superintendent of schools in the '90's traveled widely thruout the North and East in search of the best models. The ideal and practical could not be found in one building. Hence a long series of experiments in working out this model.

FOUNDATION PLAN

1. The foundation is rectangular in form and 28 X 36 ft. outside measurement.

2. Outer foundation, of concrete, extends two feet below and two feet above surface of ground.

3. Inner 10-inch concrete wall encloses cellar, 6× 14 ft.

4. Cellar can't freeze.

5. Cellar is ventilated into smoke flue.

6. Cellar has concrete floor, with drain into sewer.

7. Cellar is reached through trap door in boys' hallway.

8. Cellar contains pneumatic pressure tank 3X8 ft., working capacity 350 gallons. 9. Cellar contains forcepump connecting tank with well thru pipes below frost line. 10. Cellar contains soil pipes, water pipes, and drain pipes reaching to and from toiletrooms above.

II. Cellar contains sewer connections. Sewer enters city system.

12. In a rural community sewer may enter cess pool, old or new, at rear or side of lot; or a tile may conduct sewage into neighboring slough or creek.

FLOOR PLANS

1. Floor plan, 28X36 ft., same as foundation plan.

2. School room, 27 ft. 2 in. by 21 ft. 6 in.-12 ft. from floor to ceiling.

3. Door at rear on right side leads to girls' toilet-room, porch, and playground.

4. Furnace in alcove at side of room distributes pure air and equalizes temperature.

on.

MODEL RURAL SCHOOL HOUSE 28' •36'

5. Pure air enters furnace thru asbestos-covered duct under floor.

6. Ventilating flue is 13X21 inches in the clear.

7. Opening into ventilating flue is made into a neat fireplace.

8. Smoke flue, 13X13 inches in the clear, helps heat ventilating flue.

9. Cupboard in wall at side of vent flue has a neat unfolding leaf for teacher to write

10. Manual-training shop is 6X8 ft. in the clear and has abundant light.

11. Fuel room, 4X6 ft. in south east corner, capacity six tons of coal.

12. Stairway to attic starts in corner of manual-training room, runs over fuel-room and entrance.

13. Schoolroom lighted thru six large windows on north side.

14. Children face the east. Light comes from their left.

15. Halls leading to toilet-rooms contain hooks for hats, clothing, etc.

16. Schoolroom receives direct sunlight on floor at southeast and southwest corners thru glass in doors.

17. Ground-glass window on west side near northwest corner, for window garden, prevents glaring light, admits chemical rays for flowers and for sanitation.

18. Toilet-rooms are ventilated into smoke flue. They have no bad odors.

19. Toilet-rooms have hot and cold water, wash bowls and toilet bowls.

20. Toilet-rooms have glazed cement wainscoting and cement floors. 21. Toilet-room floors are drained into cellar, thence into sewer.

22. Toilet-rooms inclosed and separated by double walls to deaden sound. Noise of toilet fixtures not heard in schoolroom.

23. Toilet-rooms can not freeze, except by gross negligence long continued.

24. Position and construction of walls, doors, and hallways give toilet-rooms an air of complete privacy.

25. Each toilet-room has direct sunlight at noon thru outer window and glass in door. 26. Small plate-glass in each toilet-room floor admits direct sunlight to basement. 27. Each room of this schoolhouse has direct sunlight, yet the children's eyes are protected. Children study by abundance of mild light from the north.

28. This schoolhouse is built upon the popular rectangular foundation.

29. Undue appearance of width is overcome by form of roof. Flue may seem a little low. It is yet to have a six-inch concrete top.

30. This schoolhouse is, in all respects, built out of the best available material and in the best possible way. It is therefore thought to be a model in every essential particular. It was not built by contract. The regents directed the president of the school to purchase material, employ laborers, and build. Cost can therefore be given in detail. With ordinary material and labor such a schoolhouse should be built in almost any rural district of Missouri for about $1,200. Full specifications will be furnished to Missouri school boards free of cost.

A rural schoolhouse of a very different type has recently been erected on the grounds of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University It is a one-teacher building designed to serve as a suggestion in schoolhouse architecture and also to provide a real rural school as a part of the nature-study department of the college. The following statement (by Professor L. H. Bailey) of the purpose and construction of this little building was recently issued.

