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READING

IS9I

REAPING-MACHINES

appear in the course of the child's reading. The final aim is to get the child to recognize a strange word in terms of the largest familiar units in it; "milk-maid" might be seen as two words; "milk-y" as a word and a letter; "milk-er" as a worci and a phonogram; "milk-i-ness" as a word, a letter and a syllable. In the actual reading of a sentence we may finally read our words in groups, as in "The boy - saw -the chair — in the house." *-- **

Thought-Reading is the title given to the reading of the primary grades beyond beginning-reading, when the bulk of the mechanics is mastered and the main effort of the teacher is to get the children to read silently, rapidly and accurately for the purpose of getting the thought of the printed page.

Appreciative Recd'ng is the title given to the reading of classic literature, mainly in the grammar grades. The mechanics have been well-mastered long since, and the child has little difficulty in getting just the intellectual meaning of the page, and now reads aloud to get an appreciation for the feeling of the poetry or prose.

Special Reading Methods. There are many special ways of having the child read and these special methods are given various titles. Among the most important are the following: (a) Oral Reading, reading aloud, used to check accuracy of pronunciation and expression of thought and feeling; (b) Silent Reading, used to increase speed, and representing the usual way of reading in ordinary life; (c) Individual Reading, the main method of the school; (d) Concert-Reading; the entire class reading aloud, used for drilling on sound, otherwise not frequently used; (e) Prepared Reading, where the child has studied the material in advance of his school rendition; (f) Sight-Reading, reading without previous preparation to test and give power to read new matter instantly; (g) Intensive Reading, where the child reads a single text, mastering every difficulty as he meets it with thoroughness; (h) Extensive Reading, where the child reads many books depending upon interesting matter and context to get the meanings of new words and phrases; (i) Supplementary Reading; reading from many texts which are additional to the main text. Such supplemental texts include history, nature, geographical and other readers with varied subject-matter.

HENRY SUZZALLO.

Reading (red'tng), Pa., a city, county-seat of Berks County, on the left bank of the Schuylkill, 60 miles from Philadelphia. It is pleasantly situated on an ascending plain, and draws its water-supply from the neighboring hills. The principal manufactures are iron and steel works, which include many rolling mills, forges, foundries,

furnaces etc., but its railroads and machine shops, potteries, hosiery and knitting mills, hat-factories, paper and woodpulp mills are important. Among the educational institutions, beside public schools, are Reading Classical School, Reading Academy and Business College, Schuylkill Seminary and Mount Saint Michel's Academy. Reading has an admirable system of parks, fine churches and the service of the Pennsylvania and Reading railroads. Many of the inhabitants are of German descent, and half the newspapers are published in that language. Population 96,071.

Reap'ing=Machines have developed far from the original reaping-hook or sickle, which was used among the ancient Jews, Egyptians and Chinese. Roman Pliny in 23 A. D. spoke of a reaping-machine used by the Gauls, which in fact was a cart with projecting teeth, in which the ears were caught, and then plucked by hand. This cart was pushed from behind by an ox. But Ogle's machine, invented in 1822, was the first reaping-machine which at all resembled the modern type. Another fairly successful attempt was Bell's machine of 1827. These machines were English. American reaping-machines date from 1803; and have developed much more efficiently than the English types. (See McCoRMicK, CYRUS). By 1850 very efficient reaping-machines had been constructed. They possessed a cutter with either straight or serrated edge, working over a platform upon which the grain might fall; and they were drawn from the side by horses. The combination of binding with reaping began after 1850. Some reaping-machines are now adapted so that they thresh the grain and feed it into bags at the same time that they are cutting off the heads. Such machines have had much to do with the success of large farmers, who can compete by means of their machinery to advantage with the smaller landholders. Lawn-mowers are a kind of side development from the agricultural reaping-machines. Even vegetables, such as peas, are now often harvested by machinery. The ordinary reaper and binder for wriest cuts the grain, ties it in neat sheaves, and throws off these sheaves in bundles of eight or ten, ready for carting to the barn.

The industrial and economic effects of the reaper can not be overstated. It has been said that in the American Civil War it did the work of 1,000,000 men in the northern states, releasing 350,000 men for military service. Staiiton m 1861 stated that to the north it was what the slave was to the south. Seward averred tha*t "the reaper pushed the American frontier westward 30 miles a year." President Hughitt of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway declares that "the reaper has not yet received proper recognition for its develop*