366 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



which statistics can be obtained for states we are all apt 

 to overestimate the importance of a political boundary, 

 especially when it consists in a river. 



The topics of State Government and Education have 

 some place in the Geography of the State. 



This paper attempts to give only those suggestions that 

 are easily possible and clearly practical for a college 

 class. New material is being collected all the time and 

 I hope I am learning to use what I have more and more 

 effectively. My chief regret is that we were unable to do 

 any field work as a class. The course was given in the 

 Winter Quarter. Most of the pupils were, to my notion, 

 overloaded with work. However, I believe that such field 

 work could be made a very important part of such a 

 course. Another line of application which I was unable 

 to follow out was the application of Illinois Geography 

 to literature. 



At the close of Branom's Work Book on Illinois he sug 

 gests that the pupils sing the Illinois State Song, as a 

 sort of doxology, I suppose. We can hardly do that. I 

 have suggested already some things that seem rather 

 elementary for college classes, but before even a modest 

 structure can be raised a reasonably detailed foundation 

 of facts must be laid. We need to lay such a foundation 

 for our State Geography study. The idea is that from 

 this time forth the pupil is constantly to add to his fund 

 of information, that he will be alert to know the facts 

 about his state and apply them in his daily work, in the 

 performance of his duty as a citizen and in his contri- 

 butions to society. It is with some such general aim 

 rather than for some exact scientific object that this 

 course of College grade in the Geography of Illinois has 

 been planned and presented. 



