REFERENCE BOOKS AND BULLETINS 225 road construction, terracing, subdivision of lands into fields, and irrigation. Reference Books and Bulletins.3-There are good books which should be in the library of schools offering courses in farm mechanics FIG. 109. The pig-cot and seed corn tree may be made by students as parts of their projects with pigs and seed corn. (D. M. Clements, Tenn.) FIG. 110.-In his pig project this Wisconsin boy made the pig house of the piano box. (W. C. Christensen and S. R. S., U. S. D. A.) and engineering. Have special books on farm motors; books relating to lighting systems; others on water systems; and others on sanitation and drainage; books on farm structures, some of which give plans of all kinds of buildings; books on concrete work; FIG. 111.-Useful articles for the farm made by the students in the school shop. (A. M. Field, Minn.) special works on drainage, irrigation, road construction, land surveying, and other special lines. It is to such special works of reference that the instructor will send students who are looking up readings on their home projects. Instructors fully realize the value of such specialized books of reference. No textbook can possibly fill the need of students 3 See also Chapter XVII. requiring full information on problems and projects which they are undertaking. Bulletins issued by the federal government, by state experiment stations, and by private companies are usually supplied freely to schools requesting them. Cement companies issue valuable bulletins on the uses of cement. Details of barn plans are found in bulletins furnished by companies selling barn equipment. Such pamphlets should be accumulated by the school and kept on the reference shelves for constant use. Mechanical journals are published periodically, and a few of these may be on the reading tables of colleges, normal schools, and perhaps high schools offering work in this subject. Engineering journals, electrical magazines, scientific and popular papers of a mechanical nature are worthy of consideration for this purpose. EXERCISES 1. Plan a good, inexpensive shop building for the teaching of farm shop work (Figs. 106–108). 2. Make a list of material for the construction of this building, with prices. 3. Form an estimate of the number of days it would require for ten students to erect this building, and decide whether, or not, you would advise them to undertake it. 4. Make a list of tools and equipment you would place in such a building, with price of each. 5. Outline fully an extended project in mechanics connected with poultry work. 6. The same for a project connected with dairy work. 7. The same for a project connected with sheep and beef-cattle work. 8. The same for a project connected with sheep and swine growing (Figs. 109, 110, and 111). 9. The same for a project connected with farm improvement. 10. Conduct a community survey regarding farm buildings and equipment in a small neighborhood. 11. Another on modern farm machinery. 12. Another on tile draining and terracing, or the need for either of these. 13. Conduct a trip with fellow-students, or others, for a farm mechanics study at a good place in the neighborhood (Fig. 96). QUESTIONS 1. Give a comprehensive outline of the fields to be covered by a course in farm mechanics and engineering. 2. Give suggestions for special methods in teaching this course. 3. What equipment would you want for teaching farm power work? 4. Why should the class work in farm mechanics consist chiefly of laboratory work? 5. How would you plan to base the class work on the laboratory work? 6. Why would you base the laboratory work and home project work, in this field, on the other agricultural projects of the students? 7. Illustrate how you would do this in each of the kinds of agricultural projects. REFERENCES 8. Suggest a number of exercises with farm power. 9. Give reasons why community survey in farm mechanics are helpful. 10. Give a list of topics for such a survey. 227 11. How could you use a set of lantern slides to advantage in teaching farm mechanics? 12. What benefit is derived from students drawing plans for farm buildings? 13. Why is the study of physics helpful in a course in farm mechanics? 14. Give a list of suitable trips which you might make with your class in this course? 15. How could school shop work be of aid to the community? 16. Give suggestions for teaching shop work in rural schools. 17. In what fields should a teacher of agriculture be proficient to teach farm mechanics successfully? 18. Suggest a list of exercises for shop work in town grades. 19. What would be suitable lines of farm mechanics for short-course students? 20. Suggest reading assignments in farm mechanics. 21. Suggest several subjects for debate in this field. 22. What observations can you suggest that students should make in this field? 23. What lines require considerable drill to secure the proper skill in shop work? 24. Make a list of mechanical problems to be solved by students. 