74 Agricultural Instruction in tJte Public High Schools 



sent in by farmers. Holden's "A B C of Corn Culture " is 

 the text. 



Farm mechanics. — This subject is given two days a week 

 throughout the third year. The students study printed sheets, 

 prepared by the instructor on the development and mechanism 

 of farm machinery. Considerable time is devoted to setting 

 up, by the students themselves, various machines furnished free 

 of charge by the manufacturers of farm implements and machin- 

 ery. The school has had the use during the year of gasoline 

 engines, mowing machines, corn harvesters, manure spreaders, 

 plows, and other implements. At the time of the author's visit 

 the students had just finished setting up for delivery a binder 

 that had been sold. This was the first year the course had 

 been given, and no little astonishment was caused by the possi- 

 bility, as was learned by experience, of a failure to make a 

 passing grade in the subject when the mechanical principles 

 involved in the machines were not sufficiently grasped. In 

 answer to a question, the principal ventured the opinion that 

 possibly the course might be combined with the physics now 

 taught the agricultural students in the same year with advantage 

 to both studies. 



Chemistry and soil physics. — All students in the science and 

 agriculture courses take chemistry the first semester of the fourth 

 year. The students of agriculture continue the subject the re- 

 mainder of seven months, during which time it becomes differ- 

 entiated as soil physics. In addition to the usual chemical ap- 

 paratus the school possesses for this special work a drying oven 

 and several glass and galvanized iron tubes for the study of 

 moisture percolation, soil capillarity, etc. W^illiams' text is 

 used in chemistry, and King's " Soil Physics " in the latter part 

 of the work. Stevenson's " Laboratory Guide for Soil Experi- 

 ments " is the basis of the practicums, which take up one-half 

 of the time. All the experiments are performed by the stu- 

 dents. Five periods a week are given to the study. 



The chemical composition of soils, plant food, sources of 

 fertility, texture, moisture with the causes affecting its move- 

 ment and conservation, and similar topics are discussed and 

 investigated in the laboratory, each student gathering and test- 

 ing his own samples. 



Horticulture. — The spring months of the senior year are de- 

 voted to this subject. Bailey's " The Nursery " and Goff's 

 " Principles of Plant Culture " are followed, embracing the most 

 important principles of fruit growing, grafting, cross breeding, 

 and allied questions. 



