admission, as they were before the war, for want of room in the buildings.

Michigan is an agricultural State; but whether agriculture will always remain our leading interest, admits of doubt. Our iron and copper mines are inexhaustible in supply, and unsurpassed in quality. Our forests will, for a hundred years yet, be a source of immense wealth. A large portion of the State contains excellent beds of coal, and our petroleum-wells will soon be flowing. Already we rival the Empire State in the manufacture of salt, and we can equal any State in the production of fruit. With all these advantages, manufactures can not be kept in the background. Many a city in the land would be glad to

exchange its debt for our entire State debt. Our common schools are flourishing, even in the third year of the war, as never before. We have sent nearly sixty thousand men to the field, yet all the arts of peace thrive within our borders.

In all the varied interests of the State, the Agricultural College is well adapted to prepare our young men for success. In none of them, will the studies there pursued, be found otherwise than useful and advantageous.

We wish your readers, therefore, to understand that Michigan is a great, prosperous, patriotic, and intelligent State; and has, for seven years, had an Agricultural College in successful operation. C. B. S.

THE Training School for primary teachers, established by an act of the Legislature of the State of New York, will go into operation on the 18th of April, under the direction of Superintendent Sheldon. The appropriation for the purpose is, we believe, $5,000 per year, the buildings being furnished by the citizens of Oswego. The following is a synopsis of the plan of the school, kindly furnished by Mr. Sheldon.

Course of Instruction.-This will consist, 1st, in Instruction in Methods; 2d, Instruction in the Natural Sciences; and 3d, what may be more strictly termed Professional Instruction.

I. Under the first head will be included instruction in methods of presenting Form, Size, Weight, Color, Number (including Arithmetic), Language (including Grammar), Reading, Spelling, Drawing, Geography; also of giving lessons in Objects, including lessons on Animals and Plants, and the Human Body.

This instruction will be accompanied with Model Lessons, illustrating fully the methods at every point. In addition to this, the pupils will be required to observe and practise one-half of each day in the Model and Practising Schools, of which there is one for each grade, including the first five years of the child's school-life. The school will be divided into two sections, one of which will be in recitation while the other

is in the Practising Schools. Thus, onehalf the time is given to practise, and the

other half to instruction.

II. The Instruction in the Natural Sciences, will include Zoology, Botany, Geology, Mineralogy, and Chemistry, and perhaps Physiology. Thorough instruction in these is regarded as essential to the highest success of the teacher in the methods pursued.

III. In Professional Instruction, will be included Mental and Moral Philosophy, School History, Organization and Discipline.

Terms of Admission.-Before admission, an examination will be instituted in Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography, Spelling, Reading; also in Algebra as far as Quadratic Equations, Geometry (1st Book), and History of the United States.

In the last three named branches, the examination will be less thorough than in the former. Fifty per cent. of correct answers is required.

SCHOOLS OF NEW YORK CITY.-The annual report of S. S. Randall, Superintendent of the New York city schools, for 1863, states that there are, under the general jurisdiction of the Board of Education, 45 grammar-schools for boys, 45 for girls. 3 for boys and girls, 47 primary departments, 42 primary schools, 2 grammar-schools for

colored boys, 2 for colored girls, 4 for colored children of both sexes, 2 primary departments, and 2 primary schools for colored children; making, in all, 194 separate schools and departments. In addition to this, there are 12 corporate schools participating in the public money, 1 free academy for boys, 26 evening schools for boys, 22 for girls, and 2 for colored children of both sexes. The whole number of children taught during the year, was 201,124; an increase over 1862, of 29,718. The whole number of teachers employed in the several schools during the year, was 1,934; of whom 200 were males, and the remainder, 1,734, females.

The superintendent gives a detailed account of the character, progress, and present condition of the several schools in each ward. The number of pupils taught in each ward, ranges from 425 in the second, to 13,738 in the twentieth. He again urges the establishment of a normal school for the training of teachers, together with a high-school for girls. More attention to physical culture is recommended, and the furnishing of the large halls, basements, and playgrounds, attached to each school, with all the necessary apparatus requisite for this purpose, as a measure beneficial to health, and preventive of premature disease, the danger of which is imminent from the confinement of pupils for six hours of each school-day.

