Chapter XI: Front Matter (11)

Put the filtered juice into bottles or fruit jars that have been sterilized by boiling in water. Do not fill them quite full. Wiping is unnecessary. Fit a false bottom made of a thin board or slats into the bottom of the washboiler and set the jars of grape juice with rubbers and covers on but not screwed down in on this. Put water into the boiler till it comes up to the shoulders of the jars. Heat now until the water is on the point of boiling, but do not let it boil. Remove jars from the water and screw down the covers. If bottles are used, clean, sterilized corks must be put in, while the juice is still in the hot water. If the corks are very tight further sealing is not required, but wax or paraffine is put over them by cautious persons to make assurance doubly sure.

Quart jars are probably most economical and will find a ready sale. Grape juice will ferment very soon after unsealing and should be used immediately. Even a small family will have no difficulty in consuming a quart if given the opportunity. Many delicious desserts can be made with this juice combined with sugar, eggs, gelatine, cream, lemons, and other fruits.

MAKING LEAF MOULD

Every year I see boys and girls raking leaves from the lawns and either piling them in the street or in the back yard and then burning them. Nobody likes an outdoor fire more than I do, whether it is a real camp fire, a little back yard faggot fire just enough to roast a few potatoes and onions and play gypsy, or a big blazing bonfire, almost dangerous and wholly splendid. What I don't like is a sickly, smouldering pile of leaves sending out a suffocating smudge, bursting with sudden flame at night and having to be put out after you had your slippers on and had begun a new book. Such a fire is a nuisance to you and to the neighbourhood and no satisfaction.

Burning leaves is like burning money. That is quite another way of looking at it. "Why, most people have to pay out money to get their leaves taken away," you say. True, but that is because we are such a lot of wasters. We are just beginning to learn to be economical, because we must. To make a long story short, turn your leaves into money by composting them.

For greenhouse work pure leaf mould is a necessity and the supply of the real article is never equal to the demand. Ask the florist in your town where he gets leaf mould and how much it costs him.

Making leaf mould is simple. All you have to do is to rake the leaves into a pile where they can lie still and rot. To make a really neat job and lose none of your work or leaves make a frame of boards a foot high or so and as large as you think your leaves will require. Set this frame in some part of the yard where it will not look unsightly but as near the source of leaf supply as is permissible. If you have to carry the leaves by wheelbarrow you will see the force of this. Use a pony and cart for the job if you have them. A big box or barrel on a wheelbarrow is better than the wheelbarrow alone. Get a layer of leaves a foot deep, then tramp it. If water is handy, wetting them with a few pailfuls would make them pack well. Put on layer after layer of leaves if pure leaf mould is to be made.

Lay boards over the top to hold the leaves down or the autumn winds will scatter them for you. Forking over a few times will hasten the process of decay. A very small quantity of leaf mould for home use can be made in a store box or barrel. This should not be water tight. Let the leaves be exposed to all the elements; the rain, the air, freezing and thawing, help on the process of decay.

Leaves are a very valuable ingredient in the making of compost for the garden. I have from an expert gardener this receipt for his favourite

"GARDEN FRUIT CAKE"

Three parts selected leaves.
Three parts cow manure.
Two parts garden soil.
One part kitchen refuse and weeds.
One part pasture sod.

Compost these in alternating layers for one, two, or three years under cover. The result is a rich, brown, moist compound which, added to common garden soil at suitable times, is warranted to raise flowers and vegetables fit for the queen's table.

Now then, instead of burning your leaves, go out and gather all you can from the neighbour's yard as well as your own and make leaf mould. Combine the boys on the street into a "Leaf Mould Syndicate" and get the local florists interested in a home-made product.

MAKING LAVENDER STICKS

The weaving of lavender sticks has been described to me as "the harmless occupation of old-fashioned fingers." In these days when the revival of old-time industries is so often undertaken, it is well to learn from our aunts or our great-aunts some of the fancy work that employed their elegant leisure when they were girls. The lavender stick is such a sweet and dainty object that I hope for it a renewed popularity. It is one of the always acceptable gifts the Pacific coast can send to the Atlantic where it is so hard to make lavender grow. I might say here that there is good reason to advise the growing of lavender in the light limestone soil of some of our Southern states. Immense quantities are used in the manufacture of lavender water and perfumery, and although the dried flowers are retailed as a preventive for clothes moths, I have grave doubts about that.

The best way to learn how to make lavender sticks is to have some dear old lady show you. Failing this you may try to follow these directions and the picture that goes with them. Late June is the best time, September the next best. The lavender must be in full flower. If too young the stems will cure limp. The finest odour passes with the going to seed. Cut the flower stalks in clear weather and before the heat of the day.

