CREDIT FOR HOME PRACTICE IN AGRICULTURE, ab) 
such methods should be adopted only with caution and when it is 
impracticable to give real academic credit. 
What ratio for practice’—School courses which have included 
laboratory work are often arranged for three recitation days and 
two laboratory days in each week. On the laboratory days two or 
more recitation periods are considered the equivalent of one pre- 
pared recitation, and the ratio of recitation to laboratory is then 
computed as 3 to 2. The school officials or whoever lays out the 
course should first decide on what this ratio shall be. The next 
poimt is as to how many hours of home work, not constantly under 
supervision, is the equivalent of one prepared recitation. Possibly 
an hour’s work in the field is not the equivalent of an hour in the 
laboratory where the work is under the direction of a teacher. Since 
the class period in the grades is less than an hour, it may be fair 
to consider two hours of home work the equivalent of one prepared 
recitation period. 
How much credit *—According to the plan mentioned, 72 boy-hours 
of work during the year will be necessary for each credit to be granted 
not to exceed five credits. Farm management studies and the analy- 
sis of farm records have given certain averages which may be taken 
as a guide under average conditions and may be modified to meet 
exceptional conditions. Such modifications should be made by a 
committee which might include, besides the teacher, the local superi- 
tendent of schools, the county agent, and one or more representative 
farmers. 
It is obviously an advantage to avoid disagreement at the end 
of the project by settling at the outset how much credit will be granted 
for a given amount of work. If the amount of labor usually re- 
required for a given work is known or can be estimated in ‘‘man- 
hours,” then a decision that a prepared recitation is the equivalent 
of two man-hours (or more or less) will fix the credit value of the 
project. 
On the basis of a year of 36 weeks, 5 recitations a week or 180 per 
year would be the equivalent of 360 man-hours per year in home 
project work. This ratio needs revision whenever the discrepancy 
between ‘‘man-hours”’ and ‘‘boy-hours”’ of labor becomes large. In | 
some types of work a boy is capable of greater progress than is a_ 
man, while in other work the boy would make relatively slow prog- 
ress. The boy should not be encouraged to do too heavy work on 
his project, and where there are several new processes to be learned 
it may be wise to count the boy’s time at full value. Future records 
of boys’ labor on these different home projects will enable teachers 
and superintendents to rate these projects more accurately, but very 
many records will be needed in view of the diversity of boys’ work. 
