We can afford only one fad in war time, and that fad is to be farming. It will be useless for little William Corning Smith, aged 12, of Kankakee, Illinois, to stick his little spade into his back yard before his admiring parent. Individual, unorganized work on land not properly prepared for agriculture may be worse than useless; it may be wasteful. Random efforts not coÖrdinated in a general scheme for the utilization of school children in large units will be foolish, misdirected effort. State, county, and even national organization are required to make available this latent power. Purely isolated effort will be fruitless, both as aids to the nation and education for the child. Organized work will bring the greater moral advantages of developing the power of concentration along with the interest in national and community service. It will evoke an esprit de corps which may be capitalized for national use and shift the usual interest in gangs and athletics, both normal and natural, to work which opens the way to loyal industrial educational training.8

This was written by John Dewey early in the spring of 1917 in a message addressed to the principals and teachers of America on how school children may be so organized for farm service as to

Aid the nation;

Increase the food supply of the country in war time and during a world-wide shortage of food;

Conscript the national enthusiasm for athletics to national usefulness;

Assure a vigorous and healthy rising generation;

Reap the advantage of organized effort with its moral and educational results;

Develop constructive patriotism.

As may be gathered, Dewey's idea was not only to organize the rural and village children for farm work but also to send the city children into the country in camps and tent colonies. He said further that the plan was not a dream and that it could be done.

A friend in writing to me of his attempts in Massachusetts to make the dream a reality said, "It is like nailing a jellyfish to a board." Referring to the difficulty of obtaining competent boys, on the one hand, and of convincing farmers of the value of city-boy labor, on the other, he further stated that it was a difficult proposition to sell something we did not have to somebody who did not want it.

Few, if any, of us knew very much of the experience, in this direction, of England, France, and Germany. To be sure, we had heard that France had attempted in a large way to use children at farm labor, but had given it up and had replaced them with old men, women, and partially crippled returned soldiers; and we knew that with the alarm of the scarcity of labor and the diminishing number of the world's acres under cultivation England and Germany had called upon women and boys below military age to help meet the needs of the situation. But we in America did not realize, to quote Dewey again, "that we could enlist the school children in this work in such a manner that they could serve with results as beneficial to themselves as to the nation."

Before considering in some detail the idea of using agricultural labor of children in America (and it is a subject worthy of elaboration, for even if the war closes to-morrow, we shall be short of farm labor for many years—perhaps always), let us see what England and Germany have done to utilize school children for farm work.

In England many of the boys of 14 to 16 in the public schools have volunteered for vacation and holiday agricultural work in hoeing, planting, and harvesting; some of this was gratuitous labor, these boys coming from the prosperous classes and therefore being able to give their services.

In July, 1916, the Education Board published a report showing the number of children excused from attendance at school for the purpose of agricultural employment in England and Wales on May 31, 1916. The total number so excused was 15,753, of which number 546 were between the ages of 11 and 12; 8018 between 12 and 13; 5521 between 13 and 14, and of the remaining 1668 cases the ages were between 12 and 14. Figures quoted relate solely to agricultural employment and do not show the full extent of withdrawals from school. They also relate to withdrawals of children who are not qualified for total exemption under the law. The report also states that "the board has no information as to the number of children who have been excused from school attendance for purposes of industrial employment or employment other than agriculture."

Early in 1917 several of the county education committees formulated plans for using the labor of children who were to be excused only for holidays, special periods, and part times, the general sentiment being, even in the emergency, that no more children must be permanently excused for agricultural or industrial employment. These schemes are worthy of attention as endeavors to retain children in school, at the same time modifying the arrangement of the educational requirements to allow them to perform farm and garden work.

The Education Committee for the Lindsay division of Lincolnshire considered, at a meeting held on April 13, 1917, the desirability of taking steps to secure that the school holidays this year are fixed at such times as will enable the children to be of most assistance to the farmers, and it was resolved that the finance committee should be requested to consider the preparation of a scheme enabling managers to amend the school time-tables in such a way as will give the maximum of opportunity for the older children to work on the land during the spring and summer.... They further considered...that in view of the present emergency and the need of additional labor, especially in agricultural work, the board will give favorable considerations to proposals for extended or additional holidays in rural areas under certain conditions. Two schemes were presented, setting forth alternative methods which managers might be authorized to adopt by which advantage can be taken of the concessions of the board, as follows: (1) A scheme to give a number up to eighty additional afternoons on which the older children can be employed on the land, managers to be informed that a school year of not less than 320 attendances will be accepted as fulfilling the requirements of the board, instead of a minimum of 400 as heretofore. On up to eighty days, older children, above prescribed age, may be released at noon for employment on the land, whilst the school will be open as usual for the younger children, and their attendance recorded, though not in the official register. (2) A scheme to allow up to eight weeks extra during which the older children may be employed on the land, managers to be informed of the number of attendances required as in scheme one. Older children, above a prescribed age, who are to be employed on the land, need not attend school for a period up to eight weeks in addition to the ordinary holidays. The school will be kept open as usual during such weeks for the younger children, and those attending will have their attendance recorded, but not in the official register. Under either scheme it will be necessary for the managers to fix the period or periods for the year during which the scheme would be in operation, and in some of the larger rural schools it might be possible to release a teacher as well as the older children.

