PATENT OFFICE.

During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1915, there were filed 66,497 applications for patents for inventions, 2,679 applications for design patents, 173 applications for reissues, 8,376 applications for registration of trade-marks, 947 applications for labels, and 444 applications for prints, the total number of such applications being 79,116. In addition, 1,938 appeals and 26 disclaimers were filed. During the year there were granted 44,402 patents (including 1,489 designs and 179 reissues), 6,919 registrations for trade-marks, 762 registrations for labels, and 321 registrations for prints. The number of patents which expired during the year was 20,992. The number of allowed applications which were forfeited for nonpayment of final fees therein was 11,882.

The total receipts of the office were $2,270,937.68, and the total expenditures for all purposes were $2,087,581.26, the net surplus of earnings over expenditures being $183,356.42 for the year, with a grand net surplus of $7,714,316.62 since the establishment of the present system in 1836.

BUREAU OF EDUCATION.

Higher education.-The Bureau of Education through its representatives visited 64 colleges and universities, 37 of which were carefully inspected. One was inspected at the request of the President of the United States, 28 at the request of the State superintendent of public instruction of North Carolina, and 7 at the request of the State superintendent of public instruction of Oregon. A preliminary survey was made of the higher institutions in the State of Washington. Decisions regarding the eligibility of 402 universities, colleges, and schools for inclusion in the list of institutions to be accredited by the United States Military Academy were rendered at the request of the War Department. The reports of the expenditures of Federal funds by the land-grant colleges were examined, and a study has been begun of the present condition of the principal and income derived from the land grants of the Morrill Act of 1862. The specialist in higher education represented the bureau at 15 conferences and association meetings. This division prepared two bulletins on accredited secondary schools of the United States and on opportunities for foreign students at colleges and universities in the United States.

School administration.-The division of school administration has completed a bulletin on the administration of schools in cities having a population of not less than 25,000 nor more than 30,000; prepared a chapter on current progress in education in cities of less than 25,000 population; began an annotated bibliography of the

more important topics in city school reports; issued 15 city school circulars; completed a digest of the general school laws of all the States; completed a historical study of the development of public education in the State of Alabama and began a similar study of education in Tennessee; made a study of the methods of teaching reading in 1,000 schools in the United States, England, France, and Germany; conducted an experiment in teaching reading by the phonic method in the primary schools of Washington, D. C., and demonstrated this method in the University of Virginia.

School buildings and sanitation.-The special agent located at Nashville, Tenn., has furnished specific advice to school authorities in regard to the architecture of school buildings, particularly in rural communities. He has continued the loaning of models of rural schoolhouses to assist in the development of a taste for a better type of rural-school architecture. Counties in several States have taken these models as standards and are working out better school buildings for their districts. Assistance has been rendered with the rural-school surveys in several counties in Tennessee. A bulletin has been prepared on open-air schools and another on school baths is now in course of preparation.

Industrial education and education for home making.—A division of industrial education and education for home making was created during the year by the appointment of a specialist in industrial education and two specialists in home economics. Assistance was rendered in an industrial survey of the city of Richmond, Va., and the inauguration of a system of industrial education; studies of vocational education were made in 53 cities in 16 States by the specialist in industrial education; he visited and participated in 23 conferences on industrial education; he has prepared a course of study in the manual arts and numerous reports on various phases of vocational education.

One of the specialists in home economics has been assigned to the task of cooperating with departments of home economics in colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts and the other will cooperate with normal schools for training teachers. Their specific work is the improvement and extension of education for home making in all classes of educational institutions. An interesting experiment was carried on in four schools of home making in the State of Delaware. These schools, each of which was in session three days in the week for five weeks, were attended by the married women and older girls of the communities in which they were held. They were planned and directed by one of the specialists in home economics in cooperation with Delaware College, in the hope of finding some practical means by which instruction in regard to the important work of home making in rural communities may be brought to the millions of

countrywomen. It is expected that this plan will be tried in a larger number of communities this year.

Rural education.-The work of the four specialists in rural education was differentiated by assigning to each one a particular phase of rural education. From one-fourth to one-half of the time of the specialists is spent in the field visiting rural schools, advising school officers, State education officers, and State legislatures, and attending educational meetings. In this work they have visited nearly all of the States of the Union and have participated in nearly 100 conferences. There have been prepared 15 sets of lantern slides on five different phases of rural education, which are loaned to school officers for short periods. Bulletins have been prepared by the specialists in rural education on consolidation of rural schools, county unit organization for the administration of rural schools, organization of State departments of education, free textbooks and State uniformity, efficiency in preparation of rural-school teachers, rural-school system of Minnesota, school system of Ontario with special reference to rural schools, and the status of rural-teacher preparation in county training and high schools.

School and home gardening.-Within the year the division of school and home gardening was established with two specialists and an assistant. In the maintenance of this division the bureau had the cooperation of the International Child Welfare League. The purpose of the division is to promote home gardening by children of school age in cities, towns, suburban communities, and mill villages, both for its educational value and for the contribution which may thus be made for the support of the families of which the children are a part. The plan involves:

1. The utilization of home back yards, vacant lots, and other available plats of land for children's gardens to be cultivated under school supervision.

