THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY OF WORK AND PLAY CARPENTRY AND WOODWORK By Edwin W. Foster ELECTRICITY AND ITS EVERYDAY USES By John F. Woodhull, Ph.D. GARDENING AND FARMING By Ellen Eddy Shaw HOME DECORATION By Charles Franklin Warner, Sc.D. HOUSEKEEPING By Elizabeth Hale Gilman MECHANICS, INDOORS AND OUT By Fred T. Hodgson. NEEDLECRAFT By Effie Archer Archer OUTDOOR SPORTS, AND GAMES By Claude H. Miller, Ph.B. OUTDOOR WORK By Mary Rogers Miller WORKING IN METALS By Charles Conrad Sleffel. [Illustration: Photograph by Helen W. Cooke. Harvesting Nature's Crops] _The Library of Work and Play_ OUTDOOR WORK BY MARY ROGERS MILLER [Illustration] GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1911 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO EIGHT BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHO SENT ONE ANOTHER TO COLLEGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Acknowledgment is due to the expert writers of United States government and state experiment station bulletins from which much practical information has been gained by the author; to the boys and girls who wrote for this book the stories of their success in several kinds of outdoor industry; to Dr. Burton N. Gates, State Inspector of Apiaries in Massachusetts, and Prof. James E. Rice of the Department of Poultry Husbandry at Cornell University for reading the chapters on their specialties and for numerous suggestions which make those chapters valuable; and to many others from whom helpful ideas have come in letters. A WORD TO PARENTS There are two sovereign cures for the ills of modern life: Work and outdoors. It is the purpose of this book on "Outdoor Work for Young People" to teach the gospel of these two remedies, not in lessons nor sermons, but in the form of confidential talks, which are intended to be both practical and inspiring. The guiding principles in the preparation of this book are three: 1, to help young people to earn money; 2, to help them build character; 3, to help them make better citizens.