Some Typical High Schools Teaching Agriculture 43 



The schools described of this group were visited consecutively, 

 though not in the exact order in which they are described, and 

 before any of the other schools, except the one at Waterford, 

 Pa. The work first described is in the schools of three villages 

 in central and western Ohio, and of one in southern Michigan, 

 having a population of 1,000 or less. The next three schools 

 treated are distinctly rural high schools, two in southwestern 

 Ohio, and one in the northwestern part of the state, with ap- 

 proximately the same sized constituencies as the village schools. 

 The last two schools discussed are in larger villages of about 

 3,000, one in northern Michigan, and one in western Iowa. 



Grove City (Ohio) High School 



The first place visited in the state was Grove City, Franklin 

 County. It is a typical Ohio village about 20 miles south of 

 Columbus. It is essentially rural in character, with no impor- 

 tant manufacturing industry, and has a population of about 

 1,000. The total enrollment of the school was 55, one-half 

 of whom came from farm homes. The class in agriculture 

 numbered 33, with about the same proportion of farmers' chil- 

 dren. Only a few of the high-school pupils teach school after 

 leaving. One or two of the senior class of three expected to 

 attend college. There were two high-school teachers besides 

 the superintendent, who devoted about one-half of his time to 

 the grades. 



The instructor used no text but worked by the topical method, 

 following a recently published text of distinctly high-school 

 grade as a guide, and assigning references in the bulletins with 

 which the school was abundantly supplied. The bulletins most 

 used were those relating to special plants studied in the work, 

 such as cabbages, pansies, and tomatoes. In this school, the 

 first half year's work was devoted to physical geography, and 

 the last half to agriculture. No special attempt was made to 

 introduce agricultural topics into the geography work. As yet 

 most of the experimental work that has been tried, both in 

 agriculture and in botany, which comes the second year, has 

 been carried on out of class and at home. 



A feature giving excellent results has been the excursions 



