Sleeping Quarters And Bedding

29. Ten hours of comfortable sleep is particularly necessary to the health of boys,

30. Remember that during sleeping hours, vitality is at its low ebb, and that at that, time protection in the form of warm covers and fresh air is essential to health. If boys come with too few blankets, extra ones should be provided for them.

31. No tent or cabin should be so crowded that there is less than two feet separating the side of one bed from the side of the next bed.

32. Tent sides should be kept rolled up at night except in the most inclement weather, and when cabins are used, shutters should always remain open, except during driving storms.

33. Blankets absorb much of the moisture given off by the body at night and should be aired for at least three hours each morning on lines outside the sleeping quarters, rather than on the ground.

34. Beds and bedding should be removed from quarters and exposed to sunlight for two hours, twice each week.

35. If straw ticks are used, they should be emptied, the straw destroyed, and the tick laundered, at the end of each period. New clean straw in a clean tick should be supplied for the new camper.

36. Straw ticks are more comfortable if not too bulky. Inexperienced boys will not know this, and will pack in too much, unless warned. Add more straw as needed to make a comfortable bed.

37. The activities of the day should taper down to the point that when taps is blown, the physically-weary boy is mentally ready for sleep. The end of a camp fire should be quieting rather than exhilarating. Avoid ghost stories and fright programs.

38. At reveille, bodily energy and temperature are low, heart action is slow, and all forces are reluctant to the demands of a new day. Avoid sudden extreme efforts. Morning dips and setting up exercises, according to the best authorities, are too strenuous for the low vitality of the hour. Allow forty-five minutes to elapse between first call and breakfast, take it easy, and you will have a happier and consequently a healthier day.

Elimination

39. Provide one toilet seat and one urinal for every fifteen boys at a place convenient to their quarters.

40. All latrines should be fly proof and cleaned thoroughly each day. Seats should be scrubbed each morning. Avoid darkness, encourage sunlight and air - keep latrines as open as possible.

41. Provide separate latrines for visitors. Provide separate latrines with abundant wash water for cooks and kitchen help.

42. Supply urinals at all Troop locations for night use. Keep lights burning all night in latrines, and on path to them.

43. Educate Scouts to the need of a bowel action twice daily.

Food

44. Plenty of food, well cooked and good to eat. Remember that the success of your camp in future years depends on how campers like what they eat.

45. As a basic diet, provide in some form, one quart of milk per day, one egg per day, and one orange or tomato per day per camper. If possible, cabbage or lettuce salad every day - boys like salads when the dressing is tastily prepared. Potatoes at noon and night. Meat or fish once a day. Avoid too much well done beef. All other meats should be thoroughly cooked. Boys will eat too much bread and leave other food if not guided. Use as much whole wheat bread as possible. Serve good desserts.

46. Remember that there is a thirteen or fourteen hour interval between the evening meal and the following morning's meal. Give the Scouts plenty of breakfast, for then they are very empty and need it.

47. Use laxative foods at first two meals in camp.

48. Don't destroy confidence by putting laxatives (medicine) in food,. If Scouts need pills, something is apt to be wrong with the diet or work.

49. Remember that a growing boy requires more food than a grown man doing the same exercise and so should be allowed considerably more than your leaders.

50. Refrigeration. Keep your coolers down to 45° or less at all times, if they contain perishable food. If you depend on spring houses, caves or pits for your cooling, do not attempt to keep perishable food, but buy your meats fresh each day and use it up with those other foods that will not keep. Always keep thermometers in these cooling places.

Canteen

51. Don't ever let anyone accuse you of "feeding light" in order to swell canteen receipts.

52. Raisins, figs, and dates, put up in moisture proof wrappers are good food and at the same time, satisfy the desire for sweets. Sell only the best candy and cakes.

53. Ten cents a day is enough for any boy to spend at the canteen.

Swimming

54. Impress on the leaders the danger of sinus infection resulting from pressure when the boy enters the water feet first without holding the nose.

55. Avoid high diving and deep diving.

56. Limit length of swim periods to thirty minutes each, and the number to two each day.

57. Scouts known to have sinus or ear trouble should not go under water except with permission of family doctor, and the approval of the camp doctor.

58. Scouts known to be subject to fainting spells, fits or to have bad hearts should not swim. The same must be made to apply to leaders.

59. Keep a First Aid Kit at the waterfront, so that cut feet, etc. may be dressed and kept clean.

60. Avoid swimming on hikes when overheated; let boys cool off a bit before going into the water.

General Hints

Keep your boys clean inside and out.

Keep your boys happy.

Keep your boys cheerful.

Homesickness may lead to pathological results; don't allow your staff to conclude that a boy is a "sissy" because he misses his mother. That's the way he has been brought up, perhaps.

The camp director of mature judgment is the one to discipline Scouts if they must be disciplined; other leaders are not always familiar with the best methods.

Insist that Scouts shall not be humiliated, but at the same time insist on discipline. Be sure that the rule broken is not a ridiculous one that should not have been made. Gum chewing, for instance, is treated as a capital offence in some camps.

Low spirits frequently induce homesickness and illness. Scouts build health and character through good healthy hard work, and it also takes their mind off their troubles. Make work a pleasant duty, and a means of teaching self-reliance.

Many camps are run on the piece production basis - not a minute of the day is wasted; every second is treated like a golden opportunity for advancement; boys run a perfect gauntlet of effort, and come out of camp looking it.

Other camps go to the other extreme. Camp is a vacation period and the boys choose anything they want to do; usually, they choose food and occasional swimming, and much bunk fatigue.

Possibly both types are good; able men lean to each. But there is a pretty general feeling that a moderate program is perhaps a healthier one, and one more productive of the things Scouting stands for.

Let's set a pace in camp that will send the boy home stronger physically, and consequently better able to resist the offensive of disease and equipped with those elements of self-reliance that will better enable him to meet this tough old world later on with a grin, and come up with the bacon!