242 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS 



the farm. Every step taken to make the country home 

 more attractive, to make the school and its grounds more 

 enjoyable, to make the way easy to homes of neighbors, 

 to school, to post office, to church, is a step taken towards 

 keeping on the farm the very boys and girls who are 

 most apt to succeed there. 



Not every man who lives in the country can have a 

 showy or costly home, but as long as grass and flowers 

 and vines and trees grow, any man who wishes can have 

 an inviting-looking house. Not every woman who is to 

 spend a lifetime at the head of a rural home can have a 

 luxuriously furnished home, but any woman who is willing 

 to take a little trouble can have a cozy, tastefully fur- 

 nished home, a home fitted with the conveniences that 

 diminish household drudgery. Even in this day of cheap 

 literature, all parents cannot fill their children's home with 

 papers, magazines, and books, but by means of school 

 and Sunday-school libraries, by means of circulating book 

 clubs, and by a little self-denial, earnest parents can feed 

 hungry minds just as they feed hungry bodies. 



Agricultural papers that arouse the interest and quicken 

 the thought of farm boys by discussing the best, easiest, 

 and cheapest ways of farming ; journals full of dainty 

 suggestions for household adornment and comfort ; illus- 

 trated papers and magazines that amuse and brighten 

 every member of the family; books that rest tired bodies, 

 all of these are so cheap that the money reserved from 

 the sale of one hog will keep a family fairly supplied 

 for a year. 



If the parents, teachers, and pupils of a school join 

 hands, an unsightly, ill-furnished, ill-lighted, ill-ventilated 



