[Illustration: _Fig. 4. Prize corn and a ten-year-old experimenter in one of Supt. Kern's districts, Illinois.]_ SCHOOL-GARDENS. Many lines of work might be suggested for an occasional period. Perhaps the best one for spring is a school-garden. In time, every good school will have its garden, as it now has charts and blackboards and books. A school-garden is a laboratory-room added to the school house. It may be five feet square or ten times that much. The children prepare the land,--lessons in soils, soil physics; sow the seed,--lessons in planting, germination, and the like; care for the plants,--lessons in transplanting, struggle for existence, natural enemies, conditions that make for the welfare of the plants. The older pupils may be organized into experiment clubs, as they are being organized in parts of Illinois (see article on "Learning by Doing," by Supt. O. J. Kern, Review of Reviews, Oct., 1903, p. 456). We can help you in this school-gardening work. [Illustration: _Fig. 5. "Learning by doing." A new kind of school work in Illinois, under the direction of Supt. Kern._] OTHER WORK. If not school-gardens, take up other lines of work,--study the school premises, the nearby brook or field, an apple tree, or any other common object or phenomenon. If there is any special agricultural industry in the neighborhood, discuss it and set the pupils at work on it. Any of these common-day subjects will interest the children and brighten up the school work; and the pursuit of them will teach the children the all-important fact that so few of us ever learn,--the fact that the commonest and homeliest things are worthy the best attention of the best men and women. IMPROVING THE SCHOOL GROUNDS. Just now, the improving of school grounds is a pressing subject. As a preliminary to the actual improving of the grounds, suppose that the following problems were set before the pupils: 1. _Exercises on the Grounds._ 1. _Area._--Measure the school grounds, to determine the lengths and widths. Draw an outline map showing the shape. The older pupils may compute the square surface area. The distances may be compared, for practice, in feet, yards and rods. (Arithmetic.) [Illustration: _Fig. 6. Using the Babcock milk test at Professor Hollister's School, Corinth, N. Y._] 2. _Contour._--Is the area level, or rough, or sloping? Determine how great the slope is by sighting across a carpenter's level. In what direction does the ground slope? Is the slope natural, or was it made by grading? The older pupils may draw a cross-section line, to a scale, to show what the slope is. (Geography.) 3. _Fences._--What parts of the area are fenced? What kind of fence? Total length of fence? Give opinion whether this fence is needed, with reasons. Is the fence in good repair? If not, what should be done to remedy it? (Arithmetic, language.)