We are glad to comply with the request for a short report for the year just closing. We should say, however, that while the school year is just closing in the schools generally, we are in the midst of our regular school work, the past year closing March 29, and the new year beginning March 30.
The past year has brought many encouraging experiences to us in this school. There have been a number of occasions when the Spirit of the Lord wrought in a remarkable way upon the hearts of our students, an unusual number being converted at one time. This spiritual refreshing seems to have dated from the beginning of a special interest in missionary work on the part of the teachers. For several weeks there were daily chapel studies on missionary work, the experiences of the pioneer workers in various lands, etc. As we approached the week of prayer, the interest deepened; prominence was given to the missionary idea during the week of prayer, and we saw results beyond those of any such previous occasion. This source of blessing has not been forgotten; and a daily class in mission study, with close touch by correspondence with missionaries in all parts of the world, is fanning the flame of missionary love and zeal.
In order that the present year might begin in the spring, the past year was necessarily three months shorter than usual. During this time a little over two hundred pupils were enrolled. The enrolment to the time of the usual close of school was about two hundred and twenty-five.
YOUNG WOMEN AT WORK IN THE GARDEN
Our school year will hereafter begin the first of April, and coincide with the agricultural season, with a winter term for those who can not attend at other times. We have been led to this change by our endeavor to carry out the instruction we have received through the spirit of prophecy regarding our school work. We have found it impossible to make “study in agricultural lines the A, B, and C” of the work, when comparatively few of our students attend during the summer. At the time when the Lord opens his great living lesson book of nature, our students would begin to leave school, returning when the book was closing. Careful study led us to feel that the school year should be changed, and our people in Wisconsin gave their approval and support. A goodly attendance is being had, about one hundred and thirty pupils having been enrolled in less than two months.
Unusual blessing has been felt in our school work since we made the changes this spring. Our teachers never had more enthusiasm in their work, and the students have seemed to enjoy their school work more than in the past. New channels of thought have opened up, and new revelations of Christ have come to our school. All the work of the school is divided among the literary teachers, each having a department, but all working together. Fifteen acres of new land has been placed under cultivation this spring, and we have added nine thousand strawberry plants, two thousand raspberry plants, and eight thousand apple grafts to the fruit already growing. Not only are our young men engaged in this work, but practically all the lady students are occupied daily in the cultivation of vegetables, fruit, or flowers. The gospel lessons, as well as the science, associated with the art of tilling the soil and caring for the plants, make the work delightful. We are doubtless greatly aided in this by the fact that we are free from all city influences, shut in with nature, with only trees to be seen in every direction. While we are alone in the woods, we have much more of our Saviour's presence, and much less of evil. A blessed experience is being received by our precious youth. God is speaking to them, and they are hearing his voice. They are growing in experience, and developing character which will soon place them as strong workers in our Master's vineyard.
