562 



Journal of AgricuHure, Victoria. [10 Sept., 1918. 



of an agricultural college, with at least two years' practical exi)erieuce 

 behind hiui. 



In that first year the teacher has either made a place for himself 

 on that farm, or he has demonstrated that he has no place in that 

 fanning community. The second year, the boy proceeds to something 

 demanding more care to detail, viz., the raising of poultry and the 

 incubation and rearing of chickens. The matter is carefully considered 

 in school in great detail. All agricultural instruction for the year is 

 centred round profitable poultry production, and the technical details 

 necessary for successful poultry management and the incubation and 

 rearing of chickens. Then comes the practical test — 'the actual rearing 

 of, say, 100 or 200 chickens. The instructor, as usual, visits the boy 

 on the farm, and encourages him to keep exact and systematic records. 

 The third year, a farm crop is raised. An acre of potatoes, a couple of 

 acres of corn, or an acre of mangolds. 



Again, care is paid to details of cultivation, fei-tilization, and selec- 

 tion. Finally, the task of attacking such problems as the control of a 



Spraying Potatoes, Bristol County Agricultural School. 



few cows, raising a litter of pigs, or the balancing up of the farm crops 

 and stock, i.e., studies in farm management are undertaken in the 

 fourth year. 



As an example of a poultry project, I may mention one of a number 

 of cases which came under my personal notice in the States of Xew York 

 and Massachusetts. 



Trumiansberg is a small town in the State of New York, 10 miles 

 from the State college of agriculture, with a population of 1,100. At 

 the time of my visit to the local high school there were seventeen boys 

 engaged in project studies. One boy — Harold E. Wilkin — sixteen years 

 of age, had taken over from his father, last December, 679 mixed hens, 

 for which his father debited him 126.32 dollars (£26 6s. 4d.). The 

 father informed me that prior to the project work his boy showed very 

 little interest in agriculture. !N'ow, howeven, the boy wias intensely 

 interested in his work. 



This boy had kept a record of all the feed consumed by the birds, 

 jhe.time spent daily on the project, and the cost of the feed, shell grit, 