The report of Assistant Superintendent Calkins gives an account of the course of study, and of the general condition of the primary schools and departments. He also sets forth the need of a well-organized Training School, for educating teachers in the principles and methods of teaching, as the greatest want for securing improvement in primary instruction.

"What our

teachers most need," he truly says, "is not greater scholarship than may be obtained in the present course of instruction in the grammar-schools, but the knowledge of how to teach children what they themselves know. Nine teachers fail from the lack of knowing how to teach, to one that fails from lack of book-knowledge."

Mr. Calkins gives a detailed account of the process of teaching pursued, and presents a course of studies for the considera

tion of the Board, with the view of improving the mode of instruction in the primary schools. He calls attention to the want of more primary schools; and states that nearly every primary school and department in the city is now crowded to excess, and that there are about 40,000 children in the city, over four years of age, who do not attend any school.

The reports of Assistant Superintendents Kiddle, Jones, and Seton, also present interesting views in relation to instruction in the schools.

GENERAL BANKS has laid off the territory under his jurisdiction, in Louisiana, into school-districts, and is organizing a system of common-school instruction for the children, as well as a free paid labor system for the adult population of that sunny clime. General Banks is a statesman, as well as a soldier. He knows how to organize the forces of a free, peaceful, and happy community, as well as those for the stern work of grim-visaged war. shall watch with the deepest interest this process of reorganization in Southern society.

Wo

ABOUT a year ago the Massachusetts Legislature adopted a resolution authorizing the governor to appoint a commission to inquire into the expediency of establishing a State military academy. The commission was appointed, consisting of the Hon. Edward Everett, John M. Fessenden, an old graduate of West Point, Wm. S. Clark, formerly a professor at Amherst College, and for a while an officer in a Massachusetts volunteer regiment, and they have recently submitted their report for the action of the Legislature. The report, evidently written by Mr. Everett, is brief and comprehensive. By visits to West Point and the Naval Academy at Newport, and correspondence with our ministers at London and Paris relative to institutions for military education in Europe, the commissioners have collected a large amount of information, which they have not had time to arrange and submit in detail yet, but which is promised hereafter. The results to which they have arrived may be stated briefly thus: They are of the opinion that the introduction of military exercises and

drill into our colleges, academies, and schools of a higher grade, though useful to a certain extent, would not meet the demands of the country and the times; that whatever the immediate complexion of the future may be, it will bring with it an imperative call for a more systematic, extensive, and effective development of the military power of the country than has yet taken place; that for the increase of the means of military education the people of Massachusetts must for the present and for some time to come rely upon their own resources; that private military academies are not organized on a basis sufficiently comprehensive for all branches of military education; and that difficulty would exist in the want of authority to govern them by martial law. The commissioners, therefore, recommend the establishment of a military academy for the State of Massachusetts, at which provision shall be made for the education of about two hundred young men of suitable age, to be divided into three classes, being at the present time one annually for every twenty-one hundred of the population of the State. They contemplate a first-class institution. A high standard of qualification for admission is proposed; and the practice of competitive examinations will require the schools at which the candidates are prepared to aim in their turn at an elevated standard. military and naval schools of the United States labor under a disadvantage in this respect of qualification, as their pupils, for paramount public reasons, are taken in geographical proportion from every part of the Union; and it follows that the requisite qualifications of candidates for admission cannot rise above the state of education in any part of the country. In view of this high and uniform standard, a three years' course may be substituted for the four years' course at West Point. The commissioners estimate that such an institution as they propose can be put in operation for about $175,000, and carried on at an annual expense of about $56,000.Round Table.

The

COMMON SCHOOLS IN MICHIGAN.-The School Reports of 1863 in Michigan show an increasing prosperity in every respect.

