DAIRY, SEED IMPROVEMENT, STOCK BREEDERS' MEETINGS. 253 



class studying domestic animals had the privilege of judging 

 the cows of many pure bred herds. Tliese experiments awaken 

 the interest of boys in farming. If agriculture is taught 

 throughout the state, I believe we may hope soon to see the 

 abandoned farms once more occupied. 



The second reason is, it teaches the boys scientific methods 

 of agriculture, their importance, and their application to the 

 home farm. The older farmers are slow to accept modern 

 methods, preferring to do things the way they have always 

 done them. They hate to pay out money for farm improve- 

 ments, not realizing that they must spend money to make 

 money. Why is it that a city business man will buy a farm 

 and will sometimes be more successful than the farmers around 

 him? It is because he knows the value of modern methods 

 and will grow two blades of grass where his neighbors grow 

 but one. He has profited from the experience of those who 

 have investigated the best methods of agriculture. The boy 

 studying agriculture in high school has an opportunity to 

 learn these methods. For example, the class studying orchard- 

 ing in our school had the privilege of picking, grading, and 

 packing apples under the teacher's direction in a nearby 

 orchard. The practical work that the boys get in school in this 

 way shows them that in order to succeed they must learn to do 

 things well. Thus they form a desire to raise some product on 

 their home farm and strive to follow the best methods in doing 

 so. In this way they learn to specialize. 



The third reason is that it helps the community. The agri- 

 cultural school leads a greater number of boys to stay on the 

 farm and thus helps the community by increasing the number 

 of useful citizens. For are not the boys of today the citizens 

 of tomorrow, and where are better or more useful citizens to 

 be found than among the farmers of a community? Agricul- 

 ture in high schools also leads to the establishment of associa- 

 tions which are beneficial to the farmers. Our instructor in 

 agriculture has just started a Cow Test Association which has 

 over twenty members, already. Although the association is 

 founded primarily for testing the milk produced by the 'herds 

 of its members, it will later work out feed standards. Its 

 members will also eventually cooperate in the purchase of 

 farm supplies. A Farmers' Extension School will be held at 



