bonsek] industrial work in xormal school 7 



In all geographical study the industrial and commercial phases are 

 kept well to the foreground, but always in relation to their 

 geographic deteiminants. The eighth grade work is an intensive 

 study of the industrial geography of the United States on a 

 legional basis. Last year, two local industries were studied as 

 types, the pottery industry of which Macomb is a center, and the 

 corn industry, a typical Illinois industry. In the corn study 

 a plot in the garden was used for experimental purposes. Cross- 

 fertilization was a point to be demonstrated. The data con- 

 tributed by our agricultural experiment station, operated in con- 

 nection with the State University, are used in the work. 



In the upper grades the work in school gardening all looks 

 rather definitely to the development of principles of successful 

 and economic farming experiments — questions asked to be 

 answered by the garden through given or controlled conditions — 

 are a large part of the work. For example, what difference will 

 there be in the growth of alfalfa on two plots, one inoculated with 

 proper bacteria, the other not, was answered by sending to 

 Kansas for one quart of inoculated soil which was properly 

 mixed with the seed sown on one plot, and comparing results as 

 they developed. 



Since this is a section well adapted to fruit growing, we have 

 begun to furnish a garden with berries of various kinds, grapes, 

 apples, pears, peaches, etc., by which aid may be given in teach- 

 ing proper principles of fruit growing. 



In nature-study in the intermediate grades much of the work 

 is directly related to industrial life. Meteorology is approached 

 through its importance to farm crops. Trees, plants, birds, 

 insects, machines — whatever the subject of study in this field — 

 relation to life needs is a fundamental motive of approach. 



For arithmetic work the quantitative side of industrial life fur- 

 nishes an abundance of material. The manual arts work in all 

 grades; the quantitative side of the pottery industry; the cost 

 of paving a new street in Macomb; the economics of the corn 

 industry: problems in rainfall ; making a barometer; conditions 

 under which it will pay to keep a cow, or poultry, or a horse; 

 whether it pays to drain land, to burn corn stalks, or to sow 

 clover; the cost of a dinner or luncheon given by the children — . 

 these are some of the questions whose consideration provides 

 motives for number work and gives larger meaning to the in- 



