PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURiVL EDUCATION. 351 



this afjricultiiral course from the ordinary hi^h-sohool course is the 

 proininence given to the hiboratory work and the outdoor practicum. 

 For the hihoratorv work there is no elaborate apparatus. The pupils 

 make niucli of their own api)aratus, furnish their own reagent bottles, 

 and. moreover, use them. In the ])lant-life course the pupils study 

 not elaborate and carefully prepared drawings, but the plants them- 

 selves with reference to their life history and economic uses. 



For the outdoor })racticum the sehool is unfortunate in having 

 neither land nor domestic aninuils or fowls, and yet it has a wealth of 

 illustrative material all arc»und it. Every good farm within a radius 

 of 3 or -t miles, nearly every barn and poultry yard in the village, the 

 butcher shops, and the farm-imi)lement stores furnish costly illustra- 

 tive material and extend vastly the teaching force of the high school. 

 The farmers and other owners of good live stock either bving their 

 animals to the door of the schoolhouse to be studied by the class in 

 agriculture or allow the class to go to their barns and fields for this 

 purpose. It is said to be a rare thing for a good horse to come to the 

 village and get away without being examined by the high school 

 class in animal husbandry. 



In the Sac City, Iowa, high school an agricultural course has btien 

 started, and 56 puj^ils are taking the course. 



The Pennsylvania State legislature has recognized the National 

 Farm School at Doylestown by granting it an appropriation of 

 $12,000, to be used for agricultural instruction. This school now' 

 receives more applicants for admission than it can acconnnodate and 

 is obliged to keep a waiting list. 



In Wisconsin the Dunn County School of Agriculture and Domestic 

 Science, at Menomonie, described in previous reports of this Office, 

 graduated in 1905 a class of 11) boys and girls, 8 of whom completed 

 the regular two-year course and 11 the short course. The school held 

 a sununer session to prepare teachers to meet the retpiirements of the 

 State law requiring agricultural instruction in rural schools. 



A recent bulletin of this school announces several lines of work 

 which the school is })repared to do for the farmers of the country free 

 of charge. This work includes testing of milk and seeds; inoculation 

 of clover and other legumes; treatment of oats for snnit and potatoes 

 for scab; grafting of apple trees; i)lanning of roads, barns, silos, 

 poultry and milk houses, water systems, and drainage and sewerage 

 systems; .selecting of })ure-bred stock, and giving information regard- 

 ing feeds, stock, crops, diseases, insects, spraying, and other farm 

 subjects. 



The California Polytechnic School, at San Luis Obispo, an account 

 of which was published in the re|)ort of this Office for li)0.'}, has issued 

 its firbt biennial report, which shows that the school has made good 



