10 Sept., 1918.] 



Agriculture in America. 



561 



The County agricultural schools are well equipped with teachers 

 and laboratory facilities. The cost of maintenance for last year of 

 Essex County School was 49,000 dollars (£10,200). There are fourteen 

 teachers at Essex Agricultural School — all trained agriculturists — and 

 an attendance of 171, with 125 on the waiting list. 



The principle underlying the Massachusetts system of vocational 

 agricultural education is the centralization of instruction in agriculture 

 round some project perfonned on the home farm or some rented land, 

 and the correlation with this project of studies in English, civics, and 

 aigricultural science. 



Mr. R. W. Stimson, of the Massachusetts Board of Education, the 

 founder of the " Home Project " idea, accompanied me on a visit to 

 these vai'ious agricultural schools, and explained that the basic idea is 

 to graduate the work on home projects from the simple to the complex. 

 The first year the project is usually " home gardening." This forms 

 a modest approach to the farmer. There are motives for having a 



Bristol County Agricultural School. Massachusetts. 



good garden on every farm. They wish the farmer to have something 

 other than a diet of salt pork and potatoes. The farmer is usually very 

 willing to be relieved of the work of attending to the vegetable garden. 

 The boy, under supervision of the teacher, plants vegetables at appro- 

 priate times, and tends to them in a manner which is in accord with 

 best practice. 



The bo3' keeps accurate accounts of the cost and worth of these vege- 

 tables, and generally surprises his father at the end of the year by 

 submitting an exact statement of what the vegetables would have cost 

 the family if purchased in the market. The farmer sees that the boy 

 is an economic factor in the household, and the boy gets appreciation 

 and commendation. The instructor, too, has established a right to 

 come on to the farm. The fanner will want to get as much out of the 

 instructor as possible. 



He will try to get information of value, or he may try to " pump " 

 the instructor and " trip him up." The instructor is always a graduate 



