HUMAN EFFORT AS A FACTOR IN PRODUCTION 251 



town or city, or by any group of towns or cities which may voluntarily 

 form themselves into a district for this purpose. Evening-school 

 classes in agriculture may be established by any school committee. 

 State aid is given such schools to the extent of paying one-third the 

 expense of maintenance. 



Vocational agricultural departments may be established in 

 selected high schools. The agriculture must be taught by a specially 

 qualified teacher who gives his attention exclusively to agriculture. 

 His vacation must be taken during the winter months, usually 

 December, January, and February. He must continue his work 

 throughout the summer. Little stress is laid on land or operations 

 at the schoolhouse. Every possible stress is laid on the utilization of 

 the land and equipment at the homes of the pupils; and it is the 

 instructor's duty during the summer to supervise work prepared for 

 in the agricultural classes, from seedtime to the securing of the harvest. 

 In the cases of such departments, the state reimburses the communities 

 maintaining them to the extent of two- thirds of the salary of the 

 agricultural instructor. 



A fundamental feature of the Massuchusetts plan is embodied in 

 what has been termed "part-time work in agriculture." Part-time 

 work in industrial education means that the student spends part of 

 the time required for his training in the shop or manufacturing estab- 

 lishment and part of the time at the school building, both school and 

 shop work, however, being intimately related and supplementary to 

 each other. Part-time work as applied to agricultural education 

 means that the student must spend part of the time required for his 

 education in productive farm work, preferably at home, and part of 

 his time at. the school, the farm work and school study being closely 

 correlated by the school at points selected from season to season or 

 from year to year, and the farm work being given the highest possible 

 educational value by competent school supervision. 



The part-time-work plan reduces the cost of agricultural training 

 of secondary grade so as to place effective training for the farm within 

 reach of many communities which would otherwise be unable to 

 secure it. Fifty departments in fifty groups of farms should cost no 

 more than five large schools such as those found in other states. It 

 obviates the necessity of sending the boy away from home in order to 

 secure the benefits of agricultural training. The cost of living for the 

 boy is less at home than it would be at a boarding-school. Parents 

 who need the help 'of their boys are deprived of their services during 



