- 
chased for $1.75 | the Government Printing Office, Washington, D, C, It contains 1232 
pages, written by the nation’s best sol specialists, and as well alustrated.—The editor 
[« 
>. 


16 


million years of cumulative transformation of raw volcanic rock into rich 
loam, grassy plains, primeval forests, a myriad population of fur-bearing 
animals, and waters teeming with fish and aquatic life—all the product 
of the chlorophy! factory. Do not forget that when this rich endowment 
is gone its only replenishment must come thru that same small bottleneck 
of chlorophyl plus sunshine. 

Can any thoughtful person say that with 80 percent of our virgin for- 
ests already cut down, 75 percent of our western grasslands grazed bare, 
and millions of acres of underbrush cleared from our hillsides that we 
have not constricted the green chlorophyl bottleneck instead of enlarging 
it? 

That is what conservation is about. Those who cite surpluses of grain 
and cotton to contradict the threat of shortages are only looking thru the 
keyhole at a nationwide, yes worldwide, problem and seeing only a very 
limited surplus in one small area of the earth's surface. They are blind 
to the estimated 600,000,000 human beings who are underfed or actually 
starving. 

Those surpluses were produced at heavy cost to the richest remaining 
topsoil areas in America, while the hundreds of thousands of acres of 
worn-out and abandoned forests, grazing lands, and farms had produced 
nothing, and the populations that had once occupied them were left with- 
out employment or money with which to buy food and clothing from the 
wastefully produced surpluses. Robbing the rich soils to produce larger and 
larger annual harvests may be the most costly type of farming practiced. 
It was exactly that type of farming which started millions of American 
acres of rich topsoil down the rivers and eroding gullies to the ocean. 


SHORTAGES AND DEPLETION UNANNOUNCED 


In normal times of peace the threatened approach of shortages in natural 
resources is not announced by headlines in the daily press. Any editor of 
a local paper would be hung from the nearest apple tree who dared warn 
prospective citizens to stay away because the home town and its environs 
were on their last legs due to exhausted resources. Such embarrassing infor- 
mation is carefully concealed from the world by selfish individuals and 
short-sighted, local groups. Can you imagine railroads advising summer 
tourists not to buy tickets to the Minnesota lake districts because nine- 
tenths of their lakes have lost much of their once prolific fish and game 
populations? No land boomer was ever known to tell 1 prospective pur- 
chaser that the three former owners went broke trying to make a living 
on the ranch he was trying to sell to the fourth. Nor would an Arizona 
silver-mine broker reveal that the precious metals had all been taken out 
of the mine by its previous operator, any more than a second-hand auto 
dealer would tell a customer that the bearings were burned out, the bat- 
tery dead, and the transmission gears stripped on a brightly painted car 


[6] 


he was offering for sale. Florida does not advertise that it costs more to 
fertilize the orange groves in that state than you can get for the ripened 
fruit, and Iowa is careful not to let anyone know that the southern third 
of its farmland has been so badly eroded that whole counties have gone on 
relief and that many of their schools, churches, and other local institutions 
are bankrupt. 

The U.S. Reclamation Service does not publicize the number of irrigation 
projects which are not always good conservation projects and frequently 
have cost the taxpayers millions and then wrecKed the family fortunes of 
the settlers who tried to farm the irrigated lands. The National Forest 
Service does its best to arouse the public to the dangers of forest fires but 
it does not emphasize the fact that forest fires are taking toll of our Amer- 
ican forests faster than nature, with the assistance of the U. S. Forest Serv- 
ice and all the state forest departments, is growing them. Thus it happens 
that the people of this country have remained in ignorance of the progress 
and extent of destruction, which has pulled from under them the sustain- 
ing foundations of their prosperity. 

As a nation we did not concern ourselves with what was to become of 
the army of lumberjacks, sawmill operators, local storekeepers, school- 
teachers, and village inhabitants when the great forests of Michigan, Wis- 
consin, and Minnesota were all finatly harvested and cut into lumber. 
Even less conscious were we of the fate of the thousands of families of the 
once prosperous fishing villages on the southern shores of Lake Erie when 
suddenly the prolific runs of fresh water herring gave out and fishermen, 
boatmakers, net weavers, and associated workers were left without any 
means of livelihood. Ghost towns that were once thriving fishing villages 
line the coastal waters of the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Great Lakes, and 
our major rivers—each one a tombstone to exploited and dead resources. 

“Abandoned farm” is a familiar term which has fallen upon our ears 
and slid off with no more effect than a drop of water on a duck’s back, 
but a single abandoned farm is sodden with tragedy and suffering for the 
members of the farmer's family who could not make a living on it and 
had to abandon all hope there. Multiply that tragedy by a million aban- 
doned farms (there are many more than a million in this country already) 
and that term “abandoned farm” assumes a foreboding significance which 
we as a nation have ignored. 

Need we mention more examples in order to be convincing? It could 
be done until every nook and cranny of our continent had been shown to 
be the victim of circumstances similar to the Minnesota forests, Lake Erie 
herring, and abandoned lands. Each in its turn inflicted no stunning blow 
to our national economy as a whole but the cumulative effect of all of 
them together has built up a total of profound significance. The early 
symptoms are as insidious in their approach as a creeping paralysis whose 
earlier effects are only inconvenient but which finally paralyze the whole 


(7] 
18 


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body. By the same token, the day when everyone in the United States will 
g> comprehensively hungry is a long way off, but the widening margin 
of our population who do go underfed because of disappearing forests, 
land, and water is gaining new recruits by the hundreds of thousands 
annually. The climax of exhausted resources will be violent and without 
mercy. Once that climax is reached the restoration is as slow as the ages 
of nature. 


WHAT IS CONSERVATION ? 


We know now that much of the rapid exhaustion which has taken place 
in America was entirely unnecessary, due largely to ignorance and waste- 
ful practices which could have been avoided without loss to current profits. 
If we begin now the intelligent application of the principles which might 
have prevented the past waste, we can at least insure continuity of use of 
what we have left. We possibly can accomplish a restoration of some of 
that which has been lost. It is the application of such principles and prac- 
tices which, grouped together, is called “conservation.” 

Conservation is an organized campaign to widen the bottleneck in the 
economic mechanism for national welfare. If the bottleneck cannot be 
widened, at least it can be kept from growing smaller. 

Conservation is not just a sentimental hobby nor a fanciful hope of idle 
dreamers, of duck hunters, of fishermen, or bird lovers. Conservation is a 
science Whose principles are written in the oldest legal code in the world 
—the laws of nature 

Ignorance of the laws of nature has been, and still is, more responsible 
for the violations than wilful malpractice. It is therefore necessary before 
any real progress toward conservation can take place that the schools 
shoulder a large part of the responsible burden. They must educate their 
students for conservation; prepare them to accept and work for improved 
care and use of the natural resources, It is obviously hopeless to divert our 
mass population from their ingrown destructive habits when they are 
not aware of either the natural laws or the dire consequences of their viola- 
tion. ‘ 

How the schools shall accomplish this task is for teachers and profes- 
sional educators to determine, Suthce it here to say that the job must be 
done, and soon, It is the job of scientists to interpret and correlate the 
natural laws in such form that the educators may make them clear to the 
oncoming generations. In a large measure the natural scientists are far 
ahead of the educators with their work. For instance, scientific research 


bd . 
has determined by experiment and proved by demonstration that plants 


have a vital influence on moisture in the soil, one of the most important 
relationships in human welfare. But too many botany teachers still occupy 
the minds of their pupils chiefly with identification of species and grade 
the students accordingly. There are geologists, who, altho water is the most 


[9] 


precious substance within their sphere, ignore it almost entirely and drill 
their classes on such things as the relative hardness of horn blend and 
talc, and how to distinguish fluorite from feldspar by the number of facets 
to their crystals. In the instruction they give they fail to relate minerals 
to economy of use and to human welfare. Biologists, whose province is 
the teaching of the interrelationship of all living things, are inclined to 
wander off into that rarefied atmosphere which surrounds the eternal 
mystery of when and how life enters protoplasm. Yet within the natural 
and fundamental laws of such common-school studies lic the secrets of 
droughts, floods, dust bowls, eroded topsoil, deserts, national destitution, 
and human despair. Young children can understand the simple basic 
concepts; older children and youth, the laws. 

Why are so many of our fresh water springs, once perpetually flowing, 
now dry? Why do rivers which within our memory once flowed bank 
full the year round now dwindle to nothing in midsummer? What man- 
created influences have caused a continuous and rapid falling of the sub- 
soil water table of our continent? What has happened to nature’s balance 
in the great stretches of western grasslands which has made them dusty 
wastes and their ranch houses vacant? How long will it take to replace 
the nine inches of rich topsoil which have been washed off the farms of the 
Mississippi valley? How can it be done? What essential function to life 
do green leaves perform without which no human being could exist? 
What is the source of all sugar, starch, fat, coal, and oils and is there any 
substitute method of production which men can provide? Why are there 
no more salmon to speak of in the Atlantic Coast rivers of the United 
States of America? Why do lakes which once had crystal waters and an 
abundance of aquatic economic resources now grow green scum and 
support no fish? What has become of the millions of people who once 
lived on the now abandoned farm lands, denuded forests, and fishing 
waters? 

The answers to all these and many more questions like them are inti- 
mately associated with the four basic natural sciences and are now written 
so that anyone who cares to may read in the simple language of the 
natural research scientists. And the fate of our future generations rests 
upon their application to everyday living. Surely the elementary schools 
of the nation have a duty to perform here. 


WHY CONSERVATION LAGS 


Research scientists have gone a long way to provide formulas by which 
conservation can be accomplished and show how man can keep natural 
resources working for us instead of destroying the intimate mechanism. 
The public, hydraulic and sanitary engineers, industrialists, and educators 
have been slow to apply these vital essentials to man’s existence, while 
our population grows larger and our productive resources shrink. 


[ 10 ] 


QI 


It is one of Our peculiar misfortunes that education in the fundamental 
principles of conservation has not reached the average congressman or 
the state and local government officials in whose hands rests the adminis- 
tration of our conservation policies. Maybe they were absent on the day 
that subject was mentioned in school. So many promotion projects are 
labeled “conservation” but are really just the opposite of conservation and 
neither our elected officials nor our general public knows the difference. 
Yet the fundamentals are as easy to understand ag the fact that long grass 
will gather and hold more snowflakes than short grass and hence pro- 
vide more moisture in the soil for the next season's crops, or that water 
without oxygen is as bad for fish to live in as a room without oxygen is 
bad for man. 

I could tell you of an experimental area of 35,000 acres of land which 
ten years ago had not-a spear of grass visible, wherein seven flowing 
springs had gone permanently dry and life was practically extinct thru 
overgrazing and mismanagement. That same 35,000 acres is now knee- 
high with lush vegetation, the seven springholes are again full of water © 
the year round, and a thousand head of cattle could be fed without over- 
grazing. It didn’t take any fertilizer. It didn’t take any twenty-five-million- 
dollar irrigation project to restore it to production, Only an application 
of the simplest principles of conservation management was necessary. This 
was accomplished in spite of continuing drought conditions in the region. 

If you want to know how simple that process was, it involved nothing 
more than keeping the herds of cattle and sheep off the area to give the 
grasses a chance to come back. The sparse grasses grew the first summer 
enough to hold the snows that fell that winter. The snows melted and 
went into the ground instead of running off (again vegetation aiding in 
the absorption of moisture by the earth). The extra moisture in the soil 
stimulated an increased growth of native grasses and vegetation, which in 
turn held more of the following-winter’s snows. The water thus stored in 
the ground finally reached an excess which seeped out into the old spring 
holes. That was all; but if we had not known the relationship of botany to 
soil and the teamwork between plants, water, biology, and soil, we 
wouldn’t have thought the restoration possible, or at any rate so easy. 
Those same principles are, of course, subject to much wider application 
than this little demonstration. 


A FEW AXIOMS 


Let us see if we can outline a few conclusions which will fix in mind 
the objectives of conservation and the processes which are essential to 
its accomplishment. 


1. No nation can permanently endure which consumes its natural resources 
faster than nature, with scientific aids, can replace them, any more than a man 


[11] 


2R 


can live forever on a barrel of tlour without ever putting more Hour into the 
barrel, 

2. Conservation is the science of greatest possible production without di- 
minishing unduly the source materials. 

3. Conservation seeks by the application of natural Jaws to provide methods 
by which continual production may be substituted for destructive exploitation. 

4. Conservation is the exponent and advocate of careful scientific study and 
diagnosis before major operations are performed on our basic economic mechan- 
ist. 

5. It is essential that whenever nature’s productive balance is invaded, ade- 
quate replacements or equivalent substitutions be provided as insurance against 
diminishing returns. 

6. It is a primary requisite of conservation that no project which makes use 
of natural resources 1s justified if its cost to the people of this nation is greater 
than the local profits and national benefits. 


All these seemingly axiomatic precepts are, as a matter of fact, just 
another way of saying that you can’t feed and clothe more and more people 
on less and less productive resources. 

To the newcomers who approach these more serious aspects of con- 
servation for the first time, the emphasis on food production to the neglect 
of mineral resources may cause some questioning which should be an- 
swered here. 

Resources of nature are divided into two classifications: those which 
are renewable by human efforts and those which are not renewable, In a 
measure, all organic resources are renewable. Forests can be replaced by 
reforestation; grasses and surface vegetation if destroyed can be replanted 
if not too long neglected. Furs of wild animals can be replaced by wool 
from domestic animals or textiles made from vegetable matter, Depleted 
animal life can be renewed by scientific breeding and restocking. Even 
soil depletion can be, in a measure, renewed under advantageous condi- 
tions by prescribed vegetation management. 

On the other hand, the mines which produce our inorganic or mineral 
resources, such as silver, aluminum, iron, tin, zinc, and kindred elements, 
cannot be restocked. They are therefore classed as nonrenewable resources. 
There are, to be sure, dangers which threaten serious inconvenience if by 
Mismanagement and waste our stocks of essential minerals run short, but 
these hazards concern industrial production rather than the essentials to 
sustain life. 

I venture to say that no one would like to contemplate living in this 
modern world without the conveniences provided thru industrial pro- 
duction. If that would be bad, think how much worse it would be to live 
in a world from which the supply of food, fuel, and clothing had been 


exhausted. Hence the emphasis on “renewable” resources, for if you do 


not “renew” your “renewable” resources you won't have any use for the 
[12] 


“nonrenewables” anyway. King Midas found that ous when everything 
he touched turned to gold and he could not eat. 

Considering the almost unlimited possibilities for substitutions in the 
field of minerals and inorganic, nonrenewable materials, we can say with 
considerable degree of confidence that there will be no bottleneck, in the 
long run, of metals for industrial needs and human requirements, at least 
in times of peace. Only the sudden excessive demands of an unforeseen 
war created our present mineral shortages, a deficiency which is rapidly 
being remedied. 

It is unfortunate, however, that in the process of producing substitutes 
for metallic materials, an extra strain is put upon the organic sources of 
materials, where the real bottleneck is located. Running thru the whole 
scale of new plastic materials—rayon, nylon, lucite, pliofilm, and the bake- 
lite group, to mention only a few—the constituent elements are chiefly 
of organic origin and every known organic substance, living or dead, has 
come and must continue to come thru that single agency of green leaf 
chlorophyl plus sunshine. If there were any virtue in wishing, we could 
wish that our alchemists would pick on something besides carbon to trans- 
mute into mineral substitutes. Everybody wants to use carbon for some- 
thing or other and no one has ever been able to make any. 

In the field of heat, energy, and power production, there is no fuel which 
is not of organic origin, with the possible exception of mineral oil, whose 
mysterious origin has not been satisfactorily proved. Both coal and oil 
must be classed among the nonrenewable resources and any substitutions 
must come from the organic or vegetable family. Synthetic gasoline, the 
alcohols, and all combustibles are made from organic matter. Then add 
further to the strain on the organic bottleneck all the foods we eat (whether 
animal or vegetable), all textiles—linen, cotton, or wool—all the millions 
of tons of paper used daily, all the gunpowder, cigarettes, and feathers on 
women's hats, To put all expended energy also on the list would involve 
some duplication of the above list, but its drain upon organic resources 
is so Vast a daily item that it should not be neglected in the comprehensive 
concept, From the tiniest flip of a fish's tail to the throbbing engines of the 
largest steam turbine in the world, every move burns up, directly or in 
directly, some of the organic matter liboriously produced by the minute 
green cells in leaves, Let your imagination dwell for a moment on the 
‘man hours” a chlorophyl cell would have to work to produce the energy 
dissipated in the explosion of just one “block-buster” aerial bomb. 

Picture then in your mind this vast army of human demands lined up 
like a breadline before a soup kitchen and waiting to be served by that sole 
producer of relief rations, the green pigment in vegetation, and you will 
vet a new conception of what a bottleneck means, There is no other 
source, Without soil and water there is no vegetations without yreen vege- 
tation there is no chlorophyl; without chlorophyl there can be no new 


[13 | 


24 


supply of organic energy. Every grassy plain or forest denuded of its 
vegetation and every marsh drained of its water by man’s wasteful prac- 
tices constricts the bottleneck. Every careless farmer who by negligence 
allows the topsoil to wash from his land shortens the period of time that 
his soil can help contribute to human needs. 

Among modern current events I can think of no more excruciating 
mental agony than must have been suffered by those battered troops on 
Bataan Peninsula in the Philippine Islands, scanning the skies to the east 
in vain for the relief planes which never were to arrive. That is very real 
to all of us, and tragic in our total helplessness to aid. I wish it were possi- 
ble to dramatize for you the utter hopelessness of our situation on the 
North American continent when thru failure to heed the conservation 
warnings the pinch of organic shortages overtakes us all and from which 
no relief will be immediately available. 1 do not wish to convey the idea 
that we in America are in any danger of going comprehensively hungry 
for many generations, but social calamity will not wait for that. If we 
allow a hungry margin of our people to go continuously underfed and 
do not prevent that margin from growing wider, the jackals of discontent 
will be at our doors. The Old World's hungry margin is very wide. Ours 
is just beginning to show, but it is getting wider with each passing gen- 
eration. 


CONSERVATION—TODAY 'S FRONTIER 


There was a ume when population pressures on this continent were 
easily relieved by opening up new lands. Today there are no new frontiers 
except the almost untried frontier of conservation. We must sit down 
where we are and plan our subsistence for the next ten thousand years on 
what we have lett of our organic resources. 

Don't take too much comfort in that deceptive term “renewable” re 
source, There isn't much virtue in the renewable quality of resources if 
we don't renew them, particularly if, while not renewing, we also de 
stroy the renewal mechanism by erosion, fire, drainage, and soil robbing. 

Voda we are all busy with war, Everyone IS employed, or should be. 
But tomorrow when the war as over we shall be again confronted with 
the problem of peaceuime employment, The trials of the late depression 
are too recent not to be remembered, We blamed the richy we blamed capi 
talism, We blamed Wall Street, the Republicans, bankers, and everyone else 
except ourselves, But no one seemed to take into consideration then that 
by our own wasteful practices with forests and soil we had thrown a vast 
proportion of the unemployed out onto the highways looking for a living. 
Work and the ability to produce wealth will continue to exist on this con- 


tinent only as long as the natural resources of our soil and water yield up 


their riches in proportion to the requirements of our population. Nor did 
anyone take seriously the fact that our population had increased by leaps 


14 | 


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and bounds until our productive soils, grasslands, and virgin forests had 
shrunk by at least 90,000,000 acres within the last decade. No, it wasn't 
all Wall Street, Republicans, Democrats, and capitalists who were to 
blame. The same dust bowls and cutover forest lands where people could 
no longer exist would have been vacated and the people destitute under 
socialism, communism, dictatorship, or monarchy if the people themselves 
had been as wasteful and heedless of nature’s laws as they have been under 
democracy. 

Did you ever play “Going to Jerusalem” (some call the game “Musical 
Chairs”), where the guests at a party march to music around a double row 
of chairs, which contain fewer seats than there are guests? When the music 
stops everyone tries to sit down. Because there are fewer seats than there 
are players, somebody generally sprawls on the floor or is left: standing 
without any chair. Then another chair is removed, the music and march- 
ing start again, and so on until there is but one chair left and two people 
to sit in at. 

Apply that same picture to 130,000,000 people trying to find life and 
sustenance on less and less productive acreage. We will be playing that 
game again when the war is over and it will be serious business indeed. 
The exploitation of resources for war in the interest of national survival 
has exceeded any peacetime exploitation we have ever known and the 
population margin that will be left unprovided for will be greater than 
ever. We will try to guarantee jobs for everybody, but way back behind 
our whole economic, social, and political structure lies the fundamental 
requirement of natural resources, and jobs can only be provided as long 
as that backlog of resources remains. 

In our desperation, following our customary pattern, we will juggle 
the currency, we may try substituting dictatorship for democracy, we may 
set up devices for redistribution of wealth and social security, but none of 
them nor all of them put together will restore the soils and other resources 
we have so wastefully depleted. Such inventions of the sociologists and 
economic doctors will be of no avail in reforesting our eroding hillsides. 
They cannot reclothe the dust bowls in protective vegetation by social 
reform or “sharing wealth.” They cannot bring back the eroded topsoil 
which has been carried downstream and deposited on the Mississippi delta. 
Unless our streams and rivers start to flow uphill we'll never get that soil 
back on the abandoned farms. Only an aroused public consciousness to 
the dangers of wasteful practices can help us in our extremity. And an 
aroused public consciousness is impossible without an understanding based 
on a broad national education of the oncoming generations. 

Conservation becomes then, not a matter of sentimental appreciation of 
the beauties of nature. Neither is it an idle humor of cloistered scientists 
in their experimental laboratories, It is grim business for statesmen and 
government executives and we won't have statesmen and executives who 


[ 16 | 


27 


will know what itis all about unul the teaching fraternity takes over the 
job of educating a new crop. 


A HISTORY LESSON 


Some day a new historian will arise who will revolutionize our study of 
the past and give us a much better understanding of the problems which 
we ourselves are meeting. This new historian will give an interpretation 
of the causes which produced the events, rather than a compilation of 
dynasties, wars, and victorious generals. Instead of telling us in detail 
how Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great fought their battles, the new 
historian wall tell us wAy they fought their wars of conquest. And the 
reasons Will exactly parallel the causes which led the Japanese to invade 
the Asiatic continent, the Italians to slaughter the Ethiopians, and Hitlet 
to shatter all the international covenants to loot Europe. From the first 
racial conthets of written history on down to the present day, wars have 
sprung from the same background, namely, an increased racial popula 
tion wearing out its natural resources and relieving the pressure within 
by arming its surplas men and moving in-on the less depleted pastures 
of its neyghbors, 

Archaeologists tell us that this process started in the Gobi Desert, ina 
whether or not that was the cradle of the human race, the tossilized rem 
nants of profuse vegetation and abundant animal lite are all that remain 
to show that man once lived there in obvious abundance until depleted 
natural resources forced the inhabitants to seek new land, Out of this area 
came successive waves of migrations which moved westward into Mon 
golia, India, Persia, Arabia, Turkestan, Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Nile 
and the Sahara, the Caucasus, the Mediterranean states, and finally into 
what we now call Conunental Europe. 

Buried in the dust and rubble of ages along these ancient migrauon 
lanes are crumbling palaces of kings and buried cities which once housed 
large and thriving populations. Those old ruins where millions once lived 
furnish convincing evidence that what now are nothing but desert lands, 
were once sufficiently productive to Manta prosperous COMMUNTTES, 
There today you could hardly pasture a healthy Dakota grasshopper. 
Fabled lands “flowing with milk and honey,” the valleys of the Ganges and 
Euphrates, Arabia, Persia, and Babylon were not always the deserted wastes 
they are today, inhabited only by struggling remnants of the former hordes 
now searching an exhausted land for sustenance for their flocks and a 
meager livelihood for themselves. Architects and artisans do not go off 
into a desert to erect such majestic designs in masonry as mark the re 
mains of Bagdad. That mecca of an ancient civilization was once sur 
rounded by productive agricultural plains. We did not invent the dust 
bowl in the United States. 

What vast natural resources must have blossomed on the sandy wastes 


[17] 


28 


of Egypt to support the armies employed to build the pyramids! For every 
stone in their huge bulk there must have been at least a hundred acres of 
land in full and continuous production to feed the laborers who quarried 
the rock and hoisted it into place. Let your imagination fill the gap be- 
tween these vast operations during the building of the temples of Karnak 
and the present flea-bitten remnant of Egypt which dips from the Nile 
enough water to raise a handful of rice, the per diem ration of its re- 
maining population. 

Few know that the mysterious city of Timbuktu, a ghost town of pre- 
historic origin isolated by miles of arid waste in the middle of the Sahara 
Desert, was once surrounded by fertile fields and olive groves. Buried be- 
neath its desert sands is complete evidence that Africa’s great dust bowl 
once was as rich as the Mississippi valley. Giant primitive forests, lakes, 
and rivers once spread across the vast wastes of the Sahara. 

Between the Gobi Desert and Mesopotamia, a thousand Genghis Khans, 
Attilas, and Nebuchadnezzars fought for the riches which these ancient 
lands once produced. They wouldn't be worth fighting for now if it were 
not for the oil deposits (of which the ancients had no knowledge) hidden 
deep beneath the earth’s crust. 

Is it just a coincidence that those once rich lands where civilization has 
lived the longest are all deserts now and unable to support a one-thou- 
sandth part of their former populations, or is there a lesson which we have 
overlooked hidden in crumbling ruins of departed civilization? Could it 
be that our own falling water table, dried-up springs, man-made dust 
howls, and abandoned cattle ranges are the early symptoms of the same 
blight which turned the ancient garden spots into deserts? Scientists who 
have read the hieroglyphics written in the sands of time say it is not a 
coincidence but an invariable rule, Other scientists, seeking a formula by 
which we may avoid such a future, have given us assurance that, taken 
in time, soils, vegetation, and subsoil water tables can be made to persist 
indefinitely and yield a balanced production of life’s necessities. 

The point will be raised by some that geological and meteorological 
changes may have occurred to alter the annual rainfall and that in this 
manner the once habitable lands of the Old World became deserts. No 
one will seek to dispute the possibility of a reduced rainfall in those regions 
and its potential contribution to the present conditions. But within the last 
decade much research work has been done to shed new light on that ques- 
tion, only a suggestion of which can be included here. Investigators have 
found that heavy rains still fall on those desert wastes. Deep erosion gullies 
and the surface of the land scarred by ditches cut away by rushing waters 
will be remembered as one of the characteristics of much of the Old 
World desert areas by anyone who has traveled there. Measured calcula- 
tions have shown that enough water still falls in cycles on many of these 
so-called desert areas to sustain a fairly satisfactory vegetation—if those 


[ 18 | 


29 


vu 


rains could soak into the ground instead of running off. Research workers 
now contend that it was the disappearance of the vegetation thru man’s 
overuse which changed the environment and not the lack of rainfall 
which destroyed the vegetation. 

Fragmentary translations of ancient hieroglyphics give hints of further 
illuminating data on internal conditions which preceded those early tribal 
migrations when lands became exhausted. They are the only hints but they 
tally so accurately with known cycles of modern social upheavals that 
they leave room for more than a suspicion that there is a standard cycle 
of social and economic phenomena directly associated with the disap- 
pearance of natural resources. 

One of the first things that always happen when populations outgrow 
their natural resources is that the existing government is overthrown, 
which usually is accompanied by throat cutting and broken heads. That 
seems to have been standard practice down thru the ages, and it still is. 
Spain has given us a complete dramatization of this part of the cycle of 
social evolution during the last decade. 

Boiled down to the fundamentals, the history of civilization since man 
was created is largely made up of the rise and fall of governments, kings, 
and empires thru the exhaustion of natural resources. History, therefore, 
in reality turns out to be the story of hungry man in search of food, Con 
servation is the job of so managing the soils, waters, and gifts of nature 
on this continent that our search for these necessities shall not include mut 
dering and robbing neighbor countries. 

If we do neglect conservation, as history has ignored it in the past, and 
any considerable portion of cur population does seek in vain for subsis 
tence, we shall have increasing poverty, social upheavals, and in spite of 
our high ideals and worship of peace we shall have more wars instead of 
fewer, for wars are the spawn of empty stomachs, and empty stomachs 
follow, as the night follows day, the excess of demand for natural resources 
over the supply. Sociologists and economic doctors should study biology. 

