No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 717 



home without a mother?" The happy, satisfying home is largely 

 due to the mother. Yet she alone cannot make home all it should 

 be. Mother, father, child, each has his part in making home a 

 model one. 



Kindness, gentleness, and love must permeate the homelife. And 

 it is not enough to love one another ever so dearly. We must show 

 our love. Far too often we fail to appreciate those in our homes. 

 Too often the word of appreciation and praise is withheld from our 

 loved ones only to be spoken when the ears are deaf to our praises. 

 Better far would it be for us to tell them how much they add to our 

 happiness while they can hear it and be gladdened by it, than, after 

 they are gone, to proclaim loudly their goodness. It does not matter 

 to them then. Now it means so much. That father is as proud of 

 his boy as a father can be, yet to hear him talk before the boy, one 

 would think he has the worst boy in town. He goes on the prin- 

 ciple that to praise a boy is to ruin him. What boy was ever in- 

 spired to do his best by being continually told how depraved he was? 

 Our natures are very quick to respond to appreciation. It is true 

 we usually amount to Just about what is expected of us. Let that 

 father not fear to, have his son know he is proud of him. The boy 

 will strive the harder to deserve his father's commendation and will 

 think more of his father for it. 



Then how^ often does the daughter make her mother feel that she 

 is just a little ashamed of her; that she w^ould rather have her stay 

 out of the room when her young friends call! When in reality she 

 loves her mother dearly and does not think to hurt her. Mother is 

 the girl's best friend. Girls, let us not fail to show her that we value 

 her friendship above that of all others. 



The model home is the home that meets the need of every member 

 of that home. The home in the country will have some needs to 

 supply that the home in town will not have. In the country social 

 advantages are limited. These must in some measure be made up 

 by the home. Our lives are apt to become very monotonous. The 

 home must relieve this. 



First among the equipments of the home stands good literature. 

 This is an age of much reading. We have not time to read everything 

 that comes in our way. We have time for only the best. If good, 

 pure literature be taught a child and continually kept before him, 

 he is not apt to spend his time pouring over cheap, harmful literature 

 of which there is so much in circulation to-day. The habit of read- 

 ing good books once formed goes with one throughout life and is a 

 source of keenest enjoyment. 



The home must be an attractive place. Music should have a promi- 

 nent place in it. Because one cannot have an expensive piano, is no 

 excuse for omitting music from the home. Sweetest music can be 

 made on so simple an instrument as the mouth-organ or the jew's- 

 harp. The poet says: ''Music hath charms to soothe the savage 

 breast." If it so affect the savage, what of its influence on the in- 

 telligent members of our homes. 



Innocent amusements and games should be furnished the children. 

 Many a boy is on the street to-night because home is so dull. Money 

 spent in making the home attractive is a sure investment; yet it is 

 not always the expensive, richly furnished house that contains the 