More children, more teachers, and more means are reported than in any former year. And in but one year has the average length of the schools ever been greater, and that only one-tenth of a month more. More money was raised by voluntary taxation, and less by the odious rate-bill, than ever before. It is quite evident that, while sending about one in every fourteen of her population to chastise rebellion, the State has not forgotten that liberty and education must not be divorced.

The number of children reported between five and twenty years of age is 273,620; an increase during the year of 12,297. This shows an increase of population of about 38,000. Of the above number, 216,144 attended the common schools, in addition to which several thousand are reported in private schools. When it is considered how many leave school for the active duties of life at eighteen years of age, the conclusion is pretty certain that Michigan is raising very few uneducated citizens.

The number of graded, or Union schools, is 124. In these schools, some of which number several thousand pupils, the principals receive salaries of $600 to $1,200. In the State the average of wages was, to male teachers, $28.17 per month, and to females, $12.42. The total number of teachers was 8,825; and the average length of the schools was six and onetenth months.

The amount paid for teachers' wages was $520,012. The total school resources for the year were $828,000. Of this about $130,000 was from a permanent school fund; $277,000 from a State tax of two mills on the dollar of property as assessed; and nearly all of the remainder was from voluntary taxation by the tax-payers of 4,382 several districts. The pecuniary prosperity of the schools is shown (and from this may be inferred that of the State) in the fact that $106,000 was reported on hand at the close of the year, or $21,000 more than in the year preceding.

The value of school-houses reported is $1,868,000. Several districts have schoolhouses that cost from $15,000 to $40,000 each. One district has a stately edifice that cost $50,000.

For the preparation of teachers, the State supports a Normal School at an annual expense of about $13,000, at which 406 were in attendance during the year. About twelve local State Teachers' Institutes, of one week each, are also held annually by the State Superintendent of Public Instruc

tion, where, in the last four years, over 6,000 teachers have received special training.

Such statistics as these, from a State yet but little more than "out of its teens," ought to rejoice the hearts of educators in other States, and excite them to renewed efforts throughout the land.

STORM-GLASS.-A very simple and useful instrument for indicating changes of the weather, may be constructed of a glass tube about ten inches long and threefourths of an inch in diameter, having its mouth covered with a piece of bladder, perforated with a needle. The tube must be partly filled with a mixture of two drachms of camphor, half a drachm of pure saltpetre, and half a drachm of sal-ammoniac, pulverized and mixed with about two ounces of proof-spirits. It is usually suspended by a thread near a window, and the functions of its contents are as follows: If the atmosphere is dry, and the weather promises to be settled, the solid parts of the camphor in the liquid contained in the tube, will remain at the bottom, and the liquid above will be quite clear; but on the approach of a change to rain, the solid matter will gradually rise, and small crystalline stars will float about in the liquid. On the approach of high winds, the solid parts of the camphor will rise in the form of leaves, and appear near the surface in a state resembling fermentation. These indications are sometimes inanifested twentyfour hours before a storm breaks out!

The cause of these indications is as yet unknown; but the leading principle is the solubility of camphor in alcohol, and its insolubility in water, combined with the fact that the drier the atmosphere the more aqueous vapor does it take up, and

vice versa.

THE POWER OF SCIENCE.-It has long been known that the solar spectrum is crossed by fine, dark lines. Upon careful examination, it has been found that the spectra produced by the analysis of the

light proceeding from all incandescent bodies, have similar lines, but each substance gives its own peculiar arrangement to them. Thus we have a new method of chemical analysis; and so delicate is this test, that several new metals have been discovered by it in substances which had been repeatedly analyzed, with the utmost care, by the old methods. It has recently been applied to the light of the heavenly bodies with such success, as to make it probable that we shall soon be able to determine the chemical composition of even the fixed stars!