No one can look at this continent today, compare it with the way we 
found it, and deny that we have ruthlessly ignored this law of nature. 
America is no richer than her remaining resources. 

Hunger has, since the world began, thrown men at each other's throat. 
Hunger, or the threat of it, has been and still is one of the compelling 
forces back of racial struggles. Comparative peace reigns in all the bio- 
logical world until the competition for sustenance precipitates a death 
struggle. America is not exempt from this rule of nature. 


CONSERVATION EDUCATION 


It is ampossible of course to include in such a general discussion as this 
attempts to be, the details necessary tor adequate teaching of conservation. 
I would like, however, to call the attention of teachers and other educators 


[ 19 ] 


30 


to the fact that such material should be a part of all common-school cur 


riculums. If it is not found in any course of study of a school system, it is 
evidence that the school and the teachers are contributing to the destruc- 
tion of our natural resources by their failure to produce an enlightened 
generation of children. In this connection I will have to admit that to my 
knowledge such material has not yet been adequately provided in most 
school programs. Some of the research scientists have attempted to write 
the textbooks needed, but have fallen short of the desired end and aims 
because they are not sufficiently skilled in the modern educational technic. 
Probably in addition to teaching the principles of conservation it will be 
necessary for the educators themselves to evolve methods and texts re- 
quired for common-school purposes. So far as I can see, the teachers are 
the only missionaries we have who can convert a sinful and sinning public 
to an orthodox faith in applied natural science. 

There are dithculuies in getting the real job of conservation done and it 
probably cannot be done at all unless the teachers of America, and espe- 
cially the rural teachers, are willing to take upon themselves the respon- 
sibility for the major part of the work which hes ahead. Don’t let that 
“large responsibility” scare you. It is right down your alley. You will not 
be expected to vo out and stop the building of useless hundred-million 
dollar dams with your bare hands nor tangle with political problems. All 
you are asked to dois to find a way to teach the principle s of conservation 
to your classes 

ln other words, we must begin at the bottom to build up a comprehen 
uve Understanding of the problems which we have been reviewing in this 
liscussion, Up to this time the conservation advocates have been trying to 
develop a nationwide appreciation of the subject by pouring it in from 
the top. Most of it has run off, like water from a duck’s back. After a 
generation has reached the adult stage its members are too busy with the 
ithairs of living to take on a new layer of education. If a nationwide job of 
conservation is to be done, the principles will have to be instilled in youth 
in the public schools. Men and women who have toiled long and diligently 
tor the cause of conservation have come to the conclusion that unless we 
can begin with the youth of this country and have them grow up into a 
nationwide majority, with an understanding knowledge of the funda- 
mental principles of conservation, we will go on wasting and squandering 
our soils, waters, forests, and other gitts of nature until it is too late to 
mend and patch and restore. 

Most of the conservationists’ boasted activities up to date are badly over- 
rated. They really have gotten nowhere toward the main fundamental 
objectives of applying conservation to our North American continent. 
Organized yroups of conservationists have tried every method imaginable. 
They have preached their doctrines and shouted their warnings to adult 


audiences from one end of the country to the other. But vou cannot edu 


cate the public in the principles of conservation in a banquet speech nor 
move the mass opinion of a nation by a series of lectures on a chautauqua 
circuit. We have begged, prayed, and fought with congressmen and presi- 
dents, governors and mayors, but all our campaigns have fallen far short 
of the goal. 

You have probably felt quite comfortable in your minds about it all 
because you were constantly reading or hearing about the works of the 
Audubon Society, the American Forestry Association, the Izaak Walton 
League, and the federal government agencies and bureaus such as the Soil 
Conservation Service, the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlite 
Bureau, and many others. My hat is off to all those groups who have 
fought the good fight against heavy odds, made some gains, but have 
always lost the major decisive battles. I ought to know for I have been a 
worker in the ranks of all of them, and a national director in many, 

What they have accomplished is all good, but because these small organ- 
ized groups were not strong enough alone to defeat the confirmed Amer 
ican habit of mass exploitation, what we have lost has been as a mountain 
is to a molehill of gain. I mean by that statement that in every subdivision 
of government in this country, from the average county supervisors up 
to members of Congress and the presidents’ cabinets, the exploiters got the 
millions and the conservation projects got the pennies. And what has been 
the reason? The general public, ignorant of both the need and the prin 
ciples of conservation, was on the side of exploitation, and politicians will 
always be found trying to please the majority of the voters in order that 
they may get their votes at the next election. 

We ought to be grateful that it has been thru ignorance rather than 
wilful waste that the batdes have gone against us. We can correct igno- 
rance with education but we haven't yet discovered the cure for unbridled 
selfishness. So I Say again to you teachers of the great educational system 
of America, that you, who more than any other agency in this land have 
the opportunity and the power to mold the thinking of the oncoming 
generations, will have to accomplish the job for conservation where all 
others have failed. The people can have conservation if they want it. And 
if the people of this land understood what it means in terms of living 
conditions for all time to come, there would be no question of their 
wanting it. 

To teach them to understand is your job. That must be done first before 
the organized conservation agencies can make any headway toward the 
excellent national programs of conservation which have been planned 
these many years but never executed. Our one hope is that within the 
great army of teachers there will be many who will take upon themselves 
the responsibilities involved, and with courageous leadership show the 


way to make conservation a universal part of the public’s education. 


[21 ] 


32 


THE WORLD 
to Do, 


Courtesy Jay N. Darling 


How Rich Will We Be When 
We Have Converted All Our 
Forests, All Our Soil, All 
Our Water Resources and 
Our Minerals into Cash? 


CHAPTER II 


Teaching Conservation of the Natural Resources 


E. Laurence Palmer 


IKE THE GOOD FAIRY TALE, every conservation education program should 
§ end with the statement, “and they lived happily ever afterward.” 
Unlike the fairy tale, conservation education offers us all the opportunity 
to make the ideal become a reality; and, unlike the moral which used to 
follow many tales, if the lessons of conservation educatior are not learned 
and heeded, few if any of us will be able to live happily much longer. 


OF WHAT DOES CONSERVATION EDUCATION CONSIST? 


Let's be specific to help us reach a definition of conservation education. 
A government agency once issued the statement that it took probably 
five hundred years to form an inch of topsoil, A subsidiary government 
agency ran an experiment on some abandoned woodland which confirmed 
the original figure that it might well have taken nature five hundred years 
to form an inch of topsoil on this wooded land if left to itself. Since few 
of us are likely to live for five hundred years, we are not likely to be able 
to live to see an inch of topsoil produced by this technic and as a result we 
lose interest. To be sure, we may become concerned when we are told that 
a good shower may easily wipe away the accumulated soil wealth of a 
few centuries, but the time span involved in soil production by nature is 
just too great to make us feel that our efforts for the present will materially 
affect the situation. It’s all very well to plan a farm for our great-, great-, 
great , great-times-five grandchUdren but what we want is something for 
our old age. 

Fortunately for this soil situation, we know that in England and in some 
parts of the United States rich topsoil is now being produced from subsoil 
at the rate of about one inch in two years. This fact gives us encourage- 
ment to go out and do something about it with the realization that we can 
see satisfactory results without the use of a microscope. 

Should we follow the philosophy that every inch of topsoil represents the 
accumulated wealth of five hundred years, our conservation education will 
of necessity have to be academic. If we follow this philosophy (and carry 
our thinking no further), we will put much time in wishing for the return 
of the so-called “good old days” when buffaloes and Indians roamed the 
plains. We will worry ourselves sick over the fact that the passenger 
pigeon and the dodo and a few other species are gone forever. We will 


[ 23 ] 


write mournful essays about the decrease in numbers of the world’s supply 
of whales while we do nothing to maintain an optimum population of 
quails in the fence rows on our home farms. This academic conservation 
education does not tell us how woodchucks help rabbits survive the winter. 
It fails to show us how a trout stream may be made to support a greater 
fish population. It uses pictures of the rice paddies of China and the grape 
terraces of the Mediterranean to show the advantages of farming on the 
contours while local hills are ruined by sheet and gully erosion. ‘True, 
this type of education may be better than nothing and it may sometime 
get us where we wish, but it is too much like the five-hundred-year-per- 
inch topsoil to be truly effective in a world so dynamic as is ours of this 
century. The woods, fields, and waterways and the earth beneath these are 
full of real opportunities for superior teaching by the rural teacher if only 
a sound philosophy is followed. 

When Louis Agassiz opened his famous summer school on the island 
of Penikese, he told his students, “I shall never ask you to repeat what 
you have been cold but will constantly ask you what you have seen tor 
yourselves.” That statement should be kept forever in mind by the teacher 
of conservation and should provide a means of salvation to every rural 
teacher. Followed to its logical conclusion, it means that vicarious expert 
ences thru books, pictures, and lectures are out as teaching technics except 
to supplement direct experience. Rather, it means that the fields, woods, 
and streams are the books to be studied and Agassiz’s dictum, “Study 
nature, not books,” finds a perfect opportunity for expression and satis 
factory demonstration in the well-taught conservation class. 

The Tennessee rural-school teacher whose schoolyard was riddled with 
gully erosion but could not teach conservation because she had no ma 
terials at hand, and the California school principal, who wrote that they 
did not teach conservation in his town because the town was an oil town 
and did not need it, both failed to use the imagination necessary for good 


teaching. If conservation education feils in rural areas, it will fail largely 


because of the rural teachers’ inability :o visualize and to use the oppor- 


tunities that are to be found on every side. True, our urban population 
needs conservation education as much or more than does our rural popula- 
tion, but urban areas are more remote from much of the raw materials 
which are produced for the support of our modern civilization. The rural 
teacher's job in this aspect of the whole education program should at least 
be simpler than that of the urban teacher. The materials and the problems 
are at hand for the using. 

Like most subjects in schools, conservation suffers from the limitations 
possessed by the specialist and the equally great limitations of the generalist, 
with his “survey” ideas and his conviction that repetition of generaliza- 
tions assumes an understanding adequate to the situation. The teacher 


must select from the offerings of all these, just those things that are per- 
tinent locally. Since there is no typical American rural-school community, 
there can be no one conservation program which can be followed every 
where. What may be a real conservation problem in one community may 
be nothing of the sort in another. Conservation work in schools may also 
suffer because it is recognized as within the realm of the social sciences 
as well as in the natural sciences. In about half of the teacher-training 
institutions conservation work is offered in social science departments; in 
the remaining half, in the natural science departments, While this situa- 
tion complicates the duties of the teacher, it also is valuable as it provides 
a natural vehicle for the type of general education which is recognized as 
an essential product of our public-school system. Here, we tind a combina- 
tion of the social and the natural sciences. 


ADAPTING INSTRUCTION TO THE TIME AND PLACE 


As suggested earlicr, no one type of conservation education can be 
applied everywhere. This applies to relatively small geographic areas as 
well as to great portions of our country. In almost every community there 
is some place where there is too much water while in others there may 
be too little. The first place may be a spring or a seepage or even a place 
where water from a leaking faucet continually supplies more water than 
is to be found in adjacent territory. On the other hand, a dry sidewalk 
may have many of the attributes of a desert. A concrete highway is an 
excellent desert educationally if the teacher has any imagination. The 
teacher should look about her for all sorts of little areas where there are 
little climates which illustrate what is going on over big areas elsewhere. 
These little climates which may be controlled should help us understand 
the big climates which may be beyond our control. When we plant a tree 
we provide an area in which there is likely to be reduced sunlight for a 
long time, and in the shadow of this one tree we may find things different 
from what is to be found where there is no shade. Mark Twain is re- 
ported to have bemoaned the fact that we could do nothing about the 
weather, but we surely can, in small areas. 

And what goes for small areas of space also goes for small areas of time. 
Too frequently our school work deals with great units of time beyond the 
comprehension of the learner. With enough “little bricks” of conviction 
based on personal, local, and immediate experience, we can build the 
pyramids which represent conservation as a whole, as presented by Jay N. 
Darling in the foregoing chapter. Without these, we build only a dream 
house or nothing at all. 

It is recommended that students begin work in conservation, learning 
how to use such simple tools as a thermometer, a level, a compass, and 
the simpler instruments for measuring conspicuous acidity and alkalinity. 


[ 25 ] 


36 


If instruments are available for reading light intensity or humidity, they 
should be used. Once the simpler uses of these tools have been mastered, 
students should be urged to explore many places in nature with them as 
much as possible. A snow bank, a stone wall, a woodchuck hole, a decay 
ing log, a watering trough, a fence post are but a few of many places 
worthy of investigation. Such directions as lead to finding the hortest, 
coldest, wettest, driest, most windy, most acid, and saltiest places should 
be given. They have much more educational value thar reading about 
the circumpolar winds and the extinct dodo, and if the things which 
happen in such small local places thru a season or thru the seasons are 
understood, a fine basis for sound conservation has been laid. 

The author has outlined in ten issues of the Cornell Rural School 
Leaflet’ some of the essential problems of conservation in rural areas. 
Each of these 32-page bulletins develops a different angle of the con- 
servation problem but together they provide a balanced whole. The titles 
may be suggestive of the contents. They are organized into three groups 
of three units each. The bulletins on wildlife conservation are Farm Forest 
Facts, The Fields in Winter, and Waterways in Spring. A second series 
deals with conservation of inorganic resources and includes numbers on 
Holes in the Ground, More About Water, and U.S. Minerals and Us. 
The remaining series deals with conservation of human resources. In this 
series are bulletins on The Finer Side of Life, You, Let's Play Safe, and 
Outdoor Laving. These titles may be suggestive of units which might be 
developed in any conservation program. Certainly none of these should 
be omitted in a balanced program and there may be wide variation in 
the ways in which the units are developed. 

Other programs have covered the same ground or have developed more 
extensively a few of these departments. Some have undertaken to prepare 
materials dealing with such units as birds, fish, mammals, soils, and the 
like. Others have provided rich material on the teaching technics thought 
best for making a program function. Still others have merely provided 


skeletal outlines of topics either organized or not. A summary of some of 
these programs was published in the November 1939 issue of Nature 
Magazine. In this same report is a rich summary of literature up to the 
time of publication. 


WHAT CHILDREN CAN STUDY 


Some suggestions for content and activities may be worth summariz- 
ing here. 

Forest problems—Much of the professional leadership in conservation has 
been recruited from men trained in forestry. This training has sometimes 
biased them to see the forest primarily as a source of timber and pulp. One 


1 See Bibliography, p. 103, 110, 113 


[ 26 


professional forester with many years of experience criticized severely a 
conservation program which gave reasonable consideration to the relation 
ships between forests and deer, grouse, and fish. He hed never thought 
of wildlife as being related to forest problems, and yet in a state like New 
York the value of deer raised in rural woodlot areas equals or barely 
exceeds the value of firewood harvested from farm woodlots, The valu 
of the fur-bearers is also important. The Land Planning Committee of 
the United States National Research Board has set a value of fourteen 
cents per acre per year for the returns which may be expected in the form 
of flesh and fur from wildlife, and twenty-three cents per acre tor the 
control these organisms have on agricultural pests. In the drier parts of 
the country, these figures are set at four and thirteen cents respectively, 

Forest problems which may be studied in rural schools include some 
of the following: the abundance of wildlife in different parts of the forest 
such as in the depths and near the borders; the abundance of wildlife near 
different species of forest plants; the role of brush piles in providing pro 
tection for harried forms of wildlife; the seasonal blooming of flowers and 
the varying intensity in a wooded area of the sunlight which reaches the 
forest floor; the changes which take place on the forest floor in which 
leaves turn into humus as they become buried; the zonal distribution of 
life vertically from deep in the soil to high in the treetops; the role of dead 
trees in providing shelter and nesting sites for useful birds and fur-bearers; 
the fire hazards of forested lands located near highways and railways 
and the technics for controlling forest fires and avoiding their dangers; 
the practice of burning overforested land in the spring and the effect this 
has on maintaining a stand of young trees which will provide a sustained 
yield thruout the years; the effect of stands of forests on the clearness of 
streams that How thru them, on the constancy of How of these streams, on 
the lite which may be found in these streams, and on the temperature of 
these streams, particularly durigg the warmer parts of the year; the value 
of woodland products in medicine and in the arts, and as food to supple- 
ment commercial sources and the species, such as poison ivy, which may 
affect health adversely; an understanding of the injury done to forest trees 
by mice, rabbits, deer, porcupines, fungi, and insects, as represented by col- 
lections made locally; and the value of forested lands as recreation centers 
for tourists and others. 

Meadowland problems—Open lands such as meadows, prairies, and 
pastures are full of problems the solutions of which should be significant 
to those who will live in rural areas or be dependent on rural areas, Crop 
lands may well be considered with these lands. 

In these areas, the surface is more likely to be disturbed by cultivation. 
This brings into consideration contour farming; strip cropping; crop 
rotation; dry farming; erosion of the sheet and gully types and their con 


[ 27 ] 


38 


trol; wind erosion and its control; and the study of water table, fire, insect 
scourges, and fungous injuries, 

Aside from these more agricultural types of activity, there are the wild- 
life management technics. Among these are the role of fence rows in 
providing food and shelter for game species, the practice of leaving a 
row of grain for game species, the use of flushing bars on mowing equip 
ment to save the lives of nesting birds, the establishment of shelters in 
fence rows, and the role of burrowers such as woodchucks in providing 
winter shelter for such game species as rabbits. Recognition of weed 
species that may be grown in waste areas and provide anchorage against 
wind and water erosion, and the role of these areas in providing food and 
shelter for small game species; the conflicts between game species and 
crops and predators and the recognition of the factors involved; the role 
of weeds in anchoring blowing snow and preventing moisture loss thereby; 
the economic importance of wild forms of the open which are and of those 
which are not direct competitors with farmers for the products of the 
land; the role of animals such as skunks in controlling insects, of some 
of the snakes, like the bull snakes, in controlling gophers, and even the 
role of coyotes in keeping down rodents which compete with the grazing 
animals for desirable food—all these are but a few of the many problems 
open to rural-school conservation education, An important demonstration 
of each will be found in some rural school by those with the wit and intel- 
ligence to sce it. Each provides a more virile program of education than 
can commonly be found in the pages of any book. 

In winter open fields in many parts of the country are covered with shift- 
ing snow. This melts more readily along the north side of east-west roads 
because of the southern exposure. Here, on a road, we have a little demon- 
stration of the relative value of lands sloping to the south or to the north. 
Explore such a snowbank with a thermometer and great surprises are in 
store because there may be as much as forty degrees difference in an inch 
of snowbank. This brings up consideration of the problem of snow as a 


blanket for winter wheat, as a protection for mouse pests, as a source of 


building up the water table, and of similar interesting phenomena. The 


tracks of birds and mammals in the snow give relatively permanent 
records of animal activities and point out the importance of food species 
to different creatures, Incidentally, almost any weed top such as pigweed 
will be seen to yield enormous quantities of fruits in excess of those neces 
sary to maintain the species 1M its normal abundance, The record is on the 
snow tor those who wish to see it and shows clearly the surplus which is 
available for harvest in many kinds of living things. Much of wildlife 
management centers around the intelligent harvest of this surplus, tho the 
discussion about what is intelligent in this connection is not always 
rational, 


[ 28 ] 


Desert-lands and waste-lands—Some rural schools are located in the 
less fertile parts of the country, Even here, there are excellent opportunities 
for developing a sound conservation education, Such areas commonly are 
subject to abuse by overgrazing of cattle, goats, and sheep, and the injury 
these animals may cause not only by eating plants but by trampling them. 
Simple studies may be made as to why the locations under consideration 
are desert-like. This may involve simple studies in recognizing the presence 
of alkali, salt, and other chemicals which influence plant development, as 
well as the mechanical nature of the soil which separates the soil surface 
from a water supply too far down for ordinary plant use. 

The water storage problems of plants are always worthy of study in 
desert and waste areas, and many of these are illustrated in the weed 
spurges which survive the difficult conditions to be found on many an 
ash pile or on violently abused bits of land, such as exist at home plate of 
the average baseball diamond. We can find deserts wherever we are if we 
wish to do so and the dime store will provide us with living cacti if we 
feel we must know these more characteristic desert plants. 

W aterways—Whether a waterway is a simple roadside ditch, a spring, 
a sea coast, or a lake, it holds an interest for all of us and abounds in con 
servation problems suitable for use in a rural school. The problems will 
not all be the same but they should be sufficiently abundant to meet the 
needs of any school. 

Waterways are capable of yielding more to man than they usually do. 
We have hardly begun to make the best use of many of the plants which 
grow in water whether the water is salt or fresh. Many rural people are 
victims of get-rich-quick schemes centering around the raising of frogs’ 
legs for the market, the raising of turtles, bait minnows, muskrats, or 
game birds. Each of these offers possibilities but they call for intelligent, 
concerted effort, just as success in raising foxes for their fur is not found by 
all who begin such projects. In spite of this discouraging introduction, a 
waterway or pond on a farm, wisely managed and convenient to an appro- 
priate market, should be made to yield as much or more than the drier 
lands which may border it. Goldfish, bait minnows, and aquarium fishes 
are individually valuable as are diamond-back terrapins, but each must be 
where it can readily be marketed without expensive delivery charges if an 
adequate reward is to be expected for the efforts its rearing demands. 

The management of a brook so that it may be made to yield more trout 
may be observed by many rural schools. The essence of such management 
calls for the establishment of a year-round water temperature below that 
which is critical for the trout species involved. It calls for freedom from 
silting. It calls for a maximum of resting places, feeding places, safe 
retreats from danger, and food-rearing areas in a mile of stream, These 
areas are easily recognized and often may be developed with a minimum 


[ 29 ] 


40) 


of effort on the part of pupils who will play in such a waterway anyway. 
They will make dams, pools, channels, and bridges in a waterway, but 
usually this has no conservation significance to them. The play might 
easily be directed toward profitable ends. Similarly, marsh-lands are man- 
aged for the production of game birds and fur-bearers by creating a 
maximum of food and shelter for the species being encouraged. Unfor- 
tunately, what is food for a muskrat may not be suitable for a duck and 
vice versa, so it may be necessary to determine which species will give the 
greater return to the manager. 

It is true that any study of waterways must consider the losses caused 
by floods, pollution, wave action, erosion of banks, streams, and the associa- 
tion of mosquito pests with areas which are superior breeding grounds 
for many waterfowl. These conflicts only provide a more interesting 
conservation lesson for the teacher and only point up the idea made earlier 
that what may be good conservation education and practice in one place 
may be otherwise elsewhere. The fact that the low-income group of any 
community near a waterway may get much of its living from waterways 
emphasizes that such areas should be maintained by a society to yield 
a maximum return and should be understood by all, particularly those 
who are most directly dependent on them. This should suggest an 
abundance of real problems to the alert conservation teacher in a rural 
school near a waterway. In New York State alone, it is estimated that 
about $2,000,000 is involved annually in supplying the needs of sport 
fishermen, so the problem is not alone of interest to the low-income group. 

Households and farm buildings—Not all wise conservation centers 
around the out-of-doors. Homes and barns provide an.abundance of prob- 
lems, some of which are suitable for solution by elementary-school chil- 
dren. A building which is not kept in repair or which is abused will not 
last so long as one on which reasonable effort is expended. A single shingle 
off the roof may ruin many rooms beneath. A drain from a roof may 
start a stream which may start a gully which may cut a farm in two if it 
is not wisely managed. A rat left to breed and multiply may destroy stored 
grain, clothing, food, and poultry and may ruin walls to such an extent 
that it nullifes any profit which might result from much labor in the 
fields. The adult or child who is qualified to meet these situations and 
change them to his own ends is practicing wise conservation, and con- 
sideration of these things should be a part of conservation education in a 
rural school. They are more real than what is happening to whales in the 
Antarctic, and the child can do something about these problems and get 
a return which he can see in a relatively short time. 

Clothing and equipment left unprotected from the weather are often 


to be observed in rural areas. While it is not always practical to give farm 
machinery perfect care, nevertheless its life can be prolonged much by 


[ 30 ] 


41 


good care. In times of war, when there is a great demand for metals and 
machines, it is essential that greater care of things made of strategic 
materials be employed. This extends to the proper treatment of garden 
tools and similar equipment whose storage and care should be considered 
in any well-planned conservation education program for a rural area. 

Conservation of inorganic resources—Soil, water, and minerals other 
than water have been classified as inorganic resources. Much can be taught 
about their conservation. 

As has been suggested earlier, the conservation of soil resources is of 
fundamental importance in any conservation education program. The 
Soil Conservation Service has published excellent bulletins which may 
be had from the national, regional, or local offices of that agency. How- 
ever, there are a few observations and demonstrations which any rural 
teacher can and should make in connection with this study. Topsoil forma- 
tion from subsoil is due primarily to the letting in of air, water, and 
organic materials thru holes made in the subsoil in various ways. The 
holes may be made by large or small animals, by plants, by weathering, 
and by other means. Children can make surveys of a few feet of soil in the 
schoolyard to see what holes are to be found there, how they are formed, 
and the effect these holes have on plant growth. The mounds made by 
earthworms are more or less conspicuous and the role these animals play 
in stirring the soil is worth investigating by the simplest of technics. There 
is growing indication that these animals may be hosts to organisms which 
affect the health of larger animals and questions have been raised about 
the effect they have on the fertility of soil, but there can be no question 
that they do stir up the soil and this has some direct importance in soil 
development 

The erosion of soils is so ably covered in free literature generally avail- 
able that it need not be considered here, As suggested earlier, children 
should recognize the types of erosion and the important methods of con- 
trolling erosion, 

Water conservation is frequently a more immediate problem in rural 
than in urban areas. When water has to be pumped and hauled for stock 
and for human consumption and occasionally for plant use some of the 
labor is frequently delegated to the children. How that water may be 
put to its best use is effective education to Jack or Jill who may have 
carried it in a bucket up a hill but of little significance to Archibald and 
Gloria who get it from the faucet or from the icebox. 

Some of the problems of water conservation which should be studied in 
rural schools center around means of purification of water by boiling or 
by adding iodine or other chemicals, means of preventing contamination 
of water at its source, and means of getting water efficiently from one place 
to another. The topics suggested in the study of waterways tie in with the 


[ 31] 


42 


general study of water, and while it may be all right to study what the 
general science books tell us about water, there is much not found there 
which should be considered. The social science significance of water is 
important where it provides a medium for sports, such as boating, skating, 
swimming, and coasting, and in avoiding the dangers associated with 
such sports; where its contamination by factory wastes affects the lives 
and health of people; when the location of a well helps determine health; 
and where the silting of a lake or reservoir destroys the means of live 
lihood for a community. 

The wise teacher will recognize the tendency of children to play in 
roadside ditches as providing an ideal approach for an understanding of 
wise use of water. Little dams, rapids, miniature lakes, and falls all offer 
primary lessons of importance. The ability of water to move silt, sand, 
and stones when flowing at different speeds is but one of the many prob- 
lems worth thinking about. 

We read much of the world’s need for conservation of minerals but 
little about what can be done in rural areas to help in the situation. If we 
think of this problem chiefly as it affects metals, we can do much by 
teaching about the care of metal tools and roofs so that their usefulness 
may be prolonged. But possibly more important than this is to promote 
the realization by rural folk that anything they can do to make them 
independent of the overburdened transportation and industrial system 
of the country is really helping in the wise use of the minerals they have. 
A home garden that supplies food for the family relieves the railroads, 
trucks, and ships which might be needed to bring in other food which 
the garden supplants. Care of country roads by individuals who drain off 
standing pools of water or fill in ruts, which if neglected may become 
greater, are ways in which rural children may help keep the nation’s 
transportation system in action and thereby lessen the strain on machines 
in national emergencies. 

Any lesson on the saving of fuel is indirectly a lesson on the saving of a 
mineral resource. Children will engage in gathering junk to be turned 
over to the government to relieve the burden on raw and new minerals. 
Here are lessons not only in the natural sciences but in the social sciences 
as well. 

ORGANIZATIONS IDENTIFIED WITH CONSERVATION EDUCATION 

Many government agencies have identified themselves with conservation 
education. The National Park Service, the Soil Conservation Service, the 
Office of Education, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Civilian Con- 
servation Corps are a few of these. Communications addressed to these 
agencies will bring lists of their publications. State agencies such as con- 


“For sources of complete lists and addresses, see page 114. 


