A Study of Farm Mechanics on Typical Farms in the North Cache High School District

The farmers of today are faced with many more and varied problems than were their grandfathers. This is in part due to the rapid mechanization of farming that has been developing during the past three decades. This movement for increased mechanization in farming presents a new challenge to farmers because of their responsibility in caring for farm machinery and maintaining it in an efficient operating condition. In effect, this means that the efficient farmer must devote an increasing amount of time and attention to the managerial and operative skills connected with mechanized farming. Moreover, he must acquire tools and equipment necessary to do what might be considered the ordinary repair and maintenance jobs on the equipment that is essential to his farming operations. The state course of study in vocational agriculture for the rural high schools of Utah provides a training program for future farmers, young farmers, and adult farmers. One of the major aspects of this program is the cars, repair and maintenance of farm machinery and equipment used on the farms. To be effective such a training program must be set up in terms of the needs of the farmers in the communities of the local high school district. Various writers have been impressed with the fact that the farm mechanics training program in many of the high schools is more or less stereotyped without due consideration of the types of equipment in the local farming area and the skills required to repair and maintain this equipment properly. So far as is known, no study has been made of the farm mechanics needs of individual farmers in the patronage area of any one high school district in the state of Utah. Present methods of building a program of study may or may not meet the needs of farmers and farm boys. The purpose of this study is to make a survey of local farm conditions looking forward to a program of instruction in farm mechanics for high school boys, young farmers (out of school youth), and adult farmers. The North Cache high school district is a typical farming area representing a diversified farm program. A survey of the farming conditions in this area should provide a means of building a functioning farm mechanics program suited to the needs of farmers, and furnish a pattern for other school districts of the state to follow. The problem to be investigated may be stated as follows: PROBLEM. What are the farm mechanics needs of farmers in the North Cache high school district which should be used as a basis for organizing a program of instruction in farm mechanics for high school students and adults