in miscellaneous occupations 29.5 years. The average fecundity of marriage was 2.2 children, figures for the clergy being 2.2, for lawyers, teachers and manufacturers, 2 children each, doctors and merchants 1.7 children, and for those in miscellaneous occupations 1.9 children. Allowing for net deaths of children later in life, it is obvious that college wedlock does not add to the census returns. But statistics of 629 families from which graduates of the last three classes came show that those families of the next earlier generation contained an average of 2.66 children each, suggesting strikingly, when compared with the 2.2 children average of the graduate, the relative sterility of college marriages.

The returns of the 1991 graduates summarized indicate that Yale graduates marry two years later than the average age of marriage in Massachusetts; that about 61.4 per cent marry, as compared with about 75 per cent of the professional classes in England, where, however, the professional class marry somewhat later; that there are more college bachelors than in the general community; that the merchants, though they marry earliest, have fewest children, while clergymen have the most; and that the fecundity of college marriages appears to be steadily decreasing.

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COLLEGE LABOR BUREAU.

Any deserving youth who wishes to labor, while an undergraduate in most of our colleges and universities, now finds that provision is made by the college for securing him an opportunity to work. Nor does the service of the fostering mother-educator stop there. Places of employment for men when they graduate are found. Yale supplements this work done in New Haven with the voluntary aid given by an alumni committee in New York City, known as a college business information committee. Last year it found places for about fifty men in the metropolis; the year before, thirty-five. Developed as this scheme may be in time, it is obvious that such combined work done by subordinate officials and instructors at New Haven or

Cambridge and by alumni in Boston and New York will make it very much easier than it used to be for college bred men to get a footing in the business world. How large the number of men now entering business when they leave college is may be inferred from the statistics of 1907 at Harvard, Yale and Princeton, which, with a total of 1,239 men graduating, sent 351 into occupations which may be grouped roughly under the title business.

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COLLEGE COURSES IN POULTRY RAISING.

Few people, indeed, realize the present magnitude and the future possibilities of the poultry industry in America. It is not generally known, even among our agriculturists, that the American hen eats more different kinds of feed, digests them more completely, and returns more profit to the owner and more fertility to the land than any other form of live stock, but such is the case.

The farmer in the Eastern part of this continent is decidedly handicapped by the soil and the high price of hay when he attempts to compete with the West in the production of most animal produrts, but he more than holds his own in the poultry field, as little or no bulky food is needed for fowls, and the very high local prices for poultry and eggs return him a handsome profit. A recent careful examination of a number of commercial and farm poultry plants throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island shows an average return of nearly $2.50 for each dollar invested in feed for laying hens, with a little help occasionally. Ducklings, produced at a food cost of four to eight cents per pound, sell for fourteen to forty cents per pound on the New York market, and we sometimes see a small consignment of crate fattened chickens, a truly delicious roast. sounds. For the congenital deaf the Most of these specially fattened chickens come from the Middle West, where the big packing houses are extensively engaged in their production, but many of our local poultrymen are undertaking this industry in connection with their other lines and find it possible to increase

the weight of a four-pound chicken from twenty-five to fifty per cent in three weeks, at a very slight cost. The fat bird contains twice as much flesh in proportion to bone as the lean one, and is worth considerably more per pound.

For a number of years our State and national authorities have been emphasizing the importance of poultry keeping as a rapid and sure means of making a comfortable living, and at the same time greatly improving our rough or barren farms. This agitation in itself is commendable, but its danger lies in the fact that many are induced to risk their all in the poultry industry without sufficient knowledge and experience to achieve success. The poultry industry will yield a greater net profit on the investment than almost any other industry, but its prosecution on a large scale calls for a high degree of skill and constant application. The amount of capital required to engage in the business is not large, the work is pleasant, and a good market is assured, but an inexperienced beginner will avoid much loss of time and money by attending some good course in poultry husbandry at one of our State agricultural colleges. He can here secure in a short time and at a minimum expense a thorough practical knowledge of every phase of the poultry industry. These colleges do not expect to turn out experienced poultrymen in three months' time, but they enable the student to secure the truth from the vast amount of poultry fiction, and they help him to avoid the errors that have wrecked many a worthy venture.

Colleges giving such courses of instruction in handling poultry are Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.; Connecticut Agricultural College, Storrs, Conn., and Rhode Island Island Agricultural Agricultural College, Kingston, R. I. The latter was the first college in America to undertake this work, and offers two twelve-weeks' poultry courses for men and one nine-weeks' course for women each year. The plan The plan of instruction at Cornell and Storrs is similar to the Rhode Island plan, and includes lecture and practice work on every phase of the industry. At the Rhode Island College, each student cares for a

pen of fowls for three months, runs two hatches through an incubator and brooder, crate fattens a pen of fowls, and has practical work in caponizing, killing and picking, showing, judging, planning and constructing buildings, and all other important features. A large number of successful poultry plants are visited during each ing each course, and many expert poultrymen give lectures on their specialties. The popularity of these courses is shown by the large number of students each year, and the demand for men with such training is unprecedented.

