warmed air obtained by the indirect system, owing to the inability to control the heating surfaces. 'The usual way of constructing the apparatus has been to place in the coil boxes

sufficient steam pipe to heat the room in the coldest weather. The pure, cold air passing over the pipes becomes heated to the desired temperature, and is then carried to the rooms; this answers very well during the coldest weather, but as the

weather moderates and less heat is required, the only way to regulate it has been to close the registers. This not only lowers the temperature of the room, but shuts off the supply of pure air entering. The fault has been remedied in the Bridgeport school-house as follows: The heating surface for each room is inclosed in separate cases or jackets (see Fig. 8) of metal, and are then sub-divided into five sections, so arranged that any number of sections or the whole may be used at pleasure,--that is to say, that any one, two, or three parts may be used at discretion. In extreme cold weather the whole five sections are in use; in moderate weather two or three, and when a small amount of heat is required, only one. By this plan the supply of pure air remains always the same, but the degree to which it is heated is changed by the opening or closing of a valve. (See sketch.)

The arrangement of all the heating and ventilating apparatus in the center of the building renders it convenient and easy to manage, economical in its construction, and effective in working. The advantage is also obtained of having all speakingtubes, call-bells, and water-pipes run through the ventilatingshafts, where they are always accessible, as each shaft is provided with an iron ladder. The system has not only been introduced into each room, but into the halls as well. There are placed, moreover, in the halls, foot-warmers, that are indicated on the plans. These warmers are simply steam-pipes encased in tin boxes arranged between the floor joists; the pipes being packed in sand to temper the heat, and are covered at the floor-level with checkered iron plates set flush with the floor. The tin cases referred to are water-tight and have a drippipe running down to the boiler-room, so that in case of a leak no damage may be done to the building.

The boiler-room floor is sunk some six feet below the level of the ground floor to insure a drip of all return pipes from the coils. The cold air inlets are on four sides of the building, the openings being about eight feet from the ground; these inlets are connected so that, whatever way the wind may be, a supply of pure cold air is always assured.

I have thus far spoken only of winter heating and ventilating; for summer ventilation there are no better inlets for the

air than the windows. There are many devices that may be arranged in them that are simple and effective. It is not necessary to describe them here. The outlets, however, need a brief description; it is intended not only to use the outlet under the platform, but by a simple device the incoming register for warm air in winter is made to connect with the main outlet in summer, so that two outlets are provided during the warmer months. The up going current in the ventilating shafts is maintained, in summer as well as in winter, by heat; there being placed at the bottom of each shaft a stove, which is to be used constantly when the boilers are not in use, insuring an equally strong up-current in summer as in winter.

I would say in conclusion that many interesting experiments have been made and important facts established. These experiments have principally been made with a model of about one-sixth the capacity of the school-rooms. They have always resulted most satisfactorily, and have proved the correctness of the principles herein advanced against the objections commonly raised that heat brought into the room on the inner walls will not sufficiently warm the outer walls. In every test yet made the registration of carefully graded thermometers has been from 1 to 2 degrees warmer near the outer wall than near the inner, showing conclusively that the flow of heated air is rapidly towards cool surfaces, and that if its volume is as it should be it will counteract the cold radiating from the outer walls and render the temperature of the air in their immediate vicinity comfortable. I have purposely omitted in this paper all figures not actually necessary, aiming to make it a simple statement of the writer's views, fortified by the results of actual experiments. If any one desiring more minute details than are here given, will communicate with the writer he will willingly furnish all the information required, or should any be interested enough to come to Bridgeport, he will be pleased to go through with them some of the experiments here mentioned. The building has been described throughout as it was designed to be built by the architect; some modifications were found necessary, however, during the progress of the work.

THE HOMES OF OUR FARMERS.

[The following suggestions, first presented to a gathering of farmers, apply as well to all classes. The school and the home. reciprocally influence each other. While there may be some exaggeration in the motto "as is the school, so is the home," it is an important truth that the school may and should elevate the home life. Our teachers may greatly ameliorate the sanitary conditions of the people by proper instruction in physiology and the laws of hygiene. Right lessons in all our schools on preventable diseases would annually save hundreds, if not thousands of lives. Teachers can also influence the reading of the homes, both by fostering an interest in books and guiding youth in their selection for home reading, A literary taste first formed in school may spread through a district. Many school libraries organized by teachers have proved a benefaction to an entire district. No class can do so much to ennoble the home life of the people in these and many other ways, as our teachers. To facilitate their efforts in this direction, this paper is here printed.]

The homes of any nation form a true index of its condition and character. The homes of the people of any calling plainly tell their traits and state-their thrift, foresight and ambition, or their sloth, slackness and improvidence. The Indian's low wigwam alone, shows how little he cares for the rich acres of the prairie around his hut. As "the hope of America is the homes of America," so the hope of our farmers is the homes of the farmers. When one's home is his pet and pride, he feels new interest in his farm, and new nerve to improve every acre. But neglect and slatternliness around the home are too plain signs of shiftlessness and improvidence in the management of the farm. No better service can be rendered to farming interests than that which shall tend to improve and ennoble the farmers' home life.

The farmer's home should be healthy, intelligent, social and sunny, attractive and tasteful.

First of all, the farmer's home should meet the best sanitary conditions. Physical vigor is the foundation alike of mental growth and business success. The material precedes and con

ditions the intellectual. Health is the prime essential to success in any calling. "The first wealth is health." "The health of the people is the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their power depend," are mottoes worthy to be memorized in our schools.

Startling statements have been widely circulated as to the unhealthiness of farming. Statistics have been summoned to prove that farmers are short-lived and as a class predisposed to insanity. A few years ago a prominent physician of New York mustered statistics and arguments to prove that the cultivation. of the soil is not the most healthful mode of life for the laboring classes-that farmers are not long-lived, but are specially liable to depression and insanity. The figures of various lunatic asylums were summoned to confirm his conclusion.

Two facts are here to be noticed at the outset. Many persons, reared on the farms of New England, follow business callings in the cities and villages, becoming merchants, manufacturers, clerks, agents, or adventurers in chimerical schemes, who, when failing in health or business, return to the old homestead, and as a dernier resort, resume farming. But long since estranged from this calling, with no interest or ambition in it, driven to it by stern necessity, depressed in spirits, bankrupt at once in purse and hope-is it strange that their health and even reason should give way?

The second fact bearing on this subject is the error of many lunatic asylums in taking down the calling or profession of the patients. The class just named are counted as farmers, though they really broke down in other pursuits which occupied most of their lives, and though the final failure was delayed or alleviated by the very calling, which in the hospital record has the credit of being the procuring cause.

The "hired men are often confounded with the land owners and real farmers. Many day laborers those occupied with odd jobs of all sorts, but more in farm work than any other one, are often classed as farmers on the hospital list. The friends of the patient naturally name the most reputable of his various kinds of labor, though he may have been a jack at all trades.

Says Dr. Earle, Superintendent of the Lunatic Hospital at Northampton: "Out of 1,074 admissions, 126 are set down as

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