The following information is derived from a report of the operation of the New York Trade Schools:

These schools were opened four years ago for the purpose of giving young men instruction in certain trades, and to give young men already in the trades an opportunity to improve themselves. The results of the past four seasons have proved the success of what at first was an experiment. Many young men are now earning high wages who were unable to obtain work before joining the schools.

Instruction was given the first season in two trades, the attendance being thirtythree. Instruction is now given in eight trades, and the attendance the past two seasons has averaged two hundred. The New York Trade Schools are not intended to be either a charitable or a money-making institution. They are not managed in the interest of, nor are they in opposition to, any trade organization. Skilled labor all over the United States commands the highest wages. The demand far exceeds the supply, and is constantly increasing. In the large cities this demand is supplied chiefly from abroad, owing to the difficulty young men in the large cities experience in finding an opportunity to learn a trade. A thorough knowledge of a trade yields its possessor, if he works but two hundred days in the year, an income equal to that received from $20,000 invested in government bonds. Young men can now obtain this knowledge at the evening classes of the New York Trade Schools without interfering with the work by which they may be earning a living during the day.

The schools are conducted on the principle of teaching thoroughly how work should be done, and leaving the quickness which is required of a first-class mechanic to be acquired at real work after leaving the schools. The experience of the past four years has shown that from one-third to one-half a day's work can be done after one season's course of instruction, and that from one-third to one-half a day's wages can be obtained. Full wages have usually been obtained in from six months to two years after leaving the schools, according to the nature of the trade. Young men who were exceptionally quick at learning have obtained full wages at once, but it is the opinion of the management that steady work at moderate wages is the more profitable in the end.

Progress at a trade school is necessarily rapid. Skilled mechanics are employed as teachers. It is their duty to show each individual how work should be done, to see that he does it correctly, and to point out the difference between good and bad work. It is constantly sought to ascertain, not only what the pupil knows, but in what he is deficient. Such a system can rarely be pursued in a workshop where each employé is necessarily employed upon the work he can do best.

In both American and foreign schools where trades are taught to beginners, the trade instruction is usually combined with a general instruction extended over several years. Although the results of this system of combining trade instruction with a general education are excellent, it does not meet the wants of young men who must support themselves or contribute to the family support. The system, therefore, which seems adapted to American wants is to leave the general education to the public schools, and confine the work of a trade school to the manual and scientific instruction necessary to make a mechanic.

INSTRUCTION IN COOKERY.

In Boston an experiment has been made which it is to be hoped may lead to permanent provision for giving girls attending the public schools instruction in cookery. During the year the school committee intend to permit the girls of three schools to attend the School of Cookery conducted by the North Bennett Street Industrial School, and the girls of five other schools to attend the Boston School Kitchen, No. 1, which is conducted under the direction of the committee on the Manual Training School at Mrs. Hemenway's expense. She agreed to pay the expense of a teacher and of the materials until July, 1886, when she desires to present the "plant" to the school committee of Boston. The committee on the Manual Training School urge the school committee to assume the expense of this school in the following September.

The "First Mission School of Cookery and Housework" of Washington, D. C., was established in 1881, by Mrs. A. L. Woodbury, for the free instruction of young girls who are unable to pay. It is managed by a small committee of ladies. The number of pupils is limited from want of funds to thirty-six; they are divided into practice classes of six-each class receiving a lesson once a week in cookery and whatever else will enable them to make their own homes comfortable.

The zealous labors of Miss Juliet Corson in establishing schools of cookery and in

exciting public interest in the training have been duly noticed in former Reports. Since 1883 Miss Corson has been continuing her work with marked success, lecturing upon the subject and conducting classes in the principal cities of the East and of the Pacific coast. As a result of her efforts in Oakland, Cal., the committee on industrial education of the Oakland board of instruction resolved to make an experiment in the introduction of cookery into the public schools of that city. In Philadelphia the ladies of the Public Education Association arranged with the board of education for two experimental lessons in cookery to be given by Miss Corson in the normal school of that city. The experiment was tried with the view of ultimately introducing into the public school system a department of “household science."

TABLE XI.-SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY.

The following is a comparative statement of the number of schools of theology (including theological departments) reporting to this Bureau each year from 1875 to 1885, inclusive (1883 omitted), with the number of professors and number of students:

1875. 1876. 1877. 1878. 1879. 1880. 1881. 1882. 1884. 1885.

Statistical summary of schools of theology, according to denominations.

The following is a statement of the number of schools of law reporting to this Bureau each year from 1875 to 1885, inclusive (1883 omitted), with the number of instructors and number of students:

TABLE XIII.-SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE, DENTISTRY, AND PHARMACY.

The following is a comparative statement of the number of schools of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy reported to the Office each year from 1875 to 1885, inclusive (1883 omitted), with the number of instructors and students:

1875. 1870. 1877. 1878 1879. 1880. 1881. 1882. 1884. 1885.

Five of the seven additional schools reported in Table XIII for this year are included in Group I, "medical and surgical," and in a new class, "post-graduate and polyclinic," which has not been mentioned in my previous Reports. This new division