Gardening for women

by Viscountess Frances Garnet Wolseley

NOVA SCOTIA

Nature-study is here taken very seriously. The following extracts from a leaflet issued to every teacher in the province by the Educational Department will show how thoroughly and systematically the matter is dealt with.

LOCAL “NATURE” OBSERVATIONS

This sheet is provided for the purpose of aiding teachers to interest their pupils in observing the times of the regular procession of natural phenomena each season. First, it may help the teacher in doing some of the “Nature” lesson work of the Course of Study; secondly, it may aid in procuring valuable information for the locality and province. Two copies are provided for each teacher who wishes to conduct such observations, one to be preserved as the property of the section for reference from year to year; the other to be sent in with the return to the inspector, who will transmit it to the superintendent for examination and compilation.

What is desired is to have recorded in these forms the dates of the first leafing, flowering and fruiting of plants and trees; the first appearance in the locality of birds migrating north in spring or south in autumn, etc. While the objects specified here are given so as to enable comparison to be made between the different sections of the province, it is very desirable that other local phenomena of a similar kind be recorded. Every locality has a flora, fauna, climate, etc., more or less distinctly its own; and the more common trees, shrubs, plants, crops, etc., are those which will be most valuable from a local point of view in comparing the characters of a series of seasons.

Teachers will find it one of the most convenient means for the stimulation of pupils in observing all natural phenomena when going to and from the school, and some pupils radiate as far as two miles from the schoolroom. The “nature-study” under these conditions would thus be mainly undertaken at the most convenient time, without encroaching on school time; while on the other hand it will tend to break up the monotony of school travel, fill an idle and wearisome hour with interest, and be one of the most valuable forms of educational discipline. The eyes of a whole school daily passing over a whole school section will let very little escape notice, especially if the first observer of each annually recurring phenomenon receives credit as the first observer of it for the year. The observations will be accurate, as the facts must be demonstrated by the most undoubted evidence, such as the bringing of the specimens to the school when possible or necessary.

To all observers the following most important, most essential principles of recording are emphasised: Better no date, NO RECORD, than a WRONG ONE or a DOUBTFUL one. Sports out of season due to very local conditions not common to at least a small field, should not be recorded except parenthetically. The date to be recorded for the purposes of compilation with those of other localities should be the first of the many of its kind following immediately after it. For instance, a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis in a sheltered cranny by a southern window in January would not be an indication of the general climate, but of the peculiarly heated nook in which the chrysalis was sheltered; nor would a flower in a semi-artificial, warm shelter give the date required. When these sports out of season occur, they might also be recorded, but within a parenthesis to indicate the peculiarity of some of the conditions affecting their early appearance.

These schedules should be sent in to the inspector with the annual school returns in July, containing the observations made during the whole school year and back as far as the preceding July (if possible), when the schedule of the previous school year was necessarily completed and sent in.

A duplicate copy of the schedule of observations should be securely attached to the school register for the year, so that the series of annual observations may be preserved in each locality. The new register has a page for such records.

Remember to fill in carefully and distinctly the date, locality, and other blanks at the head of the schedule on the next page; for if either the date or the locality or the name of the responsible compiler should be omitted the whole paper is worthless and cannot be bound up for preservation in the volume of The Phenological Observations.