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Show mn. u. , rw. k. VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE IN ACTION AT ALTAMONT To many people, the term, Vocational Vo-cational Agriculture is as foreign as some of the terms we see in the war news. Vocational Agriculture Agri-culture means training farmers both present and prospective future. The purpose of this article is to give to the public a report on the activities of the Agricultural Agricultur-al Department of the Altamont High school. In order to make this report meaningfull, a few words of explanation are necessary. nec-essary. With the passing of the Smith-Hughes Smith-Hughes act in 1917, the Federal Government made possible the teaching of agriculture on a vocational basis. The purpose of the act was, "To train present and prospective farmers for pro- ficiency in farming." Here in Utah we have placed most of our emphasis on the prospective farmer. Each agricultural department de-partment does, however, try to hold classes for present farmers during the so called "slack season," sea-son," and offering their services to farmers on any problem they might encounter. The training of prospective farmers is a vital problem here in Duchesne County because we are going through a great agricultural agri-cultural ' revolution due to the war conditions. The responsibility responsi-bility of training these future farmers rests largely with the Vocational Agriculture Departments Depart-ments of the- Altamont and Roosevelt High schools. Inasmuch as the future of Agriculture, the basic resource in Duchesne County is partly our responsibility, and that Vocational Vo-cational Departments are maintained main-tained by school taxes, it is felt that a report of our activities during the past year should be made to the public. By the records last year the boys taking projects at Altamont have a total income of some $16,-800.00 $16,-800.00 and a net profit of $7,-628.00. $7,-628.00. This large amount of profit pro-fit was due, largely, to the extra high prices paid for their baby beef calves at the North Salt Lake Intermountain Jr. Livestock Live-stock show, where the average price was about 25 cents a pound. We sold at the Salt Lake Show some forty seven fat calves, 25 fat lambs, and 15 fat hogs. At the Ogden Livestock Show, we sold 20 calves, 60 fat hogs, and 30 lambs. In addition to these fat livestock projects we have several seve-ral purebred swine projects, crop projects and other projects. The term, project, means a program pro-gram of supervised farming practice where the student, parents, par-ents, and Agriculture teacher sets up a program of study for the boy. With this type of instruction in-struction the boy receives text- book knowledge with practical experience at the same time. This puts the F F A motto into real action. The motto is: "Learning to do; doing to learn; Earning to Live and Living to Serve." There are three types of projects; pro-jects; the most important is the production project which is undertaken un-dertaken for experience and profit. pro-fit. Second: Supplementary farm projects which is for experience. An example of this type of project pro-ject is learning to cull laying hens. The third type of project is: Improving projects which are for the purpose of improving the farm standards of living. Examples Exam-ples of this type are planting a berry patch, painting the house etc. Last year at Altamont the fifty boys completed 91 production produc-tion projects, 263 supplementary projects and 175 improvement projects. Most of the activities are sponsored spon-sored through the Future Farmers Far-mers of America. This organization organiza-tion is made up of boys taking Vocational Agriculture in the High school. Such an activity is the Moon Lake Chapter Stock-show, Stock-show, which is to be held at Altamont Alta-mont May 12. By S. R. GREENHALGH Altamont High school Head of Vocational Department |