Casey High School - Flame Yearbook (Casey, IL)

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7 THE AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT The Agriculture department of C. T. H. S. was established in 1918 and was one of the first high schools in the state to introduce Smith-Hughes, or vocational agriculture in the course of study. Three courses are given at the present time, Animal Husbandry, which takes up the judging, feeding, care and management of livestock; Soils and Crops, which takes up the study of soils and growing crops; and Farm Mechanics, a new course, which was added this year. The Farm Mechanics building was constructed by one carpenter with the aid of the boys in vocational agriculture. The Ag. Club expects to pay for all of the equipment for the building. The boys in the Farm Mechanics class are making work benches, tool boxes, double trees, hay racks and sweet clover harvesters. Four boys will make harvesters this year and ten will be made next year. Harness work will come in next spring. Home projects to be executed are hog houses, poultry houses, gates, fencing, including the making of concrete fence posts and establishing of work shops. In 1919 the agriculture Club was organized for both social and educational purposes. The Soybean Club and Chinch Bug Corn Club have served their purpose admirably, while the Soil Improvement Club is most important at the present time. The activity of this club started in 1923 when free limestone was distributed to the boys taking agriculture. They worked in co-operation with their fathers agreeing to follow the limestone with sweet clover. Since 1923 forty boys have applied 350 tons of free lime to more than 100 acres. After these demonstrations of the value of sweet clover hundreds of tons of limestone have been purchased by farmers in this vicinity. In 1925 more than 1000 acres of this legume was grown by Ag. Club boys and their fathers. Harvesting the sweet clover seed crop has been tedious and unprofitable but now with the advent of the sweet clover harvester the crop is saved easily and economically. The Casey Ag. Club in 1924 constructed one of the new machines on the frame of an old binder. In this the stalk and stem is left on the ground, and yields as high as four bushels of clean seed per acre have been obtained. During the past two seasons the club has harvested 500 bushels of seed. The seed after harvesting is brought to the new seed house to be cleaned, hulled and scarified on up-to-date machinery. Since the first of 1925 the club has hulled, cleaned, and scarified 600 bushels of sweet clover seed, cleaned 400 bushels of red clover and 2000 bushels of soybeans, giving the farmers a service they could not get elsewhere at a very small cost. Service is the motto of the Ag. Club. Another phase of agriculture work is the exchanging of letters with boys of others states, thus broadening their acquaintanceship. Letters have been received from California, Kansas, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Vocational agriculture is a new and practical form of education for the boys of our country. There are over 160 vocational agriculture departments in Illinois and this work is felt to be of permanent value. The department of vocational agriculture in our high school stands ready to help, not only boys who enroll in the classes but all the agricultural interests of the community. Tiventy-five

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AGRICULTURE CLASS ROOM —I SEED HOUSE Twenty-four

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BOOKKEEPING ROOM TYPEWRITING ROOM Twenty-six