“MARYLAND.

FREDERICK. If the rural teachers of the state were not greatly instructed and greatly inspired by the addresses and demonstrations devoted to their work at the annual meeting of the Maryland State Teachers’ Association at Braddock Heights, their case is hopeless. More time was given over to that vital phase of education—country schools—than In any state association that has come to our attention, and it was well that it should be so. The chairman of the rural education department, S. D. Gray of Montgomery county, deserves much of the credit. His own paper on “What Science Ought to be Taught in a Four-year High School Course” with demonstrations in laboratory agriculture by four students from his agricultural high school was a practical help for those teachers who are going to have agricultural courses in their schools next year for the first time. At another session Mr. Gray reviewed the introduction of agricultural work in the high schools throughout the state, showing that the enthusiastic reception is well deserved. More features for the rural school workers were: “How to Teach Home Economics in Rural Schools,” discussed by Mrs. H. D. Patterson of College Park, Miss Emma Jacobs of Washington, and Miss Letitia Ware of Baltimore; an illustrated lecture on rural schools of to-day and of the future by the commissioner of education, Dr. Claxton; experiments in demonstrating the holding capacity of the soil for water, the percentage of air in the soil, the grades of purity of clover seed, the Babcock milk test and the selection and test of seed corn by pupils in agriculture from Montgomery county high schools; and a talk on the knowledge of livestock which rural children ought to have by Professor Taliaferro of the Maryland Agricultural College. But the most interesting of all was the symposium of rural school experiences by eight teachers: E. B. Fairson of Roslyn; N. Price Turner of Salisbury; S. S. Handy of Easton, Julian F. Walters of Brookville, Mrs. Isabel Jones of Brighton, Mrs. Blanche Cramer and Miss Isabel Stanton of Loreley, and R. E. L. Reich of LaPlata. A .representative of the United States department of agriculture, C. H. Lane, told the teachers how to go about to form agricultural clubs for the improvement of rural school buildings and for better equipment.