150 W. B. Powell — Geographic Instruction. 



States and of the people of the United States, where thej' are, 

 and what they are doing. Details in great number are avoided ; 

 the definite locality of important places is insisted on, as well as 

 the means of communication by land and Avater between such 

 important places, the geographic history of the states and their 

 cities having been learned at the outset. 



We are now prepared to look again from the United States 

 out on the continent and get the governmental relations between 

 the states of the continent and the United States as a whole, as 

 well as with large commercial centers of the United States, and 

 the child is led to see lines of communication, freighted with 

 commerce and human life, stretching between cities of different 

 states, each end of which is guarded by representatives from 

 other states. The child is made to know why such guards are 

 placed there and what some of their prerogatives are. It will 

 be seen that this is the geography of man and his doings, and not 

 the geography of state-line boundaries and locations of capital 

 cities and their sizes. 



The relativity of the values of industries, of the values of 

 products, of the areas of states, of the populations of states, of 

 the sizes of cities, the industries of the cities, etc, are studied 

 and represented in graphic form for comparison, innumerable 

 examples of n which may be found in our schools at the proper 

 time of year. 



Now, before South America is studied, we need to know a 

 little more of the causes of climate, many of the results of climate 

 having been taken on faith, without having had recourse to their 

 causes. Some physical phenomena of the United States would 

 have been better understood had the children known better the 

 climatic causes ; such causes however, it is believed, are too. dif- 

 ficult for them to master at the time of their development, when 

 the facts Avere learned. The children are now stronger. The 

 climate of South America and its resulting eff'ects are a little 

 more difficult to understand than those of North America, partl}^ 

 because they are farther from home ; so we give a little study 

 of the trade winds, their causes and effects, and try to give an 

 understanding, if not of the causes, certainly 'of the existence of 

 the Gulf Stream and its efl'ect on climate, which prepares the 

 children for the study of South America in a Avay corresponding 

 to that in which they studied North America. It may be stated, 

 in passing, that South America is studied largely in its commer- 