As some lavender sticks should be shorter and some longer to suit their various purposes, you should next sort the stalks into groups according to length. For a handkerchief box nine short ones would be right. To make a large "stick" for a linen closet shelf choose twenty-five of the longest, heaviest heads. Always have an odd number. Strip off the leaves, draw the stems down till the heads are all on a level, then tie them "gently but firmly, under their chins" with soft cotton yarn that will hold but not cut. Use plenty of string and leave very long ends. Build the thistle-like head into a shapely oval--but not with cotton, after the way of the Philistines. Plump it out with a little sheaf made of the heads that are too small to use, and add a few leaves to round it out. With those long string ends wind the head, now, and tie securely.

The next step is one where skill and care are necessary. Each stem is to be bent directly backward at a sharp angle and it will be a wonder if you do not break every other one. Crease each stem over your thumb-nail before turning it back over the head. When all are safely reversed, double one end of a bolt of lavender ribbon over one stalk, close to the top and begin to weave. The simplest weaving is the most artistic, under one stalk and over the next, passing round and round till the head is covered. At this point it is best to fasten the end of the ribbon, wind the stems with common string and begin on another till you have brought all to the same stage. Lay them all away for a month to cure. You will find that the weaving will then have to be tightened about the head. Now wind the ribbon tightly round the handle and fasten it there. A tuft of loops at the end is a simple and old-timey finish. The less attempt at decoration the better. A lavender stick is a very acceptable gift for one who is fond of its perfume and can detect the aroma of homely sentiment that mingles with its sweetness.

DRYING CORN

In my girlhood the surplus sweet corn was not left to dry on the stalks. It does not make very good fodder. The best ears were marked and left to ripen for seed, but the surplus green corn was dried. The boys would bring in a bushel or so of ears in the husk. We prepared these as carefully as if for immediate use on the table. Every silk was removed. The ears were then put into boiling water a few at a time and left only five or six minutes, just long enough to "set" the milk. As soon as the corn had cooled sufficiently we began to cut it off, with thin, sharp knives. With the butt of the ear resting on the flattest big platter, one sliced from top to bottom. We had orders not to cut deep the first time--just to take off the tops of the grains. The next cut was thin, too, and came off in a slice which fell apart. We cut three slices, at least, before we came to the cob. By this means we obtained a final product far superior to that of the neighbours who made one cut suffice. When a platter was full, the corn was spread evenly and put out in the sun, on a long table and covered with netting to keep off flies. When partially dry we transferred it to a large cloth and continued the drying until every vestige of moisture was gone from it. It was then put into a loose muslin bag and hung up near the ceiling where mice and dampness could not get at it. I have eaten evaporated corn, and find it a poor substitute for the sun-dried article.

To prepare dried corn for the table wash well, soak over night, and then steam slowly on the back of the kitchen stove from morning till late afternoon, with salt to taste. By this time most of the water will have been absorbed or evaporated. The corn will be soft and all its native sweetness will be right there. Add a generous libation of cream, a lump of butter, a whisk of pepper, and you have a delectable dish.

MAKING A TENNIS COURT

The largest item in all the estimates for making a tennis court is for labour. If a boys' club can supply this they can have a court without expense except for the wire netting and the necessary posts. A standard double court is seventy-eight feet by thirty-six. Choose a well-drained piece of ground; the more nearly level the better. Locate the courts with reference to the time of day when they will be most used and the direction of the sun's beams at that hour.

The first job is to get rid of the grass and weeds, root and branch. If a plough is used do not begin the levelling until every root is gone. Turning grass under is bad practice. Some kinds of grass can grow no matter which end is up. Next with rakes make the surface fairly level. _Level_ is one of those adjectives that can not be compared. If a court is level it can't be any leveller, and to be right it must be done with a straight edge and a spirit level. If there is one boy in whom you all have confidence, it is a good plan to elect him boss of the job and follow his instructions. "Team work" is the right thing in this kind of a job, just as in games. When the court is level it must be rolled and rolled and rolled again, with the heaviest roller you can get.

A surface of ordinary dirt does not wear well. Some people prefer to spread on a layer of ashes, next three inches of sand, soil, and clay mixed.

Roll each layer thoroughly. For a top finish a very fine gravel is used on some courts, sand is used on others. You will probably use that which is most available. Clay is hard to work with, but when overlaid with fine sand makes a hard court on which the swiftest experts can play with enjoyment.

The care of the court should be taken week about, two boys working together. The roller should be used often, especially after a rain, and worn spots mended immediately before they get bigger.

