Some Typical High Schools Teaching Agriculture 57 



district, which is 4 miles square, lies mostly in one township 

 but extends into three others. About 20 per cent of the enroll- 

 ment of 136 comes from the country homes, and about half 

 of the 34 or 35 country children elect agriculture. This work 

 has been carried on for six years. During the first year 28 

 boys and 30 girls took up the study and 56 finished the course. 

 Fifty were in the class the second year and 52 the third. The 

 lowest number registering for agriculture in any one year was 

 30. The study is an extra elective and does not find a place 

 in the program of the regular school day but is counted toward 

 graduation. The recitations run through the winter months 

 while the practical work may continue to the end of the year. 

 Students are enrolled from all years of the high school, while 

 recently a few capable boys of the seventh and eighth grades 

 were allowed to enter the class. They were competent to make 

 the observations, report on home experiments, and could follow 

 the botanical but not the chemical part of the work. Seniors 

 and juniors predominated in the earlier years, but recently the 

 major part of the class has been from grades below the junior 

 year. 



Though another man has charge of the other science work, 

 agriculture is taught by the superintendent. He became inter- 

 ested in the scientific study of agriculture because he owned a 

 farm worth $110 an acre that was not yielding an adequate return 

 on that capitalization. For his own guidance he uses King's 

 " Physics of Agriculture " and his book on " The Soil," and 

 Osterhout's " Experiments with Plants." The students have 

 no text, but use Ofiice of Experiment Stations Bulletin 186, 

 " Plant Production," by Crosby, and refer to other bulletins. 

 The school subscribes for two farm journals. 



While raising corn and feeding stock is the chief industry 

 of the community, dairying also holds a place of importance. 

 Sac County and Ida County adjoining it are said to raise one- 

 third of the world's supply of popcorn, the annual yield being 

 valued at from $35 to $60 per acre. The community has shown 

 a great interest in the agriculture taught in the school. It has 

 enlivened the interest in the farmers' institutes, and has caused 

 the general adoption among the farmers of the practice of 



