s 531 N71 Nolan The teach, of "agriculture. ' University of California At Los Angeles The Library Form L I 551 NTI This book is DUE on the last date stamped below MAY 30 1928 JUN 1 192 j, f/lAY 29 1931 2 1933 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE BY ARETAS W. NOLAN Assistant Professor of Agricultural Extension, University of Illinois, and State Supervisor of Agricultural Education WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY EUGENE DAVENPORT Dean of the College of Agriculture and Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station University of Illinois BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY (Cfce fiitoerjsiDc prestf Cambridge 94784 COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY ARKTAS W. NOLAN ALL KIGHTS RESERVED lEOr it)erfift)t PrtSfi CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS U. S. A s 53 \ 'I PREFACE ALL well-established subjects of instruction in the public schools are more or less standardized and uni- form throughout the country. The fields of science, mathematics, English, and history have been carefully outlined. Instruction in vocational subjects is not so well defined, and it may take many more years to determine the proper subject-matter and methods in order to secure desired vocational results from such instruction. Agriculture has been taught in the public schools for a sufficient number of years to warrant the following conclusions : (a) That agriculture as a subject of study contrib- utes to certain great values and controls of life; (6) That agriculture applies directly to concrete problems of everyday life, whose solution has educational values; and (c) That the study of agriculture liberalizes the ed- ucation of the student as well as trains him di- rectly in the vocation of farming, resulting in improved farm practice. Agriculture is one of the major vocations and basic industries. There is a fund of agricultural knowledge which has grown out of the experience of farmers and iv PREFACE of the educational work of the land-grant colleges for the past fifty years, and this agricultural knowledge has been and can be taught. Our problem is to or- ganize that part of agricultural science and practice which is teachable in the public schools, and to estab- lish such principles and methods as will guide in the proper teaching of the subject. Agriculture in the pub- lic schools should have a decided vocational aim. It should give the student a degree of accurate knowl- edge and skill and familiarity with the best modern farm practices. Agricultural education should guar- antee that the future farmers be educated country gentlemen who work with their hands, and gather about them the best things which civilization affords. Within these pages are recommendations concern- ing the aim, the scope of work, the principles, materials, and methods to be used in teaching agriculture in ele- mentary and secondary schools. ARETAS W. NOLAN. URBANA, ILLINOIS, January, 1918. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION. By Eugene Davenport . vii I. SOME REASONS FOB TEACHING AGRICULTURE . 1 II. NATURE-STUDY PRECEDING AGRICULTURE . . 12 HI. ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE AND BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUB WORK 21 IV. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE SI V. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES IN TEACHING AGRICULTURE 09 VI. THE TEACHER OF AGRICULTURE . . . . 162 VII. TEACHING VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE . . . 166 APPENDIX Suggestions for a farm, home, and community survey 167 Suggested course in nature study first six grades 179 Suggested course in elements of agriculture seventh and eighth grades 204 Suggestions for laboratory equipment . . . 224 Suggestions for agricultural laboratory . . 227 The Smith-Hughes Law and Vocational Agri- culture in secondary schools 228 BIBLIOGRAPHY i OUTLINE . . . v INDEX INTRODUCTION THAT the teaching of agriculture should be at- tempted at all was until recently quite commonly regarded as one of the fads that would speedily perish in the wreckage of its own failures. Instead, it has lived, and to-day it constitutes a basis for the recasting of many of our convictions, not only as to the materials and methods, but also as to the ideals and purposes, of education. Whether the chief purpose in any individual in- stance is the education of farmers, or whether it is the utilization of the materials and methods of farming for the purpose of a general education, the living force, if there be any, in agricultural materials lies in the two facts: first, that agriculture is a part of nature; and second, that by these agricultural materials we make use of natural facts and forces for the definite end of sustaining life. It has been but inevitable that some mistakes should be made in our earlier attempts to teach this complicated and difficult subject. We have often been quite uncertain as to whether we were teaching a sci- ence or an art, or whether after all our principal pur- pose was not, perhaps without our knowing it, to edu- cate men. If the former were our purpose, we were very strenuous about materials, and if the latter viii INTRODUCTION assumed greater prominence in our minds, we empha- sized methods. We have often forgotten that even in so far as agri- culture is a science, it is not an exact science like math- ematics. Much bad teaching has been done, no doubt, simply because of a determination to compel the stu- dent to get his lessons and to maintain grades indica- tive of a creditable academic standard. Have these grades or credits been too easily earned? Then the course has been stiffened by adding a mass of " mem- ory work " not very different in purpose or character from the " busy work " of the lower grades. It must be definitely understood that no student in any branch of a natural science will ever make the grades that are sometimes found in mathematics, for example, where a mark of perfection is clearly possible. But academic standing is not the true measure of success, either in the teaching or in the study of agri- culture. That measure is found in the performance of those who actually go to the land, live there, and suc- ceed; for, after all, the fundamental purpose of our great system of agricultural education is to insure a better agriculture and to make a country life as nearly perfect as possible. The object of agricultural education is not even to arrest the tide that flows cityward and turn it back to the land, although that is one of the results; but the great purpose is to fit for country life those who have cast, or who are about to cast, their lots with the farm, INTRODUCTION ix emphasizing the fact that when proper attention is bestowed upon this great calling, it will find of itself its proper place in affairs American, and that that place will be both high and serviceable. Any man who writes a good book upon any phase of this great subject of agricultural education performs a distinct service to his day and generation. It is too much to expect that any book will be faultless, espe- cially in these pioneer stages of a new science, but Professor Nolan has labored long and faithfully to put out an honest piece of work. I am sure it will be read with both pleasure and profit by his many friends and the many seekers after truth in this new and rich domain. EUGENE DAVENPOBT. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE SOME REASONS FOR TEACHING AGRICULTURE Aims for individual students. Since agriculture has been admitted as a subject of study in the public schools, we are asking the question, What shall be the aims and what are the intrinsic values of such a course of instruction? What shall be the aim of agricultural education for the individual student, and what contri- butions should such education make to a democratic society? We hear a great deal about pre- vocational agriculture, non-technical or general agriculture, prac- tical or vocational agriculture, but there seems to be no clear-cut line of division between these so-called fields of agriculture. There may be a justification for the terms " general " and " vocational " agriculture when we mean to include in the former all such general and interesting information about plants, animals, and other materials and processes of agriculture as his- tories, values, relationships, and principles of the in- dustry and business; and when under vocational agri- culture we mean the knowledge and skill necessary for successful farming. In both general and vocational 2 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE agriculture there must be educational values for the individual, such as all science is able to give. The specific aims of vocational agricultural education for the individual student are, (1) to give the pupil who intends to become a farmer preparation for wholesome and successful farming and country life; (2) to give the skill and knowledge necessary to the control of plant and animal production, to the end of economic profit; and (3) to articulate such education with other education so as to produce an educated country gen- tleman who works with his hands and gathers about him all the best things which civilization affords. Social aims in view of modern demands. Any sub- ject that contributes in any constructive way toward the great fundamental needs, values, and controls of the human race deserves to be taught to the people and to the children of the people. Such a subject ag- riculture has come to be, and it should be taught in school and out of school, in season and out of season, to the hosts who are coming to. learn. Sane modern demands would have our natural re- sources conserved, rural life vocations made more effi- cient, the health of the country folks conserved and improved, a greater appreciation of all art, a perma- nent and persistent moral growth, a closer and more efficient rural organization, and a more liberal educa- tion among the whole rural population. To these modern demands of public-spirited think- ers and leaders, agriculture, in its threefold aspects REASONS FOR TEACHING AGRICULTURE 3 as an industry, a business, and a life, comes with large contributions to meet each demand. Conservation of natural resources. It is perfectly clear that through scientific agriculture most of our natural resources can be conserved. To improve and make permanent the fertility of the soil, to maintain and to increase crop and animal production, to im- prove the breeding of plants and animals, to combat and control insects and diseases among crops and ani- mals, to conserve and plant the forests, to utilize wisely the mineral resources, these are all questions of scientific and technical agriculture, and the teach- ing of agriculture must result in the wise use and con- servation of these natural resources. It is not a ques- tion of the conservation of the soil, for example, on the farm of Mr. Brown, for his own good alone; it is a public question, and concerns the public welfare. Enough surveys have been made to show that we are safe in generalizing on this point, that our natural resources are not being conserved properly, and that scientific agriculture makes for conservation. Inefficiency in rural vocations. We need no further proof than common observation and government sta- tistics to generalize again and say that rural life voca- tions are not as efficient as they should be. When the corn crop averages only about twenty-five bushels per acre, and the wheat crop about fifteen bushels; when the annual income per acre averages only about twelve dollars; when insects destroy our crops to the 4 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE extent of millions annually; when the live-stock pro- duction decreases about eight per cent every decade; when farm machinery is left to deteriorate under the open sky; when roads are impassable in prosperous country districts for several months each year; and when there occurs great rural exodus of young folks each year, there must be some inefficiency some- where. The fault is not placed, nor the whole remedy suggested, but it must be clear that scientific agricul- ture will give greater efficiency to these vocational interests and contribute much to their improvement. Health in rural life. Surveys by several state boards of health in various sections of the country have shown that the health of the country people is not so well conserved or looked after as that of the city people. There are more cases of tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and other infectious diseases in the country per capita than in the city. With the fresh air, pure water, whole- some food, etc., of which country folks boast, this ought not to be. The demand is, therefore, made upon educational institutions, subjects of study, and modes of life that this condition be improved. It goes with- out saying that the very nature of the farmer's voca- tion, as he works in the sunshine and air, with every opportunity for living in almost perfect obedience to the laws of life making for health, ought to be a fac- tor for better rural health. A more general study of scientific agriculture in all that it involves, will create a better attitude toward science, will give more defi- REASONS FOB TEACHING AGRICULTURE 5 nite knowledge as to the better ways of living, and will make direct contributions toward the improvement of sanitary and health conditions of the home and community life. A greater appreciation of art. Rural life is entitled to the two great sources of permanent happiness, the creation and appreciation of the fine arts. To be able to produce and to appreciate any one form of art, will lead to a greater appreciation of all other aits, and thus open an avenue to larger joys in living. The new-old art of landscape gardening has in it all the essentials of a fine art. It may be the adequate ex- pression of a genuine emotion, using the finest mate- rials in all creation, the grass, shrubs, flowers, and trees. The teaching of agriculture brings large contri- butions to this fine art. It should result in more beautiful countrysides, towns, and cities, and its influ- ence should extend to a greater appreciation of all art. When scientific agriculture results in a greater econ- omy of time, allowing more leisure and a saving of labor, then men and women will have more heart and ability to produce and appreciate not only the land- scape art, but other fine arts, such as music, painting, architecture, and literature. Moral growth. The conservation of all things of real worth, whether material or spiritual is possible only when the moral standards of men are high and progressive. There can be no permanent agriculture, no preservation of health, no genuine art, no social 6 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE integrity without such moral standards as those ex- pressed and implied in the Golden Rule and the two great commandments. Before going too far afield with this preachment, let us ask what contributions the teaching of agriculture can make to this demand for moral growth. If the teaching of agriculture re- sults in no other motive than that for personal aggran- dizement, then all is in vain so far as moral worth is concerned. But if there results through the teaching of agriculture a spirit of service for the common 'good, an ideal for instance of permanent soil fertility, im- proved plants and animals, preserved forests, better roads and rural institutions for the benefit not only of the present generation, but for the future genera- tions, then there has been inculcated into the minds and hearts of the people, the essence of moral growth, and a practical means of service. No small factor con- tributing to the moral training of boys and girls is the work of caring for plants and animals and the asso- ciations with life and its realities in the open country. Rural organization. Some enthusiastic rural-life workers go so far as to say that better organization of rural life and forces is the greatest demand of our times. Be that as it may, it is a well-known fact that agriculture and rural life are notoriously unorganized as compared with other interests and industries. There are three good reasons why this is true; the great number of farmers, their isolation, and their extreme individualism. Because there are these diflS- j REASONS FOR TEACHING AGRICULTURE 7 culties is no reason why there should not be better organization. They who cannot work together, or will not work together, are the natural prey of those who can, and for the reason of mere self-defense, rural organization is essential. It is furthermore a biological principle that the greater the organization and co- operation of the parts of a body, the higher the form of life represented in that body. If rural life would grow in all its parts and relations, it must therefore be organized and cooperative. Now the teaching of agriculture leads directly to rural organization. It organizes boys' and girls' clubs, it teaches cooperation in buying and selling, in combating insects and dis- eases, in building roads, in consolidating schools, and in general agricultural and rural-life improvement. Liberal education. The education of the people collectively and individually may be thought of as technical or vocational, and liberal or cultural. Agri- culture is the vocation of most of the people in the country, and all that is included in the science and art of agriculture would certainly be technical edu- cation of practical value to the country people. In addition to this education, country folks should have a liberal education in such fields of learning as are usually covered in an accredited public high school. English, for example, would be a subject in the lib- eral education of the farmer, and a technical subject for the professional writer or speaker. On the other hand, agriculture would be a subject of liberal edu- 8 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE cation for the professional writer, and at the same time a technical subject for the farmer. A wide ex- tension of the teaching of agriculture in the public schools would liberalize the education of men in all vocations as well as give technical training to the farmer. Furthermore, to give scientific, technical edu- cation along the line of any vocation leads the student to liberalize and broaden his general education in other lines. The teaching of agriculture, therefore, both gives technical training to the farmer and leads to a liberalizing of his education, and contributes to the general education of all men in all vocations. To be concrete, accurate information about plant food elements and the conservation of soil fertility should be of general educational value to men in any walk of life; such information made practical is technical knowledge for the farmer, and in the study and appli- cation of this knowledge, the farmer is led into the field of botany, chemistry, economics, etc., where his education is broadened and liberalized. As his suc- cess in scientific agriculture leads to greater prosperity, books, travel, schooling, etc., bring the farmer's life into larger and more liberal fields of education. According to the statements of many educators, the teaching of agriculture requires the services of a teacher better trained academically, and better trained in psychology, pedagogy, and methods, than does the teaching of any of the subjects now included in the school curriculum. " The teaching of agriculture em- REASONS FOR TEACHING AGRICULTURE 9 braces the whole of a teacher's art. It is a pervasive and exacting subject. It embodies the most impor- tant aspects of character building; for in teaching pupils scientifically to plant, cultivate, and harvest farm crops, and to care for farm animals, we are train- ing them in some of the most valuable lessons of life. Industry is not only explained and commended, but it is realized. It has been amply demonstrated that those persons who have had special training along the lines of agriculture are able not only to make this sub- ject a vital one in the schoolroom, but in the com- munity as well. Tax payers and parents have come to feel that our schools must offer instruction in the real activities of life." What Dr. Coulter says of the value of science in education applies to agriculture. " If the proper in- tellectual result of the humanities is appreciation, whose processes demand self -injection, the proper and distinctive result of the sciences is a formula, to obtain which there must be rigid self -elimination. The stand- ard of science is absolute, founded upon eternal truth. Two such distinct mental attitudes as self-injection and self-elimination must receive attention in educa- tion, which cannot be complete without both." Rural problems. The foregoing paragraphs have merely attempted briefly to state some of the sanest demands of modern education, and to say rather arbi- trarily without elaborate proof that the teaching of agriculture will contribute in large measure to the 10 ;THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE adequate supplying of these needs. We may organ- ize these demands as rural problems and state them in another way and come to the same conclusion that the teaching of agriculture will help materially in solving the rural problems. We may suggest three main groups of rural prob- lems, to which the teaching of agriculture must turn. a. The problems of farm improvement. How can we improve the soil? How can we have better breeds of plants and animals? How can we have better systems of farm management? How can we bet- ter protect against the ravages of plant and ani- mal diseases and pests? These are all questions of increased productivity and constitute one T group of rural problems. But from the stand- point of the consumer as well as from the farmer, we have not yet solved the farm problem when we have increased productivity. We find a sec- ond group of rural problems, namely: b. The problems of marketing and exchange. How can the farmer get money to carry on his business to advantage? How can he best buy his supplies? How can he best sell his products? Here are matters of highest importance, and problems of a knotty character. There arises in connection with the development of agriculture a third group of problems: c. The problems of community life. This group com- prises such questions as the efficiency of rural REASONS FOR TEACHING AGRICULTURE 11 government; the influence of the rural home; the improvement of the rural school; the lead- ership of the rural church; the attainment of adequate social and recreative facilities; the maintenance of a high standard of morals; the beautifying of homesteads and roadsides. These are practical working groups of rural prob- lems, stated here in order to show a line of approach, or a point of view in teaching agriculture. It must be fairly evident at the outset that efficient teaching of agriculture must and will help solve the problems of farm improvement, of marketing, and of community life, especially when we consider agriculture as an in- dustry, as a business, and as a life, and teach it in this threefold aspect. n NATURE-STUDY PRECEDING AGRICULTURE Nature-study principles. Since agricultural mate- rial and agricultural life deal constantly with the things and processes of nature, an intelligent under- standing of, and sympathy with, these things and processes would seem necessary in order that men and women be able to adjust themselves best to the envi- ronment in which they " live, move, and have their being." Nature-study proposes to give boys and girls in the earlier grades of the public schools this acquain- tance with, and interest in, the natural world which will furnish a basis for further study of the pure and applied sciences to those who continue in school, and for those who drop out of school, and this will be by far the larger number, an intelligent interest in nature which will contribute to their success and happiness in whatever walk of life they may follow. When we think of nature-study in a sane way, there can be no objection to it, either from the ultra-prac- tical farmer or the most theoretical pedagogue. Be- fore the seventh grade of the public school, agricul- ture should probably not be taught as a vocational or technical subject. Nature-study should here be the content and spirit of the work. Nature-study should NATURE-STUDY PRECEDING AGRICULTURE 13 be pre-vocational to agriculture. It will underlie and prepare for future work in agriculture whether taken up in school or as a life vocation. We may not always be sure it is best to introduce subjects, merely be- cause practical grown-up men think that the subjects are useful. Farming is one thing, and teaching agri- culture in the public schools is another. What ap- peals to the man may not appeal to the child at all. The agriculture in the lower grades should be nature- study. The principles to guide in the selection of materials, and in the teaching of nature-study in the grades of the public schools, may be stated as fol- lows: a. The definition Nature-study is a direct ob- servation study of the common things and proc- esses of nature, from the standpoint of our human interest in nature as it touches our daily life directly. b. Nature-study should be differentiated from technical science, both in subject-matter and method. It may contribute to a further study of the sciences, but it should not be technical sci- ence, even though reduced to words of one syl- lable. c. The aims: (1) To give general acquaintance with, and interest in, the common things and processes of nature. (2) To give training in accu- rate observation as a means of gaining knowledge direct from nature. (3) To give pupils useful 14 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE knowledge concerning natural objects and proc- esses as they directly affect human life interests. d. The method of all nature-study should be obser- vational. The teacher and pupils must here escape from textbooks and four walls. Nature- study and agriculture are live subjects and they are out of doors: Pupils must see real things and think for themselves. e. The materials to be studied must be the most common and the most interesting from the stand- point of everyday life. /. Nature-study must be for the child and not for the adult. We must recognize the principles of child study in all nature-study work. Primary | grade pupils ask, " What is it? " Intermediate pupils ask, " How? " Upper grade pupils ask, " Why? " in the presence of nature phenomena, and the school, through nature-study should an- swer these questions for the child. Nature-study for primary grades grades one and two. In the first years of the school there is sure to be much unorganized nature-study. The purpose in these grades should be to give general acquaintance with, and to arouse interest in, the common things and processes of nature. The children of these grades ask, " What is it? " in the presence of nature. Birds, trees, insects, flowers, wild animals, and pets, should be the general topics. Select the nearest at hand and most interesting nature material. A detail study NATURE-STUDY PRECEDING AGRICULTURE 15 should not be attempted. It is better to return again and again to the same interesting things of nature, than to try to " finish " in a stated tune. The sequence of the seasons should be a large factor in the selection of nature-study material. During the autumn months work may be done with animal pets, animals that work for us; learn the names and the simple life his- tory of a few common insects; a few trees, ten or twelve, should be recognized and called by name, fruit trees and nut trees especially; arouse interest in arbor day and tree-planting; observe leaf coloration; note seed dispersal among weeds and wild plants; learn the names of a few common birds, and arouse interest in their winter migration; nature-study myths and stories may be used by a judicious teacher. During the winter months, some physical nature-study may be given; observe the compass and the thermometer and learn how to read them; observe clouds and learn to distinguish rain clouds from other kinds; make simple daily weather charts; teach relation of sun, moon, etc., to directions; have window boxes and pots with growing plants; teach the care of plants and animals in winter; note signs of approaching spring, the arrival of early birds, the opening of early buds, etc. Simple lessons in hygiene may be put on an observation basis and be made good nature-study. For the spring months, note early spring activities in nature; begin in a simple way a bird calendar; learn to recognize by song and sight ten or a dozen com- 16 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE mon birds; note the opening of the flower and leaf- buds in the trees; learn to know the common spring flowers, avoid formal dissections, learn their names and where they grow; children of these grades may have school gardens, working in groups; field trips to study brook-life, pond-life, field and forest should be made whenever possible. Have all excursions well planned, and keep the attention of the children con- stantly to the natural things and processes about them. Nature-study in third and fourth grades. Since these grades of the public school usually take up oral and home geography, and since this work should be placed largely on an observation basis, and deal with the common things and processes of nature, the na- ture-study work of these grades and the home-geog- raphy may be combined as one course. The general topics usually outlined for home geography will make good nature-study material, and the work outlined for the preceding grades will give good preparation for this phase of nature-study. It must be remem- bered that children of these grades not only ask, " What is it? " in the presence of nature, but " How? " introduces many of their questions, and then- study and observations must answer these questions. Au- tumn activities of farm and home will furnish good subject-matter for the beginning of the nature work in these grades. Location of country homes and roads; maps of school grounds and home grounds should be made; interpretation of maps of local regions; les- NATURE-STUDY PRECEDING AGRICULTURE 17 sons on hills, valleys, streams, prairies, etc. ; methods of communication and travel; food stuffs bought and sold in the community; harvesting, marketing, stor- ing, and preserving of food for man and farm animals in autumn; observation lessons upon the principal farm crops and animals of the community; not a tech- nical study, but merely such interesting information as will arouse interest in farm life and affairs; learn about the wild animals of the State, our friends and foes among them. During the winter months, the pupils may study and observe the materials used in building our houses, lumber, stone, brick, clay, etc.; observe effects of weathering on these materials; have pupils confer with workmen who will gladly give in- formation about building material; study water, how we get water, how plants get water, effects of water on land forms, formation of ice, snow, etc.; observation of common types of soil, grow plants in pots of rich soil and poor soil; study hygienic and sanitary con- ditions of the school and home surroundings; study evergreen trees and their especial adaptation to win- ter conditions, learn names of more trees; in studying the various industries taken up in the elementary geographies fishing, lumbering, mining, manufac- turing, farming, etc., use the materials of the indus- tries, as far as possible for nature-study work. For the spring work of these grades, garden work is well adapted. Each pupil should have his own plot of ground, either at school or at home. Pupils should 18 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE note the home markets for local and foreign sup- plies and learn where the products go and come, from the markets; note time required for germination of seeds; identify weeds as they appear in yard and garden; study flowers, wild plants, shrubs, and trees in connection with beautifying the home and school grounds; review constantly the pupils' acquaintance with common trees, wild flowers, birds, insects, grains, and grasses of the community. All these topics should be unified and organized about the home life and in- terests of the community. Nature-study in the fifth grade. (May be alter- nated with sixth-grade work, and both grades com- bined each year.) Since so large a number of the school population drops out about the fifth and sixth grades, it becomes very important that the nature-study work of these grades should give to the future citizens correct and helpful information along biological and physical lines, enabling them to adjust themselves more sympathetically and intelligently to then* en- vironments. It would seem best therefore in these grades to have some rather intensive work along the larger and more important groups of nature mate- rial touching human interests. Economic considera- tions appeal to children, but these should not be over- emphasized. In this and later grades the children in addition to asking "What" and "How," are ask- ing " Why." They want to know the reasons for nat- ural things and processes. Children should keep good NATURE-STUDY PRECEDING AGRICULTURE 19 notebooks, prepare pictures, charts, calendars, etc. It should not be the aim in these grades to attempt technical science, but to arouse a permanent and in- telligent interest in the common things and processes of nature, so that the boy or girl may become a citi- zen, able and willing to enter a vocation and to do effective economic work for his community, because of a better understanding of natural things, laws, and processes. It will not be in place here to outline a course of study in detail for this grade. Suffice it to say that trees and insects should furnish the large topics for the autumn work; domestic and wild animals, sail, rock studies, and simple astronomical observations, for the winter months; and garden work, bird studies, field and orchard observations, the work for the spring season. In this grade credit for home work in garden projects may be allowed. The pupils of this grade will usually be able to assimilate about as much in- formation along the line of the large topics mentioned above as the teacher of these grades can give. If the work be put on an observation basis, related to prac- tical interests, and carried on out of doors and with nature material as far as is possible, there is little dan- ger of its becoming too technical or advanced for this grade, and the interest and information acquired will be of permanent worth to the boys and girls. Nature-study in the sixth grade. (May be alter- nated with the fifth-grade work, and both grades THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTUKE combined each year.) In the sixth grade we may be- gin a correlation of physical nature-study with geog- raphy and arithmetic. At least two periods a week may profitably be given to special topics in physical nature-study, such as light, heat, sound, and elec- tricity, keeping always in mind the nature-study viewpoint, , and avoiding science abstractions. The work in both the fifth and sixth grades should gradu- ally point the way to the sciences and vocations which it has served to develop and introduce. The large topics for general study throughout the year should be water, its properties and relationships; elementary studies of air and its relation to life; sim- ple tools and mechanical principles; heat, what it does and how produced; light, sources and applications in common processes of life; sound, principles applied to common utilities; simple studies in electricity, and its common uses; simple chemistry of cleaning and sani- tation; elementary life relations of plants and animals to the various physical processes and phenomena studied. The nature-study work of the fifth and sixth grades should be a sort of general science training, enabling the pupils to find intelligent and sympathetic adjust- ment to their natural environment. This is necessary whether as a preparation for adult living without further academic training, or for a prerequisite to further scientific study. Ill ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE AND BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUB WORK Some suggestions as to content of courses, and methods. It is an easy step and a proper one from the nature-study work of the lower grades of the schools to elementary agriculture. " Agriculture in the grades is something more than nature-study. It is nature-study plus utility. It is nature-study with an economic significance." l Below the seventh grade agriculture as a vocational subject should not be taught, with the possible exception of the club work when carried on in the fifth and sixth grades as de- scribed later. In the seventh and eighth grades it should be taught as intensively and extensively as the capabilities of the pupils and the training of the teacher will make possible. The emphasis should be placed upon the vocational phases of the subject. It should be assumed as a point of view that here, hi these grades, the pupils are having their last chance to study agriculture in a systematic way in school; therefore, the major topics of agriculture must be taught as thoroughly and as practically as possible. It should be furthermore assumed that the students are studying 1 From Davenport's Education for Efficiency. 