118 ADVENTURES IN IDEALISM 



the students were taught how to use incubators, and 

 the method of packing poultry for market. The new- 

 est of agricultural implements mechanical ploughs, 

 seeders, reapers and binders were used by the boys 

 of the school. In fact, so complete was the equipment, 

 that a miniature weather bureau was fitted up on the 

 top of the fifty-foot tower in the center of the Agri- 

 cultural School grounds. This had all the necessary 

 instruments, and the students took daily observations. 



The order of the school day was thus: The boys 

 would rise at 6:30, take a cold shower, dress and start 

 their daily work. They were led about the farm, which 

 covered 300 acres, absorbing from actual experience 

 knowledge of the cultivation of orchards, vineyards 

 and greenhouses, and of the care of live-stock. Then, 

 at ten, the day's toil was over, and the bell called all 

 to bed and to rest. 



Students of both sexes were admitted to the Agri- 

 cultural School. I remember the incident which led 

 to the opening of a department therein for girls. One 

 afternoon a girl of fifteen, the daughter of one of the 

 farmers, came to see my husband to complain, with 

 bitter tears, of her unhappy home. Her father, having 

 lost his wife, had married a new one, who was proving 

 the proverbial step-mother. What was the girl to do ? 

 Where was she to go ? My husband could not see her 

 go without helping her, and it occurred to him at 

 once : Why not give her a chance to study all branches 

 of housekeeping and some branches of farming? 



