xactly as good as the Golden Glow sent out to
the school children. This morning I am testing some more of
papa's, and if that fails he will have to buy his seed, a thing
he has never had to do before. We tested the corn secured from
four of our interested farmers last week and one lot germinated;
the other three did not. This morning pupils from seven
different homes brought seed to be tested. We had a package of
last year's seed left and tested several kernels of that, as
well as some sent out this year, and we think last year's seed
is testing a little the better."

The new arithmetic, like the new English, deals with the country. It
seems a little odd, just at first, to see boys and girls standing at the
board computing potato yields, milk yields, the contents of granaries,
the price of bags and the cost of barns and chicken houses; yet what
more natural than that the country child should figure out his and
perhaps his father's problems in the arithmetic class at school?

The geography is no less pertinent. Soil formation, drainage, the
location and grouping of farm buildings, the physical characteristics of
the township and of the county are matters of universal interest and
concern. Every school in Berks County, Pennsylvania, is provided with a
fine soil survey map of the county, made by the United States Geological
Survey. What more ideal basis for rural geography?

Here and there a country school is waking up to the physical needs of
country children. "Country boys are not symmetrically developed,"
asserts Superintendent Rapp, of Berks County. "They are flat-chested and
round-shouldered." That is interesting, indeed. Mr. Rapp explains: "It
is because of the character of their work, nearly all of which tends to
flatten the chest. Whether or not that is the explanation, the fact
remains, and with it the no less evident fact that it is the business of
the school to correct the defects. In an effort to do this we have
worked out a series of fifty games which the children are taught in the
schools." In May a great "Field Day and Play Festival" is held, to which
the entire county is invited. Each school trains and sends in its teams.
Trolleys, buggies, autos and hay wagons contribute their quota, until
five thousand people have gathered in an out-of-the-way spot to help the
children enjoy themselves.

Mr. Rapp is a great believer in activity. Tireless himself, he has fifty
teache