PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 367 



to a study of field crops and soils, the second to animal husbandry, 

 and the remaining half year to orchard and garden crops. It is 

 planned to make the entire course a demonstration of the feasibility 

 of teaching secondary agriculture in the public schools. It is also 

 expected that these courses will afford a satisfactory means of in- 

 structing public-school teachers, who may cover the entire work in 

 one year while also pursuing some studies in the college of agricul- 

 ture. Half-semester courses in cooking, sewing, and the care and 

 planning of the home are also being offered in the academy in con- 

 nection with the depailment of household science of the university. 



IOWA, 



The public high school at Coin, Iowa, offers four years of agri- 

 culture as an elective. Similar opportunities for election are offered 

 to students who prefer Latin, household science, manual training, 

 or commercial subjects to agriculture. Agriculture is taught by the 

 superintendent, J. W, Tavenner, who has arranged the nature-study 

 work in the grades so as to make a good preparation for agriculture 

 in the high school. 



The course in agriculture is well planned and is briefly outlined 



below. 



First Year. 



Farm crops. — Corn, seed corn, oats, wheat, iwtatoes, sweet potatoes, sorghum, 

 sugar beets. 



Legumes. — Alfalfa, red clover, white clover, alsike clover, mammoth clover, 

 cowpeas, soy beans, and vetch. 



Grasses. — Kentucky blue grass, timothy, redtop, and oi-chard grass. 



Silos. — Historical, form and construction, cost, selection and culture of silage 

 crops, filling the silo, composition and feeding value of silage. 



Weeds. — Identification of the neighborhood weeds by means of seeds, stems, 

 and leaves. Habits of gi'owth and methods of eradication. State ways in 

 which weeds are an injury to the farmer. Name not less than five of the 

 worst weeds, and state why. Classify weeds as to habits of growth. Also as 

 to annuals, biennials, and perennials. 



Collect seeds from all weeds, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and flowers in the 

 neighborhood. Put them into envelopes or bottles and label each with date, 

 name of plant, where found, and name of collector. 



Problems on yield, on amount of the three principal food elements needed 

 to replace that taken by different crops, on fencing fields of different sizes, 

 on number of bushels of corn in different size cribs or bins, etc. 



Soil formation. — Mechanical agencies, the chemical action of air and water, 

 plants and animals as soil formers and improvers, soil materials, light and 

 heavy soils, physical characteristics of soils, moisture relations of soils, heat 

 relation of soils, soil temperature affected by color and drainage, chemical 

 characteristics of soils. 



Experiments in the laboratory and on plats to determine the water-holding 

 powers of different soils, experiments to demonstrate the capillary movements 

 of water in soils under different conditions, exixjriments to show the different 



