Home Makers' Conference. 365 



and how to can and preserve them. The operations will be simple but 

 the teacher will impress upon her pupils the imderlying principles in 

 the preservation of foods, and both boys and girls will apply these prin- 

 ciples to their work. The tangible results are some canned fruit, jelly, 

 pickles and preserves. Later it is butchering time on the farms of the 

 neighborhood. This is the best opportunity for studying meats. A 

 visit to the place where the work is going on will interest the children 

 in the location of the different cuts and the best methods of cooking 

 each. The teacher will interest them in the composition of different 

 kinds of meat. Some of the farmers will be curing their own meat. 

 Here is a good opportunity to follow up the subject of preservation of 

 fruits with that of preservation of meats. Visit the smoke-house. Get 

 the different farmers' ideas of methods of curing, and let the teacher 

 supplement them with the whys and wherefores. As Thanksgiving 

 draws near thoughts of children turn to turkey. Take up the subject of 

 fowls and game. Eabbits, squirrels and quail are never beyond the 

 reach of the average school boy. Such an opportunity for material gives 

 the rural teacher a decided advantage. 



As Christmas approaches how easy to interest the children, girls 

 especially, in sewing. Visions of little gifts for parents and friends 

 made by the child herself are incentive enough to take the child past 

 eight years old through the elements of plain sewing. Afterwards 

 the interest in a garment for herself is equally alluring. Or suppose 

 it is foods which claim attention. Christmas and candy ! Sugar is one 

 of the food principles. Let us study it. In the process of studying 

 it we may use the nuts stored up in the early fall from the neighboring 

 walnut trees. The result will be a splendid array of Christmas candy 

 free from adulteration. 



Happy is the school which passes through a session Mdthout an in- 

 vasion of some contagious disease. During such an epidemic interest 

 the children in disenfectants, care of the eyes after measles, etc. Let 

 them loiow something of the history and the cause of the disease, the 

 part of the body affected and how the disease is spread. Ask the doctor 

 who practices in the neighborhood, and who has the confidence of the 

 children to stop at the school house some day and talk to the children 

 on some subject he deems important to them at that time. During the 

 winter months the work in foods might be in the starchy foods which 

 keep well. During this period, too, when the farmer has more time for 

 recreation than at any other, instead of having the regular Friday 

 afternoon work, invite the parents to visit the school and let the chil- 

 dren make and serve light refreshments. Instead of entertaining them 

 with literary masterpieces have several pupils read short compositions 



