204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



In addition to this extensive display of products, the 13th 

 of October was devoted to exhibitions of strength, skill and 

 mental ability on the part of the boys and girls themselves. 



The program of the day was divided between the phj^sical and the 

 mental. The physical events included such contests as running, jumping, 

 throwing, lifting, chinning, etc. The mental activities consisted of com- 

 petitive judging and competitive demonstrations. The judging and 

 demonstrating were done by teams from different States or counties. 

 There was also judging among individual competitors for prizes. In 

 this prize-winning battle of boy and girl wits, the contestants passed 

 judgment upon the merits of market gardens, exhibits of corn, potatoes, 

 canned goods, bread, garment work, poultry, pigs and dairy cattle. Each 

 competitor recorded his judgment on a score card, which was checked up 

 and compared with the judgment of some expert in each line. Tliis judg- 

 ing process, wherein the mind of the boy or girl is alive to the good and 

 bad points of an article under inspection, is greatly superior to the mere 

 display of an inert object on exliibition. It is a more vital aspect of this 

 type of education. Another aspect of the work of this memorable day 

 was the competitive demonstrations. In these contests the boys and 

 girls worked in teams and as individuals. They showed how to prepare, 

 sterilize and seal fruits and vegetables for home use, how to plan, cut 

 and sew a garment, how to make bread, how to obtain and care for the 

 various milk products, how to cut up a pig's carcass, how to plan and 

 build various structures of wood, how to handle eggs, how to kill and 

 dress poultry, how to select and care for seed corn, how to select and pre- 

 pare potatoes for planting, how to cleanse utensils for handling milk, 

 how to tie knots, and, above all, how to talk about the demonstration 

 wliile it was being made. The demonstrations indicated above are the 

 crowning arch in this type of education. . . . The merit of it all lies in 

 the fact that such common things and such homely activities lend them- 

 selves so readily to the methods and purposes of education. The home 

 arts and the outdoor crafts have been in all ages the chief means of pre- 

 paring the young to participate in the activities of adult life. . . . The 

 boys' and girls' share in the Eastern States Exposition represented an 

 effort to show how this wealth of material may be utilized by the schools for 

 highly educative ends. 



Recommendations. 

 From a survey of the many features of the Boys' and Girls' 

 Club, the following points seem w^orthy of special note: — 



1. Summer supervision should be developed to the greatest 

 possible extent, possibly by means of State or Federal aid. 



2. The Children's and Youths' Department of the Agricul- 



