Evening star., 1916-09-10

4
tracts covering monthly or quarterly
deliveries by the purchasing officers
located at the various ports usually
visited by naval vessels for as nearly
as possible all needed provisions: so
that the vessels visiting these ports
were in a position to secure their pro-
visions at normal prices instead of
having to stand abnormal cost Of small
emergency purchases
n
It is seldom possible to estimate the
constructive work of the government
| bureaus in dollars
Getting Orders for and cents. for
| much Of the as
American Goods. ststance rendered
to agriculture. to the manufacturing in
dustries, to education. to foreign trade,
is difficult to measure its value exactly.
Some of the work Of the bureau Of for
eign and domestic commerce, however.
has resulted in actual orders for Ameri-
can goods, and these orders not only
reveal the practical nature Of the bu-
reas efforts, but occasionally bring to
light some interesting facts in studying
conditions in foreign lands. The pres
ent liberal government Of Spain was
successful in the recent election. partly
because 1t was able to import enough
copper sulphate. commonly known as
blue vitrio1, to save the vineyards from
destruction by mfldew. Wine is one Of
the important Spanish products, and
when mi1dew made Its appearance this
spring a vigorous appeal for help was
was given to save the crop. Copper sui
nhate is the best cure for this disease of
the vine, but owing to war conditions
in the industrial countries Of Europe.
| and the lack of shipping facilities. 1t
was no easy matter to place contract
with any certainty of It's being fulfilled
! in time to save the wine crop. The
America commercial attache at Paris
| learned Of the situation and persuaded
the Spanish government to place an or
der for 100000 worth Of the chemical
in this country.
| The bureau Of foreign and domestic
commerce took an active interest. in
seeing that this order was filled in time.
ical Importance in Spain. and failure to
carry out it's promise would have
weighed heavily against the govern
ment at the polls
list of miscellaneous small orders,
received from Denmark during a recent
! ithree-month period. shows what official
commercial activity can do In smaller
countries in spite Of adverse conditions
| The counsel generals office at Copen-
hagen has been instrumental in starting
$4,000 worth Of miscellaneous goods
from one New York concern. and for
other concerns: $4,000 worth Of egg
products. $4,000 pounds Of leather. 49,
600 pounds Of tobacco. $4,000 worth of
bestos paper. 1000 pounds of varnish,
$4,000 worth of carbon products 24O,-
] 600 bushels Of rye to the Danish gov
ernment and s25o.oo0 worth of machin-
cry. Another item originally included
| in this list was LII pounds Of cor
sets. but to the layman this must seem
| unnecessarily confusing. There Is no
rule, at least no commonly known rule.
for converting pounds of corsets into
number Of corsets or dollars worth Of
corsets. It is apparent. however, that
/ the counsel general at Copenhagen has
helped to promote the sale of American
corsets In Denmark.
| A new problem has arisen in the ad-
ministration Of rural schools in this coun-
try and the Depart
Administering ment Of Agriculture
! p,c is taking an active
| interest and is CO.
operating with teachers and school off,
cials to the end that successful plans may
ing credit for actual farming as home
work and how much. If any, credit is to
| be given. The students experimental
| farm at home in many Instances is being
used as a laboratory for the school work
! Some schools have already installed a
i credit system for this home work and 9TH
ers viii in the near future. according to
| officials of the Department of Agriculture.
| To the superintendents OF the schools
| has fallen the duty of determining how
| much credit shall be allowed. and whether
! the home work shall be optional or pre-
| scribed. and to the teacher falls the task
OF giving rank for such home work and
applying that rank to the general schol-
arship average of the individual
| In this connection departmental ex-
perts. who have put much time On this
subject in the past few months, have
selected six cardinal points in relation to
this work.
They say first that the home farm may
be the logical laboratory for practical
work connected with rural school agri-
culture. Home work carried on for this
purpose may be properly given school
| credit just as home study Of arithmetic
Second. The relative Importance of a
project from the school point Of view
| depends upon its relation to school study;
the amount of education involved; the
improvement OF the pupil in skill, method
or knowledge; the results or relative sue
cess measured partly by crops or profits,
and the reports, essays. exhibits and other
evidence given at school
Third. The weight given should recog-
nize, besides the educational factors, the
period covered by the project; the hours
of labor involved and the relative diff
Guilty: the evidence Of good management:
| the emergencies met and pests combated,
and the success Of adults in the same
line OF work during the same season
Fourth. The rank should depend on
thoughtful application of Instructions
Fifth. Both weight and rank should
be based upon the usual methods of
ranking and credfting school subjects.
Manual practice should not receive too
much or too little relative recognition.
And sixth. Until local records are
compiled and analyzed from boys and
girls projects, 1t will be best to use
the most availab BILE records of man
Ia abor, modified as to relative difficulty.
number of new operations involved and
other factors These estimates may be
gradually modified as experience is
gained. The educational feature should
always be kept in mind.
After their complete study. officials
Of the department have advised teach
ers of these rural schools that in cases
where the study OF agriculture Is pre-
scribed for the upper grades 1t is
not feasible to require any home work
1t would be best, they think, to offer
added credit for home project work
and average the rank on the project
with the recitation rank in agriculture
In this work, the experts point out,
the active cooperation Of the parents
Is one of the essentials. The parents
Qhnn1d hax hf,,lr