[ 32] 


43 


servation departments, agricultural colleges, and departments of education 
have done much in such states as California, lowa, Michigan, Missouri, 
New York, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. In Florida, 
Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, laws have been passed designed to encouray: 
the teaching of conservation in the schools. In some states, such as Missis 
sippi and Tennessee, well-organized extension activities have been sup 
ported with traveling demonstration trucks available for the leaders, 

Established private groups have done much to encourage conservation 
education. The American Nature Association and the Pack Forestry Trust 
have sponsored graduate fellowships at Cornell University which have 
placed trained leaders in teacher education work from one end of the 
country to the other. The Audubon groups, the Izaac Walton League, 
the Wildlife Institute, the Wildlife Federation, and the Wildlife Society 
have sponsored educational work with varying effectiveness. The Wild- 
life Federation has had a series of education committees, one of which 
was responsible for caising a considerable sum of money and the publica- 
tion of four small booklets designed for student use in the elementary 
grades. It has also engaged in selling stamps and in the celebration of 
Wildlife Week, which had some recognition. The Federation published 
in 1941 a book, The Foundations of Conservation Education, which 
represented the activities of one of the organization’s committees. 

A number of colleges have emphasized work in conservation but com- 
paratively few have done much with conservation education.* At Cornell 
University, a few candidates for master’s degrees and about a half-dozen 
candidates for the doctorate have made studies in this field based in part 
upon personal visitation to all parts of the country and some parts of 
Europe. These studies have examined the educational effectiveness of 
federal and national agencies, private agencies, state agencies, colleges, 
museums, field biological stations, and distinctive rural agencies, and of 
the efforts of writers of curriculum material for the elementary schools. 
The college of agriculture at Cornell has for nearly a half-century pub- 
lished literature for use in rural schools and designed to help in the 
interpretation of the rural environment along the lines of good con- 
servation. In recent years, some of this work has been closely integrated 
with efforts of Nature Magazine to perform a similar service in a broader 
geographical area. One example of this integration is found in Guide to 
Science Teaching, published by Nature Magazine in 1931; another, in the 
bulletin, Conservation Education Problems in Schools, published in 1938; 
and in another bulletin, Conservation Education in the Schools, published 
in 1939. These bulletins provide a survey of the types of offerings to be 


3 See also Cook, Katherine M., and Reynolds, Florence E. O 
tion of Teachers in Conservation Educatnon. Washington, I ; 


This bulletin lists conservation education courses in various inst 


[ 33] 


44 


found over a wide geographic area and over a long period of time. They 
give grade suggestions based upon a study of the then existing programs 
and alternative programs which may be appropriate for use in different 
places. 

Various agencies are preparing new publications for release in the 
relatively near future, which will extend materials for study and which 
should appeal to the teacher and to the layman. As time goes on, this 
growing body of literature should help but not supplant the educational 
opportunities available to all who, like rural teachers, live and work where 
natural resources are being developed or exhausted. The responsibility 
for intelligent use of these resources rests in part on what the rural teacher 
does. 


[34] 


45 


CHAPTER Hl 


How Children Are Learning To Conserve 


HIS CHAPTER contains examples of the work which children are doing 
ke they learn to conserve various resources and become increasingly 
cognizant of the significance of simple conservation practices which they 
observe in their various communities. “Conservation thru the Year” deals 
with the conservation program of a one-room school for a year. Par- 
ticipation of all grades in a single project is marked, “We Help Our 
Community Conserve” places the emphasis on work which the children 
do at home as well as in school, and upon community cooperation. “A 
County Program in Soil Conservation” presents a county as an educational 
unit in a soil conservation region stressing the cooperation of county 
government agencies with the schools. “Young Southwestern Conserva- 
tionists” consists of contributions from children and teachers in an entire 
conservation region, selected from school conservation programs inspired 
by regional government specialists. In the regional view which is pre- 
sented the reader feels the authors’ caution that children’s ability to see 
the broad need for group action should not be limited by confining in- 
struction to children’s own conservation activities which, in the “light of 
mass misuse, exploitation, and lack of planning are inevitably slight.” 
“Short Reports from Schools” contains suggestions for activities which 
can be adapted to many situations. Altho no state program is included, 
many of the schools represented drew on state sources for publications 
to use in their studies. 


CONSERVATION THRU THE YEAR 


Mrs. Leone Davison 


In our school most of the pupils are active young conservationists. We 
have projects connected with real conservation problems. We study con- 
servation in connection with the regular school subjects, such as geography, 
history, and science or nature study. My pupils, especially the intermediate 
and advanced groups, have followed some of the literature on the subject, 
such as items in farm journals, state and federal bulletins, and bird and 
flower leaflets which we have arranged to receive from time to time. 
Most of our work grows out of the community and such of its needs and 
interests as can be related to the education of the children. 

Our school is part of a good farming community in the upper valley of 
the Mississippi. Our land has low, rolling hills and produces fine crops 
of hay, wheat, soy beans, and corn, and furnishes rich meadows for dairy 


[ 35 ] 


46 


cows and meat cattle. Our farmsteads, with their comfortable houses and 
large barns and yards, are for the most part attractive and interesting places 
for boys and girls to grow up and prepare themselves for their contribu- 
tion in the world. 

Some of the farmers are cooperating with the government in its program 
of soil conservation—they plan their crops wisely, replenish their soil, and 
refrain from overcropping. Others have been forced by the economic 
uncertainty of agriculture to get the most they can for the present, leaving 
the future to take care of itself, with little time or thought for better ways 
of farming. We have a farm bureau and a farm women’s organization 
and are actively interested in the work of the Soil Conservation Service in 
our region. We have a farmers’ cooperative creamery. There is a fine, 
independent community spirit in the things that really affect our lives, 
but litthe use for affectations and superficialities. Parents and neighbors 
cooperate wonderfully with the school. 

Most of the children are familiar in a general way with the more 
spectacular conservation practices that are carried on in the home county, 
but they need to find meaning in these practices and in the care and use 
of the soil—practices which the parents have developed into a technic of 
farming. The children need also to see conservation problems from the 
state and national viewpoint. Those who are to become the nation’s future 
farmers will have the real job of conserving agricultural resources. Those 
who cannot become farmers when they grow up need to learn the sig- 
nificance of conservation as a cooperative social problem in order that in 
other walks of life they may use their influence to help the nation conserve 
its natural resources. 

With the opening of school last September the children and I had a 
great many ideas and plans for the year's work. Personally I hoped that 
we would stress conservation more than we had done, but 1 wanted the 
suggestion to come from the children. We try to practice democratic 
principles in our school. Consequently, our planning period took the form 
of a club meeting with temporary otheers presiding. | was pleased when 
we were able to set up conservation as the major emphasis for our pupil 
activities. Each of the four groups in which our school is classified planned 
to talk with me and decide to what resources they would give their at 
tention. I helped them plan topics that could be correlated well with our 
prescribed work and be really useful. The next morning the following 
choices were announced: Group A, soil and water; Group B, birds of 
prey; Group C, birds and game animals of Minnesota: and Group D, birds 
we see around us. 

The children decided to call their school club their conservation club 
and to organize it permanently, We formulated a creed which reads as 
follows: 


[ 36 | 


-47 


We believe that: 

The term “conservation” should mean wise use of everything at all umes. 

Conservation should be practiced now in hopes of leaving for others what 
was left for us. 

Materials necessary for our national defense should be conserved by every- 


one to protect everyone. 
Conservation should help us appreciate our great, wide, wonderful world. 


They adjourned this meeting with every member agreeing to submit at 
the next meeting suggestions for a name, a motto, and an emblem for the 
club and a plan of progress. The name finally chosen was WWTC, We 
Want To Conserve; the motto, No waste, no want. The emblem consisted 
of the letters WWTC in red on a blue triangle which in turn was placed 
on a larger triangle of white. For a club song, the children were unable to 
decide among three original ones submitted, and so used all three. It was 
planned to answer roll call by an item of information or a local news item 
on the topic chosen by the group for conservation study. Arrangements 
were made for a conservation bulletin board for clippings and local news. 
A club chart bears the letters WWTC and all the children’s names, and 
underneath each name the conservation activities in which he has had 
part are written. It was arranged for a conservation specialist to speak at 
every third meeting. We had talks by a minister, the game warden, and 
a field woman from the AAA. The field woman showed us movies— 
“The River” and “The Heritage We Guard.” One of the earlier settlers 
of the community talked about life in our district sixty-one years ago, 
when there were acres of unplowed prairie, much timber along the rivers, 
and timber wolves, prairie chickens, quail, and other wildlife. He ex 
plained how the country was gradually taken up by farms, the fields 
plowed, and many of the natural shelters for birds and wildlife neces 
sarily destroyed with little or no provision for protection to take the place 
of the natural shelter and habitats. 

We were fortunate in having our school chosen as a meeting place for 
members of the Regional Soil Conservation Service. There were three soil 
specialists and the county superintendent. They visited the school twice 
during the year and helped us with some of our problems and projects. 
Their interest encouraged the children. Each of these visitors was made an 
honorary member in the school club. 

Now I will tell you how we conserved and what we learned. I will 
begin with Group D, the primary pupils. We did not begin with birds as 
planned because before we had started the conservation study someone 
gave the children a canful of tadpoles. We put these into an aquarium 
and kept them on our science table. We studied tadpoles, frogs, and 
toads. The pupils were surprised to learn what a lot of mosquitoes, flies, 


spiders, and various other insects a frog or toad will eat. 


48 


With the approach of cooler days, a group of blackbirds gathered in 
our big poplar tree preparatory to migrating, and our anticipated bird 


study was launched. We studied birds that migrate from our community, 
not too thoroly, but just enough to satisfy the children’s interest, because 
I wanted them to take up the study of these birds again in the spring when 
children usually hail them with such unbounded enthusiasm and enjoy- 
ment. 

Then we studied our winter birds—those that do not migrate. Since 
three of the four groups had selected some phase of bird life for study, all 
the children worked together on many phases of the study of birds. We 
made ourselves an outline and studied the birds which the children saw 
the cardinal, junco, pheasant, chickadee. The outline helped us organize 
the facts we learned about means of identification, such as size, color, 
song, and habits; about nest and eggs and food; and about migration. 
When the children came to food, no outline could contain or express their 
enthusiasm. Country children are not unused to being kind to the birds 
in a casual sort of way, but these childrenswere amazed to | -1rn the benefits 
we derive from birds. For example, they read that the blcckbird, in spite 
of his reputation for taking grain, pays for this grain many times over 
thru the insects he eats. The chickadee with his sharp beak gets insect 
eggs from under the broken bark of twigs—several hundred a day. 

“The birds must have a hard time in the winter to find all the food they 
need,” said the children. “Maybe we can help them.” They talked about 
putting out food and building shelters. “Perhaps the birds will get tame 
then and we can observe them better,” said someone hopefully, but it 
Was not “tameness” but security and food that gave us our chances to 
observe. 

In the southwest corner of our schoolyard were three nice trees. This 
spot was selected as a bird sanctuary. The older boys built a picket fence 
of laths. It was painted white with red tips and used to enclose our bird 
corner. In one end of the enclosure a “two-by-four” was driven into the 
ground and on it was nailed a board large enough to support a pan for a 
bird bath. In the opposite corner was placed a similar arrangement with 
a feeding table and tray. Two or three birdhouses were built and hidden 
away snugiy among the branches to await the coming of spring. 

When winter came and brought some of our feathered friends for food 
and water we became more and more interested. “We ought to build a 
shelter,” said someone, and away went several boys for cornstalks. Around 
a framework of wire netting they placed the stalks and some evergreen 
branches in tepee fashion, leaving an opening facing southeast. I had 
warned the children that if they began to feed the birds they would need 
to keep it up all winter, for birds once made dependent cannot fend for 
themselves; but the pupils scarcely needed the caution, so conscientious 


[ 38 J 


43 


were they in placiug corn, suet, and seeds out for the birds. We hope 
the birds wil! remember our hospitality and return to us next fall! 

Now as 1 write, in May, the debris has been cleared away and our 
sanctuary has been transformed from a home for pheasants, cardinals, 
chickadees, and juncos to one for robins, flickers, blackbirds, and meadow 
larks that visit us at a time when extra food is not so desirable as places 
for nests and materials with which to build them. A pair of meadow 
larks already have a nest in our schoolyard. We are keeping a bird calendar 
and a diary of our observations. 

Among the flowers which the children planted this spring, such as 
petunias, zinnias, and four-o-clocks, are also sunflowers. Why? Because 
sunflowers, as well as being beautiful, furnish plenty of bird seed tor 
winter. 

The work of Group C on birds was to learn about Minnesota's stat 
bird, the goldtinch, and others of that family. The children reported their 
study and observations to the rest of the school and made charts for the 
bird scrapbook and kept a calendar. On their own special topic, the big 
game of Minnesota, they studied bear, deer, moose, elk, and caribou, 
Before the year was over, all the class had seen these, either in a park, 
zoo, or museym. The children also studied the beaver, skunk, and gopher. 
A movie was made of freehand drawings, contrasting the abundance of 
wildlife when forests were plentiful with its scarcity after the trees were 
cut. The pupils Jearned about game laws and the reasons why these are 
needed, discussed revisions needed, and reported their findings to the 
pupils in other groups. 

Group B was interested in the bald eagle, our national bird. There are 
a few bald eagles in Minnesota. A pair can be seen nesting near the 
Mississippi River not far from Lake City. The children have seen them. 
We gathered information about eagles and learned that these birds are 
maligned for more harm than they do—that eagles do not, for example, 
carry off calves and children, as the old saying goes. The children also 
studied about owls and hawks (we have the sparrow hawk, the red tail, 
red shouldered, and cooper’s hawk), and learned that while the farmer 
often considers these birds as enemies, they really are his friends because 
they eat mice and other small, harmful animals and more than earn 
their keep. 

The pupils in Group A helped when needed in the other groups’ studies 
of birds. They spent most of their time on their special assignment, tho, 
which was the conservation of soil and water. They planned what they 
considered the ideal program for building up wornout soil and for re- 
ducing erosion, leaching, and overcropping in the community. Learning 
that our county has two soil conservation districts, the children found 
out how these are organized and what the program of each is, both with 


[ 39 | 


90 


respect to conservation of soil and improved use of the land, and also with 
respect to protection of birds and wild animals. They studied and mapped 
the district in which our school is located and planned all the conserving 
and soil-building practices that could be used for it. Saturday field trips 
by individuals and interviews with some of the district conservation 
ofhcers were a help. 

The whole community has shared our study. Everyone who visits 1s 


interested in our bird sanctuary. Many passersby, curious to know more 


about it, stop during recess periods and talk to the pupils. The messages 


carried to the community by the pupils are far-reaching. Onc bov told 
his minister about our study of hawks, and we feel that we have the church 
as well as the homes with us. One should really see the children at work 
to appreciate their zeal fully. “Mrs. Davison, birds are my particularity,” 
said one of my «arst graders. The others shared her enthusiasm. 

In carrying their study of conservation thru the year the children gained 
an idea of the scope of the problem. In studying the birds, wild animals, 
and soil in their own community they learned that the way in which 
other communities and other states protect their natural resources allects 
us. For example, migratory birds that are protected in Minnesota may be 
shot in other states, if those states have no laws to protect them, Unpro 
tected watersheds in one state may increase the waters that cause Hoods 
in another state. A stream that has a dam near its source ina neighbor's 
field is easier to control in one’s own pasture. Hence there is the necessity 
for states and neighbors to cooperate in protecting the nity i PCSOUTEES 
There are similar needs for cooperation among different countries, but 


our study has not yet been carried so tar. 


WE HELP OUR COMMUNITY CONSERVI 


Charles F. Martin 


One- and two-room schools of Jackson County, lowa, tor tive years have 
made conservation of the natural resources of the community a part of 
their annual program. This article discusses the conservation of wildhity 
in the county. 

‘Jackson County is located in central eastern Lowa adjacent to the Missis 
sippi River. It is a typical river county, traversed by the Maquoketa «iver 
and its tributary streams. Limestone cliffs border the valleys. The topog 
raphy is quite hilly and reugh. 

Much of the county is better suited for grazing than for crop farming. 
In spite of the rough land considerable corn is raised and fed to livestock. 
Corn and small grain acreage is significant in the planning and considera 
tion of this project because the waste grain provides a natural source of 


feed for wild birds and animals. 
| 
| 49 | 


o1 


Hardwood timber, some virgin and some second growth, is occasionally 
found adjoining the valleys, particularly in those areas not suited to cultiva- 
tion. Much of the gully and ravine areas are covered with native shrubs, 
vines, small trees, and undergrowth. Yet in other areas natural cover 
(vegetation) is almost wholly lacking because of the unrestrained removal 
of timber, overgrazing, and the farming of land wholly unsuited for 
cultivation, 

The county, like most lowa counties, is typically rural. The two largest 
towns have populations of 4o76 and 1771. Dairying and the raising of 
livestock is the chief business of farmers. Merchants in urban centers de 


pend lirgely upon farmers for trade. The county has few other industries. 


Need for the Proyect 


Conservation of wildlife was selected as a school and community project 
because ot certain educational, social, and economic needs of the com 
munity and from the knowledge that the activity which ties itself closely 
to the natural interests of a community will get the desired educational 
results better and in less time than one which, more or less, needs artificial 
stimulation. 

There are other reasons for incorporating the conservation of wildlite in 
school procedures. It builds wholesome interrelations between school and 
community. Pupils make their activities practical by working in the com- 
munity, and the patrons make their homes helpful to the school by co- 
operating with the school program. Patrons and pupils alike develop 
desirable traits, habits, and attitudes not only in dealing with conservation 
but also in the whole school-community reld€onship. 

Helping children understand and practice conservation is a direct ap- 
proach to the primary aim of conservation, which is to re-establish in the 
minds of men the desire to carry out those practices of planning and 
planting which will permit nature to re-establish and maintain natural 
habitats and natural sources of food for wildlife to the extent possible in 
maintaining high standards for human life. Barren hills, marred with 
ugly, croffmg gullies, are grim reminders that men have had desires to the 
contrary too long. 


Activities 


During the development of the project on conservation of wildlife, the 
following types of planting and control were discussed with the farmers 
as suggestive of practices that might be utilized in developing farms for 
wildlife and in conserving the soil. In this way valuable firsthand informa 
tion was secured for the project and new ideas were disseminated in the 
community. 


| 41 | 


S2 


Fence row plantings as travel lanes (cover) 
Fence corners (cover ) 
Gullies (cover) 
Borders of field plantings (nesting and travel cover) 
Borders of existing timber areas (cover) 
Grass waterways (nesting and travel cover ) 
Odd corners cut off by gullies (food and cover) 
So-called waste areas (food, cover, and woodlots) 
Grass field margins for turn rows (nesting and travel cover) 
Pond borders and the pond itself (food and cover) 
A back swath of grain, small patch of standing corn near wildlife cover, 
or a few shocks of corn in a protected area to furnish food for useful 
wildlife (food ) 
Protection of slough grass and marshy vegetation from burning and 
from grazing when practical to do so (cover) 
Protection of existing woody and brushy cover 
Arrangements for a dependable year-round food supply, as well as 
winter cover 
Distribution of information to discourage burning and encourage pro 
tection 
6. Food patches. 


Many community resources were utilized. Patches of undergrowth, uncut 
fence rows, and other uncultivated tracts adjacent to the schoolyard provide 
a laboratory unique in the science of education—a laboratory where chil- 
dren can study conservation directly thru firsthand experiences which 
teem with interest and excitement. In this natural laboratory, children 
place many of the constructed forms, such as shelters and teeders made by 
their own hands, as an essential part of the project. In making these forms, 
the child feels he is rendering a service to the general well-being, a basic 
principle in this project on conservation. There is no make-believe or 
imaginary experience. Experiences are real—a part of the community life 
in which the children are living, and essential to the solution of the impor- 
tant problem at hand. 

The project has served as a motive for much of the customary school 
work. As a stimulant to natural science, it is a “natural.” One who has 
experienced the thrill of flushing a pheasant or a covey of quail will readily 
understand the eagerness of the child to write or tell about similar experi- 
ences received in developing the project. Or consider the group of pupils 
who have had a covey of quail or a flock of pheasants released near their 
home or school and have been charged vith the responsibility of bringing 
them thru the lean, cold months of winter by placing a’ sufficient quantity 


of the right kind of food in a shelter which the pupils themselves con- 
structed, How anxious the girls and boys are to tell about their experi- 


ences! The topics for oral and written composition become vital and 


interesting. 


[ 42 ] 


With the problem of feeding come the questions of kinds of feed, food 
elements, balanced diets, weighing and measuring, a study of the weather, 
natural sources of feed and how to provide them, and many related prob 
lems all of which give the pupils a real use for arithmetic, agriculture, 
and reading, with the other subjects doing their part. 


Results 


The number of one- and two-room rural schools taking part in this ac- 
tivity during the past five years has varied from 117 to 121 each year. Each 
year 100 percent of the rural schools participated. The degree of partici 
pation of individual schools varied considerably and was dependent largely 
upon two factors—the natural environment and teacher interest. The latter 
factor was generally the determining factor because adjusting the environ 
ment is one of the objectives or aims of the project. 

The following figures indicate a more or less accurate statistical sum 
mary for one year, and will give some concept of the extent of the con 
servation project from the standpoint of conserving wildlife. 


STATISTICAL SUMMARY--IQ4I 


Wild game bird and animal stations Songbird feeders 
Maintained by school 135 Maintained by school 120 
Maintained by homes or Maintained by home 111 

individual 131 Total 
Total 266 
Kinds of wildlife fed Amount of feed provided 


Pheasant 1,245 By individuals 5,306 Ibs. 
, 


Quail 2,677 By agencies 2,237 Ibs. 


Squirrels 635 
Rabbits 1,785 
Songbirds 4,188 
Miscellaneous 1,160 


Number of trees planted for woodlots, erosion control, game cover, 
and water conservation 

Number of conservation packets planted 
(Packet consists of trees, plants, and shrubs totaling 250 plants 


sufficient to plant one-fourth acre.) 


Number of natural feed-lot plantings of hegari 


While the above summary indicates quite definitely and specifically 
community participation in this type of school program by showing the 
number of feeders and stations maintained at home, number of trees and 
conservation packets planted, and the number of feed-lot plantings of 
hegari, it does not indicate some of the more significant and far-reaching 
results. The social development of the child, experience in real citizenship, 


[ 43 | 


better school work resulting from the stimulation that comes with the 
correlation of conservation with the common branches, and a more thoro 
understanding of the economical and vocational significance of conserva 


tion in relationship to agriculture are some of the more basic outcomes. 


With participation in this project comes a greater appreciation of the 


outol-doors and the wholesome recreation it affords. The child becomes 
sensitive to beauty, “Where can people better des clop a love of beauty than 
im secu thr ly ity of a tree, whether dressed in green, crowned with 

old, tufted with snow, or stthouctted as dark lines against the sky? What 
yoy there isan observiw thre vrace of movement of wildlife, the blended 
colors of plumage and plant life, or the wide productive vistas of plains 
untouched by erosion.”! 

During the past five years in which conservation has been a part of the 
school program in Jackson County, we have found that by participating 
in it, children developed wholesome interests not only in school life but 
also in one of the fundamental economic problems of the farmer—the 
problem of conservation. Boys and girls had their first lessons in cooperat 
ing with the folks outside the school for the common good. They learned 
better how to work with the group in school in solving a problem. They 
became familiar with an activity that provides recreation of the most 
wholesome type. They learned more about nature's creatures and de 
veloped a keen concern about their welfare, becoming conservation con 
scious. They came to appreciate more some of the values of rural life and 


the social and economic advantages of farming. 


\BBREVIATED OUTLINE FOR THE PROTECT" 


\pproach 

\, Children otten see flocks of birds yathering in preparation for their 
Hight south, also Hocks already on their way to warmer localities. The 
group may discuss their observations, raise questions, write tor bulletins, 
and study migration of birds 
Old birds’ nests often come to view when the leaves fall trom the trees. 
Discussion may bring out why these homes are no longer used. 
Phe children may see the squirrels, common in many localities, carry 
ing or hiding nuts. This suggests their making provision tor winter 
tood. 
Many times children see wildlite, such as pheasants, quails, and other 
kinds, along the highways and tell of these experiences in-school 
Questions concerning their winter food supply may be asked. 


Note: Vocabulary to be developed as needed. 


1 Shepherd, Lou A., and Martin, Charles F. Conservation and the School, Mason City, 
Jowa: Klipto Loose Leat Co., 1941. This publication contains additional suggestions tor 


icuvities and for correlations of conservation with the various school subjects 


2 ths 


[ 44 | 


99 


Il. Development ot the study (a guide tor developing conservation ot wild 
life) 
A. Realization ot animals’ living problems at each season of the year 
1. Among birds 
a. Migrating 
b. Nonmigrating 
Among mammals 
a. Those that hibernate 
b. Those that store food 
c. Those that neither hibernate nor store tood 


Provision tor protection and care of wild mammals, game birds, and 


songbirds 
1. Taking a census 
2. Constructing feeders 
a. For songbirds 
b. For wild mammals and game birds 
Studying the environment 
a. For wildlife habitats 
b. For natural supply ot tood 
Selecting a location and constructing a station for shelter and teeding 
Ascertaining sources of food supply 
a. Natural foods 
(1) Wild 
(2) Planted 
b, Governmental agencies 
¢. Lay conservation organizations 
d. Private citizens 
ce, Pupils 
Planting tor cover and natural food supply 
Planting foundation stock of wildlite 
a, Sources 
b. Kinds 
c, Number 
d. Place of release 
Utitizing surplus stock—open season 
Keeping records of activities 
a. Number of stations maintained 
(1) By the school 
(2) By individuals and homes in the community 
b. Number of wildlife fed 
c. Amount of feed consumed 
d. Number and kinds of dead wildlite tound and reported 
e. Plantings 
(1) Trees 
(a) Kinds and number 
(b) Places and purposes 
(2) Cover 


[ 45 | 


(3) Feed lots 
(4) Results 
f. Planting of foundation stock 
(1) Sources 
(2) Kinds and number 
(3) Places of release 
(4) Results 
III. Suggested activities involving conservation experiences 
A. Activities for creating and constructing 
1. Making forms with materials 
2. Making pictures 
3. Making stories, verse, plays 
4. Dramatizing 
. Activities for developing attitudes of service 
1. Inspecting regularly shelters and feeders 
. Reporting on observations at feeding stations 
. Removing snow 
. Making needed repairs 
. Keeping predators from station 
. Providing feed when needed in the feeder 
. Finding additional supplies of food 
. Assisting with the planting of cover, woodlots, and feed patches 
g. Attending new plantings of cover, woodlots, and feed lots 
10. Participating in summer management of game birds 
11. Giving attention and care to foundation stock 
>. Activities for investigating 
1. Observing 
2. Taking excursions and trips 
3. Asking people 
4. Looking at pictures 
5- Listening to the radio 
6. Reading 
. Activities for appreciating 
1. Caring for wildlife 
2. Observing wildlife 
3. Listening to wildlife 
4. Listening to and reading stories and poems 
5. Listening to music, and singing 
6. Enjoying pictures 
i. Activities for developing abilities in the skill subjects 
*. Activities correlating with content subjects, especially those for de- 
veloping desirable social attitudes 
x. Activities for culminating the project 
1. Writing accounts 
2. Giving assembly and community programs 
3. Making reports 
4. Making and showing movies 
5. Exhibiting and explaining projects to visitors 


[ 46 ] 


27 


An Sw Nn 


oon] 


IV. Anticipated results 
A. Results in the community 
1. Increased wildlife in a locality 
2. Increased number of areas planted for cover and woodlots 
3. Conservation of soil due to plantings 
4. Improved appearance of landscape due to plantings 
5. Better crops because of fewer insects 
6. Cooperation between community and school in the undertaking 
7. Belief in the value of conservation of wildlife established in the 
community 
8. Cultural aspects of rural life enhanced 
g. Spread of the conservation idea to other localities by those who have 
used this project 
Results in terms of pupil development 
1. Correct attitude toward conservation 
2. Knowledge of some good conservation practices 
3. Ability to carry out such practices 
4. Knowledge of natural environment 
5. Enjoyment of an enriched school program 
6. Skill in using an enlarged and enriched vocabulary 
7. Skill in attacking problems 
8. Skill in use of materials to answer needs 
g. Acquisition of esthetic tastes 
10. Acquisition of interests which will lead to wholesome recreation 
thruout life 
11. Increased desire on the part of worthwhile youth to “stay on the 
farm” because the lure of city life is overshadowed by the attractive 
ness of richer and more interesting rural life. 


