316 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Some fij?iires on the cost of feeding; dairy cows for the i)i'odiiction 

 of milk fire very interesting;. The average cost of feedinc: and carinc; 

 for an animal from its birth until it became an adult, which was about 

 two years, secured by keeping accurate record of a dairy herd in Wis- 

 consin, shows that under a very simple system of management the 

 cost of feed and labor amounted to |o0.08. The cost of feed during 

 this period Avas |42.01. The cost of labor was |8.07. The feed was 

 charged at market prices, man labor at 12 cents i)er hour and horse 

 labor at 10 cents per hour. The young stock were pastured for about 

 three months during the summer, for which there was no labor 

 charged. An interesting fact in connection with this is that for the 

 first two months the cost of both feed and labor was the greatest of 

 any part of this period. During the winter months it remained fairly 

 uniform and was the lowest during the summer. 



Another line of work which has received considerable attention in 

 our office it what might be called conducting an agricultural survey. 

 This is a canvass of all the farmers in a township and securing com- 

 plete data on the incomes and expenses of the farm. In this work, at- 

 tention was given to the early training and preparations for farm life 

 and one of the most interesting deductions from farm surveys in New 

 Hampshire is that the average net income from farmers which re- 

 ceived a high school training was considerable abovethe income from 

 farmers who only attended the district school. 



THE NEEDS OF OUR RURAL SCHOOLS 



By MISS SARA C. LOVEJOY, State College, Pa. 



The needs of our rural schools are fundamentally th'e same as those 

 of all schools, based on the common object of all education. Every 

 one who aspires to the name, ''Educator," and even those of us who 

 can claim no higher title than ''teacher" are thinking some pet theory 

 as to what education really is, but from the many definitions, as nu- 

 merous as are the definers, we may select as one of the best that of a 

 leading college president: "The object of all education,^' he says, "is 

 to train men and women for intelligent citizenship." The schools of 

 our rural communities should, therefore, fit the boys and girls for 

 their duties as men and women. Are they doing this? 



Before we can answer this question we must consider what these 

 duties are for which training is needed. First for the home, the one 

 institution of our land in which all the people share, and in the build- 

 ing of which every one has a part. We have long recognized that boys 

 who were to become physicians, ministers, or engineers must be 

 especially trained for their professions. It is time that people ad- 

 mitted that home-building is no less a profession than are these others 

 and that they who are to administer the work of the household should 

 be definitely trained. 



