Not only Joe, but some half dozen other boys in Mr. Todd's school at Auburn are now "farmed out" in this manner, and work downtown under regular contract. They are mostly boys who had lost interest in school, and were at the dropping-out stage. Mr. Todd's plan is similar to the one in use at Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
Herbert M----, of Minnehaha, Washington, is such a busy boy at home that he does not have time to look at a book after he leaves school. This year, 1914, Mr. W. E. Dudley, the principal of the Minnehaha school, began to give credit for home work and allowed the credits obtained to be applied where most needed. The first month of school this year Herbert's arithmetic grade was below 65 per cent; his last month's grade in the same subject, without adding any credits, was above 95 per cent. At first Herbert needed his extra credits applied to his mathematics to obtain a passing grade. But for some cause his work in arithmetic has improved wonderfully.
If you care to get up at five o'clock and go through the day with Herbert it may open your eyes as to what an industrious boy of fifteen does at home. He is always up early, for before the day's work begins he milks two cows, feeds three "skim-milk" calves and eight head of cattle, pumps water for them, and feeds nine pigs. He is then ready for a hearty breakfast. One morning in March, Herbert and his father agreed that harrowing was more important than going to school. So he worked five hours, harrowing four and a half acres. Herbert did not lose credit at school, for his teacher approved of his morning's work, as he knew how important it was. He was at school before the one o'clock bell rang, had a game of ball with the boys, and was ready for his lessons of the afternoon. At four o'clock he hurried home, and this is what he did before he went to bed. First, he herded six cows for over an hour, milked two cows, fed his skim-milk calves, got in the wood, fed the chickens, gathered the eggs, cleaned two barns, fed the eight head of cattle, pumped water for them, fed the pigs, and turned the separator ten minutes.
While Herbert has had some trouble with his arithmetic he does fine work in composition. At the children's fair at Spokane in October, 1913, he won fifteen dollars in cash for the best essay on caring for a skim-milk calf, and a pair of scales as second prize for an essay on how to handle a farm separator. Here are Herbert's prizes for three years: In 1911 at the county fair at Vancouver, Washington, he got the second award, a diploma, on his farm exhibit; in 1912 as first prize on farm exhibit he won a trip to the fair at Puyallup; in 1913 at the Clarke County fair he received ten dollars' worth of garden seeds as second prize on farm exhibit, fifteen dollars in cash for judging dairy cattle, while together with his parents he won seventy-five dollars for the best adult farm exhibit; and at the children's state contest, 1913, he received the first prize, fifteen dollars, for the skim-milk calf essay.