2. _Books for children._--In selecting a list of books for farm boys and girls, we should make little or no distinction between them and the children of the city homes. Their earlier literary needs are practically all alike and their youthful minds must be nourished in about the same fashion. In offering the lists to follow we do not pretend to have selected nearly all the profitable books available, but rather to have named a few examples of volumes already found enticing and helpful to the young mind. The majority of them are standard and well known. While the price and publisher are given in many instances, often a cheaper edition may be had. In order to proceed with greater certainty and economy in purchasing books for the children, the rural parent is advised to consult some one near at hand who is thoroughly familiar with children's literature. Perhaps the superintendent of schools of the town near by, or some local minister, or some well-informed leader of a mothers' club, may furnish the desired assistance. It would also be helpful to write for the general catalogues of a number of the large publishing and distributing houses and from their lists select a number of suitable titles. Many of them publish the older classics in very attractive form for ten to twenty-five cents, the original unchanged and unabridged. In order to stimulate interest in forming the nucleus of a home library the farmer should either make or purchase a small set of book shelves. Important as it may seem to build a first-class house for the thoroughbred hogs, this matter of the children's reading is even more important and should be attended to first, before it becomes too late to catch the attentive ear of the boys and girls. A SELECTED LIST The following lists are taken chiefly from those selected by such well-known critics as Mary Mapes Dodge, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Edward Everett Hale, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Hamilton W. Mabie. _Ages Four to Six Years_ VARIOUS AUTHORS. Boston Collection of Kindergarten Stories. J. L. Hammett Company, Boston. 50 cents. BRYANT. Stories to Tell to Children. Houghton, Mifflin Company. HOLBROOK. Hiawatha Primer. 50 cents. Houghton, Mifflin Company. EGGLESTON. Story of Great America for Little Americans. 35 cents. Houghton, Mifflin Company. SCUDDER. Fables and Folk Stories. STEVENSON. A Child's Garden of Verses. LANG. Blue Fairy Book. RUSKIN. King of the Golden River. FIELD. Lullaby Land. WIGGIN. The Story Hour. SEWELL. Black Beauty. _Ages Six to Seven Years_ NORTON AND STEPHENS. The Heart of Oak Books, No. 1. 25 cents. Heath. GILBERT. Mother Goose. CARROLL (CHARLES L. DODGSON). Alice in Wonderland. $3. Harper. 35 cents. Crowell. ANDREWS. The Seven Little Sisters. 60 cents. Ginn. KINGSLEY. Water Babies. KIPLING. The Jungle Book. GREENE. King Arthur and his Court.