Prof. H. F. Buton, Manassass, Va. BUCKLAND, VA., November 9, 1911 DEAR SIR: We have been using your milk tester every day since you went away. We have tested six cows, there names were: Terry, 4.2 per cent, was Sweeney's; Mollie, 6.2 per cent, was Dr. Brown's; Chery, 4.7 per cent, was Grahm's; Boss, 4.5 per cent, was Hall's. The way we tested it is: First, we would draw the milk up to that little rim on that long glass and then we would pour the acid into the milk and then we would shake it until it was black and then we would turn it five min. Then we would turn it two min. more. Then we would pour the hot water in until all the fat was up in the neck of the bottle far enough so that we could see how much there was. My name is John R. Sweeney-10 years old. BUCKLAND SCHOOL, NO. 1. I have dozens of such letters and they show that the children know far more about the composition of milk than most of the parents. I have found this lesson the very best to introduce the subject of agriculture. It is interesting, almost spectacular, with the strong acid, the mysteriously hot bottles, the whirling wheels, and finally the clear yellow fat that tells that old "Blossom's" milk is twice as rich as that of "Spot." Still more important is the knowledge that it conveys to the parent as to the relative value of each cow. It is the beginning of the exact knowledge that makes for better farming. At times I vary the lesson by giving one on corn judging. After this lesson it is much easier to teach about fertilizers and tillage. A seedcorn germination box is easy to make and to carry about. I prefer the sand-box type with strings for fences, as shown in Crosby's Exercises in Plant Production. The tiny fields appeal to the children and the sight of the plants growing in sand is much more convincing than the cloth and sawdust box. The sand-box type is, however, much heavier to carry about and more liable to spill than the Iowa tester made by marking cloth into two-inch squares, on each of which is placed five kernels taken from an ear of corn and the whole covered with a second cloth and sawdust to hold the moisture. As the use of fertilizers is almost universal and their purchase is one of the principal items of money outlay, I have found that a lesson on the composition and value of fertilizers is always appreciated. It may be made intensely interesting by showing the peculiar properties of phosphorus, potassium, and nitric acid. After showing the spectacular side of the chemistry of fertilizers by a few experiments, such as lighting a fire with water, burning iron, and spontaneous combustion, I give an effective lesson on the arithmetic of fertilizers and the advantages of home mixing and co-operative buying. I do not wish to convey the impression that the work is easy or the returns large. In those parts of the country where the soil is productive and the people prosperous and intelligent the work gives large returns. In such a neighborhood there is always some crop or product with which several of the patrons have made a success. In such a neighborhood and on such a topic I get a lively and intelligent response from the pupils which makes me feel sure the effort has resulted in a gain to the community and a strengthening of the bond between the farmers and their school. Not all the schools are so favorably situated. There is in the southern part of my territory a great belt of country between tidewater and Piedmont, called "The Forest," in which both agricultural and social conditions are most backward. Here my work of extension teaching is very difficult and the results meager. The population is sparse, the roads impassable, and agriculture unprofitable. When people derive their living from cross-ties and stave-bolts, it is a long step to interest them in Jersey cows and well-sprayed orchards. Yet despite the discouraging conditions I am doing much of my work among these schools, counting the greater need as an equivalent to the smaller returns. This country-school work needs doing and if honestly done will bring support to the school and carry light to those who most need the help. Let no one who values comfort undertake this form of extension work, for there are long rides through deep mud, hurried starts, late returns, and cold rains as the usual accompaniments of the trips. I have found without exception that the teachers are glad to have me come and will co-operate with me in every possible way. The patrons when not apathetic are well pleased to have agriculture introduced in the school. Among the more thoughtful I find a widespread sentiment that their occupation has been slighted and neglected in the schools, and a full appreciation of any effort to improve conditions. There is urgent need for a wider and more sweeping regeneration of the rural school before the country child shall come to his rights, but if we wait for that time to come, many years may be lost. I am making an effort to reach the teachers of country schools by my work with the normal class of the high school. To this class I endeavor to give such lessons as will be most usable in their schools-testing the germination of seeds, tests for the simple food substances, starch, protein, fat, and sugar, the physical properties of soils, etc. The arithmetic of fertilizers is gone into in detail, as is the method of figuring out balanced rations. Especial attention is given to showing these future teachers how to set up and operate such experiments and demonstrations as will fix forcibly on the mind of the child some of the broader principles that underlie the practice of agriculture. By milk and cream testing I have done much to bring the value of the school home to the farmers. I have spoken of the educational milk testing in the rural schools, but in the agricultural high school I test some 200 samples of milk and cream a year, the cream-shippers in particular finding it a means