PHENOCHRONS AND PHENOLOGY. 167 



by capillarity, and then called the wet bulb, varies as the 

 moisture in the air. This difference may be daily recorded. 

 If weather be studied inductively, the barometric readings 

 of pressure are very important. After the record has been 

 kept for two weeks or a month by the same class or in parts, 

 making when put together a continuous record, by different 

 classes, summaries may be made and investigated. A graphic 

 way of showing a summary is by a method called " plotting a 

 curve.''* To mark the curve of temperature, for example, the 

 range of temperature in degrees would be written in a vertical 

 column on the left, and the days of the month in a horizontal 

 line as the headings of the vertical columns, one for each day. 

 A zig-zag line across the table would indicate the ups-and- 

 downs of temperature as they occurred under the respective 

 day-headings. 



Phenochrons. — An admirable means of maintaining the 

 observant attitude is by requiring pupils to report and record 

 phenochrons of wild and cultivated plants, farming operations, 

 meteorological events and bird migrations. Nova Scotia's 

 experience, extending now over several years, has proved this 

 statement, and demonstrated the practicability of the method. 

 The forms sent out from the Chief Superintendent's Office 

 mention a hundred events to be observed at each school, and 

 suggest the adding of others according to opportunity. As 

 was suggested on page 121, associations of teachers in the 

 other provinces of Canada might do well to take this subject 

 up, with a view to securing co-operative work throughout an 

 inspectorate or group of counties. 



The Nova Scotia Schedule. — The following are the headings 

 and a few of the events noted in the Nova Scotia schedule : 



The estimated length and breadth of the locality within which the 



following observations were made X miles. Estimated 



distance from the sea coast miles. Estimated altitude above 



the sea level feet. 



