AGRICULTURE AT A HIGH SCHOOL. 
Good Work in Virginia. 
The Manassas Agricultural High School came about 
as the result of an Act of the 1908 Legislature, which 
gave an appropriation of $2,000 
to establish courses in agriculture, 
domestic science and manual 
training in one high school in 
each of the 10 Congressional dis¬ 
tricts. Manassas was chosen be¬ 
cause it had a well-established 
classical high school to serve as 
a nurse-plant on which to graft 
the vocational scion. It was also 
chosen because the people of 
Manassas had made a vigorous, 
though unsuccessful, effort to se¬ 
cure a. State normal school. In 
other words, the agricultural 
school was placed here for rea¬ 
sons of educational or political 
expediency; not because the 
farmers asked for the school, or 
promised it their support. If the 
farmers were lukewarm, the 
townspeople were indifferent. 
They had wanted a normal, but 
failing to get that, they preferred 
a small appropriation to none. 
Accordingly they agreed to build 
a school building and purchase 
land. This was in part by sub¬ 
scription, but mostly by tax. 
Nearly $20,000 was expended on 
a new building and 12 acres of 
Very poor land, of which five 
acres are used for experimental 
plats and the remainder for lawns 
and playgrounds. 
In order to teach the new sub¬ 
jects, two teachers were employed 
in addition to the three already 
in the high school. One of the 
original staff prepared herself to 
teach domestic science, and a 
graduate of Cornell University 
College of Agriculture was put 
at the head of the school to teach 
the agriculture. 
The introduction of vocational 
subjects has had a remarkably 
good effect on the whole school. 
There were, at their introduction, 
about 30 pupils in high school; 
while now, four years later, there 
are 75 well-prepared and enthu¬ 
siastic pupils. While it is still a 
comparatively small school, one 
must remember that this is a 
thinly settled part of the State, 
with bad roads, and country 
schools which seldom run more 
than seven months. It is inter¬ 
esting to observe that the success 
of the vocational subject has not 
been at the expense of a well 
pleting the eighth grade enter high school, and that 
practically all of our graduates enter college or go 
to normals. 
The attitude of the patrons of the school at the 
time of the introduction of vocational subjects was, 
GARDENING OPERATIONS AT A VIRGINIA HIGH SCHOOL. Fig. 474. 
A SPRAYING LESSON TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. Fig. 475. 
willing cooperation have replaced the former in¬ 
difference, while a sincere respect for scientific agri¬ 
culture has replaced the cheap ridicule of “book 
farming.” It is not easy to explain or define a 
change of public opinion. It cannot be weighed, 
measured or counted, yet in this 
case it is probably the greatest 
factor in the success of the 
school. An indication of this 
change may be found in the num¬ 
ber of people who come to the 
school for expert advice on agri¬ 
cultural topics. During the first 
year hardly a dozen people came 
regularly to the school for aid. 
The second year saw some im¬ 
provement, and now after four 
years there is seldom a day when 
several people do not seek tech¬ 
nical advice from the director of 
the school. Some of the topics 
most frequently presented are: 
Milk and cream testing; testing 
cows for tuberculosis; spraying; 
pruning and grafting trees; seed¬ 
ing; Alfalfa; mixing fertilizers; 
and preparing balanced rations 
for live stock. The reason for 
this may be found in the fact 
that real scientific agriculture in¬ 
variably gives results. The pure¬ 
bred cow gives more milk, the 
balanced ration increases produc¬ 
tion and reduces the expense, the 
sprayed tree bears the perfect 
fruit, the limed and innoculated 
soil raises Alfalfa, and so on. 
At its opening the school was 
handicapped by the lack of any 
organization among the farmers 
with which it might cooperate. 
To make this more acute, a large 
proportion of the farmers were 
new to the land and strangers to 
each other, separated by bad 
roads and belonging to a multi¬ 
tude of religious sects. Under 
these circumstances the forma¬ 
tion of some sort of an agricul¬ 
tural organization became im¬ 
perative. 
In November of the first year 
a farmers’ institute was called at 
which the late Dr. Seaman A. 
Knapp spoke with his usual in¬ 
spiration. A month later a sec 7 
ond meeting was held, at which 
steps were taken to make a per¬ 
manent organization. Speakers 
from the United States Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture or the State 
Agricultural Department were se¬ 
cured and a series of institutes 
held, which have lasted four 
years and gone through 30 meet¬ 
ings. Realizing that it is neither 
pleasant nor profitable for men 
icunded and balanced course of study. The students as I have indicated, not very enthusiastic. This did to be alone, the ladies were invited, and during the 
learn not only the elements of agriculture, domestic not take the form of hostility, but as apathy, with last year formed a women’s auxiliary to the farm- 
science and manual training, but they learn as much some inclination to ridicule the attempt. This was ers’ institute. Men and women meet together in the 
as in any other high school of language, history, reflected by the pupils, few of whom cared to study morning and listen to a speaker of general interest, 
literature and mathematics. It is an illuminating the new subjects. The present attitude is entirely but in the afternoons each group meets by itself and 
commentary to note that 90 per cent of those com- changed. Cordial sympathy, active support and discusses questions of a more technical nature. At 