Most clubs count in an expensive marker when estimating the cost of tennis. An ingenious boy can make one for nothing. A square varnish tin or olive oil can holding a gallon or more can easily be held by a framework upon a wheelbarrow or wheel hoe in such a way that the drip from two nail holes will fall upon the broad rim of the wheel. Fold a piece of paper into funnel shape, fill the can with thin whitewash and paint mixed and you are as well equipped as if you had spent five dollars for a marker.

If conditions favour a grass court the sod should be taken off and the ground beneath spaded, raked, and made level. Then the sod should be matched and laid accurately, then rolled, sprinkled, and rolled again; for three days at least the rolling and sprinkling should be repeated.

SHOVELLING SNOW

The boys of our neighbourhood made an abundance of pocket-money in the winter time by combining into a "Snow Shovellers Union." Most of the men on our street take early trains and have very little time, and even less inclination to shovel snow. The boys are out early before the snow gets packed on the sidewalks. They work by the job or by the hour, whichever the employer prefers.

At first the boys expected the employers to furnish the tools. But that didn't work very well. To make work a pleasure one must have his tools right and an expert snow shoveller does not want to use a dilapidated spade on one job, a short-handled shovel here, and a long-handled one there. He wants snow shovelling tools and after a little experience he knows what he wants.

The tools can be made by the boys. Our boys made a most efficient plough for walks, out of cheap store boxes, and a scraper for steps that fit every corner accurately so that one scrape did the trick and no false motions to waste time and strength. For informal paths to chicken house, garden, etc., a shovel made of light barrel staves sawed in halves was found to be better than an expensive iron-bound shovel from the department store.

If there is a lame boy on your street take him into the Union too; although he can't keep up with you at the shovel, he can have a book, keep track of the time each boy can work, call at patrons' doors to arrange about their work, and these things are just as important as the actual shovelling.

MOWING LAWNS

In summer the Snow Shovellers Union can reform into the "Lawn Mowers and Irrigators, Limited." Every year I used to send my lawn mower to a "tinker" who charged me one dollar and twenty-five cents for _sharpening_ it. I learned one day and it made me sad, that a lawn mower properly cared for keeps itself sharp. Any boy who is strong enough to run a lawn mower ought to be smart enough to take care of one. He needs to know how the machine is put together, what parts do the work and where the wear comes on the parts. The directions which come with a good machine are worth reading. The man who sells the mower may not be able to explain any part you don't understand. His business may be to sell, only. If you go into the hardware store and find the man who knows all about lawn mowers, he will be only too glad to show you how to run the machine so that it will do its work and last. It is to his interest to have you recommend his machine. Make yourself familiar with a machine in perfect working order. Your ears and your eyes ought to tell you when it is going wrong.

It is, above all, of greatest importance to know how to adjust a lawn mower. A wrench, a screw-driver, and an oil can should be your constant companions. Go over the machine before you begin and put it in shape. It is ten minutes well spent. Tighten screws, oil the parts that rub, adjust the knife to the kind and condition of the grass. When the job is done, look the mower over. If a screw is lost be sure to supply a new one before the next using; clean the machine and put it away in a dry place.

UTILIZING WOOD ASHES

Boys who have as part of their daily work the cleaning out of ashes would do well to stop and consider before they dump their pails. Coal ashes are as nearly worthless as anything I know of although they can be used in making a tennis court, and are even advised by some for a very stiff garden soil. A garden must be pretty bad off to be improved by coal ashes.

But there are thousands of cords of wood burned every year and wood ashes are very valuable. There is no fertilizer equal to them for certain purposes. Not only are they valuable at home, but they are an article of commerce, and have a market value. Who has a better right to the ashes than the boy who manages the ash pan?

Barrels are the most convenient receptacles to store ashes in. Cheap boxes come next. They should be tight and kept under cover. Leaching takes the value out of wood ashes.

PLANTING CROCUSES ON THE LAWN

Did you ever see crocuses, yellow, lavender, and white, scattered informally in the lawn, coming into blossom with the earliest springing grass. One fall we tried the experiment of poking a crocus bulb down in the hole where we took out a dandelion and the result was charming. There are philosophers who profess to a liking for dandelions in the lawn. Perhaps it is Hobson's choice with them, as with many, but although the dandelion flower is bright as gold the leaves are a real nuisance. They are coarse and rank and they resist the lawn-mower, and discourage the fine grasses. Except when in blossom they are a disfiguring feature. Crocuses are certainly more delicate in flower than dandelions and their leaves are more like grass. Moreover they die down early and are out of the way of the lawn mower. So instead of just digging out a dandelion or a thistle and leaving a bare hole, I recommend that you poke in a crocus bulb next fall. Your reward will come in gold and purple.

MAKING ICE

Lots of us get along without ice in winter because we cannot afford to buy it all the year round. We put things outside and they freeze, we keep them in the kitchen and they spoil. The butter is either too hard or too soft all the time.