2. The employment for the entire year of a teacher trained and skilled in gardening for each elementary city school.

3. The gardening work should be done after school hours, on Saturdays, and during vacation. During school hours garden teachers should give class instruction in elementary science, nature study, and, if required, other regular school subjects.

4. Children should be urged to make their gardens as large as they can cultivate thoroughly.

5. The products of the garden should be used, first, to supply the homes of the children, and only the surplus should be sold or canned.

Visits have been made to many cities, towns, and mill villages in Arkansas, Missouri, and most of the States east of the Mississippi River with a view to interesting school officers and civic associations in this subject. Reports show that more than 100 superintendents have adopted the plan and that 35 have already put it into operation in one or more schools. Owing to the lack of trained teachers for

this work, the three members of this division were detailed to teach in the summer schools of Cornell University, Teachers College of Columbia University, and George Peabody College for Teachers, which institutions provided courses for the training of garden teachers.

Negro education.-The work of this division has included two distinct lines of activity: First, a comprehensive survey of all private and higher schools for negroes; second, constructive efforts to improve the work of these schools. The field work which entailed from one to four visits to 575 institutions was completed in June, 1915. Systems of accounting have been proposed for several schools and schools have been urged to inaugurate regular dormitory inspection. Civic education.-The specialist in civic education has cooperated with representatives of various civic and educational organizations in the States of Maryland and North Carolina in the planning and organization of systematic civic instruction. In Wilmington, Del., the specialist in civic education is assisting in organizing a course in civic education for the elementary schools and in reorganizing the high-school course on the same subject. He prepared a bulletin on civic education in the elementary schools as illustrated in Indianapolis and has cooperated in the preparation of a manual on the teaching of community civics which has been published as a bulletin of the bureau.

Education of immigrants.—The division of education of immigrants was established for the purpose of studying problems connected with the education of immigrants and their preparation for American life and citizenship, and to assist in making more adequate provisions for giving to immigrants such instruction and help as will enable them to appreciate American ideals, adjust themselves to American industrial conditions, understand American social and governmental institutions, and participate intelligently in the democratic life of the country. Investigations have been made in various sections of the country to ascertain facilities now existing for the instruction of adult immigrants and to give information and advice to school officers and educational organizations for the improvement of opportunities for the education of immigrants. In cooperation with the Bureau of Immigration a plan has been devised whereby the names, prospective addresses, and nationalities of immigrant children and the relationship of the persons to whom they are sent are forwarded regularly to the superintendents of schools in the cities or counties to which immigrant children are destined. Two circulars on civic education of immigrants have been issued.

Kindergarten education. The kindergarten division has given much attention to kindergarten legislation; it has corresponded with

the superintendents of public instruction and others interested in education in 39 States whose legislatures were in session within this fiscal year. In several of these States bills were introduced providing for the establishment of kindergartens upon the petition of parents. A law embodying this feature was enacted by the Legislature of Nevada, and North Carolina enacted the first kindergarten law of that State. Largely as the result of the activity of one of the special collaborators of this division, 50 new kindergartens have been established in California within the year. Manuscripts for bulletins have been completed on the following subjects: Comparison of the Montessori method and the kindergarten; opinions as to the value of the kindergarten in children's homes, orphanages, and similar institutions; adjustment between the kindergarten and the elementary schools; survey of kindergarten training schools. Reading courses for kindergarten teachers, kindergarten supervisors, and mothers are in course of preparation.

Home education.-This division distributed more than 12,000 pamphlets on the care and early education of children and kindred subjects and 26,568 copies of home reading courses, and has prepared a selected list of 1,000 books for children's reading.

Library. The library received during the year 1,740 volumes, 8,000 numbers of serial publications, and 8,081 numbers of periodicals. It compiled 200 bibliographies on special topics and 10 numbers of the monthly record of current educational publications. Loans from the library to institutions and individuals outside of the office amounted to 2,741 volumes.

Statistics. The statistical division collected and compiled statistics of city school systems from all the States and from approximately 21,000 educational institutions.

Editorial division.-The editorial division supervised the printing of the two volumes of the Annual Report for 1914 and 48 bulletins. There were issued also 168 miscellaneous publications, most of which were in multigraph form.

Alaska school service. For this year the field force of the Alaska school service consisted of 5 superintendents, 1 assistant superintendent, 97 teachers, 7 physicians, and 8 nurses. Sixty-seven schools were maintained with an enrollment of about 3,500. Three hospitals were maintained and natives were cared for under contract by five others. To improve methods of preserving fish and berries for winter use, steam home canning outfits for use in preserving fish and meats as well as berries and vegetables were sent to three of the largest villages during the summer of 1914. The income of the village of Atka has increased 150 per cent because of the establishment of a cooperative store owned by the natives and maintained by them under the supervision of the teachers of the United States public school. The cooperative stores at Hydaburg, Klawock, Kluk