MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
133 
subjects from the standpoint of the tiller of the soil; so blacksmithing and 
carpentry are taught with special reference to their bearing on the problems of 
the farm, and the exercises consist in making whiffletrees and the irons for 
them, cold chisels, wagon jacks, clevises, chains, etc. In drawing, the exer- 
cises given most attention are plans of barns, houses, farm machinery, plots 
of farms, etc. In botany, the botany of our farm and garden crops is made 
most prominent, and in physics the illustrations are preferably taken from 
agricultural conditions. In fact, the aim has been to make the course of 
study brim full of the kind of instruction that will be most helpful to the 
students when they take up the cultivation of the soil, and to show them the 
possibilities of the surroundings of the agriculturist, for many a boy leaves the 
farm because he does not appreciate its opportunities. 
The State of Minnesota has furnished a fine establishment for carrying on 
this work, and has put about $350,000 into buildings and their equipment. The 
dairy building is probably the finest in this country. It contains butter, 
cheese and other class-rooms, laboratories for testing milk, offices, a very 
nice, large live-stock lecture room which has a large platform where the 
stock under discussion is brought for illustration and study. A special build- 
ing for horticulture and physics is now nearly completed, costing, with green- 
houses and equipment, $35,000. Expenses are kept down to the lowest pos- 
sible figure; board and washing are furnished at cost, text-books at a rental 
of $2 a year, and the total expenses for one school year need not exceed $85 
for each student, including even heating and lighting of the rooms. Good 
dormitories are furnished, and an excellent library and reading room are 
always ready for use. The students have excellent literary societies, a good 
orchestra and band, a good gymnasium and basket ball team. Three hun- 
dred and sixty students attended last year. 
Until 1897 girls were not admitted to the same courses as the boys, but a 
short course was provided for them in summer. In that year a special home 
building and dormitory was provided, and for nearly two years they have 
attended classes with the boys, and the results of this plan have been very 
pleasant. It has conduced to good order and gentlemanly conduct among 
the boys, and has added much to the social life of the school, and is a feature 
having so much to recommend it that it has evidently come to stay. About 
sixty girls attended last season. 
The Minnesota college of agriculture, which requires for entrance the stu- 
dies taught in the agricultural high school, is intended for educating teachers, 
and it is not expected that many will enter it. At present there are twenty- 
one students in attendance. 
The total attendance in the whole agricultural department in the University 
of Minnesota last year was 483. The success of the system here described 
seems to show that the best part of the agricultural instruction now given in 
our agricultural colleges can be readily acquired by students of the high- 
scfiool grade; that it is a mistake to require a college entrance examination 
of those who wish to gain a good working knowledge of scientific agriculture; 
that the colleges of agriculture should confine themselves to educating teach- 
ers of agriculture and kindred sciences; that few will attend agricultural 
colleges in order to become better tillers of the soil, and that they should not 
be expected to educate the mass of farmers and gardeners; that the farmers 
and gardeners of this country are willing to patronize agricultural schools 
as soon as they are made helpful and are put within their reach. The com- 
mon statement that the boy is most apt to follow the pursuit with which he 
