No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 263 



it into the big can, and I never noticed that it was water I was pour- 

 ing into the big can." He did not, however, mention how it hap- 

 pened that he had been sending in watered milk for sometime. Now, 

 these pupils not only tested the milk for the farmers, but they made 

 tests of seeds, for germinating power; for smut in corn, and rot in 

 potatoes; trees were pruned and sprayed, and plans suggested for 

 milk and poultry houses, and blacksmith work done in connection 

 with their instructions. They make models of buildings, and tben 

 build their buildings from their own plans. They don't however, 

 have much opportunity to put their ideas into real buildings, but 

 must content themselves with models. They give information re- 

 garding crops, select pure bred stock for buyers, and send out 

 bulletins that the school publishes. 



There is no reason, it seems to me, why we should not teach 

 agriculture in this way in many more country schools. The great 

 preliminary, it seems to me, is to get the teacher competent to give 

 these instructions. We must have a teacher with country sym- 

 pathies, one who is himself interested in agriculture, and in the 

 things around him in the country. It seems that the difficulty here 

 at Waterford is to keep a teacher; they can only pay seventy-five 

 dollars a month, and they cannot usually keep a teacher from an 

 agricultural college longer than one year, because the services of 

 such a man are in demand at higher salaries. I figured up the 

 salaries of ninety graduates of 1907, when they are getting on an 

 average of ninety dollars a mouth the first year. There you see 

 the difficulty in getting any such man in such a position. The only 

 way is to get them in as principle, and offer them a salary as prin- 

 cipal, and if you get a man capable of doing this kind of teaching, 

 he is well worth his salary. These young men in these schools are 

 earning their salaries, and nobody is complaining that they are pay- 

 ing too dearly for this instruction. 



Now, then, the thing is to get your township high schools started 

 along the same line as the Waterford school. It will probably cost 

 about six hundred dollars a year more to run the school in that 

 way, but I don't think there will be much difficulty in finding that 

 six hundred dollars once you get started up, and get people inter- 

 ested. 



BENEFITS TO BE DERIVED FROM FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



By lioBEUT S. Seeds, Blnnlnfiliam, pa. 



I want to say that I realize that my time is limited, but if I forget 

 myself and don't know when to stop, if the Chairman will give me 

 a signal, I will be glad. 



We think of this as the important session of the Institute, where 

 we can tell one another of our trials, and exchange good suggestions. 

 I want to say that I have been in the Institute work eleven years, 



