4 BULLETIN 385, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
school year of 36 weeks, would amount to 144 hours as a minimum. 
The total assigned value of the different projects allowed for one 
year should be not less than 144 hours if the work counts for 2 hours 
of class work or two-fifths of a full course. It would not be wise to 
encourage the pupil to carry much more than this unless it is evident 
that his other school work will not suffer from reglect because of 
this. 
On the bas.s of 144 hours required, an acre of corn would require 
about half of this time in sections where the average labor records 
are above 60 hours per acre. Instead of allowing the pupil to grow 
2 acres of corn, in which case the educational value is not increased, 
it is better to fill the other half of the required 144 hours with some 
animal project, as poultry keeping. The major part of the work 
with poultry is not done during the season when corn is grown, and 
there is a further advantage in applying the lessons on both plant 
and animal life. If the teacher has a competent advisory committee, 
it would be feasible to modify the requirements to meet local and 
individual conditions as in the following study adapted from records 
in the Office of Farm Management of the United States Department 
of Agriculture. 
On a farm in Or_eans County, N. Y., where approximately 20 acres 
of potatoes are raised as a main crop and approved methods are 
employed, the following variations are found in three successive 
years: * 
‘ariation of hours of labor required to raise an acre of potatoes during different years. 
1911 1912 1913 
Yaeld peracre(bUshels)eoececcsa cee ones a. vas Bee Oe ne eee Ge eee ee 207.79 208. 50 173. 21 
Totaliman-hours|(MeWacre) oe aesac sass eee eee Eee er erie eee eae 89.13 69.70 72.09 
Variations for different operations: 
PIO WIN Geiss ocins cidet wiatinn chews cs bic sas sepicm aesisosele cue ew se pee eee 7.54 4.98 7.05 
Orble tinihess Se Soe sAade ot een eset ee rese st nace sega bee ste cote sb ore 7.85 9. 82 8.12 
la Woerle. ssa oucoboso dss dunes sedbe sss sobs csceeuseusdoddasccbssessdosdec 9. 38 1.00 4.48 
SOMA Se Ge ogee osapec Eon = vouSeaesce nc ocecuasseccoodeec ssccascsee 7.21 5. 06 2.51 
DRAG TI 10) Daa ye sREa see SOBRE Sr oe oe San weaas PocepoedeesecSsudceosecs | 22. 00 14.30 14. 46 
Such evidence as this tends to prove that it is not possible to 
assign a definite number of hours to the raising of a potato crop even 
with uniform methods, and where the credits granted are in terms 
of hours of work performed, it would be desirable to use the boy’s 
time record within certain stated limits. In view of the records 
given above it might be decided that a boy on this farm should 
put in work equivalent to not less than 70 man-hours in raising an 
acre of potatoes and that his record for work would be accepted 
(under inspection) not to exceed 90 man-hours of necessary work. 
In view of the comparative difficulty of some of this labor for a boy 
1 Part of a record in the Office of Farm Management. 