Boys and girls like ice-cream the year round and yet many of us do without it in the winter time because the iceman does not come around. Sometimes you may have thought when you broke the ice in the watering trough that there was nearly enough to make a freezer of ice-cream.

Did it not occur to you that you could make home-made ice, supply the refrigerator in coldest weather, and make ice-cream whenever you want it? All you need is the cold weather and a heavy tin pail. Fill the pail with clean water some clear, cold night and stand it where it will get the greatest exposure. If the mercury is a little below zero it will freeze a coat of ice two or more inches thick on top and sides of the pail. Turn the pail upside down on a bench and turn enough hot water over it to loosen the pail; then take it off. The ice on the bottom will be thin. Break this and dip out all of the water, but about two inches. This will freeze very quickly in cold weather and you can put in more. Keep filling it up until your ice pail is solid. It is then ready for the refrigerator.

From making one block of ice in a heavy tin pail it is an easy step to making a winter supply to store in sawdust where the sun cannot melt it during a thaw and where you can get at it when needed. From this the logical conclusion is that a man and his boys could make a supply of ice for both summer and winter by following the same tactics.

How well I remember the hardships of the ice harvesters of my home neighbourhood. The ice had to be cut in the river three miles away, and hauled up a bad hill. If the roads were good the ice was bad as a rule. Good sleighing meant ice covered with snow. There was always anxiety for fear we should not get a supply, and often the houses were filled with thin cakes, for fear the cold weather was over for the year. Then the hauling and the cutting in the bitter weather was bad for men and teams. The ice was river ice and we knew it was unsafe.

A writer in _Country Life_ describes how he made his supply of home-made ice. He first had a tinner make heavy tin boxes of a size convenient to handle. He had them made an inch smaller at the bottom than at the top and the top was bound over a heavy wire. When the cold weather came the clean pans were filled from the well. The cakes were turned out of the pans next day and dipped and filled just as described above, as solid cakes formed. These were packed in the ice house for the summer's supply as fast as made. The cost was less in time and cash, than putting up "wild ice," even including the cost of pans, which can, of course, be used over and over, year after year.

CUTTING SEED POTATOES

Cutting seed potatoes is a job that most boys and girls dislike and no wonder. It takes so long, is so dirty, your thumb gets so scored and even cut seriously. But most fathers want the potatoes cut before planting and who is to do it but the boys and girls? Two ingenious boys invented a contraption which decreased the time and labour to a minimum and almost made the job a pleasure. This description of their potato cutter is adapted from _Farming_ for April, nineteen hundred and seven. A dry goods box holding several bushels was fitted with four strong legs, just long enough to lift the box to a height convenient to sit by. At the bottom of one side of the box a board was removed to let the potatoes roll out on a shelf attached beneath the opening. The shelf should have a rim two or three inches high and there should be a crack where shelf and box come together to let the dust sift down. The knife is driven into the end of a short piece of plank and held with fence staples. The boy sits on the plank. The potato is pushed forward against the sharp blade and the pieces drop into the basket. A man can cut forty bushels of potatoes in a day with this outfit.

The work ought to be done out under a tree, and if the boys want to wear gloves to keep their hands clean and smooth for more delicate work, I should encourage them to do so.

PRUNING

When I see a lot of ignorant labourers put onto the job of pruning trees, my blood fairly boils. Their work, unless overseen by an expert, is pure butchery. Many a noble tree has been so mangled by saw and axe that it has become an easy prey to all sorts of diseases.

Pruning is work that requires intelligence. In orchard and door yard any one with the strength to wield a saw or shears can do the annual pruning. A woman can do it as I can testify, except occasionally where large limbs are to be handled. Such occasions seldom arise on a well-cared-for place. It is impossible to treat the whole subject of pruning in one short chapter, but there is nothing difficult to understand about the principles or practice. In ten minutes an expert grape pruner could show a pupil how to prune a grape-vine so as to produce the best and largest crop. Each kind of shrub whether for fruit or flowers requires its special treatment. It takes experience to acquire judgment but the principles are easy to learn and to practise. You should go to a book on pruning to learn just how to prune the various kinds of shrubs, vines, and trees.

