<Iht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 457 
With a Sterling Range in 
your kitchen you will 
enjoy cooking 
Every woman enjoys cooking when she has the right tools at hand. 
If her cook stove is out-of-date, poorly constructed, if the oven heats un¬ 
evenly, if there is not sufficient top space, it is mighty difficult to give the 
family properly cooked meals. Batches of food will be spoiled, wasting 
both time and material—meals will be late, or insufficiently cooked, a men¬ 
ace to the family health. With a 
The Range thct Bakes a Barrel of Flour zvith a Single Hod of Coal 
What to Do to the School Grounds 
On Arbor Day the teacher will want 
to have a program and plant a tree. Be¬ 
fore that time arrives we ought to con¬ 
sider what the tree is for. where it is to 
he placed, and what relation it has to the 
development of the finished school 
grounds. 
At the outset we ought to observe that 
there are now two quite different types 
of country schools in the land. The first 
is the old-fashioned one-room, “little red 
schoolhouse.'’ and the other is the mod¬ 
ern consolidated school, a building with 
several teachers. Quite dearly these rep¬ 
resent two distinct problems, 
Tf we speak first of the more popular 
little red schoolhouse we have to allow 
that the grounds are usually too small. 
It is rather rare to find grounds of more 
than one acre, and painfully frequent to 
find schoolhousos standing on grounds of 
less than a quarter of an acre. Now the 
absolute minimum 'for country school 
^ grounds should be one acre, and the max¬ 
imum two acres. Even if there are only 
six pupils attending the school the whole 
acre will be needed. 
These grounds should he clean, reason¬ 
ably level and free of obstructions. While 
of course children will play on a rooky 
cliff or in a swamp, if they happen to 
find themselves in such surroundings, yet 
their daily playground should be as clean 
and safe as a paddock in which colts are 
exercised. The space immediately around 
the schoolhouse is needed first of all for 
play, A baseball diamond should he con¬ 
sidered absolutely obligatory. This should 
lie clean and level, with bases 00 ft. 
apart, and so placed that batted balls 
will not all go through the windows of 
the schoolhouse. 
It is furthermore highly desirable to 
have a small space for free play. This 
should be on the opposite side of the 
schoolhouse from the ball ground, where 
it can he utilized hv small children who 
would otherwise he in danger were they 
too much mixed with the hall games. 
Every school ground should have two 
or three shade trees, preferably elms, 
maples or other deciduous Trees of that 
Character. They will do more than any 
other one thing to take bareness away 
from the country sehnnlbouse, and make 
it look more homelike and hospitable. 
They should ho placed by preference on 
Iho south and west sides of the school 
building, where their shadows will fall 
on the building itself. 
It is also practicable and desirable in 
many localities to plant a good wind¬ 
break on the north and west sides of the 
schoolhouse. This should he of ever¬ 
green trees, nr of good deciduous species 
mixed with evergreens. 
Whether there shall be any green grass 
on the school grounds or not is always a 
problem. Unless the grounds are large 
and well cared for. the lawn will prob¬ 
ably be all worn out by playing children. 
This need not he too much regretted, re¬ 
membering that play is more important 
than lawns. 
Tinder suitable conditions some shrub¬ 
bery may be planted on the grounds, espe¬ 
cially in fence corners or as foundation 
plantings. Shrubbery should not he 
maintained unless it can be cared for. If 
it is found that shrubs interfere with the 
play of the children, or if they become 
untidy by catching papers and other rub¬ 
bish, then the shrubbery should he cleaned 
out with ihc rubhisli. 
Flower beds should never he planted 
on a country school ground, at least not 
unless circumstnnc s are very different 
from those which T ever observed. 
CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS 
When a modern consolidated school is 
built in a country district - , an adequate 
allotment of land must be insisted upon. 
About three acres may be considered a 
minimum, while the maximum will de¬ 
pend upon the work to be undertaken by 
the school. If a genuine agricultural de¬ 
partment is to be maintained, with school 
gardens, demonstration plots and things 
of that sort, the school grounds must in¬ 
clude farm land sufficient to maintain 
such a program. 
, A first-class playground or athletic 
field may he considered a necessity on 
such school grounds. Quite possibly 
there will he need for two or three base¬ 
ball diamonds, a football field, and a bas¬ 
ket-ball ground. In many cases also it 
will be desirable to have Iho ball ground 
furnished with bleachers, not only to pro¬ 
vide for intersehobtstie games, but for 
various outdoor neighborhood events. 
Indeed, such a consolidated school al¬ 
most necessarily becomes a neighborhood 
center. The building should include an 
auditorium available for all kinds of pub¬ 
lic meetings. This lends to the necessity 
for suitable parking space for automo¬ 
biles, which itself will occupy approxi¬ 
mately one acre of land. 
The consolidated school, with its larger 
and more dignified building and its larger 
grounds, may very well maintain a front 
lawn upon which some really first class 
landscape gardening may he exemplified. 
There should be plantings of deciduous 
itnd evergreen ornamental trees, with spe¬ 
cial emphasis upon large deciduous shade 
trees of native species. Shrubbery can he 
used in foundation plantings, with climb¬ 
ing vines upon the walls. 
It is highly desirable in the develop¬ 
ment of all such school grounds to secure 
from some competent source a first class 
plan at the outset. This plan may he de¬ 
veloped by stages, and each Arbor Day 
offers a pleasant occasion for making 
some addition toward the predestined 
goal. FRANK A, WAUGH. 
in the kitchen you can serve your meals 
by the clock, the oven will never go back 
cn you for there are no cold spots in the 
Sterling oven... Every ounce of fuel is 
turned into heat—an economy in fuel and 
an insurance in cooking results. 
Don’t worry along with that aggra¬ 
vating, extravagant old range another 
day. Send now for the free book on 
the Sterling Range. Here you will find 
illustrated and described just the model 
you have always been wishing for. You 
will see why this Range, designed by a 
w oman for women, with the idea of mak¬ 
ing your days easier and happier, is with¬ 
out equal in performance or appearance. 
Best of all, you will enjoy doing business w ith the Sterling Dealer. He will give 
you a double guarantee of absolute satisfaction signed by both this Company and him¬ 
self, and in addition will offer you convenient terms of payment if you desire. 
Write today for the booklet and name of 
nearest Sterling Dealer 
SILL STOVE WORKS, Rochester, N. Y. 
Makers of Sterling Ranges and Furnaces 
