No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 439 



to make it practical, to connect up tlie work of the school in a very defi- 

 nite way and in a practical way with the work of the home and the 

 work of the farm. Every hov who takes this fonr-vears' course in one 

 of these agricultural high schools must each year carry on an agri- 

 cultural project. This is another illustration of the attempt to con- 

 nect up this work with the home and make it practical. This boy 

 chose a poultry project. Ho hatched out as many eggs as he could 

 from the eggs you see there. He selected the male birds and caponized 

 them and in the fall he put on some very healthy specimens of capons. 

 The boy received a great deal of valuable information in connection 

 with this and received some financial remuneration. 



This boy is a freshman in a small agricultural high school and de- 

 cided that he would like to grow some tomato plants. He was very 

 much interested in tomatoes. He planted fifteen hundred tomato 

 plants, or secured that many from the number of seeds be planted, and 

 transplanted them and took care of them. Every boy who carried on 

 an agricultural project under the close supervision of the supervisor 

 of agriculture, must keep a daily record of everything he does, his ex- 

 penses, the work that he puts on, the methods that he employs, in 

 order that he may learn some lessons thereby. From that record we 

 know that this particular boy went out one night, on the night of the 

 fifteenth of June ; it happened in that year and covered up this many 

 of his fifteen hundred tomato plants with newspapers to protect them 

 from a frost which his daily record shows came that night, a very 

 heavy frost. His father did not cover his plants up and lost many 

 of tliem. This boy bought for himself a canning outfit and later in 

 the Summer a second outfit, because he was so successful in canning 

 these tomatoes and other vegetables; he put his own brand of canned 

 corn, tomatoes and beans upon the market, and at the close of the sea- 

 son he had not only had a kind of work that kept him interested and 

 out of mischief, but he had also cleaned up the tidy sum of $130.00. 

 It seems to me that there is value in that. 



May I call your attention again to the fact that the supervisor of 

 agriculture in these high schools is employed for the year around? 

 He stays there during the Summer and visits these boys as frequently 

 as possible for the purpose of giving them instruction in connection 

 with their agricultural projects. Now, my friends, we have learned 

 how to feed the hen ; we have learned that the hen is an egg factory 

 on legs — I came near saying on wheels; we have learned that if we 

 want to make a hen produce eggs, we must feed that hen those ma- 

 terials which make eggs and those elements which will also carry on 

 the body functions of the various organs in that hen. We have that 

 down to a science. Mr. Wittman, of your own State Board, has told 

 the people of this State many interesting things. We know that we 

 can feed Lady Eglantine, of whom you have all undoubtedly heard, 

 an exact ration, which will make her lay eggs without any eggscite- 

 ment, and may perhaps make her a little eggotistical. (Laughter), 

 We have learned, my friends, how to feed this happy family to keep 

 them happy until the day of reckoning comes. We have even passed 

 some laws providing for their comfort when traveling. I say we have 

 learned how to balance rations for chickens; we have learned how 

 to balance the rations of hogs so that we can make them take on 

 the greatest amount of fat with the least possible expense and the 



