Rural School Leaflet 751 



through all the catalogs you have at home and see what it will be possible 

 for you to grow. Then make your decision as to what you would like 

 best to grow, if you have limited space and have to do all the work 

 yourself. In this leaflet you will find many suggestions for your gardening. 



It may be that you will not find any seed catalogs in your home. If 

 not, plan to ask your teacher to let you write a letter during your English 

 period to some seed house, for catalogs to be sent to the school. Then 

 the boys and girls can take them home and look them over on winter 

 evenings. 



Talk over plans for a school garden. On every school ground there 

 should be a garden. If there is no space for it belonging to the school, 

 perhaps a farmer living near will let you have a small piece of ground. 

 A number of boys and girls working a piece of ground under the direction 

 of the teacher will learn many things that will be of value in the home 

 garden. 



Read what a little girl tells, on page 215" of a niral school garden. I 

 think the success of the garden that Florence Ware describes was due to 

 the fact that the trustee, the teacher, and the patrons of the school all 

 took an interest in it. Don't you believe that fathers and mothers are 

 interested in any new kind of school work when they understand that it 

 will help to educate the boys and girls? I do. 



Another thing that I want you to consider this winter night, as you 

 sit around the fire, is that one of the first essentials to a successful life is 

 to have orderly habits. A neat room at home, a neat desk at school, a 

 neat appearance, all mark a self-respecting young mind. These things 

 depend on one person, but an orderly home and grounds and an orderly 

 school and grounds depend on a mmiber of persons working together. 

 Boys and girls can help a great deal. Let us know what you do this 

 springtime to make the home grounds and the school grounds look better. 

 Make some plans while you watch the firelight. 



A subject of which boys and girls never tire is bird study. Since we 

 have learned that nearly all birds are of value to farmers, we ought to 

 know how to attract them to our neighborhood and how to protect them. 

 Have you built a bird house as suggested in the last leaflet? When will 

 the birds return? Which will be with us first? 



Let us take a new interest in the spring migration this year. Long 

 ago boys and girls would see one or two birds, a robin and a bluebird, 

 perhaps, and then would rarely notice any of the others as they came 

 silently into the fields and the woods near their homes. Now, however, 

 many young persons have a real interest in all the birds that come back. 

 We hope that this year you will know when to look for certain birds. 

 On page 205 is a table that will help you in getting ready to watch the 