The courses offered at these three colleges are very similar, the Rhode Island college having the only women's poultry

course.

HOW THE DEAF AND DUMB ARE TAUGHT.

The following paragraphs from a report made to the Board of Superintendents by the committee, which visited a number of schools for the deaf and dumb with a view to determining the advisability of establishing such a school in New York, are of particular interest. They show the general scope of the work to be undertaken, and the methods to be employed.

Lip reading and oral speech should be taught exclusively; signs and the manual alphabet should form no part whatever of the course of instruction. A careful study of class instruction in different institutions, especially of the results found in the higher grades, has convinced us that pupils taught exclusively by the lip method make better progress, have better trained minds, and have greater confidence in themselves than have those taught in whole or in part by the manual method. In fact, any combination of methods is sure to eliminate the lip and voice method in the higher grades. It is easier to communicate by the hands, signs and facial expression than by the lips. The line of least resistance leads naturally to the exclusion of the lip and voice method when children are taught by both methods, especially when the children are by themselves, away from their teachers.

Industrial work should form a promi

nent feature of a course of instruction. While a general education should be insisted upon, these deaf children should be trained to be useful and self-supporting citizens. If properly trained they become very expert in industrial lines. The subjects that may best be taught in the school about to be organized are art, including drawing, sketching, and painting; domestic science, including cooking and housekeeping; domestic art, including sewing, dressmaking, embroidery, crocheting and millinery; manual training, including freehand and mechanical drawing, sloyd, carpentry, wood-carving, cabinet-making, sign painting, typewriting, typesetting, printing, and bookbinding.

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The class register should not exceed ten pupils, and no pupil should be admitted under five years of age; the work requires great patience, tact, and sourcefulness on the part of the teachers. Individual attention is absolutely necessary at every step in the training of the deaf. Each child must be near enough to the teacher, especially in the early work, to observe closely the lips and tongue of the teacher.

In addition to the regular teaching force there should be a teacher in excess, one versed in vocal gymnastics and in breathing exercises, to give voice-training to the beginners and to those who have never had any hearing, and to those who have grown careless in enunciating road to an education is long and difficult.

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AN INDIAN'S FIRST SCHOOL.

Dr. Charles Eastman, in the Outlook, thus describes his first day in school:

The boys played ball and various various other games, but I tied my pony to a tree and then walked up to the schoolhouse and stood there as still as if I had been glued to the wall. Presently the teacher came out and rang a bell, and all the children went in, but I waited for some time before entering, and then slid inside and took the seat nearest the door. I felt singularly out of place, and for the twentieth time wished my father had not sent me.

When the teacher spoke to me I had not the slightest idea what he meant, so I did not trouble myself to make any demonstration, for fear of giving offense. Finally he asked in broken Sioux: "What is your name?" Evidently he had not been among the Indians long, or he would not have asked that question. It takes a tactician and a diplomat to get an Indian to tell his name! The poor man was compelled to give up the attempt and resume his seat on the platform.

He then gave some unintelligible directions, and to my great surprise, the pupils in turn held their books open and talked the talk of a strange people. Afterward the teacher made some curious signs upon a blackboard on the wall, and seemed to ask the children to read them. To me they did not compare in interest with my bird's track and fishing studies on the sands. I was something like a wild cub caught over night, and appearing in the corral next morning with the lambs. I had seen nothing thus far to prove to me the good of civilization.

Meanwhile the children grew more familiar, and whispered references were made to the "new boy's" personal appearance. At last he was called "baby" by one of the big boys; but this was not meant for him to hear, so he did not care to hear. He rose silently and walked out. He did not dare to do or say anything in departing. The boys watched him as he led his pony to the river to drink and then jumped upon his back and started for home at a good pace. They cheered as he started over the hills: "Hoo-00! hoo-oo! there goes the long-haired boy."

When I was well out of sight the school, I pulled in my pony and made him walk slowly home. "Will going to that place make a man brave and strong?" I asked myself. "I must tell my father that I cannot stay here. I must go back to my uncle in Canada, who taught me to hunt and shoot and to be a brave man. They might as well try to make a buffalo build houses like a beaver as to teach me to be a white man," I thought.

I took the situation seriously enough,

and I remember I went with it where all my people go when they want lightinto the thick woods. I needed counsel, and human counsel did not satisfy me. I had been taught to seek the "Great Mystery" in silence in the deep forest, or on the height of the mountain. There was no mountains here, so I retired into the woods. I knew nothing of the white man's religion; I only followed the teaching of my ancestors.

