Secondary Agricultural Schools 
of N. Y. 
C OMPARISON WITH COLLEGE.—A group of 
institutions that should ho hotter known to the 
readers of The It. N.-Y. are the State schools of 
agriculture and homo economics. These are located 
at Alfred, Canton, Cobleskill, I >ellii and Morrisville. 
They differ from our College of Agriculture at Cor¬ 
nell in that they accept hoys and girls with lower 
educational qualifications, and also in that they 
train their students almost exclusively for farm and 
country life, while the State College trains them for 
many other things as well. 
EQUIPMENT.—-Each institution has been well 
equipped by the State with buildings 
for farm work and for instruction pur¬ 
poses. Each institution operates a 
farm in connection with the school, 
maintains a herd of purebred livestock, 
lias its own poultry plant and orchards, 
and. in short, has every facility for 
making its work worth while. The 
teachers are men who have been trained 
in this work and who possess good 
farm experience. The entrance re¬ 
quirements call for completion of the 
eighth grade work, though many of the 
students have had some high school 
training. An opening is thus provided 
for the thousands of country hoys and 
girls who desire training for farm life, 
hut for whom college and in some cases 
even high school is out of the question. 
SCHOOL AND FARM.—The course 
in agriculture covers a period of three 
years. Six months of each year, or 
from about October 15 to April 15, are 
spent at Ihe school. The remaining six 
months are spent on successful farms 
in order to supplement the work of the 
school with sound farm experience. 
During the Summer the students are 
visited by members of the faculty for 
the purpose of inspecting records kept 
by them, and of helping them to get 
the most out of their work. Under 
this plan many students are able to 
enroll, because they can remain on 
farms from planting time in the Spring 
till the harvest season is over. The 
hoys can earn enough during the Sum¬ 
mer in many cases to pay their way at 
school during the Winter. Since no 
tuition is charged to residents of the 
state, the actual school expenses are 
not great. There is, then, little reason 
why a young man should be denied 
training for country life if he possesses 
a real desire to obtain it. 
DAIRY WORK.—As has been stated, 
most of the students return to the 
farm, many of them at once and nearly 
all of them eventually. In the mean¬ 
time they may act as milk testers, 
creamery operators, herdsmen, farm 
superintendents, and in many other 
capacities, but always related closely 
to the advancement of country life. 
Due of these schools during the past 
year trained its students so effectively 
that 40 of them secured State licenses 
<o test milk and cream. This means a 
great deal when you stop to realize 
that milk and cream are to be sold m 
the future on the fat basis, and that 
men who are skilled and accurate are 
absolutely essential to the welfare of 
the dairy business. 
training for farm and 
HOME.—By far the larger part of the 
students are farm boys, and of course it is the boy 
with the background of farm experience who profits 
most from the work. Each school also offers a short 
course of about eight weeks during the Winter 
months tor young farmers who can he away from 
1101110 only for a very limited period. The course in 
home economics varies in length from one to two 
jears. the training offered being very thorough and 
being designed primarily to equip the young women 
h> he as successful home-makers and home-keepers 
ms are their husbands as farmers. Any of these 
schools will he glad to furnish a catalogue on re¬ 
quest. Some of them are still receiving students for 
dm Fall term which will soon open. It is a form of 
Students Jitdying Holstein Cattle . Fig. 524 
A Class in Cookery at a-Statc School. Fig. 525 
The Dairy Room at a State School. Fig. 526 
training that keeps young people in touch with the 
home farm and its problems. n. b. k. 
The Surface Use of Manure 
A LTHOUGH we do not pay out the cash for our 
barnyard factory fertilizer product, it repre¬ 
sents a large amount of money invested, and we are 
all interested, or ought to be, in its proper use on the 
land, as regards present returns and lasting benefits. 
I remember when it was considered waste of manure 
to apply it on the surface, or even spread it only as 
the plow could turn it under before drying out. Even 
the straw must be rotted down and plowed under. 
