EARLY MANHOOD IN THE MIDDLE WEST 161 



the students to view good and poor farms; to see 

 fine herds and scrub herds in the country round- 

 about, even though they sometimes had to travel 

 on freight cars. I suppose I was the first teacher 

 of agriculture to make use, in a large way, of the 

 fields and the stables of the countryside as labora- 

 tories. I simply found myself in the position of 

 the boy and the woodchuck when a visit from the 

 minister was expected it was a ground-hog case. 

 One day, being short of lecture material, I went 

 to the fields and gathered a great armful of the 

 common weed pests. Handing them round to the 

 class I asked for the common and the botanical 

 names, and the methods of eradication I received 

 only two answers and those quite inadequate 

 although these twenty-five young men had spent 

 most of their waking hours since childhood in 

 fields where there were more weeds than useful 

 plants. This experiment provided material for a 

 week's classroom talk and led me to place still more 

 emphasis on field laboratory work " walks and 

 talks " we called them. When the subject of the 

 horse breeding, age, care and management 

 came up, I went again to the library for help. But 

 the horse books were all out of date, chiefly filled 

 with information about hunters, jumpers, and 

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