But if there is a limb to be cut off a tree in the door yard who is likely to be delegated to the job? Every boy ought to know how to do this right. You may be acquainted with the boy who sat on the limb and sawed between the tree and himself, but you will certainly not share his fate. When you use the pruning shears on the branches and twigs of a tree or shrub you are, so to speak, cutting its fingernails or hair: but when you go up with a saw you are performing a far more serious operation. Do not forget that the life processes of the tree, the circulation of the blood, the assimilation of the food, the respiration, all go on right under the bark. The "heart" of the tree is a misnomer. That fresh moist layer which is uncovered by the skinning of a tree is the only part of the tree which is really actively alive and at work. This layer, called the cambium, extends like a tight-fitting garment over the entire tree. Every tiny twig and spur is overlaid with it. If you ever had an "infected" finger from a scratch or pin prick or cut you have some idea of the danger the tree is exposed to when the cambium layer is laid bare and the wound neglected. Compare the two drawings on this page. Look at the trees in your yard. Are there some like No. 1 and others like No. 2? In No. 1 the pruner cut a branch off close up to the main trunk. The wound was dressed with thick paint to close the pores. All around the edge of the wound was the cut edge of the cambium layer. A roll of new tissue formed there, covering a part of the wound the first year. In a year or two more the roll became broad enough to close over the smooth base where the severed limb was. The wound is healed. But look at the long stubs of No. 2. That was the work of a "tree butcher." Already the stub has begun to rot and the injury has gone far into the tree, past cure. You have seen a fine board ruined by a knot hole? That knot hole was made by careless pruning. Have you seen beautiful "curly" places in fine woodwork? Those curls or "eyes" are made by the healing over of places where limbs came off. As the cambium adds layer after layer over it, the base of the old limb becomes more and more deeply buried in the wood.

Learn the principles of pruning: cut off the branch, no matter how small, close to the trunk or larger branch from which it grew; cover the wound with a dressing to prevent decay. Trees, shrubs, vines, and bushes should be pruned every year. Cut out all dead wood, and then prune to shape the tree or shrub as you want it or to produce the greatest quantity of fruit, blossoms or branches.

CLEANING RUGS

The sanitary home has never a carpet these days, but rugs on bare floors. These rugs, if small enough to handle every week, make the semi-annual old bugbear of house-cleaning a thing of the past. What could be more dreary than to come home from school some afternoon and find the floors littered with flattened old straw, so gray with dust as to be scarcely recognizable? Getting that straw out was the boys' work, the girls did the sweeping and mother washed the floor. How cheerless the days that followed! How damp the floors, how extra careful we had to be not to carry in dirt on our way to bed! The whole house wore a dejected expression reflected by the family. All because of those miserable carpets. They had to be beaten, too, and the clouds of dust that had to be breathed before we heard the welcome call, "That's enough now. Don't whip that carpet all to pieces. Fold it up and bring it in." As we folded it we realized how far from clean it really was and how we longed to _turn the hose on it_. But no one had the courage to suggest such an unorthodox proceeding. Probably the colour would all run and the carpet would shrink and everything. But anyhow we wished it was really clean, now that so much discomfort had been endured to clean it.

Rugs on bare floors are preferable. They can be swept and beaten every week and they can be washed. No rug should be hung on a line to be beaten. It is bad for the rug and a waste of energy. A rug-beating rack can be made which will save the wear on the rugs and get them more nearly clean than any other dry method I know of. It is described, by Mr. W. C. Egan, who devised it, as follows:

Make a frame of four by four pine timbers, braced across the corners. It should be somewhat bigger than the biggest rug you expect to beat. Stretch galvanized iron fencing over this frame and staple it securely all round. The best place for this frame is at the side of the barn. Strong strap hinges should be used to attach it to a piece of four by four spiked to the barn at a height convenient for your beating. When the frame is not in use it is pushed up and rests against the side of the barn, held in place by hooks. A rope and two pulleys enable one to raise and lower the frame easily. When down, the frame rests on swinging legs made of inch iron pipe and attached to the frame at the outer corners. The rug should be laid on the netting pile downward.

Rug-beating is hard work no matter what kind of tools one has. But who does not love to ply the hose? I made up my mind once that a rug that had to have an expensive compressed air bath or stay dirty was not living up to its function as a sanitary floor covering. I experimented with an all-wool rug, some good white soap, warm rain water, and a scrubbing brush. A good lather was laid first on the back, then I threw discretion to the winds and lathered the face of the thing. I scrubbed it as if my life depended upon making the colours run, if they would. Then I let the children turn the hose on it. We turned it over and over and over again, till it was very, very wet. It was also clean. We left it on the grass in the shade the first day. Then we laid it still damp, face down, on the clean, dry floor of the porch where the sun could get at it and the breeze. It was dry by the night of the second day and so clean that it was a real joy to handle it. One by one we put every rug in the house through the same course of treatment. A couple of Wiltons, a few of Brussels carpeting, some that were woven out of old ingrain carpets, the rag ones, and finally the precious Orientals went through the water cure. Before I dared do this last act, I got advice from a rug man, who said that really good rugs would suffer no harm from such treatment. But one never believes until he tries it, and now we all believe, and our rugs are more beautiful than before. We treated the best rugs very gently, of course, but none the less thoroughly, and we dried them face up on the hard floor right in the sun part of the time. It takes about three days and nights to get the dampness all out.

