tion: FIG. 291. AN ATTRACTIVE COUNTRY HOME]

Agricultural papers that arouse the interest and quicken the thought of
farm boys by discussing the best, easiest, and cheapest ways of farming;
journals full of dainty suggestions for household adornment and comfort;
illustrated papers and magazines that amuse and cheer every member of
the family; books that rest tired bodies and open and strengthen growing
minds--all of these are so cheap that the money reserved from the sale
of one hog will keep a family fairly supplied for a year.

[Illustration: FIG. 292. AN UNIMPROVED SCHOOLHOUSE]

[Illustration: FIG. 293. AN IMPROVED SCHOOLHOUSE]

[Illustration: FIG. 294. THE SAME ROAD AFTER AND BEFORE IMPROVEMENT]

If the parents, teachers, and pupils of a school join hands, an
unsightly, ill-furnished, ill-lighted, and ill-ventilated school-house
can at small cost be changed into one of comfort and beauty. In many
places pupils have persuaded their parents to form clubs to beautify the
school grounds. Each father sends a man or a man with a plow once or
twice a year to work a day on the grounds. Stumps are removed, trees
trimmed, drains put in, grass sowed, flowers, shrubbery, vines, and
trees planted, and the grounds tastefully laid off. Thus at scarcely
noticeable money cost a rough and unsightly school ground gives place to
a charming school yard. Cannot the pupils in every school in which this
book is studied get their parents to form such a club, and make their
school ground a silent teacher of neatness and beauty?

[Illustration: FIG. 295. WASHINGTON'S COUNTRY HOME]

Life in the country will never be as attractive as it ought to be until
all the roads are improved. Winter-washed roads, penning young people
in their own homes for many months each year and destroying so many of
the innocent pleasures of youth, build towns and cities out of the wreck
of country homes. Can young people who love their country and their
country homes engage in a nobler crusade than a crusade for improved
highways?

APPENDIX

SPRAYING MIXTURES

FOR BITING INSECTS

DRY PARIS GREEN

Paris green 1 lb.
Lime or flour 4 to 16 lb.

WET PARIS GREEN

Paris green 1/4 to 2 lb.
Lime 1/4 to 1/2 lb.
Water 50 gal.

FOR SOFT-BODIED SUCKING INSECTS

KEROSENE EMULSION

Hard soap (in fine shavings) 1/2 lb.
Soft water 1 gal.
Kerosene 2 gal.

Diss