Walks with the Children. 185 



stops smoking, we will look at it again. Now we will weigh 

 it again. Has it lost much ? How much did it lose by 

 burning ? 



Now let us see what we have learned from these experi- 

 ments on the soil. We had i Ib. or 16 oz. of soil. 



1 6 oz. fresh top-soil. 

 2\ oz. lost by drying in air 



13^ oz. 

 3^ oz lost in oven. 



10 

 7 oz. lost in fire. 



3 oz. ash remaining. 



The above affords a great number of problems for all 

 grades. The percentages lost each time give practical work 

 for higher classes, while all the fundamental rules may be 

 applied to the heart's content. Now ask each pupil to an- 

 alyze the soil in his own father's farm in this way and bring 

 results to school. Ask the children to find whose farm is 

 richest in vegetable matter. Thus a child's instincts for 

 playing in the dirt can be turned to practical account. 



EXCURSIONS. 



The taking of older pupils to visit places of interest in 

 one's town or neighborhood can hardly be overestimated in 

 its value to the pupils. Quarries, clay-pits and gravel-pits, 

 mines, factories, and places of historic interest should be 

 visited by students under the direction of their teachers. 



The Chatham pupils visited paper-mills, gas-factories, 

 tanneries, electric-light power-houses, waterworks, pumping- 

 stations, and numerous places of interest in and near Chat- 

 ham. In addition to this excursions were made to New 

 York and Brooklyn, where points of interest from Castle 

 Garden to the Grant Monument were seen and talked about, 



