ld, County Superintendent
of Oconto County, has her children engaged in contests all the year
round--growing corn, sugar beets, Alaska peas and potatoes; the boys
making axe handles and the girls weaving rag carpet. During the summer
Miss McDonald writes to the children who are taking part in the contests
suggesting methods and urging good work. One of the letters began with
the well-known lines:

Say, how do you hoe your row, young man,
Say, how do you hoe your row,
Do you hoe it fair, do you hoe it square,
Do you hoe it the best you know?

"How are you getting along with the contests?" continues the letter.
"Are you taking good care of your beets, peas, corn or garden? Remember
that it will pay you well for all the work you do upon it." In reply one
girl writes: "My corn is a little over five feet high. My tomatoes have
little tomatoes on, but mamma's are just beginning to blossom. My beets
are growing fine. I planted them very late. My lettuce is much better
than mamma's. We have been eating it right along." Mark the note of
exultation over the fact that her crop is ahead of her mother's.

Sometimes the school child brings from school knowledge which materially
helps his father. Here is a Wisconsin English lesson, and a proof of the
saying, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings," all in one.

These country boys and girls take an interest in English work, because
it deals with the things they know. Miss Ellen B. McDonald, County
Superintendent of Schools in Oconto County, Wisconsin, publishes a
column of school news in each of the three county newspapers. Here is
one of her contributions, in the form of an English lesson and a
counting lesson combined: (A "rag-baby tester" is a device for
determining the fertility of seed corn before it is planted.)

"My dear Miss McDonald:

"The rag-baby tester is causing a whole lot of excitement. We
have tested one lot and this morning started another. We notice
one thing in particular, the corn which was dried by stove heat
sprouts perfectly, while that dried in granaries, etc., is not
sprouting at all. Last fall papa saved his seed corn, selecting
it very carefully, and hung it up in the granary to dry. I
selected several ears from the same field and at the same time,
and dried them on the corn tree at school. Upon testing them
this spring papa's corn does not sprout at all, while mine is
sprouting just e