to avoid being cheated on the one hand and getting into trouble with the milk inspector on the other. If one of these men buys a cow he tests her milk that he may get a good one; if he sells a cow he tests her milk in order that he may sell a poor one. have a cow-testing association of about a dozen enterprising dairymen who have stopped guessing about their cows. As the business of dairying grows this activity of the school will further increase. Several times in the past year I have had requests from local doctors for more complete analyses of milk, from which they are able to make up special modified milks for infant feeding. We An excellent barrel spray-pump furnishes means for another line of extension work. This pump is loaned out to people who wish to try spraying but have no suitable machinery. Spraying materials, such as concentrated lime-sulphur, arsenate of lead, and caustic-potash soap are furnished at cost. Some of the more advanced students go out and do small jobs of spraying, thus acquiring a proficiency that the limited equipment of the school cannot supply, and at the same time get people started at spraying who have never before attempted it. Last spring we used in this way more than a barrel of the concentrated lime-sulphur with arsenates in proportion. This year two barrels have been ordered and a still larger amount of work will be done. This is not a fruitraising section and spraying is still an unusual practice, yet last year a dozen new barrel sprays came into the community as a result of our spraying propaganda. In many cases I have gone out to the orchards, set up the spray-pump, and instructed the owner in the adjustment of the nozzles. In the village I am constantly called on to prescribe for the ailments of flowers, trees, and shrubs, and to destroy scales, plant lice, caterpillars, and miscellaneous "bugs." Outside of the village I am more and more frequently called on for expert advice on alfalfa, drainage, locations for orchards, sick cows, sick trees, and the like. Sometimes I can help and sometimes not, but the significant fact remains that there is a growing tendency on the part of the farmers to recognize the school as theirs, to be called on for all kinds of aid. This year my extension work has been greatly facilitated by a fine stereopticon with a steel tank of compressed acetylene gas. After giving a lesson to a rural school I stay and give an evening illustrated lecture on some such topic as corn or dairying cattle. These evening meetings are always well attended and enable me to meet large numbers of people whom I can reach in no other way. There are two excellent newspapers in the county, both of which have been liberal in their space and helped in their editorial columns. There is seldom a week when I do not have an article in one or both of these papers on some topic of timely interest. I review the lectures of farmers' institutes for those who were not there; I review scientific publications or give advice on the care of a crop or the control of some insect. These and other subjects furnish me a means of taking the benefits of the school out to the people on the farms who most need the aid and who are least able to secure it by regular instruction in the school. If it be urged that my work begins at the top instead of at the bottom or that it is desultory, unsystematic, and without logical sequence, I must acknowledge the truth of the criticism. I can only say in defense that I am almost entirely without resources for teaching many topics, and that I am struggling to carry some message of a new and better agriculture to as many of my people as I can reach. I am doing all of this work in addition to the duties of a high-school director, teaching a class of twenty-eight in the last grammar grade, four classes in agriculture and three in chemistry in the high school, making six class periods a day, besides such allied activities as a Boys' Corn Club, thirtytwo experimental plats, a forestry association, and a troop of Boy Scouts, so it can readily be seen what a man could do in extension work had he his whole time to devote to it. VB. SHORT COURSES AND EXTENSION WORK IN AGRICULTURE FOR HIGH SCHOOLS-IN THE NORTH FRED R. CRANE Student in the Graduate School, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. To those interested in education and who read the conflicting opinions relative to the success or failure of the agricultural teaching work in the various secondary schools of this country it is at once apparent that there is as yet no generally accepted policy as to what can and should be done by way of advancing agriculture through our secondary educational system. It is not the intention in this paper to discuss an agricultural curriculum for a four-year high school. There is little at present to be added to the plans offered in the publications upon that subject already available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and from the University of Wisconsin. The subject-matter to be discussed here has to do with the short courses and extension work in agriculture, for high schools and special secondary agricultural schools, now existing in these institutions in northern United States. The reader's personal judgment is depended upon for the analysis of values. It is to be assumed that a competent and well-trained agriculturist is in control of the situation and that he is not to be hampered for want of authority or from lack of funds necessary to advance the work. The efforts of an institution must be along some well-defined lines, and (from an agricultural standpoint) we shall discuss the content of the work under four headings as follows: I. SHORT COURSES 1. Sixteen weeks young people's course 2. Farmers' lecture course 3. Farmers' one-week school 4. Institutes and summer tours II. EXTENSION WORK 1. Demonstrations on the individual farm a) Field b) Building c) Live stock |