There are unlimited possibilities in nature for making collections. Shells, mosses, ferns, leaves, grasses, seeds, are all interesting and of value. An observation beehive with a glass front which may be darkened will show us the wonderful intelligence of these little creatures. The true spirit of nature study is to learn as much as we can of her in all of her branches, not to make a specialty of one thing to the neglect of the rest and above all not to make work of anything.

We see some new side to our most common things when we once learn to look for it. Not one person in ten thousand knows that bean vines and morning glories will twine around a pole to the right while hop vines and honeysuckle will go to the left and yet who is there who has not seen these common vines hundreds of times?

No one can give as an excuse that he is too busy to study nature. The busiest men in national affairs have had time for it and surely we with our little responsibilities and cares can do so too. I once went fishing with a clergyman and I noticed that he stood for a long time looking at a pure white water lily with beautiful fragrance that grew from the blackest and most uninviting looking mud that one could find. The next Sunday he used this as an illustration for his text. How many of us ever saw the possibility of a sermon in this common everyday sight?



IX

WATER LIFE

The water telescope—How to manage an aquarium—Our insect friends and enemies—The observation beehive

The eggs of so many insects, toads, frogs and other interesting creatures are laid and hatched in water that a close study of pools, brooks and small bodies of water will disclose to the nature student some wonderful stories of animal life. To obtain water specimens for our collection, we shall need a net somewhat similar to the butterfly net described in the previous chapter but with a much stronger frame.

One that I have used for several years was made by the village blacksmith. The ring or hoop is of quarter-inch round iron, securely fastened to a stout handle and bent to a shape as shown in the drawing. To this ring is fastened a regular landing net such as fishermen use, with an extra bag of cheesecloth to fit inside to capture insects too small to be held by the meshes of the outside net. For frogs, turtles, and minnows, the single net is all that is necessary.

This device is almost strong enough to use as a shovel. It will scoop up a netful of mud without bending. This is important as muddy ditches and sluggish ponds will yield us more specimens than swiftly running brooks. In addition to the net, the collector will require a small pail to hold his trophies. A fisherman's minnow bucket is excellent for this purpose and the water can easily be freshened and the contents of the pail reached by simply lifting out the inside pail from the water, which will drain out.



To study the animal life under the surface of a clear and shallow lake, a water telescope is a great aid. It is simply a wooden box a foot or so long and open at both ends. The inside should be painted black to prevent cross reflection of light. A square of clear glass should be fitted into one end and puttied tight to keep out the water. To use the water telescope, we simply shove the glass end under water and look into the box. A cloth hood or eye piece to keep out the outside light will make it more effective. The best way to use a water telescope is to lie in the bottom of a boat which is drifting about, and to look through the telescope over the side. As you study the marvellous animal and plant life that passes along under you like a panorama, see to it that in your excitement you do not fall overboard as a boy friend of mine once did.

The care of an aquarium is a never ending source of interest to the nature student. If a boy is handy with tools he can build one himself. It is by no means an easy task however to make a satisfactory water-tight box with glass sides, and my advice is not to attempt it. Glass aquaria may be bought so cheaply that it is doubtful if you can save any money by making one at home. If you care to try it, this is the way it is usually done:

Use a piece of seasoned white wood 1-1/4 inches thick for the bottom. If you wish your aquarium to be, say, 16 inches wide and 30 inches long, this bottom board should be 20 x 34 to give a margin at the edge. The size of a home-made aquarium can be anything that you desire. It is customary to allow a gallon of water to each three-inch gold fish that will inhabit it. By multiplying the three dimensions, length, width and height of your box and by dividing your result, which will be in cubic inches, by 231 (the number of cubic inches in a gallon) you can tell how many gallons of water it will hold. Of course the rule for gold fish is not absolute. The nature student will probably have no gold fish at all. They are not nearly so interesting as our native kinds. Besides nearly all varieties of fresh water fish will either kill gold fish or if they are too large to kill will at least make life so miserable for them that to keep them together is cruelty to animals. If we keep in our aquarium the specimens that we collect in our neighbourhood, beetles, newts, crawfish, snails, and tiny sunfish the number may be greatly increased. Overcrowding however is very bad. The ideal we should strive for is not "how many specimens" but "how many kinds" we can have in our collection.

The white wood board should have three or four hardwood cleats screwed to the bottom to prevent warping. The corner pieces of our glass box may either be made of sheet copper or heavy tin, or of wood, if we cannot work in metals. The wooden strips and the bottom board should have grooves ploughed in them to hold the glass. All the woodwork should be given several coats of asphalt varnish and to further waterproof it and as a final coat use some kind of marine copper paint that is used to coat the bottoms of vessels. Never use the common white lead and linseed oil paint for an aquarium.

You can sometimes buy aquarium cement or prepared putty at a "gold fish" store. This you will need to putty in the glass. If you cannot buy it, make it yourself from the asphalt varnish and whiting. Be sure that the paint and putty of an aquarium is thoroughly dry before you fill it with water.

Perhaps the most satisfactory way to study fish and insect life in water is to use all glass boxes and globes. So many kinds of fish and insects are natural enemies, even though they inhabit the same streams, that they must be kept separate anyway. To put them in the same aquarium would be like caging up two game roosters. If we were studying the development of mosquitoes, for instance, from the larvae or eggs to the fully developed insect, we should not get very far in our nature study if we put them in an aquarium with fish. A fish will soon make short work of a hundred mosquito wigglers just as a large frog will eat the fish, a snake will eat the frog and so on.

Rectangular glass boxes such as are commonly used for aquaria cost less than a dollar per gallon capacity. Goldfish globes cost about the same. White glass round aquaria are much cheaper and those made of greenish domestic glass are the cheapest of all, a glass tank holding eight gallons costing but two dollars.



Any transparent vessel capable of holding water, even a Mason jar will make an aquarium from which a great deal of pleasure may be derived. The old way of maintaining aquaria in good condition required a great deal of care and attention. The water had to be changed at least once a day if running water was not available, and altogether they were so much trouble that as a rule owners soon tired of them.

Modern aquaria are totally different. By a proper combination of fish and growing plants we can almost duplicate the conditions of nature and strike a balance so that the water need never be changed except when it becomes foul or to clean the glass.

These are called "self-sustaining" aquaria and they are the only kind to have unless we can furnish running water from a public water supply. Self-sustaining aquaria are very simple and any boy or girl living near a brook can stock one at no expense whatever.

The method is as follows: First cover the bottom of the aquarium with a layer of sand and pebbles to a depth of about two inches. Then plant in the bottom some aquatic or water plants that you have collected from a near-by lake. Any kind of water plants will do—the kind of plants boys always call seaweed, even a thousand miles from the sea. In collecting the plants, choose small specimens and obtain roots and all.

If you can find it, the best plant is fanwort. Other good kinds are hornwort, water starwort, tape grass, water poppy, milfoil, willow moss, and floating plants like duckweed. Even if you do not know these by name they are probably common in your neighbourhood. Fill the tank with clean water. That taken from a spring or well is better than cistern water. After two or three days, when the plants seem to be well rooted, put in your fish. You may keep your aquarium in a light place, but always keep it out of the sun in summer and away from the heat of a stove or radiator in winter.

The nature student will not attempt to stock up his aquarium immediately. He should always leave room for one more fish or bug. One year I started with a lone newt and before the summer was over I had thirteen sunfish, pickerel, bass, minnows, catfish, carp, trout, more newts, pollywogs or tadpoles, five kinds of frogs, an eel and all sorts of bugs, waterbeetles and insects. I soon found that one kind of insect would kill another and that sometimes my specimens would grow wings over night and fly away. But to learn these things, even at our own disappointment is "nature study." If we knew it all in advance, we would not have much use for our experimental aquarium.

Always keep a few snails and tadpoles, for they are the scavengers and will eat the refuse stuff and keep the glass free from greenish scum. Boys and girls are almost sure to overfeed fish. This is a great mistake. The best standard feed is dried ants' eggs that can be bought for a few cents a box at any bird and fish store. Do not feed pieces of bread and meat. Study what their natural food is and if possible get that for them.

If your fish seem sickly, give them a five-minute bath in salt water every day for a week. The kind of an aquarium above described is intended to fill an entirely different purpose from the usual gold fish globe. In your excursions you will find all sorts of queer looking eggs and specimens. Some of the eggs are so tiny that they look almost like black or white dust on the water. Another kind will be a mass like a jellyfish with brown dots in it, still others will be fastened in masses to the under side of a leaf in the water or perhaps on the bottom. What are they? That is just the question and that is why you will carefully collect them and take them home to await developments.

Always keep an accurate note-book with dates and facts. Also keep a close watch on your specimens. Sometimes they will hatch and be eaten by the other bugs before you could read this chapter.

A nature student will need some part of the house that he may call his very own. Here he can keep his specimens, his aquarium, his herbarium and what not. Around the wall he can hang the twigs with their cocoons, oak galls, last year's wasp and bird nests and other treasures. He should also have a work table that a little glue or ink will not injure and a carpet that has no further use in the household. Usually one corner of the attic or cellar is just the place.

