more of healthy and friendly co-operation, for the members of the Committee on Gardening are working out a plan to which all have given their approval and for the success of which all are earnestly striving moved by many motives, not the least important of which is the desire to have a model garden and to make their first financial undertaking a success. Thus by transforming individual effort into social co-operation as well as by offering wonderful opportunities for introducing naturally and presenting through vital experiences a number of important school studies, the school club through its Committee on Gardening may be of great assistance to the school in its endeavors to realize not only its purely educational ideal, the vitalization of its curriculum, but also its social ideal, the development of men and women trained to co-operate for the common good and welfare of their communities.

THE FUNCTION OF THE FARM SCHOOL

Quite a story lies behind the letter printed below. In the spring of 1908 the principal of one of the public schools of Dubuque, Mr. B. J. Horchem, purchased a small farm beyond the outskirts of the city. It was very much run down, as the illustration shows. A tenant was put in possession and by the time the schools closed in June, repairs on the house were well on the way. The new owner did not invest in the farm either for personal profit or for the luxury of a summer residence, but because he wanted to try an experiment. He felt that the city boys, such as those in his school, needed something other than two months of idleness and mere play, and something other than the work in the shops, which in any event but few were old enough to undertake. Having been brought up on a farm himself, it seemed to him that farm life. offered a solution of the problem presented.

An invitation having been given to some of the leaders among the boys to "come out and help," nearly twenty responded and came with more or less regularity throughout the two months. The result as far as the boys were concerned, were so satisfactory that Mr. Horchem is anxious to continue and expand his experiment into a permanent summer school. He has two plans in view, one of which might be called the immediate and the transitory, and the other a more thoroughgoing scheme, involving the entire reorganization of the school-system.

In the first place he wants the boys of a manufacturing city to know something of what the farm offers, before the pressure of circumstances forces them into shop or office work or into unskilled labor.

He believes that even one summer can serve to implant the germs of an ideal of the opportunity and rewards of farm life. He said that he would willingly take an entirely new set of boys to his farm next year, in order that others might see for themselves what otherwise they might never appreciate that there is a world of work outside the factory and that there are other

fields of employment to choose from. Nearly one hundred boys are making plans for this farn: for the coming summer.

Some of the educational views of the author of this experiment follow the letter.-EDITOR.

PARK HILL FARM SCHOOL

President-ROBERT E. YOUNG

Manager-AMOS F. PALEY

Secretary-ADALBERT T. WALLER
Treasurer-J. RUSSELL JOHNSTON

DUBUQUE, IA, November 17, 1908

Mr. John Morrison, Dubuque, Iowa:

DEAR MR. MORRISON: Inclosed please find some of the pictures which were taken of some of us boys while at work on the farm during the

summer.

No. I shows where some of us thought that it would be fine exercise to fix up the roadway.

No. 2 will give you an idea of how the approach looked after it had been finished.

No. 3 will give you an idea of how we used to go and come from work occasionally.

No. 4 shows you how we enjoyed playing or working around the arley stack.

No. 5-We were preparing a park around the tent you so kindly loaned us.

No. 6-We are planning on civic improvement around the tent. No. 7-How we petted the cows when we had nothing else to do. We regret that you did not find it convenient to visit us during the summer. As a whole we had a pleasant and profitable vacation. Professor Horchem suggests that we give you a short account of our efforts. In regard to the work we did, we must say that some of us did report to our parents when we came home and did not explain anything in particular. When they would say that they doubted if we did anything, we would reply that we did so many things that we could not remember anything in particular.

We did many different things. We learned much. We hoed vegetables, cultivated, fertilized, picked peas, also other vegetables, husked corn, went to market, and had other experiences in farming.

Our first taste of farm life was hoeing. We hoed the cabbages. Some of us hardly knew how to hoe, but now we consider ourselves experts. Then we cultivated cnions. Of course we cut quite a few off, but we have learned much and would not do such a thing any more.

We all remember the time when we fertilized the tomatoes.

One of our most constant occupations was picking peas, of which there was a large patch.

Then came market days, when we took our produce to market. The first time the buggy was driven to market, it contained the general manager and the treasurer. These two officers went in their wide-brimmed rustic straw hats, upon which was showered a great deal of ridicule. Their first experience at marketing was not very pleasant. We all had a good laugh at their expense afterward. After that we took turns going to market, always taking care that we did not have our straw hats on. We hired a stand at the market, and there we could be found, selling our peas, beans, carrots, cabbages, beets, and other vegetables.

We carried our dinners, which we ate in the tent. Our suppers were cooked by Mrs. Honkomp, the lady of the place. We either ate them in the tent or in the shade outside. It is needless to say that we enjoyed the supper in the open, free air. We always slept well and feel that our condition has been physically benefited.

We did not work every day, sometimes three times a week, and sometimes only twice. During the hottest part of some days we played in the shade or rehearsed our band composed of such tin instruments as we could gather together. We had many lively debates, disputes, and discussions concerning our work, novels we had read, or topics concerning the welfare of the country; so you can see that we learned a great deal in discussing various things while we were working or taking a rest in the tent.

The most disagreeable part of the whole thing was the walk home. We did not fancy this journey, especially after the day's work.

There were many other boys that wanted to join, but we felt that there were no accommodations for so many, and that it would be too hard on Mrs. Honkomp to cook for them all.

We feel that to have a great many boys to take part it would be best to start early in spring with hotbeds and to have boys by fours to take plats of ground and start out in a scientific manner.

In the spring we will start early with hotbeds and incubators. We will work after school and Saturdays. We will engage in the raising of chickens, having, of course, a competent man to attend them in our absence. We will have a large number of new recruits, who, of course, will have their experience next summer, while we, the officers of the "Farm,” and those who have had their experience last summer, will work in a more general way this summer teaching the new boys the things with which they are not familiar. There will also be a large number of boys who will join us, once the other boys inform them of their first taste of farm life.

We have suggested to Professor Horchem, and he has agreed to do all he can toward making arrangements by which we could have an orchard,