People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1895 — Winter School of Agriculture. [ARTICLE]

Winter School of Agriculture.

The Winter School of Agriculture is designed to meet the wants of the young men and women who desire to excel in some agricultural pursuit-and who feel the need of more thoroughly preparing for their work, but can devote only the winter season to such preparation. The course has been arranged, therefore, to give the largest amount of information and assistance possible during the winter months and allow the students to the farm for the busy season. The subjects presented are those about which every one engaged in farming should have a definite knowledge of both the science and the art—the underlying principles and the best practice—relating thereto. In order to throw the light of science and experience upon these subjects, the faculty and specialists will be aided by practical lecturers who have been notably successful in the various agricultural pursuits. The class-room instruction will also be supplemented by laboratory practice in the dairy, veterinary hospital, judging of live stock, soil physics, horticulture and by visits of inspection to herds, farms and other points of interest. The extension of the term from eight to eleven weeks will permit more thorough instruction and thereby add greatlyr to the value of the work. Young women will find dairying, horticulture and poultry especially attractive and profitable subjects; and any who desire it may also take music, for which a moderate charge will be made; or, if qualified, enter without extra expense, the regular classes in drawing.. English, or mathematics. The courses of study outlined below will require the student to attend two winters to complete the work; hence, each student will be permitted to select, under the provisions named elsewhere, any three courses, leaving the others to be pursued the second winter. Any who q*ay desire to prepare for the regular agricultual courses will have an opportunity to do so while taking one or more courses in the Winter School of Agriculture. The endorsements of former students show that the Winter School of Agriculture has proved of great value to young persons about to engage in farming. It is therefore confidently commended to the attention of every ambitious young person who wishes to excel in some branch of agriculture.

The entire cost is very light in comparison with the advantages offered. Any energetic young person can earn in a single season the money necessary to meet all the expenses of a winter’s attendance. THE COURSE OF INSTRUCTION. The subjects for study are grouped into six courses; as follows: (1) Live stock husbandry and Veterinary hygiene. (2) Farm dairying. (3) Soils, Crops,, Manures and Farm building. (4) Horticulture, Economic Botany and Entomology. (5) Agricultural Chemistry, Bacteriology, Vegetable parasites and Rural Law. (6) Practical lectures by stockmen, farmers and horticulturists. Each of the above courses involves daily exercises in classroom or laboratory; and each student will be permitted to select from the above any three courses, including (for men) course (5). Provided, however, that no class will be formed in any course for. less than five students. LIVE STOCK HUSBANDRY AND VETERINARY HYGIENE—PROF. C. S. PLUMB AND PROF. A. W. BITTING. Breeds of live stock —their characteristics and adaptations; principles of breeding; heredity; atavism; cross-breeding; inbreeding and line-breeding; feeds and feeding—carbonaceous and nitrogenous foods; nutritive ratios; feeding standards and compounding rations; common diseases of live stock with curative and preventive treatment; sanitary care and management of herds and flocks. Students taking this course will have ample

opportunity to judge live stock, trace and make out pedigrees, and make laboratory demonstrations showing the differences in the digestive organs of the various classes of domestic animals and the peculiarities in the form and structure of animals adapted to special purposes. FARM DAIRYING—PROF. C- S. AND MR. H. C. BECKMAN. Breeding, rearing and general management of dairy cattle; foods and food combinations in relation to the per cent of milk solids; health and thrift Of the animals and financial returns; milking ami care of milk; testing and creaming of milk; ripening of cream; churning, working and grading of butter; cheese making; disposition and utilization of dairy products and by-products. Students taking this course will have daily drill and practice in the use of modern methods of dairying, and they will conduct numerous experiments to determine the conditions essential to success in making and marketing gilt-edge butter. The instruction will be specially adapted to meet the conditions and needs of. those who expect to engage in farm, dairying.

SOILS, CROPS, MANURES FARM BUILDINGS. —PROF^ W. C. LATTA. Soils —their origin, classification, characteristics, impoverishment. improvement and adaptations; drainage—its relation to the physical condition and to the biological and chemical activity of the soil—its effect in wet and dry seasons—its cost and value—lands that need drainage—location, planning and construction of drains—farm sewerage and road drainage; irrigation —value and methods of—how far feasible in Indiana; tillage—purpose, depth, frequency and kinds of; comparison of the various cultural implements; principles of cropping, crop rotation and soil renewing crops; the making, saving, application and use of farm manures—relative cost and profit of using commercial and farm manures; the location, planning, grouping, construction, lighting and ventilation of farm buildings, including dwellings, general and special purpose barns, silos, etc. Laboratory experiments to determine the behavior of soils towards water, the effect of adding lime, humus, etc., to soils, and the inspection of buildings will prove attractive and valuable features of this course. HORTICULTURE, ECONOMIC BOTANY AND ENTOMOLOGY. PROF JAMES TROOP. Methods of establishing orchards and gardens; desirable sites and kinds of soil; preparation of the soil fertilizers; planting, pruning, thinning, harvesting, marketing and storing for winter use; market gardening as a business; plant diseases and their remedies; seed testing to determine vitality and best conditions for germination; harmful and beneficial insects —their structure, distribution, habits and methods of control; insecticides and their adaption to var-