See to it that you do not make other people uncomfortable in the pursuit of your hobby. You will find that almost every one is afraid of bugs and toads and that most people live in a world full of wonderful things and only see a little beyond the end of their noses.

There is a very practical side to nature study and the principal way that we can make it really pay, is to know our friends from our enemies in the animal and insect world. There are insects that chew, suck and bore to ruin our orchards and grain crops. They are our enemies. If we know their life story, where they hide and how they breed, we can fight them better. For every dollar's worth of crops that a farmer grows, it is estimated that his insect enemies eat another dollar's worth. A little bug called the "San Jose" scale has nearly ruined the orchards of some of the Eastern states. To fight him, we must know how he lives. That is nature study. By study we learn that the hop-toad is our best garden friend. He will spend the whole night watching for the cutworms that are after our tomato plants. When we see a woodpecker industriously pecking at the bark of our apple trees, we know that he is after the larvae of the terrible codling moth and we call him our friend.

After we learn that a ladybug lives almost entirely on plant lice and scale insects, we never kill one again except perhaps to place a specimen In our collection. Naturalists say that without ladybugs, our orchards would soon be entirely killed off.

The dragon fly or mosquito hawk as well as "water tigers," water striders and many kinds of beetles are the natural enemies of mosquitoes and as they never harm our crops we should never harm them. Nearly every living creature has some enemies.

You have perhaps heard the famous verse of Dean Swift:

"So naturalists observe, a flea Has smaller that upon them prey And these have smaller still to bite 'em And so proceed ad infinitum."



Among our insect friends the leading place belongs either to the honey bee or the silkworm. As silkworms are not especially successful in this country and as their principal food, mulberry trees, are not common, the nature student who cares to study our beneficial insects had better devote his attention to honey bees. An observation beehive is simply a glass box or hive instead of a wooden one. When we are not engaged in studying our bee city, the hive must be covered with a blanket as bees prefer to work in the dark. A boy or girl living in the country can also keep bees profitably and thus combine business with pleasure. A single hive will in a few years produce enough swarms to give us a good start as "bee farmers."



X

THE CARE OF PETS

Cats—Boxes for song birds—How to attract the birds—Tame crows—The pigeon fancier—Ornamental land and water fowl—Rabbits, guinea pigs, rats and mice—How to build coops—General rules for pets—The dog

In this chapter on pets, I regret exceedingly that I cannot say much in favour of the family cat. Like nearly all children, I was brought up to love kittens and to admire their playful, cunning ways. When a kitten becomes a cat my love for it ceases. Cats will do so many mean, dishonourable things, and will catch so many song birds and so few rats and mice that it simply has become a question whether we shall like the song birds or the cat. So many people do like cats that it is unfair perhaps to condemn the whole race for the misdeeds of a few. If a cat is carefully watched or if we put a bell on its neck, these precautions will to a certain extent keep the cat from catching birds, but most people have something better to do than to act as guardian for a cat. The fact is that a cat is a stupid animal seldom showing any real affection or loyalty for its owner and possessing but little intelligence. It is very difficult to teach a cat even the simplest tricks. We never know when a cat will turn on its best friend. They have the "tiger" instinct of treachery. A cat which one minute is contentedly purring on our lap may sink its claws into us the next.

The only way to force a cat to catch mice is to keep it half starved. Then instead of catching mice, it will probably go after birds if there are any in the neighbourhood. I have shut a cat up in a room with a mouse and it is doubtful whether the cat or the mouse were the more frightened. The cat does more damage to the song birds of this country than any other enemy they have. If kept at home and well fed, cats sometimes become so fat and stupid that they will not molest birds but this is due to laziness and not to any good qualities in the cat. In normal condition they are natural hunters.

The habits of a cat are unclean, its unearthly cries at night are extremely disagreeable and altogether it is a nuisance. A famous naturalist, Shaler, once said "A cat is the only animal that has been tolerated, esteemed and at times worshipped without having a single distinctly valuable quality."

A few years ago a quail had a nest under a rock opposite my house. Quail raise their young like poultry rather than like robins or wrens or the other song birds. As soon as the tiny quail chicks are hatched, the mother takes them around like a hen with a brood of chickens. This mother quail was my especial care and study. She became so tame that I could feed her. Finally she hatched out ten tiny brown balls of feathers. Our cat had been watching her, too, but not from the same motives and one day the cat came home with the mother quail in her mouth. She ran under the porch just out of reach and calmly ate it. The little brood were too small to look out for themselves so of course they all died or fell an easy victim to other cats. The mother was probably an easy prey because in guarding the young, a quail will pretend to have a broken wing and struggle along to attract attention to her and away from her little ones, who scurry to high grass for safety. I have never been very friendly to cats since I witnessed this episode.

It has been estimated that the average domestic cat kills an average of one song bird a day during the season when the birds are with us. In certain sections a cat has been known to destroy six nests of orioles, thrushes and bobolinks in a single day. The worst offenders are cats that live around barns and old houses in a half wild condition. Many people who say they "haven't the heart to kill a cat" will take it away from home and drop it along the road. A thoughtless act like this may mean the death of a hundred birds in that neighbourhood. It takes less heart to kill the cat than to kill the birds. So much for the cat.



Birds make splendid pets, but in keeping them in captivity, we must be sure that we are not violating the game laws of the state we live in. Nearly everywhere it is unlawful to keep in cages any native song birds or those that destroy harmful insects—the so-called "insectivorous birds." This includes thrushes, wrens, robins, bluebirds, orioles or, in fact, practically all birds but crows, blackbirds and kingfishers. It does not cover canaries, parrots, or any birds that are not native. It is an excellent law and every boy or girl should act as a special policeman to see that his friends and companions do not molest either birds or their nests. It is cruel to cage a wild bird anyway for a cage is nothing but a prison. There is no law against taming the birds or making friends of them and after all this is the most satisfactory way.

If we build houses for the birds to nest in, provide feed for them and in other ways do what we can to attract them, they will soon learn that we are their friends. We must study their habits and always avoid frightening them. Next to a cat, the worst enemies of our song birds are the English sparrows. A sparrow is always fair game for the boy with a slingshot or rifle. In many places these sparrows have driven practically all the other birds out of the neighbourhood, have robbed their nests and in other ways have shown themselves to be a public nuisance. Until 1869 there were no sparrows in this country and now they are more numerous than any other variety of birds, and sooner or later, the Government will have to take steps to exterminate them or we shall have no song birds at all.

The usual size of a bird house is six inches square and about eight inches high. It should always be made of old weather-beaten boards in order not to frighten away its prospective tenants by looking like a trap of some kind. The chances are that the sparrows will be the first birds to claim a house unless we keep a close watch and drive them away.

One way to keep them out is to make the entrance doorway too small for them to enter. A hole an inch in diameter will admit a wren or chickadee and bar out a sparrow, but it will also keep out most of the other birds. The usual doorway should be two inches in diameter. It is surprising how soon after we build our bird house we find a tiny pair making their plans to occupy it and to take up housekeeping. Sometimes this will happen the same day the bird house is set up. Always provide some nesting material near at hand; linen or cotton thread, ravellings, tow, hair and excelsior are all good. Of course we must not attempt to build the nest. No one is skillful enough for that.

Nearly all of our native birds are migratory, that is they go south for the winter. The date that we may look for them to return is almost the same year after year. Some few birds—bluebirds, robins, cedar birds and song sparrows will stay all winter if it is mild but as a rule we must not expect the arrival of the feathered songsters until March. The phoebe bird is about the first one we shall see.

In April look for the brown thrasher, catbird, wren, barn, eave and tree swallows, martins, king birds and chipping sparrows. In May the principal birds of our neighbourhood will return—thrushes, vireos, tanagers, grosbeaks, bobolinks, orioles. The game birds—quail, partridge, meadowlarks and pheasants do not migrate as a rule. At least they do not disappear for a time and then return. When they leave a neighbourhood, they rarely come back to it.

All the song birds begin nesting in May. Consequently we should have our bird houses "ready for occupancy" May 1st. It will take about twelve days for most birds to hatch their eggs. Some varieties will hatch three broods in a season, but two is the usual rule.

We shall require a great deal of patience to tame the wild birds. Some bird lovers have succeeded in teaching birds to feed from their hands. A wild bird that is once thoroughly frightened can probably never be tamed again.

A crow is a very interesting pet. Crows are especially tamable and may be allowed full liberty around the dooryard. We must get a young one from the nest just before it is ready to fly. Crows are great thieves and are attracted by bright objects. If you have a tame crow, and if any member of your household misses jewellery or thimbles you had better look in the crows' nest before you think that burglars have been around.