A COUNTY PROGRAM IN SOIL CONSERVATION 


Edna Barnes 


Adair County, Iowa, lies in the heart of the upper Mississippi conserva 
tion region. Conservation problems of the upper Mississippi conservation 
region, like those of other regions, vary with the geographical character- 
istics of communities and with economic pressure and farming practices. 
In most communities the soil needs some conserving. In many com- 
munities the soil is being almost irreparably abused. In many, there is 
need for the conservation of water. Both soil and water conditions deter- 
mine the policies followed in regard to the use of the soil. Most of the 
states need to do much in connection with the conservation of wildlife and 
fish. Forest regions are still being seriously damaged, especially by fire. 
Strip mining does irremediable damage to good soil in certain districts. 
Flowers that once decorated the prairies are almost gone, because the 
prairies have had to be plowed to feed the United States and much of the 
rest of the world. Birds, like the flowers, have lost their habitats and many 


[ 47 ] 


28 


are gone; vet some have been less troubled by the encroachments of civiliza 
tion than others and perhaps can be kept. 

In the schools, the children who come from farms and villages are in 
close contact with the natural resources and the work of the farm. They 
readily see the reasons for conservation and are interested in studying the 
subject and in undertaking conservation projects adapted to the needs of 
their various communities when the school program permits. 

In Adair County, for example, a community of general farms, the pro 
gram of conservation in the schools is based on the problems that have 
connection with the use and needs of the land and on the development ot 
conservation agencies in the county. The county lies chiefly in the south 
ern pasture area of the state, altho cash grain crops are grown and many 
hogs and cattle are fattened, and these provide a large part of the farmer's 
income. Except in unusually dry years, Adair County has annual rainfall 
sufficient for good crops. The average is 33.04 inches. The average snowfall 
is 29 inches. The water table is lower than in former vears, however, and 
many farmers need to conserve water for stock. The growing season is 
about 165 days. The largest village is Greentield, which has a population 
of 1800, made up largely of retired farmers, local business and professional 
people, and people in service occupations such as filling stations, garages, 
and cleaning establishments. 

In Adair County there has been serious need for the conservation of the 
soil for some time. In 1g21 the U.S. Department of Agriculture, cooperat 
ing with Iowa State College, made a soil survey which is the first 
accurate record of soil resources of the county. This survey showed that 
the erosion that has taken place is due almost entirely to the action of 
water. Very little wind erosion has occurred 

In 1933 the’ extension division of Towa State College made an erosion 
survey of the state vf Iowa as a whole. As nearly as can be estimated trom 
this and other surveys, the erosion conditions of Adair County are as 
follows: 

Seventy-five percent of the upland has lost half or more ot its topsoil, About 
18 percent has lost between one-fourth and one-halt of its topsoil, About 
percent has lost one-fourth or less. 


Altho experimenters are said to be able to produce tertile soil today out 
of sterile soil far more quickly than nature made her topsoil, most farmers 
who want to save their land still consider it a good idea to stop soil loss 
by means of improved methods of farming. Since its organization in 1917, 
the Farm Bureau of the county has been carrying on educational meetings 
and demonstrations on methods of erosion control. Thru experimenting 
on fields, the fertility needs of the soil were studied. Thru the influence of 
the Farm Bureau and the Greenfield Service Club, the Grand River 
watershed was set aside in 1935 for demonstrating methods of soil and 


[ 48 ] 


og 


water conservation, About 115 farms cooperated in the work. During 1939 
a newly organized county planning board recommended that conservation 
wctivities be spread thruout the county and much has since been done. 
lhe same year the county board of supervisors put the Iowa Limestone 
\ct in force in the county, making limestone less costly to the farmers. 

The interest developed by the various organizations interested in soil 
conservation resulted in the formation of the Adair County Soil Con- 
servation District in iggo, with a program of help for farmers desiring to 
improve the fertility of the soil and control erosion on their farms. Among 
the agencies at work on the program are the Soil Conservation Service; 
Agricultural Adjustment Administration; Farm Security Administration; 
lowa State College Extension Service; and Farm Bureau, including Adair 
County Planning Board, 4-H Clubs, Woman's Home Project Groups, and 
other groups under the supervision of the county agent and the county 
home demonstration agent; and high schools offering courses in Smith- 
Hughes vocational agriculture. 

This home and community interest in conservation and the various 
agencies at work constitute sources on which schools can draw for in- 
formation, stimulation, and assistance. Teachers and children look for 
erosion on their school grounds and in their communities and discuss 
the means of controlling it. Some have beautified the grounds by planting 
trees and flowers. Others have secured the help of schoolboards and 
neighbors in keeping the yards mowed and attractive thru spring, summer, 
and fall. Some children, becoming interested thru the school or 4-H Clubs, 
have made their home yards attractive by collecting trash and planting 
Howers and grass and caring for these. Many have observed the wild 
Howers that still remain and discussed the possibility of preserving some 
places for them to grow, and have planned food and shelter now and 
then for birds. 

The past year special emphasis has been placed on conservation of the 
soil thru cooperation with the Soil Conservation Service and in connection 
with the Adair County Soil Conservation District's program. The pur- 
pose of the cooperative efforts was twofold: (1) to spread the gospel of 
conservation thru the children to the parents; and (2) to help the children 
grow into citizens with the understanding and knowledge needed to 
care for the nation’s soil or to vote wisely in regard to it. 

Suggestions for a study of conservation were prepared by the county 
superintendent, based on the soil needs of Adair County and on the books 
and bulletins which the schools had or could secure. These suggestions 
were mimeographed and given to those teachers who expressed an in- 
terest in the work. 

Activities and observations were begun with the resources close at 


hand. In a number of schools the initial activities were extended. Some 


[ 49 | 


60 


grew into comprehensive studies of the subject, usually with the emphasis 


on the conservation of the soil rather than other resources, Exploratory 


activities included: 


Trips into pastures near the schoolhouse to study erosion and discuss means 
of control. 

Excursions by the school or by individuals on Saturdays to observe needs for 
conservation and ways in which the soil is being protected, such as contour 
plowing and planting, terracing, planting trees tor windbreaks, strip cropping, 
check dams, planting of trees and shrubs. 

Studies of soil building in the school district, such as the spreading of fer- 
tilizer, plowing under of crops and stubble, the planting of legumes, experi- 
mentation on the school ground or at home. 

Studies ot the effects of tenant farming on soil in the county as suggested in 
“Towa; People, Resources, and Industries of the Hawkeye State.” 

Making of maps to show the natural and artificial drainage of Adair County. 

Consultation with parents or neighbors who have a part in the demonstra- 
tion methods of the Grand River watershed or independently engage in con- 
servation practices. 

Study of contour farming in the county, including list of names by districts 
of more than three hundred farmers who planted all or a part of their crops 
on the contour in 1941. 

Experiments showing growth of plants in different kinds of soil. 

Collection of government bulletins and other materials on conservation. 

Conservation club. 


Among the questio. s raised and the problems formulated for study in 


different schools were 


How much soil has our county lost? (After study one class made a graph 
to show the Varyiliy ck grees ob timated soil loss in different parts of the 
county.) 

Is the liming of field crops in’ Adair County worth the cost and trouble? 

How was the soil of our county made? (Geological story) How kept fertile? 

Have the conservation methods of the Grand River Watershed carried on 
since 1935 been successtul? (Interviews with farmers) 

What has the Soil Conservation Service done to help conserve the soil in 
other parts of the United States? Are the problems of other states like ours? 

What conservation practices have been successtul in Adair County? What 
ones have been unsuccessful so far? Why? 

What kinds of erosion have done most damage in Adair County? 

What are the conservation problems of other parts of the United States? Of 


other countries? How are these being handled? 


Thru field trips, interviews with parents, experiments, and reading, the 
children and teachers gathered the facts they needed to help them with 
their questions and problems. Some of these were studied by individuals, 


50 | 


others by committees or classes. In most schools there were many dis- 
cussions and much pooling of information, Useful books and bulletins 
were collected. 

In making records and reports of their studies the children collected 
pictures, gathered soil specimens, made graphs and maps, drew cartoons 
and planned posters, made scrapbooks, and wrote accounts of their study 
and observation, Among the items prepared were: 


Maps showing conservation projects in Adair County. 

Posters showing how Adair County farmers conserve soil for defense. 

Collection of pictures showing types of soil conservation practiced in Adair 
County. 

Collection of small pictures arranged in opposite parallel columns to show 
(a) where soil is wasted and (b) where soil is conserved. 

Map showing position of Adair County among the areas of land use in 
Iowa (dairy area, cash-grain area, western meat area, southern pasture area, 
eastern meat area). 

Eighth-grade class books on the conservation work of the school, including 
articles and themes about Adair County's conservation needs, original slogans, 
maps and graphs, pictures and clippings, accounts ot experiments, stories of 
the nature and formation of Iowa soil, and a list of books and bulletins used. 


A collection of the children’s work, chiefly the records of their activities 
mentioned above, was displayed, first in Greenfield, in the window of the 
Soil Conservation office, and later in other towns of the county. It drew 
the attention of parents to their children’s work and to the problems of 
conservation in the county, and was a source of interest to children. 

Several scrapbooks in the display showed understanding of the county's 
problems. One which received especial attention was “The Study of 
Conservation” by the pupils of Grades IV to VIII in a one-room school, 
Jefferson Township Number 2. It included articles, maps, and pictures 
related to the problems of the home district and was initiated by a field 
trip. described by one of the pupils as follows: 


Our Field Trip 

Friday our school went on a field trip for our lowa Club program. We went 
to LeRoy Fritz’s farm about a half mile north of the schoolhouse. 

We went to see how a contour farmer plows his ground. Mr. Fritz showed 
us the way the rows went. He contoured because the other way the water 
would wash the soil. He had a small ditch in the middle of the field about 
eight years ago. He contoured and now it is almost level. It was a very inter 
esting trip.—Anne Lillie, Grade 6. 


There is a sketch of the LeRoy Fritz farm of 160 acres, made by Rosalie 
Fritz, fifth grade, followed by a plan showing a three-year rotation for 
corn, oats, and clover by Gene Boss in the eighth grade. A discussion of 


[51] 


62 


the use of lime ordered from the county agricultural office, a pictorial study 
of terraces, an article on the use of fertilizers, and maps showing various 
types of soil are some of the other contributions. 

In extending the program next year, it is planned to encourage more 
and more the participation of students in the actual work of conservation. 
There is work that many can do in making known the results of con- 
servation projects, in developing bird and flower sanctuaries, in planting 
trees, in gardening and the wise use of soil in connection therewith, in 
helping to landscape home farmsteads, in the improvement of livestock 
and poultry, cooperating with 4-H Clubs, and in the more efficient use of 


materials and of foods." 


YOUNG SOUTIIWESTERN CONSERVATIONISTS 


Julia B. Tappan and Anne Raymond 


Our Country and Our People 


The Southwest in this account‘ includes the intermountain region west 
of the Rockies: the states of Arizona, western Colorado, New Mexico, 
and Utah. 

The Southwest is an old country—old in its mountains, old in its great 
rivers and canyons, old in its dinosaur tracks and bones, old in its pre 
historic signs of man, old in its practically continuous habitation by 
Indians, old in its European “discovery.” Here dates begin in 1529 with 
Nufo de Gusman and continue in later years to Coronado and Spanish 
conquistadors, Franciscan friars, trappers, traders, the Santa Fe Trail, 
Mormon pioneers, sheep and cattle kings, miners, and health seekers of 
today. Over these, our youngest states, have flown the Spanish flag, the 
Mexican flag, the flag of the United States. 

Water has been and is the measure of survival or failure—water which 
for the most part has its source in the high elevations, water long ago led 
off in irrigation ditches by Tadians, water today stored in gigantic reser 
VOIrs, sull led off mn ditches to irrigate land and grow crops. 

There are great stretches of semiarid country—sparsely covered with 


yrass, sage, Mesquite; where the pine of the open country, the pifion, is 


Shor getting the conservation program started in the schools and for encouragement 
ind help, credit is due the tollowing persons: Carl R. Fritzche, soil conservationist, who 
helped with imal planning; J. Ross Oliver, soil conservationist, who read the manuscript 
tothe foregone arte il checked ats technical accuracy; John Dooley, county agent; and 
Charles Lackson, chamman ot the Agricultural Adjusunent Administration for Adair County. 

MThe tollowing schools have contributed to the account: the schools of Washington, 
Manguitieh, and Garteld Countes, Utah: La Plata, Mesa, and Delta Counties, Colorado: 
Sandoval and Hernalitlo Counties, New Mexico; John Marshall School, Albuquerque, New 
Mexne The Naibe School, Santa Fe County, New Mexico; Menlo Park School, Tucson, 
Arizona, Satlord School, Safford, Arizona; and the elementary schools of the following 
teachers college inion and Fort Lewis, Colorado; and Tempe, Arizona 


[ 52 | 


63 


ci >” > . 2 

Courtesy Santa Cruz School, New Mexico 
We Are Trying 
To Control a Gully 


still growing in its three hundredth year; a country of contrast in elevation, 
contrast in vegetation, contrast in climate, and contrast in peoples and 
cultures. 

The Southwest is a land where the delicate balance of water, soil, vegeta- 
tion, and climate requires understanding; a land where teamwork is neces- 
sary for survival, for no individual can control or develop his own resources 
alone; a land where severe pressure has been and is being placed on its 
resources—increasing population, lack of outside labor markets, depletion 
of natural resources. 

All children of this land, in city or country, are aware of their surround- 
ings. Towering peaks are not far from the cities; bridges cross great 
sandy river beds which ever so often become boiling, muddy rivers; 
irrigation ditches are familiar to all; torrential downpours are rare but 
too fierce to ignore. 

The struggle for survival, the dependence on sun and rain, cold and 
heat, good grass or no grass, and water, is not far from the consciousness 
of everyone. Conservation of human life, conservation of our resources for 
livelihood is a natural part of education. 

Below is a description of a watershed by seventh- and eighth-grade 
children. The place names are reminders of Spanish occupation. 


The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are east of Nambe, our community. The 
communities located in the valleys below these mountains get their water 
supply from ‘this watershed. The water from the rains and snows seeps into 
the forest floor and into the underground reservoirs. The water that does not 
infiltrate into the soil goes into the mountain streams. These underground res- 
ervoirs are the sources of drinking water for all the communities in these val- 
leys. People who do not have wells get their water from rivers which have 
their sources in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, too. 

The people in these communities depend on the water from the upper water- 
shed for irrigation. All the farms in Nambe, Pojoaque, El Rancho, and San 
Ildefonso are irrigated by the waters of the Nambe River. The farms in 
Chimayo and Santa Cruz are irrigated by the waters from the Santa Cruz 
Dam. These waters come from streams in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. 
The people in these valleys depend on the water of these mountains for a 
living. 

All these rivers flow through these communities and finally reach the Rio 
Grande which carries its waters southward to the Gulf of Mexico. 


There is a large industrial farming district in the Southwest but many 
of the people farm and ranch for their own needs, selling or bartering 
some crops for other produce. The land supplies them with their food, 
their houses and fuel, and some of their clothes. The following reports 
from rural pupils illustrate the use of home experiences in the instructional 
program of the school. 


[ 54] 


65 


Aifonso’s Farm 

Alfonso goes to school in San Antonito. He is in the fifth grade. He has a 
mother and father. He has two sisters and two brothers that go to school. 
Their grandfather and grandmother live about a mile and a half from them. 
They have a farm over there. Over at the farm they have 65 acres of land. 
Alfonso’s father has two acres of land here. He plants corn and peas. His 
grandfather plants beans, corn and peas. He plants wheat and cane too. They 
give the horses corn and cane. He also plants vegetables. They get the water 
from Mr. Reeves, its near Alfonso’s house. He has three horses, a cow and 
a calf. 

To the Mountains 

Many of our fathers go to the mountains for wood in a wagon. The boys 
go with their fathers to help them. When father is going for wood he gets up 
early in the morning. He goes to the barn and gives the horses a good break- 
fast. Then he can bring a very big load of wood. After father eats his breakfast 
he starts on his trip. Mother always fixes a nice lunch for father because he 
will be gone all day. 

The Story of the Oven 

The oven is made of rock and mud. It is used to make bread. The oven is 

near my house. I sit down on a rock and put my hands into the oven. 
The Well 

We took a picture near the well. | was standing near it. The water was very 
clean. People drink from that well and also wash the clothes with its water. 
It is very deep. It has two buckets so that the people will get the water out. We 
drink some of that water. It tastes good. 


An Adobe House 


Our homes in Agua Fria are made of adobes. Adobes are made from the 
soil and as some kinds of soil will not stick together not all kinds of soil can 
be used to make adobes. The soil in Agua Fria can be used very successfully. 
We make adobes by mixing soil, straw, and water together. We put this mix- 
ture in a mold which shapes the mud bricks. Then we turn the bricks out 
on a clean dry spot, and let them dry for two or three days before we put them 
into the walls of a house. 

The roofs of our homes are flat. After the walls are laid, we put vigas across 
from one wall to the opposite wall. Vigas are large trees that have been dressed 
for this purpose. They are placed about two feet apart. Then we lay pine slabs 
over the vigas. On top of the boards tar paper is put; last we put dirt. Drains 
for the water are placed on the edge of the roof. The frames for the doors 
and windows are set in place when the walls are being built. Our homes are 
not expensive. They are light and airy. They are warm in winter and cool in 
the summer because of the thick walls. 


W hat Started Us 


The study of the land may begin with the study of food, clothing, and 
shelter. For example, what does the land have to do with oatmeal, corn 


[55 ] 


66 


flakes, milk, bread, and butter? Growing seeds and visiting mills, chines, 
and markets may also be related to the study of the land. 

An older group in Utah became interested in the parts of the plants 
eaten by people and by animals. The place of the humble plants in the 
universe becomes of endless interest: how they take the raw materials 
from air, soil, and water and, with the help of the sun, manufacture food 
that animals and man can eat; how they hold and bind the soil. 

Cotton in our warm and sunny areas is a familiar product. Discovering 
the many uses of cotton, from dresses to phonograph records made from 
cottonseed, leads into a thousand interests of cottun growing and its wear 
and tear on the’ land—to manufacturing, migrant labor, transportation, 
and world trade. 

Tanning leather and spinning and weaving weo! are activities in many 
of our communities. The Chimayo blankets of the Spanish-Americans 
and the bay Navajo blankets are woven in some of our Southwestern 
homes. Parents and adults of the community are experts on types of wools, 
the strength and suitability of the fiber. Fiber is affected by feed; feed 
grows on the land. This is a tascinating field of investigation. Proper 
grazing of the land, care of stock, reproduction of plants, and water for 
stock may have their starting point with a hand-woven blanket. 

Houses in our country are made trom products near at hand—adobe 
houses from the adobe mud, beams from the pines of the forest, log cabins 
where trees grow, Apache wickiups from the tough bear grass of the 
desert, Navajo hogans from pifion logs and mud, Hopi houses from adobe 
and stone. The flat roofs of the semiarid climates and the pitched roofs 
of the mountain sections where much snow and rainfall indicate our 
dependence on and adaptation to our climate. 

The sparks which start interest in and investigation of conservation are 
infinitely varied. A threshing machine near a school, a hillside on which 
were many bones pf deer, and mention of a bird once familiar in the 
community but now gone, led to investigation of reasons. 

Unusual conditions, or occasionally a disaster, serve as a starting point. 
A flood on the Rio Grande, the worst in years, led to the appraisal of farm 
land lost, other property damage, and the study of the recurrence of floods— 
their causes and possible control. But the most lasting conservation educa- 
tion is based on everyday, continuing interests, rather than disastrous or 
unusual happenings. 

The very usualness of happenings in rural living has often blinded us 
to the opportunities and adventurous learning which spring from these 
events, but the simplest and most commonplace happening may lead to 
many exciting fields of learning. 

A news item or radio broadcas: about dairy products for England may 


| 56 | 


67 


start a whole Investigation of dairy herds, land conditions, home diet, and 
school lunch. 

The finding of a Hower, which used to be abundant and has now almost 
disappeared, started orie class in Arizona on a wild flower protective 
league which decided to bring back to the mountain behind the school 
the wild flowers that had nearly disappeared. 

In a school in Utah the sign “SCS” was new to the school, so they 
investigated it, asked a man from the Soi] Conservation Service to explain 
what the organization was, and why it was formed. 

A gift of slightly wormy apples started one school in Colorado on a 
campaign. “Why,” said the boys who had studied agriculture, “should one 
woman endanger the fruit crop of a valley because she wouldn't spray 
or farm seriously ?” 

During a very cold and snowy winter pupils observed that the animals 
were eating the bark and inner bark of trees. This led to study of the 
cambium layer of a tree, the usual food of various animals, and the harm 
done to trees by girdling. 

The San Simon flood in Arizona is a periodic but spectacular event that 
led one school to study the Gila River watershed, The San Simon is 
known as a wash, in effect a deep, sandy, dry stream-bed, which in flood 
time concentrates the water in a boiling, muddy torrent. Yet in the memory 
of parents, this was a grassy swale. What changed it? Why does it now 
contribute much of the silt and only a small proportion of the water to 
the San Carlos reservoir ? 

Bad crop or good crop, bad prices or good prices, are common topics of 
conversation in the country. Perhaps it’s weather or cut worms or grass- 
hoppers. Perhaps it’s changed markets or war. 

The delicious smell of a school lunch led to an investigation of how the 
foods were prepared and where the products came from, and to extension 
of interest to parents and the canning of fruit and vegetables not needed 
at home. Valuable contributions to the diet, such as oranges, were arranged 
for by exchange of sugar-beet seed. Entertainments by school and parents 
raised money for dairy products which were not produced in that par 
ticular community. 

Arbor Day has changed from the planting of a single tree to plantings 
for erosion control, windbreaks, grass, shrubs, trees in gullies. 

A swirl of dust in a schoolyard started an exhaustive study of dust 
storms, beginning with the schoolyard, which was bare, and comparing 
it with the nearby graveyard, which was fenced in and grassed, an activity 
that ended with a fenced schoolyard with trees, grass, and shrubs. 

A stagnant pool, where mosquitos bred, led to a study of water, insects, 
malaria, which in turn led to the establishment of a small park where water 


ran in and out of the pool. 


[57] 


68 


A beaver dam near a school led to an extensive study of beavers as con- 
servationists—engineers, foresters, and agronomists—and branched out into 
the planning of a watershed, with study of its rivers, forests, grasslands, 
cities, and farms, and investigation of various agencies working on the 
watershed, with the help available to individuals and the necessity for 
group action. 

Trips to big dams, the Grand Canyon or many other canyons, national 
parks, prehistoric dwellings, and dinosaurs’ footprints have been starting 
points. Collections of rocks, fossils, pottery shards, arrowheads, colored 
Indian corn, woven belts, or drums may be others. 

A group of children in Arizona spent their recess near an irrigation ditch 
and one day began talking of where the water came from—the big lateral, 
the main canal, the river, and the reservoir. The water cycle—the rain and 
snow in the high elevations, the big storage dams which make water avail- 
able during the growing season, the travel of water from the upper water- 
shed to the irrigated valleys—furnished subjects for investigation. The 
scarcity of water and the boon of water became part of the children’s 
awareness so that leaking faucets were mended, plants were grown near 


the pump where the drip ran down, and waste of water became taboo. 


We Act 


Activities in rural schools often necessarily differ from activities in city 
schools. In the country, children’s lives are made up of activities—often 
arduous and too heavy. Children help their fathers with the farm work, 
they peel apples for canning, they haul water and wood, they build fires, 
and have an infinite variety of what educators call “activities” and what 
they and their families call “work.” Taking care of a rabbit in a city school 
may be a very novel and thrilling experience, but it is not so novel and 
thrilling to a boy who has managed a huge stallion, who has got up in the 


cold and dark to feed the animals, who has been called away from a book 


to feed the chickens, or has delayed going to the movies to milk the cows. 
Yet home and school can become iateracting and “work” with under- 
standing takes on a new interest. 

The pupil’s understanding of the world in which he lives comes from 
his understanding of the home, farm, and community. The following 


reports written by pupils in a rural school illustrate the point. 


We took an excursion to one of the weavers. We took pictures ot Dona 
Seterina, blankets, loom, cards, she ep, wool, dyes, and spindle s. We asked 
questions. 

Dona Seterina has two kinds ol sheep White sheep and Lincoln sheep She 
Zot the gs ncoln shee p trom Blanco and Alamosa The white shee p give he ivier 


A 


wool than the Lincoln sheep Wool sells at 35¢ a pound Yarn is worth $2.50 


a pound 


Friday News, March 24 


Jimmie has started to weave on the foot loom. Tony started the hooked rug. 
Frutoso couldn't card the wool he brought because it was such poor wool. He 
is now carding mohair. Melescendro is the storekeeper. He has all kinds of 
yarn to sell. The beans and corn on our ranch are growing tall. The grass on 
our ranch was so tall that we had to cut it. We gave it to Sergio to take it home 
for his rabbit. The rabbit was glad to get the nice green grass. 


Making Adobes 

Sergio and Sotero are making the adobe brick for our house. They made 
the forms of wood. The size is 2 in. by 4 in. They are making them in the 
school yard, Straw is mixed with the mud to make it stick together well. 

We took a trip to Mr. Maestras’ place. We went there to look at the new 
house. We want to build our house something like this one. We will make 
a change in the porch. They have their nice porch in the back of the house and 
we want to build ours in front of the house. The first thing we will do is to 
draw a plan for the house. 

We all decided to stucco the outside of the house. Joseph is going to find out 
how a good roof is made. 

We are going to plant trees and sow grass all around the house. 


Field trips or study walks are a universal activity in conservation pro 
grams. Their scope and conduct depends a good deal on the objective. 
They may initiate a piece of work with the objective of giving a broad 
base of understanding—the watershed as a whole, the behavior of soil 
and water, topography, vegetation, wildlife, the activity of human beings 
on the watershed. 

A school in Colorado near the Indian ruins of Mesa Verde used the life 
of yesterday for the lessons of today. 


History of the Land 


A big arroyo went across the field just below the village site. We all went 
down to look at it. It was estimated that it was about seventy-five feet across 
and sixty feet deep. One of the fathers told us that it extended across the 
country for a mile. 

We raised the question, “Was the arroyo here when the Basket Makers” 
lived here?” 

A father told us that when he was a boy in 1908 the gully had been about 
two fect deep and he could step across it any place. Another volunteered that 
his uncle had been a “cowman” on the range in the early days and that at that 
time the arroyo had been a cow path. Questions brought out the fact that the 
whole eastern end of the valley was gutted with arroyos and that the govern 
ment was controlling grazing in the upper watershed, building dams, and 
grassing gully slopes to check the erosion. 


5 The prehistoric Indians who lived at Mesa Verde 


[59 ] 


“J 
a) 


We put down in our notebooks the problem to discuss later. “Why is erosion 
taking place in this particular part of the country?” 

One of the fathers volunteered to take a committee to see some erosion con- 
trol practices. 

Later on at school when we tackled the problem of erosion in the eastern 
end of the county, it was decided that betore the settlers cleared the ground 
for farms, the soil was tacked down by grass, sagebrush, oak brush, and other 
vegetation. We decided that the snow was held back from melting and run- 
ning off so tast by the cedar and pion trees, and the grass in the hills betore 
so many of them were cleared away. 

Che children telt that the fields should be planted with crops that would 
tack down the soil and that if possible something should be done to delay the 


“run-off” of water from the mountains. 


