VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 31 



making an "ear to row" corn test, for observing the difference in 

 yield between different ears of corn, — all the corn from one ear 

 being planted in one row, and all the corn from another ear being 

 planted in another row. 



In the ordinary routine of the farm it may be that the boy is 

 required to tend the poultry. During at least one year he should 

 be given control of at least one pen of poultry, and facilities for 

 feeding a balanced ration and trap nesting individual birds for 

 comparison of productivity in laying. 



It may be part of the usual work of the boy to help cultivate and 

 harvest the potato crop. During one season at least he should be 

 given facilities for testing the value of the use of formalin for the 

 prevention of potato scab, and of the Bordeaux mixture for protec- 

 tion against potato blight. 



It may be part of the usual work of the boy to assist in the apple 

 harvest. During one season at least he should be given facilities 

 for pruning at least one tree, spraying it, if it is at all infested b^' 

 scale, of cultivating under it and fertilizing it. During one season, 

 also he should be given facilities for grading and packing the fruit 

 from at least one tree and of disposing of the product with a view 

 to securing fancy prices for at least part of the crop. If he could 

 be given control of a block of five trees, and were a fairly husky 

 boy of fifteen to seventeen, the rewards for his work and incentives 

 to intelligent action would be so much the greater. 



Counting the Cost of Farming. 



An essential feature of the part-time method of training is the 

 consideration of cost at all points. The boy by this method learns 

 first of all through his own experience that there can be no product 

 without cost and no profit without excess of receipts over all 

 expenditures. After such an experience he will not be likely to 

 undertake a new enterprise without a serious attempt to estimate ac- 

 curately his probable profit. The boy is subjected to the prevailing 

 economic conditions under which the home farm must yield a 

 profit or loss at the end of each year of work. The methods by 

 which the boy becomes on a small scale a farmer or business man 