The chief difference between tamed wild animals, such as squirrels, birds, owls, foxes, crows and so on, and the domesticated animals and birds, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, pigeons and chickens, lies in the possibility with the latter of modifying nature and breeding for certain special markings, colours or size. All breeds of chickens from the little bantams to the enormous Brahmas have been bred from a wild species of chicken found in India and called the jungle fowl.

All the great poultry shows held throughout the country annually are for the purpose of exhibiting the most perfectly marked specimens of the breeders' skill. This is decided by judges who award prizes. The competition is sometimes very keen. In barred Plymouth Rock chickens, for example, there are sometimes a hundred birds entered to compete for a single prize. The breeders are called fanciers. The principal breeders of certain animals such as rabbits, pigeons or poultry, form an association or club and agree to an imaginary type of the animal called the ideal or "Standard of Perfection."

For example, the breeders of white fantail pigeons agree that perfect birds shall be of certain shape and size, with the head resting on the back just at the base of the tail; the tail should be spread out like a fan and contain at least twenty-eight feathers. These feathers should be laced on the ends. The model fantail should have a nervous jerky motion and never be at rest. Each of these points is given a certain value on a scale of marking and in judging the birds they are marked just as you may be in your lessons at school. The fancier tries to breed a bird that comes the nearest to this model. The prizes are sometimes of great value.

There is an enormous list of breeds in nearly all varieties of animals and poultry. In pigeons alone there are carriers, pouters, tumblers, baldheads, beards, dragoons, barbs, jacobins, Antwerps, turbits, owls, orientals, damoscenes, capuchins, fantails, trumpeters, swifts, Lahores, Burmese, Scandaroons, magpies, nuns, Archangels, runts and so on.

These birds are very different in appearance, the pouter, for example, has the power of inflating his crop until it puffs out in front as large as a baseball. Jacobins or as they are commonly called, "ruffle-necks," have an immense ruffle of feathers like a feather boa. Dragoons have a huge wart on the bill as large as an almond. The tumblers are so named from their habit of turning backward somersaults during flight.

Almost every one who starts keeping domestic pets either soon tires of the sport or becomes a fancier. The care of common pigeons is a very simple matter. The principal thing is a good loft or cote for them in the top of a barn or house. They will practically take care of themselves and after a few years greatly increase in numbers.

A model pigeon house for breeding fancy pigeons requires separate mating boxes, nests and other appliances. It would be impossible to make much of a success with fancy pigeons if they are allowed their liberty to fly about and mate at will.

The best nest boxes for pigeons are rough earthenware pans, eight inches across, which may be bought cheaply at a bird store. The floor of the cote should be covered with sawdust or gravel to the depth of half an inch. Pigeons that are confined should be fed regularly on a mixture of small grains and cracked corn. They should also be given cracked oyster shells, grit and charcoal occasionally. A pigeon loft should be rat proof and clean.

It is very doubtful whether there is any money in raising pigeons or squabs for market. Fanciers never sell their output for market purposes unless it is to get rid of surplus or undesirable stock. A breeder who is successful in winning prizes with birds of his "strain" as it is called will find a ready market with other breeders for all the birds he cares to sell. Prize winning birds sometimes bring a hundred dollars a pair. It is by no means easy to breed prizewinners and the chances are that the beginner will be a buyer of stock rather than a seller.

Homing pigeons or as they are commonly called, carriers, are not bred for special markings like fancy pigeons but because of their power and speed in flight. A carrier has the "homing" instinct more fully developed than any other animal. In some homing pigeon races, the birds have made speed records of over a mile a minute for many hours and have flown over a thousand miles. If a well-bred homing pigeon fails to return to his home loft it is almost a certainty that he is either forcibly detained or that he has been killed by hunters or hawks. Never try to capture a pigeon that may stop for a rest at your loft. He may be in a race and his owner may be waiting for his return five hundred miles away when every minute counts in winning a prize.

Another large class of birds that make fine pets although they are not strictly in the class of birds bred by the fancier are the ornamental land and water fowl. The chief objection to these birds as pets is the expense of buying them. The list of birds in this class is very large. In swans the leading varieties are mute, American whistling, black Australian, white Berwick and black-necked swans. The largest class are the pheasants. They are exceedingly beautiful, especially the golden, silver, Lady Amherst, Elliott, Reeves, green Japanese, Swinhoe, English ring neck, Melanotis, and Torquatis pheasants. The common wild geese are Egyptian, Canadian, white-fronted, Sebastopol, snow, brant, bar-headed, spin-winged and many others. In ducks, there are mallards, black, wood, mandarin, blue and green winged teal, widgeon, redhead, pin-tail, bluebill, gadwell, call and many others. Beside pheasants, ducks and geese there are also the various storks, cranes, pea-fowl and herons in the "ornamental fowl" list.

These are all wild fowl. The commoner varieties will cost from six to fifteen dollars a pair and the rare ones several hundred. To keep the semi-wild birds from flying away they are usually pinioned, a process of taking off the end joint of one wing. The colours of some of the ornamental fowl are more beautiful than any birds in nature. Pheasants especially are easily cared for and make interesting pets. They can be tamed and if kept outdoors they will seldom be subject to disease. Most of these birds are as easily cared for as chickens.



Rabbits make fine pets for boys and girls. They are clean in their habits, hardy and gentle. The common kinds are white rabbits with pink eyes or albinos, and brown rabbits or Belgian hares. With rabbits also there is a "fancy." The Fur Fanciers' Association recognizes the following distinct breeds: Belgians, Flemish giants, Dutch marked, English, Himalayan, silvers, tans, Polish, lops, and Angoras.

A rabbit hutch or coop is easily built from old packing boxes. One third of the coop should be darkened and made into a nest, with an entrance door outside and the rest simply covered with a wire front, also with a door for cleaning and feeding. The hutch should stand on legs above ground as rabbits do not thrive well in dampness. They will, however, live out all winter in a dry place. A box four feet long and two feet wide will hold a pair of rabbits nicely. Rabbits will become very tame and may often be allowed full liberty about the place if there are no dogs to molest them.

The drawing shows a standard type of rabbit hutch. A boy who is handy with tools can easily build one. We can always dispose of the increase in our rabbit family to friends or to dealers.

Guinea pigs or cavies are similar to rabbits in their requirements. The chief difference is that guinea pigs cannot stand excessive cold and will not do well if kept outside in severe winter weather. Rabbits and cavies will eat almost anything and eat constantly. The usual feed is hay, clover, wheat, corn, carrots, turnips, cabbage, lettuce, celery, potato parings, or any green food or grains. Cavies are especially fond of bread and milk.

The three classes of cavies are Peruvians or Angoras, with long silky hair; Abyssinians, with coarse hair in tufts or rosettes, and the common guinea pig or smooth, cavy. A pair of cavies will cost about two dollars. A dry airy cellar is a good place to keep them as they are cleanly in their habits. Neither cavies nor rabbits are especially intelligent but they do learn to know their master or at least the one who feeds them. Pet rats and mice are in the same class as rabbits but they should always have a coop that they will not gnaw out of. There is even a mouse club. It is in Europe and has over a thousand members.

An interesting example of skill in breeding is seen in Dutch belted varieties of cattle, in hogs, rabbits, cavies and mice. In all of these animals the same markings have been bred by careful crossing and selection. In all lines of "fancy" it is important to stick to a few varieties. We shall never make much of a success if we have half a dozen kinds of chickens, pigeons or rabbits. By far the most important "fancy" is with chickens, but this subject will be considered in the chapter on the care of poultry.

Among other pets are tame squirrels, turtles, snakes, lizards and toads. A tame gray squirrel makes a splendid pet. After a while we can give our squirrel full liberty and find him back in his nest at night. I once had a tame owl but I found that because of his habit of flying and feeding at night he was a very stupid pet. Besides that his powerful beak and sharp claws or talons were dangerous. I also once had a pair of flying squirrels but they also only appear at night and were consequently uninteresting in the daytime. We must always study the natural habits of our pets and try to give them coops and food as much like nature as possible. My flying squirrels were given soft feed in place of the usual hard-shelled nuts. Consequently their teeth grew so long that they were a positive deformity. We finally liberated them but before they could get to a place of safety one of them was caught and killed by a chicken. The poor little creature was so fat from overfeeding and lack of exercise that he had all but lost the power of using his legs.

Coops for pets may be as elaborate as our pocketbook will allow. The important things to remember are to construct a coop so that it may be cleaned easily, and to provide plenty of ventilation. It must also be dry. Fresh air is as important for animals as for people. The larger we can make a coop, the better it will be. Be careful not to overfeed pets. Regular and frequent meals of just what they will eat up clean is better than an occasional big meal. Rabbits require very little water. Usually they will obtain enough moisture from the green food they eat. It is a mistake, however, to think that water will kill rabbits. Change the straw in the nest boxes frequently. When they make fur nests do not disturb them.

For squirrels and other small animals, the coop may be made entirely of wire except the baseboard, which should be a piece of seasoned wood. Be sure that there are no sharp wire points or projecting nails in a coop to injure the animals.

