The practical exercises reported for the several specialized courses in agriculture by one or more teachers each are named here. Inquiry was not made into this aspect of the teaching of the course in general agriculture. Although a few of those exercises reported may not recommend themselves as intensely practical, for the most part they represent a wholesome tendency to relate the courses to vocation and life.

Farm crops: Germination and purity tests for corn and seed grains; selecting seed corn in the field; judging corn, grain, forage, and roots; variety tests on grains; work in grain diseases; weed and weed-seed identification; making weed-seed cases and collections of weeds and weed seeds; grass-seed identification; seeding lawn; pot and plot tests of soils and fertilizers; planning rotations; growing crops at home under home-project plan; physical analysis of soils; spraying.

Animal husbandry: Judging livestock (dairy and beef cattle, horses, sheep, swine, poultry); estimating age of livestock; homeproject work in caring for farm animals; marketing stock; hooftrimming; care and repair of harness; rope-splicing; dissection (veterinary); observation and treatment of animal diseases; bacteriological work; forming mock breeding associations; feeding of animals; practical application of balanced rations; feeding chickens; egg-study; running an incubator; testing milk and cream; making butter and cheese; study of creameries; running cream separators; keeping herd records.

Soils: Physical analysis of soils; microscopical examination of soil particles; testing soils as to temperature, water-holding, composition, acidity, alkalinity; effect of freezing on soils; drainage; soil inoculation; manures; pot, plot, and laboratory tests of fertilizers.

Horticulture: Planting; spray mixing and spraying; grafting; budding; pruning; picking, sorting, and judging; garden work; home-garden projects; selection of seed potatoes; practical care of truck; study of plant diseases; making collections of destructive insects; visits to greenhouses and gardens; "raising of tomato,

cabbage, and flower plants in hothouse and cold-frames for sale to city people."

Farm mechanics: Laying out complete drainage system with level; doing actual ditching; practice in land measurement; drawing plans for farm buildings; study and operation of gas engines, farm and spray machinery, automobiles; setting up machines; babbitting; concrete work; rope splicing and knotting; installation of weir for local farmers; "making homemade machinery (for instance, this class made an Ames hulling and scarifying machine and a corrugated concrete roller) . surveying and planning systems for irrigation and for drainage for farmers (5 are in actual operation now).”

Farm management: Keeping records on farms-"as homeproject each student keeps records and accounts on home farm for a period"; accounts of near-by farms; making inventories; estimating depreciation; planning rotations; labor records, feeding records, field records, financial records; "laying out map of county farm"; study of actual farm conditions; "they revise or rearrange some farm they are familiar with as one problem."

Farm accounts: Because so few schools report this course, the data on practical exercises are not enlightening enough to warrant reproduction here.

FIELD TRIPS

Field or observation trips are all but a universal constituent of courses in agriculture. Only exceptionally does a teacher report that these trips do not find a place in his courses. Furthermore, very few teachers fail to answer the question, which is additional evidence of the universality of the practice.

The number of field trips reported varies widely. Although it is impossible to tabulate the responses, it may be emphatically stated that decidedly more are reported for courses in agriculture than for other courses in science. The course for which the greatest number are reported is animal husbandry. For this course a single teacher reports "none yet." Three teachers fail to answer the question. A few teachers report in indefinite terms, as "irregular," "taken as needed," etc. The numbers reported for the fullyear courses in this subject range from "12 or more" to "70-80."

The time spent in these trips also varies widely. The answers are given in such terms that they cannot be tabulated. It may be said, however, that they extend from one-half hour to a full day. Most of the trips are reported as being compassed in one to three hours.

LABORATORIES

Of the 49 schools making reports in agriculture, as may be seen in Table LIV, 20 report special laboratories for the subject, while 21 report using some other laboratory. The responses of these

schools were also compiled after having been divided into two classes, (1) those teaching only general agriculture (18 in number), and (2) those teaching specialized courses (31 in number, of which 8 are also teaching courses in general agriculture), and the resulting compilation included in this table. A comparison of the figures for these two classes of schools indicates at once that a much larger proportion of the latter than of the former group provides special laboratories for the work.

THE SCHOOL PLOT OR FARM

The extent to which the schools provide plots or farms for the work in agriculture may be seen in Table LV. When the schools are taken as a whole, almost as many make provision for the plot or farm as do not, but when the schools are divided into the two classes mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, it is seen at once that a larger proportion of the group offering specialized courses than of the group offering only general agriculture provides the plot or

farm. The contrast is even more striking when the areas of these plots or farms are given consideration. The areas of the 4 plots reported by schools offering only general agriculture are one-fourth of 1 acre, one-half of 1 acre (2 schools), and 2 acres. The areas of the 16 plots or farms reported by the schools offering specialized courses range from "one city lot" to 38 acres, 8 of them being from 5 to 10 acres in area.

The facts just presented as to laboratory and school plot or farm force the conclusion that schools providing specialized courses in agriculture make better provision for the work than do schools offering only the course in general agriculture.

The uses to which the 20 schools providing a plot or farm put it are shown by the following:

The teachers were asked to state whether they are teaching agriculture as a vocational or as a "general" high-school subject. The term "general" is here used with no special reference to what we have been calling the course in general agriculture, but as contrasted with vocational, and signifies that the subject is dominated by the same aims that dominate the usual non-vocational highschool subject of study. The totals at the foot of Table LVI indicate that in 15 schools the subject is taught as a general subject;

in 20, as a vocational subject; and in 12, as both general and vocational. The table also indicates that in the schools teaching general agriculture only the vocational aim is not as commonly recognized as is the general, whereas in the schools teaching specialized courses, either as the whole or as a part of the offering, the vocational aim is predominant.

TABLE LVI

NUMBER OF SCHOOLS TEACHING AGRICULTURE As a GENERAL HIGH-SCHOOL SUBJECT, AS A VOCATIONAL SUBJECT, OR BOTH

The recognition of the vocational aim makes pertinent the presentation of facts concerning the proportion of young people from the farm. Of the 49 teachers responding, 36 made usable replies to the inquiry in this matter. For these 36 schools the percentage of boys from the farm ranges from o (1 school only) to 75.0, with an average of 34.4; the percentage of girls from the farm ranges from o (15 schools) to 68.66, the average being 18.9; the percentage of both boys and girls from o to 100, the average being 53.4, somewhat more than half. Of these 36 schools, 13 teach agriculture as a general high-school subject, 17 as a vocational subject, and 6 as both general and vocational. The percentages of boys from the farm, girls from the farm, and both boys and girls from the farm for each of these three groups of schools, with those percentages already reported from the schools as a whole, are presented in Table LVII. From these percentages we may draw the following interpretations: (1) The percentage of boys from the farm is larger in the classes in agriculture in those schools in