Good rugs ought never to be treated roughly. They should be swept gently _with the nap_, and never beaten with a whip, hung on the line, or shaken. Lay on a soft carpet of grass or on a rug-beating frame and beat gently with a flat rattan beater. When rolled, roll with the nap; never fold them.

XI

MAKING THE COUNTRY A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN

I once asked Professor Bailey, "What is the most important farm crop raised in the United States?"

Without a moment's hesitation he answered, "Boys and girls."

Of course they are.

The best farmers, the real bone and sinew of the country, are the kind that raise the crops themselves, without much help from the outside. They grow nearly every thing they eat, and exchange their surplus for the food and clothing that they can't raise. There is a type of farm life where the family is brought up on the principle that what is too poor to sell is good enough to eat. The boys and girls of such a family are too good for such a life. They do not stay in the country. Like the big apples, the prize potatoes, and the gilt-edge butter, though raised on the farm, they are consumed in the city.

The country is the best place in the world for boys and girls to grow up in, just because it is the country. But there are ways in which country life can be improved and if the grown folks are too busy raising crops, the young folks must head the campaign which is to make the country a better place to live in.

Since this is a book on outdoor work we cannot consider ways of making the life indoors more attractive, more comfortable, more convenient, and more sanitary, but concern ourselves with outdoor problems only.

Boys and girls, stop and think. What can you do to make your own particular corner of the country a better place for you and your companions to live in? When a crowd of boys meet together, what do they talk about? Are they interested in local affairs or do they tell each other of the great things they expect to do when they get away? A wise old man once said, "In a republic you ought to begin to train a child for good citizenship on the day of its birth."

Are you going to be a good citizen? Are you patriotic? Do you salute the flag at school, and then go out and break the game laws? Train now for citizenship. There is more patriotism in obeying the laws of your home, your school, your town, and your state than there is in parading with flags and band in the National Guards. Good citizenship begins at home. How can you make your own home a more desirable place for your brothers and sisters to live in? Take a look at the house. Is it plain and unadorned and uncomfortable? Are the surroundings bare and ugly? Have you had experience in building, painting, and planting? If you can help build a corn crib, you can make a porch over the front door or a sidewalk connecting the back door with the pump or the milk house. If you can help paint the barn, why not the house? If you can plant trees in the orchard, why not shrubs in the door yard, and vines over the porch? Don't think you must have expensive pillars and fancy railings. They will not look as well as rustic work or pillars of home-made cement. The vines will soon cover the porch with their greenery if given half a chance.

OUTDOOR CLUBS

Have you a boys' club in your neighbourhood? Or a girls' club? You used to have a literary society in school, and it failed? Why was that? The boys didn't take any interest in it.

Why not have a club that the boys will take an interest in and a club that the girls will take an interest in? What kinds of clubs do boys like? Athletic clubs where they wrestle, box, turn handsprings, have jumping, skating, walking, and running matches, and play such games of skill and endurance as hare and hounds, pitching horseshoes, and baseball. They like all sorts of clubs that get real things done, like raising prize corn or cotton or pigs or training colts or steers or dogs. Boys and girls like to compete for prizes. How boys or girls will work to do something so much better than any other boy or girl in the crowd that the judges will award the prize to them. It is hard in contests like these to be able to walk up like a true sportsman and congratulate the winner. But a boy can learn to do it; so can a girl. All over the United States boys are banding together to raise better corn, better cotton, better chickens, better fruit. North, west, east, and south, thousands of boys are raising corn. They test their seed, prepare the soil, plant, cultivate, and harvest the crop, weigh it, take it to the exhibition where they compare it with other boys' crops, and see for themselves who has the best yield. One boy, a member of the Winnebago County Farmer Boys' Experiment Club took first prize of fifteen dollars in gold for the best ten ears of corn. This club has about eleven hundred members. There is a Winnebago County Girls' Home Culture Club with an equally large membership. These boys and girls are growing up to be good citizens right there in the country, where they were born. They don't have to go to the city to find education or good manners or a good time. The fathers and mothers, the school teachers, the ministers, and the county superintendent of schools all work together in Winnebago County, Ill., and they can everywhere.

The boys in your home school can form a Boys' Agricultural Club now. The first thing you need is information about other clubs. Your club will not be just like the others. It ought not to be. But if you know how the others are managed it will help you to manage yours. Send to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., and ask for Farmers' Bulletin No. 385 on Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs. On page fifteen of this bulletin are suggestions as to an invitation to be sent out for the first meeting. If your teacher is willing you can hold the first meeting some Friday afternoon in the early spring at the school-house. If the teacher is not yet interested hold the meeting at some home in the neighbourhood. If you are acquainted with the county superintendent or the school commissioner, tell him about the club you want to start, and maybe he will arrange for the first meeting and get all the boys and girls in the county organized. You could have a local chapter of the club, with local exhibits and local prizes; then you could have a space at the county fair, and members of different clubs all over the county could compete for first prize.