The whole secret of taming wild creatures is patience. We must try to show them that we are their friends. The most direct way to an animal's heart is through his stomach, which is another way of saying that the owner should personally feed his own pets if he wishes them to know him.

There is really no reason why a country boy or girl should have any caged pets at all. In the city it is different. Perhaps the best pet for the unnatural conditions of city life is a canary. The real spirit to develop a love for the little creatures that inhabit our woods and fields is to feel that they are our friends rather than that they are prisoners. By all means cultivate the acquaintance of your "small country neighbours."

THE DOG

Every boy should own a dog. He is the friend and companion of our youth. For a boy to grow up without a dog is to be denied one of the real joys of life.

Senator Vest once said: "The one absolute, unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world; the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. He will sleep on the cold ground where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely if only he can be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert he remains."

The breed makes but little difference so long as the dog is intelligent and kind. Mixed breeds and mongrel dogs are often the most intelligent. A thoroughbred dog will give us more satisfaction possibly than a mongrel because he will make a better appearance. But at the same time, he is far more likely to be stolen. There are so many breeds to select from that it is almost impossible to give much advice. As a rule, the dog we shall like is the one we can get. The very heavy dogs such as Saint Bernards, mastiffs and great Danes are clumsy and will require outside quarters, as they are too bulky to have in the house. On the other hand the small toy breeds such as Pomeranians, black and tans and King Charles spaniels and pugs, are too delicate to be a real boy's dog. A list from which you may safely select a dog would be bull terriers, Airedale terriers, Scotch terriers, Irish terriers, cocker spaniels, pointers and setters, either Irish or English. This is by no means a complete list. I prefer a setter because my first dog, "Old Ben," was a setter, and he shared in most of my fun from the earliest recollections that I have. When he died I lost a true friend. It was the first real sorrow I ever had.

A dog should not sleep in the same room with his owner, but should have a warm dry kennel and be taught to regard it as his home.

Do not make the mistake of overfeeding a dog. He does not need three meals a day. One is sufficient, about nine in the morning, when he should have all he wants to eat. If you insist on a second meal give him a dog biscuit or a bone to gnaw on in the evening.

Keep your dog free from fleas, in spite of what David Harum says that "a reasonable amount of fleas is good for a dog, because it keeps him from brooding over being a dog." A thorough bath with carbolic soap and water will rid a dog of fleas, but this treatment should be repeated at weekly intervals to kill the eggs which hatch in the meantime.

Fresh insect powder or Scotch snuff if dusted thoroughly in a dog's coat will cause fleas to leave. This treatment should be done out of doors. A good plan is to place the dog on a sheet or piece of white paper and work the powder well into the hair, especially around his neck and behind the ears. Be careful not to injure his eyes.

A dog will soon recognize his master, and there is no quicker way to show that you are his master than to enforce obedience when you attempt to make him mind. Whether a whipping is necessary depends on the dog. With most dogs a good scolding will be sufficient. Never whip a dog when you are angry and never overdo the matter. It is possible to "break a dog's spirit," which simply means to make him afraid of you. A dog so frightened is ruined until you regain his confidence, a very difficult thing to do. Never cuff a dog with your hand. Always use a whip or switch. Let the whipping be a definite ceremony with a plain object in view.

Some dogs will prove to be headstrong and others will try to do whatever their master wants. There is an amazing difference in dogs and their intelligence seems to have no limits.

A dog must never be allowed to annoy our neighbours or friends. One of the most annoying habits that a dog cultivates is that of running out and barking at passing carriages or people. A few lessons in discipline early in life will break him of this habit, but once acquired it is practically unbreakable.

Another very annoying habit is that of allowing a dog to put his paws on us. We may not mind it when we are dressed in old clothes but friends or callers are possibly not so considerate.

Nearly every bad habit that a dog learns is usually the fault of the owner rather than of the dog. The training of a dog should be done as a puppy. Therefore we must secure our dog as young as possible.

In training hunting dogs the first step is called "yard-breaking." With ordinary dogs a thorough course in yard-breaking by teaching the simple command is all that will be necessary. First of all, teach your dog to lie down and come to you at call. The usual word for the former is "charge." A dog can be taught this in a very short time. Take him by the neck and back, and at the word, force him to lie down. Do not use any other words, or even pet him. Simply impress on his mind that when he hears "charge" it means lie down. As a rule a puppy is taught to come by snapping the fingers or by making a noise with the lips similar to that by which we urge a horse. It is almost natural to say "Come here." After a puppy learns to follow us at the command "heel in" and to run ahead when we say "go on," we must also teach him to come when we whistle. Most boys can make a whistle with the fingers sufficiently penetrating to call a dog for a long distance but a small metal whistle to carry in the pocket is the best way.

After a dog has acquired the simple lessons of training we shall find that he learns to understand us and to do our wishes very quickly. There should be a complete understanding between a dog and his owner. He will know our ways and we shall know his.

I have hunted in Virginia with a dog so intelligent that merely by watching him his master could tell whether he was on the trail of a rabbit, wild turkey, or deer. For each kind of game he had a different manner of barking and what is more remarkable, he was a thoroughly broken quail dog with the best "nose" or scent I have ever known and of course did not bark under these circumstances. Such a dog would be a mystery to any one who did not know his ways.

This dog "Old Doc" would hunt with any one on quail, but if the hunter did not succeed in killing game the dog would soon show his disapproval in every way, sulk along behind, and if the poor shooting continued, finally leave for home. A friend who took him out told me, "First I missed the birds and then I missed the dog." He had left in disgust.

No matter what breed our dog is we shall surely become greatly attached to him and almost look upon him as a friend rather than as an animal. A boy should never encourage a dog to fight. It is a cruel, unmanly thing and one that a real dog lover will never do. Dog fighting is a form of brutality second only to tying tin cans and other things to a dog's tail for the "fun" of seeing him run. I once saw a poor beast lose his tail as a result of this brutal joke. Some one had tied a string tightly around his tail and the dog ran until completely exhausted. He then kept out of sight for a few days. In the meantime the string caused his tail to become fearfully sore and finally to fall off. Can any one see a joke in this?



XI

THE CARE OF CHICKENS

The best breed—Good and bad points of incubators—What to feed small chicks—A model chicken house

A pen of chickens gives a boy or girl an opportunity for keeping pets that have some real value. Whether there is much profit in poultry is a question, but it is at least certain that the more care you give them the better they pay. There is but little difference in the results obtained from the various breeds of chickens, but there is a great difference in the people who take care of them. It is very difficult to make poultry pay on a large scale. Nearly every poultry farm that has started as a business has failed to make a success. The surest way to make chickens pay is to have only a few. Then the table scraps and the worms and weed seeds they can pick up will supply them with practically all their feed and the time you give them need not be counted as expense.

There are sixty or seventy distinct breeds of poultry recognized by expert fanciers and from three to ten colours or varieties in many of these breeds. New ones are being added constantly. For example, a breed called Orpingtons was recently introduced from England and now has ten varieties or colours that are "standard." At the New York Poultry Show a record price of $2,500 was paid for the prize-winning hen of this breed. There is a style in chickens as well as in anything else. A new breed will always have a great many admirers at first, and great claims will be made for its superior qualities. The poultrymen who have stock and eggs to sell will secure high prices for their output. Very soon, however, the real value of a new breed will be known and it will be on the same basis as the older breeds.

A beginner had better start with some standard recognized breed and leave the experimenting to some one else. One thing is certain: thoroughbreds will pay better than mongrels. Their eggs are of more uniform size and colour, the stock will be healthy and as a rule weigh a pound or two more than birds of uncertain breeding. Thoroughbreds do not cost any more to feed or care for than the mongrels and in every way are superior.

Breeds of poultry are usually divided into three separate classes, depending on the place where the breed originated. They are the American, Asiatic, and Mediterranean strains. The leading American breed is the barred Plymouth Rock and for a beginner will probably be the best to start with.

Another very excellent American or general purpose breed is the White Wyandotte. They are especially valuable as broilers, as they make rapid growth while young. The Leghorns are the leading breed for eggs. They are "non-sitters" and, being very active, do not become overfat. Their small size, however, makes them poor table fowls and for this reason they are not adapted to general use. The Asiatic type, which includes Brahmas, Langshans, and Cochins, are all clumsy, heavy birds, which make excellent table fowl but are poor layers and poor foragers. Brahma roosters will frequently weigh fifteen pounds and can eat corn from the top of a barrel.