ious kinds of insects. Students taking this course will have laboratory practice in grafting and budding; in the detection of the impurities of farm and garden seeds; in the examination of diseased and insect-infested seeds, fruits and plants, and in the identification of fruits, grasses, weeds, etc. The class-room instruction will be supplemented by visits to greenhouses and nurseries in the vicinity. AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY—BY PROF. H. A. HUSTON Chemical composition and characteristics of soils; composition of coarse fodders, grains and byproducts; composition and value of fertilizers; manures and waste products; chemistrv of animal and plant nutrition; chemistry of fermentation and decay. The sujyects in this course will be treated with special reference to the needs of practical farmers, stockmen, dairymen and horticulturists. VEGETA3LE PARASITES—DR. J. C. ARTHUR. A general discussion of the more common’diseases es field crops, including rust, smut, scab, blight, mildew, etc. BACTERIOLOGY—PROF. SEVERANCE BURRAGE. A discussion of the nature, propagation, distribution, uses and effects of bacteria, with reference to the conditions which exist in the country; bacteria in ice, water and milk; conditions which favor or retard the development of disease-producing bacteria.

RTJRAL LAW —A. A. RICE, ESQ. Two lectures each week on farm law, a discussion of Indiana laws as related to highways, fences, water rights, ditching, live stock, weeds, trespassing, etc,, and the legal duties, rights and responsibilities of farmers. THE PURDUE FARM CLUB, A society conducted by the agricultural students, gives opportunity for drill in the discussion of many practical and economic questions, cultivates selfreliance and habits of independent thought and investigation, and thus admirably supplements the work of the classroom and laboratory in the training it affords. This society is a popular feature of the School of Agriculture as its weekly exercises, in which all the agricultural students take part, are pleasant, instructive and highly profitable. REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION Applicants for admission should be at least sixteen years of age and have a fair common school education. No entrance examination is required. Experience has shown that persons at least twenty years of age, who have had practical experience in farming, do the best work, derive the most good from the course and are best pleased with what they learned. EXPENSES. Residents of the State pay no tuition. Non-residents pay a tuition fee of SIO.OO. All students who do not hold free scholarships pay an incidental

and library fee of SIO.OO. Books will cost from $3.00 to $5.00. Furnished rooms can be rented at 75 cents to SI.OO per week. Table board in clubs ranges from $2.00 t 052.50 per week. The following is a fair estimate of the expenses for Indiana students: Room rent (11 weeks at 75 cents per week) ...$8.25 Board (11 weeks at $2.25 per week $24.75 Incidental fee(for those without scholarships SIO.OO Books. $3.00 Visits of inspection and miscellaneous expenses optional with the student $4.00 Total ~550.00 FREE SCHOLARSHIPS.

Two free scholarships are offered to each county farmers’ organization in Indiana. This includes county agricultural and horticultural societies, Farmers’ Clubs, Pomona Granges, Farmers’ Institutes, county assemblies of the Farmers’ Alliance, F. M. B. A., and Patrous of Industry. Candidates for free scholarships should be elected at a meeting of the organization, provided the same is held before the opening of the term. In case no meeting is held, the president and secretary may appoint the candidates and submit the same for the approval of the association at its next meeting. Blank certificates of appointment will be supplied to the secretaries of the above associations on application. Students who hold free scholarships will have no incidental fee to pay, but will be expected to honor the associations appointing them by earnest attention to the studies pursued, * DATE OF OPENING. Students will register and secure rooms and board on Monday, Jan. 6th, and recitations will begin at 8:15 a. m. Tuesday Jan. 7th, continuing without interruption until the close of the term on March 20th. Those who expect tq attend should register in advance. To all such, additional information in regard to board and rooms will be sent a week or two before the opening of the term. For further information concerning the agricultural courses. Address Prof. W. C. Latta, Lafayette, Ind. For information concerning the other courses in the University, Address Pres -J. H. Snart, Lafayette. Indiana

It is said the King of Portugal was in London not long since, and wnile there borrowed several million dollars, mortgaging the crown jewels estimated to be worth eight millions. The king got no gold. He simply gave his paper note and motgage to the money lenders, and they gave him their paper credit, and the people of Portugal must pay the debt if it is ever paid. The Milwaukee Advance pertinently asks why did not the king issue to his own people his notes in such form that they could circulate as money ? He could then have collected the debt back in revenue, just as he must do anyway, and he would at the same time have given the people a means of exchanging products and employing labor so thev could have something to pay with. Sure enough! And why do notour wise ones at Washington do that instead of issuing bonds to foreign credit mongers, and then taxing the people to pay them both usury and princi pie? Why don’t they? They will when the people have sense and courage enough to tell them to do so. At present the money lender holds the whip, and the people are afraid to vote him down.—Progressive Farmer.