The Florida agriculturist., 1907-11-06
The County High School Of the Future

present methods OF eQuCdIlOH III the
country. We have printed various ar
ticles on the subject, all showing that
the trend of opinion is towards more
of an agricultural education for country
boys and girls. The following article,
from the American Agriculturist, is on
the same line. The incident of the help
given the dairy farmer by the high
school boys, is an illustration of what
might be done in other lines Of agr1cu1-
tural work by educated students.
Recently there was held at the Massa-
chusetts agricultural college a most
important conference on rural progress.
For four days the various phases of
rural life were discussed by leaders
along various lines bearing on this
problem. But of all the topics dis
cussed, and they were many, none
were of greater interest, or more vital
in their bearing on rural life in the
future, than those bearing on the
educational problems as relating to ru-
raj districts.
DR.. K C. Davis, dean of the state
school of agriculture, St. Lawrence
university, Canton, N. Y, reviewed in
a most interesting way the work be-
ing done by the agricultural high
schools which have been established in
various parts of the country. The agri-
cultural high school in certain states
has passed the experimental stage.
What it's possibilities are was shown
in a most Illuminating way Ivy DR..
Davis. That such a high school can
be and is made of practical benz tit, not
only to the pupils themselves, but
to the farmers who are paying the
taxes for it's support, was most conclu-
sively shown.
AS an instance of the practic II good
such a school can do he quoted a
case of dairy farmer who was milk
called them. The boys from the school
went out to this farm and tested each
COW. The farmer was shown low to
follow up these tests. In something
over a year this farmer was milking
II COWS instead Of SO, and his cream
checks were as large as they hail been
when he had the SO cows He was saw
ing more than 50 per cent. in feed, he
was saving quite 50 per cent in labor.
In view Of the fact that the labor prob
lem was, as it is in many parts of the
country, the most serious problem Of
the day, this farmer felt that the direct
aid he had received from this school
was not to be easily estimated.
The practical nature of the work
done in these schools was shown
through the medium of lantern slides.
In one view half a dozen boys were
setting up the model of a barn on a
scale of an inch to foot. Since
those boys graduated three of them
have put up full size barns on their own
farms. This is but one example of
how the boys who have graduated
from these schools are applying the
information received.
DR.. Davis emphasized how needfu1
it is that each school should deal
with the conditions of it's immediate
locality; in other words, the boys of
a given district should be educated to
grapple with the specific conditions of
that district That such a school is less
cultural than the usual high schools
DR.. Davis Denies. He insists that
there is quite as much culture in the
study of agriculture as in any other
subject. g
There is food for thought in such
testimony as was brought out at this
rural conference Such conferences
should be held often all over this
broad country. This subject of a prac-
teal school for the farm boys, a school
which shall fit them to compete in their
chosen calling with the men of other
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