A beginner should never attempt to keep more than one kind of chickens. To get a start, we must either buy a pen of birds or buy the eggs and raise our own stock. The latter method will take a year more than the former, as the chicks we hatch this year will be our layers a year later. Sometimes a pen of eight or ten fowls can be bought reasonably from some one who is selling out. If we buy from a breeder who is in the business they will cost about five dollars a trio of two hens and a rooster. The cheapest way is to buy eggs and hatch your own stock. The usual price for hatching-eggs is one dollar for fifteen eggs. We can safely count on hatching eight chicks from a setting, of which four may be pullets. Therefore we must allow fifteen eggs for each four pullets we intend to keep the next year. The surplus cockerels can be sold for enough to pay for the cost of the eggs. If we have good luck we may hatch every egg in a setting and ten of them may be pullets. On the other hand, we may have only two or three chicks, which may all prove to be cockerels; so the above calculation is a fair average. If we start with eggs, we shall have to buy or rent some broody hens to put on the eggs. A good plan is to arrange with some farmer in the neighbourhood to take charge of the eggs and to set his own hens on them. I once made such an arrangement and agreed to give him all but one of the cockerels that hatched. I was to take all the pullets. The arrangement was mutually satisfactory and he kept and fed the chicks until they were able to leave the mother hen—about eight weeks. It is also possible to buy one-day-old chicks for about ten or fifteen cents apiece from a poultry dealer, but the safest way is to hatch your own stock.

The easiest way to make a large hatch all at one time is with an incubator. There are a number of very excellent makes advertised in the farm papers and other magazines and the prices are quite reasonable. An incubator holding about a hundred eggs will cost ten or twelve dollars. There are many objections to incubators which we can learn only from practical experience. We shall not average more than 50 per cent. hatches as a rule. That is to say, for every hundred eggs we set we must not count on hatching more than fifty chicks. Incubators are a constant care. The most important objection to an incubator is that it is against the rules of most fire insurance companies to allow it to be operated in any building that the insurance policy covers. If the automatic heat regulator fails to work and the heat in our incubator runs up too high we may have a fire. At any rate, we shall lose our entire hatch. The latter is also true if the lamp goes out and the eggs become too cool. I have made a great many hatches with incubators of different makes and my experience has been that we must watch an incubator almost constantly to have success with it.

The sure way to hatch chickens is with a broody hen, but at the same time incubators are perfectly satisfactory if run in a room where the temperature does not vary much (a cellar is the best place). With an incubator there is always a temptation to attempt to raise more chickens than we can care for properly. Overcrowding causes more trouble than any other one thing. It is better to have a dozen chickens well cared for than a hundred that are neglected.

Eggs for incubators will cost about five dollars a hundred. Of course if they are from prize-winning stock the cost will be several times this amount. Before placing any eggs in an incubator it should be run for two days to be sure that the heat regulator is in working order. The usual temperature for hatching is 103 degrees and the machine should be regulated for this temperature as it comes from the factory. Full directions for operating, as well as a thermometer, will come with the machine and should be studied and understood before we begin to operate it. As the hatch progresses, the heat will "run up," as it is called, and we shall need to understand how to regulate the thermostat to correct this tendency toward an increased temperature. The eggs in an incubator must be turned twice a day. To be sure that we do this thoroughly it is customary to mark the eggs before we place them in the machine. The usual mark is an "X" on one side of the egg and an "O" on the other written in lead pencil. In placing the eggs in the trays we start with all the "O" marks up, for instance, and at the time of the first turning leave all the "X's" visible, alternating this twice every day.

In order to operate an incubator successfully, we shall also need a brooder, which is really an artificial mother. There is a standard make of brooder costing five dollars that will accommodate fifty chicks. Brooders are very simple in construction and can be made at home. A tinsmith will have to make the heating drum. The rest of it is simply a wooden box with a curtain partition to separate the hot room from the feeding space. Ventilating holes must be provided for a supply of fresh air and a box placed at the bottom to prevent a draught from blowing out the lamp. In a very few days after we place the chicks in a brooder they should be allowed to go in and out at will. In a week or two we shall be able to teach them the way in, and then by lowering the platform to the ground for a runway we can permit them to run on the ground in an enclosed runway. On rainy days we must shut them in.

There is always a temptation to feed chicks too soon after they are hatched. We should always wait at least twenty-four hours to give them a chance to become thoroughly dry. The general custom of giving wet cornmeal for the first feed is wrong. Always feed chicks on dry food and you will avoid a great deal of sickness. An excellent first food is hard-boiled egg and corn bread made from cornmeal and water without salt and thoroughly baked until it may be crumbled. Only feed a little at a time, but feed often. Five times a day is none too much for two-week-old chicks.

One successful poultryman I am acquainted with gives, as the first feed, dog biscuit crushed. All the small grains are good if they are cracked so that the chicks can eat them. The standard mixture sold by poultry men under the name "chick food" is probably the best. It consists of cracked wheat, rye, and corn, millet seed, pinhead oatmeal, grit, and oyster shells. Do not feed meat to chicks until their pin feathers begin to show, when they may have some well-cooked lean meat, three times a week.

There is quite an art in setting a hen properly. They always prefer a dry, dark place. If we are sure that there are no rats around, there is no better place to set a hen than on the ground. This is as they sit in nature and it usually seems to be the case that a hen that steals her nest will bring out more chicks than one that we have coddled. Eggs that we are saving for hatching should be kept in a cool place but never allowed to freeze. They should be turned every day until they are set. Hens' eggs will hatch in about twenty-one days. The eggs that have failed to hatch at this time may be discarded. When we move a broody hen we must be sure that she will stay on her new nest before we give her any eggs. Test her with a china egg or a doorknob. If she stays on for two nights we may safely give her the setting. It is always better when convenient to set a hen where she first makes her nest. If she must be moved, do it at night with as little disturbance as possible. It is always a good plan to shut in a sitting hen and let her out once a day for feed and exercise. Do not worry if in your judgment she remains off the nest too long. The eggs require cooling to develop the air chamber properly, and as a rule the hen knows best.

Young chickens are subject to a great many diseases, but if they are kept dry and warm, and if they have dry food, most of the troubles may be avoided. With all poultry, lice are a great pest. Old fowls can dust themselves and in a measure keep the pest in check, but little chicks are comparatively helpless. The big gray lice will be found on a chick's neck near the head. The remedy for this is to grease the feathers with vaseline on the head and neck. The small white lice can be controlled by dusting the chicks with insect powder and by keeping the brooder absolutely clean. A weekly coat of whitewash to which some carbolic acid has been added will keep lice in check in poultry houses and is an excellent plan. Hen-hatched chicks are usually more subject to lice than those hatched In incubators and raised in brooders, as they become infected from the mother. Some people say that chicks have lice on them when they are hatched, but this is not so.

The first two weeks of a chick's life are the important time. If they are chilled or neglected they never get over it, but will develop into weaklings. There are many rules and remedies for doctoring sick chickens, but the best way is to kill them. This is especially so in cases of roup or colds. The former is a very contagious disease and unless checked may kill an entire pen of chickens. A man who raises 25,000 chickens annually once told me that "the best medicine for a sick chicken is the axe."

A very low fence will hold small chicks from straying away, but it must be absolutely tight at the bottom, as a very small opening will allow them to get through. Avoid all corners or places where they can be caught fast. The mesh of a wire fence must be fine. Ordinary chicken wire will not do.



A brooder that will accommodate fifty chicks comfortably for eight weeks will be entirely too small even for half that number after they begin to grow. As soon as they can get along without artificial heat, the chickens should be moved to a colony house and given free range. They will soon learn to roost and to find their way in and out of their new home, especially if we move away the old one where they cannot find it.

A chicken coop for grown fowls can be of almost any shape, size, or material, providing that we do not crowd it to more than its proper capacity. The important thing is to have a coop that is dry, easily cleaned and with good ventilation, but without cracks to admit draughts. A roost made of two by four timbers set on edge with the sharp corners rounded off is better than a round perch. No matter how many roosts we provide, our chickens will always fight and quarrel to occupy the top one. Under the roost build a movable board or shelf which may easily be taken out and cleaned. Place the nest boxes under this board, close to the ground. One nest for four hens is a fair allowance. Hens prefer to nest in a dark place if possible. A modern, up-to-date coop should have a warm, windproof sleeping room and an outside scratching shed. A sleeping room should be provided with a window on the south side and reaching nearly to the floor. A hotbed sash is excellent for this purpose. The runway or yard should be as large as our purse will permit. In this yard plant a plum tree for shade. The chickens will keep the plum trees free from the "curculio," a small beetle which is the principal insect pest of this fruit. This beetle is sometimes called "the little Turk" because he makes a mark on a plum that resembles the "star and crescent" of the Turkish flag.

Whether we can make our poultry pay for the trouble and expense of keeping them will depend on the question of winter eggs. It is contrary to the natural habits of chickens to lay in winter, and if left to themselves they will practically stop laying when they begin to moult or shed their feathers in the fall, and will not begin again until the warm days of spring. When eggs are scarce it will be a great treat to be able to have our own supply instead of paying a high price at the grocer's.

The fact that it is possible to get really fresh eggs in midwinter shows that with the proper care hens will lay. The average farm hen does not lay more than eighty eggs a year, which is hardly enough to pay for her feed. On the other hand, at an egg-laying contest held in Pennsylvania, the prize-winning pen made a record of 290 eggs per year for each hen. This was all due to better care and proper feed.