An understanding of some of the maladjustments arising from) poor 
use of resources—forests gutted, grasslands misused, farmland improperly 
planned and used, mines wastefully developed, streams polluted, wildlife 
destroyed—can be given to all pupils by observation. But the actual solu- 
tion involves so much of social planning—action, laws, education—that 
children’s direct activity in conservation may seem slight in solving the 
whole problem. Windbreaks, woodlots, and community forests are worth 
while ACTIVITIES. Personal Care with fires 1S ct fine step. Respect for birds, 
with birdhouses and sanctuaries, are possible activities within the frame- 
work of a larger plan 

Erosion control in schoolyards--windbreaks, gully prevention—give 
practice and application of an aid in erosion control. However, emphasis 
on structures rather than watershed control involving natural cover, 
emphasis on cure rather than prevention, is an emphasis which should 
be guarded against. 

In our search for activit¥ im connection with conservation educ Won, a 
definite warning should be sounded. Overemphasis on children’s activities, 
which in the light of mass misuse, exploitation, and lack of planning 
inevitably are very slight, should not be allowed to limit students’ ability 
to see the broader necessities of group action, 

Some of the most significant vities in the Southwest ere those which 
have led to an understanding and attitude which will undoubtedly show 
its mark in the future lives of the entire school. At the Nambe School in 
New Mexico, MM hose schoolyard Was a dreary waste of bare soil, the chil 
dren decided to beautify the school with flowers, trees, and grass if 
possible. 

The watering of plants immediately became a problem, as the school 
supply of water was only about enough to supply the drinking and sani- 
tary needs of the school. Every device was used to get water on the plants 


Waste Water, Water Trom eave , pipes, and finally water led off from the 


| 60 | 


7] 


borrow ditches of the road. No run-oll of Water Was CVCE allowed lo Ro 


unused and when snow fell it was swept into the basin surrounding the 


trees. No faucet was allowed to drip. Wheat was planted in the basins of 


the trees to see whether it would help conserve moisture and enrich soil. 
Many other conservation, school, and community activities have developed, 
but the outstanding accomplishment in that school is the consciousness of 
the benefit of water and its practical use and the respect for vegetation as 
soil and water holders, as food, as shade, and as enjoyment. The school 
grounds, once bare dirt, have two hundred trees, vegetable and flower 
gardens, grass plots and terraces. 

Another school had a gift of many small trees The pupils planted and 
cared for them but were not always careful about closing the gate. In this 
country, livestock is apt to wander around at will. Several little trees were 
eaten by a horse. The boys and girls were appalled and with mu h trouble 
and expense pot new (ree built wooden tt imeworks, put 11d ht 6 ttle vu urd, 
and sinee then have purch ed LUrass seed, planted Howe rs, ind Att inved 
for irrigation. But best of all, in a stock country, the children have learned 
the Important lesson of tences, gates, and protected helds ind orchards 

School gardens in the past have too often been a planting of radishes 
by little children, a uding and cating of radishes by big Ones. Recently 
some of the most effective school gardens have been the planting ot tood 
t@ supplement the community diet. In a community of beans and chile 
diet, tomatoes were introduced, A great deal of consultation with the 
county agent and experimenting with location, soils, and water supply 
were carried on. Finally, successful tomatoes were grown and eaten fresh 
or canned for school lunches. The community became so interested that 
the school became growers and purveyors of tomatoes to the community 

The introduction of certain foods into the diet is of extreme importance 
in many of our rural areas; dairy products, green vegetables, meat, and 
egys are invaluable. What the children learn about food and nutrition is 

in their accounts of activities that follow. 
We Made Butte 


Soon We saw Dbils 
We ate the butter 


The children brought vevetal wie brought the carrots. Salamon brought 
the parsnips. Lorencito br he tl tomatoes. Dwight brought the onions 
Miranda brought the cabba 


} 


The girls washed the \ s. The girls cooked the vegetables. Mrs. Ford 
put in the butter and th | it 1 soup tor lunch. It was very good 
Che girls liked the s lt ve) : tt oup. The boys said, “Thank you 


1 
mr 


An older group in Utah goes into the school lunch more deeply: 


We visited many of the farms and discussed with the farmers something of 
their plan for their gardens in order to allow for adequate and correct selection 
of vegetables and fruits for the lunch. 

They explained to us how they arranged for the time and the cartage. 

We visited the various industries such as the flour mill, apple cannery, etc, 
to find out how they cooperated with the lunch program. 

We worked out an arithmetic book or small ledger to show the cost, quanti- 
ties, and general bookkeeping in relationship to the carrying on of such a 
lunch, (This included the tickets and incidental expenses of administering the 


business. ) 


The number of animals versus quality is a constant problem and an 
important concept in proper land use. A great number of horses is still a 
symbol of prosperity to many Indians, altho the horses may be poor and 
the land not able to sustain them. A community emphasis of one school 
was to show that one good work horse gave more work, ate less food, and 
was better for the land and the people than several scrubby horses. 

An activity of great significance was carried out by a rural mountain 
teacher. Goats are common animals in Spanish-American families and 
goats are hard on the land, especially in a community where grazing land 
has become more and more restricted. In a small community it was found 
that one little boy was tending goats and that the goats were very poor, 
supplying little milk. The market for mohair no longer existed and follow- 
ing in the footsteps of the hungry goats were less and less vegetation, cuts 
and gullies, loss of precious land. Yet goats had a real place in the food 
supply and economy of the village. The school procured twelve kids from 
stock producing much milk. They were loaned to different families but 
it was the children’s project. The pupils learned to care for the kids. As 
one child wrote: “The kids were pretty soon growing up. They were 
growing up as big and fat as a pig. They are not like the goats from here. 
These goats from here are very thin and eat as much as the others and 
give less milk. While these other goats eat as much and are fat and give 
lots of milk.” These children were learning invaluable lessons of proper 
stock selection and feeding, and of caring for land. They were having 
actual experience, not with a dairy cow, which was impossible for each 
family in this land of sparse vegetation, but with a dairy animal which 
could be supported and which was of great value to the family diet. 


Conservation-Minded Citizens 


Youth of today are gaining understanding and respect for the natural 
world around them, are realizing man’s dependence on his environment, 
are recognizing the mistakes that have been made and the adjustment and 
solution being sought. The writing of boys and girls reveals the under- 
standing they have developed. For example: 


[ 62 ] 


Youth understands conservation as wise use—not useless hoarding. 

Natural resources are forests, grass, wild animals and fish, rivers and lakes 
and land. 

Human resources are living people. 

People would have a hard time if they had no land and no water or plants 
or animals. 

People are careless with fires in the forest. People put too many animals 
on the land. Sometimes they plow their fields up and down. Floods come and 
destroy the people. , 

It would be better if they would take care of their forests and fields and 
grazing lands, Then everybody could have wood and food and clothing. 


Conservation of soil means the wise use of soil for many people. 

Conservation of forest means careful cutting for sustained yield, grazing 
which does not destroy the grass and shrubs, protection against fire and insects. 

Conservation of grasslands means controlled grazing and range management 
so that rass W ill come back for future use. 


The concept of man’s dependence on his natural resources and the inter- 
dependence and interaction of soil, water, plants, animals, and weather 
is expressed in many ways. 


Food, Shelter, and Clothing Stem from the Land 


We use the land a lot. We walk on it. We build our homes on it. We go to 
school on the land. We get fuel from the land. All the plants we eat come from 
the land. We make a living from the land. We could not live without it. The 
plants get their food from the land. Then we gat some of the plants and get 
the food out of the land. 

Milk is a good food for children. We drink milk every day. We drink milk 
to have good bones. We drink milk to have good teeth. We get milk from the 
cow. We get milk from the goat. 

Meat is a food. The animals guye us meats. Mother cooks the meat. The cow 
gives us meat. The pig gives us meat. The goat gives us meat. The lambs give 
us meat. Rabbits and chickens give us meat. 

Plants also furnish us with clothing. We get clothing from animals also, 
but animals have to eat plants in order to live. 


I build my house of mud and straw. 

Of mud and straw I build it. 

Strong timbers make my vigas. 

From mud and straw and trees I build my house. 


Sun, Air, and Water Necessary to Man, Plants, and Animals 


Man, animals, and plants need sun, air, and water to live. We need plants 
and animals for food. Plants need the earth for food. Animals need sunshine, 
the earth, water, and air, and plants. Man, plants, and animals need each 
other. All must have sun, air, and water. 


[ 63 ] 


74 


Your Choice 
Poor land—poor stock, poor people. 
Good land-—good stock, prosperous people. 
Roots hold the water. They hold the soil too, We need the soil and water to | 


raise our tood. 


Youth learns by observation and study of the behavior of soil and water 


the importance of the enture watershed and how man can upset it. 


One day the sun was very warm, It took many raindrops into the air. The 
little raindrops came together, They made a big dark cloud 

The wind began to blow. The air cooled. The raindrops came down slowly, 
then faster and faster. Some ot the raindrops tound grass, and gave it a drink. 
Some found trees and flowers and yave them a drink, Some raindrops did not 
find trees. They did not find any tlowers, They did not find any grass. They 
did not find any seeds, The little raindrops could not do any good, 

David looked at the land. He saw the littl muddy raindrops run away. He 
saw the soil blow away. David said, “I will plant a garden. | will plant some 
seeds. The roots will hold the soil together. It will not blow away. The rain 
will come down. The rain will help the seeds grow. The sun will shine. The 
sun will help the seeds grow.” 

A raindrop fell into a brook. A cow came along and drank it. Then it be 
came part of the cow. 

The Early Watershed 

The Nambe River has its sources in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The 
rain and snow that tall on’ the mountains furnish water for the river. The 
valley depends upon this water for its crops. 

There were few fish in the river. These were found in the headwaters. 
There was plenty of wild game. There was duck, quail, turkey, deer, antelope, 
buffalo, and beaver. 

There was much vegetation on the mountains and foothills. Much juniper 
and pinon covered the toothills. People got their hrewood, fence posts, and logs 
trom nearby. Higher up they found much Ponderosa Pine, Spruce and Fir. 

The grasses most commonly found were the gramas and a tew brome grasses. 
They grew to a height of from 2 to 3 feet. Much livestock was grazed in th 
valley and the nearby hills. At Loma Blanca there was a very good stand of 
Blue Grama 

There were 15 families living in the valley 

People lived well because of the abundance ot land, tood, and water. They 


were very independent people 


The Watershed Today 
The Nambe watershed is greatly changed from that of earlier days. The 
range has been overgrazed and suffered drought so the grasses have not come 
back. Interior types of vegetation have come upon the land. Much of the juni- 
per and pinon that covered the foothills is gone. The trees and grass helped to 
prevent erosion and also enriched the soil. People have carelessly cut these trees 


Mu h serious ¢ rosion has set in. People have to vo farther aw ay tor wood, 


[ 64 | 


75 


The moisture that comes from the rains and snows does not remain as there 
is not enough vegetative covering to hold it. Snow 1s all melted by the middle 


of May. The water supply tor irrigation is very scarce at the tume it is most 


needed. There ts very little livestock now. Most people have about one-hal# 


ot their farmland to feed the livestock they ha \nd even on the tarms there 
are many gullies 

The government has en r watershed. Rangers and other 
forest officials are ited ft f They watch for torest fires; they 
restrict grazing: they prohibit ( treecuttiing and they help to protect 
wild game 

In the valley there are now tag tamiulre The popul ton Is Over 650 persons. 
Since there is it youd land and an Increasing population, each tamualy has 


| 


less land. The practice ot dividing the land amony heirs has also resulted in 


each family having less land. The average tamily has about 3 or 4 acres. In 


1 


order to live, the men have to look for work away trom the community 


} 


| han they did in earlier days. 


People live less comfortably and less securely t 
hey ire tho}. dependent t} it th y were 

It rained hard yesterday. Much water came down the river. It came 
down very | Chere was much water running down the arroyos. There were 
leaves ind st plants in th Water The Water was brown like coflee from 
the soil it was carrying away 

We watched the water on the school ground. Some of the water went into 
the soil. Some of the water ran down to the trees. Some of the water made 
little ditches on the school ground. The water in the terraces waited in little 
pools until it went into the soil. It did not run down to the playground. The 
plants held the water and soil The way the terraces ar built helped to hold 
the water. Somet: sone t we wat in tl { S evaporates before it 
goes into the soil 

We did not lose mi rT we § | yrounds me of the water went into 
the roots ot the trees mn) f \ went mto the roots of the plants The 
water that evaporated \ Wast { Ise 1 «© rite 1 air and comes 


back to the earth 


To youth in the Southy 


foresters and other techni 


] 1 
wrass, soil, farms, animals 


Ihe forests ar the mounta Many tree 1 in the forest Che woods 


men cut sor iv t hen the little trees have more room to 
Che little tree d sunshine nust not cut the baby trees 

We need plants and grass in the mountains too. Grass toy 
plants grow leaves and seed 


The roots burn and dit In sun without the 


Good G) i 


This ts the pl we Whe rnuel voats ¢ 
They eat oak br wn { } 


the gra Wt te 


The pattern of erosion in the Southwest is familiar to its youth and 
they suggest what man can do about it. An entire class contributed to 
this history of land use. 


Moving Westward 

The people began to emigrate from Europe to North America in the 15th 
and 16th centuries. They farmed the good soil but as the population increased 
they moved north and west. The people were very wasteful. They cut and 
burned the forests and the prairie grass in their haste to get the land ready 
for cultivation. Whenever the land started to erode or become less fertile, many 
of the farmers moved still westward, until today there is no more west, and 
we have to rebuild the depleted soil. 


Breaking the Sod 

People had to have land to cultivate in order to raise food. The pioneers 
broke new lands and turned the sod under. They felled many trees. Hundreds 
of acres of land were broken up in a short time by modern machinery. This 
wide-spread breaking up of the sod hastened man-made erosion of the land. 
The cover crops were destroyed and rain and wind carried away the good 
topsoil. 

Gullied Land 

Land that has been overgrazed for a long time or that has not been well 
protected, usually has big gullies and arroyos in it. Land that is gullied is use 
less for farming. The vegetation will not return to it for many years-even 
though much work may be done on it. It makes the floods worse because there 
is nothing to slow down the water and hold the soil. 


Overgrazing 
The Great Plains and the Rocky Mountain area of the United States were 
once covered with a thick growth of grasses. However, less than 75 years ago 
man began to raise large herds of cattle and flocks of sheep. This stock grazed 
over the pasture lands until the grass was eaten off and the surface of the 
ground was broken by the sharp hoofs of the animals. There were no regula- 
tions to control grazing, so much ot the land that was once covered with plants 


is NOW a desert or semidesert. 


Once upon a time there was a hill. It had much grass. And there was a 


farmer. He had many goats. He let one of the goats go and eat grass on the 
hill. And the goat did not eat too much because she was very fat indeed. And 
so the farmer let another goat go and she ate more grass. The other goats went 
to the hill and there was no more grass on the hill. So then one day there was 
a rain. It flooded. Much water was falling. It made a big arroyo, many of them. 


Dust Storms 


The United States Government opened large tracts of land for settlement in 
the early days of the twentieth century. This land was in northwestern Okla- 
homa, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, and eastern New Mexico. The new settlers 
plowed thousands of acres of land. At first crops were good, but soon the land 


[ 66 | 


TT 


began to be depleted by poor farming practices. In 1931 a severe drouth started. 
It grew worse and worse until 1936. No crops were raised. The soil of the 
fields blew away until the “Dust Bowl” was formed. Sand and dust covered 
roads, fences, and houses. 

Soi! does not belong to one man. It belongs to the race. Men now realize 
how important it is to conserve the soil. It has taken millions of years to make 
our soil, so we should try to protect it in every way we can. 


The children’s story closes with an account of erosion in their own valley 
and of ways of combating it, such as reduction of grazing, alternation’ of 
grazing in different fields, planting clover between rows of corn, reforest- 
ing of areas once wooded, planting windbreaks, and contour plowing. 


Action for Today and Tomorrow 


What is the carry-over from all the activities, understandings, informa- 
tion? What will they be, these young people, when they grow up— 
geologist, dairyman, forester, fruit grower, city planner, rancher, builder, 
weather man, storekeeper, artist, architect, shoemaker, or farmer? What- 
ever their various occupations, conservation-minded youth in all prob 
ability will be citizens aware of conservation. 

There has not been enough time to see how these conservation-minded 
students act as full-fledged citizens. Many of them are young and still in 
school. Many of them are in the armed forces. Much of what they are doing 
day by day has been described in their own words, but a few examples of 


action following school programs may give some clue to future action 


A group of high school students from four states met and discussed 


the land problem and what they could do about it as citizens, They con 
ducted their own meetings, called in outside speakers, ran their press 
and radio publicity. The following excerpts from a high-school student's 
letter shows continuing interest: 

... 1 paid special attention to all ef the speakers in the attempt to find sug 
gestions that would help my Dad and our neighbors to rebuild their land 

I went right home and practiced on my Dad. I guess I was a little over 
anxious for he was skeptical at first. I'l have to admit that I was a little leery 
myself before I had the opportunity to go to Albuquerque and see firsthand 
what could actually be done by contouring pastures, farming on the contour, 
and enforcing other conservation programs. It seemed to me Dad was unreason 
ably doubtful and Scotchly stubborn. . . 

At last we met halfway. He is willing to try what he considers the most 
practical programs this year. If they were effective he would try others next 
year. I think he is planning to ditch some of the old wagon trails and cattle 
paths similar to the ditching which we saw an the Elena Gallegos Grant to 


prevent gullying and washing. ... 


A group in Curry County in eastern New Mexico was so interested in 


forming a soil conservation district that they made a farm-to-farm survey 


[ 67 | 


of land conditions and income, prepared and gave radio talks, wrote 


newspaper articles, and felt sure that they were largely responsible when 


the district was voted 100 percent. This group will undoubtedly continue 


to be actively interested in land and will be active and informed members 
of their district. 

Many groups of future land users have learned the invaluable lesson 
of cooperation. In the past farmers perhaps more than any other group 
have remained individualists. Rural children today, becoming aware of 
problems of use of resources that demand group action, are learning to 
work together. They are aware of the disasters of individual thinking 
and acting and have seen what groups can do. They are on speaking terms 
with the many agencies set up to assist them and have talked with the 
men—have asked their help in making school gardens and in planning 
school grounds. In fact and usage, rural children are learning to regard 
federal, county, and local government agencies as their own. 

The boys and girls have gained a new knowledge and respect tor the 
various culture groups. They realize that the Indians in very ancient days 
were familiar with irrigation methods, built check dams to catch soil, and 
rotated their corn and beans, and that often groups of people long familiar 
with their environment have used it wisely. 

They have mastered the common sense of many practices—that a forest 
entirely cut over will not reproduce and continue its usefulness, but that 
small seed trees left will continue to produce; that contours on the land 
hold water and soil and plants, and that the land thus formed will bring 
forth crops year after year. 

They have grown tomatoes, Carrots, ind other ve getables, taken cure of 
animals, and learned to like new foods. 

They have learned that fewer goats than the community once had, better 
*bred and better ted, produce more and leave enough cover on the ground 
to enable future generations to go on keeping goats. 

Perhaps most significant of all, they are distinguishing between imme 
diate cash, which is transient, and perpetual resources which can be 


permanent and which will make “good living” pessible indefinitely. 


SHORT REPORTS FROM SCHOOLS 


Acuvities in which the children of one community engage are often not 


needed in another community. Conservation education is based on the 
needs of communities and regions. The following excerpts from reports 
were selected with a view t presenting a vVarietv of activities with 


emphasis on forests and trees. 


RURAL-SCHOOL CONSERVATION ACTIVITIES 
R. S. Ihlenfeldt 


A survey of rural-school conservation activities in Wisconsin reveals the 


following in various counties: 
County Activity 


Barron Organization of student ranger patrols, and conservation work 

generally. 

Door Rearing and releasing pheasafs, and conservation work gen- 
erally. 

Douglas Pursuits in the numerous school forests of the county. Conser- 
vation poster contest. 

Iron Topographical maps in which a color scheme indicates timber, 
swamp, marsh, and lake areas. 

Monroe Fifty-six acres planted to trees by the children. Rearing and re- 
leasing pheasants. Wind-belt planting. Countywide soil 1m- 
provement program. 

Oconto Conservation tours for seventh and eighth grades. Countywide 
soil improvement program. Rearing, feeding, and releasing 
phe asants. 

Rock Countywide program of tree planting demonstrations. 

Taylor Activities in nine school forests. Beautification of fifty school 
y irds. 

Trempealeau Development of a science course which includes conservation 
projects and activities. Conservation broadcasts. Conservation 


tours, 
Washburn \ctivities in rural-school forests. Planning nature trails. Forests 
are said to be extensively used for conservation work. 
Waukesha Highly developed school garden and flower program. 
Waushara Special tree planung programs since 1935. Growth of legumes 
emphasized in schools. Alfalfa acreage increased from 8070 
acres iN 1933 to 23,437 in 194Q, Clover increased from 10,563 
7,077 trees planted. 


IN 1933 to 21,173 1n 1940. Since 1935, 3, 
Wood Intensive work done in two school forests. General conserva 


tion values « mphasized in regular school work. 


The most popular activities reported are as follows 


, , 
Purchase and planting ol school torests 


Development of topographical maps 


} 


Rearing and releasing ph isants 


School-ground beautification 


Soil improvement programs in which children take soil samplings 


Tree planting activities luding countywide demonstrations 
Development of science programs which will have conservation as a core 
clement 

Garden programs, particularly in Waukesha County 


[ 69 ] 


A teacher-training camp is maintained each summer thru the coopera- 
tive effort of the state teachers colleges. Last year it was located in the 
heart of the forest and wildlife area at Eagle River. About sixty teachers 
attended and two dozen or more had to be refused enrolment when the 
capacity of the camp was reached. A section of the Wisconsin education 
program was devoted to conservation with conservation demonstrations 
by classes from two normals. 


JUNI@R CONSERVATION CLUBS 
Ottilia Frisch 
Saginaw County, Michigan, reports junior conservation clubs. These are 
assisted by the Saginaw County Conservation Council, which is made up 


of local organizations interested in conservation. Activities of the clubs 
include: 


1. Conducting a census among farmers to learn how much land they will 


devote to plantings for birds and other wildlife. 

2. Questioning farmers in the school district to learn why land is posted 
against hunting. Listing farmers’ reasons that city sportsmen may know how 
they can merit farmers’ cooperation in hunting and other outdoor activities. 

3. Making a map of the home farm to indicate: present location of good 


game cover; locations suited to future planting of good game cover; locations 
ot birds seen on nests in fields, trees, etc., during the summer. 

4. Building nature trails and labeling trees, shrubs, and other interesting 
objects in woods. 


CONSERVATION OF FORESTS 
Florence K. Jenkins 


The pupils of the upper grades in a two-teacher school in New York 
State prepared their own report for the yearbook. Their interest in con- 
servation of forests began when a forest fire ran thru a wooded section 
where they had for several years been getting trees to plant on the school 
ground on Arbor Day. With the aid of the teacher's car and the bicycles 
of some of the pupils, the school took a trip to the burned-over area, and 
then by way of comparison visited green woodlands near the school. 
After discussing their observations, they set up a plan for study of forests 
in general and those of their community in particular. They studied maps, 
sketched woods trails, listened to radio programs and phonograph records, 
talked with the people of the community, studied state and national prob- 
lems in the conservation of forests. When their study was complete, they 
planned their report cooperatively. Part of it reads as follows: 

It was a long time probably before people realized the seriousness of the 
Nation's forest losses, but during the last few years we have begun to conserve 


the forests we have 


When trees are cut for fuel or lumber, small trees are left to grow and to 
replace them. “Seed trees” are left here and there to help in natural retoresta 
tion, Many farmers, communities, or schools may buy small trees tor retorest 
ing from our state conservation department and plant large areas each year, A 
growing forest is a beautiful sight and a satisfaction to the planter, He feels 
that he has really done something worthwhile. 

We need trees to regulate our water supply. We need trees tor lumber, We 
like wooden houses and we want to build them; stone and cement seem cold 
When we get our homes built we want to plant the home grounds with beau 
titul trees. 

We need trees for homes for birds and animals, for windbreaks on bleak 
farms, for sheltered spots for wild Howers, for picnic spots, for lence posts, 
and bridges. 

We need trees because they are money-makers. From them we can sell logs 
for fireplaces, Christmas wreaths to hang over fireplaces, nuts and maple sugar 
to nibble on as we sit around the hearth. 

Here at home we shall have to learn how to fight the insects that harm our 
trees. We shall have to build firebreaks and help fight fires. We shall have to 
plant trees to hold back our water supply. 


It is not necessary to wait for a forest fire to initiate conservation activi 
ties. Any school in the state can do its share to encourage conservation of 
trees by securing trees from the state conservation department to be set 
out at school or home, by getting the community interested in retoresta- 


tion, and by campaigns to prevent the careless habits with fire that lead 


to wide destruction of forests every year. 


A FIELD TRIP 


Kathaline G. Gabriel 


To help make our conservation study real, and not just textbook work, 
I like to take the pupils on field trips, especially when the weather is 
good. A field trip is a simple matter even for a one-room school, if there 
are few enough pupils to form a single discussion group. With a large 
school, the trip presents difficulties. Last year, with twenty-one pupils of a 
wide range of ages, I was dissatisfied until I tried a plan that pleased us 
all. 

In September we had organized an Audubon Club. We did not limit 
our work to the study of birds, but included nature in general with em 
phasis on forests for the year. The club held regular meetings every 
second Friday at 8:30 in the morning. If a hike was scheduled, we met 
at 8:00. At each second meeting, weather permitting, we planned for a 
half-hour hike. The children enjoyed these hikes immensely. I was not 
pleased at first, tho, because I could not keep all the pupils close enough 
together to benefit from discussions. I began to feel that the time was 


being wasted» 


71 | 


One afternoon we divided the group into three sections, each with a 


seventh-grade boy as leader. The three boys chosen were boys who had 


been disturbing factors on other hikes. We also decided on a special 
terest for the hike—trees. Each group chose its own route and planned to 


‘ 


what items its attention should be given. I went with the group which was 
by the boy that I thought would need most guidance himself. 1 was 
i 


' ' 
pleasantly surprised at his ability as a lead his keen interest in 
w 


, 
i 
the problem at hand. At the appointed time after the trip we arrived at 


er and a 


the schoolhouse and held our meeting. Each person reported on some- 
thing that had interested him. After that our trips were more profitable. 
Once we went to a white pine grove to inspect the trees for blister rust 
and we followed that with eradication of currant and gooseberry bushes 


CONSERVATION IN AN INTEGRATED PROGRAM 
J. Guy Rowland 
We 


have not overlooked the conservation of natural and human re 
: . eaF ' —— 
sources in any field of our curriculum work. One of the channels thru 


which we have given direct information and materials on the subject is 
ir > ] 


our recently inaugurated course in Washington state history—its ind 


4 


tries, resources, and government. We have cooperated with the depart 
ment of forestry in the eirculation among the schools of a film entitled, 


Trees for Future,” which shows in detail problems which must be fac 
- ~ } ‘q 
and methods of overcoming them. We have encouraged a study of 


servation in the organizations of our state, and we have found that the 


parent teacher association, state directors association, and many ci\ 


clubs 
ve become extremely mindful of the conservation problem as a result 
of our educational program. 

Some schools have contributed to the conservation program by plantin 
trees in burned-over areas which have been logged some years in the past. 
This has been done not only in the urban areas but also in the rural areas. 


