OCR Text |
Show of crops, care of stock, dairying, fruit raising, and, where necessary, the making and management of irrigating ditches. He should also have a working knowledge of carpentering.and blacksmithing. S eoial attention paid to agriculture and gardening in >he Course of &ndy, and detailed instructions are glven for the teach~ngo f these branches during each year of the school pourse. The results, as shown by reports from schools, indicate an locreased interest in agriculture on the art of both teachers and pupils. ~ %inestr uction and training begin in the first year. The little children are told the story of the seed and the germination and growth of the plant and flowei, and they are each given a, little plot of ground in the garden which they plant withvegetables andflowers. Thls they call their "farm," andunder the guidance of the teacher theyB repare the ground and plant and care for the plants themselves, an finally gather what they have growti. Often the vegetables can be sold and a little bank account started, and the work becomes a pleasure. In the second and following years the children's farms are enlatged until io the more advanced grades they wnduct a miniature model farm and care for the .school &den. - Instruction in the art of fxnniny, sucl~a s fertilizing, planting, culti-vation, rotation of crops, irriptioi, etc., is given to $hepupil% As a further aid to sucoessful farming, training is also gven m dairying, stock raising, blacksmithing, car entr , and other trades. I am glad to state that the results accompEshed?frorn the use of the Course of Study have been eapecially gratifying along the above lines. The school farma at the smaller as well as the larger schools are being conducted in a pmctical and intell~.gent manner, and have not only become the means of imparting agricultural knowledg? to the pupils and dupplying the needs of the school, but in, many stances have roved a source of profit. The system of havlng individual gardens for the pupils is no longer an experiment. Its value and usefulness have been demonstrated, and nearly all the schools are adopting it to a greater or a less extent. The purpose in view is to give the boy such practical instruction as wlll enable him to become a successful farmer and cultivate his allotment intelligently and profitably, md make of the gid a ood housekeeper in a neat and comfortable home. The Southern d r k m a n , published by the Hampton Agricultural School, one of the greatest educational institutions in the Unlted States, speaking of the necessity for helping the Indian, says: The Indian needs help. We must teach him to farm and to raise cattle and to follow other pumuits of white ~ p l e . , Along with Christianizing and educating him goes the greater work of teac mug h ~ mto earn his daily bread. He must develop from savagery toward civili~atioou nder the same laws and by the same means by which the Anglo-hxou has developed, and must learn the gospel of work as he has learned it. And these things will come to him, as w~lall so come the other and higher lessons which dl civilize3 people muat learn. But these come slowly, and only with the passage of generations. And they will come eapecially slow to theIndian, partly because he is by nature conservative and such things are strange to him, and partly because he ertn not stand failure or discouragement, and partly, too, because he must meet the campetition of white people. This king the sixth of the annual reports of the superintendent of Indian schools since the present incumbent took charge, it may be well to give briefly a rGsum6 of what has been accomplished during this |