22 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE agriculture to prepare for the vocation of farming, and hence the practical vocational features should receive the emphasis. In the face of these assumptions, if the pupils should continue the study of agriculture beyond these grades, or go into other vocations than agricul- ture, the point of view above taken will not in the least handicap their progress. If, on the other hand, the assumption prove true, the direct vocational train- ing will be of inestimable value to the student. Two methods of procedure are used in teaching elementary agriculture in the grammar grades. The textbook method. Basing the work as far as possible upon the seasonal sequence of actual farm operations and interests, this method follows some good textbook in the study of the principles and practices of the major phases of agriculture, such as agronomy, animal husbandry, the farm physical plant, farm business, and horticulture, supplementing the work in proper order and proportion with laboratory, field, and home practical exercises. In most cases it has been found best to give this work to the combined seventh and eighth grades, divided so as to provide two years of work and given in alternate years. Under this plan the first year's work is given to the plant industry, and the second year's work to animal hus- bandry. When the seasonal sequence can be followed, illustrative material is easily obtained, the interest of the pupil is at once awakened, and cooperation with the farm activities is natural and inevitable. ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 23 Some of the larger topics in the study of the plant industries for one year of the alternation, are: 1. How plants live and grow. 2. The wheat crop. 3. The corn crop. 4. Other cereal grains. 5. Legumes. 6. Weeds and grasses. 7. The farm orchard. 8. Elementary soil studies. 9. Implements in crop production. 10. The farm woodlot. 11. Plant propagation. 12. The vegetable garden. 13. Beautifying home grounds. 14. Marketing farm crops. 15. Crop rotation. 16. Systems of grain farming. s Some of the larger topics in the study of animal hus- bandry for one year of the alternation, are: 1. The live-stock business. 2. Importance of farm animals to man. 3. Swine. 4. Beef cattle. 5. Sheep. 6. Dairy cattle. 7. Horses. 8. Poultry. 24 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE More detailed outlines of these courses are given in the Appendix. An elementary textbook, with plenty of reading matter giving full discussion of principles and prac- tices of well-known and established agricultural in- formation, should be in the hands of each pupil. Sim- ple laboratory exercises and demonstrations, having a direct bearing on agricultural practices should oc- cupy at least two fifths of the class work time. A great part of these exercises may well be field trips taken by the entire class, or home work, related to the sub- ject under discussion, done by the individual student on the home farm under definite direction. A very good method, and at the same time one wholly prac- ticable, would be to give two or three formal class- room textbook recitations per week and require two or three definitely assigned pieces of home work, of an agricultural nature, per week. Form blanks, upon which the parents could vouch for the work done each week or month, would facilitate this method of cred- iting home work in agriculture. Unfortunately, no text has been prepared, or lists of home work sched- uled, to fit into such a plan. Textbook work, wherein correct scientific principles of agriculture are learned, as well as laboratory and actual farm practice, is both a practical and necessary part of successful agricul- tural training in any grade of school instruction. Home project work described in more detail under the high-school courses, may be a large feature of ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 25 the methods used in the seventh and eighth grade agriculture, supplementing the text and laboratory work. The homes and farms of the open country fur- nish the best laboratories for school instruction that can be provided for any school. It must be clear to the reader that this work in elementary agriculture can best be given in the con- solidated rural schools, where better-trained teachers are usually found, where supervision is provided, and where more time is allowed for the subject than is possible in the one-room country school. Good work in elementary agriculture, however, can be done hi the one-room country schools, and in the seventh and eighth grades of the city schools, and the handicaps of each of these classes of schools should not prevent them from undertaking instruction in the elements of agriculture. The home project club method. Basing the work upon home projects, this method organizes the activi- ties and studies around the subject-matter of these projects carried on by the boys and girls as members of groups, generally known as boys' and girls' clubs. These agricultural clubs are associations of boys and girls for the purpose of growing or producing the most and best of a specified product on a certain area of ground, under definite rules which all agree to follow. These clubs at first emphasized the competitive fea- tures of their work, but more and more they are get- ting away from wrong standards too often set up by 26 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE large awards, to the ideal of good work well done, with the products successfully disposed of, as a sufficient reward for the work. The work of the girls in these clubs usually centers about garment-making, canning, gardening, and poultry-raising. Mr. O. H. Benson, National Club Leader, states the definition as follows: " Club work is an organized system of extension teaching for young people through demonstrations in the field and home. It contem- plates the organization of young people into groups called clubs, for the purpose of definite work under carefully prepared projects, and with adequate local leadership." " Eventually these clubs, which are now widespread, will probably be incorporated into some more permanent form of educational organization; but they are performing a useful function as at present constituted, and they seem to be an important link in the evolution of a more efficient system. The clubs are being closely affiliated with the work of the pub- lic schools and are beginning to be regarded as a de- finite part of the educational system." 1 Club work may well begin in the fifth and sixth grades of the school and continue as the basis for agricultural instruction throughout the seventh and eighth grades, and even into the first years of the high school. The purposes of boys' and girls' agricultural club work as set forth by J. H. Greene, Illinois State Leader, are: 1 From Lcakes's Means and Methods of Agricultural Education. ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 87 1. To teach practical vocational agriculture. 2. To help boys and girls to become producers and thereby lessen the high cost of living. 3. To teach business methods and thrift by pro- moting the selling of products and the canning of the surplus. 4. To stimulate community spirit in boys and girls through the organization of neighborhood or school clubs. 5. To capitalize and turn to good account the gang spirit naturally inherent in boys, by directing their vacation activities along social as well as economic lines. 6. To provide a plan whereby the public school system and the various religious and civic or- ganizations can together give direction to young people along the lines indicated by providing: (1) capable leadership and (2) suitable awards. In the study and practice which contribute to vocational efficiency we may distinguish three aspects, each involving distinct pedagogical characteristics and special problems of administration. To train the horticulturist, for example, it is necessary to give him a variety of practical experiences in working with soil and plants, and with the problems of marketing. In addition, he may and should study those phases of botany, physics, chemistry, entomology, bac- teriology, meteorology, economics, etc., which contribute useful technical information and principles. A further field of possible study is found in the history of horticulture, and the practice of that craft in other parts of the world, the evolution of plant life, etc. The first group of studies and 28 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE practices may be called the concrete, specific, or practical; the second group, the technical; and the third, the general vocational studies. 1 Boys' and girls' club work affords excellent oppor- tunity for the practical aspects of a system of voca- tional education, involving these three pedagogical divisions. Dr. Snedden further states in his Problems of Sec- ondary Education that the keynote of the newer edu- cation in these fields is to be found in the development of f acilities for obtaining the practical experience un- der conditions as nearly approximating those of the actual vocation as can be obtained. In the field of agricultural education this seems especially desirable, although in most of our schools the practical work is little more than an " imitation " of the real thing, because of administrative difficul- ties connected with the organization of definite units of practice in some phase of the actual vocation. The only practice that will prove to be worth while edu- cationally and vocationally is that which requires the student to organize, on an economic basis, certain agricultural activities which he will carry through to the final fruition. The growing of an acre of corn, the cultivation and management of a home vegetable garden, the care and handling of poultry, the raising of pigs, etc., are agricultural projects commonly car- ried on by boys' and girls' clubs, and these projects, 1 From Snedden's The Problem of Vocational Education. ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 29 properly directed by the public schools, offer excel- lent opportunities to furnish practical work and the vocational training for the grammar grades which is most satisfactory both to the schools and to the homes. More will be said in this connection under the dis- cussion of home projects for the high-school agricul- tural work. It may be well to go into further detail on the sec- ond method, since it is coming into greater favor among agricultural education leaders. Under the plan, the boys and girls who are to take agriculture are organized into clubs, and assigned to definite home projects. Among the projects usually carried on by the clubs are corn-growing, pig-raising, poultry- raising, gardening, dairying, potato-growing, tomato- growing, garment-making, and a number of others depending upon local conditions and interests. All the members of the class take the same one or two projects for the year and for a second year the class may take new projects or continue the old ones as seems advisable and practical. The following general outline of a home project in corn-growing indicates the method of using this work as a basis for the work in elementary agriculture: 1. Plans for club organization for cooperative work in buying, selling, exhibiting, and social activ- ities. 2. Calendar of monthly operations giving details for all field and indoor work, notebook, and 30 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE record work, reading and study for each month of the year. 3. Study of the technical subject-matter on corn production from the selection of the seed to the harvesting and storing of the crop. These stud- ies should parallel in so far as possible the home practical work, and include all closely related topics. 4. Laboratory exercises, correlated with the proj- ect work in seasonal sequence. Similar plans for many home projects may be worked out as a basis for the elementary agriculture of these grades. IV HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE Some curriculum problems. The first questions al- ways arising with the introduction of agriculture into the high school are, (a) What are the purposes of the course? (6) How much time shall be given to it? (c) How shall the work be fitted into a unified science course ? and (d) How shall the subject-matter be organized and presented? The writer is fully aware that the final word has not been said in reply to any of these questions, nor does he presume to say it in these pages, but the teacher of agriculture must have a working theory and a clear, definite program for himself in order to accomplish satisfactory results. It is to set forth some guiding principles in the teaching of high-school agriculture that the following answers are set down to the foregoing questions. The principal aim of high-school agriculture should be vocational to contribute to the practical edu- cation of the farmer. Teaching the subject with this aim and by the methods necessary, need not lessen the value of the subject as a factor in the liberal edu- cation of the student, should he decide not to enter the vocation of farming. The high schools located near the great masses of the farming population may 32 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE serve in this capacity much better than the colleges, and being better equipped in every way than the elementary schools, they may plan to do vocational work of greater value than is possible in the elemen- tary schools. How much time should be given to agriculture in the high school? It will depend to a large extent upon the training of the teacher, the location of the school, and the general interest of the community. There is a strong opposition growing up among the men at work in high-school agriculture against the one-year general course, and a tendency to put in two or more years of agriculture, devoting single semesters to spe- cial phases of the work, such as agronomy, live stock, horticulture, etc. Even when only one year at a time can be given to agriculture, secondary-school men are preferring to give one year to plant industry and one year to animal husbandry, in alternating years, rather than to give the one-year general course with its ency- clopaedia hodge-podge of everything pertaining to agri- culture from corn to the celestial spheres. There might not be the objection to the one-year course as a gen- eral study, providing that types of the larger topics were taken up and studied thoroughly, rather than an attempt to cover every important phase of the major divisions of agriculture. Agricultural education leaders are recommending the four-year course in agriculture for all high schools prepared to emphasize vocational training in their curriculum. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 83 Teachers of agriculture cannot say how or where other courses of the high-school curriculum should be given, but they may claim at least one fourth of the student's time in school for this subject. It is very desirable that the work in agriculture be in- cluded in some way in a unified science course which our science teachers are trying to work out for the high schools. A year of general science may well pre- cede any high-school course in agriculture. Botany should precede or parallel farm crops; zoology, ani- mal husbandry; chemistry, soil fertility; and physics, farm mechanics. Perhaps in some such order as given above, the years' courses will be given best. A com- mon and successful program of studies offers for the first year, Agronomy, including farm crops and the elements of soil physics and soil fertility for the first semester, and General Horticulture for the second semester; for the second year, Animal Husbandry, including dairying and poultry; for the third year, The Farmstead, including farm mechanics, engineering and management; and for the fourth year, semester units in Horticulture, Improvement of Plants and Ani- mals, or other special phases of agriculture as best suited to the community and school needs. We are hearing a great deal these days about uni- form courses in agriculture, reorganization of secon- dary courses in agriculture, national systems of agri- cultural education, etc., but so long as agricultural conditions and interests of widely separated regions 34 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE differ, so long will all attempts to make uniform or national systems of agricultural education fail. In the organization of subject-matter for the courses in secondary school agriculture, teachers will continue to be guided by local and State interests and by the textbooks adopted for the courses. The following units are quite generally accepted, and fairly good texts are available in each for high-school use. One unit is a year's work. Junior and senior high-school agriculture. The tendency to the organization of the public schools on the so-called " six and six plan," raises the question of agricultural education in the junior and senior high schools. Consistent with the suggestions made in former paragraphs on the content of courses for the seventh and eighth grades in elementary agriculture, the following outline for junior high-school agriculture is submitted: First year. a. Introduction to agriculture, based on Davenport's plan, published by Rand McNally Company. 6. Home projects: Poultry and Gardening. Second year. a. Introduction to agriculture, continued. 6. Home projects: Corn and Pig projects. Third year. a. General science. b. Home projects: Selected according to local needs and former projects done by pupils. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 35 Suggestions for senior high-school courses follow: 1. Agronomy: a. Farm Crops ^ unit 6. Soils | unit 2. Animal Husbandry: a. General Studies Types and Breeds % unit b. Dairying 5 unit c. Poultry ^ unit d. Feeds and Feeding \ unit 3. The Farm Physical Plant: a. Farm Mechanics \ unit b. Farm Management unit 4. Horticulture: a. General Course \ unit 6. Vegetable Gardening 5 unit c. Landscape Gardening % unit d. Pomology 5 unit 5. Improvement of Plants and Annuals ^ unit 6. Rural Life and Affairs \ unit Agronomy in the high school. Agronomy is a divi- sion of agriculture treating of the factors in crop pro- duction and the economic production of the various farm crops. It makes an excellent first-year subject hi an agriculture course, because it touches so many phases of agriculture, and lays a good foundation as an introductory branch. The growing of crops is the basis of all agriculture. We plough, fertilize, and cul- tivate the soil in order to grow crops. We depend upon farm crops for the production of live-stock. We manufacture and use implements in order to produce and harvest farm crops. We fight to control insects 36 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE and plant diseases in order to save the crops. We de- pend upon crops for the supply of human food, cloth- ing, and a large part of our shelter. We buy and sell farm crops as a commodity in many branches of busi- ness. It would seem, therefore, that agronomy, dealing with the production of farm crops, should precede and introduce other phases of agriculture in the high school. This subject may be introduced under vari- ous names, such as Agronomy, Farm Crops, Intro- ductory Agriculture, etc., but it should always be vocational, not an agricultural " kink " to botany, chemistry, or general science. These subjects should be given as pure sciences, and the various phases of agriculture, as applied sciences. In the study of the pure sciences in the high school, illustrations of prin- ciples should be made, and applications of laws seen, from all vocations and human interests, not from agriculture alone. Agronomy properly taught includes applications of botany, chemistry, physics, zoology, geology, etc., and leads to practical economic crop production. It motivates the study of these sciences and has prac- tical value hi itself. The teacher of agronomy may well go afield at times, into any of these pure sciences, in order to make sure that his pupils are learning the vocational agronomy that will " stick " and serve them in practical production. It is not necessary, however desirable it may be, that the high-school HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 37 student have had these pure sciences in order to learn the agronomy that will make him a successful pro- ducer of crops, and if he becomes that, he is more likely to follow up later with a study of the related sciences, than he is to follow his pure science with prac- tical, vocational agriculture. As an introductory course in agriculture, agron- omy affords opportunity for the study, (l) of plant propagation and the principles of plant growth; (2) of economic farm crops; (3) of soils and plant foods; (4) of farm machinery used in connection with crop pro- duction; (5) of insects and plant diseases affecting the crops studied; (6) of elementary work in breeding; and (7) of crop rotation and problems of farm manage- ment and other farm business. Many of the phases of agriculture necessarily included in the study of agron- omy are taken up later as special courses, and the introductory study here made furnishes a basis for future work. , . A study of agronomy in the high school should lead to an understanding of the processes of plant growth, of the factors in crop production, together with an appreciation of the scientific basis underlying them, some knowledge of a few special crops, a fair amount of deftness in laboratory work and other practical exercises, ready and accurate observations, and the formation of right ideas of agriculture and country life., 94784 38 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE Lesson Plan Introducing a Course in Elementary Agriculture I. Title: Plants How They Feed and Grow. II. Aim: To show relative importance of plants in agricul- ture and to give some elementary knowledge of plant growth. HI. Materials (charts and textbook illustrations). IV. Subject-matter and method: 1. Introduction. a. Words to arouse interest in general subject of agriculture, importance of the vocation to society, and the opportunities for the individual. b. Plant life the center of agricultural study and practice. 2. Presentation. a. From seed-time to harvest many interest- ing changes take place to produce the in- crease. 6. From whence the increase and what are the factors determining the amount of the harvest. t c. How the farmer may influence these fac- tors. d. The life cycle of a typical economic plant. (1) Begin with seed a storehouse. (2) Essentials and processes in germina- tion. (3) Chemical composition of plants. {Water 80 per cent Organic matter 19 per cent Ash 1 per cent HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 39 (4) Elements of plant food, and where the plant obtains them. (5) How the plant gets the various ele- ments. (6) Nature and extent of roots. How root-hairs function. (7) Work of soil water in this process. (8) How organic matter is made in plants. (9) Where the mineral elements go. , (10) Reproductive process. (11) Maturing of the plant. (12) Where the life cycle ends. ; 8. Summary Review questions and problems. COURSE IN AGRONOMY (One semester One half unit First or second year) Farm Crops I. Factors in crop production. 1. Introductory cultivated plants. 2. Seed. 8. Soils How they are formed. 4. Soils The mineral constituents. 5. Soils The organic constituents. 6. Moisture. 7. Drainage Removal of excess. 8. Conservation and increase of moisture. 9. Heat and light. 10. Elements needed by plants. 11. Nitrogen. 12. Phosphorus and potassium. 13. Soil improvement. 14. Tillage. 15. Aeration and bacteria. 16. Control of diseases, insects, and weeds. 40 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE II. Crops and their economic production. 1. Grains. A. Wheat. a. Brief history. 6. Why so long and generally grown. C. Cultivation. < (1) Soil preparation. (2) Seeding method, amount, treat- ment, etc. (2) Harvesting, storing, and market- ing shrinkage. (4) Place in the rotation. d. Brief study of main varieties. Blue Stem, Fife, Macaroni, Fultz, Ruby, Pearl's Prolific, Michigan, Amber, etc. e. Improvement of wheat, seed selection, preparation of ground, etc. f * /. Botanical relations why a grass? g. Uses. Products. h. Grading and scoring wheat. i. Enemies of wheat. B. Corn. a. Brief history. 6. Botanical relations why a grass? c. Why so generally grown. Place in rota- tion. Feeding value. d. Selecting and testing seed. e. Cultivation. (1) Soil preparation plant foods necessary. (2) Planting. (3) Cultivating. (4) Harvesting. /. The silo and its use in corn culture. g. Care of seed corn. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 41 k. Uses of corn corn products. i. Study of a few types. j. Methods of corn improvement seed selection and care, ear to row plots, etc. k. Judging and scoring corn. C. Oats, barley, rye, and other cereals. Practical Exercises A. Wheat and oats. 1. Botanical study of the wheat head spike, spikelet, glumes, palea, flowers, etc. 2. Study of a grain of wheat. (See texts for outlines.) 3. Study of whole wheat plant, root-sys- tem, stooling habit, leaves, stem, etc. ^ 4. Purity of wheat. 5. Scoring samples of wheat. 6. Judging oats. 7. Treating seed oats for smut. 8. Testing varieties of wheat for yields on farm plots. 9. Experiments on effect of size of seed. \ B. Corn. 1. Selecting seed corn in the field. 2. Studies of the whole corn plant. (See texts for outlines.) 3. Outline studies of corn kernels. (See texts and bulletins for outlines.) Dissec- tion and study of parts of the kernel. 4. Outline descriptions of ears of corn. 5. Judging and scoring corn. 6. Methods of storing and caring for seed corn. 7. Testing seed corn for germination. 8. Testing varieties for yield on farm plots. 9. Organizations of local corn clubs. 42 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 2. Potatoes. a. History, value, and extent of the crop. b. Adaptability of the State in the way of soil and climate. c. Cultivation. (1) Ploughing depth; spring or fall. (2) Selection of seed varieties. (3) Planting depth, distance apart, size of pieces, etc. Treatment for disease. (4) After cultivation ridging vs. shallow. (5) Harvesting, storing, and marketing. (6) Place in crop-rotation system. (7) Potato pests and their control. (a) Insects Colorado beetle and blister beetle. (6) Diseases scab, wart, and leaf blight. d. Botanical relations. Practical Exercises 1. Treating seed potatoes with formalin for scab. 2. Laboratory studies of potato tubers. (See texts for outlines.) Descriptions of tubers as to characteristic points. 8. Experimental plot planting to test yields from various methods of seeding and cultivation. 4. Judging and scoring potatoes. 3. Meadows and pastures. A. Legumes. a. Identification of alfalfa, red clover, white clover, alsike clover, cow peas, soy beans, vetch, etc. b. Botanical relationships, characteristics, etc. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 43 C. Cultivation. (1) Preparation of soil. (2) Seeding nurse crops inocula- tion. (3) When to cut for hay and seed curing and caring for. d. Feeding values. e. Effect on soil conditions addition of humus, nitrification, nitrogen fixation* etc. B. Grasses. a. Identification and description of tim- othy, blue grass, orchard grass, red top, brome, fescue, millet, etc. b. Study of botanical relationships and general basis of classification of grasses. C. Uses of grasses for grain, hay, and pas- ture. d. Mixing of legumes and grasses in mea- dows and pastures. 6. Permanent pastures how to main- 1 tain. keeping weeds cut discing, re-seeding and top-dressing old mea- dows and pastures. Practical Exercises 1. Laboratory studies of whole legume plants. Note following: Leaves, arrangement, shape, size, amount; leaflets, number, pal- mate, pinnate, smooth, or hair; stem, round, square, hairy or smooth, stoloniferous or not; branching; flowers, place, form, color, size; seed, kind, number, size, shape, number in each pod, etc.; roots, form, size, number, length; note nodules. 44 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 2. Testing seeds for purity and for per cent of germination. 3. Collection of grasses, labeled and preserved in herbarium. 4. Laying out and sowing alfalfa plots. 4. Enemies of farm crops. a. Weeds. (1) How harmful. ' (2) How disseminated and propagated. (3) Classes annual, biennial and peren- , nial. . (4) Identification of the common weeds of the region. (5) Collection and identification of seeds of these weeds. (6) General methods of eradication. Practical Exercises 1. Collecting and labeling weeds and their 1 seeds. Keep weed seeds in small vials and hang weed collections on a wire in school room. 2. Examining clover and alfalfa seeds for weed seeds. 3. Make descriptive sheets of weeds as fol- lows: height, stem, leaf, seed, flower, root, habit of growth, and methods of eradication. 4. Make field trips to collect and to note the above points. 5. Send for Economic Seed Collection. $1.50, Edgar Brown, Seed Laboratory, Washington, D.C. 6. Insects. (1) Damages done to farm crops by insects; ^ any benefits. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 45 (2) Life history of a few common field in- sects. Chinch bug, cut-worm, grub, Hessian fly, etc. (3) Classify as to methods of injuring. (4) Methods of controlling. (a) Destroy breeding places. (6) Cultural methods. (c) Spraying. j (d) Special devices. Practical Exercises . 1. Make field trips to see work of injuri- ous insects. Note the nature of the injury and how the insect causes it. Make collections on all trips. 2. Observations of life history. Each stu- dent should make a simple insect breed- ing cage with sand box and lamp chim- ney, and work out the life history of some insect. 8. Make laboratory study of the anatomy of the grasshopper as type of chewing insects, and of the squash bug, as type of sucking insects. 4. Make individual collections of insects. Use cyanide bottle for killing and a cigar box for holding the collection. C. Plant diseases. (1) Bacterial diseases. (2) Fungous diseases. (a) Smuts of wheat, oats, and corn. (6) Rusts and wilts, of oats, wheat, clover, and flax, (c) Rots, mildews, scabs, etc. (3) Nature of these diseases. (4) Methods of controlling. 46 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE Practical Exercises 1. Make a laboratory study of wheat, oats, or corn smut. Where did the smut attack the plant? How is the smut propagated? Exam- ine spores with compound microscope. Draw. 2. Treat wheat or oats for smut with formalin. 3. Make collection of as many plant diseases as possible. 5. Harvesting farm crops. a. Make tables of actual neighborhood yields of standard farm crops. b. Make tables of prices of farm crops for the past five years. c. Report upon methods of harvesting various farm crops. Animal husbandry in the high school. Animal hus- bandry is usually given in the high school as a gen- eral course including a study of types and breeds and the care and management of domestic animals. The course may well be given in the second year of a three- or four-year course in agriculture. When the high- school course in animal husbandry extends through- out the year, the first semester is usually a general course in live-stock study, and the second semester a special course in dairying, poultry, feeds and feed- ing, or other special phases of animal husbandry. In some instances the general course and the special course run parallel on alternating days throughout the year. The emphasis laid upon any phase of ani- mal husbandry will vary considerably in different HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 47 localities, depending upon the live-stock interests of the community. Various outlines for secondary courses in animal husbandry have been printed and issued by many State colleges of agriculture, State departments of education, and by high-school instructors. Valuable suggestions may be obtained from most of them, but in by far the greater number of cases the teacher of agriculture in the secondary school adopts a textbook, and the sequence and material taken up in the book furnish the outline as well as the principal subject- matter for the course. Such textbooks as Plumb's Beginnings in Animal Husbandry, Harper's Animal Husbandry for Schools, and others, are worth more as guides to the teacher than all the outlines pub- lished. A good teacher will supplement the text by lectures and assigned readings in bulletins and agri- cultural reference books. Probably the greatest needed supplementary help in teaching animal husbandry in high schools are laboratory manuals giving practical exercises in gen- eral live-stock study. The instructor may make up his own list of laboratory and practical exercises by ref- erence to various texts, State courses, bulletins, and circulars of the States, and the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture. Much of the material equipment for the animal husbandry work will be found on the farms of the community. Score cards, lantern slides, charts, and 48 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE models of farm animals are valuable equipments to be supplied for this work. In many cases it may be practical for the school to own some live-stock for demonstration purposes. The agricultural library should be supplied with up-to-date books on live- stock, and the school should receive one or more of the best live-stock periodicals for use by the students. ' The animal-husbandry work of the high school lends itself easily to home projects, boys' and girls' club work, and other extension features described later un- der these phases of agricultural teaching. f A suggestive outline for a year of animal husban- dry in high school, including lists of practical field and laboratory exercises follows: COURSE IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY (One semester One half unit First or second year) Domestic Animals and their Products General course , I. Live-stock on the farm (one week). 1. Values of live-stock on the farm. 2. Advantages of live-stock farming. 8. Disadvantages of live-stock farming. 4. Number and value of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine in the United States. 5. Making use of well-known principles of heredity in selecting and keeping farm animals. II. The horse (four weeks). 1. The horse an indispensable farm animal. 2. The development of the modern horse. 3. Types and breeds of horses. Some horse history. Brief history of famous horses. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 49 4. External anatomy of the horse. 5. Judging horses. 6. Brief study of a few pedigrees. ' 7. General principles of horse feeding, using only common terms. 