The defense industry in our state has resulted in serious manpower 


iges. The schools have cooperated with the forestry department in 


, ling Y sar} } } y} } ] ho ' y] tine itt he 
prov ng a means whereby Nigh-schoo!l boys might continue with their 
noolwort nd still serve in the important job ot fighting forest hres, 
vhich are alwavs a menace in forested are: 


83 


CHAPTER IV 


The School’s Responsibility for the Nation's 
Human Resources 


iy THE DEVELOPMENT of the human race, ways of living and the chance 
to make a livelihood parallel in importance the natural resources anc 


are dependent on them. It is not fitting to discuss the conservation of 
natural resources without full cognizance of the optimum welfare of all 
f 


the people, nor is it possible to speak of human welfare as independent o 
the natural resources. If thru the schools there can be developed an en- 
lightened citizenry that will not tolerate abuse of the natural resources or 
exploitation of groups or individuals regardless of whom they represent, 


then indeed we may look forward to a nationwide program in the interre 


lated development of natural and human resources that will have for its 
sole objective the continuous welfare of the human race 

In this chapter, “Conservation of Human Resources” presents t 
problems which the nation must solve if it would not sacrifice the well- 


being of all. The article shows wherein for the large majority we have 


failed to solve at least two of these. problems—health and education— 


and tells what needs to be done. “Human Resources in the School Pro 


y vs , Y f t } ’ } “d lor f ture 
gram has suggestions tor teachers tor the development of a future 


generation who will understand their own and the nation’s human prob 


+1 " 1 " ” «ro ° D conan ll 
lems and be able to cope with them.” “Conservation Means Better Rural 
ee f SS on ae 
ne story Of one sCNOoO!s successrul ei 


Living” is t orts to raise incomes and 


standards of living in the community thru wiser use of the community's 


natural resources. “Community Schools Improve Human Resources” 


shows that improvements can often be made with resources that are avail 
able 
EF} \ r I MIAN RESO I 
f 1G) VW 

The consers no ral re , aie reason 
and lor one al ne its usel ilness to! n Th eartn s W Ith is WV rthless 
if it is not made to serve those wl n the earth. Any study of con 
servation, therefore, must includ me regard for the conservation of 


human resources. 

A country is made up of land and people. Necessary to its success is 
the welfare of its men, women, and children. For a time we may wast 
oil and gas, abuse our forests, pollute our streams, and still be the world’s 
leading nation. We cannot too long neglect our people without perman 
ently injuring the welfare of all. 


In spite of dramatic, scientific discoveries, and in the face of much recent 
reform, we must admit that there are many areas of distress spread over 
the country as a whole from Maine to California, from Michigan to the 
Gulf. No single state or region is without this misfortune, no community 
exists without its other-side-of-the-railroad-+track. Furthermore, the con- 
ditions of distress—malnutrition, bad housing, poor schools—grow out of 
widespread and deeply rooted maladjustments, often accepted as common 
practice in our social and economic life. The thin veneer of charity and 
goodwill cannot undo the wrong. Single communities, acting indepen- 
dently thru such commendable organizations as the community chest, can 
effect only surface gains. The well-intentioned Christmas basket carried 
to Mrs. Maloney and her ten children will bloat little tummies for a week, 
but by January 15 the gloom will have returned, this time with even 
greater intensity. The operation to remove the disease will be successful 


only if it is as deep-rooted as the disease itself. 
Nutrition and Medical Care 


The distress of malnutrition and the lack of adequate medical care are 


e families suffer 
equally with Negroes, the central states with the southern, the slum 


not confined to a single race, region, or occupation. Whit 


dweller with the farmer. There is small choice among the disadvantaged 
le economic difference between the rocky New 
England farm, the cut-over timber lands of Michigan, the land of Egypt 
of southern Illinois, the counties of southeast Missouri, the cannery com- 
munities along the Eastern Shore, the migratory trails of California and 
Florida, the Mississippi delta land, the Tom Towns of the South, and the 
slums of any city. 


third of our nation: litt 


Examine practically any health figure within these distressed areas and 
probably you will come up ashamed of the facts. 


From Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to Memphis, Tennessee, is a distance of 180 
miles. To drive it one goes due south thru Scott, New Madrid, and Pemiscot 
counties, and on into Mississippi County, Arkansas. In all this distance of good 
earth mixed with bad living there is not a single hospital and no county in- 
firmary. 

In the southern thirty-four counties of Illinois there is one tuberculosis sani 
tarium. It serves ; ypulation of over a million people and has a bed capacity 
ol 125, which is the same as the number of deaths from tuberculosis recorded 
in Umion County, Illinois. d ing the period 192 

In Georgia le S nan | \ I 5 have any sanitary means ot 
sewage disposal. Communicable d ccounted tor one and one-third million 
days of disablement amor 7 COT ple during 192 an equivalent ot 
3500 years, and at a cost of $1 2¢ 

South Carolina needs thr 


well supplied as Califort 


California provides little, if any, organized medical care for its vast army of 
migrant workers, 150,000 of whom are at work in the San Joaquin Valley 
alone. 

Texas spends trom state funds 342 cents per capita annually for health serv 


ices, approximately the same amount allocated for the welfare of its livestock 


We need not multiply these references. A little research will convince 
the reader that the health of our nation is not sound. While he reads this, 
however, he may say to himself: “But I feel fine. I'm not sick, and in nor- 
mal times when I am, I can get to a doctor, a hospital, or to a dentist in 
quick order.” The answer, of course, is that the opportunities of the indi 
vidual are not those of the nation. For example, in Georgia, with its 159 
counties, there are 2 counties without a doctor, 26 counties without a 
dentist, 85 counties without a public health service, and 104 counties with 
out a general hospit il. 

The facts for Georgia are given not because this state is the most back 
ward, but because thru its alert Fact Finding Committee recent studies 
have revealed the figures. Actually Georgia is ahead of many other sections 


of the country " mdition due in part to the work of this ciuzens’ com 


mittee, Let the reader examine the southern thirty-four counties of Illinois 
and the southeastern counties of Missouri and learn that thev have a poorer 


record than Georgia, poorer in som respects than the southern Appala- 


ditionally thought to be the bottom in American living. 


chian region 
Many other states have some communities that are similarly poorly serv 


iced. 


During the past few years tl have been increasing efforts to spread 


good health mor the nation. One measure of good health 


is the presence of a county healt! , with physicians, nurse, and sani 


tarlum. The need for such care is convincing when Georgia, revealing 
such facts he tollowing, ext equally not only |} er states but 
the country as a whole. 
f >! 
only 41 percent of the hor 
Each year she suffers 
which result in death 
Three hundred thousa 
new cases Occu®lr annual 
One-sixth ot the natior att iro nalarhk Ir if sv 1a No county 
1s tree She mMmcasures CT 28 SS rom tni lis < é I Of annually 
Recent progress has been made in impr ng - milk supply, but in 194 
there was only one town i ryia which had a milk supply on the accre 


ist ot the U.S. Publ: 


Courtesy Jay N. Darling TheO 
e Outline 


of History 


All these matters come under the general assignment of the U. S. Public 
Health Service. Some gradual changes will come thru the service now 
operating, but individual counties here and there, and in only half the 
state, cannot solve the problem alone. Not only do we know how to treat 
the patient, but with one or two exceptions, we know how to wipe out all 
communicable diseases. We know what measures we must take to eradi 
cate pellagra, hookworm, typhoid, syphilis. But we approach the problem 
with criminal indifference. Only when total war is declared on all these 
enemies can they be defeated. 

One would imagine that exposing the facts would be the major part of 
the battle. If people only knew what was happening they would do some 
thing about it. Too often the truth is that telling the facts consolidates 
opposition. Word gets around that the citizens’ committee is trying to 
smear the state, that if any newfangled changes are brought about they 
will cost more in taxes. The solution is far from simple. It is closely inter- 
woven with the many other problems of human living, so much so that 
there would seem to be little gain from an attack on a single front with- 
out opening an offensive on all others. Malnutrition, disease, lack of medi 


j 


cal care, and unsanitary conditions are directly tied to the poverty of the 


area. Much of the poverty is a result of maladjustments in our socia 
Id of human | 
ment are beginning to realize these close relationships and are | 

to appraise the forces working with them and against them. 

An illustration of the complexness of the problem is seen in the struggle 
now going on in one southern county where the citizens are pressing hard 
for a public health service. At the coun at the mill owners have con 
stantly fought progressive le idership within the ranks of labor, have driven 
it from the town whenever it appeared, have stifled unions with threats 
and paid deputies. They have depleted their workers emotionally by hiring 
Holy Roller preachers to encourage unnatural week-end revivals. The 
owners have fought labor legislation. sul nitting only after the threat of 
federal court action. When it was apparent that they would have to raise 


ours 


wages and lower hours in accordance with the national Wages and H 


Bill, they ran their mills on twenty-four hour shifts, built up a large sur- 


plus stock, and then shut down with a bang when the la vas passed. 


} 


They placed armed guards at the fou 
county and commanded ther 
came from. They paid s 
other pressures they m 
Meanwhile, 
freely to the c 
paid directly by a mill « 
of this county joined hands to 


established, this minister calle 


and led them in a resolution to the county commissioner, urging him to 
stand firm against the demands of the people. 

One group and only one unites the opposition. It is made up of the 
same class structure that has fought the people on most progressive meas- 
ures since the day the first dollar of capital was invested in the county’s 
mills. Openly and without apology, their spokesmen are now saying: 


“We half-dozen mill owners give you the opportunity to work in our indus- 
tries. We supply you with everything you need—houses, stores, churches, We 
pay most of the taxes around here for the services that bring benefits to you, 
to the farmer, and to everyone else in the county. Why can’t you be content? 
For ten years we have had to make one concession after another to you, to the 
gangsters Who speak tor you in organized labor. And now you come with these 
udditional demands that we pay tor your medical care. This tinte we will re- 

st. We won't pay a cent more out of the earnings of our mills to bring you 
doctors and nurses. If your women and children are ill, pay for their care your- 
selves. There are enough physicians in the town. If the farmer’s wife gets sick, 
concern, not ours. Go back to your spindles 2nd your plows. Let us 


1¢ affairs of the county. We know best what is good for you.” 


So the county commissioner, who takes his orders from the mill owners, 
has refused to heed the people and the county continues without a public 


health service 


An Education That Lives 

Just as the far-sighted farm plan calls tor nitrogen-building legumes in 
the care of soil, so a sound health plan seeks increased nutrition for its 
annual two-million baby crop. Furthermore, food nutrition must be ac- 
companied by better mental, physical, and social nutrition. These in large 
measure are tasks assigned to our nation’s schools. We pride ourselves on 
being the most literate country in the world, with having the largest public 
education system, free for all. And that is true if we are content to 
measure ourselves by others. Some people, however, think it not unreason- 
able to compare what we have with what we ought to have, with what 
we can afford to have—in fact, with what we cannot afford not to have. 
If the yardstick of measurement is an educatcd nation, if our goal is a 
country with citizens intelligent enough not to work against themselves 
and against their own interests, we must first face squarely the facts con- 
fronting us in presentday conditions 

Here are a few: 

It in the future the southern boy or girl is to receive an education equal to 
the national average, the thirteen states from Maryland to Texas must spend 
each year an additional quarter of a billion « 


In 1941, during a study made of fifty-two of Mississipy rhtv-two counties. 


it was found that 1500 of her 3500 Negro teachers rece 1 $25 or less a month 
} 


for an average of six months 


Half of Mississippi's 6000 Negro teachers have had only high-school training 
or less. 

Few or no schools are available to the children of the estimated 350,000 mi- 
grants of California, Oregon, and Washington. 

One of our states, not always the poorest in the record, permits 1500 of its 
schools to be housed in lodge halls, abandoned farm homes, churches, cotton 
pens; 2500 to stand without water facilities; 3000 without privies. 

In Mississippi only 10,000 of the 110,000 youth of high-school age are en- 
rolled in high school. That these are figures for the Negro half of her popula 
tion should have little bearing on the case 

Two high schools on the Chicago North Shore spend more each year educat- 
ing their 5000 students than the entire state of Georgia spends on its colleges 
and universities, including white and Negro, junior colleges, graduate schools 
of law and medicine, with a total enrolment of 15,000. 

The total endowments of the colleges and universities of the South are less 
than the combined endowments ot Yale and Harvard. 

The South must educate 33 1/3 percent of the nation’s children with only 
16 percent of the nation’s school revenue. 


These broad facts, dangerous if taken alone, add up in total to a single 
answer—the pressing demand for federal aid to education. The South 
recognizes its problem, spends a greater percentage of its taxable wealth 
on education than the North, but can meet its problem only thru national 
equalization. Marching hand in hand with these gains must come also a 
more progressive policy within our educational program. The rural school 
with its fifteen-minute lesson period, the high school with its lockstep 
system of giving back to the teacher the memorized facts of last night's 
homework, the five-hundred-enrolled college lecture course, and the men- 
tal muscle theory of certain academicians must break down before a 
realistic appraisal of a living education. This generalization, when broken 
down into its simplest terms, means exactly that. The opportunities offered 
to young people as they pass from kindergarten thru to graduate school 
must be determined, in the future, on the basis of the single pragmatic 
question, “Is our school alive?” 


Too often this question is worded, “Does our school prepare for life?” 


This is unsound. If teachers are content merely to prepare youngsters to 
] 
i 


live and do not actually live with them, they will be as far from home plate 
as ever. But that, unfortunately, is too much the role of the average teacher 
today. Few students confuse their teachers with living, forceful person- 
alities. It is an unusual school that drops the traditional teacher-pupil re- 
lationship and permits freedom of expression. How to build on what is 
now the best and where to make a start are matters of real concern to 
many. The answer is, right where you stand, whether you happen to be 
the teacher of a one-room school, the agriculture teacher in a village high 
school, or an instructor in . preparing institution. The leaders 


[ 79 ] 


inside teacher-education colleges carry the largest share of the responsibility 
for our educational future, just as they are more to blame than any other 
group for the perpetuation of a time-worn practice of failure. 

Teachers in the future must not identify themselves as they do too 
often now with the interests of the “uptown class.” For an example of 
what is meant, one need only visit a school in such a mill village as the 
one described. Here the teacher, identified with the more privileged mem 


bers of the local society, meets her mill children with the detached manner 
of one who haadles a problem objectively. If she is not deliberately un 
sympathetic, shé will at best perform her task with the charitable manner 
of a missionary come to serve. She thinks and speaks of her wards with 


paternalistic feelings similar to those of the mill owning class she comes 


il 


from Or aspires to. She weighs, Wa hes, and begs clothes for her little 


charges, but she never takes sides in the community unless it is during a 
strike or in some controversy over labor conditions. T1 he will be 


1 


found on the side of the owner. In such a situation it is a rare teacher 
in the mill town who goes to the mill church, who helps to organize 
a parent-teacher group, who identifies herself thru such intimacies as 
going to supper in the homes of her pupils. And the tragedy of the whole 
affair is that should this identification become her natural way of living 
she would soon be thought “responsible for subversive elements growing 
up in the community,” and as likely as not be asked to resign. Therefore, 
being by training, if not by nature, a timid soul, she finally indoctrinates 


1 = | | } ] 
ner student rains I il r their I ndings until she measures her 


success in terms of the number of dissatisfied young people she has helped 
| 


to leave for better parts. Whether it is in the city, in the mill town, or in 
| village, th h morrow, if she is worth her salt, will 


= 
WhOK ommunity. 


. 


mushroom growing in a cellar. Every teacher will explore them with 
her students unless she suffers from pedagogic encephalitis. 

The main idea, then, is this: Pile all the nation’s material assets into one 
lump, and overwhelmingly the potential of our human resources is still 
the greater. During the past ten years we have grown increasingly aware of 
this. We have whipped down the opposition of vested interests to spread 
more widely the benefits of science. We have established agencies of social 


welfare and backed them up by Supreme Court decisions. We have brought 


ownership to farm families, higher wages to industry, and apoplexy to 


the prominent club man in his easy chair. But actually we have only be- 


| 


gun. Some see in the efforts of the past decade not so much the results of 
I 


measurable change as an important reversal of attitude. If this proves to 


be true, then perhaps we may be on our way. The fact remains, however, 


, ' , 
that in large sections of our land we still treat our crops and livestock 


better thas our people. Our barns are still more important than 
our homes, our factories than our schools. In many respects we have not 
] 


yet learned the basic lessons of human conservation, and the irony of it 


is that those regions producing the largest number of children are the 
ones where living is at its lowest. Yet from these ill-favored regions a 


1] a 
ion young men ind women Y into our urban centers. To 


lfare squarely the farmer on the land and 
| ] ’ 
vorkman in the city should join Torces in a demand for equal Oppor- 


? eS Ee ee - ] } 
nas awhole. . uly minged teachers can do much 
1 111 1 7 
Nat will bring results.” 


} 
} 
i 


problems of human we 


need for better 
lly, for more and more 
. Our main problems of 


, 
1 government, employ- 


ment and a livelihood, housing, education, recreation, and self-improve- 
ment and culture. It is true that these problems cannot be totally met by 
the school. When children are poorly nourished, the school can serve a 
wholesome lunch, but it cannot serve breakfast and supper; and it cannot 
secure for economically displaced families the income with which to buy 
all the nourishing food they need. It can usually prevail upon the school 
board to provide a source of good drinking water for the school, but it 
cannot dig safe wells for the homes. It cannot increase the number of 
trained doctors, cannot improve the housing for that third of our nation 
that is said to be poorly housed. 

Even if it were desirable, and usually it is not desirable, the young rural 
teacher in her short term cannot transform the ways of living of the gen- 
eration that constitutes the mothers and the fathers of her pupils. But in 
any community the teacher and parents can and should cooperate in the 
solution of community problems and especially in the development of a 
new generation of citizens who will understand their own problems and 
the nation’s problems and be actively receptive to new ways of living and 
to a changing national economy—more and more able to cope with the 
problems that threaten the nation’s human resources. Beginning in the 
elementary school, children’s studies can be so related to their lives that 
the foundatien is laid for a rural community that will understand 

19 } 


id be able to secure the channels thru which better rural living can be 


~ 


he conservation ¢ 


led such wo 


i 
1 
hk 


nas nee 


} 


om reports of teachers and courses of study 


tudies. This list was checked by several teachers to 
indicate the items which are included in their school programs. The out 
' ’ ; 
line that follows includes the major problems items. 


] 
resent any particular pr 


] | 
levelop! 
I 


and plan ways for meeting 

hool and homes so arranged that we can 
r, or clase work? How can we improve 
from colds? What have rest 


lerly and 


on windows when screens arc not available, making schoolroom attractive, 
planning interesting conversation for the lunch period, having a hot lunch 


at noon, having many interesting things to do when work is done. Height 


and weight records. 


What can we do about the health facilities of our community? 


Discussion of needs and problems: Are there laws that we should observe 
carefully, such as quarantine laws or laws or rules regarding vaccination 
and inoculation, that protect the health of the entre community: What 
are the rules for the care of milk sold in the community and what can indi 
viduals do when these rules are not followed? Does the community need 
a pasteurizing plant? A cold storage food locker? How might the people 
secure either? Where can we get the information we need? 

Is there a hospital accessible to the people of the community? What do 
we need to learn about it? If there is no hospital, what can the people do 
in normal times to secure one or to secure hospital services elsewhere 4 What 
do nurses do tor people? How many nurses are there who serve our com 
munity? How many doctors? How many people for each doctor’ 

How do most of the families get their drinking water? What health regu 
lations should be observed to have the water pure enough to drink? Wher« 
should wells be placed in relation to other farm buildings’? How deep should 
they be? 

What are some he safety hazards in schoo] and homes? Are there an 


1 5 
is can remover 


that boys and gu 
+ 


Programs of improvement: The class or a committee and teacher plan 


to a hospital; arrange to talk with a doctor, an intern, a nurse, a 


oatient who is well enough to sce them; visit a sunroom. Pupils send flower: 
or cards to people in the community who are il] It the community 15 
moting a campaign for a hospital, a clinic, or other health services, 
teacher and children arrange to take part by distributing posters, announce 
ments, and other information, and by writing articles for the school news 


paper, making posters, and searching tor information which is needed to 
answer questions which people raise regarding the project. Children hgure 
costs of screening their homes and compare with the cost and durability of 


mosquito netting. Teacher and pupils carry out a program of accident pre 


vention on the playground. Pupils and teacher incorporate the necessary 


precautions into their progr 


ams ot WOrTK and pia LOT home 


How can weimprove and make betic 
j 


Ou S¢ hool club, young ciliz as” li ager c or YOUN imeri an clue Is UU 
club a de : gan ? What makes it so? How is our hool im 
proved by having ul rich is really den atic? What services and 
pleasures do we have thru t ub, such z lunch, attractive school 
grounds, school satiety or ! thw: pat! yl, le and cards to those of us 
who get sick? What plan yy program can ou lub adopt to increase 
usefulness? What service 


government’ 


School activities connected with got ¢ d citizenship: Pupils and 


teacher make a study of oi m rvices in the community and 


( 


interview the officers charye, s uperintendent of schools, 


the county nurse, tl it gent, the 4 agent, the county ri 


omes being bought thr 


promisc 


and 


{cuvi With cooperation ot parents, pupils paint, paper, of decorate 
their own rooms at home. They make cabinets tor torage space, practi 
lj ° j 
keeping kitchen, living room, and bedrooms in order. They plant flowers 


and set out trees and pial - yard attractive As a means ot 


planning their activities they nagazines, bulletins, and catalogs and 
! 


} 


look at pict z ive homes, ti ads, and rooms. 


8. What resources does our community have for self-improvement and cul- 
ture? Do we make all possible use of these? 


Discussion: Children make a list of the resources they know about, such 
as a town or county library, handcrafts, music, museums and local relics, 
history, and ways of learning about the culture of other communities and 
nations. 

Activities: Arrangements are made for individuals or families to have 
library cards in nearby libraries and for each child to have the experience 
of asking for and selecting books. Children work with a committee of 
parents to develop a community library or bookshelf. Organize a handcraft 
activity, such as quilting, rug-weaving, or woodworking, with a committee 
of parents in charge. Make a survey of the American music which is known 
in the community. Make a collection of old sayings and tall tales that belong 
to the community. Write the history of the home community. Arrange for 
an exhibit of historical relics from the community. 


COMMUNITY SCHOOLS IMPROVE HUMAN RESOURCES 


The following excerpts from reports of principals and supervisors are 
evidence that real rural community schools are raising standards of life 
and improving human resources even where many family incomes are 
low. 

HUBBERTVILLE TRIES COOPERATION 
Vay Landers Adams and R. W’. Hollingsworth 


Hubbertville, a rural community located in an upland agricultural 
section of Fayette County, Alabama, covers an area of 250 square miles. 
The school, the geographical center of the community, is twelve miles 
from the nearest town. There is no industry except a few portable saw- 
mills. The two principal occupations are lumbering and farming. The 
average annual cash income does not exceed $500 per family; from 1931 
41 it was around $300. There is only one general store. To take the place 
of the old sixteen-room frame building which burned in 1939, a new 
community schoolhouse valued at $100,000 has just been completed, paid 
for by insurance on the old building, cash donations, WPA funds, con- 
tributions of labor by patrons and pupils, and a small capital outlay by 
the board of education. This new building has no outstanding indebted 
ness. 

Because of the low income among the families, housing in the com- 
munity has not reached as high a standard as the people desire. Only a 
few new houses have been built, but, thru the influence of the school, 
almost every home has made some improvements. Among these are the 
following: the addition of rooms and windows; the remodeling of floor 
and roof spaces; the papering of walls; the painting of interiors and ex- 
teriors; the installation of electricity; and the purchasing, rearranging, re 


SH | 
i } 


37 


finishing, and construction of furniture. Probably the project that has 
added most materially to the community was that of securing electricity. 

The only form of artificial lighting used in the community before 1940 
was that of oil and gasoline lamps. These were used not only in homes but 
also in all public meeting places. The people realized the need for bettr 
lighting. Early in the year a group of representative citizens met with 
officials of the power company and found out steps necessary for bringi ig 
an electric line to the community. A survey was made. Later, a mass mett- 
ing was called at the school and plans were made for an extension of an 
electric line which would serve the community. 

It was necessary for four people to sign contracts for each mile of line. 
Members of the school faculty and a few students visited every home on 
the proposed route. Eighty-two contracts were signed and 14.2 miles of 
line were built. Later seven miles of line were added to serve forty-five 
more families. 

Before this time only ten of the three hundred families represented in 
the school had electricity in their homes. Now almost 50 percent of the 
houses have electricity. Many electric appliances have been bought. Twenty 
refrigerators, thirty-five irons, forty radios, four stoves, two electric sew- 
ing machines, and one washing machine have been bought. This number 
would have been greater had it not been for the fact that people who had 
bought radios operated by batteries, kerosene refrigerators, or other non- 
electric appliances were not financially able to make the exchange. Many 
families have bought less expensive labor-saving devices. 

No physician or dentist lives in the Hubbertville community. It is 
twelve miles to the nearest town in which one lives. The fee for medical 
services is based on mileage—two dollars for the first mile and fifty cents 
for each additional mile. 

In 1937 Fayette County had a health unit for the first ime. The school 
and community have made every effort to make maximum use of it. 
When the health officer comes to the school for routine examinations, 
mothers are urged to come and talk over their problems with him. Pre- 
school, typhoid, and diphtheria clinics are held each summer. Ninety 
percent of the families have come to take immunization measures. 

Recently a dentist sent by the state health department examined the 
teeth of 210 elementary-school children. Only fifteen had perfect teeth. 
Five had fillings. No child below the fourth grade had been to a dentist. 
Parents, teachers, and children are plannings ways and means for taking 
all those who need dental care to a dentist during the school year. 

Thru such home-school projects as those described, the community is 
beginning to realize the benefits to be derived from planning and working 
together for the common good. 


SCHOOLS THAT LEAD COMMUNITIES 


Edward Yeomans, Jr. 


A sweet potato curing house is an insulated frame building, equipped 
with a furnace, in which raw sweet potatoes are placed to ripen. Carroll 
County, Georgia, produces sweet potatoes for home use, but most people 
pile them in a hill of earth for curing. The losses from rot will run from 
10 percent to 100 percent, depending on weather conditions, and even the 
best ones will not keep long after they are removed from the hill. 

The people of Smyrna community, holding meetings once a month 
in the three-room school, became interested in building a curing house 
in order to save the potato crop. The question was discussed at length, 
costs were estimated, and a cooperative association was formed and in 
corporated. But most people were discouraged. The building would cost 
$700, which is big money in a section where the annual cash income is 
$300 per average family. 

Then the school principal stepped in. She took her sixth and seventh 
grades to visit a curing house. The children saw a finished building and 
another that was being built. They got the dimensions, saw each layer of 
insulation, heard the cost of building and operating, and learned how the 
temperature and humidity have to be controlled during the process. 

A report was prepared for the next meeting. Plans furnished by the 
extension department were scaled up to poster size. Information on dietary 
values of sweet potatoes was obtained from the home demonstration agent. 
The material collected on the trip was organized for presentation. Samples 
of hillcured and house-cured potatoes were collected for a taste test. A 
curing-house owner was invited to speak. 

The night of the meeting the schoolhouse was filled. The president of 
the cooperative association opened the meeting and introduced the chil- 
dren, As their collection of information was shared with the adults, in- 
terest grew visibly. The curing-house owner was questioned. The samples 
were tasted. The scale drawings were discussed. 

When the vote was taken a majority wished to build the house at once, 
and subscribed for $115 in stock at $2.50 a share. Four weeks later, when 
the next meeting was held, the secretary reported that the house had been 
built, that it was full to capacity, that over $200 had been collected in 
stock, and that a loan had been made for the balance which would be 
repaid in a year. People said among themselves that he school had done 
the community a real service. 

Tallapoosa School, also in Carroll Cour ty, is another three-room country 
school, Student teachers from West Georgia College live in the com 
munity and work in the school under the direction of the principal. 

In a county having no public health facilities and where a doctor is 

[ 8&8 ] 


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usually called as a last resort when all other remedies have failed, food 
ts the best guarantee of health. Every family has a kitchen garden but 
not every family has the equipment to can vegetables for winter use. The 
community, in meetings at the school, decided to build their own canning 
plant. 

It took six months of study and planning to incorporate an association, 
locate equipment, visit other canneries, and raise the $500 necessary to 
begin. A building was bought, sawed in half, and hauled in two pieces to 
the site. Second-hand equipment was found in a nearby plant which had 
been closed. One hundred and twenty-five people bought at least one 
share at $2.50. A water pump was installed to serve both the school and 
the cannery. 

When the plant finally opened, the season was well advanced, but 
nevertheless, 10,000 cans were put up for winter use. The followiftg sum- 
mer was better and the treasurer reported at the meeting in December 
that 36,000 cans of fruit, vegetables, and meats had been prepared in the 
cannery. Most of this food went into homes but some of it was sold for 
a good profit. 

