"Jack of all trades-". This is an unfair way of putting the matter. 

 It is true that a general farmer is called upon to do a large variety 

 of work, but there is no reason why we should not do this as well 

 according to the standards obtaining in farming as a plumber does 

 his work according to trade standards. A farmer can be as much 

 of a master of his entire vocation as a mechanic is of his. If in- 

 struction in farm shop work is intimately related to the work the 

 farmer needs to do, there is no reason why he needs to be a "Jack 

 of all trades", which implies that he can do only a passable quality 

 of w^ork with tools and materials used in repair and construction 

 w T ork. 



The Kind of Shop That Is Desirable. It is traditional practice 

 in Pennsylvania schools to have forge practice in separate rooms 

 from those in which work in wood is given. This has the ad- 

 vantage of keeping coal smoke and dust away from where wood is 

 used. That is its chief advantage. The disadvantages are : either 

 the forge equipment must be large enough to accommodate 

 the entire class or it makes the teacher's work difficult in 

 that he has to supervise a part of his class in one room and the 

 remainder in another. In order to overcome this latter difficulty 

 and at the same time avoid coal dust and smoke it is possible 

 to concentrate the work in one shop. In one corner two or three 

 forges may be placed. These can be enclosed with a wire glass par- 

 tition with wainscoating underneath. In another part of the shop 

 a similar arrangement can be made for work with concrete and 

 again for work in w r ood. If floor space is scarce, concrete work 

 can be given entirely out of doors. The detailed shop lay-out will 

 depend upon the space available, and the number of pupils that 

 will be at work at one time. The general idea is that equipment 

 can be reduced to a minimum where work in various materials can 

 be given at the same time. Out of a class of fifteen pupils, three 

 may be w r orking at forges, three more may be doing related drawing 

 in the shop, one may be using taps and dies, one may be cutting and 

 threading pipe and seven may be working with wood. A farm shop 

 arranged so this work can be carried on at one time under the super- 

 vision of one teacher will facilitate shop work on a project basis, and 

 the cost of equipment will be considerably less than if separate shop 

 units are established for the various materials that should be used. 



Equipment. Lists of minimum equipment that are suggested 

 are given in Table 34 in the appendix. It has been pointed out that 



68 



