46 Agricultural Instruction in tlie Public High Sclwols 



just described. The places are of about the same size but the 

 latter had by far the more modern plant. Although the New 

 Holland school is in a special district of six square miles, the 

 enrollment in the high school was somewhat smaller, being 

 forty, and the percentage of pupils from farm homes was rather 

 less than half the percentage at Grove City. In each case the 

 teaching force consisted of two instructors in addition to the 

 superintendent. 



The community is engaged in general farming and ships 

 nearly all the produce. Comparatively little live stock is raised, 

 but the land is kept in condition by a three or four-year crop 

 rotation including clover. A canning factory offers induce- 

 ments to the farmers to raise sweet corn, tomatoes, lima beans, 

 peas, etc., for canning. 



The smaller size of the agricultural class at New Holland, 

 numbering ten, was due to the fact that the study was taught 

 in the third year instead of the first. It is preceded by sixteen 

 weeks of botany in the fall. The subject is taught by the super- 

 intendent, who has shown a great deal of interest in it. He 

 has made a collection of bulletins larger than is usually found 

 in schools devoting more time to the subject, and has worked 

 out a complete and handy system of filing, and has had the 

 pamphlets carefully card-catalogued by the students. He has 

 also issued a topical index of the bulletins of the state experi- 

 ment station and of the college of agriculture. Corn growing 

 being a very important industry, considerable attention is paid 

 to testing the viability of the seed. About forty ears were tested 

 besides considerable shelled corn. The ears came in lots of 

 from one to three each. All tests were on corn actually to be 

 used for seed. 



On Arbor Day the class planted an apple tree which the 

 members had top-grafted after preparing their own grafting 

 wax and cloth binding-strips. The tree had been grafted in 

 the winter with apple and quince scions, and had been kept in 

 the cool cellar until Arbor Day. Four other small trees, apple, 

 cherry, plum, and quince, with plenty of superfluous branches, 

 were brought in and trimmed up as part of the Arbor Day 