8. Management and care of horses. a. Care of mare and foal. b. Stabling of horses. c. Common diseases of horses. * d. Points in good horsemanship. e. Proper manners of the road. Practical Exercises ' 1. Student records, keeping " tab " of the character- istics of individual animals on the home farm, as to performance, pedigree, etc. 2. Report on experience or observations in horse in- telligence. 3. Reports of home horses. Breed Color Weight Height Condition Number 4. Lesson pointing out names of external parts of a horse. 5. Use of score cards. Comparative judging. 6. Sketch diagram of horse, writing in names of parts. 7. Draw plans for horse barns. 8. Practical work in harnessing and handling horses. 9. Observe some horse diseases and their treatment if possible. (Ask the cooperation of a local vet- erinarian in some of this work.) BO THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE HI. Feeds and feeding (two weeks). 1. Use of feeds eaten by animals. 2. Classification of feeds according to bulk, method of harvesting, and composition. 3. Function of the different food materials pro- tein, carbohydrates, and fat; also water and ash. 4. Digestibility of feeds; methods of determining. 5. Food requirements of animals balancing ra- tions. 6. Balancing rations for horses of different ages, us- ing various combinations of feeds. Practical Exercises 1. Determining weight of one quart of com, oats, ' bran, etc. 2. Determine size of a forkful of hay that will aver- age five pounds. 3. Report on methods of feeding horses at home. Work out nutritive ratio of these rations used at home. 4. Suggestions as to ways of improving home ra- tions. IV. .Cattle (four weeks). 1. Cattle and their wild relatives. History of present domestic cattle. 2. Types and breeds of cattle, beef and dairy, breed characteristics.. 3. Points in judging beef cattle. 4. Market classes and grades of beef cattle. See mar- ket reports. 5. Feeding beef cattle some good rations as worked out by our experiment stations and suc- cessful feeders. Aim in feeding as compared with that in feeding dairy cattle. Silage and its uses. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 61 6. Management of beef cattle. a. Care of breeding herd. b. Care of calves. c. Housing of beef cattle. d. The pure-bred cattle business. 7. Different cuts of meat; their location in the car- cass and value for food. 8. Breeds of dairy cattle. 9. Points in judging dairy cattle. 10. Feeding dairy cattle. Good rations. 11. Management of dairy cattle. a. Care of herd. b. Testing milk. c. Care and handling of calves. 12. Dairy products, care and production of. Com- position of milk. 13. Some common cattle diseases. Practical Exercises 1. Reports on home beef cattle. Breeds Number Average Weight Market Value 2. Explanation before chart or animal of points in judging beef cattle, drill in naming external parts. 8. Judging exercises. 4. Reports on market quotations from daily papers of classes and market grades. 5. Visit to farms where cattle are kept. 6. Estimate the cost and profit of buying a carload of cattle at Chicago, feeding 130 days and ship- ping back. 52 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 7. Report on home dairy cattle. Breeds Number Average Daily Milk Yield Per Cent of Butter-Fat Selling Value 8. Observational study of points in judging a dairy cow. 9. Sketching diagram of a cow and writing in the drawing the name of parts in the external ana- tomy. 10. The use of score card. 11. Keeping daily milk records of home cows. r Name of Cow Morning Pounds Evening Pounds Total 12. Use of Babcock test. Testing of individual cows. 13. Determining nutritive ratio and balanced ration for beef and dairy cattle. 14. Reports on home methods of cattle feeding. 15. Making up feeding standards. 16. Each student prepare written report, giving de- tailed history of one breed of cattle. 17. Visit to local creamery. V. Sheep (two weeks). 1. Some sheep history. 2. Sheep as farm animals. Market classes and grades. (See market reports in daily papers.) 3. Extent and value of the sheep industry. 4. Types and breeds of sheep. 5. Points in judging sheep. 6. Feeding of Western sheep for the markets. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 7. Care and feeding of sheep. Care of breeding flock. Feeds for breeding ewes. 8. Care of lambs. Production of early lambs. 9. Shelter for sheep. Practical Exercises 1. Tabulate statistical studies from the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, of the sheep and wool industries, comparing our State with the leading States in the industry. 2. Report from the daily news, the market quota- tions on sheep, Iambs, and wool. 3. Make written reports from reference studies on the wild relatives of sheep. 4. Report on the home or a neighbor's flock. Breeds Number of Sheep Distinguishing Characteristics Average Annual Income 5. Study of external parts of a sheep's body, and use of the score card in a few judging exercises. 6. Reports on some sheep habits. 7. Some practical problems, such as: Buy a car of Western feeders at Chicago. Feed them for one hundred days according to good standards of feed- ing. Figure profit at current prices. 8. Visit farms where sheep are being sheared. VI. Swine (two weeks). 1. Some swine history. 2. Market types and breeds of swine. 3. Points in judging swine. 4. Feeding and management of swine. Some good rations for swine. Housing and caring for swine. Treatment of cholera. 4 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 5. Study of hog markets from stock papers. 6. Cuts of pork and methods of butchering. Practical Exercises 1. Reports on wild relatives of swine.' 2. Tabulation of home reports. Breeds Number Characteristics Average Weight Value 3. Daily market quotations and sales. 4 Home methods of feeding and managing swine. Valuation of home herds. 5 Practical feeding and weight records made upon a home animal by students. 6. Problem: Buy five sows, two weeks before far- rowing. Fatten both pigs and sows after weaning pigs. Compute expected profit, giving all details of cost and selling prices. 7. Visit local slaughter-houses. VII. Poultry (two weeks). 1 Types and breeds of poultry. How to ^improve and fix desirable strains. 2. Points of excellence in various breeds. 3. Care and feeding of poultry. a. Laying hens. b. Fattening stock. c. Chicks. 4. Housing of poultry. 5. Hatching and rearing. a. Incubators and breeders. 6. Hens. 6. Poultry raising as a business in this State. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICTJLTUEE 55 Practical Exercises 1. Laboratory studies of the feather and the egg. 2. Home reports on poultry: Breeds Number of Fowls Characteristics Profitableness 3. Keeping of feeding and egg records of given flocks at home for a given time. Determining the layers by use of trap nests. 4. Plans of poultry houses and pens drawn. 6. Practical use of incubators at home or school. 6. Comparative studies of types with specimen in hand. 7. If possible, keep half-dozen or more hens at school building and run experiment in feeding and egg production according to good authorities. Lesson Plan Title: Some Values of Good Live-Stock on the Farm. Aim : To give some knowledge and appreciation of the values of good live-stock on the farm. (Classroom recitation, using questions, statements, and discussions inductively to develop the aim as stated above.) Subject-matter and method: I. Introduction. " Every boy with good red blood in his veins loves to associate with farm animals." The farmer boy has a chance to see, know, and enjoy the life in the country. " How many have enjoyed the compan- ionship of a farm animal? " (Almost all.) Besides this value which every country boy appreciates, we must learn other values of farm animals to the farmer and his farm. 56 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE II. Presentation. A. Through questions and leading statements, the following facts brought out by the students, with- out being told: Farm ft.nimfl.1a, 1. Provide food and clothing. 2. Help to maintain soil fertility through the return of manure to the land. 3. Utilize much of the waste material on the farm. 4. Perform necessary farm labor. 5. Make possible farmhand labor all the year round. B. If all these values result from farm annuals, does it make any difference whether the animals are pure-bred or " scrubs " as to the extent of the values we have stated? 1. The story of " Gold and Gilt." (See Eli- nois Extension Circular No. 1.) 2. The story of the difference between the two cows is given as an example of a general truth for all farm animals, that good farm animals are more profitable than " scrubs." 3. How can the farmer profit by this example? III. Conclusions. Summarize statement of facts and principles learned. Horticulture in the high school. The high-school course in horticulture should consist of at least one hah* unit and be given preferably during the second semester of the first year of the agricultural course. When general science is given the first year of the high-school course, the agricultural work may well follow during the sophomore year, offering agronomy HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 57 the first semester and horticulture the second semes- ter, thus giving the year to the plant industries. It will be an exceptional community that could not profit by a semester's study of horticulture. The prop- agation of plants, the planting and care of fruit trees, the raising of a vegetable garden, the beautifying of home grounds, are phases of horticulture that are practical, and usually needed in all sections of the country, in urban as well as rural communities. If the community is one especially well adapted to hor- ticultural pursuit, a second semester may be given to a study of special phases of horticulture such as vege- table gardening, landscape gardening, small fruits, tree fruits, forestry, etc. This one hah* unit should be offered among the elective courses in the senior year. Horticultural subjects lend themselves to school work as well if not better than most phases of agricul- ture. Like agronomy, horticulture is a good intro- ductory course, since it deals with many phases of agricultural science. There is plant propagation, fruit- growing, vegetable gardening, floriculture, landscape gardening, viticulture, forestry, entomology, plant pathology, soil problems, marketing problems, etc., all included in "a general course in horticulture, and this, together with a semester's work in agronomy, recommended for the first year of agriculture, con- stitutes a unit of plant industry making an excellent first year's work in agriculture for the high school. A half unit of horticulture, beginning in the second 58 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE semester, may follow the seasonal sequence of spring operations, and make a very interesting and practical general course. A few days given to the study of farm forestry in February, followed by tree fruits, prun- ing and spraying, plant propagation, vegetable and landscape gardening, during March, April, and May, will outline the work in general horticulture in good seasonal sequence. The materials included in the horticultural course will vary in different sections, but in the main the larger topics mentioned above would be included. In any case the number and kinds of fruits, vegetables, or other horticultural plants will be selected with ref- erence to the local needs and the time at the school's disposal. The greater emphasis in most schools teach- ing horticulture will be placed upon fruit-growing and vegetable gardening. These courses can be taught effectively in the high school. There is a splendid opportunity for varied, useful, and interesting laboratory and field work in connec- tion with a course in horticulture. Probably one half of the class time should be given to laboratory and field work. Many phases of horticulture admit of the home project method of practical work. Planting a catalpa grove, setting out a young orchard, rejuvenat- ing an old orchard, beautifying home grounds, grow- ing strawberries, growing a garden, growing flowers, or any single vegetable or fruit on a large scale, are examples of horticultural projects that may be car- HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 59 ried on at the home grounds. The use of the school grounds has been discussed in another chapter, in which suggestions for horticultural work are given. Field trips to nurseries to inspect stock, to orchards to note pruning, spraying, and cultivation methods, to vineyards, to packing-houses, to public markets, and to canning-factories should be made whenever possible. All excursions should be well planned, and definite requirements made for each individual as to observations, note-taking, and collections. Equipment for work in horticulture should, if pos- sible, include a greenhouse. There should be flats, flower pots, soil sieves, and other needed tools such as grafting and budding knives, pruning knives and saws, illustrative material used in spraying, a barrel spray pump mounted on wheels, fruit packs, garden tools, etc.; in fact the equipment for horticulture in school should be practically the same as that for the business in a successful way on the farm. The agricultural library should contain all the avail- able circulars and bulletins from the United States Department and from the State College of Agricul- ture. Good horticultural journals and books should also be provided for the students' reference. Horticulture offers an excellent field for community extension service. Illustrated lectures, public demon- strations of pruning and spraying, fruit and vege- table exhibits, arbor and horticultural day at school, and boys' and girls' club work are some activities in 60 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE which horticulture may serve in community exten- sion work. The following course of study including practical exercises suggested outlines a half unit of work in gen- eral horticulture. COURSE IN GENERAL HORTICULTURE (One semester One half unit First or second year) Forest, Orchard, and Garden I. The Forest a farm crop. 1. Principles of general forestry. a. Life history of trees, with studies of struc- ture, nutrition and growth. b. Influences which affect tree growth, such as temperature, moisture, soil, light, other trees, etc. c. Studies of the principal tree species of the community. (See table in Practical Exer- cises.) d. The forest as a tree society, the struggle for existence, and its effect upon development of trees. e. Enemies of forest fires, insects, diseases, bad lumbering, etc. /. Influence of forests on climate, water supply. stream flow, and soil. g. The United States Forest Service and its work. 2. The farm woodlot. a. The relation and importance of the woodlot to the farm. b. Origin, condition, and extent of farm wood- lots. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 61 c. Trees as farm crops comparison with other agricultural crops. d. Methods of measuring the wood crops, both in standing timber and in logs. e. Woodlot management; how and when to cut trees; what trees to remove and what to leave; methods of improving the woodlot; market lumber; tree planting on the farm; protecting the farm woodlot. Practical Exercises 1. Reports of acreage in woodlots on home farms. 2. Observational studies of trees. Name of Tree Size and Form Location Condition of Tree How I Know the Tree 3. Practical studies of given woodlots, made in the forest, using the following outline: o. Census Table showing names of species, I diameters and number of trees. 6. Species predominating. c. Age of forest and type of trees. d. Density and condition of the stand. e. Protection given. /. Market facilities. g. General forest condition, nature of canopy, wood mass and floor. h. Suggestions for improvement. 4. Excursion to make forest measurements. Lay off given areas and estimate board feet of standing timber, by standard log rules. 5. Excursion to make and study woodlot improve- 62 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE ments. Mark trees to be removed, cleanings to make, etc. 6. Planting of forest nurseries on the school grounds. II. The orchard. 1. Locating and laying out the orchard. 2. Preparation of the ground. 3. Selection of nursery stock. 4. Planting the orchard. a. Preparation of trees for planting. 6. Setting the trees. c. Care of young trees. 6. Pruning. a. Purposes and principles of pruning. 6. Pruning young and old trees. c. Pruning shrubs and shade trees. 6. Grafting. a. Purposes and principles of grafting. b. Root and crown grafting. c. Top-working fruit trees. d. Budding young fruit trees. 7. Spraying. a. Common insects and diseases. 6. Spraying materials. c. Making spray mixtures. d. Spraying for codling moth and other chew- ing insects, and for leaf diseases. e. Spraying for San Jose Scale and other suck- ing insects. 8. Cultivating orchards. Renovating old orchards. 9. Picking, marketing, and storing fruit. 10. Variety studies, judging, etc. Practiced Exercises 1. Laying out an orchard on an acre plot. 2. Examination of nursery stock; pruning roots, and forming tops of young trees. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 63 3. Planting fruit trees starting a school nursery of apple and peach trees. 4. Pruning practice on old apple trees. 5. Practice in various methods of grafting. 6. Spraying demonstrations. 7. Scoring plates of apples by use of standard score cards. 8. Practice in packing apples. HI. The garden. 1. Locating, planning, and laying out the garden. 2. Preparation of garden land. 3. Selection of varieties and planting. 4. Transplanting and thinning. 5. Forcing garden vegetables. 6. Climate, soil, and cultural requirements of stan- dard garden vegetables. 7. Combating weeds and garden pests. 8. Small fruits in the garden. 9. Growing flowers and ornamental plants. Practical Exercises 1. Plotting on paper plans for home and school gar- dens. 2. Laying out and planting a school garden. 3. Making a hotbed or cold frame and planting it. 4. Special problems or verifications to be worked out by each student or group of students in home gar- den or at school. a. Variety tests. b. Tomato culture various systems. c. Methods in potato culture. d. Spraying tests on potatoes, tomatoes, melons, etc. e. Results of various fertilizers. /. Hill and level culture tests. 64 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE g. Deep and shallow planting tests. h. Deep and shallow cultivation tests. i. Yielding results. 5. Preparation of tables, showing cultural require- ments of vegetables. Vegetables Soil Requirements Season Re- quirements Care Re- quirements 6. Keeping of a garden diary, recording work done, observations made, and results obtained in garden practice from day to day. Special elective courses in agriculture for one half unit credit for junior or senior year. Following the courses in plant industry, which includes agronomy and horticulture, and the courses in animal hus- bandry, the two major groups of agricultural studies making up two units of high school work, there may be offered several elective courses of one half unit weight in the junior and senior years. Such courses would include Soils, The Farm Physical Plant or Farm Engineering, Farm Management, Improve- ment of Plants and Animals, Poultry Husbandry, Dairy Husbandry, Vegetable Gardening, and other special phases of plant industry or animal husbandry which the needs of the local communities may demand, and the school is able to offer. A study made by Mr. S. H. Dadisman, of the Cali- fornia State College of Agriculture in 1917, shows that HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 65 farm mechanics is an unsettled course, and that many changes and much shifting of places in the curricu- lum are seen in connection with this subject among the schools of the country. It seems to be finding a settled place in the third and fourth year. Farm man- agement is strictly a fourth-year subject. The newer courses are providing a hah* unit of special soil work in the third and fourth years. Mr. Dadisman reports that animal husbandry is popular as a second-year study in the Western States, while in the Middle and Eastern States it is found commonly in the fourth year. The Committee on Agriculture for the National Education Association has recommended that such courses as Farm Mechanics, Rural Engineering, Farm Management, and special courses in plant and animal studies be offered in the third and fourth years of agricultural courses. The following outlines of special courses will suggest the nature of the work included under half -unit credits for Soils, Farm Physical Plant, Farm Management, and Improvement of Plants and Animals, Poultry Husbandry, Dairy Husbandry, and Vegetable Gardening. In all cases a good text should be in the hands of the pupils, and the work as outlined by the text supplemented by bulletins, reference read- ing, field trips, and laboratory work as good teachers will be able to do. 6 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE SOILS (One semester One half unit Third or fourth year) Soils and Crop Production I. Soils. 1. Soil physics. a. Nature, composition, origin, and function of soils. 6. Texture, structure, etc. c. Classes according to size of particle and com- position; sand, clay, loam, silt, peat, etc. d. Capillarity, solution and osmosis in relation to soils and plants. e. Soil water. (1) Function of soil water. (2) Three forms of soil water. (3) Control of soil water. (a) Increasing water content by decreasing percolation and evap- oration by increasing capacity. (&) Decreasing soil water drain- age effects of drainage. (c) Irrigation and dry fanning. /. Soil air. (1) Function of oxygen, hydrogen and car- bon. (2) Movements of soil air. (3) Control of soil air tillage, drainage, etc. g. Soil temperature. (1) Effects of soil heat upon germination, growth, soil organisms, etc. (2) Things affecting soil heat color, slope, water content, aeration, humus content. (3) Effects of freezing and thawing. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 67 h. Active organic matter in soil. (Sometimes called humus.) (1) Function of organic matter effect on water content, inorganic foods, soil organisms, texture, etc. (2) Control of organic content crop residue, manures, crop rotation. . Cultivation of soil. (1) Function of cultivation effect on physical condition, wet and dry. effect on moisture, air and heat, effect on soil organisms, effect on plant foods and growth, effect on weeds and other pests. (2) Tools of cultivation. j. Soil organisms. (1) Function of soil bacteria. (2) Conditions affecting growth. (3) Nitrification and dentrification. k. Effects of lime on soils. 2. Soil fertility. a. Elements of plant food necessary to plant growth. 6. Relative amounts of these for crop growth. c. Relative amounts in normal soils. d. Plant foods likely to become deficient. e. Ways in which plant food is lost to the soil cropping, erosion, and leaching. /. Sources of elements likely to become deficient. (1) Crop residues. (2) Barn yard manures. (3) Legumes. (4) Humus and its relation to soil fertil- \ ity. 68 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE (5) Commercial fertility. (a) Nitrogen vegetable legumes, air nitro- gen. animal dried blood, tankage. mineral Chili saltpeter, am- monia sulphate. (6) Phosphorus animal raw bone, steam bone. mineral rock phosphate, acid phosphate, phosphatic slag, (c) Potassium German mines, Kainit. Potassium sulphate and chlo- ride. Wood ashes. (6) Cost of these elements. How to use in a system of permanent soil fertility. (7) Complete fertilizers. (a) Composition. (6) Advisability of use in general farming, (c) Advisability of use in intensive farming. G/) Home mixing of fertilizers. 3. Soil management. a. Crop rotation. (1) In respect to physical effects. (2) In respect to plant food, farm labor, weeds, insects, plant diseases, etc. 6. Use of limestone, phosphorus, legumes, drain- age, etc., in systems of permanent soil fer- tility. 4. National Soil Fertility League its plans and purposes. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 69 Practical Exercises 1. Field trip to study formation of soils by weather- ing, by plant action, by animals, etc. 2. Dig up and observe character and depth of surface soil, sub-surface and sub-soil. 3. Physical examination of soils. Pulverize sand, loam, and clay; sift in sieve, and examine with lenses, noting size of particles, color, grittiness, and composition. Tabulate comparisons. 4. Taking soil samples with soil auger, of surface soil, sub-surface and sub-soil, cover in air-tight fruit cans and take to the laboratory for further study. 5. Determination of hygroscopic water. Use air-dry samples obtained above. ,. 6. Determination of capillary water hi soils taken above. (See texts.) 7. Determination of volume, weight, and apparent specific gravity of soils. 8. Capillary rise of water demonstrations. 9. Verify powers of different soils to hold water. 10. Determination of the rate of percolation of water through soils. 11. Effect of organic matter on retention of water. 12. Effect of cultivation and mulching on evaporation from soils. 13. Effects of lime on physical conditions of soils demonstrated. 14. Gross determination of the per cent of water, or- ganic matter, and mineral matter in samples of soils. 15. Observation study of as many of the ten ele- ments of plant food as possible. 16. Preparation of plant food solutions to be used in pot cultures. 70 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 17. Pot cultures of pure sand and plant food solu- tions. 18. Pot cultures of soils of the community to study limiting plant food elements. 19. Testing soils for acid conditions, with litmus paper. 20. Soil drainage demonstrations. 21. Outdoor plot experiments with various fertilizers and methods of soil management. II. Crop production. 1. Review methods of seeding of the various farm crops. a. Seed selection. 6. Seed bed preparation. c. Amount of seed and depth of planting. 2. Cultivation and tillage. a. Breaking the ground for crops. 6. Purposes of tillage. * c. Shallow vs. deep cultivation. d. The maintenance of the soil mulch. 8. Growth of plants. a. Factors influencing the growth of plants. b. Trace the life history of a corn plant. ;. c. Rate of growth, determined by nature of plant, environment, quality of seed, etc. Practical Exercises 1. Germinate in pots or window boxes, wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, etc., in order to have material for root and whole plant studies. 2. Field trip to study growing crops report pos- sible causes of success or failure in the growth of crops observed. 8. Select specimen of growing corn and make daily [ records of rate of growth and tabulate results. 4. Encourage each student to grow some field crop of his own during the summer. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 71 THE FARM PHYSICAL PLANT (One semester One half unit) Farm Mechanics I. Cement construction. 1. Principles of construction in making blocks, fence posts, walks, tanks, floors, small bridges, silos; re- inforcement in concrete structures. 2. Growing use of cement in farm mechanics. II. Drainage. 1. Location of tiles and sewer drains. 2. Leveling for drains, digging the ditch and finish- ing the bottom. 3. Laying tile and sewer pipe. 4. Various systems of field drainage, and cost of drainage. 5. Nature of infectious diseases, with special refer- ence to those carried by water; source and supply of pure water on the farm. 6. Sanitary drainage and house water supply. IH. Farm machinery. 1. General care of farm machinery. a. Cost of shedding as compared to waste due to weathering. 6. Oiling, cleaning, and sheltering machinery. 2. Detail study of the plough. a. Laws of machinery as applied to the plough. b. Name parts and give function of each. c. Take down and set up a plough. d. Adjustment of plough for deep or shallow ploughing, and for wide or narrow furrow. e. How to handle the plough to regulate width and depth of furrows. /. Various types of ploughs. g. Some plough history. 72 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE S. The mower and self-binder their proper care and operation. 4. List and describe various cultivating tools. 5. List and describe various harvesting tools. 6. The small gasoline engine principles of its con- struction, and its various applications in farm mechanics. IV. The farmstead. 1. Comparative studies in designs for farm buildings, especially houses and barns. , 2. Equipment of houses and barns with heat, light, motor power, water pressure, ventilating devices, and other machinery. 3. Some simple principles of woodwork in farm re- pairs. 4. Surveying, mapping, and describing farm fields and home grounds. Practiced Exercises 1. Making of trial cement blocks with different pro- portions of sand. Practice in cement walk con- struction. , 2. Practical exercises in surveying for tile ditches and in laying tile. 3. Taking down and setting up different farm ma- chinery. 4. Forge work in easy repairing, sharpening plough shares, sickles, etc., and in welding. 5. Practice in simple carpenter work needed on the farm. 6. Determining cost of sheds for farm implements of the homes of the students. 7. Estimation of cost of farm machinery necessary to run a one-man farm successfully. 8. Drawing of house and barn designs. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 73 9. Making surveys and maps of farms. 10. Reports by students on special studies. 11. Practical work in rope tying and splicing. 12. Designing, plumbing, lighting, and heating a coun- try home. FARM MANAGEMENT (One semester One half unit) L The choice of a farm. 1. Location as determined by capital and personal qualifications. 2. Size of farm, determined a. By type of farming to be done. b. By capital available. c. Average size farms. 3. Shape and location of fields. a. With reference to farm buildings. 6. With reference to fencing. c. Most convenient arrangements. 4. Topography as aff eeting drainage, erosion, cul- tivation and frosts. 5. Soils. a. Physical conditions. b. Natural fertility. c. Waste and arable land. 6. Neighborhood. a. Social, educational, moral, and religious sta- tus of the people. b. Kind and conditions of farming done. 7. Improvements, buildings, roads, trees, grounds, etc. 8. Market facilities and demands. IE. Farm labor. 1. How much to hire, where to secure, and how to manage. 74 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 2. How much money should the owner expect to make? Comparison with other occupations. 3. Influence of farm machinery and urban oppor- tunities on farm labor. 4. Methods of rental cash and share. A just pro- portion for each. HI. Farm equipment. 1. Expenditure for buildings, machinery, etc., in proportion to size of the farm. 2. Amount and kinds of live-stock in proportion to size of farm. IV. Systems of farming. 1. Systems of crop rotation. Farm lay-out. 2. Live-stock farming. 8. Grain farming. 4. Fruit and truck fanning. 5. General farming. 6. Maintenance of systems of permanent soil fertility. 7. Principles of marketing in successful business. V. Farm records and crops. 1. Farm bookkeeping. a. Kinds and accounts to keep. b. Methods of keeping accounts. 2. Special records. a. Special farm accounts. b. Crop records of special fields. c. Comparison of cost of production with gross returns in growing given field crops or ani- mals. d. Records in crop rotation in a system of per- manent soil fertility. 8. Insurance, taxes, etc. Practical Exercises 1. Use of the Cornell score card in judging and scor- ing the farms of the locality. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 75 2. Keep accounts with chickens, pigs, cows, gardens, or some field crops, and determine the profit and loss. 3. Enter a set of farm accounts for a whole farm, for at least a part of the year and balance the books. 4. Business forms: Make out an order for goods, a contract with a hired man, a lease, a note, a check, a receipt, etc. 5. Make out farm assessment sheets and determine the taxes to be paid at the local rate. 6. Keep an account of a crop rotation series in a sys- tem of permanent agriculture. 7. List the leading principles to follow in the prep- aration of fruit, vegetables, farm crops and ani- mals for the best markets. PLANT AND ANIMAL IMPROVEMENT (One semester One half unit) I. Origin of domesticated animals. 1. The horse. 2. The cow. 3. The sheep. 4. The swine. 5. Poultry. II. Variation hi plants and animals. 1. Laws of variation. 2. Importance of variation in plant and animal im- provement. 3. Improvement by selection. 4. Natural selection. 5. " Sports " or mutations. HI. Heredity. 1. Laws of heredity. 2. Problems of heredity. 3. Mendel's Law and its application. 76 ' THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE IV. Reproduction in plants and animals. 1. Essentials in reproduction. 1 2. Reproductive organs of plants. 8. Sexual and asexual reproduction. 4. Artificial crossing. V. Breeding. 1. In-breeding and cross-breeding. 9. Asa. method of improving plants and animals. a. Increasing variation. 6. Selection of desirable forms. c. Testing power of selected individuals to re- produce desirable characteristics. VI. Improving farm crops. 1. Plant breeding vs. animal breeding. 2. Crops that have been improved sugar beet, corn, cotton, etc. 3. Improvement by cross fertilization. 4. Improvement by selecting the best for breeding purposes. Practiced Exercises s l. Observation studies of variations in plants, a number of elm leaves, corn stalks or other plants of the same species for each student. Note that no two plants or leaves are exactly alike. 2. Field trip to weed patch, forest, or thicket to study struggle for existence and its effect on variation. 1 By the right approach the instructor can very briefly give the student an excel- lent knowledge of the reproductive process in plants and animals, and incidentally impart a fund of extremely valuable information. The following is about the most successful outline of procedure: Begin with the ovum, the female cell among animals, a common example of which is the egg on the open market; show that the essential part of this ovum is its nu- cleus, which is in most cases microscopic; state that this nucleus will, under proper conditions, develop into a new individual of the same species; sometimes it is a question merely of surrounding conditions, but generally it requires the advent and union with a new nucleus from the male side before development takes place. The mechanism for bringing these two nuclei together varies widely; among plants, gravity, winds and insects are the common agencies, while in animals special* ized organ* are required. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 77 8. Make microscopical studies of pollen grains and egg cell if possible. 4. Make seed selections from seed lots, giving rea- sons for the choice. 5. Practice in-breeding and cross breeding of corn, pop corn, naturally and artificially, and note re- suits. . 6. Detassel a given row of corn and compare its yield with the tasseled row. 7. Make collection of freaks in plant growth. 8. Let each student carry on some crop improve- ment project for the summer, such as an ear-to- row test of corn, hill-row test of potatoes, or some other plant. POULTRY HUSBANDRY (One semester One half unit) I. Poultry-raising. 1. As a business. 2. As one feature of general farming. 3. As a school study. II. Members of the poultry group. III. Types and breeds of poultry. 1. Meat types, characteristics, and breeds. 2. Egg types, characteristics, and breeds. 8. Broiler types. 4. Roaster and soft roaster. 6. General purpose types, breeds, farm poultry. IV. Selection of the breeding stock. 1. Selecting fowls for egg production, influence of age, vigor, etc. 2. Selecting fowls for meat production. . V. The anatomy of the fowl name of external and in terual parts. 78 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE VI. Feeding poultry; young chickens; fattening chickens; and laying hens, especially for winter egg production. 1. The hard grains. 2. The ground grains. 3. Mixture of mashes. 4. Animal feed. 5. Green feed. 6. Grits, shells, etc. 7. Watering. VII. Poultry houses. 1. Location. 2. Construction, various types of houses. 