S04 



HOME AXD FLOWERS 



fresh for everj meal. She sweeps the whole 

 house every week — and covers everything up 

 with sheets so things won't get dusty. She picks 

 all the berries we eat (we have them three times 

 a day) from her garden, and gathers all the 

 vegetables — peas, beans, etc. She has to go for 

 the milk and carry it home, and she does not 

 keep a cow. She cooks beautifully— serves her 

 meals in dainty courses, but enormous amounts 

 of everything. She never seems tired — is al- 

 ways full of life and conversation— can talk 

 intelligently about anything— has been a great 

 reader. She goes off to the woods, gets ferns, 

 and pots them, and has them around the house. 

 She keeps vases of flowers in all the rooms, 



S TJ G Ct E S T I 0 X S 



It is the purpose of the American League 

 for Civic Improvement, 5711 Kimbark avenue, 

 Chicago, to give special attention . to "rural 

 improvement," and a feature of this enterprise 

 is the formation and encouragement of rural 

 clubs. There is the uurrent Events program, 

 material for which is obtained from The Cliau- 

 tauquan, the Junior Nat^n-alist work in Pets 

 und Animals, Springfield, Ohio, and, finally, 

 the Housewives' Course of this department of 

 Home and Flowers. Should special sugges- 

 tions be desired, do not hesitate to write us. 

 We shall be inter'^sted in every club formed 

 for home study along these lines. In the De- 

 cember number of Home axd Flowers we gave 

 suggestions for club study with an outline for 

 one or perhaps two meetings for the lesson 

 on Saving Steps, printed in the same issue. 

 We give a few topics for discussion on Sanita- 

 tion, and suggest, in connection, a reference 

 to the article on Sanitation in the February 

 number of Home and Flow^ers. 



SUBJECTS FOR DISCUSSION. 



1. What can a woman do for improved san- 

 itation? 



2. Discuss the water supply of the neighbor- 

 hood. 



3. Discuss impurities of the soil about a 

 dwelling and danger therefrom. 



4. Consider the best location for bedrooms. 



takes masses of flowers to sick neighbors, takes 

 cucumbers to one friend, berries to another. 

 Is always prettily and freshly dressed in the 

 afternoon and evening; always goes to prayer- 

 meeting; sits up till ten or half past reading. 

 She does all our room work except making the 

 beds. We make our own beds. She cans fruit, 

 makes pickles, jellies, preserves, etc. I don't 

 see hovr she does so much. She has the chickens 

 to take care of, and that is considerable work. 

 Every evening after her work is done she 

 walks down to the village to get the mail and 

 visit her friends— and comes back about nine, 

 ready for her hour's reading. She is forty 

 years old." 



CLIJBS 



5. Is there any public or neighborhood 

 nuisance which threatens the health of the 

 neighborhood? Is preventative to be had? 



6. Discuss the best means of ventilating the 

 rooms in a house. 



7. Are the children exposed to any danger 

 from disease in the surroundings at school? 

 Appoint, if necessary, a committee to investi- 

 gate this. Can individual drinking-cups be 

 supplied in the school? Are the floors of the 

 schoolroom kept free from dust? Do the chil- 

 dren sit in draughts? Are the outbuildings in 

 a sanitary condi'^' n? 



8. Is the care necessary for exquisite clean- 

 liness conducive to the happiest homes? 



Eeferences: Some Sanitation. Mrs. E. H. 

 Eichards, Home Science Publishing Co., Bos- 

 ton; $0.1*5. Cost of Living, Mrs. Eichards, 

 John Wiley &. Co.. Xew York; $1.00. Stonj of 

 Bacteria. Dust and Its Dangers. Drinling Wa- 

 ter and Ice Supplies, T. M. Pruden, Putnam & 

 Co.; $0.75. 



Special attention may profitably be spent 

 by those interested in the school in the com- 

 munity in which they live to the conditions 

 found there for health and the cultivation of 

 a wholesome, beautiful life for childhood. It 

 is a great thing to beautify school grounds, but 

 first of all, are the surroundings such as to 

 promote health? 



FOE E U R A L 



WHAT THE IMPROVEMENT IDEA WOULD DO FOR A COUNTRY SCHOOL 



