REPORT.

The record of the year shows that labor has received an abundant reward in whatever direction it has been put forth. Marked prosperity has attended the various educational institutions of the State, and those engaged in the various industrial pursuits have received ample reward for all their toil.

Statistics show that in nothing have we reached the point of rest or the maximum of advancement. The population of the State is constantly and rapidly increasing. The agricultural interests are yearly becoming more important. Great improvements are seen in the mechanic arts. Manufactories of all kinds are springing up on every hand. The immense lumber interest has by no means reached the limit of its importance, but is annually increasing the amount of lumber produced.

Railroads were never, in the history of the State, multiplying so rapidly as at the present. They stop not with the frontier of civilization, but push boldly into almost interminable forests, those building them knowing full well that where these go men will be sure to follow.

Amid all this strife and push to develop material resources, the people do not lose sight of the necessity for securing mental training and moral culture, in order to render our material wealth a real good; hence, churches and schoolhouses are among the first buildings to be erected in the village, and the school-house is found in every neighborhood. The kind of edifices erected for the use of schools and churches

shows the estimate in which mental and moral training are held by the people. The school-houses and the churches are nsually the finest and most expensive edifices to be found in the cities or villages. In the erection of these elegant and costly buildings we have by no means reached the point of culmination. There has never been a year in which so many beautiful school buildings have been erected as during the one just past. These have been built at an expense of from twenty to eighty thousand dollars each. Great care has been taken to secure the most convenient internal arrangement, and supplying them with the best quality of school furniture and apparatus. The county superintendents, in their reports, speak especially of the numbers of new school-houses that have been erected during the past year in many of the districts, costing from two to five thousand dollars each. These houses are usually seated with the best iron-frame seats, with desks, and the rooms well furnished with blackboards, globes, maps, charts, and other articles of school apparatus needed in school work. Many of the old houses have been repaired, and many of them remodeled, making them almost the same as new. This work is by no means complete. Preparations have been made in many places to build, and in some the work has been commenced, so that the next year will be as noted for the erection of new school-houses as the past.

More attention is now given to the care of the grounds about the school buildings than formerly. Many of the country districts have the school-yard graded, fenced, and planted to trees. These things show the increasing interest felt in the prosperity of the school in different parts of the State. There are, however, communities, I regret to say, who seem to be far more interested in rearing choice flocks and herds than in giving to their children the best advantages for education. These build beautiful barns for their cattle, and often fine dwellings for themselves, while they continue to use the old open, worthless structure for a school-house, rather than to be

to the expense of building a new one. The excuse is want of ability. "When we become able we will build a good house," they say; but it it is to be feared that they will defer building for a long time, under the delusion that they are poor, for the declaration often comes from those who are abundantly able to build a beautiful house that shall be in every respect worthy of them.

The average length of time the schools were formerly taught was about six months. This has been increased to seven months. In many districts the schools are continued nine months. One County Superintendent reports the average of months they are taught in that county to be seven and onehalf, and the average attendance to be ninety per cent of those enrolled. It should be remembered, however, that not all of those whose names appear upon the school record are constant attendants. Some are in the schools but a few weeks, others might more properly be called occasional visitors rather than members of the school, so frequent and continued are their absences. This irregularity is a great annoyance to the teachers, and is a source of incalculable evil to the schools.

Many parents seem to think that all the loss that is suffered by their children being tardy or absent, falls upon themselves and their children, hence it is a matter that need not concern any one but themselves. Such persons know but little of the inconvenience which the teachers suffer from these irregularities, or of the unavoidable derangement they occasion in the whole school work. It is hoped that the compulsory law will have an influence to remedy this sad defect.

It has been too short a time since the compulsory law became operative to enable us to judge of its efficiency. Some of the Superintendents say in their reports that the compulsory law is already producing good results. Parents are more thoughtful in sending their children to school, the children that are seen about the streets during school hours attract attention, and the inquiry is at once raised why they are not in school. It

will doubtless be seen at the close of the year that a much larger per cent of attendance has been secured than ever before. The schools are now much larger than during the last year, and the attendance is more regular. The determination is frequently expressed to see that the compulsory law is enforced.

Notwithstanding the effort that has been made to secure a uniform series of text-books, there are comparatively few schools which are not annoyed by the great variety of books. The report still comes from almost every county that much confusion results from the great diversity of text-books. This is a serious evil, and ought by some means to be remedied. The trade in school-books has become immense. A large number of publishing houses are engaged in making these books. The profits are large, and the temptation is very great, both to book writers or compilers, and to publishers, to frequently bring out a new series of some kind; hence, within the last few years text-books upon the same subject have been multiplied to such an extent that their number has become legion. It would be no small task to count up the number of authors who have prepared their valuable series of arithmetics, grammars, geographies, readers, spellers,-indeed, the number who have written upon every variety of study found in the public schools. Almost every teacher, after years of experience, finds that he has formed certain notions with regard to methods of teaching, and of the manner in which different topics should be treated, he finds he has peculiar views which would be of great value could they be made known.

Often it is true that these teachers have ideas of value, and a real and permanent good results from the publishing of the books they are induced to write; but this is by no means true of all. It would have been far better for the schools if many of the books found in them had never been published. With regard to many of the books in use, it may be said that there is but little choice between them. Each series may be a good one, and no one possesses such peculiar merits as to make that

the series par excellence. The truth is, that nearly all of the prominent series of books now in use in the schools are good ones. The strife for the mastery has compelled all publishers to make as good books as they could. Each book has its peculiar merit, and the choice of a teacher would be determined more by his familiarity with certain series than by any great superiority of one over another. If a school board should adopt any one series they would not go very far astray. It is not of half as much importance what books are adopted as that they should be uniform in the schools, and when once adopted that they should be retained. The frequent changes not only produce confusion, but subject the people to great annoyance and expense. The aggregate cost of books is very large; this could be greatly reduced, and with great advantage to the schools. If the school boards of a county could agree upon the series of books that should be used in the schools of the county, arrangements could be made with the publishers of those books to furnish them at reduced prices. Those selling the books could well afford to sell at less profit, and doubtless would do so, as they would, by this arrangement, be relieved from the danger of having a quantity of useless books left on their hands, on account of some change which had been made. As things now are, book-sellers often find a large amount of dead stock, that they are compelled to work off at a loss. Besides this, the books could be received directly from the publishers, thus saving the expense of agents and middlemen. By these several reductions, the price of books could be greatly reduced, and the aggregate amount saved to a county would be very large, and the advantage to the schools would be beyond estimate.

THE FIRES.

The terrible fires that have produced such fearful destruction in this, as well as other States, have proved disastrous to many schools, in the burning of school-houses, and well nigh