8. Interior arrangement. 4. Equipment. 5. Essentials of a good house. VIII. Egg production factors. 1. Good stock. 2. Properly fed. 3. Suitable buildings. 4. Exercise. 5. Sympathetic care of interest. , IX. Incubation natural and artificial. ' 1. Selection of eggs. 2. Setting the hens. 3. Development of artificial incubation, various methods. 4. Modern types of machines. 5. Factors in artificial incubation temperature, ventilation, moisture, manipulation of eggs, etc. X. Development of the embryo chick. XI. Brooding natural and artificial. 1. Coops, brooders, and essential factors in man- agement. 2. Summer vs. winter brooding. XH. Feeding, management, and general care of young and growing chicks. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 79 XIII. Fattening and killing methods and devices. XIV. Marketing poultry and eggs. XV. Diseases, prevention and treatment. XVI. Study of ducks, geese, and turkeys, as time permits. Practical Exercises 1. Observing and naming the parts of a fowl. 2. Identifying types, breeds, and varieties. 3. Study of differences due to age, sex, and vigor; the pelvic bone test. 4. Selecting eggs for hatching, testing and grading eggs for market. 5. Preserving eggs. 6. Identification of feeds. Mixing feeds. 7. Drawing plans for poultry houses. 8. Construction of coops, feed hoppers, trap nests* etc. 9. Caponizing demonstration. 10. Killing and picking. 11. Making and using material for killing lice. 12. Setting an incubator. 13. Trips to poultry farms. 14. Reports upon local poultry production. 15. Home project raising poultry. DAIRY HUSBANDRY (One semester One half unit) I. Importance of the dairy industry. 1. Dairy products as foods. 2. Relation to soil fertility. 3. Relation to farm labor problems. ' II. Dairy breeds. 1. Origin, history and characteristics of each. 2. The dairy type. 3. Holstein-Friesian. 80 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTUBE 4. Ayrshire. 5. Guernsey. 6. Jersey. 7. Red polls. 8. Brown swiss. 9. Dutch belted. 10. Shorthorn; 11. Milch goats. 12. Starting a dairy herd. HI. Judging dairy cattle. ;IV. Care and management of dairy cows. 1. Cow-testing associations. 2. Problems in management of a herd. S. Dairy barns. 4. Common diseases of cattle. V. Feeding dairy cattle. 1. Winter and summer feeding. 2. Some good rations. 3. Silage and legume hays. 4. Calf-raising. VI. Milk production. 1. Food value of milk. . 2. Essentials in clean milk production. 8. Production and distribution of milk. 4. Pasteurized and certified milk. VII. Farm dairying. 1. The milk-house. 2. Testing milk. 8. Cream separation. 4. Butter-making. 5. Cheese-making. 6. Cleanliness in farm dairying. Practical Exercises 1. Survey of dairy cattle in the district. 2. Naming and locating external parts of a dairy cow. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 81 3. Comparative judging. 4. Scoring dairy cows. 5. Testing individual cows with Babcock test and scales for a given time. 6. Balancing rations and determining feeding stand- ards for dairy cows. 7. Inspection trips to dairy farms. 8. Reports on local dairy barns. 9. Visits to local creameries. 10. Making the tuberculin test. VEGETABLE GARDENING (One semester One half unit) I. Types of vegetable gardening. ^ II. Factors in the location of the garden. HI. Garden seed, clean, pure, strong in vitality. IV. Garden soil and the plant food. 1. Manures. 2. Composts. 3. Commercial fertilizers. 4. Quantities and time of application of manures and fertilizers. V. Controlling moisture and temperature in garden soil. VI. Hotbeds and cold-frames. VIE. Preparation of garden soil for planting. Vlil. Planting the seeds, depth, distances, amount, etc. IX. Cultivation of garden vegetables. X. Control of insect pests and fungous diseases that affect garden vegetables. XI. Cool season crops. ' 1. Spring salads. 2. Leaf lettuce. 3. Spinach. 4. Radishes. 5. Turnips. 82 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 6. Peas. 7. Onions from sets. XII. Transplanted crops, methods of transplanting. 1. Head lettuce. 2. Cabbage. 8. Cauliflower. 4. Brussels sprouts. 5. Tomatoes. 6. Eggplant. 7. Sweet potatoes. 8. Celery. Xm. Systems of intensive cropping. XIX. Harvesting and marketing vegetables. XX. Canning and storing vegetables for winter use. Practical Exercises 1. Drawing plans for vegetable gardens. 2. Making flats, mixing soil for flats, and planting seeds of head lettuce, cabbage, celery, and^to- matoes. 3. Making hotbeds and cold-frames. 4. Planting hotbed. 6. Transplanting from flats and hotbeds to the gardens. 6. Laying out and planting various crops of the garden. 7. Written reports on characteristics and cultural requirements of standard garden vegetable. 8. Preparing vegetables for the market. 9. Trips to observe vegetable gardens and markets. 10. Canning vegetables. ' HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 83 ONE-YEAR HIGH-SCHOOL GENERAL COURSE IN AGRICULTURE I. Agronomy Field Crops and Soil. (10-12 weeks.) A. Special topics for study 1. How plants grow. a. Plants, the basis of all agriculture. b. Life-history of higher plants. c. The biological processes in the growth, nutrition, and reproduction of plants. An elementary study of the life proc- esses of plants. 2. Factors of crop production. a. Seeds. b. Soil. c. Plant food. d. Moisture. e. Warmth. /. Air. g. Tillage. rf. Some economic crops. o. Classification of crops. 6. Importance of good seed. c. Principles of planting seed. 4. Wheat. a. Facts of general interest about this great cereal: origin, geographical range, varieties, grades, uses, etc. 6. Factors in wheat production : place in the rotation, soil requirements, fertili- zing the ground, seed-bed preparation, good seed, methods in planting, insect and fungous control, harvesting, etc. 6. Oats. a. Economic importance of the crop. b. Varieties and adaptations. 84 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE c. Place in the rotation. d. Soil needs, seed-bed preparation, time and methods of sowing. e. Treatment for smut. /. Harvesting and threshing. 6. Corn. a. Facts of general interest about this great crop : origin, geographical range, kinds of corn, uses, etc. 6. Factors in corn production; place in the rotation, preparation of soil, fertil- izers, seed-bed, selecting and storing seed corn, seed testing, corn judging, planting, cultivating, insect control, harvesting, silage, etc. c. Learn the proper methods in every step of successful corn growing. 7. Clover. o. Production and disposition of legumes, the great problem of agriculture. 6. Kinds and descriptions of true clovers. c. Soil preparation, seeding, place in the rotation of red clover. d. Manurial value; hay value. e. Growing clover seed. 8. Alfalfa. a. Interesting facts about the plant; ori- . gin, history, distribution, and varie- ties. 6. Values of alfalfa: a money crop, beneficial as a soil builder, high feeding value for all live-stock. C. Essentials in the production of alfalfa: soil preparation, liming, good seed, inoculation, time and rate of sowing, winter killing. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 85 d. Harvesting, curing, number of cuttings, discuring after cutting, etc. 9. Meadows and Pastures. a. Importance of the grasses. b. Standard forage crops. c. Hay crops. d. Seeding for meadows and pastures. e. Renewing old meadows and pastures. 10. Elementary soil studies. a. The greatest factor in crop production. 6. Origin and formation of soils, agencies of soil formation. c. Soil mulches. d. Organic matter in the soil. e. Types of soil. /. Problems in soil fertility. g. Elements of plant food, sources and amounts. h. Use of manures, lime, and fertilizers. i. The Illinois system of permanent soil fertility. B. Some suggestions for laboratory and home-pro- ject work in agronomy 1. Wheat. a. Studies of the whole wheat plant. b. Observation study of wheat heads and kernels. c. Grading seed wheat. Use of the fan- ning mill. d. Treating seed wheat for stinking smut. e. Examination for Hessian fly. /. Observation of stooling habits of wheat. g. Estimating the stand and per cent of winter killing. 2. Oats. a. Study of the whole oat plant. 86 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 6. A study of the mature head of oats. c. Examination of seed oats. d. Treating oats for smut. 3. Corn. a. Study of the whole corn plant. b. Determining stand of corn in the field. c. Study of a good corn ear. d. Study of the corn kernel. e. Selecting seed corn in the field. /. Preliminary studies of corn ears for corn judging. g. Storing racks for seed corn. h. Corn judging practice. i. Testing seed corn. j. Grading seed for the planter. 4. Clover. a. Field or laboratory study of the red clover plant. b. Estimating the clover seed crop. Ex- amination of clover heads for the midge and caterpillar. c. Examining and testing clover seed for purity and germination. d. Make collection of many kinds of le- gume seeds. 5. Alfalfa. a. Field study of the alfalfa plant. b. Growing a small plot of alfalfa. c. Examining and testing alfalfa seed for purity and germination. d. Inoculating alfalfa seed by the glue method. 6. Meadows and pastures. a. Identification studies of grasses and legumes. Make a list of forage crops in the community. . HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 87 b. Critical studies, observing meadows and pastures. c. Make a collection of different hays. Learn to recognize and describe good hay. 7. Soils. a. Field trips to observe soil formation and types of soil. b. Practice in use of State soil reports. c. Simple exercises in soil physics such as, determination of volumes, weight, capillary rise of water, water hold ca- pacity, effects of soil mulch, effects of organic matter, lime, etc. d. Observation of the elements and com- pounds containing essential plant foods. e. Pot cultures of the soil types of the community. /. Testing soil for acidity. g. Outdoor plots (if summer labor is avail- able.) (See various manuals on Farm Crops and Soils.) II. Animal husbandry. (1O-12 weeks.) A. Special topics for study. 1. Live-stock farming. a. Importance of farm animals in agricul- ture. 6. Pure-breds, grades and scrubs. 2. The farm horse. a. Interesting facts of horse history. 6. Types and breeds of horses. c. Grading-up horses. d. Judging horses. e. Feeding and care of horses. 88 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE /. Points in good horsemanship. g. Common diseases of the horse. 8. The dairy cow. a. The dairy industry. b. Study major dairy breeds, their origin and extent. c. General characteristics of dairy cattle. d. Judging the dairy cow. e. Dairy products with special attention to production and handling of milk. /. Study comparative values of individ- ual cows. Learn of some record cows and their production. g. Calves: care and management. h. Feeding dairy cattle, feeding standards, balanced rations, etc. 4. Swine. a. Facts of general interest, some pig his- tory, importance of the swine indus- try, etc. b. Types and breeds of swine, learn names and characteristics, points of excellen- cies, origin, extent, etc., of each. e. Selecting the stock in beginning the business a good sow, a good boar. d. Feeding and management of swine, feeding standards, supplements to corn, pastures, etc. e. Hog houses. /. Points in the care of the brood sow. g. Care of little pigs. h. Some hog diseases. i. Marketing swine. ' 5. Poultry. a. The poultry industry, scope and op- portunity. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 89 b. The hen as a machine for production. c. Types, breeds, and variety character- istics, origin, history, and joints of ex- cellence of a few important breeds. d. Selecting the layers, age, vigor, etc. e. Housing poultry. Details of construc- tion, interior arrangement, and equip- ment of poultry houses. /. Feeding poultry. Fundamentals of feeding. Different feeds and their uses. Influence of age, breed, season, pur- pose, environment, etc., on feeding methods. g. Marketing poultry and eggs. h. Incubation natural and artificial. t. Diseases, sanitation, and general care. Note: In a one-year general course it is not necessary or advisable to study all phases of each subject. In Animal Husbandry, beef, cattle and sheep have been omitted in this course. Local in- terests may justify emphasis on these topics however. B. Some suggestions for laboratory and home-pro- ject work in animal husbandry. 1. The horse. a. Reports of home types and breeds of horses. b. Study of external parts of the horse. c. Comparative judging. d. Harnessing a horse. e. Reports from experiences with horses. /. Determination of feed rations. - g. Determining age of horse. 2. The dairy cow. a. Reports upon home dairy cattle. 90 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 6. Observation study of a dairy cow, learn- ing dairy type, names of parts, etc. c. Scoring dairy cattle. d. Determining balanced rations for dairy cows. e. Making daily milk records for a given period. /. Using the Babcock test. g. Reports on calf-raising methods. S. Swine. a. Reports on swine at the home farm. b. Study and keep " tab ' ' on market prices. c. Inspection trip. d. Comparative judging. e. Diagraming hog houses. /. Making concrete hog wallows.' g. Making feed troughs. 4. Poultry. a. Inspection trips to poultry flocks. \ 6. Identification of types and breeds. , x c. Exercise in naming parts of the bird. , d. Judging fowls. e. Determining age, sex, vigor, and pelvic bone test. /. Laboratory study identifying feeds. g. Building trap nests, feed hoppers, etc. h. Laboratory study of eggs. Testing and grading eggs. i. Caponizing demonstration. ]. Setting a hen, and an incubator. (See various texts and manuals for details of laboratory work.) . HL Farm business and life. (2-4 weeks.) ,A. Special topics for study. 1. The business of farming. a. The farmer as a business man. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 91 b. The farmer's labor income. c. The farm boy and the farming busi- ness. d. Some problems in farm management. e. Marketing farm products. /. Farm records and accounts. ,2. Country-life organizations. a. Agriculture an unorganized industry. 6. Organization and progress. c. The Grange. d. Farmers' Institutes. e. Country Life Clubs. /. Boys' and Girls' Clubs. g. Agricultural Improvement Associa- tions. k. Other farmers' organizations. i. Some activities of farmers' organiza- tions. 1. Rural-life progress. a. Rural institutions. b. The farm. c. The farm home. d. The country school. e. The roads. /. Political and social life. g. The country church. B. Suggestions for laboratory and home-project work. 1. Determining farm labor incomes. 2. Records of crop rotations. 3. Making farm inventories. 4. Practice with common business forms, such as checks, lease contracts, business letters, notes, etc. 5. Formation of Agricultural Club. 6. Reports on important farmers' organizations. 7. Listing rural-life conditions and needs. 92 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE IV. Horticulture. (10-12 weeks.) A. Special topics for study. 1. Interesting facts about horticulture. a. Branches of the subject. b. Importance in agriculture and life. c. Men, nationally and locally connected with horticultural development. d. Great fruit growing sections of the United States. 2. Propagation of plants. a. Seeds. b. Cuttings. e. Divisions. d. Layering. e. Grafting. . /. Budding, etc. g. General principles to be taken up con- cretely in connection with the plants studied later. 3. Farm forestry. a. Tree studies individual trees. b. Tree societies, the forest, e. Forest conditions. d. The wood supply. e. Forest influences. /. The forests of the United States. g. The farmer's woodlot, planting, care, and use. h. Nut crops. i. Trees in the landscape. 4. The farm orchard. a. Fruit growing on the farm. b. The apple orchard from the beginning to bearing; selecting the trees; varie- ties; the nursery stock; the orchard site; laying out the orchard; planting the HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTUKE 93 trees; pruning young trees; winter pro- tection; cultivating the orchard; spray- ing, etc. c. Rejuvenating old orchards; pruning; spraying; fertilizing the soil; cultivat- ing; top- working. d. Types of fruit. e. Common orchard pests. /. Packing and storing fruit. S. The vegetable garden. a. Factors in locating the home garden. 6. Preparation of garden soil. c. The seed bed. d. Fertilizing the garden. e. Laying out the garden. /. Getting the seed. g. Early and late season plants. h. Planting tables. ; i. Seed sowing. j. Transplanting. k. Thinning. I. Cultivation. Garden tools. m. Serious garden insect pests and dis- eases; methods of control. n. Preparing garden products for the mar- ket. o. Storing and canning garden products. 0. The country beautiful. a. Landscape gardening, the fine art for the country. 6. Beautifying home and school grounds, elementary principles of arrangement and planting. c. Screening unsightly objects. d. Care of the trees. 94 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE e. Making pictures in the landscape. /. Materials to use in planting. B. Some suggestions for laboratory and home-project work in horticulture. 1. Farm forestry. a. Identifying common trees. 6. Study and reports on tree characteris- tics. c. Observation of forest conditions. d. Determining board measure of trees. e. Collection of wood samples. /. Map studies of forest areas in the United States. g. Planting forest nursery. h. Setting a catalpa grove. i. Observation study of nuts. . The farm orchard. a. Reports on home orchards. b. Inspection of nursery stock. c. Laying out a farm orchard. d. Planting fruit trees. e. Pruning young trees. /. Pruning old apple trees. g. Spraying demonstration. h. Laboratory studies of orchard insects and fungous diseases. i. Exercises in grafting. j. Observation studies of types of fruit. k. Judging apples and other fruit. I. Survey of orchards of the community. m. Practice in packing apples. n. Canning and drying fruit. 3. The vegetable garden. a. Making garden plans. 6. Laying out and planting the garden. c. Making hotbeds and cold-frames. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 95 d. Tabulating cultural requirements for vegetables. e. Outline studies for each vegetable. /. Canning and drying vegetables. 4. Beautifying home and school grounds. a. Mapping home and school grounds. b. Critical study of pictures of landscapes. c. Practical planting of trees, shrubs, bulbs, flower seeds, etc. V. Home projects. In addition to the textbook, field, and laboratory work outlined for the one-year general course in agri- culture, each student should choose one home project, and carry it through to some satisfactory point of con- clusion. The essentials of a home project, are: (l) A definite, detailed plan for work at home, covering a more or less extended period of tune; (2) it should be a part of the instruction in school in agriculture; (3) par- ents, pupils, and teacher should agree upon the plan; I (4) the home work should have competent supervision; (5) records and reports of the work must be kept and submitted to the teacher. Many of the home projects done in agriculture may be begun in the fall and others are best undertaken during the second hah* of the school year. The home project is credited in various ways. An additional five or ten per cent may be added to the pupil's grade in agriculture, his grade may be withheld until the project is satisfactorily completed, or from one fourth to one half unit may be added to the stu- dent's school record. The following home projects are recommended: 1. Equipping a farm boy's office. 2. Poultry-raising. 8. Keeping dairy cows. 4. Raising pigs. 5. Growing a plot of corn. 06 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 6. Making insect studies. 7. Growing alfalfa. 8. Soil fertility demonstrations. 9. Vegetable gardening. 10. Tomato-raising. j 11. Potato-raising. 12. Growing cucumbers. 13. Sweet-corn culture. 14. Growing strawberries. 15. Growing sweet-peas. 16. Beautifying home grounds. 17. Care of fruit trees. 18. Setting out a young orchard. 19. Planting a catalpa grove. 20. Growing sudan grass. 21. Growing soy beans. 22. Making a concrete walk. 23. Making a farm gate. 24. Farm, home, and community survey. REFERENCES Textbooks General Agriculture Essentials of Agriculture. Waters. Agriculture. Benson and Betts. A Year in Agriculture. Nolan. Productive Farming. Davis. Agriculture. Call and Kent. Elementary Agriculture. Grim. Elements of Agriculture. Warren. Anthology of Agriculture G. Stanley Hall, in his famous work on Adolescence, states that all branches of study relating to nature are approached best through sentiment, and that sentiment comes before utility. He believes that the reason why many branches of HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 97 science in the high school are not popular with the students is because they are taught in too formal and technical man- ner, and that in textbooks and methods of teaching, we ig- nore natural interests, which according to Dr. Hall lie in the field of myth, poetry, hero-worship, and religious sentiment. Here is opened a field for investigation. If Dr. Hall is right, then in our agricultural teaching in the high school we should make much of poetry, hero-worship, religious ideals, and the anthology of agriculture. Our standard texts have not em- phasized these things, and our agricultural teachers pretty generally hold to the technical, practical, and vocational lines, and are so advised by their agricultural supervisors and leaders. It might be well for some of our high-school teachers of agriculture to try out some work in the anthology of agri- culture as a supplement to the technical subject-matter given. Very little organization of this material is available, but students and teachers might work out a collection to- gether, and thus ascertain among small groups the response to this phase of agricultural interest. Our literature abounds in real literary gems of agricul- tural reference, but these have not been brought together to any considerable extent. Among the more common re- ferences containing good material of this kind, are: Bartlett. Familiar Quotations. Pliny. Natural History. Pope. Essay on Man and other essays. Abercrombie. Folk-Lore and Garden Craft of Shakespeare. Roe. Success with Small Fruits, containing abundant quotations from literature. The Geneva Experiment Station, New York, has pub- lished volumes on each of the leading fruits of New York. In the introduction of each volume are liberal quotations from classic literature. Among horticultural writers whose literary tastes lead 98 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE them to onthological quotations may be mentioned: Adlum, Bailey, Barry, Downing, Hovey, Hussmann, and Longworth. Students of secondary agriculture should have definitely assigned readings and reports from among the foregoing references, and from such books as The Holy Earth, Bailey; The Landscape Beautiful, Waugh; Adventures in Content- ment, Grayson; New Lives for Old and One Way Out, Carle- ton; Joe, the Book Farmer, Harris; The Challenge of the Country, Fiske; Farm Poems, Riley; Farm Ballads, Carle ton. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES IN TEACHING AGRICULTURE A fundamental principle. Whatever the text, method of teaching, order of sequence, or content of subject-matter may be, out of a course of agricultural instruction should result as an asset to the student: first, clear and sure knowledge of the practical things to know and to do in order, here and now, to main- tain the best standards of crop and animal production known, and to make such improvements as are needed to reach these standards; second, good business judg- ment in matters of buying and selling on the markets of the world; and, third, social consciousness of civic relations as a good citizen. The science of agriculture and farm practice. Upon the introduction of agriculture into the high school one often hears from school boards and principals: " Now we must get some land and equipment right away." The idea is to make the course practical, and the opinion seems to prevail that if the school could acquire land and elaborate equipment, then the prob- lem of practical work is solved. There are two weak- nesses to this proposition: first, the failure to realize that the science of agriculture, and the sciences con- tributing to it, may be as practical to the successful 100 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE vocation of agriculture as farm practice; and, second, that as our schools are now organized it is not possible to get any real farm practice from the use of school land. When we think of science as organized knowledge or information upon any subject, and realize that before there can be any scientific farm practice, the farmer must get the science or information, then we can see that a genuinely practical part of agricultural study would be to get the facts and principles of the science, and this can be done through books, lectures, and laboratory work. Of course, the ideal method of agricultural instruction would be to have the school out on the farm in the open country, where the stu- dents could get real farm practice hi an economical way, in addition to the science they could learn from the books and from the practice. Even here the stu- dent could not get the " real thing "; for, as one farmer puts it, " He is not up against the hillside with a mule and a plough, and Betsy and the babies to provide for." Until our schools are willing to break with tradi- tions, and employ an instructor of agriculture for twelve months of the year, procure enough land for profitable production, and provide manual labor at the disposal of the agricultural department through- out the year, our agricultural instruction in the high schools should confine itself to a study of the scien- tific principles of agricultural practice and such other SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 101 sciences as may contribute to a better understand- ing of these principles, worked out through textbooks, bulletins, laboratory exercises, and such contribu- tions to them as the instructor may be able to give, and find opportunity for farm practice work by carrying on, in cooperation with the home farm, home project work. Some principles of scientific agriculture. In order to be concrete in this discussion, it may be well to mention some principles of scientific agriculture which may be taught in various phases of the subject, prin- ciples of science which are eminently practical, be- cause they underlie all successful farm practice, and must be understood whether taught in the classroom or in the field. First, note some of the facts relating to permanent soil fertility. Plants must be fed; their food comes from the air and soil; about ninety-eight per cent of the plant food is carbon, coming from the air; nitro- gen is most often a limiting plant-food element, and in farm practice it is most economically supplied from the free nitrogen of the air by being pre-worked by lower forms of plant life known as bacteria, living parasitically upon the roots of legumes; phosphorus is often a limiting plant-food element and is economi- cally supplied by liberal applications of fine-ground raw rock phosphate incorporated into the soil with organic matter; lime corrects soil acidity, improves the physical condition of soil, adds a plant food, and 102 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE aids in rendering available other mineral foods. These and other facts are practical and teachable, and it does not require expensive equipment or farm prac- tice to get them. It goes without saying, however, that successful farm practice, involving the principles of permanent soil fertility, will fix the knowledge as no other method can do. Second, the principles and facts concerning the life-histories of beneficial and injurious insects, and the stages of fungous diseases well known, may be taught and learned in the high school through labora- tory, field trips, and texts, the student thereby gain- ing practical knowledge for farm practice; learning the life-history of the chinch bug and how to combat it with the oil-line, and good cultural methods; learn- ing how to treat oats for smut and to practice the method in the laboratory; these are all very practical, nor does the teaching require farm practice to give them worth. Third, before there can be improved farm prac- tice in breeding up and growing a productive strain of corn, cattle, or chickens, and making them more resistant to disease and other adverse conditions, principles and methods of plant and animal breeding must first be taught and learned; the learning and the teaching of these principles are as practical a part of agricultural education as then* application in farm practice. In all this discussion it must not be understood that SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 103 the writer does not appreciate the value of practical farm work as a method of teaching; on the contrary, the reader should understand that farm practice in the application of the principles of scientific agricul- ture is the ideal method of vocational agricultural education. The point to be emphasized is that the scientific principles and facts, whether they be learned from books, lectures, laboratories, or farm practice, are an essential part of vocational agriculture and are just as practical as the farm practice. They must be learned first or in connection with the practice. The use of textbooks. Since the teaching of any subject should be a systematic business and proceed by some plan in a more or less organized way, text- books have been found to be necessary in order to assure this systematic procedure. This principle holds for the teaching of agriculture. In most cases the textbook becomes the course of study; hence, the importance of good texts in the teaching of agricul- ture. A good text in agriculture should give ample space to the discussion of principles and practices of the phase of the subject under consideration. It is better to give the information which the student should have, in the pages of the text, than to be con- stantly giving references to which the student sel- dom goes. A good text will be fully illustrated with attractive pictures that supplement the subject-mat- ter. Laboratory and field work will be properly pro- vided for, with definite and explicit directions, to 104 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE demonstrate, afford practice in, verify, or discover principles to be taught. A good text will be scientifi- cally accurate, clearly and forcibly written, and pre- sent, especially for the elementary and secondary schools, stock information well established, proved facts, and successful practices. The lecture method. The lecture method in agri- cultural teaching is extensively used, especially in the case of subjects for which there has been no suit- able textbook. This method is generally used in col- leges, and this fact may account for its extensive use in secondary schools. It happens too often that the secondary teacher gives to his students the same material he received in college, in much the same manner that it was given to him. Lecturing before the class may be a good training for the teacher, but it is not so valuable for the students. The more the students put into a recitation the more they get out of it. There is no teaching until somebody learns. There is less likelihood that a boy or girl will learn through the lecture method than through other methods requiring greater activity on the part of the student. The teacher's task is an easy one, when he only talks on a subject he knows. He may have to use methods calling for greater activities among pupils, and more labor on his part, if any real teach- ing and learning are done. It will be necessary for the teacher to supplement reports and recitations of the students, and to take SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 105 part in the discussions, but he should not use too much of the time. The gift of silence is of rare worth to a teacher. The lecture method in agricultural teaching, even in secondary schools, however, may be profit- ably used to vary the type of recitation, and to give the pupils some preparation for that method of in- struction should they ever attend college. At some point in the study of each large topic, a more or less formal talk or lecture may well be given. An outline of the talk should be placed before the pupils, and this outline, together with brief notes which students should take, will furnish material from which the students should " write up " the lecture in perma- nent notebooks provided for this purpose. When the lecture method is thus sparingly employed, it pro- vides variety to the recitation, opportunity to sum- marize and review subject-matter, drill in note-tak- ing, and a concrete, definite form of assignment in notebook work which is satisfactory in results both to the instructor and students. Reports and class recitations by students. The more general the participation of the students in class recitation the better it will be for the students. If classes are small and the students are fairly mature, informal discussions of assigned readings, practical exercises, field trips, and home projects are successful methods in classwork. When classes are large and the students of first- or second-year standing, it is often necessary to use more formal methods. It may 106 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE be necessary in these classes to draw out discussion with questions at first and gradually develop the topic method. The teacher may supplement the recitations from textbooks and other general class assignments by having students report upon special topics. Perhaps a bulletin of general interest to the class is assigned to a student who has special interest in the subject. A subject may be assigned that involves a study of a number of references, or the report may cover a special project or problem worked out at home or in the lab- oratory, or a visit of agricultural interest. This method should be used to develop weak students, rather than to exercise the most able ones. Too much of the class's time should not, however, be taken up with lengthy special reports by individual students. Good class recitation methods used in teaching other subjects and the general rules of discipline in the school should prevail in the teaching of agriculture. Use of illustrative material. If agriculture is to be given a permanent place in the curriculum, it must be something more than a study of books. Illustra- tive material, laboratory exercises, and home projects must be utilized. Instruction must proceed from these known concrete material things of the farm to the unknown, abstract principles of agricultural science. Visualization of the lessons, made possible through the use of illustrative materials, is essential in arous- ing and maintaining interest, as well as in fixing valu- able information in the mind. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 107 Abundant use should be made of the blackboard in placing before students outlines of lessons, impor- tant points to be remembered, facts involving figures and data, expressed in graphic ways. Charts, pic- tures, and maps serve well as illustrative material. Stereopticons should be used wherever and whenever available. Much agricultural material, such as plants, insects, seeds, animals, etc., may be brought into the classroom. Permanent collections of plants, insects, rocks, soils, seeds, etc., in the form of an agricultural museum, are often the source of much helpful illus- trative material for classroom work. 1 Many phases of agriculture are studied most profit- ably out-of-doors. Growing crops, animals in barns or pasture, orchards and gardens, farm machinery in operation, all these are best studied by field trips. These trips must, however, be planned and supervised with a definite aim in view, if they are to have educa- tional value. Laboratory methods. Agriculture has taken many of its methods from the teachings of other sciences; hence, it has utilized the laboratory method more or less from the beginning. It has used in many cases much the same materials and apparatus as those used 1 For directions concerning the collection and mounting of this material see Collection and Preservation of Plant Material for Use in the Study of Agriculture, United States Department of Agricul- ture, Farmers' Bulletin 586 (1914), and Collection -and Preservation of Insects and Other Material for Use in the Study of Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin 606 (1914). 