This meeting may be made a very practical one. Begin with the life-story of the bee as helpful to mothers and teachers in explaining to children the meaning of sex. Read from The Bee People, by Morley, to illustrate the point. Have a paper on The Danger of Contagion from the House-fly and the Mosquito; give preventives for these pests, the red ant, the moth-miller, and the bedbug.
V—FISH
1. Introductory Paper—The place of fish in the scale of life. Their structure and habits. Fossil fish. Peculiar fish: of the tropics, of the deep sea, of caves. Flying fish.
2. Local Fishes—Description of varieties and their habits. Stocking of local waters by the United States Fish Commission. Fish culture.
3. Commercial Fisheries—Whaling and its romance. Cod, mackerel, and herring. Reading from Kipling's Captains Courageous. Salmon-fishing on the Pacific coast. The Canneries. International laws about fishing.
4. Angling—The ethics of the sport. Methods of equipment: fly-fishing, trolling, chumming, etc. The literature of fishing. Read from Walton's Angler and Henry Van Dyke's Fisherman's Luck.
Books to Consult—Guenther: Introduction to the Study of Fishes. Goode: American Fishes. Louis Rhead: Book of Fish and Fishing. Bullen: Denizens of the Deep.
A talk on Fish as Food might be introduced into this program, or a reading from Atwater's book entitled, The Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value of American Food and Fishes Invertebrates. In a farming community the value of fish as a fertilizer might well be considered. Fishing birds, kingfishers, gulls, pelicans, and cormorants, especially the trained cormorants of China, are of interest. The program might close with some stories, perhaps, of the old whaling days of Nantucket, or some from the book called, Fish Stories, by Holder and Jordan.
VI—WILD ANIMALS
1. Local Wild Animals—Squirrels, rabbits, moles, hedgehogs, woodchucks, gophers, etc. Their habits. What they mean to the farmer.