APPENDIX 371 



sterile stalks ? (4) With corn at 40 cents a bushel, what was 

 the loss in money ? (5) Select 10 ears of corn November first 

 and weigh them ; weigh them again the first week in January, 

 the first week in March, and the first week in April; com- 

 pute the per cent, of loss at each weighing. (6) If corn can 

 be marketed in the fall at 35 cents a bushel, would it pay to 

 keep it till March and sell it for 40 cents a bushel ? Why ? 

 (7) What per cent, do potatoes lose from digging time to the 

 first of April ? In making a test see if varieties differ. (8) 

 A cow gives 625 pounds of milk a month; the milk tests 

 3.9 per cent, butter-fat; how many pounds of butter-fat were 



produced ? 



GEOGRAPHY 



During the first three years no text is used in geography. 

 However, no subject in the school course lends itself more 

 completely to expression and construction in teaching than 

 geography. The material is at the very door of the school- 

 house in abundance. Hills and valleys, springs, brooks and 

 rivers, capes, bays, peninsulas and islands, flora and fauna, 

 the hand of nature and the hand of civilization, the book of 

 geography is open for him who can read. If the teacher has 

 SEEN, the joy of making the children see awaits him. If he 

 has NOT SEEN, all this wealth is a closed book. 



The central thought in geography is location. The law 

 of distribution is the significant thing. One of the most 

 important things is to get. right notions and impressions re- 

 garding direction and distance, and with it to be able to read 

 maps. The best way to get such right notions and images is 

 through constructive work in early childhood, and the best 

 place is the school-house, with its environment. First, make 

 a map of the school-house, plotting it accurately, with one- 



