New State School Is Ready To Open. Commercial Club of Crookston Forwards Enterprise of the Commonwealth. Special to The Journal. Crookston, Minn., Sept. 1. – The importance of the agricultural school will be emphasized by the opening of the new school at the state experimental farm just north of this city this month. It was with much hesitation that the university regents consented to the division of territory and recommended the appropriation of $15,000 at the last session of the state legislature for the erection of a school for the northern portion of the state. It was pointed out that the attendance upon the college at St. Anthony Park was largely confined to students living in close proximity to Minneapolis and St. Paul. It was believed wise to bring the school to the students and as far as possible locate branch schools where they would be most accessible. The school at this point is the first, and while it is somewhat in the nature of an experiment, it is more than likely to prove a great success and to forward the starting of other schools in other sections of the state by subsequent legislatures.
The appropriation was small with which to erect and equip a modern school building, but Senator A. D. Stephens was satisfied that a structure could be built which would be a credit to the state. Plans were drawn, contracts let and a building is ready for occupancy that will compare favorably with any state institution. The building is of Crookston pressed brick and sandstone, three stories in height, and is located on a commanding site at the farm. The first floor contains a large entrance hall, toilet room, dining room with a seating capacity of fifty, and kitchen. The second floor is divided by a large hall, on one side of which is the superintendent’s office and library, and a students’ parlor and reception room; on the other side are two large class and recitation rooms equipped with the latest modern school furniture. The third floor is the dormitory portion of the building. Rooms which will accommodate with east at least forty students take up most of this floor. Each room is large, well ventilated and furnished as completely as any in a modern first-class seminary. Large lavatories and bathrooms are also on this floor.
Instruction for Both Sexes. The school will be co-educational, and while the male students will occupy the new school building, the girls will reside in the farmhouse proper, which is plentifully supplied with large, comfortable rooms for dormitory purposes, and with a pretentious living room and kitchen, where they will be initiated into the secrets of domestic economy. The house is modern. The course of study will be modeled after that of the St. Anthony Park school. It will take six months in each of three years to complete the course, and each year will be divided into two terms. The school terms will come at the time of year when the boys and girls are not needed badly on the farm, and at a time when their parents can best spare them. The first year’s studies consist of agricultural botany, mechanical drawing adapted to farm use, music, farm mathematics, practical carpentry and blacksmithing, military drill and gymnasium work. The girls make a specialty of cooking and sewing. The second year chemistry and agricultural physics with practical applications is taken up; also dairy husbandry, fruit growing, farm accounts, stock judging, breeding, vegetable gardening and field crops. The course during the third year takes up agricultural chemistry, forestry, entomology, zoology, poultry, civics and plant propagation. The boys study the handling of grain and machinery, veterinary science, dressing and curing meats, stock judging, feeding, soils and fertilizers, while the girls become expert in cooking sewing, judging meats, home economy, domestic chemistry and hygiene. The course is planned so that at its completion the student will be able to run his farm the same as a merchant runs his business – along scientific and up-to-date lines.
Practical Methods and Means. As the school is connected with the state experimental farm the students will come into contact with the latest and best methods of farm management. They will see a practical demonstration before them at all times of what they are taught in the text books and, being constantly surrounded by the best of modern farm life, the education will prove of the greatest value to them as future farmers. The school will be in charge of Professor William Robertson, superintendent of the farm, assisted by a competent corps of instructors. Professor Robertson’s progressive as well as aggressive methods have called the attention of the United States government to the farm, and at the present time a government officer is located there for the purpose of making extensive experiments in tile drainage. The superintendent takes great pride in the farm and it is maintained in a condition which resembles a large park. His roads running thru the 640 acres, which comprise the farm, are models, and while they have been all built at a minimum cost, they compare favorably with the most expensive roads in the state. For a time in appeared impossible to open the school this fall, for while the legislature made an appropriation for the erection of the school, is made no provision for its maintenance. The Twenty-five Thousand Commercial club took the matter up, however, and at the last regular meeting a committee was appointed with instructions to secure whatever funds were necessary. In a remarkably short time the committee had sufficient funds assured, and Professor Robertson was informed that he could go ahead and make preparations for the opening of the school this month as contemplated.
The course of study is practically free to residents of the state, a nominal registration fee of $5 and $1.50 for text books each year being charged. Each student will also be charged the moderate price of $15 a month for room and board, so that the entire cost of the year’s schooling will be less than $100. This, it is believed, will bring the benefits of the school within the reach of all who wish to attend. Many inquiries have been already made in regard to the school from counties in the northern section of the state, and there is little apprehension but that it will have all the students it can accommodate the first year. (The Minneapolis Journal, Sunday, September 2, 1906, Part II, Editorial Section, Page 2)