108 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE "in other sciences, or has copied in the high schools the exercises used in the agricultural colleges. As a result much of the laboratory work in agriculture lacks def- inite aim and application, having therefore but little educational or vocational value. For the sake of having laboratory work, which is thought by many to be in- dispensable to agriculture in order to give educational value to the course, many cheap and foreign exercises are often dragged in, many good exercises properly belonging to other sciences are borrowed under the name of agriculture, all of which have little benefit from the standpoint of vocational training in agricul- ture. It is possible to have such laboratory work as will teach practical aspects of agriculture and yet have all the educational value desired by the more con- servative of school men. The laboratories for agriculture need not be elabo- rately and expensively equipped. The great out-of- doors in the open country, with the farms, forests, fields, orchards, gardens, crops, live-stock, houses, and barns, affords the greatest laboratory equipment of any science in any school on earth. In addition to these only a few well-selected articles, in addition to what can be improvised, need be added. (See Appendix.) For convenience in discussing laboratory work, the exercises may be classified as follows: Experiments, Verifications, Demonstrations, and Practicums. 1 1 From Agricultural Education Monthly, United States Depart- ment of Agriculture, States Relation Service. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 109 a. Experiments. Those exercises which aim to dis- cover truth new to the student are classed as experi- ments. Agriculture as a science is dependent upon men of research, who through their investigations are discovering new knowledge, much of which may be ap- plied to the art of farming. Much of this knowledge is now available in books and bulletins, so that students do not need to seek it from primary sources. While it is not the function of the high school to discover new truths nor even to train scientists, secondary agricul- tural students should become familiar with methods of research, especially the methods used in the agricul- tural experiment stations, which have such an impor- tant relation to the teaching of agriculture in this country. Exercises may be planned to impress upon the students the following essentials of an experiment: (1) A clear comprehension of the object of an experi- ment; (2) an open-minded attitude as to probable results; (3) control of all factors except the one tested; and (4) accuracy and a knowledge of probable causes of errors. Experiments may be performed in the labo- ratory or upon the farm. For example, a student may test the effect of different mulching material on the conservation of moisture with pots or cans of soils in the laboratory. The scales may be used and quanti- tative results secured. If it is desired to learn the effects of different mulches on the growing crop, the experiment may be performed with a crop on the 110 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE school or home farm. In either case the student has no definite knowledge of what the result will be. It is not to be expected that experiments will form a large part of the laboratory work. Those given as exercises should come after skill has been developed through verifications as suggested below. b. Verifications. In this class are included those exercises which aim to verify or confirm facts or principles known to the student. Most of the so-called experiments outlined for secondary students really come under this class of exercises. Such exercises are valuable in satisfying the student that statements of facts and principles or laws are true; in making more vivid impressions; and in developing skill in research methods. A student may read in a bulletin or text that nitrogen has a certain effect on plants under certain conditions. In testing out the effect in the laboratory or in the field he not only becomes assured of its truth, but he also has the fact impressed in a manner never to be forgotten. If the exercise has been planned and supervised as it should have been, he will have acquired some skill and developed some inter- est in and appreciation of the work of investigators. The high school should afford an opportunity for young men to find themselves. The laboratory exercises should be conducted in such a manner that those who have a natural leaning toward research may have their interest stimulated rather than checked. c. Demonstrations. These include those exercises SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES ill in which the teacher or some member of the class uses materials and apparatus in teaching the class principles already known to the demonstrator. In case an exercise is too difficult for the students, or equipment is not available for each student, it may be conducted by the teacher, or some one who has had special preparation, for the benefit of the class. In this there is an application of the inductive method of teaching. Abstract laws and principles are approached through manipulation of materials familiar to the student. Each step should be clearly understood by the student so that when the demonstration is com- pleted proper conclusions may be drawn. These exer- cises have the same effect and value as verifications except that the student does not get the practice and the interest associated with doing the thing himself. There is often economy of time as well as materials in a demonstration, as everything should be in readi- ness before the exercise begins. Demonstrations may be made for the purpose of showing students how a practicum is to be carried out. The teacher may prune or spray a tree or judge farm animals before the class in order that they may have a better idea of how they are to do the work. Another type of demonstration will be considered under home projects. d. Practicums. Those exercises in which the chief aim is the acquiring of skill and in which the knowl- edge of the student is applied are termed " practi- 112 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE cums." In applying the vocational aim in agricul- tural education practice becomes of the utmost im- portance. The student cannot become successful as a farmer unless he becomes skillful in applying the knowledge he has gained. In the teaching of agricul- ture it is often assumed that the student is capable of more farm practice than he really knows. In order to be satisfied that the student knows the art as well as the science in connection with the different branches of agriculture covered by the course, certain require- ments may be made which involve skill in practice. If these requirements are not met by previous train- ing of the student or by school practicums the work should be done at home. For example, every student should know how to plough and to harness and handle a two-, three-, or four-horse team according to the practice of the community. f Special attention should be given to practice in con- nection with the chief crops of the section. In corn- growing sections, for instance, emphasis should be placed on skill in such practices as selecting and testing seed, husking and stringing the ears. Students of animal husbandry and dairying should develop skill in judging animals as an aid to selection; in milking a cow in a skillful and sanitary way; in running a sepa- rator and cleaning it properly; and in teaching a calf to drink. They should know how to mix rations suit- able to the requirements of economic production. In poultry husbandry, the student may be, required to SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 113 run an incubator and brooder, or at least to set a hen in a'proper manner and to test eggs skillfully. In horti- culture, students should become proficient in such practice as simple budding and grafting, making of cuttings, planting of trees, pruning, mixing and apply- ing sprays, and the packing of fruits and vegetables. Whoever is to direct the practicums must be skill- ful and thorough in every detail. If the teacher does not feel competent to direct the work in a line of agri- culture important in the community, he should call for the services of an expert, wherever possible. He should realize that the formation of right habits is very im- portant with the adolescent who is getting a start toward a vocation. Under the direction of a good teacher, this work becomes more than an application of knowledge and drill toward skill; it becomes a medium through which the student may express the best that is in him. Laboratory and field work should be a definite part of each course, and definite time provided for it. The proportion of the time devoted to this work will depend upon the course to some extent. Such courses as dairying and farm mechanics may be mostly practi- cal work while other courses may be taught principally in the classroom. As a rule, when a subject is given five days a week, two of these are devoted to laboratory and field work, the periods for such work being double the length of the class recitation. It is preferable to have the practical work come at the end of the day, 114 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE as some exercises may run overtime. If the students do not have to attend a class after the practical work, they will not have to change clothes again or be con- cerned about their personal appearance. All exercises should be planned ahead, so that materials and equip- ment may be provided and in working order and all necessary arrangements made for work in the field. Stu- dents should be notified of the nature of the work to be done, so that they may dress suitably for the work they are to do. Most of the practice at school should be given as class practicums, i.e., the students doing the work as a class. The home work should be largely indi- vidual. It may be a problem as to how to secure the best results with required home work. At some schools special credit is given for home practicums and home projects. The contest idea may be used to advantage with students of high-school age. A day may be set apart for agricultural exhibits and contests covering such work as judging farm animals and farm products, rope work, fruit packing, stringing of corn ears, etc. Many of the home practicums will become features of the home projects where the project plan is in operation. Teaching farm craft. Among the educational changes which may grow out of the present world war is the attempt to teach farm craft in its most practi- cal aspect to the boys of the secondary schools. The United States Boys' Working Reserve is an organiza- tion effected, under the statutory power of the Na- SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 115 tional Department of Labor, to enroll, from patriotic motives, boys from sixteen to twenty inclusive, for productive service on the farms. The appeal of this organization is strong, especially to city boys. It often seems necessary, in order to get the more com- monplace tasks achieved, that they must be recog- nized, dignified, and credited by some institutional or organized body. The United States Boys' Working Re- serve is such an organization, and proposes, through honorable recognition and suitable rewards for serv- ice, to enlist boys in the work of food production and conservation by helping farmers in such labor as may be called farm craft. Large numbers of boys are en- listing for this service. Several educational problems and opportunities for the high schools arise at this point. 1. What constitutes the essential features of work in ordinary good farm practice, skilled and un- skilled farm craft? 2. How is this farm craft material to be organized into teachable form adapted to school conditions? 8. With what success will high-school teachers pre- sent this work, and the boys get it? 4. As measured by the work of the boys who have come from such school courses, are we justified in attempting to teach farm craft? In Illinois these problems are being attacked. The writer sent a questionnaire to one hundred successful farmers of the State to ascertain what they considered 116 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE the essential farm-craft work in good farm practice, and to learn what they thought of the value of under- taking to teach this work in the high school. Opinions on these matters were also sought from as many ex- perts in the agricultural college. There was a general agreement that the following topics should be included under farm craft: grooming the horses; hitching and unhitching horses; driving and handling horses; feed- ing and care of horses; milking the cows; feeding the pigs; handling machinery in ploughing, seeding, cul- tivating, and harvesting; mending harness; splicing ropes; tying knots; repairing fences and gates; using properly and caring for hand-tools and machinery; hoeing, weeding, etc., in garden and field; feeding all farm animals; and doing the chores. This list, as may be seen, includes many subdivi- sions requiring various degrees of skilled and unskilled labor. With but few exceptions the farmers and college men believed that the high school could help to prepare boys for greater usefulness along these practical farm- craft lines. There was a consensus of opinion that specially prepared circulars, giving information, illus- trations, graphic instructions and definite farm-craft practice while in school, placed in the hands of a teacher, utilizing the resources of the community as far as possible, would be the best methods of instruc- tion to use. Accordingly the Illinois Division of the United States Boys' Working Reserve requested the State College of Agriculture to prepare such a series SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 117 of farm-craft circulars, and the State Council of De- fense secured the cooperation of the high schools of the State to undertake this instruction. In order to en- courage and facilitate this work, all school authorities in charge of high schools were urged to adopt rules and formulate plans by which boys shall not only receive instruction in what has been called the language of the farm, but that no boy should forfeit any credit or receive any handicap in his school because of absence from his classes during his sojourn upon the farm. Circulars were prepared by the faculty of the College of Agriculture on the following topics: 1. When the City Boy Goes to the Farm. 2. Doing the Chores. 3. Grooming the Horse. 4. Hitching and Unhitching the Horse. 5. Driving the Horse. 6. Feeding the Farm Work Horse. 7. Handling the Plough, Disc, and Harrow. 8. Seeding and Making the Seed Bed. 9. Destroying the Weeds. 10. Making Hay. 11. Shocking Grain. 12. Raising Potatoes. 13. Using Hand-Tools. 14. Mending Harness, Splicing Rope, Tying Knots, etc. 15. Making the Farm Garden. 16. Milking the Cows. 17. Feeding and Caring for the Pigs. 18. Caring for Sheep in Summer. 19. Summer Care of Cattle. 20. Poultry Work. 118 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 21. Keeping up Fences and Gates. 22. Work in the Orchard. 23. Rainy-Day Work. 24. The " Why " of Proper Steps in Handling Soil. 25. Learning the Vocabulary of the Farm. In the preparation of these courses each author has aimed to give the minimum of technical agricultural science necessary to furnish a motive and an intelligent background for the work, and a maximum of practical directions, of " What and How to Do " the manual work of the farm. Suggestions are made in each case for the specific school exercises which are feasible, in order to give the boys real practice in lines related to farm craft. It becomes evident at once that there are many dif- ficulties in the way in teaching farm-craft work in the school. Our teachers are not usually fanners and farm- ing is not done at school. If, however, the teachers have had farm experience and are willing to undertake this instruction, and if the proper facts and directions for the practical work are organized and presented, furthermore, if teachers will take the boys to farms, livery barns, implement stores, and encourage them to take every opportunity to practice farm work, even on a small scale, then such a course as here proposed will be at least a " bit " of help to the boy as he goes to the farm to perform his service in the work of food production and conservation. The farm craft course may be supplemented by a general reading course from bulletins, circulars, the best farm papers, and agricultural books, or a more sys- tematic general course from textbooks may be given, but all this reading work should not be over-empha- sized, nor take up too much of the boys' time. At least three fourths of the students' time in such a farm- craft course should be spent in actual practice in farm operations or with farm materials. The Illinois Farm- Craft Course has not been in operation for a sufficient length of time to formulate any conclusions as to the success it will have in the schools, or with what suc- cess it will train the boys for increased usefulness in actual farm work. The signs of the times are promis- ing, and there seems little doubt but that a farm- craft course has a useful place in the agricultural curriculum of the high schools. Home projects in secondary-school agriculture. In several States, particularly those giving State aid for vocational work in secondary schools, a distinction is made between agriculture ordinarily taught in the high school and vocational agriculture. If the faith of the people in agricultural education is to be main- tained, there should be only vocational agriculture in the high school. For those who may later follow agri- culture as a life-work, the high-school course should be a direct preparation for that work. Even though it be given a vocational emphasis for those who will not take up agricultural pursuits, the course will contribute to the liberal education of these students in somewhat 120 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE the same way that English will contribute to the gen- eral education of those who make agriculture their vo- cation. As our schools are now equipped and organized, it is extremely difficult, to say the least, to make agriculture vocational to the extent of giving farm practice with plants and animals on real land and under practical farm-management conditions. To be sure, it is true that to teach the sciences which underlie and control successful farm practice is good, practical vocational work; yet neither the principles nor the science of agri- culture become the real possession of the student until he has worked them out in successful farm practice. Until we can have a school farm for the high school and so organize the course of study that students of agriculture may get real practice in farm production and management under all-year instruction, the home- project feature of school agriculture is the best sub- stitute for practical instruction which can be given. Under this plan the instructor in agriculture outlines certain definite agricultural projects to be carried on at the homes of the students, as a part of the course in agriculture. Massachusetts was the first State to give State aid to vocational agriculture based upon the home-project plan. In 1911 the State Legislature made State funds available for the establishment of agricultural depart- ments in secondary schools. The agricultural instruc- tor, whose salary is paid partly by the State and partly SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 121 by the local community, must be a specially qualified teacher who devotes his entire attention to agriculture. Such teachers are employed for the entire year, and the summer months are spent in supervising the home projects of students. The classwork is centered around the home project which is required of each agricultural student. Since the home-project plan was introduced into Massachusetts, the States of New York, Pennsyl- vania, New Jersey, and Indiana have based school agriculture largely upon the home-project plan. The project as a basis for methods of instruction. According to Dr. W. W. Charters, of the University of Illinois, a project is a reflective act carried on in its natural setting. The project itself is a large problem carried over into action. It may be composed of a group of problems, which constitute subdivisions of the project. The project is the normal life situation. In school we often take these problems out of their natural setting in the project and study them one by one. The tendency is to teach the problems in isolated groups rather than as related to some life situation. The chief educational function of a project is to translate information into conduct. To illustrate, let us take potato-growing as a project. In the life situa- tion, in the natural setting, there would be a flow of certain activities and problems such as preparation of the ground, planting, cultivating, relationships to the home, etc. An attack of the potato beetle appears. Here a special problem arises, calling for information 122 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE as to methods of control. Other interests and activi- ties stop for the time being, and the student sets about to get the necessary information and to apply this knowledge in the solution of the problem. After this problem is solved, the activities continue to the completion of the project. Everything connected with the process is in its natural setting and relates to definite behavior and degrees of interest. In the usual school situation, studying potato- raising, the student is related to a certain flow of activities and interests, such as study hours, recess, classes, books, groups of pupils, attitude toward the teacher, routine of the school, etc. The special prob- lem of the control of the potato beetle comes in the course of study. The information as to the methods of combating the beetle is acquired by the pupil, and the problem is solved, intellectually. The flow of school activities continues, and throughout the whole process a degree of interest may be manifest, but it is quite likely to be considerably less than in the former case. The project method attempts to reinstate the natural situation in the educational process. Conduct or behavior is here the aim of education, rather than information. In the project, intellectual matters flow out of conduct, and flow back into conduct. Conduct is a steady, flowing stream in which problematic situa- tions arise, are solved, and the stream flows on. The chief values of a project are: i (1) It carries information over into conduct. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 123 (2) It arouses interest, since there are many reservoirs from which interest may flow, being tied up with life situations. After one has learned the theory and principles of how to do a thing, there is much left to be done in order to carry it over and apply it in the actual life situation. The process of carrying out a theory or given information is often as problematic as the the- ory itself. The student often needs as much assistance in the actual carrying-out of the technique of a project as in getting the necessary information. Farmers often report that students of school agri- culture are frequently helpless when they come to the farms to do the farm-craft work necessary in successful practice. In order to get the complete benefits of a successful project, the information carried over into action, further assistance must be given the student in this process, and it is at this point that the project method affords the best help. The home project when applied to instruction in elementary and secondary agriculture, includes each of the following requisites, according to Mr. C. II. Lane, of the States Relation Service of the United States Department of Agriculture: (1) There must be a plan for work at home covering a season of more or less extended period of time; (2) it must be a part of the instruction in agriculture of the school; (3) there must be a problem more or less new to the pupil; (4) the parents and pupil should agree with the teacher 124 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE upon the plan; (5) some competent person must super- vise the home work; (6) detailed records of time, method, cost, and income must be honestly kept; and (7) a written report based on the record must be sub- mitted to the teacher. A distinction should be made between home pro- jects and the comparatively simple exercises discussed under laboratory methods. These exercises for the most part are utilized to illustrate and apply some principle, or for the purpose of increasing skill in some farm operation. A project to be worthy of the name should involve skill in many operations, the applica- tion of a number of principles and problems of gen- eral management. To accomplish this it should cover a branch of farming that will extend over a compara- tively long period of time. As it is to be a part of the instruction in agriculture it should have a definite relation to the course of study. Growing an acre of corn would mean the application of many principles of agriculture and would involve skill in general farm operations as well as those connected especially with corn culture, hence it would be a suitable project for a student in general agriculture or agronomy. Caring for an orchard or a garden would be a suitable project for a student in a class in horticulture because it would involve many of the principles and practices of that phase of farming. Students in animal husbandry may select as projects the care of a flock of poultry, or of one or more pigs in which the general principles of animal SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 125 production will be applied. If the project is to have the highest educational value it must involve new problems. A student may grow an acre of corn year after year and continue to learn something new, but if the work of the first year has been directed properly it will have far greater educational value than that of the succeeding years. After growing corn one year, the student may better take up some other crop, or better still an entirely different phase of farming. Parents should be interested in the pupil's home project. The boy and the teacher should consult with them from the beginning. The teacher should explain to the parents that agricultural instruction is conducted on the principle that there are still educational op- portunities at home, and that the school, in order properly to perform its functions, must make use of these opportunities. The parents must be in sym- pathy with the idea that the home and school need to work hand in hand to offer the best educational ad- vantages to the pupil. The following extracts from a letter written by H. B. Allen, of LeRoy High School, New York, to the par- ents of the boys studying agriculture in his school, illustrate an excellent way in which to supplement per- sonal interviews with the parents in an effort to enlist their cooperation: Instruction in agriculture in the high school cannot pre- tend to be complete and sufficient when it restricts its field to the classroom and laboratory. Instruction in such a sub- 126 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE ject deals with living and definite objects, although treating considerably of the general theories and practices relating to the same. Only in so far as the teaching is connected with everyday occurrences and the application of the general principles is demonstrated will the instruction prove effec- tive. The laboratory work and field trips are efforts in this direction. However well these may be conducted, the teach- ing has not proved effective until the pupil has solved some problem related to the subject and tested the thoroughness of his knowledge. As a practical test the home project has been decided upon. Each pupil who takes work in agriculture is expected to take up a home project. The project must be related to the subject which is being studied that year in school. Because of the seasonal nature of home projects they are necessarily being continued both during school and after school has closed. The instruction is so planned that school time will be omitted and outside time credited in order that no injustice may occur. The different kinds of home projects may be grouped as follows: 1. Productive projects. 2. Experimental or demonstration projects. 3. Improvement or construction projects. Group 1 includes those projects having for their aim the successful raising and care of a crop, animals, etc. Group 2 is composed of those projects which discover or demonstrate some practical application of the theories and practices stud- ied. Group 3 is a large indefinite group which includes nearly all not in 1 and 2. Remodeling a poultry-house, beauti- fying the home grounds, would be good examples of this group. The pupil should choose some project satisfactory to the parents and approved by his instructor. It is intended that these projects shall not in any way become an unjust bur- den on the pupil or the home. Unreturned expense is unde- SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 127 sirable, and for this reason productive projects are sug- gested as more feasible. It is intended to make the project a definite problem in itself. It is best that the work be done in so far as possible by the pupil himself. This is not to restrict parental in- terest, but rather to prevent any lack of responsibility on the part of the pupil. In conducting the project the pupil will be supplied with all necessary blanks to keep records, costs, etc., in order that a complete summary of production and profit may result. The instructor intends to keep thoroughly in touch with every pupil carrying on a project. In conclusion, let it be stated that if a project can be adjusted so as to fit into the customary routine of duties of the pupil at home, such conditions are ideal. The project, however, must be a unit in itself and not neglected or over- looked because it may be routine. Remember that the first object of the project is primarily to test the instruction gained by the pupil, and to reinforce the instruction through practical experience. The home-project plan has not been used sufficiently long to have established a very definite order of pro- cedure. There are many problems arising in connec- tion with the efforts to apply the home-project methods in secondary-school agriculture. The following prob- lems are mentioned by Mr. Barrows in Farmers' Bul- letin 346, of the United States Department of Agri- culture: 1. Supervision of the projects. 2. Fitting the projects to the course of study. S. Giving credit for projects. 4. Contests, prizes, and awards. 5. To what extent shall projects yield a profit. 128 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 6. Securing cooperation of parents. 7. Substitutes for home projects. 8. Preparation of teachers. a. Suggestions for the control of home projects. In order to meet and solve these problems satisfactorily for the time being at least, the instructor in agriculture must be guided by principles and have pretty definite convictions as a working basis for procedure. The following suggestions may be helpful: (1) Project work when conducted properly is ex- pensive, and supervision must be provided. Schools which cannot afford to hire an instructor for the full year, may well hesitate about adopting the plan, for summer supervision is most important to the success of home-project work. The teacher should not scat- ter his attention over too wide a range of projects. Local agricultural conditions will govern the number and choice of projects feasible. (2) If the agriculture given is a general one-year course, the projects may be more varied and several different ones carried on by members of the same class; if, however, the course is a special one, such as agron- omy, animal husbandry, or horticulture, then the projects should be selected within the field of study. It is a question whether the work and study of agri- culture should grow out of the project, or whether the project should develop from and supplement the agri- cultural study. In the high-school courses it has been found more practical to follow the latter method. Such SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 129 time as seems necessary to the successful progress of the project is given in the regular classwork in agri- culture. (3) The crediting of home-project work presents a difficult problem. It may be feasible in some cases to withhold the credit in agriculture until the student has carried out the project to the satisfaction of the instructor. In other cases the project has been graded on the same basis as the class-work in agriculture, and an average of the two grades taken to make up the final grade. Many instructors weigh the various proj- ects in terms of units of agriculture, and add from one fourth to one unit to the pupil's high-school credits for the satisfactory completion of a home project. In the writer's opinion this is a better way to give credit for home-project work in agriculture. (4) The project work must be related to the high- school instruction as a particular feature of it, yet those students carrying on the home projects may well be organized into an agricultural society or club, and af- filiated with the State boys' and girls' club movement, or some other national organization. The contest fea- tures including prizes and awards need not be em- phasized in the high-school project work, but with- out detracting from the educational or vocational value of the work, these club ideas may be used with success. (5) The project undertaken in high-school agricul- ture should be considered worth while by the student. 130 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE It must require effort and management, and be prof- itable withal. When a student carries on a successful project he should have hope of some reward in addition to the school credit he may gain. No false standards, such as are often given by high awards, should be set before the student, but the true standard of success and productive project. (6) In all efforts to secure the cooperation of the parents in home-project work, the teacher will ac- complish more by working quietly to win the con- fidence and good-will of the parents and patrons than he will by making arbitrary rules. A campaign of edu- cation among the parents is often necessary before home-project methods can be successfully used. (7) If there are students of agriculture who do not live on the farm or who do not have resources avail- able for carrying on a home project, it is usually pos- sible to secure land or animals from others to carry on the work. Caring for dairy cows, gardening on vacant lots, pruning and spraying orchards, etc., are projects which may be undertaken on a profit- sharing basis with owners. (8) The lack of preparation of teachers to supervise home-project work is~perhaps the greatest problem at present. Teachers who are prepared to succeed in the supervision of home projects are much in demand. It is worth while for teachers of agriculture to make an extra effort to prepare themselves for this phase of vo- cational agriculture. In several of the agricultural SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 131 colleges the departments of agricultural education are now giving special attention to practical training for project work. b. List of home projects suggested. Without attempt- ing to give weighted credit-unit value or to classify the projects upon any basis of time or method of pro- cedure, the following list of home projects is sub- mitted: 1. Equipping a farm boy's business office. 