At a meeting held on April 27 it was resolved to issue the schemes to the managers, impressing upon them the fact that the one object is to secure increased production of food.9

At Grimsby a committee was appointed to consider the employment of children on gardens, allowing an acre plot to each school, and 25 children, under a teacher, to work in cultivating it. All these children are required to attend school in the morning, and the consent of their parents must be obtained by them before they are permitted to begin afternoon work. Since, as in Lincolnshire, the aim of the work is increased food production, the crops derived from the cultivation of the land acquired by the town are to be divided among teachers and scholars engaged in the work.

In Hull, also, the Educational Committee, besides encouraging work in school gardens, has authorized the labor of schoolboys in cultivating spare land in various places as a substitute for their usual manual training in the school shops.

In Hertfordshire there are school gardens for the production of potatoes, parsnips, beets, and onions, with school instruction in gardening given the pupils. During the period for planting there is a schedule of half-time attendance. In Bradford the successful vegetable gardening is correlated with the school work in nature study, composition, arithmetic, and drawing, and emphasis is placed on the educational value of the productive work.

It is difficult for America to see the food crisis as do the nations which are near the exhaustion point. While everyone must deplore the wholesale excusing of children to work without supervision, we ought to watch with interest all schemes which will increase production and yet will keep younger children in school for full time and will permit those older to work part time. This part-time work should be confined to the years of 14 to 18, except possibly in the case of work in the school garden, where younger children may labor for short periods.

The appeal of Neville Chamberlain, the Director-general of National Service, in the spring of 1917, for volunteers from such boys as were able to make the sacrifice, connects the need for agricultural labor with the necessity for providing proper supervision of the boys. His plan for utilizing the labor of English schoolboys has many features similar to devices employed in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey.

It is well understood that an abundant supply of labor for the land during the coming summer months is an urgent national necessity. Many schemes have already been organized for the employment of soldiers, women, and prisoners of war, but it is desirable to form a reserve of labor so organized as to be available at short notice. For this reserve I turn to the boys at our public and other secondary schools. During the last two years many of them have given valuable help in hoeing, harvesting, and timber cutting, and at the present crisis I confidently hope that all for whom it is possible will make their services available both in summer holidays and, if necessary, during the coming term. I have accepted the offer of the Cavendish Association to place at my disposal their organization, which will act in conjunction with a committee—representative of schools and masters—having its headquarters at St. Ermin's, and working under the director of the agricultural section of this department. Full particulars of the arrangements and procedure will shortly be issued by the committee. The main points are as follows:

(1) The age of the boys permitted to volunteer should not be below 16 except in the cases where the school authorities consider boys of 15 sufficiently strong to undertake the necessary work. (2) The boys will be organized in squads of varying sizes, each in charge of a master or other responsible person. (3) It is proposed that during term time the period of continuous whole-time service should not exceed two weeks. Every effort will be made to find work for schoolboy volunteers in the neighborhood of the school, but if the work lies at some distance from the school, railway fares will be paid and careful provision will be made for board and lodging. No boy will be expected to volunteer for service during term whose school work is of immediate importance; for example, a boy who is preparing for a scholarship examination. I recognize that this part of the scheme may present some difficulties to all but the large public schools, but I hope that some of the larger state-aided secondary schools may be able to join in it. Before doing so, however, they should communicate with the Board of Education. (4) In the holidays they will work for not less than three or four weeks, and it is hoped that, if necessary, they may have leave of absence from school until the end of September. (5) The whole working hours will be carefully proportioned to the average strength of each squad, and the wages adjusted accordingly. If the total sum earned does not meet the cost of living, the deficit will under special conditions be made up.

I trust that when the call for boys' help comes, parents will recognize its urgency and will not hesitate to allow their sons to render this service for their country.

