HIGH SCHOOL AGRICULTURE. 
That agriculture is to be taught to the students of 
our secondary schools is no longer a matter for de¬ 
bate. Whether it will be best taught in agricultural 
high schools, especially endowed by the State; or 
whether it will be best given in our present high 
schools as an elective course equal and parallel to 
the language and scientific courses is still an open 
question. However desirable it may be for boys and 
girls of college age to get away from even the best 
of homes and learn to stand on their own feet, I 
have still to see any good which can come from tak¬ 
ing those same students away from their parents at 
an average age of 14 years, as is necessary to send 
them to a big centralized agricultural high school. 
This is the one unanswerable argument against this 
type of school which it seems to me overbalances the 
advantages of superior equipment and larger instruct¬ 
ing staff possible in a richer institution. 
The first secondary school in Pennsylvania and the 
first high school in the United States to offer a four- 
years’ course in agriculture is Waterford, Erie County, 
Pa., and it may interest some of your readers to 
know something of our experience and success. The 
agricultural course was introduced in 1903 in response 
to a demand from the farmers that the school recog¬ 
nize them directly in its course of studies. A grad- 
A CLASS IN SEED CORN SELECTION. Fig. 208. 
uate of an agricultural college was engaged and a 
course of study laid out which gave agricultural sub¬ 
jects a class period a day for the entire four years. 
1 he work of the first year is in plant life; first the 
structure and growth is studied, then experiments are 
performed by the class to show the effect of shade, 
weeds, lack of air, incomplete fertilizers, etc. Later 
in the vear, pruning, spraying and grafting are taught, 
and some of the principles of plant-breeding are 
studied. The second year takes up the staple crops, 
grasses, cereals, potatoes, fruits and vegetables are 
studied in detail. Papers are prepared on the topics 
studied, which are read before the school or Grange. 
Excursions are taken to observe the things studied, 
and many specimens are brought to the classroom. 
1 ractical work is done for the farmers by testing the 
purity of feed stuffs and the germination of seeds. 
Many samples are sent in showing the intimate rela¬ 
tions between the school and the farmer. 
The third year sees animal husbandry taken up. 
M e try to show by all possible means the difference 
between the dairy and beef types, and many animals 
are borrowed for demonstration. Rations are dis¬ 
cussed and compounded, visits are made to nearby 
herds of purebred cattle, sheep and swine. Milk is 
tested by the Babcock tester in the laboratory, and 
the practice in cheese and butter making is observed 
in the. local factories. Just at present the poultry 
class is the largest in the school, having over 60 
members. Incubators were borrowed, eggs contributed 
by students, and chicks are hatched and reared by the 
students in borrowed or improvised brooders. We 
have now 175 chickens, and four incubators yet to 
hear from. The only expense is for oil, which is 
borne by the school board. In this course more than 
any other I have been able to realize my ideal of 
teaching by making the pupils find out for themselves 
SCORING A DAIRY COW. Fig. 209. 
and then record the results in legible form. The 
results are most gratifying in the great and sustained 
interest excited in all grades, as well as in the village. 
. The fourth year the student takes up the study of 
agricultural chemistry, which was delayed thus late in 
order to give them the regular course in inorganic 
chemistry. The composition of soils, fertilizers, plants 
and animals is taken up in succession. As to our suc¬ 
cess, I know that all opposition to the innovation has 
died out, and the heartiest expressions of good will 
and encouragement greet me on every hand. I know 
that the size of the classes and the proportion of the 
school taking agriculture have steadily increased; I 
know that the farmers are each year bringing more 
and more of their problems of seeds, feeds and fer¬ 
tilizers to school for solution. A three-acre plot of 
land has been donated to the agricultural department 
by a good friend of the school, and while lack of 
funds prevents our making as full use of it as I 
could wish, yet we can make a beginning, and in a 
few years I hope to be able to show a small but 
well equipped experiment station where many of the 
A PART OF THE POULTRY CLASS. Fig. 210. 
local problems can be worked out under the eyes of 
the farmers. The close relations thus brought about 
between the parents and teacher make the pleasantest 
part of my work, and is surely and soon leading the 
way to a time when the school shall stand with the 
church as the true social center of the rural commu¬ 
nity. The gain to the farm itself is almost beyond 
computation. h. f. b. 
DISHONEST PACKING. 
I spent some 10 days last Fall in Norfolk, Va., and 
expecting to locate permanently in that locality in 
the near future, I spent some time investigating mar¬ 
ket conditions, the reputation of the place as a ship¬ 
ping point for early vegetables, and the prospect of 
gaining a private reputation by careful packing and 
marking. Coming into somewhat intimate acquaint¬ 
ance with a responsible commission merchant, we dis¬ 
cussed the subject at some length. Among other 
things, he said great injury was done to the credit of 
the place as a shipping point by unscrupulous dealers 
who thrive by fraudulent packing. He went on to 
relate an instance that came under his personal obser¬ 
vation of a rascally dealer who bought great quan¬ 
tities of small potatoes at a low price, seconds, culls, 
anything that would bear the name, and smaller 
quantities of the very finest the market afforded; then 
proceeded to pack or repack for shipment. I cannot 
now say whether they were bought in bulk or in 
barrels. At any rate, first a layer of the fine large 
potatoes was placed in the bottom of the barrel, then 
as barrels of potatoes are often examined for fraud 
by cutting a strip from the side of the barrel with a 
hatchet, this wily rogue set a form into the barrel, 
filled this with culls, poured a layer of extra fine ones 
around the form, then drew out the form, placed a 
A LESSON IN SPRAYING. Fig. 211. 
layer of fancy stock on top, marked the barrel as 
“fancy” and sent it forth to deceive the very elect of 
the produce trade—fit companion for the most hypo¬ 
critical barrel of “Choice Baldwins” that ever came 
out of the State of New York. Thus Mr. Lewis, of 
Norfolk Co., Va., who tells us on page 334 how he 
has been driven from the use of New York apples to 
California prunes, and with what care he packs his 
early potatoes for northern markets, will see how 
fraudulent practices are discrediting all shipments, 
however honest, from his section, just as all ship¬ 
ments of apples are discredited in the same way. 
The memory of locality from which fraudulent stock 
is received remains, while, the name of the rascally 
consignor is soon forgotten, as he shifts consignments 
from city to city as necessity demands, or when nec¬ 
essary to continuation of business changes his name. 
The formation of associations to secure uniformity 
and system in packing, and careful, honest packing 
and stenciling by individuals is in the right direction, 
and well enough as far as it goes. But under present 
conditions what is there to prevent the unscrupulous 
in a distant city from fraudulently repacking a barrel 
or other package bearing a reputable brand to their 
financial advantage and irreparable damage to a hard- 
earned reputation? Ostensibly, the popular watch¬ 
word of the day is “a square deal,” but apparently 
public opinion is yet a long stride from the point 
where the public will recognize, and laws will be 
framed and enforced to deal with dishonest packers, 
