u, a ; u 19? 
S. R. S. Doc. 76. 
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTU 
STATES RELATIONS SERVICE, 
A. C. TRUE, Director. 
INSTRUCTION IN SHEEP AND GOAT 
HUSBANDRY. 
SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHERS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 
By H. P. Barrows. Specialist in Agricultural Education. 1 
INTRODUCTION. 
In teaching animal husbandry, as in every other phase of agriculture, there 
is ;i great need of adapting the course of study in a better way to the interests 
of the students and the needs of the particular community in which they live 
and in which the school is located. In a dairy section where the students are en- 
gaged in caring for cows their daily experience in feeding the animals and in 
caring for the milk should form a basis for the major part of the classroom dis- 
cussion of principles. If the student is taking care of animals on his own ac- 
count as a home project, there will be no lack of interest in the classroom work 
if it is based upon the real problems which the students are meeting. Poultry 
and pigs are becoming important features of the secondary course in animal 
husbandry because they afford at this time a ready means of increasing our 
meat supply and because they furnish suitable home projects. At this time 
teachers in many sections of the United States may very well consider the pos- 
sibilities in raising sheep and goats in the section in which the school is located 
and the opportunities afforded for home projects for students who have favor- 
able conditions. Although sheep or goats may not be important in the com- 
munity, and comparatively little time taken for the class as a whole in their 
consideration, aid and guidance should be given to those students who desire 
to make an individual study of the industry in connection with their home 
projects or regular work on the farm. 
I. SHEEP. 
SCHOOL AND HOME PRACTICUMS. 
As far as possible the work of the classroom should be connected very 
closely with the practical work of the farm. As a rule, it will be better to 
approach the principles in an inductive way through concrete experience and 
practice. It will not always be possible, however, to have the practicums 
precede the recitation. 
The following exercises may be undertaken by the class as a whole at the 
school or upon neighboring farms or may be assigned as individual home 
1 Prepared under the direction of F. E. Heald, Specialist in Agricultural Education, iu 
charge. 
41607°— 18 
