and ground for school gardening. The soil should be light, with free natural drainage. Clay or adobe soil should not be selected, or soil having a clay sub-stratum near the surface. A slight natural eminence, giving drainage in all directions from the schoolhouse, is very desirable, but hilltops with bleak, cold winds should be avoided, however beautiful the view. Let teacher and pupils climb the hill on proper occasions for those larger studies of nature. If level ground must be used, it should first be graded, and the schoolhouse placed on the highest portion. In climates damp or cold, playPLATE. 2

grounds should receive the morning sun. In such climates basements may be used for playrooms.

The ceiling of the schoolroom should be from 12 to 14 feet in height, the floor area in the proportion of 3 to 4, the size of the room being determined by the number of pupils. A room 26 by 34 feet will accommodate from 45 to 50 pupils, the largest number that ought under any conditions to be under one teacher. Plan I, 24 x 32 feet, will accommodate about 35 pupils, the largest number with which the teacher can do her best work. If the building fund is small and only about 25 pupils are ever to occupy the room, plan I

might be reduced, the schoolroom being 21 by 28 feet, and the side rooms but 5 feet in width. So small a building, however, is not recommended. The room should be of sufficient size to give 2 or 21⁄2 foot aisles between the rows of desks, that the teacher may inspect at their desks the pupils' drawing, writing, and composition, without disturbing those at work on both sides. The main room should contain a reference table well supplied with supplementary and reference books, and a table for objects of nature study. The aisle next the blackboard should be 3 feet wide. In a school of many grades there should be space for recitation benches, in order that those studying may be disturbed as little as possible. For older grades there should be separate hatrooms for boys and girls. The library room should have cases for all those books not in daily use on the reference PLATE 3

table. It should contain blackboard and seats, also, that older pupils may assist the teacher by giving additional drill to the younger children. The base of windows in halls and hatrooms may be six feet from the floor, giving space for wraps. The tread of stairs should not be less than a foot wide, and the riser not over 6 or 61⁄2 inches. For small children the riser should not exceed 5 inches. In a building of several rooms, the stair should be not less than 5 or 6 feet wide, and should have one landing. Safety is increased if the stairs turn at right angles at this landing.

All doors should swing outward. Floors should be double with deaden

ing between. Additional deadening is obtained by placing felt on floor joist also, before laying first floor. The first floor should always be double if there is a cold basement underneath. It should be deadened if the basement is used as a playroom. Walls between rooms should be deadened, especially that portion behind blackboard, and rooms should not be sepaated by folding or sliding doors. The noise of each room should be confined as nearly as possible within that room, that the mind of teacher and pupils be not distracted by the work of other grades. For similar reasons

schoolhouses should not be located near railroad stations or noisy factories of any kind. The building should be well timbered, with floor joist and studding of sufficient size that no vibrations of the floor may be felt from the ordinary exercises of the school.

Each schoolroom should receive its chief light from one side only, but the point of compass from which this light comes will depend much upon climatic conditions. In the "land of sunshine," plans I, II, IV, and VII might well receive the light from the north or north and east, as this is the best light for study, and the rooms are thus kept cool in warm weather. In such case, the end windows should admit sunshine at all possible times out of school hours, for sunshine is nature's disinfectant. These same plans about San Francisco Bay should face east; while in the "land of fogs and rains" they should get as much sunshine as south exposure could give. In plans V and VIII, the rooms receive their light from the east or west. In plans

VI, IX, and X, the rooms receive light from the east, west and south. Each schoolroom should receive its main light from the left of the pupils, the windows being grouped near the center of the room, with the longer portion of blank wall to the front rather than to the rear. Cross lights in a schoolroom should be avoided. The light should come from the left, that the hand may not cast its shadow on the written page. Except for the writing it matters little whether the light comes from the right or left side.

Pupils of the first and second grades should do very little writing except at the blackboard, and for them light from the right side of the room is not objectionable.

Two windows, barred in the drawings, should be placed in the rear of each schoolroom, above the black board. These add to the architectural effect from without, and may be needed properly to light the room on dark