ge them. Here
were farmer men and farmer women in the making. What more natural than
to organize a Department of Agriculture?

A Department of Agriculture in a school? Yes, truly; and a short winter
course for farm boys and girls who could not come the year round, and a
school experiment station with school farms for the children, and a live
farmers' institute that met in the school and was fed and cared for by
the Department of Domestic Science, and all sorts of courses built up
around the needs of the children and of the community.

II Getting the Janitor in Line

As a result of this method of course-making the school janitor found
himself on the instruction staff of the school. One day a couple of the
short course boys were in the engine-room while the janitor was
repairing a defective pipe in the heating plant. The boys lent a hand in
the work; and one of them, having a practical turn of mind, suggested
that he would like to learn more about pipe-fitting in order to install
a water system on the farm at home. The janitor repeated the remark to
Mr. Cederstrom, who called the boys out and had a talk with them
regarding the possibilities of the plan.

The outlook for the course was not bright. Every instructor in the
mechanical department was working on full time. Only one way out
remained and that way led to the janitor.

The janitor was a busy man during the day, but his evenings were
comparatively free. After some parleying he agreed to give a course in
elementary plumbing and steam-fitting on Tuesday and Thursday evenings
at seven-thirty. So the boys came to school in the evening, and under
the direction of the school janitor learned how to install a water
system in their homes. Their work for the year consisted in making a
model water system for a house, a barn and the other farm buildings. The
materials for this course were picked up from the school's scrap-heap.

Perhaps some people will not understand the spirit of it--getting the
janitor in line to give a course in steam-fitting from the odds and ends
that are found on the scrap-heap. Such a proceeding is unconventional in
the extreme. But, on the other hand, here were boys who wished to know
how they might go back and improve their homes. Who shall say that the
imparting of such knowledge is not the business of a real school?

III The Department of Agriculture

Let us go back for a moment to the organization of the Department of
Agriculture. The