OF AGRICULTURE

The prevailing rural schoolhouse is a building in which pupils sit to study books. It ought to be a room in which pupils do personal work with both hands and mind. The essential feature of this new schoolhouse, therefore, is a workroom. This room occupies one-third of the floor space. Perhaps it would be better if it occupied two-thirds of the floor space. If the building is large enough, however, the two kinds of work could change places in this schoolhouse.

It has been the purpose to make the main part of the building about the size of the average rural schoolhouse, and then to add the workroom as a wing or projection. Such a room could be added to existing school buildings; or, in districts in which the building is now too large, one part of the room could be partitioned off as a workroom.

It is the purpose, also, to make this building artistic, attractive, and homelike to children, sanitary, comfortable, and durable. The cement-plaster exterior is handsomer and warmer than wood, and on expanded metal lath it is durable. The interior of this building is very attractive. School-gardens and playgrounds are being made at one side.

The cost has been as follows:

Contract price for buildings complete, including heater in

cellar, blackboards, and two outhouses with metal drawers $1,800.00
Tinting of walls.

Curtains

Furniture and supplies

25.00 16.56 141.75

$1,983.31

In rural districts, the construction might be completed at less cost. The average valuation of rural school buildings and sites in New York State in 1905 was $1,833.63. The building is designed for twenty-five pupils in the main room. The foldingdoors and windows in the partition enable one teacher to manag. both rooms.

OF AGRICULTURE

CONSTRUCTION DETAILS

In working out the problem it has been the aim to accomplish a maximum of accommodation combined with an artistic appearance and a minimum of cost. The materials used are such as may be readily obtained and easily handled.

The building is placed on a concrete foundation composed of gravel or broken stone, cement, and sand in the proportion of one part cement, three parts sand, and five parts gravel.

The foundations under the schoolroom proper are carried down below frost only, while under the vestibule the walls are of sufficient depth to form a small cellar for the heating-apparatus.

The superstructure is of ordinary frame construction as follows:

The entire exterior walls are stuccoed with cement mortar, rough-cast on metal lath nailed directly on the studding, the stucco being returned in all openings, thus doing away with outside casings wherever possible. The roof is shingled over sheathing laid open in the usual way, and is designed (as shown in sketches) with low and broadly projecting eaves with the windows cutting up thru them.

The interior is plastered on plaster-board with patent plaster, two-coat work, 'rowelled smooth and decorated in simple gray-green for side walls and pale yellow for ceilings The floors are of matched pine, and the standing trim is yellow pine natural in finish. This trim has been used as sparingly as possible and is not molded. Wherever possible door and window casings have been omitted, the plastering returning into jambs with all corners rounded.

All doors are stock pine. Inside doors 1 thick. All sash is 1' glazed with good quality double-thick glass.

The openings between schoolroom and workroom are fitted with glazed swing sash and folding-doors, so that the rooms may be used either singly or together, as desired.

The workroom has a bay window facing south and fitted with shelves for plants. Slate blackboards of standard school heights fill the spaces about the rooms between doors and windows. The building is heated by hot air; vent flues of adequate sizes are also provided so that the rooms are thoroly heated and ventilated.

On the front of the building and adding materially to its picturesque appearance, is a roomy veranda with simple square posts, from which entrance is made directly into the combined vestibule and coatroom and from this again by two doors into the schoolroom.

SCHOOL GARDENS

The school must have an active laboratory connected with it if it is to do the most effective work in subjects that relate to its environment. One of the best laboratories is the school garden. Such a garden is not designed for looks alone, nor merely for the teaching of gardening, but it should be a real laboratory or workroom in which children can handle plants and soils and tools, and come into contact with actual problems. The school garden must be distinguished from a mere ornamented schoolground. Every schoolground should be attractive with interesting and practical planting of trees, shrubs, and other plants; but aside from this, the school-garden laboratory is fundamentally important.

The two great difficulties in the maintaining of a school garden in rural communities are, (1) the lack of available land, (2) the fact that there is no one to care for the premises during the long summer vacation. Whenever it is impossible to organize a school garden on the school premises, it is not difficult to interest the children in making gardens of their own at home and to make reports on their work to the school. These gardens should not be too large, but should be definite and so planned as to work toward a fairly concrete set of problems. It is important to emphasize the fact that these gardens are not made for looks. Sometimes the poorest garden will teach the best lesson if only the laboratory spirit pervades it. It is a question whether it is not worth while to make spring gardens on the schoolgrounds even tho they must be neglected during the summer.

The school-gardening movement is now well established in many parts of North America. It provides an additional room, and the laboratory materials