The length of period is forty-five minutes daily for each section. There are two sections in each class, composed of eighth grade girls and one of high school girls, but two sections demanding one and onehalf hours of a teacher's time each day.

Domestic Science. The work is so planned that scientific instruction precedes and succeeds the practical instruction. The latter constitutes the backbone of all the school work, for the lunch stimulates (if the menu is calculated properly) boys and girls who can win in any contest in which they participate. In the last year accommodations have been made for seventy-five, and the time will soon come when the people will demand double that.

Visitors from neighboring schools, county superintendents and other school men from distances have eaten at our boards, and commend the pupils upon their service.

The class is divided into five groups each bringing raw material from home one day a week. A member of the commercial class is assigned to the domestic science instructor as bookkeeper, and each pupil is credited with the raw material furnished. The charge for the lunch is ten cents per day in cash, or raw material as is convenient for the pupil. This is not a money making proposition, but the complete operation is without cost to the school. When the raw material can not be found in the home, requisition is made upon the school store where the products of the school garden have been assembled. This will be explained in detail under school agriculture.

The domestic science instructor is hired for ten months, but it has been found that eleven months is more desirable. During the tenth month, it is her duty to instruct the girls in canning vegetables and fruits as well as making jellies. Every girl in the class is so interested that she has entered the state-wide contest for a trip to Washington. If the inspector has a minute to call her own after visiting all of the girls, the time is spent in canning the vegetables of the school farm. Many times the vegetables ripen at such a time and in such profusion that the superintendent is required to assist in the canning work. To date, the school garden has produced one hundred quarts of peas, fifty quarts of cucumbers, forty quarts of beans, twenty quarts of rhubarb conserve, ten quarts of strawberries, twenty quarts of beets and several cans of greens. There are two acres of beans to harvest, three-fourths of an acre of potatoes, sweet corn, cabbage, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, okra, salsify, onions, yams, peanuts, chard, endive, beets, and strawberries, in abundance.

In all of the canning work the one period, cold-pack method has been used. In processing, the hot water method has been abandoned for the steam pressure because of its rapidity. The National Junior No. 1 has served the school well. In canning at the home of the girls, information as to the quality to be canned is the first step. If the quantity is large, the steam pressure cooker is taken to the girl's home, but if the quantity is small, the hot water outfit is given to her for usage.

Domestic Art. This, too, is crowded, there being forty-five minute periods each day for each section. Three days of each week, sewing is taught, and two days of each week, the fancy and fanciful are taught.

The required work is outlined for the girls in sewing. Hand work is taught in the grades, and machine work in the high school. Every Tuesday and Thursday, the girls are permitted to make something which they desire, but which does not belong to the sewing class proper, such as knitting a sweater, scarf or cap, or tatting, etc. This year, a part of this time shall be devoted to Red Cross work. Emergency bags have already been placed in use. This course is meeting with much approval among the women of the community. The summer work for next year has not been organized.

Manual Training. One of the most important subjects for the rural school has been sacrificed for the lack of room. The new building, before completion, proved itself entirely inadequate because of the rapidly increasing interest. At the expense of the farmer, his boy is permitted to labor in a more expensive manner because of the lack of room and equipment. The school stands ready to offer the instruction, as the instructor is already on the ground.

Mechanical Drawing. - Mechanical drawing, with all its practicability and innovations, is taught to the boys. They earnestly labor over diffi

cult problems and revel in the pleasures afforded by the French Curve and enjoy their ability to print their names in some new design.

The class did all of the lettering about the building and the grounds. All of the glass doors of the building, such as office, library, etc., were lettered by the class. The class learned to letter upon glazed plaster, printing the words "Auditorium", "Exit", etc. They also lettered all garden and test plots, such as "Fultz Wheat", "Darke County Mammoth Corn" and "Mongol" cow peas.

The final examinatión in this work was not a series of difficult questions to answer by memorizing a two-hundred-page book, whose author has accumulated large sums through the guise of being an educator. It was an educative process, requiring thought, skill in the use of mechanical instruments, involving problems of straight lines, circles, ellipses and geometrical designs.

School Agriculture. This course is as popular with the boys as domestic science with the girls. At the Baby Beef contest, held in the county, there were thirty entrants and sixteen of these were pupils of Pleasant Township School. In the first corn judging contest open to boys, three prizes were offered, and the first and second prizes were won by Pleasant Township School boys. In the second contest, five prizes were offered, first, second, fourth and fifth being won by Pleasant Township School boys. The most remarkable feature was not the winning of the prizes, but the ability of the boys to judge corn. The boy winning the last prize was within one and one-half points of the judges' score and no boy from the Pleasant Township School was more than eight points distant.

This year the eighth-grade boys sowed seed in a small six by nine green-house. Thus they obtained all the plants for the school garden with the exception of sweet potatoes. The gardens were planted in rows north and south in order to obtain the maximum sunlight. They consisted in two acres of marofat beans, one acre of potatoes, (Early Ohio's and Rural New Yorks), six test plots of one-twentieth of an acre each, as follows:

Fultz, Rudy, Velvet Chaff, Goens, Poole and Gypsy; four plots of one-twentieth of an acre each of corn as follows: Darke Co. Mammoth, Boone Co. White, Cook's 75, and Clarage; rhubarb, currant, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, peanuts, beets, tomatoes, (four varieties), cabbage (four varieties), cauliflower, kohl rabi, salsify, parsnips, swiss chard, curly endive, onions, radishes, ruta-bagas, okra, lettuce, carrots, peas, corn beans, string beans, Lima beans, marofat beans, asparagus, horse radish, yams, sweet corn, pop corn, pod corn, cucumbers, pickles, muskmelons, squashes, pumpkins, and an orchard of thirty different varieties.