Corn meal is a staple, not only for people but for hogs, cattle, and 
chickens as well. When the privately owned corn mill was moved from 
the community, the people decided to instal their own. More stock was 
sold, a building was donated, and equipment was bought and installed. 
A sign above the door reads: 


Tallapoosa Cooperative Mill 
The farmers of this community have paid for many mills 
This is one they really own 


Other communities have been Jed into similar projects by their schools. 
Burwell has a lunchroom, a five-acre garden, and a cannery. Sand Hill 
has a lunchroom and a cannery. Smithfield is planning a prepaid veterins 
ary service. Hulett is planning to buy a tractor and combine. 

Films are shown at meetings. Men, women, and children attend and 
take part in singing games after the discussion. Sometimes refreshments 
are served; occasionally a play is given. Recreation and business go to- 
gether, young people and adults contributing equally. 

The directors of the various community associations have formed a 
county cooperative association. Last summer they marketed $1600 worth 
of fresh vegetables together by hauling them to Atlanta. Now they are 
beginning to purchase farm supplies cooperatively. A credit union organ- 
ized by the teachers of the county has been duplicated by the employees 
of a cotton mill. 

The communities are studying dehydration and hope to instal at least 
one dehydrator for use when cans are scarce. They wish to buy farm 


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machinery cooperatively to make up for farm labor shortage. They expect 
to grow more food crops for their own use and for market. Above all, 
they are beginning to realize that many of our so-called national problems 
have roots in communities like theirs, and they are building new concepts 


of democracy thru self-help. 


COOPERATIVE SCHOOL PROGRAMS 


Juliet R. Ware 


In a group of schools in Virginia, the teachers of the elementary schools 
and the teachers of home economics and agriculture in the high school 
planned their work cooperatively so that for three or four hours each week 
the children of the elementary school might have the benefit of guidance 
from teachers especially trained for vocational instruction. Following are 
some of the school and home activities that resulted: 


1. Survey and study of home and community life with regard to the eco- 
nomic status of the family, homemaking practices, housing facilities, garden- 
ing. 

. Unit on better gardens in elementary grades. Study of foods. 

. Preparation of Christmas candies and cookies. 

. Bats for games made in agriculture shop. 

. Preparation and serving of foods. 

. Study and construction of garments. 

. Decoration of lunchroom. 

. Learning to be hosts and hostesses for lunchroom. 

. Building workbenches for classrooms. 

. Making window curtains for classrooms. 

11. Inviting parents to school to observe class at work on diet and to par- 
ticipate in discussions. 

12. Surveying community to find recreational centers and types of recrea- 
tion in the homes. 

13. Learning songs and games for recreation at school and at home. 

14. Making dresses, tea towels, and scarfs at home and at school. 

15. Keeping schoolrooms and homes more attractive. 

16. Canning fruits and vegetables. 

17. Planting and caring for vegetables and flower gardens at school and at 
home. 

18. Changing back office into a kitchen, a back hall into a bedroom; making 
and keeping each classroom attractive; improving personal appearance. 


CONSERVATION MEANS BETTER RURAL LIVING 
Henry Wallace 


There can be no real barrier between conservation of the natural re- 
sources and conservation of human resources because the one is the result 
of the other. In Zena, Oklahoma, for example, the school-community con- 


[ go } 


10] 


servation program has resulted in a definite rise in standards of living, 
and that without the introduction of new resources or fundamental changes 
in rural economic policies. The program began with the teachers’ and 
pupils’ survey of the community history and resources, both natural and 
human—a study which rather startlingly showed that the resources of the 
community were being wasted and destroyed thru careless practices in 
farm and home management. : 

The Pupils Survey Their Community 

The following summary of the survey findings was compiled from in- 
formation gathered and recorded by the pupils. Numerical data were 
placed on three- by five-inch cards for the various families in the com 
munity and filed alphabetically. 

The Zena community is relatively young. Sixty years ago the land now 
comprising the Zena school district was inhabited by the Cherokee In- 
dians. It was not until 1892 that white people moved from the state of 
Arkansas to lease or rent the land from the Indians here. The Indians 
were not farmers. They let nature assist them to make their meager living, 
and when the white people came to this locality they found virgin forests 
of oak, hickory, pine, cedar, walnut, and other species. They also found 
some very desirable looking land hidden beneath this forest region. Too, 
they found an abundance of clear streams to encourage them to invest 
immediately in the livestock business. These newcomers to the Indian 
country went thru the forests clearing them and sowing the soil to crops 
to provide winter feed for their animals. 

They soon began purchasing smal! tracts of land from the Indians and | 
before very long their Indian friends were pushed to the southern part 
of the school district, where a few of the families still reside. The new 
farmers used the best timber for fences and buildings about their farms. 
They burned the remainder of the woodland to make room for their 
agricultural products. The clearing of the forest lands and the planting of 
row crops each year caused the land to wash badly, resulting in accelerated 
soil erosion. Each spring the farmers habitually burned what woodlands 
were left to rid them of ticks and insects, and this continual burning caused 
the timber to die youny or to become Very poor in quality. 

Today, in the community served by the Zena School, there are seventy 
families. Of these, go percent own their farms and the remaining 10 per- 
cent are renters. Livestock raising is the main industry, supplemented by 
tie-cutting and Jumbering now and then as convenient, and by the raising 
of farm crops, such as wheat, corn, oats, tame pasture grasses, grain sorg- 
hums, truck crops, and fruit. 

The farms range from ten acres to wo-hundred acres in size. The aver- 
age is about eighty acres. Altho 60 percent of the farmers have good pas 
tures of tame grass, which is practically enough to support their cattle the 


[| 


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year round, about 75 percent of them still use the range because the grass 
out there is exceptionally good and there is plenty of water. The people 
work together in looking after one another's cattle on the range. The 
plan is effective and profitable. 

The livestock consists mostly of beef cattle, altho several farmers have 
dairy cows and sell cream to the creameries at nearby towns, and others 
have sheep and goats. Nearly every farmer has a few hogs. 

Most of the truck crops are consumed at home, altho berries and vege- 
tables are marketed. The aim of most farmers in these small crops is 
mainly to raise enough feed for their stock and food for their families the 
year round, Practically every family has poultry, mostly chickens, and the 
eggs are marketed. 

The Zena School has two teachers. Fifty-one pupils are enrolled. It is 
not a teacher school, or even a teacher-pupil school, only; but a community 
school, which is organized to serve educationally the life and needs of the 
community and in turn to be served and supported by the community. 
The school does not patronize or attempt to reform the district, but tries 
to help the children grow in being citizens in a community that is itself 
growing, economically, culturally, and spiritually. 

To meet the needs of the community, for ¢xample, for two years the 
school has -opened the first Monday in August in order that the pupils 
might get thru the nine months by the middle of April in time to assist 
with the planting of the spring crops. The pupils also help with the sum- 
mer harvest. In this way young people grow up with a fine feeling of 
responsibility for making farming a good way of living. To offset the 
danger of “all work and no play,” attempts are made by the school and 
4-H Clubs to add meaning and interest to the farm work which the chil- 
dren do and to provide recreation by encouraging hobbies, parties, and 
plenty of play in and out of school. Altho there is fall harvesting to be 
done after the opening of school, few of the children have to miss school 
for this. Last year the pupil attendance for the nine months was 95.5 
percent. The pupils walk from one-fourth to three miles to school each 
morning and the same distance home at the end of the day. 

In serving the school, the community is unusually alert and cooperative. 
As their contribution to the school lunch parents and children at home 
have canned twenty-five quarts of fruit and vegetables for each child they 
have in school. Last year the average number of visits from parents was 
nine per week. This year, in less than a month of school, there have been 
visits from sixty-four parents lasting from two hours to all day. They 
come to school to help and to see how the work and progress of their 
children compare with those of other children. Each Christmas the school, 
church and community sponsor a Christmas tree and program. Last vear 
ninety parents comprising fourteen committees served, and not one failed 


to perform his job. 


Conservation Needs Are Revealed 


Thru this study of the community, problems of conservation were 
brought strongly to our attention. The pupils found that the tie-cutters, 
who are chiefly Indians, can scarcely find timber with which to make 
crossties. The Indians themselves say that they make only 20 percent as 
many crossties today as they did ten years ago because good timber is 
hard to find. The farmers, too, are complaining about the shortage of 
timber with which to make the posts to which their wire fencing is at- 
tached. Wild cherry, cedar, and locust timber are being replaced with a 
poorer grade of white oaks at twice the price because of the shortage of 
good trees. The local sawmill operator told a group of 4-H Club members 
that native timber is the poorest today that he can remember, and he has 
been sawing native lumber for consumer purposes for twelve years. Yet 
the farmers’ low incomes do not permit them to buy steel posts for their 
fences. The pupils also found that the people in the community that wanted 
to do any building were practically forced to buy expensive lumber from 
the lumber yards, or to use native stone, if they wanted to build a good 
building. 

The pupils have learned thru field trips with the county agent and their 
teachers that the soils in the community are badly eroded. They have 
noticed that crop production is continually decreasing on their own farms. 
The pupils noticed gullies of different sizes on most of the farms visited, 
but the county agent told them that they could not see the most dangerous 
kind of erosion, that of sheet and wind erosion, thru which small layers of 
the soil are taken until the most valuable part of the soil is gone before 
the farmer actually misses it. 

The field trips also taught the pupils that many of the farms suffered 
from water shortage for livestock purposes. They soon learned that this 
was the reason for the “open range” system in use today thru which the 
farmers could turn their livestock into the open and let them graze and 
hunt water. 

The visits to the farm homes showed that many did not have cellars, 
smoke-houses, or vegetable storage bins in which to store food for the 
winter months.People from the community were invited to the school and ~ 
they told the boys and girls that many people today do not store food for 
winter because they can buy what they want at any time from the local 
stores. They also told the pupils that the common practice today is to 
market the products as soon as they are harvested. Apparently few had 
considered the money that might be saved by producing food at home. 


Conservation Program for the Woodlands 


The pupils decided they could help with the problems that were so 
prominent within their community. They are doing many things today 
toward a substantial forest program. They have educational talks and 


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104 


pictures to show the need for preventing and stopping the annual burning 
of our woodlands. This practice is fast decreasing. The pupils have en- 
couraged one young farmer to plant one thousand catalpa trees for future 
post timber. With the help of the school and the county agent, these posts 
were purchased from the state forestry division at a very small cost. The 
boys and girls get bulletins from the county agent, the state agricultural 
college, the state forestry service, and from the U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture to give and lend to the farmers interested in protecting the wood- 
lands. They write stories and timely topics about the value of the forest 
lands and the need for protecting them. They write and present team 
demonstrations on the best kind of timber to select for making posts and 
on showing the damage done thru burning the forest lands. They also 
write weekly news articles to the county papers praising the work of those 
farmers who are doing outstanding work in protecting our timber re- 
sources. 


Conserving the Farm Land 


The 4-H Club has three terracing teams that compete in the annual 
terracing contests held in the county. These teams always make a good 
showing because of the interest they have in the terracing program. There 
are more than 150 acres of terraced farmland in the Zena community and 
every farmer who has the terraces is proud of them. They can now see the 
water that the terraces hold for the soil and can also see actual evidence of 
the soil that remains above the terraced ridges after each rain. Other farm- 
ers are considering the building of terraces. Only a few weeks ago the 
4-H Club members helped the county agent survey some terrace lines for 
a farmer. Over 60 percent of the remaining crop land in the community 
is planted to tame pastures that provide grass for the farmer’s livestock 
thruout the year. The farmers have discovered that the pasture grasses 
hold the soil and furnish the cheapest form of feed for their livestock. 
Over 50 percent of the local farmers cooperate with the federal govern- 
ment in the program of soil building. When the farmers meet at the 
school to discuss better soil-building practices, the pupils are excused from 
classes to attend. These father-son discussions have always been worth- 
while. 


Building Farm Ponds 


The boys in the 4-H Club wanted to do something about the shortage 
of water for the livestock on many of the farms. They wrote the county 
agent for bulletins describing farm ponds and distributed these to the 
farmers of the community. The farmers became interested and cooperated 
with the county agent and the county commissioner in getting machinery 
into the community to build farm ponds. Today, twelve farms have ponds 


[ 94 ] 


105 


that hold sufficient water to meet the needs of the farmers. Most of the 
farmers now keep their livestock on tame pastures where they have an 
abundance of feed and water and do not risk losing them by turning them 
on the open range. This has also caused the farmers to take more pride 
in their fences and they keep them in good shape now. 


The Farm Family Food Supply Program 


The Zena School sponsored the Farm Family Food Supply Program 
for the county agent's office during March. This program planned to get 
every farm family to produce three-fourths of the family food at home. 
The pupils worked one week with the committee and forty-seven of the 
seventy families signed pledges to cooperate. The plan is working and 
more farm families are preserving and storing food than at any time dur- 
ing the past ten years. This is truly a live-at-home program. The coopera- 
ting farm families receive bulletins at regular intervals from the county 
agent's office to assist them in getting greater production by properly fer- 
tilizing the soil, destroying the insects, and skilfully harvesting the crops 
produced. 


The Program Carries On 


The conservation program of the Zena School will continue to serve 
the community because practically every farmer is aware of the need. Dur- 
ing the past four years the school pupils have developed the following ac- 


tivities: 


1. Maintaining an up-to-date conservation library. 

2. Learning the state game laws and studying the life history of protected 
wildlife to see the reason for the laws. 

3. Practicing fire control, especially on camping trips. 

4. Learning the part that various departments of the state and national 
government play in conservation. 

5. Discussing farmer-sportsman relationships. 

6. Building birdhouses and feeding stations for the birds. 

>. Studying the value of birds to the farmers of the community. 

8. Learning to identify the useful and harmful kinds of insects found in 
the community, and learning how to control harmful insects. 

g. Learning to identify trees. 

10. Learning the names, location, and quantity of wild flowers found in 
the community. 

11. Learning to appreciate the beauty and fragrance of wiid flowers without 
gathering them. 

12. Transplanting native shrubbery on the school lawn and on home farm 
lawns. 

13. Learning to identify the noxious weeds. Knowing the weeds that can 
be used as food. Knowing weed seeds from seed grains. 


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106 


14. Assisting to control erosion by filling gullies with rocks, loose straw, and 
so forth, by planting tame pasture grasses, and by using terraces. 
. Helping parents to preserve food for winter's use. 
. Making a potato storage bin for farm use. 
7. Learning how to butcher hogs and to cure meac for winter's use. 
. Keeping the school lawn mowed, the trees whitewashed, and the toilets 
in sanitary condition thruout the year and not just during the regular school 
months. 


Pupils “Think Conservation” 


An article from one of the pupils shows the earnestness with which con- 
servation of the community's resources is regarded. 


We should consider the soil of our farm, because our government depends on 


us for food and clothing. Alfalfa or other legume crops can be planted to add 
nitrogen to the soil and make it fertile. 

Terracing saves the top layer of the soil. Only five percent of the soil con- 
tains plant food. I live on a farm that has 30 acres of terraced land. Terracing 
helps save the soil in many ways: (1) They keep it from washing; (2) they 
stop sheet erosion; (3) they stop gulley erosion. Don’t let your farm wash away. 
“Terrace it. —Bobby Lee Stevens. 


CHAPTER V 


Summary and Sources of Information 


Charles N. Elliott 
THE OUTLOOK FOR CONSERVATION EDUCATION! 


OR MORE TH®S.4 QUARTER OF A CENTURY schools here and there have 
Freslized Kow important it is that children be taught the significance 
of a wise use of the natural and human resources, and have provided 
instruction in conservation. In recent years this interest in conservation 
education has broadened.” In June 1937 a group of leaders in conser- 
vation and conservation education gathered in Washington at the request 
of the commissioner of education, John W. Studebaker, to discuss the 
need for a program of conservation education that would be nationwide 
in its scope and effectiveness. At this conference it was agreed that such 
a program is desirable and that it should involve (1) detailed and con- 
tinuous search for truth on the part of the nation’s scholars; (2) presenta- 
tion of the facts discovered in such a way that laymen—both adults and 
children—can understand them; (3) preparation of teachers; and (4) ex 
pert guidance of learners in their participation in solving the problems. 
To this end, the group agreed, the efforts of the various agencies and or- 
ganizations working to further the cause of conservation education should 
be coordinated.* 

Since that group made its recommendations, teachers, school adminis 
trators, conservation agencies, Commissions, and organizations have con 
tinued their attempts to arouse a conservation Consciousness In the United 
States. It is true that the nation’s outstanding needs for conservation have 
not been met. Desired objectives have not been achieved. As Mr. Darling 
points out in Chapter I, lapses, selfishness, ignorance, halfheartedness, and 
failures have marked the efforts of many from whom real accomplishments 
have rightfully been expected. Applying certain words of Winston Church- 
ill to the conservation education situation, we might say that we have 
not reached the end of our goals nor even the beginning of the end. We 

1The section on “The Outlook for Conservation Education” is a summary prepared by 
the editor. 

“See William H. Bristow and Katherine M. Cook, Conserration in the Education Ph 


gram, U. S. Dept. of the Interior Bulletin 1937, No. 4, available from the Government 


Printing Office, Washington, D. C. This bulleun gives an overview ot i 


prowess made in 
introducing conservation into the school program and describes instructional practices which 
have been successfully followed 

3U. S. Department of the Interior, Office of Education, Report No. 5312. Washington, 
Db, C.; the Department. 9 p. (Mimeo.) 


[ 97 | 


108 


Courtesy Jay N. Darling 


The Conservation Interests 
Can Get What They Need 
if They Will Pull Together 


have some justification perhaps for saying that we are approaching the 
end of the beginning. 

The nation’s scientists daily are discovering more of the truth about 
our resources and about the type of utilization that is in harmony with 
continuously rising standards of civilization. As a glance at the bibliog- 
raphy reveals, writers and publishers, interpreting the truths discovered, 
have given us delightful books for children and helpful publications for 
adults, so that no longer does the person who can read have any excuse for 
not knowing how significant to the welfare of the nation are the wise use 
and replenishment of our natural resources. In Chapter I] Mr. Palmer 
presents in useful statements specific illustrations of what teachers and 
children need to learn. Some spread in conservation consciousness is shown 
by the studies mentioned by Mr. Palmer on pages 32 and 33. Most sig 
nificant educationally, perhaps, are the implications of Chapter III, show 
ing that many schools are providing conservation education which 
functions more and more in the lives of boys and girls, our future citizens. 
Not just “to learn about conservation,” not just “to study the natural 
resources,” not just “to perform classroom experiments,” are the children’s 
goals in the reported activities, but actual conservation in their homes and 
communities, and increased background and ability to think thru the 
national and world implications of conservation problems which they are 
helping in their small way to solve. 

What is the outlook for the nation? Will the United States continue to 
neglect her resources or will the citizens of tomorrow conserve? Can we 
look forward to a unified, effective program of nationwide conservation 
education? Teachers can determine the answers to these questions. They 
can help unify the contributions of various agencies to the education pro- 
gram. They can prepare a generation of citizens who thru their votes, 
influence, and example will bring about a utilization of the nation’s re- 
sources that will result in the maximum advancement of the human race. 
Because of their close contacts with their communities, rural teachers have 
an especially significant contribution to make. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY * 


A bibliography is presented here with the idea of giving examples 
of types of publications that will prove useful in the study of con 
servation of the natural resources. For helping pupils understand the 
conservation of human life, strength, and culture, many rural teachers are 
using texts and supplementary books in the social studies, health, and 
natural sciences, and for their own reading, such publications as those of 


*For assistance in securing and checking bibliographical detail, the author is indebted 
to Anna Clark Kennedy, senior supervisor of school libraries, and to Ruth Evans Babcock, 
assistant supervisor of school libraries, New York State Education Department, Albany. 


[ 99 ] 


110 


Paul De Kruif, David Cushman Coyle, Bertram Fowler, E. Franklin 
Frazier, Liston Pope, Arthur Raper, Paul B. Sears, Elsie Clapp, Kate V. 
Wofford, Fannie W. Dunn, Frank W. Cyr, and Iman E. Schatzmann. 
We regret that it is impossible to include in this brief publication more 
of the excellent books and bulletins now available. In order that teachers 
who desire additional materials may know where to get them, other 


bibliographies are listed on page 113. Inexpensive bibliographies can be 


secured from state and federal government agencies. Most textbooks and 
reference books on conservation contain bibhographies. Librarians are 


prepared to advise and help secure materials 


GENERAL REPERENCES 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 


Brunerx, Hexsert B.. and Smiru, Maser C. Conserving Our Natural Re 
sources. New York: Charles E. Merrill Co., 1938. 136 p. 

General and well-written story of our natural resources. Simple enough for 
elementary grades. Treats several specific resources, such as coal, oil, forests, 
soil, but omits others, such as wildlife and water. Interesting problems at the 
end of each chapter. 

Butcer, Ovip. American Conservation in Picture and Story. Washington, D. C.: 
American Forestry Association, 1941. 144 p. 

If according to an old Chinese proverb one picture is worth 10,000 words, 
then this book is a treasure house ot knowledge about the past, present, and 
future of our natural resources. Protusely illustrated with outstanding pho- 
tographs. Grade V and up. 


Evuiorr, Cuarces N. Conservation of American Resources. Atianta, Ga.: Tur- 
ner E. Smith and Co., 1g40. 672 p. 

A story of the past, present, and future outlook of major natural resources 
in America, including wildlife, minerals, forests, water, soil, and parks. 
Contains messages by conservation leaders. Lists suggestions for study and 
activities at end of each chapter. Lists conservation works, readings in con- 
servation, and sources of information. Has selected bibliographies and lists 
of agencies that serve conservation education, Well illustrated. Text simple 
and readable for students trom sixth grade thru high school. 


Books for Teachers and Library 


Carter, J. F. Remaking America. (By Jay Franklin.) Boston: Houghton 
Mittin Co., 1942. 28> p. 

A tresh viewpoint trom the pen of a newsman, of the same old story of 
the dissipation and rehabilitation of the natural resources of America. Re- 
sources properly evaluated in war effort. 

Crass, Stuart. Rich Land, Poor Land. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 
1936. 301 p. 

Best and most interestingly written book on the resources of America, 
their original abundance, their exploitation, and steps toward rehabilitation. 
Special attention to TVA as symbol of new spirit of conservation in America. 
All important resources listed. Recommended tor libraries and teachers. 


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111 


Grover, KatHertne. 4merica Begins Again. New York: McGraw-Hill Book 
Co., 1939. 382 p. 
Story of America’s major resources with special emphasis on soil and 
water. Well written. 
Parkins, A. E., and Wuttaker, J. Ro. Gar Natural Resources and Their Con- 
servation, New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1936. 646 p. 
Written by a group of experts on major phases ot natural and human re 
sources. Emphasis on soil and water as the basic resources. Writing too 
mature tor lower grades. 


Van Hise, Cruarces Ricuvrp. Conservution of Our Natural Resources. (kdited 
by Loomis Havemeyer and others.) New York: Macmillan Co., 1930. 551 p 
Minerals, water, forests, the land, wildlite, and conservation and mankind. 
Excellent as to approach and detail. Writing too mature tor school children. 


sot 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 
Burces, Austin Farce. So Erosion Control. Atlanta, Ga.: Turner E. Smith 
and Co., 1938. 221 p. 

Jumior high-school book based on details familiar to children and explain 
ing technic of terraces, dams, contour furrows, and other erosion control. 
Each chapter contains secuion on Held practice suggesting firsthand activities. 
For teachers and Grades VI VII. 

Kettoce, Cruarces b.. The Sods That Support Us. New York: Maemullan Co., 
IQ4T. 370 p. 

A story of the soil: how itis made, the many forms or types in which it 

is tound, and how it is used. Upper grades 


Lorp, Russet. Behold Our Lund. Boston Houghton Mittin Co. 1938. 3o7 ). 
Case history ot soils and related subjects Stories that tell tacts more dra 
matically than the tacts themselves. Recommended tor upper grades. 
Books for Teachers and Labrary 
BENNETT, He con HamMMonp Soil Conse ation New York MeGrran Lisl} Book 
Co., 1939. 993 p. 
Kook of soils, their origin, use, and treatment 
Gustarson, A. F. Soils and Sou Management. New York: MeGraw-Hill Book 
Co., 1941. 424 p. 
Story of soil formation, movement, and control in detail. Questions tor 
study at ends of chapters. College grad 
U.S. Department or Acricutture. Sols and Men. Yearbook. Washington, 
DD. C.: Government Printing Office. 1938. 1232 p 
Much that has been learned about soil is written in this book by com 
petent soil specialists. 
Pamphlets and Bulletins 
Lorpv, Russert. To Ilold This Sod. U.S. Departinent ot Agriculture, Mis 
cellaneous Publication No. 321, August 1938. Washington, D.C 
ment Printing Office. 193%. 122 p. 


Crovern 


U.S. Devanrmentr or Ackicutturr. New Landmarks of Sod Conservation 
Soil Conservation Service, Miscellaneous Publication No. 473. Washington, 
1. C.: Government Printing Othee, 1942. 20 p. 

See also other publications of the U.S. Department of Agricultur 


' 


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112 


WATER 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 
Barr, M. E. The Wonders of Water. New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1938. 
122 p. 
Story of water told in an interesting way. Includes the work of water, 
explains clouds, rain, vapor, dust, ice. Discusses the power of water and 
tells how water can be made pure enough for drinking. Grades V-VIII. 


Houway, Hore K. The Story of Water Supply. New York: Harper and 
Brothers, 1929. 134 p. 
Man sometimes tails to use wiscly the water he has and when the level 
ot underground water becomes so low that wells run dry, farmers have to 
borrow water and city people have to buy at. Grades V-VIIL. 


Pryor, Witt Craytox, and Stosayx, Heres. Water—Wealth or Waste. 
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1939. 242 p. 
One ot the most useful books tor studying the conservation of water in 
relation to its effect on people. Facts about city water systems, famous canals, 
Water as a source of power, water mining and manutacturing, Hoods, Hood 


control, and irrigation. Grades VUTX. 


Pamphlets and Bulletins 
Person, Hartow S. Little Wat Washington, 1), « Government Printing 


Office, 1936. 82 ~ 
Study ot he adw Ater streams an l other litthe waters their use ind relation 


to the land 


S. Depanraenr or Ace citrine. Farmstead Water Supply. Farmers Bul- 
1448. Washington, D. ¢ vernment Printing Ofhee, 1933. 38 p. 


Books for Pupils and Cla om 
Penton, Carrore Lane. Ou racing Earth « York: Doubleday, Doran 
and Co. 1938. 346 p. 
Vivid story of geological history of the carth, tascinating, simple, clear. 


Grades V-VIII. 


Greentnc, Martua. The Story of Mining. New York: Harper and Brothers, 
1931. 163 p. (City and Country Series) 

Simple story of minerals, how they are made ready tor everyday use, how 
they should be conserved. Grades V-VIII 


ScHUCHERT, Cuarces, and Le Verne, C. M. Earth and Its Rhythms. New York: 
LD). Appleton Century Co., 1927. 409 p 
Nontechnical and yet a clean-cut and interesting story on geology and the 
earth. 


Wircomse, Warrace H. All about Mining. New York: Longmans, Green 
and Co., 1937. 269 p. 

Conservation story of ores that come out of the ground to be made into 

minerals and how minerals are converted into the things we use in our daily 


lives. Grades VILVIIT 


113 


Books for Teachers and Library 


Emmons, W. H., and otners. Geology: Principles and Processes. New York: 
McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1939. 451 p. 
Comprehensive book on geology. 


Krsssuinc, O. E. Minerals Yearbook 1932-33. U. S. Dept. of the’ Interior, Bur 
eau of Mines. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1933. 819 p. 


Loomis, Freperic Brewster. Field Book of Common Rocks and Minerals. 
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1923. 352 p. 
Book for identifying the rocks and minerals of the United States and in 
terpreting their origin and meanings. 


Pamphlets and Bulletins 


Cornett Rurar Scnoou Learcer. U. S. Minerals and Us. Ithaca, N. Y.: New 
York State College of Agriculture and the Department of Rural Education, 
1942. 32 p. 

Practical material in a subject that so far has been too meagerly treated in 
children’s conservation material. 


FOREST AND FORESTRY 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 


Atwater, Montcomery M. Flaming Forest. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 
1941. 212 p. 