The bulletin gives suggestions for a constitution, enrollment of members, and a scheme for cards on which to keep a record of the crop you are going to grow. There are rules, too, that each person who competes for prizes must observe.

A good many boys' clubs start in with growing a crop of corn, and girls' clubs with bread-making. They need not do these same things every year, although one can learn something new about growing corn, raising chickens, or making bread every year.

The country would be a better place to live in, if there were more boys' and girls' clubs.

ATTRACTING BIRDS

The country would be a better place to live in if there were more song birds there. I know of a shrewd firm of real estate men, who wished to attract a certain class of residents to their suburban section, knowing that others would follow and property become more valuable. They laid out the woodsy tract with as little change from the natural conditions as they could, and still have a sanitary, convenient, and comfortable suburb. They did not chop down the trees in order to run straight roads through, nor did they fill in the small gully that wanted to be a brook. They encouraged the brook and ran their roadways so as to avoid the big trees and give each building site a character of its own and privacy. Then they put a man in charge with strict orders to make the place attractive to song birds; to protect and feed them; to destroy their enemies. He was also to foster and encourage such wild flowers and ferns as grew naturally in the woods, and to propagate and increase them so as to make the place a paradise. The man entered into the spirit of their idea and succeeded wonderfully. The real estate men advertised and the right people came and were convinced and bought homes there and "lived happy ever after."

BRINGING BACK THE SONG BIRDS

How can boys and girls bring back our song birds? I will not say much about why we want them, for in enlightened America we take it for granted. Some people still want to be convinced that birds are of practical value. I will say only that the damage to crops by insects in nineteen hundred and four, is estimated at nine hundred and seventy-five million dollars. Investigations by scientists in state and nation all go to prove that a vast percentage of this loss could have been saved by birds. I wish every child would be ambitious to increase the bird life on every farm, on every village block. Here are some facts that ought to be convincing. I take them at random from my notes:

Kingbirds kill bot-flies.

Brown thrashers feed mostly on insects, especially white grubs and curculios.

Cat-birds, cuckoos and orioles are very important enemies of gypsy moth.

The red-eyed vireos are "premium caterpillar hunters."

Bluebirds board themselves. Eat cut-worms, furry caterpillars, and grasshoppers.

Wrens' food is ninety-eight per cent. animal matter.

Warblers, titmice, creepers, and nut hatches eat lice.

A pair of robins fed their nestlings this menu in three hours, bringing food every three minutes: sixty-one earth-worms, sixteen yellow grubs, thirty-eight other insects. Also four grasshoppers, several dragon flies, and a few moths.

Robins rank first as enemies of white grub.

Kingbirds protect poultry by driving away hawks; ninety-eight per cent. of their food is insects, mostly injurious sorts.

Woodpeckers destroy grubs in living trees. Phoebes catch flies, lighting on backs of cattle so as to be handy; also elm-leaf beetle, adults of canker-worms, cut-worms and gypsy.

Baltimore orioles are worth their weight in gold as destroyers of gypsy and brown-tail moths.

Rose-breasted grosbeaks cleaned out potato beetles.

Scarlet tanagers ate gypsy moths at the rate of thirty-eight per minute for eighteen consecutive minutes.

Thirty cedar waxwings will destroy ninety thousand canker-worms in a month.

So we can pile up the evidence in favour of the birds.

HOW TO ATTRACT BIRDS

Two words tell us what to do to increase bird life: provide and protect. We must provide food, water, and nesting places. We must protect from disturbance, from natural enemies, from destruction by hunters who sell the feathers.

All over the country, laws to protect birds are being introduced into legislatures. Boys and girls may think that they cannot do much to help make laws. They can if their fathers are in the legislature as lots of fathers are, take the country over. Maybe your father does not know how much birds are worth. Get him to read the bulletins issued by the government. The boys who protect the birds around home will be the law makers some fine day themselves. They'll "see to it," then.

But now what can you do to-day? Is it winter? Feed the birds. There are many winter bird residents. Where are the insects in winter? Have they gone south? Not a bit of it. They lurk under the bark on your apple trees. They hide on the fence rails and under the leaves. Trust the birds to find them unless snow prevents. The extra feeding you give them will not toll them away from the insect food they love, but will keep them "on the job" and will keep them from starving in stormy weather. Water, too, they often suffer for in winter. Supply it in shallow basins and slightly warmed. Tie suet to the trees; sacks made of loose netting will hold nut meats for them. Scatter grain for the grain eaters on a platform.

