NOTES. 499 



The organization of boys' and girls' clubs, as well as adult clubs and similar 

 forms of rural endeavor, was considered this year for the first time. One 

 afternoon devoted to this phase included papers on such topics as What Recog- 

 nition Should Be Given Vacation and Other School Project Work Done by 

 Pupils, and The Federated Boys' and Girls' Club Work of the United States, 

 and five-minute reports of state and district club-work leaders on projects con- 

 ducted, membership, club leaders, method of financing, apparent results, recog- 

 nition given the work in the schools, and prospective club work. 



At a meeting of the state and national club leaders, an address was given by 

 E. J. Tobin, county superintendent of schools of Cook County, 111., on Club 

 Work as an Extension Service of the Public Schools. Mr. Tobin regarded club 

 work, properly conducted, as the best means of tying up the home life of the 

 pupil with the school, as well as of teaching certain subjects. A necessary 

 preliminary to the successful organization of club work, however, is the pro- 

 vision of competent supervisors to follow up the matter during vacation. In 

 Cook County, five country life leaders, one for 25 or 30 schools, are employed 

 the entire year to initiate, carry on, and supervise rural community betterment 

 work. One of their main endeavors is to organize every boy and girl over ten 

 years of age residing in their division into an agricultural club. During the 

 winter months they assist the teachers in giving agricultural instruction in 

 the schools, and during the summer vacation they become itinerant teachers, 

 corresponding to the " Wanderlehrers " in (Jermany. traveling from one farm 

 to another to visit, inspect, and advise with the boys and girls. 



In addition to an afternoon devoted to a conference on School Gardens in 

 Cities, papers were read before the School Garden Association of America on 

 Home Gardens in Indiana, School Gardening on the Prairie, and School Garden- 

 ing in Los Angeles. Commissioner Claxton also addressed the latter association 

 on Purposeful Occupations for Boys. He maintained that it is impossible to 

 really educate any child who early in life does not engage in some purposeful 

 occupation, that there should be a teacher of gardening in every city school, and 

 that such work would yield considerable financial returns to families and 

 improve the physical, intellectual, and moral condition of the children. 



Agricultural Progress in Latin America. — The government of Cundinamarca, 

 Colombia, has contracted with H. Charton, proprietor of vineyards of the 

 municipality of Tocaima, to establish an agricultural institute on his property. 

 The school will begin operations with twelve pupils selected from the munici- 

 pality. Marcel Berthaul of Paris has been appointed professor of agronomy in 

 the University of Narino. The Colombian Government has also authorized the 

 employment of four instructors of tropical agriculture and two veterinarians. 



The Elidoro Villazon National Agronomic and Veterinary Institute at Cocha- 

 bamba, Bolivia, is now well equipped with experimental grounds, laboratories, 

 library, machinery, and apparatus, and furnishes a 4-year course of theoretical 

 and practical instruction in agronomy and veterinai*y science. The scholastic 

 year begins in March. A number of scholarships are available to needy stu- 

 dents. Pedro Charuli is acting director of the school and a number of the pro- 

 fessors are specialists from abroad. 



Dr. Moises S. Bertoni, an experienced agronomist and botanist and director 

 of the agricultural station at Asuncion, Paraguay, has been appointed chief of 

 the Bureau of Agriculture of the government of Paraguay. An agricultural 

 school is being established at Ypacarai, with two instructors who have been 

 educated abroad in charge of the several courses. 



A three-year theoretical and practical course in agriculture is now being 

 offered in the Peruvian National College of San Luis Gonzaga at lea. A 

 viticultural experiment station has been in operation in the Moquegua Valley,' 