In Germany there has been a systematic contribution from schools to agriculture since March, 1915. Authority was given to the respective school officials to grant the necessary leave of absence to older children for farm and garden cultivation. With the increasing need of securing a sufficient supply of food for the nation, excuses of pupils from school increased. An additional service of pupils was required by an order issued on May 15, 1917, relative to combating fruit and vegetable pests.

Looking forward to future scarcity, Germany, with the help of the teaching staff and government leaflets, next enlisted school children in the work of collecting field and forest edible products. Children were engaged in the work of gleaning, and in the summer of 1915 the gleanings amounted to approximately $50,000, the greater part of which was turned over to the Red Cross as the children's contribution. In the summer and autumn of 1915 the children aided, too, in gathering fruits. During the following winter the schools gave instruction in the substitution of fruit products for fat and proteid. These were pointed lessons both in frugality and in public spirit.

Additional requirement of the children's services was made when the continued scarcity of fats made it imperative to conserve acorns, horse-chestnuts, and seeds containing oil, the gathering of which was impossible without the aid of school children. An order of August 21, 1916, authorized the employment of children to take part in the extraction from trees in the state forests of resin needed chiefly for the paper industry; and in the same season children were called upon to engage in the collection of kernels of cherries, plums, and apricots in enormous quantities for oil extraction.

The school administrators and teachers of America knew little, if anything, of the farm-placement ventures of European countries. But they were told most emphatically in the spring of 1917 that the military force was but one factor in national organization, and that the ultimate decision as to victory might well be with the farmer. So in American fashion we started at it; New Jersey with its "junior industrial army," Massachusetts with its bronze-badged boy farmers, and New York with its "farm cadets."

We all thought we were original, and perhaps we were; and yet it is certainly not new for schoolboys to work outside the school session when of proper age. Whether for the father or a neighborhood employer, boys 14 and over have worked in stores and gardens, in summer hotels, in offices, garages, and manufacturing plants. Nor is it unusual, for that matter, to have the outside work coÖrdinated with the school and receiving due credit in the curriculum. The coÖperative high-school and vocational courses in many cities—Fitchburg, Beverly, Providence, Hartford, Indianapolis, Chicago, and New York—are well known to those who are familiar with the extension and coÖperative efforts of our vocational schools.

Furthermore we are familiar with the two types of camps: the adult-labor and the recreation camp. The work camp is much the older, dating back to the building of railroads and the opening of lumber districts. In the past decade the recreation summer camps have become a potent factor in secondary-school life, making a complement of the school year's work by laying stress on the physical development of outdoor woodland and country experiences. Some of these camps, while primarily recreational, have had courses in manual training, college preparation, arts and crafts, and languages, yet so clearly is their play nature of chief importance that no one thinks of them as work camps.

Now the farm-cadet movement involves the farm labor of the schoolboy, who is sent out and credited for his work by his school and is added to a camp life where in a squad of his fellow schoolboys he is looked after by an appointed leader as if in a Y.M.C.A. camp. Thus we have, out of familiar ingredients, a new compound, bringing into relation the boy, the parent, the supervisor, the employer, and the school.

This agricultural movement in connection with the schools had its inception at the Philadelphia meeting of the Eastern Arts and Manual Training Teachers' Association early in 1917. At once three Eastern states—Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York—began to formulate plans for its operation.10 For it was not to be the simple expedient of excusing boys from school to work on farms, as has been the practice in many localities, but a plan whereby the boy was to be retained in the school system, substituting in his course during a portion of the year agricultural work for the academic and vocational studies of the regular curriculum.

In analyzing the problem it was found that there were three types of boys to be considered: (1) the boy in a farming district, who could be employed on the farm of his father or a neighbor; (2) the boy in a town near an agricultural center, who could be employed within a radius of a few miles of his home and school; (3) the boy from a city, who would have to be sent to distant farms and whose welfare would not be in the charge of his school principal and parents. The case of the first boy is very simple; the second is also easy of solution; but if the third boy is to be used, there will need to be a carefully worked-out plan for his placement, record of work, accommodations, and general welfare. It is for the third boy that the camp must be established, where he will be looked after by a responsible person who will see that he has the proper tent, board, work, and sanitary arrangements.

