AGRJC, DEPT, 



Main Lib. 



INTRODUCTION 



How we learn. Textbook teaching of agriculture, while very useful, is inadequate because it fails to 

 develop the student's power to see things understandingly. It is through observing and doing that most 

 of the knowledge of farming is acquired. The farm is a great laboratory. The operations in manuring 

 the'land, preparing thg soil, selecting, testing, and planting the seed, protecting the plants against injury 

 by weeds, insects', arid disease, gathering and saving the harvest, feeding the products to live stock so as 

 t6^ririg ',th£ 'jatfg-est return in eggs, meat, milk, wool, and work are its exercises. The farmer learns 

 principally by experience, the best though the costliest of teachers. The authors believe that it is pos- 

 sible, by expert teaching and close supervision of the student's work in the laboratory and field, to save 

 a large part of this expense. The exercises are so planned as to teach the student how to make an ex- 

 periment or an observation accurately and how to record and interpret the results correctly. This 

 gives to the study of agriculture the disciplinary value of an exact science, besides teaching the funda- 

 mental lessons of how to farm successfully. 



Selection of exercises. In choosing the exercises and projects to be included in the Manual, the 

 authors have sought above everything else to select those which relate definitely to farming and which 

 teach in their results the essentials of farm practice. They have endeavored to make the ex- 

 ercises and projects cover as completely as is possible the important, interesting, and practical farm 

 problems of the country. The instructions to the student are definite. Each exercise and home project 

 has been tried out, and when the directions are carefully followed, results that are decisive will follow. 



Use of exercises and projects. The number of exercises to be completed in a year will depend upon 

 the needs of the local community and the time given to the course. The vocational school giving one 

 half of each day to the course in agriculture should be able to complete all the laboratory exercises and 

 in addition provide the required six months' supervised project work. In schools giving less time the 

 teacher should select those exercises of greatest importance to the local community. 



Method. It is a great waste of time and effort to require each student to do all of the work of each 

 exercise. In many cases the work of manipulation of apparatus and material can best be done by the 

 teacher or by a group of students. In the table of contents this is indicated by a letter in parenthesis: 

 (t) meaning that the work of manipulation may be done by the teacher, (g) by a group of students, 

 (i) by the individual student. 



Cooperation with the best farmers. The closest cooperation between the teacher of agriculture 

 and the best farmers of the neighborhood is necessary to insure the teaching of sound agriculture 

 and also as a means of facilitating the adoption of the teachings of the classroom and laboratory into 

 the farm practices of the community. Sound teaching and close cooperation will be much helped if the 

 teacher will choose an advisory committee consisting of the most progressive farmers of the neighbor- 

 hood and will use this committee in working out a plan of correlating the school work with the local 

 farm work. These and other leading farmers should be invited to talk to the class on the methods of 

 farming which they have found most feasible and practicable. 



Every member of the class in agriculture should be set to work on some problem on the home farm. 

 Use should be made of the best dairy and beef cattle, the best horses, hogs, sheep, and poultry, in the 

 community in the stock-judging work. 



The school ground and its use. Many of the students of agriculture in high schools are without 

 farm experience and are taking the work as a part of their preparation for teaching in the rural schools. 

 Many of the students are girls. Even though the girls were reared on the farm they have not, as a rule, 

 given attention to the details of farm operations. To both of these classes some actual field work will 



5 20 * 1 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY GINN AND COMPANY 



[ii] 