The birds were healthy pullets to begin with, they had warm food and warm drinking water throughout the winter, their coop was a bright, clean, dry place with an outside scratching shed. The grain was fed in a deep litter of straw to make them work to get it and thus to obtain the necessary exercise to keep down fat. The birds in this contest were all hatched early in March and were all through the moult before the cold weather came. Most of the advertised poultry feeds for winter eggs are a swindle. If we give the birds proper care we shall not require any drugs. It is an excellent plan to give unthreshed straw to poultry in winter. They will work to obtain the grain and be kept busy. The usual quantity of grain for poultry is at the rate of a quart of corn or wheat to each fifteen hens. A standard winter ration is the so-called hot bran mash. This is made from wheat bran, clover meal, and either cut bone or meat scraps. It will be necessary to feed this in a hopper to avoid waste and it should be given at night just before the birds go to roost, with the grain ration in the morning, which will keep them scratching all day. Always keep some grit and oyster shells where the chickens can get it; also feed a little charcoal occasionally.

A dust bath for the hens will be appreciated in winter when the ground is frozen. Sink a soap box in a corner of the pen and sheltered from rain or snow and fill it with dry road dust. Have an extra supply to fill up the box from time to time.

The best place for a chicken house is on a sandy hillside with a southern slope. A heavy clay soil with poor drainage is very bad. Six-foot chicken wire will be high enough to enclose the run. If any of the chickens persist in flying out we must clip the flight feathers of their wings (one wing, not both). Do not put a top board on the run. If a chicken does not see something to fly to, it will seldom attempt to go over a fence, even if it is quite low.

It is much better to allow chickens full liberty if they do not ruin our garden or flower beds or persist in laying in out of the way places where the eggs cannot be found.



XII

WINTER SPORTS

What to wear—Skating—Skiing—Snowshoeing—Hockey

If one is fortunate enough to live in a part of the country where they have old-fashioned winters, the possibilities for outdoor sports are very great and the cold weather may be made the best part of the year for healthful outdoor exercise. To enjoy winter recreations properly we must have proper clothing. An ordinary overcoat is very much out of place, except possibly for sleighing. The regulation costume for almost any outdoor sport in winter is a warm coat, a heavy sweater, woollen trousers and stockings, and stout leather shoes. If in addition we have woollen gloves or mittens and a woollen skating cap or toque, we shall be enabled to brave the coldest kind of weather, provided of course that we have warm woollen underwear. Various modifications in this costume such as high hunting boots, or leggings and a flannel shirt worn under the sweater are possible. In the far North, the universal winter footwear is moccasins. We must be careful not to dress too warmly when we expect to indulge in violent exercise. Excessive clothing will render us more liable to a sudden check of perspiration, a consequent closing of the pores and a resulting cold. Rubber boots or overshoes are very bad if worn constantly. The rubber, being waterproof, holds in the perspiration and we often find our stockings damp even when the walking is dry. Rubber boots also make our feet tender and cause cold feet. Tight shoes are also bad for the reason that they check circulation. The best footwear for a boy who lives in the country will be Indian moccasins or shoepacs worn with several pairs of lumbermen's woollen stockings. Such footwear would not do for skating, as they have no soles, but for outdoor tramping in the snow they are just the thing. No leather is thoroughly waterproof against snow water, but by frequent greasing with mutton tallow, neatsfoot oil or vaseline, shoes can be kept soft and practically waterproof as long as the soles and uppers are in good condition.



In all winter sports, especially in Canada, the custom is to wear gaily coloured goods. A mackinaw jacket made from the same material as a blanket, with very prominent stripes or plaids, is often worn. Closely woven goods are better than a thicker loose weave as they are lighter, warmer, and more waterproof.

Chief among winter sports is skating. There is no healthier recreation, provided that the ice is safe. Even in the coldest weather with the ice a foot thick or more we must always be sure to be on the lookout for air-holes or thin places over springs. It is said that ice an inch thick will hold the weight of a man, but it is better to be sure than to be sorry, and three or four inches are much safer.



A few years ago the height of the skater's art was so called "fancy or figure" skating, but recently the tendency has been for speed rather than for grace and the old-fashioned club skates have been replaced by racing or hockey skates with much longer runners. Fancy skating for prizes is governed by rules just as any other game or sport. The contestants do not attempt figures of their own invention but strive to excel in the so-called "compulsory" figures. A fancy skater can practise from diagrams and directions just as one might practise moves in a game of chess. In printed directions for fancy skating the following abbreviations are used for the strokes:

R—right L—left F—forward B—backward O—outside I—inside

T—three LP—loop B—bracket RC—rocker C—counter

Supposing the figure to be executed to be the well-known "figure eight." It would be described as follows:

R-F-O L-F-O. R-F-I L-F-I. R-B-O L-B-O. R-B-I L-B-I.

By referring to the above table the skater can easily determine just what strokes are necessary to produce the figure properly.

Racing skates should be attached to shoes of special design either by screws or rivets. The most important thing is to have the blades carefully ground by an expert. They should be keen enough to cut a hair. To become a fast skater, practise if possible with an expert. Have him skate ahead of you and measure your stroke with his. By keeping your hands clasped behind your back your balance will not only be greatly improved but your endurance will be doubled. The sprinting stroke is a direct glide ahead with the foot straight. A trained skater can go very long distances with very little fatigue but one must carefully measure his speed to the distance to be travelled. When you can cover a measured mile in three and one-half minutes you may consider yourself in the class of fast skaters.



Hockey skates are somewhat shorter than racing skates although built on the same general lines, the standard length being from nine and one-half to eleven and one-half inches. Hockey is one of the best winter games either outdoors or in a rink. The game of shinney or "bandy" as it is called in England has been modified in this country by substituting a flat piece of rubber weighing a pound called a "puck" for the india rubber lacrosse ball, which weighs but four ounces. The best hockey sticks are made of Canadian rock elm.

The whole idea of hockey is to shoot the puck through your opponents' goal and to prevent them from shooting it through yours. In practice almost any number can play hockey and have plenty of exercise. The less experienced players should when securing the puck always shoot it as quickly as possible to a more experienced player on their own side to attempt shooting the goal. Skilful passing is the most important branch of hockey and consequently good team work is absolutely essential to success.



A regulation hockey team consist of seven players called goal, point, cover point, right centre, left centre, right wing, left wing.

The position of goal tender is the most difficult to acquire skill in. He stands directly in front of the goal and is expected to stop the puck with hands, feet, and body. While the position of goal does not involve much skating, a goal tender should also be a good skater. His position requires more nerve and cool-headedness than any other position on the team because the final responsibility of all goals scored against his team is up to him. His position is largely a defensive one and his work at times very severe. The goal keeper must very rarely leave his position but must depend upon the two other defensive men the "point" and "cover point" to stop the puck when it away from the direct line of the goal. The defensive men on a hockey team should not by any strategy or coaxing on the part of their opponents allow themselves to leave their own goal unprotected.

The forwards have most of the work of shooting goals and advancing the puck. Of course such a man must be very active and a good all round player. Hockey is a poor game in which to display grand-stand playing. The player's whole idea should be to shoot the puck so that either he or some member of his team may score a goal.

The rules of hockey are comparatively few and simple. The game consists of two twenty-minute halves with a ten-minute intermission between. In case of a tie at the end of a game it is customary to continue until one side secures a majority of the points.

A standard rink must be at least one hundred and twelve feet long by fifty-eight feet wide. Nets are six feet wide and four feet high.

One of the most exciting of winter sports is skate sailing. The same principles that are applied to sailing a boat are brought into play in sailing with skates. While considerable skill is necessary to handle a skate sail well, any one who is a good skater will soon acquire it. The direction that you go is determined by the angle at which the sail is held. When you wish to turn around or stop you simply shift its position until you run dead into the wind. A skate sail should be light and strong. A limit of five pounds' weight is all that is necessary. The sail is a very simple device. There are a great many kinds but one of the simplest is made from a T-shaped frame of bamboo with a V-shaped piece of canvas or balloon silk sewed or wired to the frame. The best skate sails are made with a jointed frame like a fishing rod so that they may be taken apart and easily carried.

While an expert can handle a sail eight or ten feet wide and twelve feet high it is better for the beginner to start with one much smaller. The construction of the sail and the method of holding it are shown in the diagram.



Snowshoeing is another winter sport that will furnish a great deal of pleasure and will enable us to be outdoors when our less fortunate friends may be cooped up in the house. There are a number of standard shapes in snowshoes, but probably the "Canadian" model will be found to be the most satisfactory generally. Snowshoes should be from twenty-four to forty-four inches long depending on the weight to be carried. In order to enjoy snowshoeing we must use moccasins. The proper method of attaching the snowshoes is clearly shown in the diagrams. The beginner will find that snowshoeing is a very simple art to acquire, being far less difficult than skating and with far less danger of having a bad fall.