The plans of the different states for utilizing boy power, while aiming toward the one desirable end of increasing our food production, have differed widely in detail, owing to the variation in the compulsory-attendance laws, to the latitude exercised in some states in excusing boys prematurely, and to the varying degrees of investigation of placement, record of work, and supervision. All states agree in giving the boy who is excused for farm work credit in his school work. Canada, too, excuses boys over 14 for farm work, allowing them full school credit for three months' labor. While it may be urged that it is not pedagogically sound to give credit in one subject for the work in another, a way out of the difficulty might be found in a rearrangement of the school year and vacations in districts where there is a large percentage of excused boys; or special classes could be devised for these boys when they return to school. In the large high schools shorter intensive courses could be included in the program so that the boy who was preparing for college would not lose his work in such subjects as English, history, and mathematics. In the case of language and science there must be a loss which it is difficult to repair. If the present conditions persist, administrative ingenuity can solve the question of work and credits. It is not one of the serious aspects of the problem, provided always that there is no release of children below the compulsory-attendance age.

In Massachusetts the work of mobilizing schoolboys for farm labor was in charge of the state's Committee on Public Safety. Their principles in acting were as follows:

Mobilize the schoolboys; keep those under 16 at home to work on home, school, and community gardens; enlist the high-school boys between 16 and 18, too young for military or naval service, but old enough to render real service; move them where farm labor is needed; make them understand that enlistment for farm service is in all ways as patriotic as any other service for the nation's defense.

With the appointment of a subcommittee to formulate the detailed scheme of placement and supervision, having Frank V. Thompson, Assistant Superintendent of the Boston schools, as chairman, the plan for the coÖperation of schools with agriculture is, for boys 16 and over, as follows:

1. (a) The farm-labor service is to be recognized by a bronze badge containing the seal of the commonwealth and inscribed "The Nation's Service" and "Food Production." (b) An honorable discharge, similar to a discharge from the army, containing the signature of the governor, will be issued to boys who successfully complete their service on farms. (c) Tufts, Boston University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Massachusetts Agricultural College have agreed to give a trial term or year to such candidates as present an honorable discharge, without further entrance requirements, provided their school work was satisfactory up to the time of leaving and the principal so recommends.

2. The existing school organization is used to conduct the enterprise. For each 25 boys enlisted a supervisor is appointed, a male teacher of strong ability in the local school,—in towns where there are several supervisors, either the superintendent of schools or the principal of the high school. A general head supervisor in charge of the state work has an office in the Statehouse. Each local head supervisor and each supervisor of 25 boys receives the same sum ($100), the money being obtained from a local contingent fund, from an additional appropriation, or by subscription.

3. The minimum wage of the boys is fixed thus: first week, no wages, but allowance of $2 for expenses etc.; thereafter (a) boy living on farm, not less than $4 a week and board, (b) boy living at home, not less than $6 a week. Six days constitute a week.

4. The enlistment card and the issuance of honorable discharge are controlled by the general head supervisor (Committee on Public Safety).

5. The enrollment for the period of May 1 to October 1 is made by the boy, with the parents' consent and the school physician's endorsement. When the boy is enlisted, a numbered badge is lent to him, for which he signs a receipt; it is to be returned in case of unsatisfactory conduct or service. He receives full credit for the year's school work.

6. Inspection of the physical and moral conditions of the place of employment, the choosing of the boys from enrollment lists, and seeing that both boys and farmers are satisfied, are part of the work of the appointed supervisors.

7. Camps for the boys, when local conditions require, are established under the direction of the medical expert for the State Board of Labor and Industries. An expert on camps has supervision of the work of the executive committee in standardizing and inspecting camps and obtaining the equipment, layout, and food supplies.

With the coÖperation of farm bureaus thousands of circulars and labor-contract forms were sent to Massachusetts farmers. By June 16, 1917, there were camps established at 18 points, and arrangements completed to employ 500 to 600 boys from these camps. In addition there were at least 500 other boys released from school to work on home farms, or living in farmers' homes.

An interesting feature of the Massachusetts scheme was the working out of camp plans by the drafting students in the Newton Technical High School, with detailed equipment of dining tent with wooden-horse tables; sleeping tent with double-deck bunk; latrine; cook shack; etc.

In its system for handling the supply of boy labor, the state requires the farmer to sign a definite application blank for the amount of boy labor which he requires. It is understood that while the boys are enlisted for the entire period up to October 1, the farmer may take those boys for long or short periods of not less than a week in duration, to begin or end at any time, as the farmer's necessity requires. This application made by the farmer is also an agreement to pay the wages stipulated by the Committee on Public Safety and also to employ the boy on rainy as well as fair days, using his services on rainy days under cover if possible. Further agreement is made, in case the boy is unsatisfactory, to give him one week's notice or one week's pay, providing him with a statement in writing of the reason for his discharge. Whenever, in the opinion of the local supervisor, the conditions of living or of labor are not satisfactory, the boy may be withdrawn without prejudice to him. These arrangements insure that there shall be a coÖperative responsibility of farmer and state in caring for the boy.

