graham] AGRICULTURE IN HIGH SCHOOLS 69 



opportunity for self-expression and cultivating the desire to take 

 the initiative as is offered in any manual training school. The 

 joy that comes from achievements, and the acquisition of habits 

 of accuracy and manual skill result quite as much from manual 

 exercises that apply directly to the comfort, convenience, and 

 economy of the farmer and his family as from those exercises best 

 suited to the trades of the city. 



The function of an agricultural course is further performed by 

 assisting young men and women to conduct tests and experi- 

 ments at home, when the conditions under which the work is 

 being done are those which they need immediately to know most 

 about. In conducting such experiments, soil conditions, artificial 

 drainage, topography, the demand of the markets and the keeping 

 of the necessary records, lead the young student to consider 

 adaptability from the point of physical conditions and the de- 

 mands of the market; the keeping of records obliges the experi- 

 menter to be economical and accurate. If, after an agricultural 

 course has been offered, there is no effort made to establish the 

 practice of economy, all that has been offered is of little pr-actical 

 value. The horse or sheep that "eats its head off," or the cow, hog, 

 or fowl that can't "earn its board and keep," are little more than 

 living objects, satisfying a fancy; the planting of seeds whose 

 vitality is low or those that are infected with smut or scab, results 

 in losses far beyond the belief of the average farmer. In such 

 farming there is not only not the least show of self-expression 

 initiative, or profitable achievement, but there is utter disregard 

 for accuracy, and an actual lack of good judgment and economy. 



Not the least important function of high-school work is the 

 creation of a wholesome school atmosphere that will arouse an 

 interest in the beauties and pleasures of rural life, and the teacher 

 of a rural school who neglects an opportunity to spiritualize rural 

 life loses much of the joy that comes from doing good. 



The value of an agricultural course or any other course must be 

 measured in terms of citizenship, pleasure, and utility. Any 

 course of industrial education will cultivate the spiritual, moral 

 and social virtues. This statement is especially true of agricul- 

 tural education, since it has so much to do with so manv of the 

 Creator's laws that are manifested in living things. To know 

 these laws dispels the darkness of ignorance and superstition. 

 Agricultural literature and natural phenomena are interpreted in 