2. Poultry-raising. 3. Keeping dairy cows. 4. Raising a litter of pigs. 5. Raising a calf. 6. Growing an acre of corn. 7. Growing alfalfa. 8. Soil-fertility project. 9. Growing Sudan grass. 10. Vegetable gardening. 11. Tomato-raising. 12. Potato-raising. 13. Growing cucumbers. ' 14. Growing strawberries. 15. Growing sweet-peas. 16. Sweet-corn culture. 17. Beautifying home grounds. 18. Care of fruit trees. 19. Starting a young orchard. 20. Planting a catalpa grove. 21. Some insect life-history studies. 22. Making concrete walks. 23. Making a farm gate. 24. Farm, home, and community survey. (See Appendix for plans of home projects.) 132 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE Supervised farm practice under the Smith-Hughes Law. The Smith-Hughes Law providing Federal funds to the States for the salaries of teachers of vocational agriculture hi secondary schools, states, in section 19, " That such schools shall provide for directed or super- vised practice hi agriculture, either on a farm provided for by the school or other farm for at least six months." This practical work may be either regular farm occu- pations or special home projects as referred to above. Regular farm work for this purpose implies an inter- pretation of the regular farm duties carried on by the pupil in accordance with outlines or instructions pre- pared by the supervisor, corresponding reports by the pupils to the supervisor, and actual visitation by the supervisor to inspect the pupil's work and to confer with him. The home-project work, as described in the fore- going pages, supplies one form of supervised farm practice under the provisions of the Smith-Hughes Law. The following excerpt from Bulletin 8 of the Illinois Board for Vocational Education, relating to the supervision of regular farm work as an integral part of the school course, was a suggestion of the author in an approach to one solution of this problem: In order to provide more definite standards and better organization of the supervised practice work in agriculture, we may classify the farm operations commonly found in the State, under the following systems or kinds of farming: 1. Grain farming. . Live-stock farming. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 133 3. Dairy fanning. 4. Truck farming. 5. Fruit farming. 6. Poultry farming. 7. General farming. Should a student in the vocational course in agriculture choose to do his six months' supervised farm practice in helping his father or as a hired laborer in any one of these systems of farming, then, in addition to the certificate of work signed by the parent or guardian to the teacher of agriculture, the student should have a special notebook in which to write, each week of the twenty-four, the answer to one of the twenty-four questions here submitted for the kind of farming he is doing. The supervisor should visit the student at least once each week, and the principal topic for discussion or demonstration for the visitation should be the point in question to be answered that week in the student's notebook. The following points suggested for the various systems of farming may not come up in actual order of farm operations as here listed, but the supervisor should designate such questions for his visit and for the written paragraph answers in the student's notebook as apply as nearly as possible to the work the student is doing on the farm at the time. A permanent notebook which may be labeled, "The Smith- Hughes Supervised Farm Practice Notebook," should be used for this work. A few introductory pages should be written describing the farm, the system of farming, and the general plan of the student and supervisor for the season. It would be well to set aside pages for a diary of operations and the work certified to each week by the parent. Suggestive Points for the Supervised Farm Practice in Systems of Grain Farming 1. Meaning of crop rotation; values of crop rotation; the rotation used on the farm where the boy works. 2. Leading legume crops of the State; value and use of 134 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE legumes; the legumes produced on the home farm; disposition made of the legume crop. 3. Essentials in successful production of red clover. Use of red clover as a feed, and in permanent soil fertility. 4. Essentials in successful production of alfalfa. Har- vesting and use of alfalfa. 5. Use of lime-stone in soil improvement, values, methods of application, soil testing for acidity, etc. 6. Use of rock phosphate in a system of permanent soil fertility. Times and methods of application. 7. Some good varieties and successful methods hi oats seeding. How treat oats for smut? Demonstrate. 8. What are the points to observe in good ploughing, i.e., breaking the ground in preparation for seeding? 9. Essentials of a good seed-bed. Some implements to use in making a good seed-bed. 10. How are we to judge good seed corn? Essential quali- ties of good seed corn. 11. Describe methods of testing seed corn used on the farm where student works. Test seed corn. 12. Describe method of planting corn followed on the home farm. Give all details. 13. Why do we cultivate corn? What cultivator did you use this season? Are you using deep or shallow cultiva- tion. Why? How many tunes to cultivate? 14. What weeds do you find in the corn, or troublesome any- where on the place? Discuss best methods of con- trolling them. 15. What harvesting practice is necessary in making good timothy hay? Clover hay? Alfalfa hay? What yields are you getting this season? 16. Describe good methods of shocking and setting up wheat and oats. Are the prospects good for a large yield? Give reasons. 17. What insect pests were on the corn or wheat this season ? To what extent the injury? Outline methods of control. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 135 18. Essentials in growing soy beans. 19. The yields of oats and wheat. What yields should we reasonably expect? 20. Explain the methods of using eveners in three-horse hitch and the tandem four-horse hitch in fall ploughing. Which is the better hitch? Why? 21. Importance of selecting seed corn in the field. Describe methods used. 22. When do you cut corn for the silo? Describe methods of filling silos. Value of silage. 23. Estimated yield of corn on home farm. Probable rea- sons for high or low yield. Methods of marketing. Essentials in proper storage of seed corn. 24. Make out a summary and financial statement of the leading crop on the farm. Summary of Labor Operations Hours of labor at current price Man Boy Horse Cost Ploughing Harrowing and rolling Seed preparation Seed treatment Cultivating Harvesting ................ Storing or marketing Total 136 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE Summary of Financial Statement Item Quantity Price Total Charges Credits Seed Chemicals treating seed Fertilizers Rent Use of building Products marketed or stored . Net profit or loss Total Suggestive Points for the Supervised Farm Practice in Systems of Live-Stock Farming 1. Values of live-stock on the farm. Kinds, number, and estimated value of live-stock on the farm where the boy works. 2. What are pure-breds, grades, and scrubs? Number SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 137 and kinds of each on this farm. Advantages of pure- breds. How are live-stock improved in breeding? 3. What is pedigree? Registration? Advanced registry? Copy the official registration to four generations of one pure-bred animal on the farm. 4. Characterize the breed of swine raised on the farm. Select and describe the points, as you would judge them in the best brood sow on the farm. 5. Describe the feeding systems used for the swine on the farm. Figure out the nutritive ratios. Are there bal- anced rations and good standards? 6. What provision is made for housing -the hogs? Are conditions sanitary? Make suggestions for improve- ment if needed. 7. Describe the breed of beef cattle fed on this farm. With the help of the supervisor place a ring of steers and describe in your notebook why you placed No. (?) first. 8. Describe the feeding methods used on the farm. Are they good? Why? 9. Describe the breed of sheep raised. Place a ring of sheep and state why you select ike first, second, etc. 10. Characterize a good fleece. Examine and determine some good specimen. 11. Describe the methods of feeding and housing sheep used on this farm. Criticisms. 12. Characterize the dairy breed on the farm. Describe a cow in the herd you would place first in judging, with reasons for your judgment. 13. What feeding rations are used? Are they good? Why? 14. Estimate from the daily milk record the yearly record of each cow. How would this total weight compare with the cow's weight? How does this yield compare with some world record cows? 15. What is the butter-fat test for each cow in the herd? How do these tests compare with proper standards on the butter-fat content? 138 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 16. What are the distinctive characteristics of the breed of horses used on the farm? 17. Practice judging a ring of horses. Place the best horse and write out your reasons. 18. What feeding methods and standards are used for the work horses on the farm? Determine whether they are good. 19. List eight or ten points in good horsemanship. Demon- strate to the supervisor that you can hitch, drive, and handle a team well. 20. Describe the breed characteristics of the poultry raised on the farm. 21. What rations are used in feeding the poultry on this farm? Are they good? Why? 22. Criticize the housing of the poultry on the farm. How should it be improved if necessary? 23. Quote the market prices for all grades and classes of live-stock for the current week. 24. Make out a summary and financial statement for one group of live-stock for the period of supervised work. Kind and Number of Animals Pounds Pounds Cost of f eec grain fed roughage fed Grain Roughage Total Month Month Month Month Month Month Total... SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 139 Date Products sold Quantity Price Total Month Month Month Month Month Month Total... Summary Charges Credits Labor boy Labor horse Feed '. JT* nf hiiilHi'ngS ............ i . , , 1 1 . Miscellaneous ....... Manure Products marketed Inventory Net profit Totals 140 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE For the general farming system the supervisor may choose from the lists on grain farming and live-stock farming any twenty-four points applicable to the student's case. In fact, these points are only meant for suggestions and methods, and the supervisor should feel at liberty to adapt the points and reports to the student's work and community interests. For the other systems of farming in which students of voca- tional agriculture may offer their supervised practice work, the agriculture teacher should carefully prepare the twenty- four points, admitting of practice and demonstration upon the supervisor's visits and having definite notebook answers to be made by the student. Suggestive Points for the Supervised Farm Practice in Farm Mechanics 1. Rope work. (a) Up crown, down crown, whipping ends. (6) Knots; square, weavers, bow-line, grain sack, pipe hitch. (c) Repair broken strands, long splice, short splice, loop. (d) Halters; horse, cattle, emergency. 2. Babbeting and dressing a box. 3. Get a soldering outfit. Do elementary soldering, repair work, etc. 4. Belt lacing, cement splice, single cross lace, double cross lace. 5. Pipe cutting and fitting. 6. Some forge and iron work, bending, clevis making; use old machines, take apart and put together, study parts and construction, repair broken parts, binder heads and old disc harrows especially. 7 Wood-working. (a) Construction of equalizers, especially the wood parts, possibly buy iron and complete the con- struction. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 141 (b) Make a good farm gate, use old lumber if neces- sary; make it right. (c) Make pig self-feeders, chicken coops, etc. (d) Make a hayrack. 8. Concrete work. Practice to get materials properly proportioned. Make slabs and posts, compare the breaking strength fpr tests as to success of your work. : NOTE : For the notebook work, describe each practice or construction, and state the fundamental principles learned. The supervisor of agriculture may find on any farm where his students are working opportunities to give some excellent practice from among the points suggested above. Use of reference materials. Books and other pub- lications intended for the use of farmers and students of agriculture are not only increasing in number, but improving in quality as well. The Department of Agriculture at Washington, D.C., the various State agricultural colleges, and many commercial institu- tions publish valuable material which may be used as reference by secondary schools teaching agriculture. The leading agricultural journals should be available for the use of the students. The teacher of agriculture should keep in touch with the sources of all these reference materials, and arouse interest in his students to collect and use them. Students may be required to obtain such available bulletins as bear upon their courses and projects. For most reference reading students must depend upon the school library. With so much material avail- 142 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE able there is little excuse for a high school being with- out some kind of an agricultural library. Much of the best reference material is in the free publications, but in such a form that it is often overlooked. The teacher should use a card-index system, so that students may readily find the available information on any topic which may be assigned. Bulletins should be in suit- able boxes arranged according to the card-index system in use. Covers may be provided for bulletins which are used extensively. If files are not kept of the farm papers, clippings may be made of such articles as have a bearing upon the subjects studied. These clippings may be placed in large envelopes or letter files and indexed under title of subject with the bulle- tins. If the students are made acquainted with sources of information and established in efficient habits in the use of that information, much will be accomplished in their training. SYSTEM OF FILING [ (Courtesy of G. A. Deveneau, Agricultural Librarian, University of Illinois) Classification of Agriculture For use in arranging an agricultural collection of books, bulletins, and clippings Agricultural economics, education and sociology. . 1 Farm organization and management. 0.2 Cooperative or "mutual" enterprises. . 3 Agricultural credit and insurance. . 4 Agricultural education. . 5 Agricultural experiment station. . 6 Agricultural extension. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 143 . 7 Social activities and organizations (e.g., granges) . 0.8 Country church and Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. . 9 History of agriculture. 1 Soils. 1 . 1 Soil surveys. 1.2 Soil physics (soil depreciation and its preven- tion). 1.3 Soil chemistry (constituents and fertility treat- ment). 1.4 Soil cultivation and tillage (1.45 or 9.5? Dry farming). 1 . 5 Crop rotation. 1 . 6 Soil moisture. 1.7 Fertilizers. 1 . 8 Soil bacteriology. 1 . 9 Climate and weather. 2 Agricultural engineering. 2.1 Drainage. 2.2 Irrigation. 2 . 3 Farm buildings. 2.4 2.5 Roads and bridges. 2 . 6 Fences and minor structures. 2 . 7 Farm implements and machinery. 2.8 Water supply. 2.9 Sanitation. 3 Economic entomology, plant diseases, and pests. 3.1 Apiculture. 8 . 2 Other beneficial insects. 3 . 3 Harmful insects affecting animals. 3 . 4 Harmful insects affecting plants. 8 . 5 Insect repression. 3 . 6 Diseases of agricultural plants. 3.7 8 . 8 Weeds and poisonous plants. 3 . 9 Injurious animals. 144 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 4 Field and forage crops. 1 Cereals. 4.11 Wheat. 4.12 Barley. 4.13 Oats. 4.14 Rye. 4.15 Emm or and spoltz. 4.16 Corn. 4 . 17 Grain sorghums Kafir, milo, and durra. 4.18 Rice. 4 . 19 Buckwheat and others. 4.2 Corn (?) 4.3 Wheat (?) 4 . 4 Grasses Hay and pasture. 4.41 Meadows and pastures. 4.42 Bermuda. 4.43 Bluegrass. 4.44 Millets. 4 . 45 Prairie and native grasses. 4.46 Sudan grass. 4.47 Timothy. 4.48 4.49 Others. 4.5 Legumes. 4.51 Alfalfa (Lucerne). 4.52 Clovers. 4.53 Cow peas. 4.54 Field peas. 4.55 Peanut. 4 . 56 Soy beans. 4.57 Sweet clover. 4.58 Vetches. 4.59 Others. 4.6 Alkaloidal, medicinal, and oil-producing plants. 4 . 7 Textile and fiber plants. 4.71 Cotton. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 145 4.72 4.73 Flax. ; 4.74 Hemp. 4.75 Jute. 4 . 76 Broom corn. 4.8 Sugar-yielding plants. 4.81 Beet. 4.82 4.83 Cane. 4.84 4.85 Sorghum. 4 . 9 Root crops and miscellaneous forage crops. 5 Horticulture (plant culture). 6 . 1 Plant culture (including seeds, planting, pruning, breeding, etc.). 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Vegetables. 5.6 Fruits. 5.7 Floriculture. 5 . 8 Landscape gardening. 6.9 Forestry. 6 Animal husbandry (animal culture). 6.1 Cattle. 6 . 2 Horses and mules. 6.3 Sheep and goats. 6.4 Swine. 6.5 Poultry. 6.6 Birds. 6.7 Dogs and cats. 6.8 Fish, etc. 6 . 9 Veterinary science. 7 Dairy farming and manufacture. 7.1 General. 7.2 Dairy cattle, breeding and feeding. 146 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE 7.3 Milk. 7.4 Condensed and skim milk. 7.5 Cream. 7.6 Butter. 7.7 7.8 Cheese. 7.9 Ice cream. 8 Feeding of animals. 8 . 1 Composition of foods for animals. 8.2 Nutritive value. 8.3 Preparation and use. 8.4 Preservation silage. 8.5 Adulteration. 8 . 6 Food analyses. 8 . 7 Food experiments. 8.8 Soiling. 9 Home economics. 9.1 Foods cooking. 9.2 serving entertaining. 9.3 preserving canning. 9.4 Home and its furnishing. 9.5 9.6 Household administration and management. 9.7 Clothing. 9.8 Laundry. 9.9 Nursery and sick-room. Liberal use made of Wyer Expansion of D.C. 1914, and other classification schemes. Agricultural extension in the high school. Contempo- rary educational philosophy demands a free field for educa- tional experimentation, an evaluation of educational attain- ments in terms of personal and social efficiency, refinement and happiness, and an expansion and extension of school activities. 1 1 Dewey, Schools of To-morrow. When any school or department of that school gets away from the monastic ideals of education, and is willing to bring whatever of good it possesses to all the people within reach, then the school not only takes on new life within itself, but enlists the moral and financial support to a larger degree of all the people it endeavors to serve. This has been shown in the history of the colleges of agriculture of the country. For a score or more of years the Land-Grant Colleges of Agriculture pursued the even tenor of their way, scarcely known outside the campus farm, drawing few students to the college, and receiving little or no State aid. When, however, these colleges began to establish extension departments, and to have the extension spirit, they began to enroll students by the hundreds, and to receive State aid by the thousands and millions. The high schools, especially since they are of aristo- cratic origin and have been born and bred in classic atmosphere, must also see to it that they break down the closed-wall ideals and serve the common people with a democratic and universal education. This the American high schools are beginning to do through the introduction of vocational courses and the develop- ment of the community service and extension ideals, and as a result of this movement we witness the most remarkable growth of any educational institution in all history, in that of the modern high school. With the introduction of agriculture into the high 148 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE school, a new and practical means of effective exten- sion service is possible, and the high school having a department of agriculture fails to see its golden op- portunity when it neglects extension activities along agricultural lines. Once the spirit and value of exten- sion service is felt and realized by the high school, then the whole school through its various activities be- comes a community-serving institution in the broad- est sense. a. The objects of high-school extension are: l 1. To vitalize the regular work of the school by articulating it more closely with the home, farm, shop, and other forms of human en- deavor. 2. To carry the benefits of the school to many groups who are deprived of its direct influences. 8. To cooperate with all educational agencies of the community which do not at present come under school administration, utilizing these as far as practical in the educational work of the school and community. 4. To institute promising educational efforts that may result in increased human pros- perity and welfare. There are well-established educational and govern- ment principles underlying the movement for exten- sion work: 1 Modified and adapted from Hummel, High-School Extension Circular, University of California. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 149 1. Government control and direction aims in all good democracies to increase individual and social content and happiness. 1 2. Whatever organized society desires to do for the common good are legitimate matters for governmental agencies to foster. 3. A continuation of education of the right sort is desirable for every citizen of a democracy. 4. Modern civilization demands of every citizen a more extensive and differentiated training than the conditions of a simpler age required, and the adaptation of educational forms and progress to the changing needs of society is in harmony with the principle of evolution and gives warrant for the continued enlarge- ment of public school activities and increased financial support thereof. Many agencies beside the school are contributing to the work of education, the home, church, theater, library, playground, club, workshop, farm, business house, press, museum, art gallery, concert hall, lecture platform, legislative hall, convention hall, and the great out-of-doors. Without going into detail to outline forms of ex- tension activities through which a high school may serve the entire community along many lines of human interest, a few suggestions, referring to the four ob- jects of extension work given above, may be grouped about these larger aims as forms of extension work. 150 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE b. Forms of extension activities for: Object I. 1. Amateur dramatics. 2. Pageantry. 3. Literary societies. 4. School paper. 5. School farm. 6. Musical programs and societies. 7. School credit for home work, correlation of home life and school work. Object II. 1. Night schools. 2. Courses for retarded pupils. 3. Part time day schools. 4. Continuation schools, short courses, etc. 5. Adult day schools. 6. Vacation schools. 7. Schools for defectives. Object III. 1. Bible study, Sunday-Schools. 2. Schools as social centers. 3. Public recreation. 4. Specific vocational instruction. 5. Club work, home projects, etc. 6. Teachers' training courses. 7. Red Cross work. 8. Library training courses. 9. Home-making courses for girls. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 151 Object IV. 1. Exchange teacher plan. 2. General language courses. 3. Elementary courses in civics, philosophy, astronomy, etc. 4. Patrons' institutes, people's week, etc. 5. The high school a community laboratory, a bureau of local research, local prob- lems studied, surveys made, tests made, etc. 6. Junior college work. The teacher of agriculture who plans to begin a policy of extension service from his department, may wisely practice a little " watchful waiting." This may also be good extension policy for the high school as a whole. It may not be tactful to announce at first any extension plans, but they should early be formulated and set in motion, whenever and wherever the occa- sion and opportunity are ripe. The extent and amount of agricultural extension work done by the high school will depend very much upon the type of school in which agriculture is given. When the school does not require the teacher of agriculture to teach other sub- jects, and gives him at least half of his time for ex- tension work, it is evident that such work will develop to larger proportions. c. There are four rather effective methods of approach to agricultural extension work : First, the community survey should be made. 1 1 See Appendix. 152 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE Through the survey, the natural resources of the com- munity may be determined, and the nature of the or- ganizations and institutions affecting agricultural and country life interests. Second, home-project work, as described earlier in this discussion, is an excellent method of approach to extension service. By this method practical instruction in agriculture is brought to the homes of the boys and girls, and not only the students who attend school and do the project work are benefited, but the parents and other out-of -school folks, seeing the results of success- ful home-project work, may gain valuable agricultural information. Third, individual work among farmers is real ex- tension work, practical and possible, when the teacher of agriculture has time and when he is capable of doing it. Such work as testing seeds and milk, examin- ing soils, advising on points of farm management, pruning and spraying fruit trees, vaccinating swine for cholera, testing cows for tuberculosis, caponizing young cockerels, treating oats for smut, referring to authorities the different problems arising, etc., are common methods of individual extension work the high-school department may do, but the teacher must be "mighty sure" that he knows his ground, from an abundant and successful experience, as well as from technical scientific knowledge along the line of work he attempts. Fourth, organization of farmers' clubs forms an SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 153 opportunity for good extension activities by the high- school agricultural department. In addition to the organization of agricultural clubs among the interested students in the high school, the school may be active in the organization and leadership of agricultural socie- ties, farmers' clubs, and country-life clubs, and other similar organizations among the adults of the com- munity. Where there is a county agricultural adviser, the school may follow up and conserve the work of the adviser in all his efforts at organization in the com- munity. One interesting form of cooperation which is a splendid piece of extension work, is an agricultural advisory committee chosen from among the successful farmers of the community. These men advise in all matters relating to the agricultural work in the local high school. They may give practical talks to the classes in agriculture, and what is better still, they may take the class on automobile trips to see actual farm operations and conditions having educational value for the students of agriculture in school. The development of agricultural and home economic short courses, to which all the people of the community may come, will contribute more and more, like the folk high schools of Denmark, to the vocational as well as to the liberal education of the old and young of the open country. The community high school will ulti- mately not only be doing all the extension work now 154 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE done by the colleges of agriculture, but vastly more and with much greater efficiency because it is nearer to the farmer's home. In reply to a questionnaire sent out by the Assistant in Agricultural Education in the United States Office of Experiment Stations in 1914 to the high schools of the country, over one half of the four hundred schools replying reported that they were engaged in some kind of boys' and girls' club work as an extension activity. In most cases the agricultural instructors were acting as local leaders. The principle types of extension work done in the high schools were organizing farmers' clubs, cow-testing and live-stock work, seed selection, speaking at meetings, and giving advice to individual farmers. The various kinds of extension work carried on by the agricultural instructors as listed in the report of the above-mentioned questionnaire are as follows: Spraying Organizing clubs Pruning Speaking at meetings Grange work Cow-testing Testing milk Alfalfa plots Weed identification Corn clubs Testing seed corn Wheat-breeding Consultations Experiments Dairy improvement Farm visits Purchase of live-stock Fertilizing Hog-cholera work Answering questions School contests Care of cattle Introducing pure-bred seed Seed-testing Poultry clubs Pig clubs Garden clubs Ploughing demonstrations Planning and building silos Cooperative associations SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 155 Agricultural extension work, properly carried on, should reach the purse, the mind, and the spirit. It should bring increased knowledge, added profits, and greater contentment and happiness to farm people. Local extension work enables the instructor to become familiar with country-life conditions, and to be bet- ter able to teach the pupils coming from the country homes. Agricultural extension work hi the high school offers opportunity to relate the State agricultural col- lege, the school, and the farming population of the community in ways mutually helpful to all. The teacher of agriculture in the high school, if properly prepared for his work, is in an ideal position to do effective agricultural extension work. Extension work from the college of agriculture must necessarily be at long range and only a few people are directly reached. The county adviser can come in touch with his farm constituency only at more or less infrequent intervals. The high-school teacher of agriculture is in the community, " on the job " every day. He is able to prove himself the farmer's friend and confident. It is his duty to make himself a vital factor in pro- moting better agriculture and happier country living throughout the community employing him. If he has the confidence of the farmers, they will bring their problems to him and heed his advice. If he cannot answer their questions, he will take them to some agri- cultural expert who is especially fitted to do so. Professor Hummel, of the California State College 156 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE of Agriculture, made a study of certain phases of high-school agricultural extension work and found: First, that it was advisable that one half of each school day, preferably the morning, should be given by the agricultural instructor to classwork, and that the other half be left free for preparation, for labo- ratory work, and community extension work. Second, that the agricultural teacher should be hired for twelve months, a vacation of one month being allowed at the most convenient time. Third, a part of the financial support for the local extension work should come from the State, and a part from the local high-school district. A tactful teacher can find ways, however, of starting effective local extension work, even though no funds are pro- vided or moral support given. Fourth, the kinds of extension work may be clas- sified under five heads: (a) work with farmers, as organizing or working in farmers' clubs, an annual farmers' short-course week, field and orchard demon- stration, cooperative experiments on farms, good seed distribution, seed- and milk-testing, preparing plans for buildings, selecting and purchasing improved live- stock, etc.; (6) work with farm women, as afternoon or evening meetings, short courses, home garden, and poultry experiments; (c) work with young people, as short courses in agriculture and home economics, agri- cultural contests and societies; (d) work with rural- school teachers, as meetings for agricultural instruc- SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 157 tion, assisting in conducting school fairs; and (e) work with rural-school children, as boys' and girls' agricul- tural or domestic science clubs, school fairs or exhibits of work, rural improvements, and athletic field days. From all these studies we may conclude that among the kinds of agricultural extension work found effec- tive in secondary schools are : Short courses for men and women over school age; farmers' week hi cooperation with the State college of agriculture sending representatives for extension lec- tures; visiting and advising with individual farmers; organization of farmers' clubs for definite purposes, and work in these organizations; rural schoolhouse meetings with farmers, with talks and round-table dis- cussions on agricultural and rural-life problems; assist- ing farmers in keeping cost and yield records; help- ing in balancing feeding rations for farm animals; suggesting improvements in crop rotations, testing milk, seed, etc.; distributing good seed; pruning, spraying, the use of hog-cholera serum, caponizing poultry, treating oats for smut; cooperative demon- stration plots on farms of the community; home-pro- ject work among farm boys; promoting the teach- ing of agriculture in rural schools, and assisting in this work; organization of boys' and girls' clubs; getting up local fairs, contests, farm product days, etc. ; issuing of school bulletins on timely topics, agri- cultural items in local papers, and agricultural sup- plements occasionally; establishing farmers' circulating 158 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE libraries; listing farmers for " sale " and " want " items at the school or in published lists to be dis- tributed; and utilizing all the educational and agricul- tural resources of the community for the improve- ment of agriculture and rural-life conditions. Difficulties in connection with this work should not dismay the right kind of an agricultural teacher. If he is properly trained for his work and brings a man's estate to the task, he need not fear failure. The agri- cultural teacher who is qualified to give courses in a high school, who is thoroughly grounded in the ele- mentary principles of science, who has a detailed technical knowledge of agriculture and a certain amount of training in farm practice, should be able to do a certain kind and amount of good community ex- tension work. Training in public speaking and Eng- lish will be of great value. Knowledge of rural sociology and agricultural economics will be important. Keen sympathy with, and an understanding of, community needs and welfare are essential. Use of land in teaching agriculture in secondary schools. The Office of Experiment Stations of the United States Department of Agriculture in 1914 sent out a questionnaire to all high schools receiving State aid, to special agricultural schools, and to normal schools known to have courses in agriculture. To this 400 replies were received. Out of the replies received 257 reported that some land was used in connec- tion with agricultural instruction. These schools were SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 159 distributed rather representatively in the Eastern, Southern, and Middle Western States. Of the 257 schools with land, only 82 reported farm animals. Over one half of the school farms had 6 acres or less. There were 58 farms with over 20 acres. The report shows that of the 257 school farms, 150 were growing corn; 129, garden crops; 84, potatoes; 75, oats; 61, alfalfa; 42, cotton; 35, wheat; 29, clover; and 20, sweet potatoes. Some of the larger uses to which the land was put were 827 acres for crop rotation, 593 acres for general demonstrations, 382 acres for raising pure-bred seed for distribution among the farmers, 206 acres for dormi- tory supplies, 166 acres for fertilizer demonstrations, and 166 acres for general experiments. A question was asked as to whether the school farm was essential in secondary-school agricultural instruc- tion. The replies indicated that a majority were op- posed to the