25. What reference books would you include, in this field, in a high school library? REFERENCES Farm drainage, Minn. Ext. Bul. 13; Rope work, Minn. Ext. Bul. 33; and Minn. Bul. 136 (15 cents); Cornell reading course, Bul., Vol. 1, No. 8; Iowa Ext. Bul. 24. CHAPTER XI HOW TO TEACH FARM MANAGEMENT "The specific aim of the work in Farm Management is to enable young people to obtain such a knowledge of sound principles and correct practices essential in the proper selection, organization, equipment, and opcration of a farm as a business enterprise as will prepare them for financial success in farming."-Report of Committee on Agriculture of the N. E. A. Commission on Reorganization of Secondary Education. THE purpose of this chapter is to aid teachers so to teach farm management as to accomplish most effectively the above aims. Chapters V to X, and XII treat of the methods of teaching subject matter so that students may pursue farming operations with greater profit. Many features of farm management are therefore presented in those chapters. Persons using this book will find there many suggestions, in addition to those given in this chapter, that will be helpful in the teaching of farm management. Content of Farm Management. In the subject of farm management should be included the study of the types of farming, comparison between intensive and extensive methods, diversified and special methods. It must be concerned with the maintenance of soil fertility, livestock problems, suitability of farm operations to soil, climate, and market conditions. It must include a study of the relationship between size of farm, capital available, and projects undertaken. The questions of ownership, rental, employment of labor, securing equipment, arrangement and cost of buildings, and the planning of cropping systems are all included. The business of farming-farm records and accounts and the selling of products is an important department of farm management. How to secure good roads over which to travel and market farm products is vitally connected with farm management (Fig. 112). Special Methods in Farm Management.-While methods of conducting the class meeting do not differ in farm management from the methods used in other subjects, attention should be called to a few features relating to the subject matter and its treatment which need special emphasis. Farm management, dealing as it does with the proper combination of all of the farming operations considered in the preceding chapters, is more dependent than is any of them upon local data if its teachings are to function in the farming of the future. Agron CLASS WORK IN FARM MANAGEMENT 229 omy may teach how to raise an abundant crop, but farm management may show that, regardless of abundance of yield, such a crop should not be grown in that locality. To know how to raise good crops and animals is necessary but not sufficient. To know how to make a profit from the entire complex of farming operations under local conditions is essential and is the cornerstone for the teaching of farm management. The teacher must have available not only the data gathered by the office of Farm Management of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and by the state colleges of agriculture of such states as Minnesota and New York which may be used as general foundations, but should have the data gathered by his own state college of agriculture and by any other state institutions, such as normal schools. If the teacher has done the work of the preceding chapters, he will have the results of many surveys made by himself and his pupils which he has used as a part of the work of those chapters. In addition to the use made of them there they may be utilized with new values in the farm management studies. Besides these, additional local surveys supplementary thereto should be made by the farm management class. Not only must students use a large amount of data much of which is local but they must know how to use it. This requires a clear knowledge of the fundamentals of bookkeeping and of the methods of using simple statistics. Unless the pupils have had this training previously it must be given in the farm management class. There are a few good textbooks on farm management suitable for secondary schools, normal schools, and colleges which may be used as guides and references; but the teacher who permits his farm management work to degenerate into a mere study of books is not only losing his opportunity but is also cheating his pupils out of their birthright—a practical knowledge of how to manage successfully farm operations in that locality. Class Work in Farm Management.-Let students prepare topics for class recitation which are broad and exhaustive rather than mere opinions or one-sided discussions of the different phases of farm management. For example, good topics at the beginning of the course are: (1) The farmer as a business man. (2) The farmer as a scientist. (3) The farmer as a mechanic. (4) The farm a place for efficiency. (5) What the farmer needs to know. Early in the course let some student contrast the cost of living on a farm with the cost in a city. Let another study and report |