4 BULLETIN 213, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the school farm as it exists in the Northern and Eastern States. Most 

 of the farms have a small acreage. Sixty-one of the 84 schools in 

 Minnesota depend entirely upon day help, all the team work is hired, 

 and the land is expensive. In Minnesota the average value per acre 

 is $150. It generally takes two or three years to pi*t this land in 

 shape to be used for agricultural purposes. Many farms are without 

 farm buildings. If they have buildings, the investment is high in 

 proportion to the acreage cultivated and to the crops obtained. The 

 majority of them have little or no machinery, so when they want to 

 cultivate or gather their crops they must borrow. The majority have 

 no live stock, so that they have to purchase their manure. It is only 

 in exceptional instances that the agricultural instructor lives on or 

 near the school farm. 



MANAGEMENT OF THE SCHOOL FARM. 



Considering these factors from a farm-management point of view, 

 it can be readily seen that the agricultural instructor has a peculiar 

 problem on his hands. The majority of them have not been able to 

 solve it satisfactorily. The agricultural instructor who can not make 

 his farm pay has very little standing among the farmers, since as 

 long as the farm does not pay he has to admit that he can not pro- 

 duce crops with a profit. What farmer would have any confidence in 

 such a man ? Those schools which succeed must practice an intensive 

 system of agriculture. The school farms which seem to have met 

 with the best success are those which are growing pure-bred corn, 

 pure-bred small grains, potatoes, alfalfa, cabbage, and the like. 

 This gives them a high-priced crop and enables the school to get good 

 seed to be distributed in the neighborhood. Thirty-three of the 

 eighty-four schools reporting on this point were using a part of their 

 land for raising pure-bred seed for distribution. Some had extended 

 this idea to the growing of fruit trees and berry vines to be dis- 

 tributed in a similar manner. 



The school adds to its effectiveness if it becomes the distributing 

 center of high-class seed and trees. Indeed, where they have live 

 stock they should develop the same idea by extending the service of 

 the sires in the neighborhood and distributing their young among 

 the farmers. Several instances were found in the South where the 

 boys in the pig-club work were being furnished with pigs from the 

 school farm in the same way that boys in the corn clubs hi the North 

 were being furnished with corn from school farms. 



KINDS OF WORK PUPILS ENGAGE IN. 



The kinds of crops grown and the types of farming carried on have 

 already been ascertained. The next point of interest is the kinds of 

 work that the student is engaged in on the school farm. The three 