school farm. In stating the advantages and disadvantages of the school farm, replies indicated that the advantages were all educational, and the dis- advantages arose in connection with the management of the school farm. Advantages referred to were that the school farm made instruction real, gave the student some practical work, supplied laboratory material, and gave oppor- tunity to carry on demonstrations for the benefit of the pupils and farmers. The principal disadvantages were that help was hard to get, the land poor, and the 160 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE instructor's time was poorly spent. Many difficult prob- lems of management arise. The farms are small, build- ings and equipment poor or absent, help of men and teams must be hired, the investment is high in propor- tion to the acreage cultivated and to the crops ob- tained, and the agricultural instructor seldom lives on the land or is employed for the entire year. The farm- ers of the community are likely to criticize the school farm if the agricultural instructor does not make it produce crops with a profit. It is questionable whether the school farm should be managed for profit; it is even doubtful whether it should be called a " farm," if land at the school must be managed at all. School plots which seem to have met with the best success are those which grow pure-bred seed corn, small grains, alfalfa, potatoes, etc. This plan enables the school to get good seed to be distributed in the neighborhood. Fruit trees, forest and ornamental trees, and berry vines, may be grown on the school plot and distributed in a similar manner. No objection can be raised to the use of school land when it becomes the distributing center for high class seeds, plants, and trees. The same idea may be extended to the use of live-stock on the school land. By the use of pure-bred sires good live-stock may be distributed over the community. The use of student labor on school plots is a vexing problem. Outside of a few hours per week which may be required as laboratory time, no adequate amount of labor, such as successful farming requires, can be de- SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES 161 manded of students regularly attending school. The three types of work usually done on the school land are, preparation of the land, planting of the crops, and harvesting. Pupils usually have little time or oppor- tunity for the work of cultivation. When we consider the small size of the school plot and the number of students taking agriculture, it may readily be seen that the student can get but little actual experience in farm operations, and that the instructor can simply show what has happened under certain conditions. The school farm would, therefore, seem to be justifiable only as a center of distribution of pure-bred seed, good varieties of plants, and of the services of pure-bred animals; as a demonstration of certain principles in agricultural instruction; and as an outdoor laboratory for the production of agricultural material for class use. In order to succeed with these purposes, the school must provide labor and super- vision the year round. VI THE TEACHER OF AGRICULTURE The most important factor in education is the teacher. If agricultural instruction is to be effective, if the faith of the people in agricultural education is to be maintained, we must have efficient agricultural teachers. It is, perhaps, more essential that teachers of agriculture in elementary and secondary schools be prepared to teach well the subject-matter of agricul- ture than those in the colleges. Strong students may gain information in colleges in spite of the poor meth- ods of instruction too often common there. Teacher-training courses in agricultural education are being established and extended rather rapidly in normal schools and colleges of agriculture, and we are now able to find good teachers both technically and professionally trained to teach in elementary and secondary schools. The man with the pure science training, who was " brought up on the farm," may have been a good pioneer in agricultural teaching, but he cannot satisfy the demands of modern scientific vocational education. He lacks a proper viewpoint in his work and does not understand the applications of scientific agriculture to farm problems. The young graduate who knows only technical agriculture is likely to present his subject in an unpedagogical way often " above the heads " of his students. If we are THE TEACHER OF AGRICULTURE 1C3 to have competent agricultural teachers, they must be properly prepared for this work. They must be thor- ough scientists, technically trained agriculturists, lib- erally educated men, practical farmers, and profession- ally trained teachers. To be specific, the prospective teacher of agriculture should first have a thorough foundational training in the elementary principles of science. To this he should add a detailed technical study of as many phases of agriculture as possible, together with a certain amount of farm practice. His course should include rural sociology, agricultural eco- nomics, public speaking, and other work to liberalize his general training. His professional training should include studies of the history of education; of the prin- ciples of education; of educational psychology; of school management; of the principles and methods of teach- ing agriculture; and practice teaching in elementary and secondary agriculture. It is especially important that the teacher of agriculture be liberally educated and a man of affairs, for it is usually expected that he not only give instruction to his pupils in school, but that his influence and activities extend outside of the school to the rural life of the community. The three inseparables in the case of a good teacher are: (1) strong personality, (2) high standards of quali- fication, and (3) a respectable salary. The point of attack in the preparation for teaching is, perhaps, at number two. It is more easy to improve one's quali- fication technically and professionally, where that is weak, than it is to improve the personality. The per- 164 THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE] sonality of the teacher is a very difficult thing to de- fine, yet we know it when we see it. The agricultural teacher must have desirable personal qualities. He should be physically sound; his character should " ring true " to the highest moral standards; he should have a strong, sympathetic nature, free from sarcasm; he should have a keen imagination, and a well-developed sense of humor; he should be intelli- gently interested in affairs, and able to meet people pleasantly in the working relations of the commun- ity; and he should have enthusiasm which inspires, a dominant optimism for his work, and an innate love for country life. If there is no prospect that these elements of per- sonality, where they are abnormally weak, can be improved by a college education, then there is little hope for success as an agricultural teacher. An agri- cultural college education is worth to the prospective teacher all that it costs, but it is no guarantee of suc- cess as a teacher, unless he has the desirable elements of personality and loves the work. When the strong personality and the high standards of training are at- tained, then the respectable salary is sure. For voca- tional work especially the best teachers are needed, and when the best teachers are available good salaries will inevitably be paid. Former President Vincent, of Minnesota, says that the real test of a teacher beyond the point of techni- cal preparation is the test of imagination. How able is the teacher to see agriculture in its ideal relation- THE TEACHER OF AGRICULTURE 165 ship? The enduring enthusiasm, the driving power of pursuit, the real success, come to teachers who have imagination. The teacher of agriculture who has the scientific imagination has a tremendous advantage. He is able to see agriculture in its larger and essential aspects and to take a delight in it. Too many teachers of agriculture pin their faith to technique, seeing every problem in its immediate aspects and fail to see in it its larger relationships. Agriculture under the inspira- tion of one who has imagination can be made as gener- ally a cultural subject as almost any subject one can find. It all depends upon the teacher and the attitude. The teacher of agriculture who has this large imagina- tive point of view refuses to be segregated; he enters into the work of the school in a spirit of thorough comradeship. He does not want special treatment as if he were a particularly isolated type. He is willing to throw in his fortune with the common enterprise. In all our technical arrangements, in the adjustments of agricultural courses and units, in the detailed lists of problems, and the like, the ultimate success of this profession, as of every profession, will depend upon the degree to which one can develop an imaginative background, and an enthusiasm, based on enduring faith that grows out of the imagination, that sees the problem in its widest scientific, social, and national aspects. The teacher of agriculture with such imagi- nation, with a job that he likes and for which he is fitted, keen, loyal, and enthusiastic, has a work full of dignity and rich in service. vn TEACHING VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE WITH the passage of the Vocational Education Act, a new meaning has come to the teaching of agriculture. We must train pupils for the vocation of farming. In all vocations involving processes to be done in order to accomplish society's needs, instruction must be both practical and theoretical. In the teaching of any process, three phases should be taken into account, the rules of procedure, the reasons and principles in- volved in the process, and the related studies giving results and further interesting related matter to enrich or widen the pupils' knowledge with reference to the process. Vocational agriculture consists of processes, enter- prises, or projects in endless series, in seasonal and operational sequence throughout the year, and year by year. We may organize these processes into units for teaching purposes, by considering plant production enterprises or projects for one year's work, and animal husbandry enterprises or projects for another year's work. The whole farm is the farmer's project, and may well be thus considered by the student of vocational agriculture living on the farm. Even though the pupil TEACHING VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE 166a may have a small project upon which he is concen- trating his attention and for which he is responsible, the larger units of operation of the whole farm should be his field of problems, study and practical work. The pupil in vocational agriculture may have as his own project several acres of corn, but in the course of the season, there may be wheat to harvest, clover hay to cut, gardens to cultivate, fruit to pick, etc., on the home farm, and all of these enterprises should be con- sidered as units of farm work as bases for supervised practice and instruction in vocational agriculture. Any single unit of farm work then becomes a subject for instruction in vocational agriculture, either in the classroom or on the farm, and the instruction should be given at the time or in the season when the farm operation unit is in progress. For example, should the unit of farm operation be the fall sawing of wheat, one of the processes would be the preparation of the seed bed. The three phases of instruction referred to above will apply. In the first phase, the rule of procedure or the statement of the process would be, " After the ground has been broken by the plow, disc and double disc, then follow with a corrugated roller, making a compact, finely pulverized surface for the seed bed." Good instruction in vocational agriculture at this point would consist not only in knowing and learning the rules for the process, but in actually doing the work under the supervision and instruction of a teacher, 166b THE TEACHING OF AGRICULTURE In the second phase, the reasons and principles should be taught and learned. For example, " The corrugated roller is used in the preparation of the seed- bed for wheat, because it serves both to compact the soil and to pulverize it, leaving a loose, fine surface for seeding. The compact soil is necessary to permit the passage of capillary water up to the germinating seed, and to furnish good anchorage for the growing seedling, and the loose surface mulch prevents the soil's drying out by excessive evaporation." For the third phase of this study, such related mat- ter as a study of the different implements used in seed- bed preparation, the methods used in primitive agri- culture, the further explanation of soil physics related to seed-bed preparation, etc., may be introduced, de- pending upon the capabilities and former training of the pupils. The above example, treating very briefly a method of teaching one process in a farm operation unit, may be used in every process, of every farm enterprise, and illustrates the teaching of agriculture from the voca- tional viewpoint. APPENDIX I. SUGGESTIONS FOR A FARM, HOME, AND COMMUNITY SURVEY 1 1. FARM AND HOME CENSUS THE students of the agriculture class should make this work a class project and assist the teacher in getting the data. State County Township Section School District 1. Owner of the farm 2. Number of acres in farm 3. Operated by owners or tenant 4. Number of years on this farm 5. Number of years in the community 6. The village center Population 7. Names of persons in the home. Birthplace. Age. 8. Hired help employed. ' i ' From Nolan's A Year in Agriculture. (Bow, Peterson & Co.) 168 APPENDIX 9. Members of family attending school. Kind of school. Are the parents willing to have their children study agriculture, domestic science, etc., in school? 10. Church affiliations. 11. Church attendance. Percentage of days for each mem- ber. 12. Sunday-school attendance. Percentage of days for each member. 13. Societies or associations represented. 14. Clubs or lodges. 15. Does family make use of a public library? . . 16. Are agricultural bulletins read in the home? 17. List of newspapers in the home. APPENDIX 169 18. List of magazines in the home. 19. List of community events attended or shared in. 20. Members of family who are leaders or officers in any rural organization or institution. 21. Natural resources of the farm. Animals (a) Number and breed of horses. . .(ft) .."... " " . " cattle.. (c) " " " "swine.. (d). " " " " sheep.. (e) " " " " poultry. Fruit (a) Size, age, and condition of the orchard (6) Size of vegetable garden , Farm crops (a) No. acres of corn Yield . (6) " " " wheat " . (c) " " " oats ' 170 APPENDIX (d) No. acres of timothy Yield () " " " clover " (/) " " " alfalfa " ( Bow, Peterson & Co. 214 September 1. Organization of club. The class in agriculture, under- taking to base its year's work upon the home project, should be organized as directed by the club plan. Each member of the class should become a member of the club and plan to do all the work outlined for the project. The plan should meet the approval of the board of education and of the parents of the boys and girls undertaking the project and have the hearty support of the county superintendent of schools and of the teacher. The State Club Leader at the State College of Agriculture should be notified of the organization of the club so that he can send enrollment blanks and all such liter- ature and publications as will be helpful in the progress of the work. 2. Selecting the plot. For the corn growing project we may well begin operations in September for the next season's crop. The first thing each pupil should do after the organization of the class is to select the plot upon which he is to grow his corn. Not less than an acre should be used for this project. The father should allow the boy an acre of good well- drained, fertile land upon which to grow his corn. 8. The notebook. Each pupil should be provided with a good permanent notebook in which he may keep a neat and accurate record of all operations, results, and accounts, month by month, so that at the end he will have an agricul- tural booklet he will be proud to exhibit. It would be well to have all these notebooks uniform in style and size. Upon the durable cover may be pasted some such words as, "Ag- ricultural Booklet"; "Com is King"; some good pictures clipped from papers; or even the photograph and name of the boy. THE HOME-PROJECT NOTEBOOK 1. Diary of the home project. Answer all questions, make all records, and describe all operations called for in the APPENDIX 215 calendar of monthly activities under the proper date of this diary. When the operation done involves an expense, record it, giving hours' time required at ten cents an hour for your own work and fifteen cents an hour for hired labor. Charge ten cents an hour for horse labor. Record cost of material used. When the diary activity brings in a return, record it under re- ceipts to be summarized later. When the diary of the month is finished write in the middle of the page the next month thus : SEPTEMBER Date Operations, work done, etc. Hours Expense Receipts 12 or 15 pages ruled in this way 2. Summary of cost of the acre of corn : Items of labor and material Man Labor Horse Labor @10^ per hour Cost @Wt per hour @l5t per pour 1. AH preparation of ground for planting 2 Planting the acre 3. Cultivation of the corn 4 Work in gathering 6. Estimated rent of the land . . 6 Cost of fertilizers 7 Cost of manure 8 Cost of seed corn 9 Cost of other material 10 Total cost 216 APPENDIX 3. Estimated value of corn from the acre : Bushels Value 1. Total number of bushels obtained 2. Number of bushels of seed obtained .... 8. Market value of common corn 4. Market value of seed corn B. Value of all corn obtained 6. Total profit on your acre 7. Your labor income 8. Cost per bushel of producing your corn . 4 Mapping the plot. Make a map, drawing to scale, of your proposed acre of corn ground. Copy this neatly ^ in your notebook. Write answers to the following points, (a) Location of the plot. (6) Type of soil, sandy, clay, loam, upland, lowland, etc. (c) Cropping and treatment of the plot for the last three years. (d) Present condition as to plant growth and fer- tility. (e) Drainage. (f) Estimated value of the acre of land. 5. Field selection of seed. Attention may well be given this early in the project to the selection of the seed corn for next spring. Send to the various seed corn breeders of your State for their circulars; also to the International Harvester Company and to the State College of Agri- culture for bulletins on seed corn. Go into the field and study good types of stalks and ears from which seed corn should be selected. (Labora- tory exercises on this point may precede this trip.) Become thoroughly familiar with the ideal stalk and ear which should be selected when the time for husking the seed corn comes. APPENDIX 217 October 1. Storing seed corn. Devices for storing seed corn should be planned and made this month. Each pupil should make definite provision for storing his seed corn in some of the various types of racks or devices used. . Selecting and storing seed. Before freezing weather or severe frosts, the seed corn to be used in this project should be selected in the field and brought in for drying and storing. The only satisfactory way of selecting seed corn is in the field where one can take into account the whole plant. The ear should be taken from a leafy stalk that is well developed, standing at proper dis- tance from other stalks and grown under normal con- ditions. The ear should be supported about midway up the stalk on a short shank inclined slightly down- ward. Desirable ear characteristics are given in stand- ard score cards. Since the pupil is to select for only a small planting area, great care should be taken to select and store the best seed corn possible. Determine the number of ears required to plant an acre of corn. Select several times this number for storing. Dry cellars, basements or attics, if free from mice and rats, may be used for storing corn. The old practice of hanging seed corn from rafters is a good one to use until the corn is finally stored for the winter. Corn contains considerable moisture, the germ is a living thing, and the vitality of the corn may be seriously injured if it is allowed to freeze. Record in diary: (1) Amount of seed selected; (2) where obtained; (3) variety of corn; (4) how stored. 3. Soil treatment. Attention should be given this fall to the proper treatment of the soil of the plot to be planted. If a clover crop has been growing to be ploughed un- der, well and good. In any case, an application of five or six tons of barnyard manure should be applied to the acre. Most soils are deficient in phosphorus, and there 218 APPENDIX would likely be beneficial results from applying about two tons per acre of finely ground raw rock phosphate. The whole crops residue, clover, manure, and rock phosphate should be ploughed down this fall to de- compose and become available for plant food for the corn crop of next season. We must be sure that the soil is not sour. Get some blue litmus paper at the drug store. Make up a moist ball of the soil and insert the litmus paper. If after five or ten minutes the litmus paper turns pink or red we have evidence that the soil is acid. Now limestone corrects acidity, and if the soil of the proposed plot is acid from two to three tons of ground limestone should be applied to the land after the fall ploughing. The pupil should keep a record in his notebook of all that is done by way of soil treatment on his plot: 1. What crop residue is present? 2. How much manure applied? When? 8. How much phosphorus applied? When? 4. When the plot was ploughed: Depth. Was the ground disked? 5. How did you test for acidity? Was your soil sour? 6. How much limestone applied? When? 7. Record hours of horse and man labor necessary. November 1. Unfinished work. Any of the unfinished work of select- ing and storing seed corn or of the preparation of the ground as described for October may be finished in November. The seed corn should be stored in the racks prepared, out of reach of rats and mice, in a dry room where dampness or freezing will not occur. 2. Practice in judging corn. Full directions for scoring and judging corn are given by State colleges and text- books adapted to local needs. 3. Preparation of club exhibits. Details for corn exhibits APPENDIX 219 are given in various State publications. The class should arrange a corn exhibit in the schoolroom, even though the corn for this first year of the project was not grown by the pupils. For the second year of the project pupils should exhibit their own corn. December and January 1. School-room studies. No practical work directly relating to the project is necessary these months. Class recita- tion work based on a study of the market prices and causes of variation; systems of permanent soil fertility; crop rotation; and the place of corn in systems of grain and live-stock farming. Consult daily market quota- tions and record prices of corn in a table prepared in the notebook. Class recitations and study on the subject-matter re- lating to this project. Consult farm papers, bulletins, and reference texts for class reports on corn-growing and related problems, such as soil, weeds, insects, feed- ing values, and uses of corn. 2. Laboratory exercises relating to the above studies. February 1. The plot work again. We may now begin to turn our attention more specifically to the plot and the next steps in the production of the acre of corn which has been planned since last September. 2. The signboard. One of the things each member of the class or club should do is to make and letter a signboard to be placed at the plot upon which the project is to be done. This should be 12x8 inches planed on one side. The signboard should bear the name of the local or county club preceded by the word "Member"; as, 220 APPENDIX Member Lincoln County Corn Club The lettering may be done by means of a stencil cut from cardboard. The letters may be cut from adver- tisements or made by some member of the class. They are then laid on the cardboard, their outline drawn with a pencil, and the letters cut out. 5. Testing and grading seed corn. A rectangular box seed com tester and as many other kinds of testers as pos- sibly can be secured should be available for this work. Send to your State College of Agriculture for circulars of instruction on making the seed corn test. Test for germination at least fifty high-scoring ears of corn selected and stored last fall in order to discover the twelve or fifteen having the most vigorous vitality to be used for planting your acre. Record the results of your testing in the notebook: (1) When tested; (2) how tested; (3) per cent of good germination. March and April 1. Preparation of seed bed. If the ground has not been ploughed last fall, the first preparation in the spring would be the breaking of the ground. Disking and deep ploughing would be in order. If the ground has been broken last fall, the plot should be disked and thoroughly harrowed in the spring. A firm, deeply ploughed, sub-surface with a well-pulverized surface soil is the ideal seed-bed preparation. Record all operations in the notebook records. (1) Was ground ploughed in the fall or spring? Why? (2) How was your seed bed prepared? (3) Record hours of man and horse labor used. APPENDIX 221 . Implements. Make a study of the ploughs, disks, and harrows used in these operations: Implements used The Make Degree of Success Plough Disk Harrow May 1. Corn-planting. Corn may be planted from the first to the middle of May or even later. From one and one half to three inches is the depth to plant corn, depend- ing on the character of the soil. If the acre used in this project is a part of a larger field, the corn may be planted by the planter along with the rest of the field. If the acre is apart from other plantings the seed may be drilled or even dropped by hand. $. Record in the notebook diary as follows: (a) When planted. (6) Method used. (c) Distance apart of rows and corn in rows. (d) Amount of seed used. (e) Record hours of man and horse labor used. S. Planters. Study various corn-planters and drills. Write a paragraph in your notebook on the advantages and disadvantages of each method of planting. June and July 1. Cultivation. Weeds are kept out and the shallow sofl mulch maintained in proper cultivation. Early rolling and harrowing before or soon after the com comes up 222 APPENDIX is a good practice facilitating the early control of th* weeds. The soil should be cultivated as often as is necessary to maintain a loose, shallow soil mulch, and keep down the weeds. Never allow the surface to become baked and hard. It should be cultivated as soon after a rain as it is dry enough to work. Care should be taken not to cultivate too deep. If the roots of corn are injured, the yield is reduced. 2. Record in the notebook diary as follows: (a) Was your stand good, medium or poor? (6) What and when was your first cultivation? (c) Was cultivation deep or shallow? (d) What implement was used? (e) How many times did you cultivate? (f) Record hours of man and horse labor used. 3. Insects. Observe and note the insect injuring the corn. (a) Name of insect. (6) Nature of the injury. 4. Weeds. List the weeds that were troublesome. 6. Other damages. Was your corn damaged by any other causes? 6. Read and study bulletins, books, and farm papers re- lating to corn production. July and August 1. Cultivation. Continue cultivation to keep down weeds and maintain the soil mulch. 2. Field trips. If the teacher or club leader is helping, during the sunimer frequent trips to the plot should be made by the pupil and leader to observe and discuss (a) Pollination and fertilization. (6) Insect and fungous injury. (c) Corn stand. (d) Probable causes of success or failure in good corn growth. APPENDIX 223 Diary records of these observations should be made. The teacher or club leader should assist the pupil in completing in a full, neat, and satisfactory way all the records and accounts connected with this project. 3. Picnics. A club picnic should be the closing feature of the year's work. 4- Concluding work. The concluding work of the Booklet should be the pupil's story of "How I Grew My Acre of Corn." IV. SUGGESTIONS FOR LABORATORY EQUIPMENT MUCH of the laboratory equipment needed for a study of biology, chemistry, and physics is suitable for work in agri- culture. It is supposed that those schools which offer agri- culture will be fairly well supplied with such apparatus as suitable laboratory desks, tables, compound microscope, hand lenses, etc.; hence, only that material somewhat pecu- liar to the study of agriculture will be mentioned here. 2 Ibs. each of the following cereals: (1) Wheat (fife); (2) wheat (Blue Stem); (3) wheat (Velvet Chaff); (4) wheat (Macaroni); (5) oats; (6) spring rye; (7) speltz; (8) barley; (9) corn $1 80 Twelve 4-oz. samples of wheat products (may be obtained free of charge, f.o.b. Minneapolis, Minnesota, by applying to the Pillsbury Flour Company). A small sheaf of each of the above grains in the straw. (Secure locally.) One 10-ear sample of several varieties of corn. (Collect locally.) (Samples of starch, glucose, corn oil, and other products made from corn may be obtained, free of charge, f.o.b. Chicago, Illinois, by applying to the American Manufacturers' Association of Products from Corn, 1236 First National Bank Building, Chicago.) Score cards for judging corn, in pads 18 4 oz. each of the following grasses and legumes: (1) German millet; (2) Hungarian millet; (3) red clover; (4) alfalfa; (5) crimson clover; (6) alsike; (7) Canada field peas; (8) Kentucky bluegrass; (9) red top; (10) timothy; (11) brome grass 2 50 12 cans with compression cap lids, 6 each, one pint and one quart 1 50 One set of Collection of Injurious Weeds. (Obtainable from the Biological Department, Agricultural College, Far- go, North Dakota, at a cost of $1.00, or from Purdue Uni- versity, Lafayette, Indiana, or other agricultural colleges.) One case of Collection of Plant Diseases. (Obtainable APPENDIX 225 from the Biological Department of the Agricultural Col- lege, Fargo, North Dakota, at a cost of about $1.50.) 10 plates, tin, 7-inch $ 50 1 quire blotting paper, 19 x 24 inches 60 5 yards of muslin. (Secure locally.) 12 shallow boxes for seed germination, and root cuttings, about 16 x 12 x 3 in. of galvanized iron, $1.00 each (or secure wooden boxes locally). 1 Ib. formaldehyde, 40 per cent 35 1 oz. iodine 40 2 oz. acid phosphate 15 2 oz. magnesium phosphate 18 1 Ib. nitric acid 80 1 Ib. hydrochloric acid 25 1 Ib. sulphuric acid 25 2 oz. sodium nitrate 10 2 oz. potassium sulphate 10 2 oz. ferric chloride 15 1 vial blue litmus paper 08 1 vial red litmus paper 08 One collection of economic seeds. (May be secured from the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. Vials for these may be obtained from Mackell Broth- ers, 9th St., N.E., Washington, D.C., at a cost of $1.50.) 1 grain container, metal, 2 gallons 80 100 seedlings for grafting (obtain from local nursery). 100 Catalpa Speciosa for nursery row (secure from local nur- sery). 1 Ib. grafting wax 30 Score cards for fruit, pad of 50 18 1 pruning saw and knife 1 00 1 grafting knife, one blade 30 1 pruning shears, 9-inch 60 6 Ibs. copper sulphate (for Bordeaux Mixture) 50 6 Ibs. calcium oxide, quicklime (for Bordeaux Mixture) 50 1 Ib. Paris green 25 1 Ib. arsenate of lead (disparene or gypsene) 25 1 Ib. white arsenic 12 1 Ib. arsenate of soda 85 1 Ib. fish oil (whale oil) soap 15 1 Ib. hellebore (white) 25 1 qt. kerosene emulsion *0 i Ib. London purple 5 6 Ibs. tobacco sterna 25 226 APPENDIX 1 lb. Bordeaux Mixture $ 25 1 lb. pyrethrum (Persian insect powder) 25 1 bucket sprayer, hand size 4 50-10 00 1 Babcock milk and cream tester, complete 5 00-10 00 1 milk sheet 15 1 poultry coop (made to order). 1 cream separator 75 Ibs. or 35 qts. per hour 17 00-35 00 Blank score cards for judging on light horses, draft horses, beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, hogs, market cream (18c. per pad of 50 of any one kind) 1 26 1 bu. each of sand, loam, and clay soils (secure locally). 2 dessicators, 6-inch 2 10 2 dessicator plates for above 2 00 12 crucibles, porcelain 1 80 2 crucible tongs, steel, double bend, 9-inch 40 12 test tubes, 8 x 1-inch 40 2 graduates, cylindrical, 100 cc 1 00 2 supports, ring stands with 3 rings 1 10 2 triangles, iron wire covered with pipe stems 10 2 mortars, porcelain with pestles, 2f-inch 60 1 rolling pin 15 1 Harvard agate bearing balance 6 00 1 weights, brass in block, 500 grams to 1 gram 1 60 1 analytical balance in case, capacity 100 grams. Sensibility 1 mg. Duty free 15 00 1 weights, brass in box, 100 grams to 1 mg 3 50 1 sieve, brass, 5-inch diameter, set of 3, sizes 2 mm., 1 mm., and ^ mm., with pan bottom 3 90 10 soil tubes, water-holding capacity, 2 inches in diameter, 10 inches long, perforated bottom. Made of brass 10 00 (Or 10 soil tubes, same as above, but of galvanized iron, $5.00.) 2 mulch cylinders, 19-inch, of galvanized iron 4 00 2 pans, metal, 14 x 18 x 2-inches high 2 00 12 flower pots, earthenware, 5 inches 45 12 jars, for pot culture, '2 gals. (20 cents each) 2 16 1 soil augur 2 70 1 drainage apparatus or water table, of copper 4 00 1 alcohol lamp, 4-oz 23 1 Bunsen burner and 2j feet of 3-16-inch rubber tubing. 40 Total (minimum) $109 29 APPENDIX 227 SUGGESTIONS FOR HIGH-SCHOOL LABORATORY IN AGRICULTURE 1. Heavy tables, built solid from floor, with individual drawers at right-hand side, open directly in front of a revolving stool with back. Size 3 by 2 feet for each student. Tables all built together down center of room, so that students face each other across table. The whole table structure might be 35 by 4 feet, seat- ing 20 students with individual places. Sinks and water at ends of the table. 2. Case built in one wall, 9 feet long, 1 foot deep, and 7 feet high, the lower 3 feet projecting 2 feet forming a table. Glass doors and shelves for the upper 4 feet, solid doors, closing storage places, the lower 4 feet of the case. 8. Demonstration lecture table 7 by 3 feet, drawers on each side of an open center. Gas and electric connection, water and end sink. 4. General sink at side of the room. 5. Leaf shelves at the windows, shelves to be used for window boxes, pot cultures, etc. 6. Case for classifying agricultural bulletins, circulars, books, etc. Case 6 feet wide, 1 foot deep, and 4 feet high, above a table built below, projecting 2 feet, form- ing a reading or reference table. One half the case cut into filing places, similar to the shelves holding maga- zines in a library; the other to be used as bookshelves. 7. Molding-board about the walls, where space permits, upon which charts may be hung. V. THE SMITH-HUGHES BILL AND VOCA- TIONAL AGRICULTURE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS THE Smith-Hughes Bill, providing Federal grants to the respective States of the Union for the promotion of vocational education, was passed by the Sixty-fourth Congress, signed by President Wilson on February 23, 1917, and became operative as a law on July 1, 1917. There is through this measure projected a great Nation- al system of vocational education, extending downward through the secondary schools, with Federal support similar to that given to the Land-Grant Colleges by the Morrill Act, signed by Abraham Lincoln, in 1862. EXTRACTS FROM THE SMITH-HUGHES LAW, REL- ' ATIVE TO THE TRAINING OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS An Act to provide for the promotion of vocational edu- cation; to provide for cooperation with the States in the pro- motion of such education in agriculture; ... to provide for cooperation with the States in the preparation of teachers of vocational subjects; and to appropriate money and regu- late its expenditure. