Some Typical High Schools Teaching Agriculture 79 



the presence of so many children, some from grades as low 

 as the sixth, the lecturer, Mrs. Allen, stated that she would talk 

 about her hobby, — chickens. She was requested to continue the 

 topic at the evening session. A day or so later in a class studying 

 Shakespeare, taught as it happened by the instructor in agri- 

 culture, one of the girls suddenly exclaimed, " Mr. Button, why 

 can't we study poultry ? " The idea was so popular that a class 

 was immediately organized. Incubators were lent by patrons, 

 kerosene was furnished by the board, and eggs by the students. 

 One incubator was furnished at half-price by the manufacturer, 

 four workable machines were loaned by farmers, and one that 

 did not operate successfully. This was made the subject of an 

 investigation on faulty construction. There is no manual train- 

 ing in the school, but many of the boys constructed brooders after 

 the specifications given. As this course is unique among all 

 those that came under personal observation, a detailed descrip- 

 tion of it may not be amiss. 



The students worked in pairs, one from the borough with one 

 from the country. Each pair attended to an incubator or to a 

 tray for a week at a time, keeping a daily record of the tem- 

 perature at morning, noon, and night, of the time of turning 

 the eggs both morning and evening, and of the time the air was 

 allowed to cool. The record also showed the date of testing 

 the eggs and the number " tested out " each time. This was 

 done about every six or seven days. Then after the hatch, the 

 number of chicks and of unhatched eggs was entered on the 

 record. Cardboard sheets about 12 x 18 inches were used for 

 the record. The upper two-thirds was appropriately ruled for 

 the data, while on the lower third were entered the number of 

 hatched and unhatched eggs, the number of the incubator and 

 tray or section, and the signatures of the observers for each 

 week. While each student wrote his name or initials on the 

 eggs he furnished, no attempt was made to have him care for 

 his own eggs. 



The English of each of the four years was in charge of the 

 instructor of agriculture, so that a closer correlation of the two 

 lines of work was possible than I found in any other school 

 visited. Not a little of the work in English was based on the 