During the summer months, the janitor cared for the garden and later in the fall, the vegetables were canned, dried and stored by the

domestic science teacher. The results were enumerated under Domestic Science.

This is but a minor part of the development of school agriculture. The more important project work is always planned to require original thought and initiative on the part of the boy. This work is accomplished at home in the absence of the instructor, who inspects the operations frequently. This summer, the boys are doing many agricultural feats while the girls are raising chickens. One first-grade girl has twelve chickens to her credit out of thirteen hatched. Another has thirteen out of fourteen hatched. In all, there are twenty girls raising White Leghorns and Wyandottes. Next year, these same girls will be allotted an equal number of hens, and records for egg-laying will be made.

The boys have kept records of the different varieties of corn which they have raised. They have done the same with soy beans. More than a dozen different varieties are represented in the township. Several boys are testing cows daily, and three boys have assumed complete charge of their fathers' herds. The testing has varied from two and five-tenths butterfat to more than seven per cent. The latter test record was made by a Jersey, although another herd composed of pure-bred Holsteins can show almost an enviable record. One boy is testing a herd of sixteen grade Jerseys and has but three testing under four per cent butter fat. I am positive these three cows can be purchased at a very reasonable price.

All of the boys studying agriculture made tests upon wheat or oats with ammonium nitrate. The crop was top-dressed at the rate of one hundred pounds per acre. Upon some land, as much difference as six inches in the length of the straw, three-fourths of an inch in the length of the head, and five days in the time of ripening was shown. The wheat grains were much larger and more plump, but since the grain was not thrashed separately, the difference could only be estimated.

Athletics. This part of the pupil's education is not neglected but no feature is made of the work. Education is the main feature of the school and all athletics are secondary. There is a boy's basketball team, baseball and track teams. There is a girl's basketball team and a baseball team. In another year, the superintendent hopes to have tennis as a sport for both boys and girls. The grade children play box ball, volley ball, indoor baseball and many other games helpful to their physical development. All games, indoor and outdoor, are supervised by an instructor. The Annual Field Meet was held at the Pleasant Township School this year. Nine centralized schools were represented and at least two thousand people were present for the sport.

Savings Bank. The school savings bank has not been made a feature of the Pleasant Township School, owing to lack of facilities. However, a survey was made of the school and the following results obtained: Eighty percent of all of the pupils have a savings account, dis

tributed as follows: First Grade, $168.78; Second and Third Grades, $254.70; Fourth Grade, $544.67; Fifth Grade, $538.00; Sixth Grade, $409.13; Seventh and Eighth Grades, $310.50; Ninth and Tenth Grades, $768.04; making a total of $2,993.82, and a total for the grade school alone of $2,225.78.

Music. This is supervised throughout the grades by a teacher without additional pay. An orchestra has been organized which will be able to furnish music for all school entertainments during the coming year. A unique beginning in music was a paper campaign for three weeks before the holidays. The money derived therefrom was spent for the purchase of a Victrola. This is used in the study of nature and literature, folk dances and marching in and out of the building. A piano was purchased for the school, and this is used regularly for chapel services every Tuesday and Thursday morning. Other mornings of the week, the Girls' Glee Club uses it in their work. The first entertainment by the girls proved a decided success. The Boys' Glee Club assisted in two numbers.

Library Facilities. These now exceed the state requirements but new books are being constantly added in order to keep pace with the rapid progress of science. In addition to more than one thousand books and bulletins, there are two hundred books on loan from the State Library. All books are cataloged and one of the high school pupils acts as librarian, giving out books to any resident or visitor in the township. The following publications arrive regularly: The Mentor, Manual Training, Popular Mechanics, Country Gentleman, Current Events, Literary Digest, Bird Lore, National Geographic Magazine, Good Housekeeping, System, Ohio Educational Monthly, Ohio Teacher, Pathfinder and Ohio Farmer. The four latter are donated by the superintendent.

The Marion Tribune is donated to the school by the management and it has proven a great help to the pupils as well as to the community. One of our patrons said, "I always read the Pleasant Township news first." The news items are brought into the school by the pupils throughout the township. They are written as a part of their English work, consequently the paper acts as a medium of expression for them.

The Store. - The most original feature of the school is the store. This is another practical element introduced by the superintendent. Books, pencils, tablets, crayons, water colors, inks, and in fact, everything used by a pupil in school is merchandised in the store. Second hand books are bought and sold.

Six credits in commercialism are given all pupils taking commercial work. In addition to their studies, they must spend a certain portion in practical work. The class must organize. The president takes care of all business, looks after the necessities of the store, etc. The secretary orders all goods and checks the invoices, while the treasurer does all of the banking and writes all of the checks at the order of the president.