S

The Senior Fourth class is the preparatory class for entrance into the
high school, and for many girls it is the final school year. For this
reason the Course of this year should cover as many of the remaining
household operations as possible.

The training of the previous years should have formed good habits of
work and have given experience in ordinary cleaning, and in the cooking
and serving of the simple food materials. Through this training the
pupils should also have been impressed with the value of food, and
should have learned the sources of food and of all well-known household
materials.

The training of this last year, while continuing the Junior work, should
also emphasize the household processes that require greater mental
development to understand and greater practical skill to carry out. It
is the border year between the public school and the high school, and
must necessarily anticipate the elementary science of the latter. In
this year more responsibility should be given to the pupils and more
originality should be expected of them. Where they have hitherto
followed recipes and been given rules, they should now follow principles
and deduce rules.

Of the several topics outlined in the Course for Form IV Senior, it is
advisable to start with the preservation of food. Fruit and vegetables
are most plentiful when the school year opens, and September is the
most opportune month to preserve these for winter use. Facts concerning
food preservation may have been taken incidentally in previous lessons,
but now the subject should be systematically taught, so that canning,
preserving, and pickling may be intelligently practised.

PRESERVATION OF FOOD

CAUSE OF DECAY

The lesson may be introduced by referring to the unusual attention given
to fruit at the time of ripening. The economical housekeeper takes
certain foods when they are most plentiful and preserves them for use
when they are not in season. Some foods require special care to keep
them from decaying. The decay is caused by the action of microscopic
plants called "bacteria", which get into the food.

BACTERIA

It is difficult for any one to get a correct conception of bacteria;
especially is it so for children. The teacher should be most careful not
to attempt to give the class unimportant details, but the few necessary
facts should be made very clear and real. The following points should be
impressed:

1. Bacteria are plants. (This