When I came back, my heart was strong. I desired to follow the new trail to the end. I knew that, like the little brook, it must lead to larger and larger ones until it became a resistless river, and I shivered to think of it. But again I recalled the teachings of my people, and determined to imitate their undaunted bravery and Stoic resignation. However, I was far from having realized the long, tedious years of study and confinement before I could begin to achieve what I had planned.

JAPAN'S INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. There is an extraordinary development of industrial schools all over the civilized world. Three important new ones are to be established in Japan within the next five years. At one of these, the High Agricultural College at Kagoshima, the science of agriculture in warm regions is to be taught.

The curriculum of the High Dyeing School at Yonezana will consist of dyeing, weaving, and practical chemistry. At the third, the High Commercial School at Odaru, all commercial subjects will be taught. The object here will be the education of those who expect to engage in cosmopolitan com

merce.

The authorities at Hanfchow have ordered an extra tax on raw and manufactured silk for the proper maintenance of modern schools and colleges in Cheking Province. The new tax is very unpopular.

The first engineers graduated in the United States were from West Point in 1802. In the University of Virginia, which Thomas Jefferson attempted to organize, he proposed to make four out of the ten courses technical, with instruction in mathematics, science and the use of tools.

The first great advance was made in 1840 in the founding of the Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute by Stephen Van Rennselaer. This was the first institution in an English-speaking country to graduate a civil engineer. Before this time those engaged in civil engineering work obtained their training, if not West Point men, in the employ of practicing engineers. For the privilege of learning they paid $100 a year for three years, while they were allowed $0.125 an hour for all actual work in the field. The first prospectus of a school of civil engineering, October 14, 1835, by Rennselaer Institute, stated that a student, if over seventeen years old and well prepared, could

obtain a civil engineer's degree by one year's study.

The history of Lawrence Scientific School is instructive in showing how not to do it. This school was founded in Harvard University by the Hon. Abbott Lawrence, who wished it to be "a school for the purpose of teaching the practical sciences." But after a few years of successful operation under the direction of Professor Henry L. Eustis the Harvard authorities neglected the Lawrence school, so that they forfeited the bequest by not fulfilling the requirements.

What is now Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University was organized in 1847, but it was not until after 1859, when Joseph E. Sheffield reorganized it, that the school was well under way.

Mr. Abiel Chandler, by bequest, made possible the Chandler School of Mines in Dartmouth College in 1851. He made special mention in his bequest of mechanical engineering and civil engineering.

Michigan started the first school on

a public donation in 1860 in founding the State University.

The meeting for the organization of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was held in 1861, but the actual start was not made until 1864. This school has been recognized as a leader from the very first. The first catalogue showed seventy-two students.

The second great advance in technical education was due to the Land Grant

Bill. This was first passed by Congress in 1858, but was vetoed by President Buchanan. Its adherents, however, secured its second passage in 1861, when it was signed by President Lincoln. The conditions of the bill were as follows: Each state should receive for each senator and representative it had in congress 300,000 acres of public lands open for sale at $1.25 an acre or an equivalent amount of scrip to be sold for the benefit of the state. One clause of the bill provided specifically for the teaching of the mechanic arts and agriculture. Through misinterpretation and graft some did not get all they should have received; one state received only $0.41 an acre, and only nine states received $1.25 an acre. But New York realized from $6 to $7

on all but a small portion, a result due to the shrewdness and carefulness of Ezra Cornell.

Notwithstanding these losses, however, the state universities have made good progress. Some of the states have tried to make up for the original losses by donations from the state treasury.

One of the most important developments was that of the engineering laboratory, which was first proposed by Professor W. B. Rogers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1874 the first steam engineering laboratory was established at the Massachusetts Institute.

While scientific work was formerly looked down on by the public and considered to be less noble than classical pursuits, now the technical man receives great respect, a fact which is partly due to the hard course he must pass. The chief criticism which can be made of the technical eduaction of the present day is that it is too technical, with too little general culture. But this is a criticism hard to overcome on account of the large amount of work which must be covered in so short a time.

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"My boy asked me the other day," said a New York man, 'What shall I do when I leave college? I have only one year more." The boy may have some notion in his head of what he would like to do, but if he has he hasn't revealed it. I don't know what is the best thing for him to undertake. I would like to know, for sending him to college has meant some sacrifice to me. I want him to make the best use of what has been provided for him." Doubtless many another father in this country would like to have an answer to the same query, says the New York Tribune. Not all youths start in life as did Professor C. F. Chandler, the

well-known head of the chemical department of Columbia University. When he was ten years old he used to attend the lyceum lectures in the old Massachusetts town in which he lived. At this tender age he heard, among others, Professor Agassiz. The famous teacher talked about plants and minerals, and the boy was entranced. He went home to dream about the new marvels he had heard described. A spinster aunt had spent some of her time in collecting minerals and pressing flowers. pressing flowers. Access to her modest collection was granted, and the boy studied and collected and pressed specimens to his heart's content. Other lecturers