PART II-PLANS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN VILLAGES AND RURAL SECTIONS.

The plan on the next page, of a neat Primary School-house, is taken from the "School and School-Master." The construction is simple, and the toute ensemble pleasing in the extreme. The situation is well chosen, and the grounds planted with beautiful and appropriate trees andshrubbery. See Part III. This should always be attended to in selecting sites for School-houses. On this point the writer remarks:

"So much do the future health, vigor, taste, and moral principle of the pupil depend upon the position, arrangement, and construction of the school-house, that every thing about it is important. When the most desirable situation can be selected, and the laws of health and the dictates of taste may be consulted, it should be placed on firm ground, on the southern declivity of a gently sloping hill, open to the south-west, from which quarter comes the pleasant winds in summer, and protected on the northeast by the top of the hill or by a thick wood. From the road it should be remote enough to escape the noise, and dust, and danger, and yet near enough to be easily accessible by a path or walk, always dry. About it should be ample space, a part open for a playground, a part to be laid out in plots and flowers, and shrubs, with winding alleys for walks. Damp places in the vicinity of stagnant pools or unwholesome marshes, and bleak hill-tops or dusty plains, should be carefully avoided. Tall trees should partially shade the grounds, not in stiff rows or heavy clumps, but scattered irregularly as if by the hand of nature. Our native forests present such a choice of beautiful trees, that the grounds must be very extensive to afford room for even a single fine specimen of each; yet this should be, if possible, for children ought early to become familiar with the names and appearance of these noblest of inanimate things. The border of a natural wood may often be chosen for the site of a school; but if it is to be thinned out, or if trees are be planted, and, from limited space, a selection is to be made, the kingly, magnificent oaks, the stately hickories, the spreading beech, for its deep mass of shade, the maples, for their rich and abundant foliage, the majestic elm, the useful ash, the soft and graceful birches, and the towering, columnar sycamore, claim precedence. Next may come the

picturesque locusts, with their hanging, fragrant flowers, the tulip tree, the hemlock, best of evergreens, the celtis, or sweet gum, the nyssa, or tupelo, with horizontal branches and polished leaves, the walnut and butternut, the native poplar and the aspen.

PLAN NO. I.-FRONT PROJECTION OF A SCHOOL-HOUSE, WITH SHRUBBERY, &C.-FIG. I.

"Of extremely beautiful American shrubs, the number is so great that I have no room for a list. What place intended to form the taste of the young, should be without the kalias, rhododendrons, cornels, roses, liburnums, magnolias, clethras, honeysuckles, and spiræas? And whoever goes into the woods to gather these, will find a multitude of others which he will hardly consent to leave behind. The hill top should be planted with evergreens, forming, at all seasons, a barrier against the winds from the north and east."

"Of the flower plots, little may be said. They may be left to the taste of the teacher and of the cultivated persons in the section. We can only recommend our wild American plants, and again remind the reader, that there is hardly a country town in Canada, from whose woods and meadows a hundred kind of flowers might not be transplanted, of beauty enough to form the chief ornament of a German or English garden, which are now neglected only because they are common and wild. Garden bowers need not be excluded; and if either these or the former are cultivated, the great object, to present something to refine and reform the taste, will be, in some degree, accomplished."

If proper enclosed play-grounds are provided, the master may often be present at the sports, and thus become acquainted with the characters of his pupils. If children are compelled to resort to the highway for their amusements, we ought not to wonder that they should be contaminated by the vices, brawlings, and profanities, which belong to frequenters of highways.

The room of the School-house should be sufficiently large to allow every pupil, 1. To sit comfortably at his desk; 2. To leave it without disturbing any one else; 3. To see explanations on his lessons, and to recite without being incommoded or incommoding others; 4. To breathe a wholesome atmosphere.

If the first three objects are fully provided for, the space on the floor will be sufficient. But to secure the advantage of an adequate supply of air, the room must not be less than ten, and, if possible, twelve or fourteen feet high.

The foregoing Ground Plan of a Primary School is designed to accommodate fortyeight children. It is 24 feet by 28 feet outside. The scale of the Plan is eight feet to the inch. D. represents the entrance door, &c., see list attached to the engraving.

We give two additional ground plans which may be adopted with some slight variations required by the nature of the site, or the peculiar views of the majority of the Trustees, or of the building committee in each case. The following plans present some of these modifications. The first is 34 ft. by 25, and the second, 36 ft. by 27.

PLAN NO. 2.-FRONT PROSPECTIVE WITH GROUNDS, &C.-FIG. I. This is a commodious and substantial edifice. Though the plan only shows seats for forty-two pupils in each room, it will easily seat fifty with single, and sixty with double desks. The whole building will thus comfortably accommodate from two hundred to two hundred and forty. This number will fully employ six Teachers-one master and