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; illustrated papers and magazines that amuse and cheer every member of the family; books that rest tired bodies and open and strengthen growing minds--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. [Illustration: FIG. 292. AN UNIMPROVED SCHOOLHOUSE] [Illustration: FIG. 293. AN IMPROVED SCHOOLHOUSE] [Illustration: FIG. 294. THE SAME ROAD AFTER AND BEFORE IMPROVEMENT] If the parents, teachers, and pupils of a school join hands, an unsightly, ill-furnished, ill-lighted, and ill-ventilated school-house can at small cost be changed into one of comfort and beauty. In many places pupils have persuaded their parents to form clubs to beautify the school grounds. Each father sends a man or a man with a plow once or twice a year to work a day on the grounds. Stumps are removed, trees trimmed, drains put in, grass sowed, flowers, shrubbery, vines, and trees planted, and the grounds tastefully laid off. Thus at scarcely noticeable money cost a rough and unsightly school ground gives place to a charming school yard. Cannot the pupils in every school in which this book is studied get their parents to form such a club, and make their school ground a silent teacher of neatness and beauty? [Illustration: FIG. 295. WASHINGTON'S COUNTRY HOME] Life in the country will never be as attractive as it ought to be until all the roads are improved. Winter-washed roads, penning young people in their own homes for many months each year and destroying so many of the innocent pleasures of youth, build towns and cities out of the wreck of country homes. Can young people who love their country and their country homes engage in a nobler crusade than a crusade for improved highways? APPENDIX SPRAYING MIXTURES FOR BITING INSECTS DRY PARIS GREEN Paris green 1 lb. Lime or flour 4 to 16 lb. WET PARIS GREEN Paris green 1/4 to 2 lb. Lime 1/4 to 1/2 lb. Water 50 gal. FOR SOFT-BODIED SUCKING INSECTS KEROSENE EMULSION Hard soap (in fine shavings) 1/2 lb. Soft water 1 gal. Kerosene 2 gal. Dissolve soap in boiling water, add kerosene to the hot water, churn with spraying pump for at least ten minutes, until the mixture changes to a creamy, then to a soft, butterlike, mass. This gives three gallons of 66-per-cent oil emulsion, which may be diluted to the strength desired. To get 15-per-cent oil emulsion add ten and one-half gallons of water. FOR FUNGOUS DISEASES COPPER SULPHATE Copper sulphate 1 lb. Water 18 to 25 gal. Use only before foliage opens, to kill wintering spores. BORDEAUX MIXTURE