The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1914-08-27

10 attend the regular courses at the
colleges. practical short courses in
agriculture and home management
specially adapted TO their districts.
These courses. which will consist Of
Is TO 20 lectures, and will consume
i've or more weeks, can be arranged to
suit the spare time and convenience
Of each group of people.
The courses to be offered at first
are poultry raising, fruit growing,
si,os. cheese manufacturing, dairying,
butter making, and farm bookkeeping;
and for the women especially, courses
in the preparation, cooking and use Of
vegetable and cereal foods. The De-
partment will supply lectures and Ian
tern slides covering these subjects,
and the states which have agreed to
co operate in the plan will lend to
each group laboratory and cooking
apparatus valued at 800 and a refer
euce library. The textbooks and lee
lures will be made so complete that
each group car safely appoint n of
its members as study leader to direct
the work of the course.
When a group has decided to take
UP the work, the state which cooper
sends an agent with the depart
representative to organize a
class and assist the leader
whom they elect in laying out the
work and in showing him the best
methods Of procedure. The classes
are held from 500 to ~: 90
in the morning and from 100 to 400
in the afternoon, two or three days
each week. The sessions are not held
every day, so that the members will
have time to attend to their farm
duties in between the seasons, as we'll
as before and after the instruction
The classes meet commonly
at the most convenient farmhouse.
the morning hours, textbook
is done. In the afternoon labor
atory work is conducted, and the wo-
men who have elected to take the
domestic science courses have practi-
lessons in cooking.
AS soon as a class is established, the
state organizer withdraws to start a
in some other district. The
work thereafter is left in charge of
the leader, who receives assistance by
mail from the college or the Depart
ment in carrying On the work.
AS there is no regularly paid instruc,
classes can be carried on all over
the state as rapidly as the college or
g~anizer can visit the groups, and as
as the laboratory sets supplied
by the college become available. The
-ocal leader will preside during the
of the lectures and references,
for which full texts and lantern slides
are supplied by the Department. He
will also be responsible for the labora-
.ory equipment. Every one who COM
Dletes the course will receive a GER
.iicate from the State College.
Not all of the states have yet agreed
o cooperate in this plan. Last win
.er experiments along these lines were
out successfully in Pennsyl-
'ania, and this has stimulated an in
crest in the method in other states.
n one of the Pennsylvania classes
men applied than could be ac-
,ommodated, and all of the 20 men
md Is women who began the course
completed it. Pennsylvania is now
arranging for more classes, while
Massachusetts,, Michigan, Vermont
md Florida expect to take up the
work. Other states such as Maine,
lew York, New Jersey, and Delaware
signifed their willingness to CO.
operate.
Ordinarily a college in a state usual
y applies to the department seeking
cooperation, when sufficient inter-
st has been shown in the plan in sew
raj communities where ten or more
have sought the instruction.
For financial reasons, certain colleges
ire not so able to engage in the work
IS are others.
The advantage claimed for the new
home courses with local leaders and
laboratory equipment over the ordin-
Try correspondence courses is that
,nly a small percentage of those who
axe the individual correspondence
course finish it. Studying in a group,
With laboratory work and a leader,
Ieems to stimulate the interest and
i'd a social feature which lead the
members of the group to follow the
work conscientiously and complete it.
Experiments with free correspondence
show that while many indi-
viduals gain advantage from them,
many others, because the material is
urnish free, do not feel the same
obligation to complete them as they