GRAHAM] AGRICULTURE IN HIGH SCHOOLS 67 



tural or applied science work in such courses. The question is 

 one of adjustment and adaptability rather than one of substitution. 



The course in the natural sciences should be so arranged and so 

 taught that the child's own environment and the occupations 

 of the people in his own vicinity should, as much as possible, 

 become subjects for illustration and example. Any science 

 taught as an applied science should bear upon the industries of 

 the people who support the school. No high -school course should 

 be so intensely agricultural either in studies or exercises that it 

 leads to the formation of a caste. It should be reasonably liberal, 

 rather than technical. 



The high-school agricultural course occupies a middle position 

 between the incidental agricultural exercises of the elementary 

 school and the purely technical courses in the agricultural college. 

 Since agricultural work is, in the main, scientific, a foundation for 

 such a course must be made in the science branches. Soil forma- 

 tion, surface drainage, temperature and its effects upon plant and 

 animal life, the distribution of animal life, etc., are agricultural 

 subjects coming within the scope of physical geography. Capil- 

 larity and porosity of soils, film and gravity water, evaporation 

 and mulches are subjects relating to tillage and the methods of 

 cultivation, and come within the field of elementary physics. 

 The setting of the plow to take more or less land, the adjustment 

 of collar, names, and traces to secure the most advantageous 

 draft, the mechanics of the horse, the manipulation of farm 

 implements, the use of gasoline and steam engines, the creaming 

 and separating of cream, the churning of butter, osmosis in the 

 stems of plants and evaporation from their leaves, ventilation and 

 color harmony, are all subjects to which some principle of physics 

 may be applied. The study of germination, vitality of seeds, 

 plant food, the effect of environment, heredity, and selection, fer- 

 tilization, budding, grafting, and the making of outdoor observa- 

 tions in the study of plant ecology only intensify the study of 

 botany. There are a few biological subjects, especially heredity, 

 .selection, and the principles involved in breeding, which are much 

 more impressive, and the results of which are more immediately 

 seen if taught by using plants. The principles of plant breeding 

 being practically the same as those of animal breeding, little or no 

 attention at this period of school life need be given to animals 

 beyond the external points of excellence. 



