Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1922-04-21
SCHOOL AGRICULTURE IS FUNC-
TIoNTNG IN MONMOUTH COUNTY
zv-;++en at the State Department of Pub
lie instruction, Trenton, N. -
Does High School Agriculture
FunetiOng

Th9 ADOH6 QuODNAOA W00 INV ~
GENTLY of Mr.. E. G. Stillwell, instruc-
TOR in agriculture at the Freehold
HIGH School. His answer was, Eyes;
and I can prove it. Look over my roll
hook for the past few years and you
will see that fully so per cent of the
VOWS who have been in my classes have
cone back to the farm and are now
either partners with their father or
are operating farms of their own.
Tbev are successful farms, too, and
are becoming leaders in the COM
munity.
The fathers of the boys realize that
the teaching of agriculture functions.
WHY. Just last week a father Of one
of the boys said in a public meeting
that he was not getting into a rut
as are many farmers, because his boy
"a recent graduate of the agricultural
course-is keeping him out. This boy
is applying the principles Of farming
he has learned and is showing that
their application pays in the business
of farming. Another father who Wis
tied the school recently said he was
sorry agriculture was not taught in
high school when he was a boy. This
man is one of our most successful
farmers and he brought out in u
conversation that although he has met
with some degree of success without
special training in agriculture, he
would have avoided many needless
mistakes and costly experiments had
he acquired the necessary scientific
knowledge of agriculture before he be-
gan his active vocation as a farmer.
The farm boys who graduate from
the Freehold High School do not stop
studying agriculture when they re-
ceiYe their high school diploma. Last
winter twenty-five of them organized
as a group and asked Mr.. Stillwell, in
cooperation with County Agent Doug
lass, to conduct a short-unit course in
Farm Management to meet at the
school once a week from the first part
of December to the last of March. Mr..
Stillwell consented and suggested that
the group organize as a young farm
er's club and that the instruction deal
with timely farm management topics
and that in addition to Mr.. Douglass
and himself, successful farmers of the
vicinity be invited to discuss farm
problems with the members. This was
done and a very successful series of
meetings were held. One of the fea-
lures of the meetings was the fact that
all present entered freely into the dis
cussions of the topics considered.
Following are a few examples of the
type of work done in the course.
Henry Cross, owner of a 100 acre po-
tato farm, talked at one of the meet
jugs on playing Safe with the Potato
Crop" A. M. Webster, owner of a large
truck and fruit farm, led a discussion
on Profitable Side Lines to Potato
Farming" George Conover, one of the
members of the class, gave a talk on
Making Hog Raising Pay as a Side
Line;" and Edward Winsor, who won
the sweepstakes prize for the corn at
the State Corn Show the past winter,
told the boys how he breeds corn that
has a habit of winning over that pro-
duced by other good growers of the
state. Another interesting meeting
was led by A. G. Waller, of the State
College, who discussed the "Value OF
Farm Records and How to Keep
Them Mr.. Stillwell and Mr.. Doug
lass led the other meetings of the
series and discussed problems that the
boys are meeting every day in their
work. All the meeting of the course
were we'll attended and at the last
one the boys voted to continue the
work during the summer. They
claimed that the high school depart
ment of agriculture was still a help
to them in their business and that they
had profited by assembling and dis
cussing their many problems.
Surely Mr.. Stillwell has answered
the question, docs High School Agri-