WHAT TO TAKE
NECESSARY ARTICLES
Bed sack 75 × 30 inches (to be stuffed with straw at camp) or cot mattress; enamel-ware plate, cup, saucer, sauce dish, also knife, fork, and spoon; dinner pail or box, two heavy blankets, small pillow, working clothes, sweater, gymnasium shirt, raincoat or old overcoat, heavy shoes, toothbrush, tooth powder, small mirror, towels, extra socks, rubbers or rubber boots, extra underwear, hairbrush, comb, soap, handkerchiefs, pajamas, a good disposition, and a spirit of loyalty to the camp and its aims.
DESIRABLE ARTICLES
Musical instruments, camera, baseball, glove, bat, needles, thread, safety pins, notebook, pencils, writing paper, envelopes, good books, magazines.
The methods of housing the boys differ widely. Ordinarily one thinks of tents as being the most feasible, but the scarcity and high cost of such equipment during the past year prevented the boys from living under canvas. Generally speaking, it would be better to think in terms of something more permanent than tents, as these do not last more than three years, and if the camp idea of harvesting crops by the use of boys is to continue,—and many believe it will,—it is advisable to plan for a permanent and inexpensive type of building. A rough board shack with a good roof is highly desirable in the early spring days and in the late fall.
Many of the cadets in New York State camps were quartered in berry houses (which are really packing and storage houses located in the berry fields), in vacant houses, in schoolhouses, in grange halls, and in buildings located on the fair grounds. Most of these berry houses were two stories high, the first floor being used for the commissary department and the second floor for dormitories. In such cases the berries were packed in temporary shacks adjoining the berry houses. In other cases the boys have used the first floor for a sitting room and built a rough shack back of the berry or storage house for kitchen and dining room.
One of the most significant camping places was that of a two-room schoolhouse, where cots for fifty boys were put into the rooms, and the basement was used as a kitchen. The boys built a table outside and put up a canopy over it for a dining room. They next dammed up a brook which ran back of the schoolhouse and made what they termed a "bathtub," which was capable of holding about six boys at a time. They also put into fine condition the rather disreputable schoolhouse latrines. These boys made the schoolhouse ring at night with their popular school songs; the old piano did its best to bring together the heritages of the East Side and of the Highlands of the Hudson.
There are several ways of making provision for camp equipment. One is to develop, under state, county, or local auspices, a series of permanent camp quarters located in small-fruit, large-fruit, and muck-land districts. This equipment need not be expensive. It will be located very near the source of labor demand and can always be used, whether boy or adult labor is employed. Fruit and produce growers and kindred establishments have in the past provided, more or less, for such an equipment.
Another plan is to use schoolhouses, grange halls, vacant farm buildings, and agricultural-fair equipment. It is unfortunate that so much property ordinarily used for public purposes lies idle for long periods of time. Some may say that the city boy will not leave country property in good shape, but experience so far has shown that the city boys have left things better than they found them.