Readable story of forest rangers and their work in the forests in the West, 

seen thru the eyes of a boy. Accurate and interesting. Grade V and up. 
Butter, Ovip M. Rangers of the Shield. Washington, D. C.: American Fores- 
try Association, 1934. 260 p. 

A forest ranger’s job is to protect forests from fire, keep trails open and 
telephone lines up, enforce hunting laws, and make tourists comfortable. 
Rangers have adventures and narrow escapes. In this collection are twenty- 
nine stories told by forest rangers. Grades VI-VIII. 

Pack, Cuarces Laturop. The Forestry Primer, Washington, D. C.: American 
Tree Association, 1926. 32 p. 
Simple lessons in forestry for the lower grades. 
Pack, Cuarces Laturop. The School Book of Forestry. Washington, D. C.: 
American Tree Association, 1922. 159 p. 
The importance of forests to man is vividly stressed. Grades VI-VIII. 
Pack, CHarves Laturop, and Git, Tom. Forest Facts for Schools. New York: 
Macmillan Co., 1938. 336 p. 

Deals with the forest as man’s ally in civilization—the trees, the forest, 
its products and its enemies, and the science of forestry. Has exercises for 
field study and problem questions. Grades V-IX. 


Books for Teachers and Library 
Ituick, Josepn S. dn Outline of General Forestry. New York: Barnes and 
y 
Noble, 1939. 297 p. : 
Includes insect enemies and their control by natural and artifical means; 
tree diseases and their control; protection of forests against fires. Presumably 


a book for students of forestry, but useful for teachers and curriculum 
specialists for conservation of forests. Authoritative. 


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114 


Moon, F. F., and Brown, N. C. Elements of Forestry. New York: John Wiley 
and Sons, 1929. 409 p. 

Covers many elements of forest management in detail. 

Pamphlets and Bulletins 

Feperar Sectrity Acency, U.S. Orrice or Epucation. Farm Forestry. Voca- 
tional Division Bulletin 196. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing 
Office, 1939. 63 p. 

U. S. Department oF AcricuLture. Care and Improvement of Farm Woods. 
Farmers’ Bulletin 1177. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office. 
26 p. 

U. S. Department or Acricutture. Cutting Farm Woods Profitwise. Agri- 
cultural Leaflet No. 30. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 
1928. 4 p. 

U. S. Department oF Acricutture. Forest Farming. Farmers’ Bulletin 1794. 
Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1938. 18 p. 


TREES 
Books for Pupils,and Classroom 
Cueyney, E. G. What Tree Is That? New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 
1930. 185 p. 

Excellent presentation of tree identification, covering approximately one 
hundred American trees. Simple language, capable of creating an interest in 
trees. 

CoLtincwoop, Grorct Harris. Knowing Your Trees. Washington, D. C.: 
American Forestry Association, 1941. 109 p. 


Simple ‘ext, close-up photographs of each tree in all seasons, close-up of 
leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark. 


Rocers, Jutta E. The Tree Book. New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1931. 
565 p. a 


Guide to the trees of North America and to the use and cultivation of trees. 


Books for Teachers and Lil rary 
Matuews, F. Scuvuyier. Field Book of American Trees and Shrubs. New 
York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1923. 465 p. 
Identification book of all the trees in the United States, written in simple 
terms. Excellent reference work as well as field guide. 
SARGENT, CHARLES SpracuE. Manual of Trees of North America. Boston: 
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933. gro p. 
A guide to the trees of this continent. Complete, concise, and semitechnical. 
Excellent library reference book. 
Van Dersat, Wittiam R, Native Woody Plants of the United States. Wash- 
ington, D. C.: Government Prinung Office, 1938. 362 p. 
Thoro technical discussion, 


Pamphlets and Bulletins 


Mattoon, Wirsur R. Forest Trees and Forest Regions of the United States. 
U. S. Dept. of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication No. 217. Washington, 
D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1936. 55 p. 


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115 


PLOWERS 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 


Harvey, Jane. Wild Flowers of America. Racine, Wis.: Whitman Publishing 


Co., 1932. 96 p. 
A simple guide book to wild flowers that every boy and girl can under- 
stand and appreciate. Grades I-VIIT. 
Howse, Homer D. Wild Flowers. New York: Macmillan Co., 1934. 362 p. 
Complete flower identification book with which the study of wild flowers 
is made simple. Grades I-VIII. 
Matnews, F. Scuvyrer. Book of Wild Flowers for Young People. New York: 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1923. 397 p. 


Books for Teachers and Library 
Grosvenor, GILBERT; SHOWALTER, W. J.; and Gesk, E. J. Book of Wildflowers. 
Washington, D. C.: National Geographic Society, 1933. 243 p. 
This book includes chapters on our wild flowers and grasses, representing 
some 250 species. 
Matuews, F. Scuvuyzer. Field Book of American Wild Flowers. New York: 
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1929. §9o p. 
Identihcation book of flowers of woods, fields, and meadow. 


BIRDS 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 


Aven, Artuur A. The Book of Bird Life. New York: D. Van Nostrand and 
Co., 1930. 426 p. 

Excellent book to help children learn about birds. It tells ways of building 
sanctuaries, what kind of birdhouses to put up and where to put them, how 
to take bird walks and learn to see the birds and observe interesting things 
about them. 


Astiprook, Frank G. Birds of America. Racine, Wis.: Whitman Publishing 
Co., 1932. 92 p. 
Good pocket identification manual with.pictures. Grades V-VIII 
CHapmMan, Frank M. What Bird Is That? New York: D. Appleton Century 


Co., 1938. 195 p. 
Identification manual describing appearance, habits, and habitat of com 


mon birds. Grades V-VIIT. 


Marnews, F. Scuuyter. Book of Birds for Young People. New York: G. P. 
Putnam's Sons, 1921. 323 p. 

Author describes his observations of common birds of North America at 
different months in entertaining style. Includes chapter on bird migrations 
and one on thirty-hve common bird songs, with pages of musical notes and 
instructions for whistling. Grades VI-VIII. 

Pearson, T. Givpext, editor. Birds of America. Garden City, N. Y.: Garden 
City Publishing Co., 1936. 289 p. 

Book of identification of birds by one of the foremost authorities on the 

subject. Easily understood. 


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116 


SHANKLAND, Frank N. The Bird Book. New York: Saalfield Publishing Co., 
1936. 60 p. 
A book to help in learning to recognize birds by songs, calls, and flight, 
and how best to study and conserve them, Grades IIL-VI 


Books for Teachers and Library 


Grosvenor, Girpert, and Wermore, ALexanper, editors. Book of Birds. Wash- 
ington, D. C.: National Geographic Society, 1939. 2 Vols. 
HEnpeERSON, Junius. The Practical Value of Birds. New York: Macmillan Co., 
1934. 342 p. 
Discusses the usefulness of birds as enemies of insects and plants harmful 
to the farmer. 


Pamphlets and Bulletins 


U.S. Department or Ackicunture, Fifty Common Birds of Field and Orchard. 
Farmer's Bulletin 513. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 
1913. 31 p. 

U. S. Department or Acricurture. Food of Some Well Known Birds of 
Forest, Farm and Garden. Farmer's Bulletin 506. Washington, D. C.: Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, 1922. 34 p. 


U.S. Department or Acricutture. Homes for Birds. Farmer's Bulletin 1456. 
Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1930. 22 p. 


U. S. Department or Acricutture. Some Common Birds Useful to the 
Farmer. Farmer's Bulletin 630. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing 
Office, 1926. 29 p. 


MAMMALS 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 


Bransom, Pauc. Animals of American History. New York: Frederick A, Stokes 
Co., 1939. 50 p. 

When the first white men came to America, many wild animals were more 
helpful than the early settlers first realized. ‘This book tells about the wild 
horses, wild turkey, deer, beaver, moose, raccoon, fox, bison, fur seal, and 
others and explains why they need especial conservation today. Grades 


II-VI. 


“ARR, Wituiam H. The Sur of Nature. New York: Oxtord University Press, 
1930. 208 p. 

Tells how to make exhibits, how to make plaster casts of animal tracks, 

and how to identify animals by the families to which they belong. Grades 


VI-VIII. 


Seton, Ernest THompson. Lives of Game tnimals. New York: Doubleday, 
Doran and Co., 1929. 8 Vols. 
Excellent reading for advanced pupils 


Books for Teachers and Library 


Antuony, H. E. Field Book of North American Mammals. New York: G. P. 
Putnam's Sons, 1928. 625 p. 
Guide book of identification and brief life histories of the animals of the 
continent. 


| 106 | 


117 


Hamitton, Wittiam Joun. American Mammals. New York: McGraw-Hill 
Book Co., 1939. 434 Pp. 


Good reference for teachers and libraries. 
Pamphlets and Bulletins 


Scooonmaker, W. J. The Beaver Boy Series. Albany, N. Y.: American Humane 
Association, 135 Washington Ave., 1941. 

A series of pamphlets about mammals written for children from eight to 
twelve years. Interesting, and beautifully illustrated with photographs by the 
author. Among the numbers in the series are Grizzlecoat, the Woodchuck; 
Flatter, the Beaver; Whitetail, the Deer. Grades 1V-VIII. 


U. S. Department or Acricutture, Breeding of Fur Animals. Washington, 
D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1937. p. 1379-95. Agricultural Yearbook; 
Separate 1603. 

U. S. Department or AGricutture. Trapping on the Farm. Washington, 
D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1920. p. 451-84. Agricultural Yearbook 
1919; Separate 823. 

INSECTS 

Books for Pupils and Classroom 


Kino, Eveanor, and Pessers, Wetimer. Insect People. New York: Harper 
and Brothers, 1937. 63 p. 


Some insects are friends to man; others are deadly enemies. Both types 
are shown in the enlarged pictures in this book. Grades III-VIII. 
Suowarter, W. J., and orners. Our Insect Friends and Foes and Spiders. 
Washington, D. C.: National Geographic Society, 1935. 252 p. 


Book of studies ot interesting insects. Grades VII-VIIL and older. 
Teart, Eowin W. The Boys’ Book of Insects. New York: E. P. Dutton and 
Co., 1939. 237 p. 
Definite directions with diagrams and pictures on how to keep an insect 
zoo, how to make an ant house, and how to mount butterflies and moths. 


Grades V-VIII. 


Books for Teachers and Library 


Comstock, Joun Henry, and oriens, Manual for the Study of Insects. Ithaca, 
N. Y.: Comstock Publishing Co., 1938. gor p. 
Authoritative work on insects. 


Lutz, Frank E. Field Book of Insects of the United States and Canada. New 
York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1935. 510 p. 
Excellent identification book of insects. For library and field and labora- 
tory work. 
FISHES 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 
Morcan, Acrrep P, 4n Aquarium Book for Boys and Girls. New York: 
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936. 180 p. 
Tells how to set up an aquarium and keep it balanced; how to catch fish 
in brooks and small ponds; how to use a minnow seine; what fish to avoid 


in a “community tank.” Discusses shiners, daces, American flag fish, sun- 
hsh, darters, eels. Grades IV-VIII. 


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118 


Morcan, ANN H. Field Book of Ponds and Streams. New York: G, P, Put- 
nam’s Sons, 1930. 448 p. 
A technical and authoritative work, interesting and attractive. It may be 
used as an identification manual both for grades and high school. 


Route, Louis. Fishes, Their Journeys and Migrations. New York: W. W. 
Norton Co., 1933. 270 p. 
Might be called “The Romance of Fish Life.” New approach to life under 
the waters of the earth. Grades VI-VIII. 


Books for Teachers and Library 


Jorpan, Davin Starr. Fishes. New York: D. Appleton Century Co., 1925. 
773 P- 
Brief and comprehensive book of fishes in the United States. 
La Gorce, Joun Oriver. The Book of Fishes. Washington, D. C.: National 
Geographic Society, 1939. 367 p. 
Comprehensive story and identification of lite in fresh and salt water of 
North America. Lite stories of 102 fishes. General story of fish and fish life. 


SCHRENKEISEN, RaymMonp M., and orners. Field Book of Fresh Water Fishes 
of North America North of Mexico. New York: G, P. Putnam's Sons, 1938. 
321 p. 

Helpful tor the identification of fishes toungl in fresh water of North 

America. 


Pamphlets and Bulletins 


U. S. Department oF THE INTERIOR. .fguatic Plants in Pond Culture. Bureau 
of Fisheries Document 948. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 
1923. 


U. S. Department oF THE INTERIOK. Propagation of Pond Fishes. Bureau of 
Fisheries Document 1056. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 
1920. 


U. S. Department oF THE INTERIOR. Propagation and Distribution of Food 
Fishes. Bureau of Fisheries. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 
1938. 


REPTILES—AMPHIBIANS 
Books for Pupils and Classroom 


Eirric, C, W. Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes. Chicago: Rand McNally and 
Co., 1930. 249 p. 

This book is one of the Our Great Outdoors series. Facts about common 
snakes, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, frogs, toads, and fishes. Organization un 
usually helptul for the development of curriculum units. Grades VIEVIUIL, 

Pope, Citrrorp H. Snakes Alive and How They Live. New York: Viking 
Press, 1937. 237 p. 
Story ot good snakes and bad snakes; the ones useful to man and the ones 


which are harmful. Grade VI and above 


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119 


Rooks for Teachers and Library 


Dirmars, Raymono L, The Reptile Book. New York: Doubleday, Doran and 
Co., 1935. 472 p. 
Reptiles of the United States and Mexico, Identification and reference work. 
Porz, Currorn H. Turtles of the United States and Canada. New York: 
Alfred A. Knopf, 1939. 343 p. 

Contains key and descriptions of many common turtles. Includes excel- 
lent photographs of turtles and their eggs. Discusses habits, such as hibernat- 
ing, sunning, nesting, feeding, defense, and ability to adapt to captivity, 
Vocabulary difficult. Useful for teachers and advanced pupils, Helpful for 
curriculum maker, 


STEJNEGER, LEONHARD, and Baxsour, THomas. .f Check List of North American 
Imphibians and Reptiles. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 
1933. 185 p. 


PARKS AND RECREATION 


Books for Pupils and Classroom 


Lanog, Dierricn. Nature Trails. New York: D. Appleton Century Co., 1927. 
261 p. 

Series of stories and articles, some of which arise from the author's ob- 
servations on farms, in city gardens, and in the forest. Some of the observa- 
tions which the author includes in this book suggest things which readers 
can observe for themselves. Grades VI-VIII. 


Lorp, Russet, editor. Forest Outings. Washington, D. C.: Government Print- 
ing Office, 1940. 311 p. 
This book shows the relation of a seasonal vacation to the natural re 
sources of our land. Grades I1V-VIII and higher. 


Books for Teachers and Library 
James, Harcean. Romance of the National Parks. New York: Macmillan Co., 
1939. 240 p. 
History of the national park movement and stories of the various national 
parks, Excellent photographs. 


Pamphlets and Bulletins 


Enving series oF National Park Service Bulletins on all National Parks of the 
United States, Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office. 


SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING CONSERVATION 


Altho most of the following materials are for general use, a few bulletins 
of state departments are included as types for local use, Distribution of some 
of the latter is limited to the state where published; others, such as the Cali 
fornia Science Guides, can be purchased by teachers without respect to their 
location within or without the state. Readers who contemplate the use of mate 
rials published by state departments other than their own should inquire about 
availability before ordering. 


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120 


Brisrow, Winuiam H., and Cook, Karierine M. Conservation in the Educa 
tion Program, U.S, Dept, of the Interior, Office of Education, Bulletin 1937, 
No. 4. Washington, D, C.: Government Printing Office, 1938. 

Tells how conservation is being taught in different elementary and sec- 
ondary schools and gives samples of activities and curriculum units, Con- 
tains bibliographies and lists of conservation agencies. Very helpful. 


Cororapo State Department or Epvucarion. Colorado's Wealth. A Bulletin 
on Conservation of Natural Resources. Denver, Colo.: State Department of 
Education, 1941. 136 p. 

Basic information leading to an “understanding of land problems and the 
effects of the misuse of land resources on the entire population of our coun 
try. 


CONSERVATION CoMMIssion oF West Viroint and Srate DEepaRTMENT OF 
Epucation. Units in Conservation. Wheeling, W. Va.: State Department 
of Education, 1939. Vol. I, 120 p; Vol. II, 128 p. 

Suggestions for the development of units in conservation and their cor- 
relation with other subjects. Suggestions for organization of wildlife lodge. 


Cornell Rural School Leaflet. Periodical. Ithaca, N. Y.: New York State 
College of Agriculture and Department of Rural Education. 

The Cornell Rural School Leaflets, addressed to the rural pupils of New 
York State, are readable and very useful. Teachers outside of New York 
State can subscribe for the leaflets. Many are devoted to phases of conserva- 
tion. Each year a special number addressed to teachers deals chiefly with 
suggestions on teaching. The children’s numbers are also helpful to teachers. 
Conservation numbers are referred to on pages 26, 103, 113. 


wOxTON, W. C. Science in the Elementary School. New York: McGraw-Hill 
Book Co., 1937. 454 p. 
Altho not a book on the teaching of conservation exclusively, this book 
suggests helpful approaches to the study of conservation from the aspect of 
science instruction and is well adapted to the rural school. 


Evans, Evererr FP, “Fish.” A Manual of Conservation for Missouri Teachers. 
No. 7. Jeflerson City, Mo.: Missouri Conservation Commission, 1941. 37 p. 
A manual of information and suggested study activities for pupils. One of 

a series of bulletins, Others are on mammals, birds, etc. 


Feperat Security Acency, U. S, Orrice or Epucation. Conservation Excur- 
sions. Bulletin 1939, No, 13. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing 
Office, 1940. 106 p. 

Suggestions for planning and organizing field trips to study conservation 
firsthand. Contains chart showing where to go, what to observe, and what 
to do in connection with different natural resources. 


Feperat Security Acency, U, S, Orrice or Epucation. Curriculum Content 
in Conservation for Elementary Schools. Bulletin 1939, No. 14. Washington, 
D. C,; Government Printing Office, 1940. 79 p. 

Lists principles and issues concerned with conservation of the natural re- 
sources and gives examples of understanding, activities, and continuing in- 
terests which can be expected to result from a program of conservation educa- 
tion, Contains bibliography. 


[ 110 | 


121 


Feperat Security Acrency, U. S. Orrick or Epucation., Teaching Conserva 
tion in Elementary Schools. Bulletin 1938, No. 14. Washington, D, C.: Gov- 
ernment Printing Office, 1940. 125 p. 

Tells how to help children organize their conservation activities and in 
cludes suggestions for the development of a curriculum unit on the conser 
vation of soil with all grades working together. 


Garpen Cius or America, Conservation Guide. New York: the Club, 598 
Madison Ave., 1939. 46 p. 
Suggestions for activities and surveys, Good bibliographies. 


Loumann, Rutn. Teaching Conservation of Wildlife Through 4-H Cluds. 
U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey, Extension Service, 
Miscellaneous Publication No. 291. Washington, D. C.: Government Print 
ing Office, 1938. 

Among the conservation suggestions for 4-H Club members are many that 
will be of use to teachers. The bulletin also contains information of use to 
teachers who desire to cooperate with 4-H Clubs. 


Mu rorp, Furman Lioyp. Beautifying the Farmstead. U. S. Department ot 
Agriculture, Farmer's Bulletin No. 1087. Washington, D. C.: Government 
Printing Office, 1929. 38 p. 

Written for general readers in readable, usable style, with diagrams and 
suggestions for planting. 

NeEacce, Marcaret. Conservation of the Natural Resources. In “Santa Barbara 
County Units of Study for Teachers in Elementary Schools.” Santa Barbara, 
Calit.: Board of Education, Santa Barbara County, 19309. 

Describes the school and community in which the unit was taught, ex- 
plains the accomplishment expected of pupils at the primary, intermediate, 
and advanced levels, and includes the daily program and a diary account 
of the children’s activities. 


Nortu Dakota State Teacners Coriece. Youth and the Sotl. Mayville, 
N. Dak.: State Teachers College, 194u. 52 p. (Mimeo.) In cooperation with 
North Dakota State Extension Service and the Soil Conservation Service, 
U. S. Department of Agriculture. Available from Regional Office, Soil Con- 
servation Service, Terminal Building, Lincoln, Nebr. 

Bulletin showing how the cdoperating agencies developed materials for 
a curriculum unit on conservation of soil taught by rural schools in the 
vicinity of the college. 


Parmer, E. Laurence. “Conservation Education in the Schools.” Nature Maga- 
zine 32:509-16; November 1939. (Also reprinted by American Nature Asso 
ciation, Washington, D. C.) 

Suggestions for organizing teaching materials and a survey of progress 
made in conservation education, Bibliographies. 


Renner, Georce T. Conservation of National Resources. New York: John 
Wiley and Sons, 1942. 228 p. 

Presents history of conservation movement, problems in conservation of 
various resources, and curriculum methods and materials, Contains bibliog 
raphies of texts, supplementary reading, teachers’ aids, films and other vis 
ual materials, and lists of agencies interested in conservation education, Good 
book for teachers, 


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122 


Ross, W. A., and Scranton, L. L. Landscaping the Farmstead. U.S. Dept. of 
the Interior, Office of Education. Agricultural Series No. 51, Vocational 
Education Bulletin No. 189. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing 
Office, 88 }). 

Altho designed for use in high-school vocational agriculture, this bulletin 
contains helptul suggestions for the teacher of the upper elementary grades, 
including lists of flowers and shrubs and suggestions for diagraming, plan- 
ning, and care that some young children can carry out. 


sence Guide for Elementary Schools. Periodical. Sacramento, Calif.: State 
Departinent of Education. 

Bulletins of intormation to aid in the teaching of science. Nearly all have 
conservation information, Some numbers contain simple keys, such as keys 
to cone-bearing trees; to ferns, mosses, lichens, and related plants; and to 
birds, Most numbers contain suggestions for life activities and ideas for prob- 
lems. All are intended chiefly for use in California schools, and especially to 
promote the cause of conservation education in California. Many are also 
very usetul elsewhere. 

Among the numbers which have most general usefulness are Fresh Water 

lyuaria, by Lea Reid, No. 10, May 1936; Wild Flower Roads to Learning, 
by Carl D, Duncan, No. 8, March 1938; Desert Life, by Gayle Pickwell, No. 

Vebruary 1936; Suggestions to Teachers for the Science Programs in Ele- 
mentary Schools, by Leo F. Hadsall, No. 1, August 1934; Soil, Its Use and 
Conservation, by George W. Graves, No. 2, September 1937; Insects as Ene- 
mies and Benefactors of Mankind, by Carl Duncan, No. 3, October 1937. 


Wireconstn Deearraenr or Pustic Instruction. Helps in Teaching Conserva- 
tron in Wisconsin Schools. Madison, Wis.: the Department, 1938. 102 p. 

Contains suggestions for activities which children can carry out in con- 

nection with different resources, and bibliographies adjusted to grade levels 


in elementary and secondary schools. 


Wisconsin Deparrment ot Pusiic Instruction. Teaching Conservation in 
Wisconsin Schools, Madison, Wis.: the Department, 1937. 6% p. 
Contains outlines, information, and bibhographies usetul for teachers. 
Includes such resources as soil, Water, mine rals, scemic and histori resources, 
forests and wild vegetation, wildlife. 


Wisconsin Conservation Leacur. The Sol. Conservation tor Wisconsin 
Schools. Horicon, Wis.: the League, 1942. 36 p. 
Suggestions to help teachers develop studies of the soil Nine parts. In 
cludes questions tor study and observation. 


Worpen, Natuarie M., and Perry, Ernestine. Growing Beauty. Springfield, 
Mass.: National Highway Beautification Council, 60 Sherman St., 1933. 
O4 p 

Contains helptul suggestions for activities, including a plan for the im- 
provement of school grounds. 


OTHER BIBLIOGRAPHIES 


The following lists are bibliographies of materials useful to teachers and 
children in developing a background of information and experience needed 
for conservation education. 


Bibliography of Nature Study. (Reprinted from Anna R. Comstock’s Hand- 
book of Nature Study.) Ithaca, N. Y.: Comstock Publishing Co., 1939. 

A carefully annotated list of books on nature study helpful to pupils for 

understanding the principles of conservation, Some of the materials listed 


have definite conservation emphasis. 


Conserving Our Natural Resources. Balumore, Md.) Enoch Pratt Free Library, 
1937 
Selected materials for teachers and elementary-school pupils. 


Connect. Renan Scnoow Learcer. The Elementary Setence Labrary. Ithaca, 
N.Y. New York State College of Agriculture and the Department of 
Rural bducation, Cornell University, September 1938. 

Contains a bibliography by Eva L. Gordon, well selected and annotated, 
( particular interest in this list is a section of books costing not more than 
25 cents, classified in groups tor young children and older children, 


FPeperat Securtry Acency, U.S, Orrick of Epvcvrion, Choose a Book About 
Things To Be Conserved. Leatlet No, 60. Washington, D. C.: Government 
Printing Office, 1941. 

A bibliography addressed to children and interestingly illustrated 


Fenerat Security Acency, U.S. Oretce or Foucation, Conservation Films in 
Elementary Schools. Bulletin, 1941, No. 4. Washington, D. C.; Government 
Printing Office, 1941. 38 p. 

Discussion ot lms as aids in conservation. Reviews the more suitable hlms 
and gives suggestions for their use in connection with conservation units, 


Hartres, W. H. Selected Films for .American History and Problems, New 
York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1ogo 
Chapters I, II, and III. 

Certain chapters contain descriptions of films usetul tor conservation in 
struction. 


U.S. Department oF THE INTERIOR, Orrick or kovcation, Washington, D.C, 

Government Printing Office. Bibliographies as follows 

Good References for Conservation Education in Elementary Schools, Bib 
lhography No. 70. 1938. 

Good References on Conservation of Trees and Forests for Use in Elemen 
tary Schools, Bibliography No. 71. 1938. 

Good References on Conservation of Birds, Animals, and Wild Flowers 
for Use in Elementary Schools, Bibliography No. 72. 1938. 


U. S. Department of THE INTERIOk, Fist anp Wipiire Service, Wildlife 
Leaflet 180. Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1941. 
Lists a variety of useful publications. 


VISUAL AIDS 


Sources of visual materials on conservation are numerous. Standard 
selective lists of current motion pictures classified by topics keep teachers 
informed regarding the best new films and where to secure them. Among 
such lists are (1) Educational Film Catalog, H. W. Wilson Company, 
New York, N. Y.; and (2) Thousand and One Blue Book of Non-T heatri- 
cal Film Sources, Educational Screen, Chicago. New materials for visual 
education are reviewed monthly by Educational Screen magazine, Chicago, 


and conservation materials are included. United States government 
agencies, such as the U. S. Department of Agriculture, including such 
of its divisions as Soil Conservation Service, Forest Service, and Farm 
Security Administration; and the U. S. Department of the Interior, in- 
cluding its various divisions, such as National Park Service, Bureau of 
Fisheries, Bureau of Mines, Bureau of Reclamation, and Petroleum Con- 
servation Division, will answer inquiries concerning their recent conserva- 
tion films or furnish descriptive lists of films available. Annotated bib- 
liographies of conservation films are included in the foregoing bibliog- 
raphy, page 113. Education and conservation departments of federal 
and state governments often furnish other visual aids such as charts, maps, 
diagrams, flat pictures, and film strips, and will answer inquiries con- 
cerning these. Children’s reference materials have useful conservation 
pictures. Among such matertals are Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 
World Book Encyclopedia, and Visualized Curriculum Sertes. 


CONSERVATION AGENCIES 


National, regional, and state agencies, governmental and private, are 
engaged in conservation activities of various kinds, and most of these 
publish informational material. A helpful list of these agencies is entitled 
Conservation of the Natural Resources, and published by the American 
Legion, Indianapolis, Indiana. It is a directory of agencies engaged in 
conservation, classified by states, and includes both state and federal 
agencies. Useful lists are also included in Conservation in the Education 
Program by William H. Bristow and Katherine M. Cook, p. 55-65 (See 
Bibliography, p. 110) and in Conservation of American Resources by 
C. N. Elliott, p. 656-65 (See Bibliography, p. 100). By writing to the 
various agencies for the titles and prices of their publications and ordering 
according to local needs, teachers and children can build a library of in- 
expensive conservation material useful to school and community.