The sport of "ski-running" or skiing is practised more generally abroad than in this country. A number of winter resorts owe their popularity largely to this sport. Skis are simply long flat pieces of wood fastened or strapped to the shoes. The best type are the so called "Norway" pattern. Various lengths are used from four to eight or nine feet long, but for a beginner the shorter ones will be better.



Ski-running is simply coasting down steep inclines on the snow with the skis used in much the same way as a sled. The longer they are the greater the speed obtained, but the longer ones are also correspondingly hard to manage.



In Norway and Sweden skis are made to order just as we might be measured for suits of clothes. The theory is that the proper length of ski will be such that the user, can, when standing erect and reaching above his head, just crook his forefinger over it as it stands upright. Ski shoes should be strong, with well blocked toes. A pair of heavy school shoes are just the thing if well made.



To learn skiing we should select the slope of a hill not very steep and with no dangerous rocks or snags to run foul of. The best snow conditions are usually found two or three days after it has fallen. Fresh snow is too light to offer good skiing and snow with a crust is also bad. In running with skis on the level ground a long, sweeping stride is used somewhat after the fashion of skating. The strokes should be made just as long as possible, and the skis kept close together. In going up an incline the tendency to slip backward is overcome by raising the toe of the ski slightly and bringing the heel down sharply. One foot should be firmly implanted before the other is moved. In going up a steep hill a zigzag course will be necessary.



As an aid in ski-running it is customary to employ a pair of ski poles, which are fastened to the wrist by leather thongs. They are usually made of bamboo or other light material with a wicker disk near the end to keep the pole from sinking into the soft snow. Ski poles should never be used in attempting a jump, as under these circumstances they might be very dangerous.

Ski coasting is the sport that most boys will be interested in. To make a descent, begin at the top of a hill as one would in coasting with a sled and lean well forward with the skis parallel and with one foot slightly ahead of the other. The knees should be bent and the body rigid. The weight should be borne by the ball of the foot that is behind. As the start forward begins, the impulse will be to lean back, but this Impulse must be overcome or you will take a tumble in the snow as you gain speed.



In jumping with skis an abrupt drop is necessary. For the beginner a few inches is sufficient. The start is made by coasting down an incline, and just before the take-off is reached, the runner assumes a crouching attitude and then straightens up quickly, maintaining an erect attitude until he is about to land, when, as in jumping, the knees are bent slightly to break the force of landing. During the flight the skis should be kept perfectly parallel but drooping slightly behind.



The various forms of coasting with toboggan sleds and bobsleds are all well known to boys who live where there are snow and hills. A sled can be steered either by dragging the foot or by shifting the sled with the hands. Sleds with flexible runners have recently been introduced and are a great improvement on the old type.

One branch of carpenter work that nearly all boys attempt at some time in their lives is to make a bobsled or double runner, which is a pair of sleds fastened on either end of a board long enough to hold from three to twenty or thirty people.



Coasting, especially with a bob, is somewhat dangerous sport, especially in cities or where the turns are sharp and there is danger of upsetting. A good bob is broad between the runners and low to the ground. The drawing shows one that almost any boy can make at little cost. Various devices are used as brakes on a bob. Most of them are found to be out of order or frozen when the time comes to use them. A brake that is made from a piece of iron bent in an angle and fastened to the side of the runners on the rear sled is the best arrangement to have. A bobsled should not cost over ten dollars complete with steering wheel, bell, and necessary iron work, which should be made at the blacksmith's.



XIII

HORSEMANSHIP

How to become a good rider—The care of a horse—Saddles

So many branches of outdoor sport depend on a knowledge of horsemanship that every boy or girl who has the opportunity should learn to ride horseback. When once acquired, we shall never forget it. The first few lessons will make us feel discouraged, because the jolting and jarring every one receives in learning to ride almost make it appear that we can never acquire the knack, but remember that even the cowboy has had to go through the same experience. A beginner should only ride a gentle horse. In case we do take a tumble, it is well to take our first lesson on soft ground or in a tanbark ring.

There are three types of saddles generally used: The English saddle is simply a leather seat with stirrups, and while it is the most refined type and the one used for fox hunting and all expert riding in England, it is not the best kind to learn on. The army saddle and the Mexican or cowboy saddle with a pommel or box-stirrups are far safer and less expensive. If you know of a dealer in second-hand army equipments you can buy a saddle and bridle of excellent material at less than half the retail price of the stores.



Before mounting your horse always examine carefully your saddle and bridle to see that the girths are tight, that the bridle is properly buckled, and the stirrups are the proper length. The latter is sometimes determined by placing the stirrup under the armpits and touching the saddle with the finger tips. A more accurate way is to have the straps adjusted after you are in the saddle. A beginner will prefer a short stirrup, but it is a bad habit to acquire. In mounting, stand on the left side and place the left foot in the stirrup. Swing the right leg over the horse and find the right stirrup with the toe just as quickly as possible. Do not jerk a restless horse or otherwise betray your excitement if he starts. Let him see by your calmness that he too should be calm.

So much depends on the kind of horse you are riding that it will be difficult to say just how to handle him. A horse that is "bridle wise" is not guided in the customary way; that is, by pulling on the rein on the side you wish him to turn as one does in driving. A bridle-wise horse is guided by pressing the opposite rein against his neck. Such a horse is much easier to handle on horseback and we should try to teach our horse this method as soon as possible.

There is very close understanding between a horse and rider that does not exist when a horse is driven to a carriage. A horse can be guided simply by the leg pressure or spur. The proper seat is well back in the saddle with the toe pointing almost straight ahead. In order to learn to ride quickly we must overcome any strain or tension of our muscles and try to be flexible above the waist. In this way we soon accommodate our own motion to that of the horse. The most difficult gait to ride is the trot. There are two distinct styles of riding—to trot in English style of treading the stirrups, which necessitates rising from the saddle at every step of the horse, and the army style of simply sitting back in the saddle and taking the jouncing. Either method will prove very difficult for the beginner. A partial treading or easing up but not as extreme as the English style will probably be the best to acquire. So much depends upon the gait of a horse that we learn to ride some horses in a very few days, and would be several times as long with some others.



A horse that habitually stumbles is very dangerous. We must be sure our saddle horse is sure footed. In using English stirrups never permit the foot to go through the stirrup and rest on the ball. The toes should be in such a position that the stirrups can be kicked off at an instant's notice in case the horse falls with us.



In tying a saddle horse in the stable for feeding or rest always loosen the girth and throw the stirrups over the saddle.

A saddle horse should always be spoken to gently but firmly. The horse can tell by your voice when you are afraid of him.

The canter is the ideal gait. After we once learn it, the motion of a good saddle horse is almost like a rocking chair and riding becomes one of the most delightful of outdoor pastimes. The boy who expects to go on an extended trip in the saddle should learn to care for a horse himself. A horse should never be fed or watered when he is warm unless we continue to drive him immediately afterward. Neglect of this precaution may cause "foundering," which has ruined many a fine horse.

The art of packing a horse is one which every one in mountain countries away from railroads should understand. Packing a horse simply means tying a load over his back. There are a great many hitches used for this purpose by Western mountaineers, but the celebrated diamond hitch will answer most purposes.

Hunting and steeplechasing, leaping fences and ditches, are the highest art of horsemanship. It is difficult to teach an old horse to be a hunter, but with a young one you can soon get him to take a low obstacle or narrow ditch, and by gradually increasing the distance make a jumper of him.



The popularity of automobiles has caused the present generation partially to lose interest in horseflesh, but no automobile ever made will furnish the real bond of friendship which exists between a boy and his horse, or will be a substitute for the pleasure that comes from a stiff canter on the back of our friend and companion.

We do not really need an expensive horse. A typical Western or polo pony is just the thing for a boy or girl provided that it has no vicious or undesirable traits such as kicking, bucking, or stumbling, or is unsound or lame. It is always better if possible to buy a horse from a reliable dealer or a private owner. There is a great deal of dishonesty in horse trading and an honest seller who has nothing to conceal should be willing to grant a fair trial of a week or more.

To enjoy our horse to the fullest extent we should take entire care of him ourselves. He should be fed and watered regularly and groomed every morning until his coat shines. If we neglect a horse and allow his coat to become rough it is almost as bad as to neglect feeding him. Never trust the care of your horse too much to another. Even if you keep him in a public stable or have a man of your own to care for him, it is well to let them see that you are interested in giving your horse close personal attention.



XIV

HOW TO SWIM AND TO CANOE

The racing strokes—Paddling and sailing canoes

It has been said that the human being is the only animal that does not know instinctively how to swim without the necessity of being taught. If we take a dog or a horse or even a mouse and suddenly place it in the water it will immediately begin to swim, even though it has never seen a body of water larger than the source from which it obtains its drink. With a man or boy it is different, for the reason that with all the other animals the motions necessary to swim are those by which they walk or run; with a human being it is entirely an acquired stroke. After one becomes an expert swimmer he will find that he can keep afloat or at least keep his head above water, which is all there is to swimming anyway, by almost any kind of a motion. By a little practice we can learn to swim "no hands," "no feet," "one hand and one foot," by all sorts of twists and squirms and in fact to propel ourselves by a simple motion of the toes.

