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REPORT OF BEVERLY COMMISSION ON INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.
To the Honorable, The Massachusetts Commission on Industrial Education:
The Beverly Commission on Industrial Education appointed 'by your Honorable
Board, last October, to investigate the need for industrial education in Beverly
and vicinity has been constantly at work upon this problem since its appointment
and begs leave to submit the following partial report:
Frequent meetings of this commission have been held for determining methods
of procedure and discussing reports of special] investigations and numerous
meetings have been held at which representatives of the leading industries
were present and discussed with the commission the relations of their respective
industries to the matter under investigation.
LEADING INDUSTRIES.
The three leading industries are the manufacture of machinery, the manufacture
of shoes, and the group of agricultural pursuits that in the aggregate probably
surpasses in importance the manufacture of shoes. The agricultural group includes
first, those occupied with landscape architecture and gardening, forestry,
floral greenhouses, cultivation of small fruits, flowers and vegetables out
of doors, and general farm management,- all for the extensive estates of the
summer residents of Beverly and the North Shore; second, a considerable number
of farmers engaged chiefly in truck gardening for the local and the Boston
market; third, a large number occupied with floral greenhouses, nurseries
of shrubs and trees, ferneries and the cultivation of hardy perennials for
the market; fourth, an important group of firms engaged in raising vegetables
in greenhouses, "fanning under glass;" fifth, those occupied with
the production of dairy products and with the handling and marketing of milk;
sixth, a very large number engaged in poultry raising, many in a small way
as a side line and some extensively as a chief occupation.
CONFERENCES WITH AGRICULTURISTS.
Several meetings of this commission have been held at which men engaged in
these agricultural lines were present and manifested considerable interest
in discussing the need of elementary agricultural training. There are employed
on the large estates of summer residents a number of gardeners that were trained
in Scotland. These men are remarkably proficient and some of them appeared
before this commission and spoke emphatically of the present need of more
facilities for education in their line in this country, and made valuable
suggestions to the commission in regard to the best methods to be pursued.
A public meeting was also held at which Professor Spillman, head of the Bureau
of Plant Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture, and Professor
Jenks of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, gave addresses.
FARM PRACTICE SCHOOL.
This commission at the present time is engaged in investigating possible provisions
for practice in the various agricultural pursuits in case a school should
be established. Three lines of investigation are under way the feasibility
of establishing a farm practice or training school; the practicability of
placing pupils as part time employees (or part time observers and helpers,
receiving instruction in return for labor) with different proprietors in the
agricultural group; and the possibility of affiliation with the proposed Essex
County Agricultural or Farm School. It is hoped that at a later date a definite
recommendation can be made to your honorable board for the establishment in
Beverly of an agricultural school with ample facilities for real practice
in the particular branches of agriculture to be studied.