process has been taught to the school children and that every child knows how to do it. Say there are twenty-five pupils in one district school. Each pupil is asked to get twelve ears of seed corn from his father or a relative or neighbor, letting the farmer select the corn according to his best judgment. In this way nearly all the farmers of the district are interested, each man becoming the "partner" of the child to whom he has given the corn. The children then prepare their "rag babies" and keep them at home until the seed begin to sprout.

Finally a day is selected when they are brought back to school for examination. and marking. As they are unrolled, one by one, the score is kept on a sheet of paper. The names of the boy, or girl, and his man-partner are placed at the top, then numbers from one to twelve down the side, while opposite the numbers are placed three columns marked "good," "weak" and "dead." It will be found that some ears are wholly dead, and others too weak to plant.

After the result is determined each pupil takes his score-card home to his man-partner and shows him the results. He is also requested to substitute good ears for the bad ones. The pupil next does a little private testing of his own and is then ready for the final testing, at which all of the men-partners are invited to be present.

"The beauty of this plan," said Mr. Bert Ball, secretary of the Crop Improvement Committee, "is that each farmer is put into competition with his neighbor as to his ability to select good seed corn. It is the gaming instinct made practical. Every man is interested if he thinks he can do something better than his fellow. There are several methods to induce each man to see himself as others see him, to learn his true place in the farm equation. One of these is to give each man a number according to his ability to raise corn, based upon his own signed statement. The idea is, of course, to prevent those below the average from placing all the blame upon Providence."

NEW ATTACHMENT FOR
PHONOGRAPH

HIS clever device is adjusted so that

THIS

the owner of a phonograph can take his ease while the record is playing and not have to stand over the instrument in order to stop it when the piece is ended. At the conclusion of the selection the metal arm of the phonograph touches the perpendicular lever, shown above the hand. This forms a closed circuit for the tiny electric brake, which is instantly applied, and the adjustment is so delicate that the record can be stopped at any given point. Aside from the dry-cell, the outfit is very compact, being enclosed in a metal case the size of a pocket matchbox. A couple of screws hold it to the case of the instrument, where it is quite inconspicuous. It is the invention of a young Los Angeles electrician and is known as the record-stop.

This improvement should add much to the pleasure derived from and increase the immense popularity of the phonograph.

N American device that it is hoped

AN

will absolutely prevent trains coming together at junctions, crossings, switches, and in the signal blocks; eliminate the present derailments; stop trains when the rails or the mechanism have been interfered with; and in fact make an accident almost impossible, has recently been invented.

The device is of simple construction and railroads may be equipped with it at comparatively low cost. The track mechanism consists of a flexible steel arm set on a low standard, the arm being parallel to the rails when the track is clear and at right angles when danger threatens. On the breast beam of the engine is another small mechanism from which projects a thin steel finger. When the latter comes in contact with the track device, as it does when the danger signal is set, the air brakes are instantly applied and the exhaust steam valve opened, bringing the train to a stop quickly and smoothly. In all of the trials with heavy or light trains, on dry or wet rails, the device worked almost perfectly, the trains being stopped within a minute and within from 50 to 2,500 feet, depending upon whether the trains were speeding six or seventy-five miles an hour. The device is interchangeable, can be operated in connection with any existing signal system, by manual, electro-pneumatic, or electric control, or can furnish its own system, if it is necessary that it be required to do so.

LONDON'S PLAYFUL POLAR

BEARS

liveliness which they display

in the water.

The illustrations show one of these bears amusing himself with a block of wood which has been tossed him. This block, which weighs several pounds, he delights in hurling through the air with his huge paw and then retrieving it much as a kitten would a ball.

The polar bear is the only known species of bear which is strictly marine in its habits,

never being found far from the sea. It does not therefore delight so

much in staying in the water, as seen in the zoos in summer, because it is accustomed to a more frigid temperature, but largely through its natural affinity for this element.

In other ways, also, the polar bear is quite distinct. Most species

luscan fishery-the mollusk concerned being the pinna, which is otherwise and poetically known as the "silkworm of the sea."

This interesting bivalve not only spins a very beautiful silk, which is utilized to some extent commercially, but produces a surprising abundance of jet-black pearls. Dr. Benjamin H. Grave, of the University of Wyoming, recently made a study of it in the neighborhood of Norfolk, Va., collecting large numbers of specimens, and he obtained an average of one pearl from every five of the mollusks. As many as ten were found in a single shell.

The pearls of the pinna, which are usually spherical and highly-polished, are already used to a considerable extent, in countries bordering on the Mediterranean, for the adornment of brooches and other articles of jewelry. There is no reason (says Dr. Grave) why they should not be employed much more widely. The matter is simply one of fashion. And, inasmuch as the mollusk is a common species all the way from Cape Hatteras southward, it could easily be made to yield a large annual crop of such pearls.

of bear are omnivorous, eating nearly anything. The polar bear, however, eats almost solely fish and seals, preferring the latter.

PEARLS FROM MARINE
"SILKWORM"

NOW that pearls are advancing so greatly in price, and with a fashionable demand for black pearls, there is an opportunity along the shores of the South Atlantic and Gulf States for the development of a new and profitable mol

PINNA. OR SILKWORM OF THE SEA." AND A GLOVE WOVEN FROM THE FIBER IT SPINS,