Benefits from the mulching feature were overlooked. 
I early learned that the surface use of manure pro¬ 
duced the promptest and most lasting benefits, and 
have practiced it when this method was at all possi¬ 
ble. If applied on the Fall-sown wheat it acts as a 
crop insurance both to the wheat crop and the grass 
and clover seeding. When used on the meadows a 
heavy cutting of hay is sure to result, and a worth¬ 
while sod, the basic soil builder, remains, which 
when plowed over and planted to a cultivated 
crop responds by generous yields. On soil so 
treated commercial fertilizers can he used 
ALUE OF OXEN.—Mr. Bert Phil¬ 
lips. of Hanover, Mass., who is 
very well known throughout New Eng¬ 
land. believes that horses should be 
superseded by oxen on farms through¬ 
out the Eastern States. lie has rnauy 
arguments, and some of them seem 
very good arguments, too, for support¬ 
ing his position. He says that horses 
are no longer used for long hauls, hav¬ 
ing been replaced almost wholly by 
motor trucks. Of course this is true, 
except in occasional instances. For 
working around the farm, and even on 
commercial plants, Mr. Phillips asserts 
that well-trained oxen are far prefer¬ 
able to horses, and much less expensive 
to keep. lie argues that if a farmer 
should keep a pair of steers coming on 
each year, and turn off a pair each sea¬ 
son, lie would he making money, while 
getting liis work done at low cost. Oxen 
can handle larger loads than horses, 
can he kept thriving on cheaper feed, 
and are easier to handle. Mr. Phillips 
says that in his own ease he has bought 
steers one season, kept them working 
hard, and sold them the next year to 
the butcher for more than he paid for 
them. It isn't necessary that oxen 
should be the slow, lumbering creatures 
many people consider them to he. If 
they are properly trained they will 
walk almost as fast as a horse. They can even be 
taught to trot. Their habits in these respects depend 
largely upon the driver. Mr. Phillips tells of oxen 
that have been used in connection with horses in 
hauling lumber, and says that the former have been 
only a short distance behind the latter in getting 
home with their load of logs from a trip of several 
miles. In presenting his ease for the ox he says that 
this animal, phlegmatic though it may appear, lias 
a stronger feeling for its driver than does a horse, 
and seems to know him better. No good ox driver 
thinks of going across the yard to reach his team. 
He simply calls to them, and they come to him. In 
Mr. Phillips’ opinion fanners throughout New Eng- 
more profitably than under the old methods. 
On this farm, last August, before thrashing, the 
barnyard was cleaned up as usual, and this manure 
was applied with the spreader over a field from 
which hay had been cut this season. In one place 
one width of the spreader was run across the field 
a distance from the rest. After the first shower 
every place where the manure was applied began to * 
show a healthy green, and that separate strip looked 
like a green ribbon through the field. The contrast 
between the top-dressed and the part untreated is so 
marked that a great object lesson is presented. 
When this top-dressing is done at this 
time of the year the conditions for soil 
improvement will be on the increase 
until planted to the potato crop another 
season, while the part not top-dressed 
cannot do this, and even when manure 
is applied and plowed under next 
Spring, the results will never be as 
good as in the former case. 
Last Winter, or rather late in the 
Fall, some straw from an old stack 
bottom was hauled out and spread on 
a clover sod that was planted in pota¬ 
toes this season. The rest of the field 
was manured and plowed under. Still 
the crop looked the best all through the 
growing season where the straw was 
used. Here was illustrated the bene¬ 
ficial results of a plain straw mulch, 
which caused a much heavier sod to 
form for plowing down to furnish an 
abundance of the plant food needed by 
the potatoes. The best place and time 
to apply manure appears to be an im¬ 
portant feature in efficient farm man¬ 
agement and presents an opportunity 
for interesting study. H. E. cox. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
Garden Notes From New 
England 
