many branches in the public schools, but I am not. I should like to see a few more added, including bookkeeping, political economy, domestic science, manual training and a number of the natural sciences.

I hope at least to live long enough to see enough of them added to break down the present system of teaching and force a change to more rational methods. I feel that my children are not the victims of subjects, but rather of text books and recitations, and a general misconception of how most things ought to be taught. In fact it appears to me that most subjects ought not to be taught at all, but the child ought to be provided with the necessary equipment and then encouraged to learn. What we now call the teacher should become merely a guide or suggester. The teacher should not be expected to supply any definite amount of knowledge to the pupil. We must stop regarding the child as a vessel to be filled, but as an organism to be developed. And for this development we need many things and some conditions that we have not now, and above all we need to realize that no two children are alike and we are under no obligations to try to make similar beings out of any two of them, but that we are under obligations to provide the best possible conditions for the highest development of the peculiar talents of each.

To this end we need among other things, libraries and libraries different from those to be found in most schools. Think of trying to teach a child literature without giving him a chance to get acquainted with the best literature suited to his condition. And he, if properly circumstanced, will be the best judge of this. The best books of reference should be at his command and he should be

trained and encouraged in their use. But books should not be his only references. He should be encouraged by suggestions to go to nature, and he should be constantly encouraged to give expression to his acquisitions in ways useful and pleasurable to himself and his fellows.

In hopes that my children would get some things that the schools fail to supply I have had them join the Grange. Here they get some practice in public reading and speaking, and some knowledge of parliamentary law. They get some practice in composition and have access to books that they would not otherwise get. I have also used all the influence I reasonably could to get our country teachers to join the Grange, as I think I can plainly see how it would put them in closer touch with the people among whom their work lies, and widen and intensify their circle of influence. I think many teachers make a great mistake in not mixing more with the public. While the teacher should not be a professional mixer and hand-shaker, he should above all be a citizen and take a citizen's part in public matters.

At two successive farmers' institutes in my township the principal of the village school was assigned a place on the program, but he failed without excuse to fill either. At a farmers' institute in my county this winter the teacher of the village school was asked to take some part with her pupils, but she flatly refused. Last year we had Prof. Graham of the State University come down to our farmers' institute, and we arranged also for the teachers of our township to dismiss school and attend that day without loss of pay if they saw fit. They were also asked

to discuss his addresses. Some never came near and those who did could not be induced to discuss his ideas.

All the above mentioned teachers according to my views, lost valuable opportunities.

It was an humble little frame structure this country school-house in sub-district No. 3, but to the little folks who made daily visits to this curious knowledge-shop with its interesting surroundings, it was-next to home-the, dearest spot on earth.

It seemed that the people of this neighborhood had worked in COoperation with the God of Nature in the selection and preparation of a place where the rising generation might obtain the fundamentals of a practical education.

The school-house stood in the center of a pleasant play-ground an acre and a half in extent. Several stalwart oaks. standing like native kings of the forest, furnished shade freely, to the score and a half of happy children who played beneath, and two great elms spread their protecting arms over the quaint little white building. The play-ground rectangular in shape, bordered on the north and east by the public highway. On the two remaining sides was an old-fashioned rail fence which separated it from a beautiful woods of which it was once a part.

was

This woods was the property of a careful old farmer who had cleared away all the underbrush and used the place as a pasture for his sheep and horses. A short distance from the school-house in this woods, a spring of pure water issued from the

hill-side and formed a little brook, clear as crystal, which pursued its winding course through a ravine of its own making.

Some distance from the spring the stream dropped almost perpendicularly, a space of eight or ten feet, forming a pretty little water-fall. Here the projecting rocks and roots of trees divided and sub-divided the current of water till it looked as if the whole cataract was made up of mere pencil-like streamlets; in winter, the outer ones being so small in volume, often formed pendant icicles above and inverted projecting ones on the flat rocks beneath, bearing a striking resembiance, though on a small scale, to the stalactites and stalagmites in the great Caverns of Luray.