The first stroke that a self-taught small boy learns is what is called "dog fashioned." This name accurately describes the stroke, as it is in reality very similar to the motions by which a dog swims. No amount of book instruction can teach a person to swim, but a clear idea of the best general strokes will be of great assistance.

Swimming is probably the best general exercise among athletic sports. Practically every important muscle in the body is brought into play, and measurements show that swimmers have the most uniform muscular development of any class of athletes. After we learn to swim, the distance that we are capable of going is largely dependent upon our physical strength. Almost any man can swim a mile if he begins slowly and with the same regard for conserving his strength that a runner would have in attempting a mile run.



However skillful one is as a swimmer, a proper respect for the dangers of the sport should always be present. To take unnecessary risks, such as swimming alone far beyond reach of help or jumping and diving from high places into water of uncertain depth is not bravery; it is simply foolhardiness. A good swimmer is a careful swimmer always. The beginner must first of all try to overcome his natural fear of the water. This is much harder to do than to learn the simple motions of hands or feet that makes us keep afloat and swim. Nothing will help to give us this confidence more quickly than to take a few lessons from some one in whom we have confidence and who will above all things not frighten us and so get us into danger. With a good teacher, a boy should be able to learn how to swim in two or three lessons. Of course he will take only a few strokes at first, but those few strokes, which carry with them self-confidence and which make us feel that swimming is not so hard an art after all, is really half the battle. After we are at least sure that we can get to shore somehow, we can take up all the finished strokes which make a fancy swimmer.

There are a number of strokes used in swimming and especially in racing. The common breast stroke is the first one to learn. In this the swimmer should lie flat on his breast in the water and either be supported by the hand of his teacher or by an inflated air cushion. The hands are principally used to maintain the balance and to keep afloat. The real work should be done with the legs. We learn to use the hands properly in a very short time, but the beginner always shows a tendency to forget to kick properly. For this reason swimming teachers lay great stress on the leg motion and in a measure let the hands take care of themselves. In swimming the important thing is to keep our heads above the water, a simple statement, but one that beginners may take a long time to learn. The impulse is not only to keep our heads but our shoulders out of the water also, and this is a feat that even an expert can not accomplish for very long. If we can allow ourselves to sink low in the water without fear, and if we can also remember to kick and, above all, to make our strokes slowly and evenly, we shall very soon learn to swim. I have frequently seen boys learn to swim in a single afternoon. Another tendency of the beginner is to hold his breath while swimming. Of course we cannot swim very far or exert ourselves unless we can breathe. We should take a breath at each stroke, inhaling though the mouth and exhaling through the nose, which is just the opposite to the hygienic method of land breathing. Whatever may be our methods, however, the main thing is not to forget to breathe, which always results in finishing our five or ten strokes out of breath and terrified.

A great deal may be learned about swimming strokes by practice on land. In fact some swimming teachers always follow the practice of teaching the pupil ashore how to make the stroke and how to breathe correctly. A small camp stool or a box will give us the support we need. The three things to keep in mind are the leg motion and the taking in of the breath through the mouth as the arms are being drawn in and exhaling as they are pushed forward. It is better to learn to swim in salt water, for the reason that it will support the body better. An additional advantage is that we always feel more refreshed after a salt-water bath.

If we take up fast swimming, we must learn one of the various overhand or overarm strokes. The chief difference between these strokes and the simple breast stroke is that the arms as well as the legs are used to propel the body through the water, and this power is applied so steadily and uniformly that instead of moving by jerks we move with a continuous motion and at a greater speed. The single overarm is easier to learn than the double overarm or "trudgeon" stroke. This latter stroke is very tiring and while undoubtedly faster than any other when once mastered, it is only used for short sprints. Most of the great swimmers have developed peculiar strokes of their own, but nearly all of them have adopted a general style which may be called the "crawl."

There are many fancy strokes in swimming that one may acquire by practice, all of which require close attention to form rather than speed, just as fancy skating is distinguished from racing. One of the simplest tricks to learn is called "the rolling log." We take a position just as we would in floating and then exerting the muscles first of one side and then the other we shall find that we can roll over and over just as a log might roll. The idea in performing this trick successfully is not to show any apparent motion of the muscles.

Swimming on the back is easily learned and is not only a pretty trick but is very useful in giving us an opportunity to rest on a long swim.

Diving is also a branch of swimming that requires confidence rather than lessons. A dive is simply a plunge head first into the water. A graceful diver plunges with as little splash as possible. It is very bad form either to bend the knees or to strike on the stomach, the latter being a kind of dive for which boys have a very expressive though not elegant name. Somersaults and back dives from a stationary take-off or from a spring-board are very easily learned. We shall probably have a few hard splashes until we learn to turn fully over, but there is not much danger of injury if we are sure of landing in the water.



Water wings and other artificial supports are very useful for the beginner until he has mastered the strokes, but all such artificial devices should be given up just as soon as possible, and, furthermore, as soon as we can really swim, in order to gain confidence, we should go beyond our depth, where it will be necessary to swim or drown.

A swimmer should always know how to assist another to shore in case of accident. It is not nearly so easy as one who has never tried it might think. A drowning person will for the time being be panic-stricken and the first impulse will be to seize us about the neck. Always approach a drowning person from the rear and support him under an armpit, meanwhile talking to him and trying to reassure him. Every year we hear of terrible drowning accidents which might have been avoided if some one in the party had kept his head and had been able to tell the others what to do.

I have placed canoeing and swimming in the same chapter because the first word in canoeing is never go until you can swim. There is practically no difference between the shape of the modern canoe and the shape of the Indian birch bark canoes which were developed by the savages in America hundreds of years ago. All the ingenuity of white men has failed to improve on this model. A canoe is one of the most graceful of water craft and, while it is regarded more in the light of a plaything by people in cities, it is just as much a necessity to the guides and trappers of the great Northern country as a pony is to the cowboy and the plainsman. The canoe is the horse and wagon of the Maine woodsman and in it he carries his provisions and his family.



While a canoe is generally propelled by paddles, a pole is sometimes necessary to force it upstream, especially in swift water. In many places the sportsman is forced to carry his canoe around waterfalls and shallows for several miles. For this reason a canoe must be as light as possible without too great a sacrifice of strength. The old styles of canoes made of birch bark, hollow logs, the skins of animals and so on have practically given way to the canvas-covered cedar or basswood canoes of the Canadian type.



It will scarcely pay the boy to attempt to make his own canoe, as the cost of a well-made eighteen-foot canoe of the type used by professional hunters and trappers is but thirty dollars. With care a canoe should last its owner ten years. It will be necessary to protect it from the weather when not in use and frequently give it a coat of paint or spar varnish.

Sailing canoes are built after a different model from paddling canoes. They usually are decked over and simply have a cockpit. They are also stronger and much heavier. Their use is limited to more open water than most of the rivers and lakes of Maine and Canada. Cruising canoes are made safer if watertight air chambers are built in the ends.

Even if a canoe turns over it does not sink. Some experts can right a capsized canoe and clamber in over the side even while swimming in deep water. The seaworthiness of a canoe depends largely upon its lines. Some canoes are very cranky and others can stand a lot of careless usage without capsizing. One thing is true of all, that accidents occur far more often in getting in and out of a canoe than in the act of sailing it. It is always unsafe to stand in a canoe or to lean far out of it to pick lilies or to reach for floating objects.

Canoes may be propelled by either single or double paddles, but the former is the sportman's type. It is possible to keep a canoe on a straight course entirely by paddling on one side and merely shifting to rest, but the beginner may have some difficulty in acquiring the knack of doing this, which consists of turning the paddles at the end of the stroke to make up the amount that the forward stroke deflects the canoe from a straight course.



An open canoe for paddling does not require a rudder. A sailing canoe, however, will require a rudder, a keel, and a centreboard as well. Canoe sailing is an exciting and dangerous sport. In order to keep the canoe from capsizing, a sliding seat or outrigger is used, upon which the sailor shifts his position to keep the boat on an even keel. The centreboard is so arranged that it can be raised or lowered by means of a line.



XV

BASEBALL

How to organize a team and to select the players—The various positions—Curve pitching

Baseball is called the National Game of America just as cricket is regarded as the national game in England. The game received its wide popularity directly after the Civil War by the soldiers who returned to all parts of the country and introduced the game that they had learned in camp. Almost every village and town has its ball team, in which the interest is general. It is not a game for middle-aged men to play, like golf, but if one has been a ball player in youth the chances are that he will keep his interest in the game through life. Baseball is largely a game of skill. It does not afford nearly as much opportunity for physical exercise as tennis or football, and because of the professional games it is not always conducted with as high a regard for sportsmanlike conduct, but it has a firm hold on the American public, and the winning of a championship series in the professional leagues is almost a national event.