ro94 Rural School Leaflet 



As you grow older you will be in a position to do much for your own 

 and other rural schools. We know of a rural school where every time 

 there is an entertainment or some special occasion for a community gather- 

 ing, a large number of boys and girls fourteen to twenty-one years old 

 come back and help to make it a success. These are those who have 

 gone ahead, but who still keep fresh the memory of their first school and 

 have a desire to see that it prospers. We know that in the years to come 

 there will be more and more of this, and that you will be loyal to the 

 school that has given its best service to you. In order that you may 

 help intelligently, you will need to know some of the things that the 

 elementary schools are doing and planning, and it will be a pleasure to 

 us to keep in touch with you as closely as we may, and through you to 

 strengthen the schools of the State. 



Therefore be sure to write to us when you leave the grades or the rural 

 school, asking to have your name placed on the Advanced List. Address 

 the Editors of the Cornell Rtiral School Leaflet, New York State College 

 of Agriculture, Ithaca, New York. 



SOME THINGS TO DO IN SPRING, SUMMER, AND 



EARLY FALL 



1 . Make a calendar of the wild flowers as they appear this spring. 

 If you find any that you cannot identify, leave a blank space, and send a 

 specimen to the College to be named. Try to find all that are given for 

 study this year — geranium, hepatica, strawberry, goldenrod, bluet, 

 columbine, bloodroot — for this will be a definite piece of work; but do 

 not neglect to list any others that you may see. In a few years you will 

 know when to expect each of the wild flowers in your neighborhood, and 

 this is always interesting. We are wondering who will find the first 

 hepatica and report its coming? the first wild geranium? Who will be 

 able to tell the teacher in the fall when the first goldenrod was in full 

 bloom ? 



2. You may prefer to make a calendar of the time of the flowering of 

 the trees. This will be exceedingly interesting. Perhaps no one in your 

 class can tell when the chestnut tree will blossom, although every one of 

 you can tell when the chestnuts will be ripe. Find out when the first 

 blossom of apple, plum, beech, elm, locust, birch, chestnut, and cedar 

 appears. 



3. The study of ferns is always full of interest, and although a large 

 part of their life history must be left until you are older and can use 

 microscopes, very young persons can learn much that will give new joy in 

 the woodland places. The dark wood banks that call you by the ferny 



