ll come, eager to find out some of
the things which the school has to teach them.

The agricultural work of the short course centered around the
agricultural problems of the Brown County Farm. Planting, milk and cream
testing, work in seed testing and germination, and treatment of seeds
for fungus growths, corn judging, and similar topics covered the work
of the term. The short course boys had already learned many lessons in
the practical school of farm work. The school at Sleepy Eye offered them
in addition the knowledge which science has recently accumulated
regarding the work of the farm.

As the successful farmer must be a trained mechanic, the short course
laid great stress on manual training. The boys were taught how to handle
and care for tools, how to frame a building, how to make eveners,
hayracks, watering troughs, wagon boxes, and similar useful farm
articles. In the blacksmith shop the simpler problems in forging were
covered, including the making of hooks, clevises, cold chisels and other
small tools.

While the boys were engaged in agricultural and mechanical work the
girls took domestic science. In addition to the elementary work in
cooking and sewing there were advanced courses in dress designing, so
planned as to prepare a girl to work out her own patterns and make up
her own materials.

Let no one suppose that the short course neglected academic work.
Indeed, it was originally intended to enable boys and girls who felt too
big for the local school, or who had no time to take the entire term
there, to review common school subjects. The courses in industrial work,
in agriculture and in domestic science were offered in addition to these
regular school studies.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The boys and girls who take
the short course for the first year come back in considerable numbers to
take a second and a third year of work during the winter months. The
short course is a success, because it gives the boys and girls who take
it training and knowledge which they would not otherwise acquire.

V Letting the Boys Do It

The school at Sleepy Eye needed a farm building on the school farm. The
short course boys and some of the older boys in the school were anxious
to learn. What more natural procedure than for the school to buy the
lumber and have the boys do the work? Exactly this proceeding was
followed, and the pupils erected the building which they needed to carry
on the applied wo