The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-06-22
MONTANA PUPILS
AND GEOGRAPHY
EDUCATIONAL HEADS PREPARE
NEW SUPPLEMENT FOR PU-
Pills OF STATE
President Davis and Professor j.
Ford McBain of Dillon Normal,
Authors of Supplement Which
Contains Much that Is New.

Pupils in Montana schools will
know more about Montana than did
their fathers, who derived their
knowledge of the state exclusively,
if any did, from the biographies that
were carried home from the little
red school house on the hill. When
dad went to school he learned that
Montana, ''the land of the shining
mountains" was a sparsely settled
state, third largest in the union and
a part of the Louisiana and Oregon
territories; that there were many
high mountains and bad lands, large
herds of cattle and sheep, and several
districts which contained large de-
posits of gold, silver and copper, and
other valuable metals. He then
learned to bound the state, name the
three largest rivers and name Hell
ena, which he may have been taught
to pronounce Helena, as the capital.
In the modern city schools of Mon
tana today, however, and in the
equally modern consolidated schools
of the rural districts, the pupils, be-
ginning next September, will have a
geography which contains as a sup
plement 81 pages devoted to the
Treasure state. The supplement was
written by Sheldon e. Davis, Ph.D.,
president of the state normal college
at Dillon, and J. Ford McBain, pro-
lessor of science at the Dillon nor
NAL. 1t has been approved by Miss
May Trumper, state superintendent
of public instruction, who has just
forwarded the copy to the printers.
The new supplement is profusely
illustrated, contains charts, maps,
pictures of the principal industries,
and a write-up of the larger cities.
In the front of the book are ques-
tons based upon many studies, and
casual reading of them would seem
to give the impression that if Johnny
can answer them all correctly he will
be out of the class where dad could
give him any assistance.
Here are some of them: Compare
the area and population of Montana
with those of France. What is the
population per square mile in each
case? How many times as large as
Illinois is Montana? How many times
as great is the population of Illi-
nois?"
Account for the fact that the Mis-
souri, is a clear stream in its upper
course and very muddy in its lower
course"
where would you go in Montana
if you wished to find hill which
drained from one side into the At
lantic and from the other into the
Pacific? What part of Montana
drains into the Arctic ocean,"
Locate by counties all Montana
cities which have a population of
more than 10000 people"
Compare the distance across Mon
tana from east to west with that from
New York to Chicago"
"Name all the states which border
upon Montana; the Canadian prov
inces."
The early history of mining, the
present mining industry with one
Butte mine having more than 700
miles of underground workings; the
problems of forestry, timbering; dry
land and irrigated farming; manu-
featuring; railroad service; dairying;
sheep and wool growing; gas, petro-
leum and other natural resources and
conditions of the various
portions of the state are discussed
in detail in the new book.