In establishing the camps in Massachusetts the money to start the work was chiefly supplied by individuals. In the case of the New Bedford contingent in Coonamesett camp, on an estate of 11,000 acres, the boys were housed in militia tents, lent by the state,—two boys to a tent. For their tent furnishings the boys supplied whatever they needed. A mess house—a rough board building 75 feet long by 17 feet wide, providing eating quarters for the boys and at one end a cook room—was in part erected by the New Bedford Industrial School boys, working under the direction of an experienced carpenter. The laying of the 2500 feet of pipe to carry water to the camp was also the work of the same school. The catering for the boys was under the direction of an experienced woman and two Japanese cooks. In the morning the boys started for the various farms, those at a distance being called for by an auto truck. In this camp, for an eight-hour day and a six-day week each boy received a maximum wage of $4 a week and board, the weekly payment in charge of the supervisor. The camp was fortunate in having as its directors the city superintendent of schools and a physical instructor, the latter living in the camp.

In New York the placing of boys on farms has been the joint work of the Food Supply Commission, the State Education Department, and the State Military Training Commission. While younger boys have been released for agricultural work by other agencies, the state placement by the commission is concerned only with the boys of military training age—16 to 19. One of the first actions of the latter commission was to divide the state into 6 military-training zones: New York City (including Manhattan, Bronx, and Richmond); Long Island, including Brooklyn; Hudson Valley, with center at Albany; East Central, at Syracuse; West Central, at Rochester; and Western, at Buffalo. Next, a description was obtained of the character of the work in each zone. For example, the Hudson Valley Zone as far as Albany requires labor in harvesting small fruits and general farm work, while the West Central Zone work is that of muck farming, large-fruit farming, and general farming. Each zone center has its individual office through which placements are made. Meetings were held the latter part of April by zone supervisors and farm-bureau managers, and attended by farmers' and fruit growers' associations who stated what they needed and what they would contribute in wages and housing for boy workers.

The inducements for enlisting offered by the state to boys released from school work were the chevron given by the Military Training Commission, to be awarded after thirty days' satisfactory work; the military-training-equivalent value of the service; and the promise of proper pay and care by the employer. As to credits, so important in the New York system, farm cadets were permitted to take the Regents' examinations though the course lacked a few weeks of completion, the time requirement being waived in their case. Any pupil in the schools of the state who enlisted for military service (this applied to the colleges) or who rendered satisfactory agricultural service was credited with the work of the term without examination, on the certificate of the school that his work up to the time of enlistment was satisfactory.

New York is an agricultural state, with a great variety of kinds of farming and many districts remote from centers of the supply of labor. The agricultural census, to which reference was made in Chapter II, supplied data for determining the districts where and when labor was most needed and where schoolboys could be most useful. For example, in Orleans County, in the Western Zone, the demand varied from 163 laborers needed early in May to 1521 needed in October, an indication that there was really more reason for excusing boys in October than in May for work in peach- and apple-harvesting districts.11 Conspicuous among the types of New York farms where labor was sought were the great fruit farms, such as the Sodus Fruit Farm, with a house on the shore of Lake Ontario able to accommodate 100 boys, where it was planned to harvest the entire peach and apple crop with schoolboy labor; the vast tracts owned by the canning companies, with thousands of acres of tomatoes, beans, and corn under cultivation; and the farms such as those in the South Lima district, where there was muck farming and where the work included the cultivating, sorting, and packing of onions, lettuce, celery, and spinach. Calls were sometimes made upon the state for as many as 1500 boys to assist in harvesting. It was therefore necessary for the state to work on a large and definitely planned scale.

Naturally the first boys to be placed were those residing in or near farming districts. When, however, the supply of these boys was exhausted, the call came, even from remote districts, for city boys. In these cases the problem of transportation becomes serious, as well as the housing and care of the boy in the new environment, where association with other help is apt to be harmful.

The following description of a New York State camp is offered not only because it has proved to be highly successful but also because it affords an excellent illustration of the "farm-working, or labor-distributing, camp," which is defined in the chapter following.

It was called The Erasmus Hall High School (New York City) Potato Growers' Association, and was organized by F. A. Rexford, a teacher who is much interested in agriculture and in boys.

Working and living in the berry fields. One of twenty-five camps in the Highlands of New York State.