Below the falls the stream continued its meanderings through a wide and more nearly level valley. Here in its course the old farmer had dug a pool to furnish water for the sheep and horses.

The loving oaks, elms and maples which grew upon the banks seemed to hold the brook in a double embracethe interlocking branches above and the intertwining roots beneath. The modest violet, blood-root and daffodil fringed the brink and allowed their heavy heads to droop and kiss the clear, cool water of the stream as it hurried past. Ever and anon,

the squirrels, birds and rabbitsmeek creatures of the forest-came to the brook to drink or to view their own images in this the best of mirrors made by God's own hand.

This woodland picture is not complete without introducing into it the Woodland School.

The teacher of Woodland School was a womanly woman. She was above the average in height, had dark hair, large hazel eyes, and rosy cheeks -the picture alike of health, patience and firmness. She saw the beauty and harmony that exist in all of God's creations and instructed her little flock accordingly.

The kind old gentleman had given her permission to use the woods in any way she pleased while teaching the little folks, so on Friday afternoons in autumn, it was no uncommon sight to see this true teacher with all her little pupils crossing the woods to the valley beyond the pool. Here the little investigators constructed miniature islands, peninsulas, isthmuses, capes, gulfs, straits, archipelagoes, canals, etc.. digging a new channel for a part of the everuseful stream and allowing the water thereof to flow around their newly made "natural geography" as they were wont to call it.

The children were delighted with this fascinating occupation, and were pleased when the teacher came around to examine the individual work and to give the necessary commendations, criticism. or direction. As they trudged back to the school-house, she taught them the habits of the squirrels, birds, and other animals that they chanced to see. All gladly helped to gather the prettiest autumn leaves to decorate their little school home. They were sometimes fortunate enough to find an odd stone, or a curious nest such as had served

once as the home of hornets or orioles; these they added to their collection of curiosities in the "shop." Nature's book is open for study at all seasons of the year, and on a cold day in December when the ground had a slight cover of snow, she again took her little ones to the woods. On their way they learned what sort of track is made in the snow by each of their furred friends, of the forest. They also noticed the bark of the different trees and the teacher told them how the Indian hunter knew how to find the way back to his cigwam.

This time they went first to the spring, where they stopped for a short time and all reasoned togther to ascertain why the little spring was not frozen over. From here they followed the brook till they came to the little cataract, noting on their way with childish curiosity, the numerous varieties of pretty frost-work that was spread upon the stones or hung like little sparkling stars on the withered plants at the edges of the brook. They were filled with wonder and delight when they beheld the water-fall with its picturesque icicle formations, but were grieved to see, near the center of each pinnacle of ice, a dirty streak frozen there, with the pure, clear ice on either side; they eagerly inquired the cause of this imperfection.

The keen eye of the teacher saw, at once, that here was both material and opportunity for impressing upon their plastic minds a great moral lesson. She explained to them how some animal had gotten into the stream above the falls and had stirred up the water making it all muddy, then how the muddy water, trickling down over the clear icicles, had frozen there making the dirty streak,

and after the water became settled again the ice was clear as before but the dirty streak was there to stay till the icicles melted.

Having thus prepared the soil by answering their question truthfully, she was now ready to plant the abstract seed of truth therein.

With twenty-five pairs of bright eyes steadily gazing through her countenance into her very soul, she instilled into the natures of these

little ones the great truth, that the character of every child is pure and untarnished, like the icicle, until thechild gives way to some evil thought, world, or action. These make the dirty streaks that can never be effaced, no matter how true and pure the after life may be.

With this picture before us we will leave these boys and girls here in the care of Dame Nature and their nobleteacher.

In the last series of experiments the physical conditions of the soil were taken up. So far we have learned that the soil particles must not be too large nor too small; that there must be film, or capillary water, but not free or gravity water; that there must be ventilation or free passage of air between the soil particles; and that sufficient heat must be retained in the soil; all that there may be favorable physical conditions for the sprouting of the seed, growth of the plant, and development of the fruit.