In spring furnish nesting places and material, protection from cats and distressing disturbances; mud for robins, string for orioles, floss, feathers, and straw for others. Do something every day for your birds. Drinking fountains are a necessity, especially in towns where there is no running water. Shallow basins are best. They will often come right to the door and drink or bathe, unless frightened by some real or fancied danger. To make the birds tame you must make them feel safe, and supply their wants.

THE TRAFFIC IN BIRD SKINS

Not many girls wear birds' feathers in their hats. But many women do, and girls get to be women very soon. No one knows how many birds are slaughtered in America each year for hat trimmings. A few facts are available such as: seventy thousand skins were sent in four months from a small district on Long Island; one New York house contracts to furnish to Paris forty thousand skins in one season; four hundred thousand bird skins from America sold in one London auction room in three months. These numbers fairly stagger the reader. I don't know one American girl who would kill a bird. If every one of them would refuse ever to wear any bird feathers there would be a great falling off in this traffic.

Collecting birds' eggs and nests is still quite common, and should be discouraged. The present state of the bird population does not warrant the destruction of any except for the big museums. Their collectors are trained experts who collect only such birds as are needed for scientific purposes. They go at the right season to do the least damage, and they do not slaughter by wholesale.

Besides cats, which can be regulated to a certain extent in our homes, birds have other enemies. Crows, though valuable insect eaters, are bad nest robbers and have been caught in the act of killing nestlings and even small adult birds. Snakes eat both eggs and young. Guards for cats will keep out squirrels which molest the birds' nests. Ground nesting birds may be protected with wire netting. Where this has been tried, in no case did it cause birds to desert the nests.

Birds need thickets, hedge-rows and shrubbery for nesting places, hiding places, and shelter from storms.

Every farmer who kills the birds on his place justifies the destruction by the evidence that they eat fruit. True, some of them do. But if water is provided many of them prefer it to fruit juice. To preserve our strawberries and cherries, we should plant June berry and Russian mulberry, which the birds like better. Chokeberry, buckthorn, elder berry, and mulberry will attract birds away from blackberry and raspberry patches. Wild cherry will protect the grapes, as both ripen late.

DOMESTICATING WILD GAME

The country would be a more attractive place to live in if there were more wild game. Thirty years ago, when I was a little girl in the middle West, my brothers used to shoot "prairie chickens" (grouse), quail (bob-white), wild geese, brant, wild ducks, and even bigger birds. But now the guns are all rusty, and the powder flask is empty. I came across the old wad-cutter in the attic and hardly recognized it.

Efforts are being made in several states to rear wild fowl in the barn yard. Bob-white, grouse, mallard, wood ducks, and Canada geese are being experimented upon. A measure of success has already been achieved, but more experience is necessary especially with regard to the feeding of the young birds.

Probably the wild fowl for young hunters to experiment with is wood duck or mallard. A man whose ten years' experience with raising wild fowl has earned him the title of expert, writes as follows: "I think it would be a most useful work to educate our young people up to the fact that with a little patience and a small outlay they can help to increase our supply of wild birds. For raising wood ducks, all one needs is a small pond or even an artificial tank surrounded by a few bushes enclosed by a wire fence. In one corner, place a box on a post three feet high with a cleated boardwalk leading up to a platform from which they can reach the entrance, which should be a round hole. Turn a pair of wood ducks into the enclosure the first of March, and with luck your duck will build her nest, and lay from eight to twelve eggs. In about four weeks the eggs will hatch and the troubles commence."

He goes on to say that some kinds of wild geese are comparatively easy to raise and that they do not require much of a pond, but ample grazing facilities, like their domestic relatives. Mallards, also, are very easy to raise.

As wild fowl bred in captivity bring a very good price and the demand is increasing with the spreading interest in the subject, raising wild fowl might be a source of income to an enterprising young man or woman.

All spring shooting of wild fowls ought to stop. Don't say, "If I don't shoot them, somebody else will." That is not the attitude of a good sportsman. Public opinion among boys can only be established by boys. If you don't believe in hunting in spring, when the ducks are laying or brooding the young, you can not only stop doing it, but you can influence others. Will you do this? To kill one mother duck this year means eight or ten less next year. It is a plain example in arithmetic to see what a big blunder you make if you shoot in spring.

A GAME PRESERVE

If you live on a big farm or ranch well wooded and watered, your conditions are ideal for creating a private game preserve. If a few wild birds are known to be already at home on your place, encourage them. Let them breed in security and plant their favourite food crops. Small areas of land in various out of the way places can be ploughed and planted in spring to buckwheat and millet, wheat, rye, and barley.