262 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



boys about the animal; the teacher asked questions about the dilTer- 

 ent points of the animal; they agreed that although it had too much 

 head, and too much of a Roman nose for this grade of a horse, it 

 was an excellent specimen of its kind. In this way those boys and 

 girls are acquiring a whole lot of knowledge that will be of value 

 to them in their life work. 



As the result of a Farmers' Institute held in that town last winter 

 the school has become very much interested in poultry. Mrs. Allen, 

 who is on your force of lecturers, talked to them on poultry culture, 

 and got the boys and girls, and their parents interested in poultry. 

 The teacher took advantage of this wave of interest to organize a 

 class in poultry culture; sixty-five went in, and they were divided 

 into two classes. They borrowed four incubators, one from the 

 manufacturer, two from a poultry fancier, and one from a farmer; 

 each incubator was given in charge of two boys, or a boy and a girl 

 for a week, who had to look after the eggs and the temperature, and 

 all other matters connected with it; these were then discussed with 

 the class, and two more took charge of it for the following week, 

 so as to let the work go round, and give all these boys and girls 

 authority and opportunity to assume the responsibility, of which 

 they were very proud, and did all in their power to make a success 

 of the undertaking. They had at the outset three brooders, two 

 inferior ones, and one first class one, made by one of the boys in the 

 school. They had about a hundred and seventy-five chicks there, 

 taking care of them while 1 was there, and I want to say to you that 

 while this particular wave of interest was aroused by a Farmers' 

 Institute, the farmers themselves told me that the success of the In- 

 stitute was largely due to the way the school teaches agriculture. 

 At this particular Institute the boys and girls were eager in their 

 attendance, and made notes of what was said, and these notes were 

 afterwards discussed in school with the teacher. 



Now, it seems to me that in the two cases I have given here we 

 have examples of how agriculture should be taught in the schools, 

 and how it can be adapted to the different conditions in different 

 localities. I don't believe you want to teacli children in Northern 

 schools how to grow oranges and bananas, and other Southern 

 crops. I believe you want to take the things that grow right there 

 in that locality and use them to illustrate to the children the life 

 of the plant or animal. We are all interested most in the things 

 that concern us most when at home. 



This particular slide is taken from one of the Wisconsin country 

 schools. I simply introduced it here to show what the country 

 school in Wisconsin is doing in the way of agriculture. They are 

 simply carrying out a little further the ideas I have presented. 

 This particular school does the testing of milk and cream for butter 

 fat, and, by the way, they are doing the same thing right here in 

 the Waterford school. The creamery at Waterford suspected that 

 it was getting some adulterated milk. They sent samples over to 

 the school, and it was tested, and found to contain water. The 

 creamery knew well enough where this milk came from, and told 

 the man that his milk contained water. He admitted it right away, 

 ''but," he said, "I will tell you how it happened; that particular 

 morning I was very busy, and I picked up a little can and emptied 