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby annually appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sums provided in Sections 2 and 4 of this Act, to be paid to the respective States for the purpose of cooperating with the States in paying the salaries of teachers, supervisors, and directors of agricultural subjects . . . and in the preparation APPENDIX 229 of teachers of agricultural subjects. . . . Sums shall be ex- pended as hereinafter provided. Sec. 2. That for the purpose of cooperating with the States in paying the salaries of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects there is hereby appropri- ated for the use of the States, subject to the provisions of this Act, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, the sum of $500,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, the sum of $750,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, the sum of $1,000,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1921, the sum of $1,250,000; for the fiscal year ending June CO, 1922, the sum of $1,500,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1923, the sum of $1,750,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1924, the sum of $2,000,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1925, the sum of $2,500,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1926, and annually thereafter the sum of $3,000,000. Said sums shall be allotted to the States in the proportion which their rural population bears to the total rural population of the United States; not including outlying possessions, according to the last preceding United States census. i Sec. 4. That for the purpose of cooperating with the States in preparing teachers, supervisors, and directors of agricultural subjects and teachers of trade and industrial and home economics subjects there is hereby appropriated for the use of the States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, the sum of $500,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, the sum of $700,000; for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1920, the sum of $900,000; for the fiscal year ending June SO, 1921, and annually thereafter, the sum of $1,000,000. Said sums shall be allotted to the States in the proportion which their population bears to the total population of the United States, not including outlying possessions, according to the last preceding United States census. Sec. 5. That in order to secure the benefits of the ap- 30 APPENDIX propriations provided for in Sections 2 and 4 of this Act, any State shall, through the legislative authority thereof, accept the provisions of this Act and designate or create a State board, consisting of not less than three members, and having all necessary power to cooperate, as herein provided, with the Federal Board for Vocational Education in the administration of the provisions of this Act. The State Board of Education, or other board having charge of the ad- ministration of public education in the State, or any State board having charge of the administration of any kind of vocational education in the State may, if the State so elect, be designated as the State board, for the purposes of this Act. Any State may accept the benefits of any one or more of the respective funds herein appropriated, and it may defer the acceptance of the benefits of any one or more of such funds, and shall be required to meet only the conditions relative to the fund or funds the benefits of which it has accepted, Provided, that after June 30, 1920, no State shall receive any appropriation for salaries of teachers, super- visors, or directors of agricultural subjects until it shall have taken advantage of at least the minimum amount appropri- ated for the training of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects, as provided for in this Act. Sec. 6. That a Federal Board for Vocational Education is hereby created, to consist of the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Labor, the United States Commissioner of Education, and three citi- zens of the United States to be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. One of said three citizens shall be a representative of the manufac- turing and commercial interests, one a representative of the agricultural interests, and one a representative of labor. The board shall elect annually one of its members as chair- APPENDIX 231 man. In the first instance, one of the citizen members shall be appointed for one year, one for two years, and one for three years, and thereafter for three years each. The mem- bers of the board other than the members of the Cabinet and the United States Commissioner of Education shall receive a salary of $5000 per annum. The board shall have power to cooperate with State boards in carrying out the provisions of this Act. It shall be the duty of the Federal Board for Vocational Education to make, or cause to have made studies, investigations, and reports, with particular reference to their use in aiding the States in the establishment of vocational schools and classes and in giving instruction in agriculture. . . . Such studies, inves- tigations, and reports shall include agriculture and agricul- tural processes and requirements upon agricultural workers; . . . and problems of administration of vocational schools and of courses of study and instruction in vocational subjects. The Federal Board for Vocational Education shall have power to employ such assistants as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. Sec. 8. That in order to secure the benefits of the ap- propriation for any purpose specified in this Act, the State board shall prepare plans, showing the kinds of Vocational Education for which it is proposed that the appropriation shall be used; the kinds of schools and equipment; courses of study; methods of instruction; qualifications of teachers; and, in the case of agricultural subjects, the qualifications of supervisors or directors; plans for the training of teachers, and, in the case of agricultural subjects, plans for the super- vision of agricultural education, as provided for in Sec- tion 10. Such plans shall be submitted by the State board to the Federal Board for Vocational Education, and if the Federal board finds the same to be in conformity with the pro- visions and purposes of this Act, the same shall be approved. The State board shall make an annual report to the Federal Board for Vocational Education, on or before September 232 APPENDIX first of each year, on the work done in the State and the receipts and expenditures of money under the provisions of this Act. Sec. 9. That the appropriation for the salaries of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects . . . shall be devoted exclusively to the payment of salaries of such teachers, supervisors, or directors having the minimum qualifications set up for the State by the State board, with the approval of the Federal Board for Vocational Educa- tion. The cost of instruction supplementary to the instruc- tion in agriculture, provided for in this Act, necessary to build a well-rounded course of training, shall be borne by the State and local communities, and no part of the cost thereof shall be borne out of the appropriations herein made. The moneys expended under the provisions of this Act, in cooperation with the States, for the salaries of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects, . . . shall be conditioned that for each dollar of Federal money ex- pended for such salaries the State or local community, or both, shall expend an equal amount for such salaries; and that appropriations for the training of teachers of vocational subjects, as herein provided, shall be conditioned that such money be expended for maintenance of such training and that for each dollar of Federal money so expended for maintenance, the State or local community, or both, shall expend an equal amount for the maintenance of such training. Sec. 10. That any State may use the appropriation for agricultural purposes, or any part thereof allotted to it, under the provisions of this Act, for the salaries of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects, either for the salaries of teachers of such subjects in schools or classes, or for the salaries of supervisors or directors of such sub- jects under a plan of supervision for the State to be set up by the State board, with the approval of the Federal Board for Vocational Education. That in order to receive the benefits APPENDIX 233 of such appropriation for the salaries of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects the State board of any State shall provide in its plan for agricultural education that such education shall be that which is under public super- vision or control; that the controlling purpose of such edu- cation shall be to fit for useful employment; that such edu- cation shall be of less than college grade and be designed to meet the needs of persons over fourteen years of age who have entered upon or who are preparing to enter upon the work of the farm or of the farm home; that the State or local community, or both, (1) shall provide the necessary plant and equipment determined upon by the State board, with the approval of the Federal Board for Vocational Edu- cation, as the minimum requirement for such education in schools and classes in the State; (2) that the amount expended for the maintenance of such education in any school or class receiving the benefit of such appropriation shall be not less annually than the amount fixed by the State board, with the approval of the Federal board as the mini- mum for such schools or classes in the State; (3) that such schools shall provide for directed or supervised practice in agriculture, either on a farm provided for by the school or other farm, for at least six months per year; (4) that the teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects shall have at least the minimum qualifications determined for the State by the State board, with the approval of the Federal Board for Vocational Education. Sec. 12. That in order for any State to receive the bene- fits of the appropriation in this Act for the training of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects, . . . the State board of such State shall provide in its plan for such training that the same shall be carried out under the supervision of the State board; that such training shall be given in schools or classes under public supervision or con- trol; that such training shall be given only to persons who have had adequate vocational experience or contact in the 234 APPENDIX line of work for which they are preparing themselves as teachers, supervisors, or directors, or who are acquiring such experience or contact as a part of their training; and that the State board, with the approval of the Federal board, shall establish minimum requirements for such experience or contact for teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricul- tural subjects, and for teachers of trade, industrial and home economics subjects; that not more than sixty per centum nor less than twenty per centum of the money appropriated under this Act for the training of teachers of vocational subjects to any State for any year shall be expended for any one of the following purposes: For the preparation of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects or the pre- paration of teachers of trade and industrial subjects, or the preparation of teachers of home economics subjects. Sec. 13. That in order to secure the benefits of the ap- propriations for the salaries of teachers, supervisors, or directors of agricultural subjects, ... or for the training of teachers as herein provided, any State shall, through the legislative authority thereof, appoint as custodian for said appropriations its State Treasurer, who shall receive and provide for the proper custody and disbursements of all money paid to the State from said appropriations. Sec. 16. That the Federal Board for Vocational Education may withhold the allotment of moneys to any State when- ever it shall be determined that such moneys are not being expended for the purposes and under the conditions of this Act. Sec. 17. That ... no portion of any moneys appropriated under this Act for the benefit of the States shall be applied, directly or indirectly, to the purchase, erection, preserva- tion, or repair of any building or buildings or equipment, or for the purchase or rental of lands, or for the support of any religious or privately owned or conducted school or college. Approved, February 23, 1917. APPENDIX 235 Some of the outstanding benefits of the Smith-Hughes Vocational Fund will be: (1) The supervision of agricultural, industrial, and home economics teaching in secondary schools. (2) The training of teachers for these vocational subjects. (3) The opportunity given to help boys and girls into bread- winning vocations, as well as to a liberal education. Coming as this Federal aid does at the time of the great world war, it should assist very materially in training agri- culturists and mechanics to support the men on the firing line. It should aid also to no small extent in providing help- ful vocational training to those who return, maimed in many ways from war and battle, to take up the task, under great handicap, of earning a livelihood for themselves and their families. This movement is a great new advance in education. The resources of all the Nation are pooled for this large enterprise. Great tasks and responsibilities are being placed on Federal, State, and local boards and directors in the organization of the work, and in the establishment of principles and meth- ods with which to carry it forward. One great danger is in- herent hi the whole scheme. Much authority and power is taken away from those local communities accepting the pro- visions of the law. Matters of equipment, courses of study, qualifications of teachers, and even methods of teaching, are largely under the control of the State and Federal boards. Let us hope that the broad and liberal policy of the present Federal Director, Dr. Prosser, who stated that local com- munities shall be given the largest freedom possible in the ap- plication of this law to the vocational education in the schools, will prevail throughout the country. Another danger in connection with the development of this movement is the establishment of separate vocational schools. Let the work be done under the supervision of existing boards and super- intendents, and in departments of regularly established schools. To go outside of these and establish separate State 236 APPENDIX or local boards of education would be unnecessary duplica- tion and a useless expenditure of the people's money. The same kind of men and the same kind of teachers would likely be found on these separate boards and in separate schools, and nothing is to be gained that could not be had, with many added advantages, by establishing these vocational courses in schools already existing. BIBLIOGRAPHY AGRICULTURE PUBLISHERS 1. The Macmillan Company, New York. 2. Ginn & Company, Chicago. 3. Orange Judd Company, New York. 4. American Book Company, New York. 5. Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. 6. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. 7. Small, Maynard & Company, New York. 8. D. C. Heath & Company, New York. 9. Webb Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota. 10. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 11. Row, Peterson & Company, Chicago. 12. Doubleday, Page & Company, New York. 13. W. A. Henry, Experiment Station, Madison, Wis- consin. 14. Kenyon Publishing Company, Des Moines, Iowa. 15. The Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 16. C. M. Parker, Publisher, Taylorville, Illinois. 17. D. Appleton & Company, New York. 18. Sanders Publishing Company, Chicago. 19. Chicago University Press, Chicago. 20. F. H. King, University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin. 21. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 22. Y.M.C.A. Press, New York. 23. Rand-McNally & Company, New York. SOME GOOD REFERENCE BOOKS FOR SECONDARY AGRICULTURE I. GENERAL AGRICULTURE * Caldwell and Eikenberry, General Science (2) $1 . 25 Bailey, Encyclopedia of Agriculture (1) 20 . 00 .. * The Dumber* in parentheses refer to the publishers given above. ii BIBLIOGRAPHY Bailey, Principles of Agriculture (1) $1 . 25 Burkett, et al., Agriculture for Beginners (2) .75 Warren, Elements of Agriculture (1) 1.10 Mann, Beginnings in Agriculture (1) 1 . 10 McLennan, Manual of Practical Farming (1) 1 .50 Benson and Belts, Agriculture (5) 1 . 25 Waters, Essentials in Agriculture (2) 1 . 25 Lippincott, Productive Series (21) 1 .75 Card, Farm Management (12) 2 . 00 King, The Physics of Agriculture (17) 1 . 75 Hunt, How to Choose a Farm (1) 1 . 75 Ogden, Rural Hygiene (1) 1 .50 Belcher, Clean Milk (3) 1.00 Wilkinson, Practical Agriculture (4) 1 . 00 Wilson, Agriculture for Young Folks (9) 1 .00 Nolan, One Hundred Lessons in Agriculture (11) .65 Wood, School Agriculture (3) .90 Jackson and Daugherty, Agriculture, Through Laboratory and School Garden (3) 1 . 00 Cotton and Fisher, Agriculture for Common Schools (6) ' .80 Nolan, A Year in Agriculture with Home Projects (11) . 75 Nolan and Greene. Home Project Series (11) .32 IT. SOIM AND AGRICTTLTUKAL CHEMISTBT Vivian, First Principles of Soil Fertility (3) 1 . 00 King, The Soil (1) 1.50 Snyder, Soils and Fertilizers (1) 1 . 25 Henry, Feeds and Feeding (13) 2.25 Jordan, Feeding of Animals (1) 1 .50 Elliot, Practical Farm Drainage (10) 1 . 50 Hopkins, Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture 2 . 00 Hopkins, Story of the Soil (2) 1.50 Elliff, A Unit in Agriculture (11) .50 Kyle and Ellis, Fundamentals of Farming and Farm Life (6) BIBLIOGRAPHY iii Whitson and Walster, Sails and Sail Fertility. . . (9) $1 .25 Lyon, Sails and Fertilizers (1) .75 HI. ANIMALS Sanderson, Insects of Farm, Orchard and Garden. .(10) 2 . 00 Plumb, Beginnings in Animal Husbandry (9) 1.50 Plumb, Types and Breeds of Farm Animals. ... (2) 2.00 Harper, Animal Husbandry for Schools (9) 1 . 25 Davenport, Domestic Animals and Plants (2) 1 . 25 Robinson, Principles and Practice of Poultry Cul- ture (3) 1.50 Brigham, Progressive Poultry Culture (15) 1 .50 Craig, Judging Live-Stock (14) 1 .50 Davenport, Twelve Studies of Farm Animals. . . (16) .35 Harper, Training and Breaking of Horses (1) 1 .50 Eckels, Dairy Cows, and Milk Production 1 . 10 Wing, Milk and its Products (1) 1.50 Eckels and Warren, Dairy Farming (1) 1 . 10 Bull, Principles of Feeding Farm Animals (1) 1 . 50 IV. PLANTS Hosier, Farm Crops and Soils (23) 1.50 Livingston, Field Crop Production (1) 1 . 25 Hunt, Cereals in America (3) 1 . 75 Hunt, Forage and Fiber Crops of America (3) 1.75 Conn, Bacteria, Yeasts and Moulds in Home ... (2) 1 . 00 Waugh, The American Apple Orchard (3) 1 .00 Duggar, Fungous Diseases of Plants (2) 2 . 00 Bailey, Principles of Fruit-Growing (1) 1 .50 Bailey, Manual of Gardening (1) 2 . 00 Corbett, Garden Farming (2) 1 .50 Card, Bush Fruits (1) 1 50 Maynard, Landscape Gardening (10) 1 .50 Waugh, The Landscape Beautiful (3) 2 00 Weed, Farm Friends and Foes (8) .90 Gifford, Practical Forestry (17) 1.25 iv BIBLIOGRAPHY Gregory, ChecJcing the Waste (5) $1 . 00 Price, The Land We Live in (7) 1 .80 Davis, Productive Plant Husbandry (21) 1.75 Roth, First Book of Forestry (2) .80 Wing, Alfalfa Farming (8) 2.00 Wilson and Warburton, Field Crops (9) 1 . 25 Davis, Home and School Gardening (21) 1.50 V. FARM MECHANICS AND MANAGEMENT Warren, Farm Management (1) 1 . 25 Roberts, Farmers' Business Handbook (1) 1 . 25 Roberts, The Farmstead (1) 1 .50 Davidson and Chase, Farm Machinery and Farm Motors (3) 2.00 Green, Law for American Farmer (1) 1 . 50 VI. FARM LIFE INTERESTS Butterfield, Chapters on Rural Progress (19) 1 .00 Bailey, Country Life Movement (1) 1 . 10 Bailey, Report of Country Life Committee (1) .80 McKeever, Farm Boys and Girls (1) 1 .50 Jewett, Good Health (2) .60 Plunkett, Rural Life Problems in America (1) 1 . 50 Bailey, The State and the Farm (1) 1 .25 Fiske, The Challenge of the Country (22) .75 Carney, Country Life and the Country School ... (11) 1 . 25 Hart, Educational Resources of Village and Rural Communities (1) .75 Carver, Rural Economics (2) 1 . 30 Davenport, Education for Efficiency (8) 1 . 00 OUTLINE 1. SOME REASONS FOR TEACHING AGRICULTURE 1. Aims for individual students 1 2. Social aims in view of modern demands 2 3. Conservation of natural resources 3 4. Inefficiency in rural vocations 3 5. Health in rural life 4 6. A greater appreciation of art 5 7. Moral growth 5 8. Rural organization 6 9. Liberal education 7 10. Rural problems a. The problems of farm improvement 10 b. The problems of marketing and exchange 10 c. The problems of community life 10 II. NATURE-STUDY PRECEDING AGRICULTURE 1. Nature-study principles 12 a. Thede6nition 13 b. Nature study differentiated from science 13 c. The aims 13 (1) To give general acquaintance with nature 13 (2) To give training in accurate observation 13 (3) To give useful knowledge 13 d. The method should be observational 14 e. The materials must be the most common 14 /. Nature-study must be for the child 14 2. Nature-study for primary grades, grades one and two 14 3. Nature-study in third and fourth grades 10 4. Nature-study in the fifth grade 5. Nature-study in the sixth grade 19 vi OUTLINE 111. ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE AND BOYS' AND GIRLS' CLUB WORK 1. Some suggestions as to content of courses, and methods. . . 21 2. The textbook method 22 8. The home-project club method 25 IV. HIGH-SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 1. Some curriculum problems , 31 2. Junior and senior high-school agriculture 34 8. Agronomy in the high-school 35 a. Lesson plan introducing a course 38 6. Course in agronomy 39 4. Animal husbandry in the high school 46 a. Course in animal husbandry 48 6. Lesson plan 55 5. Horticulture in the high school 56 a. Course in general horticulture 60 6. Special elective courses in agriculture 64 a. Soils 66 b. The farm physical plant 71 c. Farm management 78 d. Plant and animal improvement 75 e. Poultry husbandry 77 /. Dairy husbandry 79 g. Vegetable gardening 81 7. A One-year general course 83 8. Anthology of agriculture 96 V. SOME METHODS AND PRINCIPLES IN TEACHING AGRICULTURE 1. A fundamental principle 99 2. The science of agriculture and farm practice 99 8. Some principles of scientific agriculture 101 a. Relating to permanent soil fertility 101 6. Concerning injurious insects and fungus diseases .... 102 c. Controlling plant and animal breeding 102 OUTLINE vii 4. The use of textbooks 103 5. The lecture method jo4 6. Reports and class recitations by students 105 7. Use of illustrative material 106 8. Laboratory methods 107 a. Experiments 109 b. Verifications 110 e. Demonstrations 110 d. Practicums Ill 9. Home projects in secondary-school agriculture 119 a. Suggestions for the control of home projects 128 (1) Supervision must be provided 128 (2) The project should develop from agricultural study 128 (8) Credit for the home project should be supple- mentary 129 (4) Organize home-project students into clubs 129 (5) Project work should lead to profitable produc- tion 129 (6) Secure the cooperation of the parents 130 (7) Provide resources for students lacking them. . . 130 (8) Practical preparation necessary for teachers. . . 130 6. List of home projects suggested 131 10. Use of reference materials 141 a. System of filing 142 11. Agricultural extension in the high school 146 a. The objects of high-school extension 148 6. Forms of extension activities 150 c. Four effective methods of approach 151 12. Use of land in teaching agriculture in secondary schools. . . 158 VI. THE TEACHER OF AGRICULTURE 1. The most important factor in education is the teacher. . . . 162 a. Three inseparable conditions 163 (1) Strong personality 103 (2) High standards of qualification 103 (3) A respectable salary 163 via OUTLINE APPENDIX I. Suggestions for a farm, home, and community survey . . 167 11. Suggested course in nature study 6rst six grades 179 III. Suggested course in elements of agriculture seventh and eighth grades 204 IV. Suggestions for laboratory equipment 224 V. Suggestions for agricultural laboratory 227 VI. The Smith-Hughes Law and Vocational Agriculture in secondary schools 228 BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. General agriculture 265 11. Soils and agricultural chemistry 266 III. Animals 267 IV. Plants 267 V. Farm mechanics and management 268 VI. Farm life interests. . . .268 INDEX Advisory committee, agricultural, 153. Agricultural extension work, in the high school, 146-58; four methods of approach to, 151- 53; kinds of, 154, 156, 157; what it can accomplish, 155; certain phases of, studied by Professor Hummel, 156, 157; funds for, 156. Agriculture, conclusions from teaching of, in public schools, v; one of the major vocations and basic industries, v; should have vocational aim in public schools, vi; some reasons for teaching, vii-ix, 1-11; general and vocational, 1, 2; as indus- try, business, and life, 2, 3; scientific, makes for conserva- tion, 3; will give greater effi- ciency to rural vocational in- terests, 4; will improve rural health, 4, 5; conduces to great- er appreciation of art, 5; rela- tion of, to moral growth, 5, 6; teaching of, leads to rural or- ganization, 6, 7; a subject of liberal and technical education, 7, 8; the teacher of, 8, 9; self- injection and se'.f elimination in study of, 9; teaching of, will help in solving rural problems, 9-11; nature-study preceding, 12-20; elementary, and boys' and girls' club work, 21-30; beginning of vocational study of, 21, 22; high-school, 31- 98; curriculum problems con- nected with study of, in high- school, 31-34; lesson plan in- troducing a course in elemen- tary, 38, 39; special elective courses in, for one half unit credit for junior or senior year, 64-96; one-year high- school general course in, 83-96; general, textbooks, 96; anthol- ogy of, 96-98; what should re- sult from a course of instruction in, 99; the science of, and farm practice, 99-101; some prin- ciples of scientific, 101-03; use of textbooks in teaching of, 103, 104; the lecture method, 104, 105; reports and recita- tions, 104-06; use of illustra- tive material, 106, 107; labora- tory methods, 107-14; teach- ing farm craft, 114-19; home projects in secondary school, 119-21; the project as a basis for methods of instruction, 121-31; supervised farm prac- tice under the Smith-Hughes Law, 132-41; use of reference materials, 141-46; classifica- tion of, 142-46; use of land in teaching, 158-61; importance of properly trained teachers in, 162-66; qualifications for teach- ers in, 163, 164; imagination as a qualification of the teacher in, 165, 166; suggested course in elements of, 20t-23; high- school laboratory in, sugges- tions for, 227; vocational, in secondary schools, and the Smith-Hughes Bill, 228-63; bibliography, 265-68. Agronomy, 33, 35-37; course in, 39-46. INDEX Aims, for individual students, 1, 2; social, in view of modern demands, 2. Allen, H. B., extracts of letter of, to parents, 125-27. Animal and plant improvement, course in, 75-77. Animal breeding, 102. Animal husbandry, 22, 23, 33; in the high school, 46-48; course in, 48-56, 207-09. Animals, books on, 267. Anthology of Agriculture, 96-98. Art, a greater appreciation of, results from scientific agri- culture, 5. Barrows, Mr., problems of home- project plan according to, 127. Benson, O. H., quoted, 26. Bibliography, 265-68. Blackboard, use of, 107. Books, on agriculture, 47, 48, 59; for farmers and students of agriculture, 141; bibliography, 265-68. See Textbooks. Boys' and girls' clubs, 25-30, 129, 154. Breeding, plant and animal, 102. Bulletins, 47, 59, 141, 142. Card-indexes, 142. Charters, Dr. W. W., on project and problem, 121. Charts, use of, 107. Chemistry, agricultural, books on, 266. Clippings, 142. Club work, 25-30, 129, 152-54. Community census, 171-78. Community extension service, 48, 59. Community life, problems of, 10, 11. Conservation of natural re- sources, scientific agriculture makes for, 8. Contests, 114. Cora project calendar, 214-23. Coulter, Dr., quoted, 9. Course, for junior high-school ag- riculture, 34, 35; in elementary agriculture for high school, 38, 39; in agronomy, 39-46; in ani- mal husbandry, 48-56; in gen- eral horticulture, 60-64; in soils and crop production, 66- 70; in farm physical plant, 71- 73; in farm management, 73- 75; in plant and animal im- provement, 75-77; in poultry husbandry, 77-79; in dairy husbandry, 79-81; in vege- table gardening 81, 82; one- year high-school general, in agriculture, 83-96; in nature- study, 179-203; in elements of agriculture, 204-23. Crop production, course in, 66-70. Curriculum problems, 31-34. Dadisman, S. H., 64, 65. Dairy husbandry, course in, 79-81. Davenport, Eugene, Education for Efficiency quoted, 21; In- troduction to Agriculture, 213. Demonstrations, 110, 111. Diseases, plant, 102. Education, technical and liberal, 7, 8; the teacher the most im- portant factor in, 162-66. Efficiency in rural vocational in- terests, given by scientific agriculture, 4. Equipment, for animal husban- dry work, 47, 48; for work in horticulture, 59; laboratory, suggestions for, 224-27. Exchange and marketing, prob- lems of, 10. Experiments, 109, 110. Extension work, agricultural, in the high school, 146-58; gov- erning principles in, 148, 149; forms of, 150, 151. See Agri- cultural extension work. INDEX XI Farm and home census, 167-71. Farm craft, teaching, 114^-19. Farm, home, and community sur- vey, suggestions for, 167-78. Farm improvement, the prob- lems of, 10. Farm life interests, books on, 268. Farm management, 64, 65; course in, 73-75; books on, 268. Farm mechanics, 65; suggestive points for the supervised farm practice in, 140, 141; books on, 268. Farm physical plant, course in, 71-73. Farm practice, 99-101; super- vised, under the Smith-Hughes Law, 132-41. Farmers' clubs, 152, 153. Farming, lands of, 132, 133. Farmstead, the, 33. Federal aid for vocational agri- culture. See Smith-Hughes Law. Fertility, soil, 101, 102. Field work, 58, 59, 113. Filing, system of, 142-46. General horticulture, 33. See Horticulture. Grades, one and two, nature- study in, 14-16; three and four, nature-study in, 16-18; five and six, nature-study in, 18- 20; first six, suggested courses in nature-study for, 179-203; seventh and eighth, suggested course in elements of agricul- ture, 204-23. Grain farming, suggestive points for the supervised farm prac- tice in systems of, 133-36. Greene, J. H., 26. Greenhouses, 59. Hall, G. Stanley, 96, 97. Health in rural life, 4, 5. High school, agronomy in, 35-37, 39-46; animal husbandry in, 46-56; horticulture in, 56-64; special elective courses for junior or senior year, 64-82; one-year general course for, 83- 96; agriculture, house projects in, 119-21; agricultural exten- sion in, 146-58; broadening of, 147; objects of extension in, 148; forms of extension in, 150, 151. High-school agriculture, 31-98; aim of, 31; amount of time to be given to, 32; how fitted into a unified science course, 33; organization and presentation of, 33, 34; junior and senior, 34, 35. High- school laboratory in agri- culture, suggestions for, 227. Home-project work, 24; club method, 25-30, 129; in secon- dary-school agriculture, 119- 21; requisites of, 123, 124; ex- amples of, 124; need of par- ents' interest in, 125-27; prob- lems in connection with, 127; suggestions for the control of, 128-31; expensive, 128; the crediting of, 129; a method of approach to extensive service, 152; outline of plan for seventh- and eighth-grade agriculture, 213-23. Home work, 114, 210-13. Horticulture, in the high school, 33, 56-60; course in general, 60-64. Hummel, Professor W. G., his study of high-school agricul- tural extension work, 155-57. Illinois, farm craft teaching in, 115-19. Illinois Board for Vocational Education, excerpt from, on su- pervision of farm work, 132-41. Illustrative material, use of, 106, 107. xu INDEX Imagination as qualification of teacher, 165, 166. Improvement of plants and ani- mals, 33; course in, 75-77. Individual students, aims for, 1,2. Industrial Booklets, 210. Inefficiency in rural vocations, 3,4. Insects, principles and facts con- cerning life-histories of, 102. Journals, agricultural, 48, 59, 141. Junior and senior high-school agriculture, 34, 35. Laboratory equipment, sugges- tions for, 224-27. Laboratory exercises, 58, 106. Laboratory methods, 107-14. Land, use of, in teaching agri- culture in secondary schools, 158-61. Landscape gardening, 5. Lane, C. H., on requisites of home project, 123. Leake, A. H., Means and Meth- ods of Agricultural Education quoted, 26. Lecture method in teaching agri- culture, 47, 104, 105. Lectures, use of, in community extension service, 59. Lesson plans, introducing course in elementary agriculture, 38, 39; in animal husbandry, 55, 56; in nature-study, 181, 182, 185, 186, 188, 189, 192, 193, 197-99, 202, 203. Library, agricultural, 47, 48, 59; school, 141, 142. See Books. Live-stock farming, suggestive points for the supervised farm practice in systems of, 136-40. Maps, use of, 107. Marketing and exchange, prob- lems of, 10. Mass., home-project plan of agriculture in, 120, 121. Methods of teaching elementary agriculture, 21-30. Moral growth, its relation to agriculture, 5, 6. Museums, agricultural, use of, 107. Natural resources, conservation of, 3. Nature-study, preceding agricul- ture, 12-20; principles, 12-14; definition of, 13; differentiated from technical science, 13; aims of, 13; method of, 14; materials of, 14; for the child, 14; in grades one and two, 14^ 16; in third and fourth grades, 16-18; in fifth and sixth grades, 18-20; suggested course in, 179-203. Notebooks, 210; home projects, 214-23. Organization, rural, and agricul- ture, 6, 7; of subject-matter of high-school course, 33. Personality of teacher, 163, 164. Pictures, use of, 107. Plant and animal improvement, course in, 75-77. Plant breeding, 102. Plant industry, 22, 23, 204-07. See Agronomy and Horti- culture; also titles on pp. 64, 65. Plants, books on, 267, 268. Poultry husbandry, course in, 77-79. Practicums, 111-14. Problem and project, 121, 122. Project, the, as a basis for meth- ods of instruction, 121-31; de- fined, 121; chief educational function of, 121; chief values of, 122, 123; home, requisites of, 123, 124; examples of, 124; INDEX need of parents' interest in, 125-27. Projects, home, in secondary- school agriculture, 119-21; problems in connection with, 127; suggestions for the con- trol of, 128-31; the crediting of, 129; list of. 131. Recitations, 104-06. Reference materials, use of, 141-46. Reports, 104-06. Rural life, health in, 4, 5. Rural organization, results from teaching of agriculture, 6, 7. Rural problems, 9-11. Rural vocations, inefficiency in, 3,4. Salary of teachers, 163, 164. School farms, 158-61. Secondary-school agriculture, home projects in, 119-21; and Smith-Hughes Bill, 228-63. Smith-Hughes Law, supervised farm practice under the, 132- 41; and vocational agriculture in secondary schools, 228-63; extracts from, 228-32; some of the benefits of, 235, 236; dan- gers in, 235; conditions govern- ing federal aid for vocational agriculture in Texas under, 236-42; application for fed- eral aid in vocational agricul- ture under, 243-64. Snedden, David, The Problem of Vocational Education quoted, VI, 28. Social aims in view of modern demands, 2. Soil fertility, facts of, 101, 102. Soils, course in, 66-70; books on, 266. Stereopticons, use of, 107. Student labor, 160, 161. Supervision of farm work, 132- 41. Teachers, to supervise home-pro- ject work, lack of, 130; of agri- culture in high schools, possi- bilities within reach of, 155; should be hired for twelve months, 156; in extension work, difficulties should be no impediment to, 158; the most important factor in education, 162-66; in agriculture, the training of, 162, 163; necessi- ties for good, 163, 164. Textbook method of teaching elementary agriculture, 22-25, 204-23. Textbooks, on animal husbandry, 47; on general agriculture, 96; the use of, 103, 104. See Books. United States Boys' Working Reserve, 114-17. Vegetable gardening, course in, 81, 82. Verifications, 110. Vincent, President, cited, 165. Vocational agriculture, in the public schools, v, vi, 31; and general agriculture, 1, 2; begin- ning of study of, 21, 22. UNTVER. C TTY of C * T TFORNfc* LJBI'