MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 131 



these highly favorable climatic conditions have prevailed, while in Europe 

 during the present year an extensive grape rot has prevailed where heavy rains 

 have occurred. 



EMBELLISHMENT OF COUXTRY SCHOOL GROUNDS. 



At the winter meeting of the society a very suggestive essay upon ^'The Im- 

 provement of Country School Grounds" was presented by W. C. Latta of 

 Mason. The discussion which followed awakened in the Secretary a desire to 

 carry on the discussion farther, and if possible, get at some practical methods 

 of accomplishing some work in the matter. It is a great deal easier to write 

 essays, deliver addresses, and talk fluently in conversation upon this topic than 

 it is to actually grapple with the difficulties to be overcome and carry out some 

 plan that shall really awaken a practical interest in the work on the part of 

 school patrons, that will bear fruit in making places where country children 

 attend school, better than the average farmers' barns. 



In travelling over Michigan it is very rare to find a school-house situated 

 upon a larger piece of ground than a quarter of an acre, and it is still more 

 .rare to find a single example of neatness and taste in the interior or exterior 

 arrangements. 



We pass over the State by highway or railway, and when we find a neighbor- 

 hood of tasty houses with good outbuildings we know it is a thrifty community, 

 the land is good, and the right kind of farming has made an independent, 

 thrifty people. 



Should we by some strange dispensation in our travels pass by a school-house 

 built in good taste, nicely arranged in its appointments, having neat outhouses and 

 a yard deftly planted to trees, shrubs, and vines, with a beautiful lawn as a foun- 

 dation, we should with reason remark, '' this neighborhood takes an interest in 

 education. The people have broad views of what school training should do 

 for their children, and they evidently believe that the richest inheritance they 

 can give their boys and girls is an education acquired under the tuition of 

 pleasant associations as well as good instructors." 



But if we judge of the interest that Michigan people have in the best and 

 purest education that can be given their children, by the appearance of the places 

 where the business of giving that education is carried on, what must be our 

 judgment I Can it be doubted that this is a proper gauge to measure by? We 

 judge the tree by what it bears. 



We judge the man by the company he keeps. We say that the books one 

 reads are his associates and friends, and have as much to do with the moulding 

 of his character as the people witli whom he associates and converses. We 

 5ay, too, in speaking of the home, that the lives of people are influenced very 

 largely by the surroundings and associations of childhood's home. We believe 

 these to be facts. Why do we not apply them to the places that stand next to 

 our homes in influencing the minds and hearts of children. The children are 

 at school over half their waking hours. They go there for the avowed purpose 

 of learning. They go from homes provided with music, pictures, and all sorts 

 ^f beautiful things, to a bare, often untidy, unpleasant school-room, and a 

 majority of them don't like to go to school, and their parents wonder why it is 

 their children are so anxious to do evervthinof rather than attend school. 