A STRIKING evidence of the slowness with which knowledge is diffused, is furnished by the frequent occurrence, in receipts for cooking, of directions to boil slowly, or to boil rapidly, for some specified length of time. It should at this day be known, that any thing will cook just as quickly in water boiling as slowly as possible, as it will in water boiling with the greatest fury. Water, under the pressure of the atmosphere and at the level of the sea, boils at 212° Fah.; and as long as it is open to the air, no fire, however fierce, will heat it a single degree above this temperature. If we close the vessel, however, with an air-tight cover, so as to increase the pressure upon the surface of the liquid, we may heat it to any degree whatever. But, as the pressure increases with the temperature, the strength of the boiler must be increased in the same proportion. On the other hand, if the pressure of the air on the surface of the water is diminished by raising the vessel above the surface of the earth, the water will boil at a lower temperature than 212° Fah.

It

takes longer to boil potatoes on the top of a mountain than at its base, because boiling water at the top of the mountain is not so hot as at its base. In sugar refineries, it is desirable to boil down the sirup at a low temperature, in order to avoid burning the sugar. This is effected by putting the sirup into an air-tight boiler, and draining out a portion of the air from the space above the sirup, by means of an air-pump worked by a steam-engine. Such a boiler is called a vacuum-pan, and is used in many other operations besides the refining of sugar.

MINERAL salt is now brought in ballast from Russia; it sells for $20 a tun. It is mined in blocks, that to the eye appear to be quartz. A thirty-pound block of it, placed in a box in a field, will supply a herd of cows for some weeks. It is as hard as stone. Ordinary salt would dissolve in one-fourth the time. No other country yet known yields this peculiar product. It is quarried precisely as we quarry marble.

LIGHT from petroleum costs about onethird as much as the same quantity from gas, at New York prices; and the petroleum light is better for the eyes, and of superior quality in every respect. It is essential, however, to use a shade upon the lamp. Otherwise, it is, if possible, worse for the eyes than gas.

Its

TUNGSTEN AND ITS ALLOYS.-Some important and interesting experiments have lately been made in France, by order of the Minister of War, to determine the influence produced by tungsten upon gunmetal, steel, and cast-iron, when combined with them and forming alloys. Tungsten is one of the rare metals, which the great majority of persons have never seen. name signifies "heavy stone," and it is also called wolfram. In its native state it is found as an ore, associated with iron, manganese, sulphur, and arsenic. It is reduced from the ore by fusion with carbon, and with a current of hydrogen gas. In the metallic state it is difficult of fusion, hard, brittle, and gray in color. There is only one mine of tungsten ore in France. When roasted, the sulphur and arsenic are

driven off, leaving iron and manganese combined with the tungsten. The experiments, which were conducted by M. Caron, satisfactorily proved that when one per cent. of tungsten was added to cast-iron, the grain of the latter became more regular, and there was greater homogeneity exhibited. The addition of one per cent. of tungsten to steel, increased its hardness and tenacity. A steel rifle barrel, containing that amount of tungsten, was subjected to severe tests, and it withstood larger charges of powder, and heavier shot, than any other steel barrel of the same dimensions tested. M. Caron recommends the employment of tungsten in all French steel, to improve its quality.

It is easy enough to condense steam, and to burn the visible particles of carbon which we term smoke. The latter operation can indeed always be carried out by a skillful fireman; but the gaseous products of combustion have never been completely consumed in any instance that we know of. It is therefore thought, that in the underground railroad in London, air may yet be used for propelling the trains, similar to that used by the Pneumatic Dis

patch Company. The use of air for such purposes, is a subject worthy of patient investigation.

FROM a given weight of hydrogen gas under combustion, a greater quantity of steam can be generated, than from an equal weight of any other known combustible. A pound of pure carbon will evaporate 121 pounds of water, and convert it into steam of 15 pounds pressure on the square inch. One pound of good Pennsylvania anthracite is capable of raising 9 pounds of water, at 212° Fah., into steam.

THERE is now in operation at the Electric Telegraph Company's office, London, an instrument, which, from its ingenuity of construction and perfection of results, deserves attention. The object is to transmit autograph messages in the exact form in which they are written; and the most complicated figures, designs, sketches, or indeed any thing that can be drawn by an ordinary pen, are transmitted as readily as the simplest dot or stroke.