In other words all that has been said so far has been about a suitable home for the root of the plant. But a home without food would soon come to naught. From the air through the leaves the plant obtains principally those elements, carbon. and oxygen which with hydrogen, obtained through the root, stem and leaf compose the starches and sugars and similar substances. From the soil is obtained water (hydrogen and oxygen), nitrogen, potash, phosphorus and calcium and a few minor

substances such as sulphur, magnesium, iron and silica.

These substances are never found alone but are components of compounds which we know as sugars, starches and fats (carbo-hydrates or carbonaceous foods) and albumenoids (proteids or nitrogenous foods).

Let us try a few simple experiments to determine which of these compounds are taken from the plant. and used for foods by us.

Experiment-Most of us have seen: sugar extracted from sorghum, beets, sugar water from the maple, or from sugar cane. Put three or four tablespoonfuls of sugar in a tumbler. Make a very stiff syrup of it by adding just a little water. Pour in sulphuric acid very slowly until the mixture begins to heat rapidly and to rise in the tumbler. Set it on a box or on an old board. The sulphuric acid and the free water and the water of crystalization in the sugar have passed off into the air leaving a black carbon which in the sugar was white.

This carbon will burn in our stoves

just as coal will burn when furnished sufficient oxygen from the air that enters the stove. Carbon from sugar helps to keep up a heat in our bodies.

-

Experiment Place a handful of wheat flour in a thin muslin bag. Place the bag and flour in a basin of clean water. With one hand hold the bag and with the other wash out all that can be got out. Allow this substance to settle. Carefully pour off the water. Set the basin where the water that remains will rapidly evaporate. Take a small piece of this white crust and place it in a small bottle with enough hot water to thoroughly moisten it. Drop into the bottle one drop of the tincture of iodine. If it turns blue the substance is starch.

Try some sulphuric acid on the starch and see if it doesn't behave quite like the sugar. Here is another food containing carbon. Starch is also a heat producer. Try grated raw potatoes.

But the soft substance left in the sack is gluten, an albumenoid food, which contains nitrogen. Nitrogen can not be deterinined by any simple method.

Experiment-Crush on a smooth board or card unroasted peanuts, hickory nuts or the embryo of a grain of corn. They make grease spots. They contain carbon and are heat producers.

Experiment-Crush some cabbage leaves very thoroughly. Separate the juice from the leaves by straining. Heat the juice but do not let it boil. The white, flaky substance which settles is albumen. Albumens contain nitrogen.

Experiment-In an old pan or on a fire shovel, placed on the coals in a stove, burn a beet or parsnip or some plant. What is left, the ash,

in the pan must contain the substances taken from: the ground.

The ash represents a very small but very important part of a plant. In it are to be found such elements as phosphorus, potash and calcium. These elements together with nitrogen, must be taken from the soil, and to these the farmer must give great care as to furnishing, maintaining and preserving a sufficient supply.

The soil must not become sour or acid, for in such a soil the nitrifying bacteria will not survive or do their work in furnishing nitrogen to the roots from the free air in the soil. The acid must be neutralized by the liberal use of lime. The ground must be drained that the free water in it will not remain long enough to make the soil too cold for the nitrifying bacteria.

Nitrogen in manures or other fertilizers are very easily leached out. It may be very easily carried away by evaporation. Manure under the eaves of a barn or stable loses much of its nitrogen if there is drainage. Much loss by evaporation can be prevented by throwing soil or gypsum on the manure.

If the foliage and stalk of the ordinary farm crops are dark green it usually indicates that there is a fair supply of nitrogen in the soil. A yellowish green usually indicates the lack of it.

Ammonia contains nitrogen. Add a tablespoonful to a gallon of water. Use this to water a few house plants and see if it does increase the growth of stem and darken the color of the leaves.

If imperfect buds, flowers and fruit accompany an excessive growth of stem and leaf there is a fair indica-· tion that there is too much nitrogen for the phosphoric acid and potash.

If the kernels of the cereals are