The Rural Voice, 1979-06, Page 51The
Young Farmer
Agriculture courses
A few schools still have them but they're
now called environmental science
BY DEBBIE RANNEY
In some secondary schools an agricultural course is a thing of
the past, but also in some schools in Huron and Perth Counties,
tradition has carried on and some agricultural courses remain.
They aren't listed as agricultural courses though. Now they
come under the heading of Environmental Sciences ,a course
which could include anything from ecology to agriculture.
In Huron County, the F.E. Madill Secondary School in
Wingham is the only high school which seems to have retained
agriculture as an option for those who wish to go on to
agricultural colleges or return to the farm.
There, students learn almost every aspect of agriculture that
one can think of. And they even have their own greenhouse to
work with, which helps the students learn about various types of
plants and soils.
Dan Webster, Assistant Head of Science and Agriculture
within the Science department said they do a variety of things in
the greenhouse and everything is pretty well grown from seed.
Students also experiment with barley tilleries to learn what
happens when you underseed or overseed barley. They plant
corn in a test spot. They fertilize with modern fertilizers.
Students also run a feeding trial with broilers. They even get
involved in a reforestation program.
In Grade 9, the students learn about working with plants and
they do soil testing. Students in Grade 10 learn about animal
nutrition and in Grade 11 they do plant science work. Grade 11
students all learn about farm income tax and farm accounting.
Each year they also participate in the management of the
Falconer Reforestation Tract. Their work has included ski trail
cutting, bridge -building and pole -running.
In Grade 12, they learn about sales marketing, and things like
the beef cycle and the reasons why hogs are marketed the way
they arr. And each year the Grade 12 students participate in a
day of tree -planting.
When originally built, the schools had an agriculture
mechanics option but under the credit system they became just
an extra credit, Mr. Webster says.
The course is offered at the general four year level and about
10 percent of the school population of 1100 take it. Mr. Webster
said a lot of the students go on with agriculture and a lot don't.
"The ones that take agricultural science—they picked it
because they were interested in it," he said.
In later years the students seem happy with what they've
taken.
"I get reasonably good reports back," Mr. Webster said.
He said the students don't need to take this course to get into
an agricultural college but in Haldimand County where they do
teach a lot of agriculture in the high schools it was found alot of
people did well in soil testing and that was the first place they
were exposed to at an agricultural college.
At Wingham, they have the Grade 9 students do soil testing
and in Grade 12 they do soil testing on 100 acres. Mr. Webster
said that a lot of the readings come back E now which wasn't the
case when he was teaching about 10 years ago as a lot of farmers
weren't using fertilizer then.
The three people who teach the environmental science cour se
of study in agriculture all have degrees in agriculture.
Guidance teacher Jack Kopas said that as far as the young
people being prepared for post -secondary education, the
agricultural students have done well.
There's only one real worry with the course right now and that
problem is declining enrolment as in four or five years the
school's population is expected to be down about 900 according
to vice-principal Ken Wood.
Students use what they (earn
on the farm
In Perth County, only the secondary schools in Mitchell and
Listowel seem to place an emphasis on agriculture in their
Environmental Science courses.
Jim Gaylor, head of the Science department at Mitchell
District Secondary School said that they have three environ-
mental science courses there, one of which is almost entirely
devoted to different types of agriculture.
He said that in Grade 10 they spend a great deal of time on
soil. About '/3 of the course is on the differing aspects of soils. In
learning about soil, the students learn about soil ecology which
involves taking of soil samples, identifying soil types, identifyings
soil components and properties of soil among other things. The
students also do soil testing for nutrients, and look at fertilizer
applications.
There is also a horticultural section in which the students learn
about planting, types of reproduction, landscaping and the
remainder of the course looks at the ecology of water.
In Grade 11, the students are looking at other aspects of
agriculture including animal nutrition, composition of feed and
THE RURAL VOICE/JUNE 1979 PG. 49