L B NRLF EXCHANGE / ^ X THE OTY of ALPHA ZE High Council HIGH CHANCELLOR. College of Agriculture, Columbia, Mo. R. C. POTTS Office of Markets, U. S. Dept. of Agricul- ture, Washington, D. C. HIGH SCRIBE JOHN H. PARKER Bur. Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of Agri- culture, Washington, D. C. HIGH TREASURER I. B. POTTER Extension Division, Knoxville, Tenn. HIGH CHRONICLER Bureau of Vocational Education, Harrisburg, Pa. Quarterly Correspondents TOWNSHF.N! ALLEN L. BAKER 67 W. lOlh Ave., Columbus, Ohio. MORRII ROBERT P. WETHERALD A. Z. House, State College, Pa. MORROW.... O. J. TROSTER 212 E. Green St., Champaign, 111. CORNH ... W. P. FROST 214 Thurston Ave.. Ithaca, N. Y. KEDZIE M. H. SHEARER 6 A. Wells Hall, E. Lansing, Mich. GRAM W. T. TAPLEY College of Agriculture, Durham, N. H. NEBRA- TOWNSEND "Of St.. : NORTH CAROLINA J. West Raleigjji, .N ; C. LAGRANGF. JaTEOSau . 2089 Carter Ave., St. Paul, Minn. GREEN MOUNTAIN F. R. CHURCHILL 468 College St., Burlington, Vt. WILSON E. W. STILLWELL Latauma House, Ames, Iowa. BATK-O- .DAN W. FLICKINGER 524 N. Henry St., Madison, Wis. CENTENNIM 'AMES V. BLUEBAUGH Care State Mer. Co., Ft. Collins, Colo. MAINE \. J. BOWER Sigma Alpha Epsilon House, Orono, Maine. MISSOURI.. J. D. FESHENFELD 703 Hitt St., Columbia, Mo. ELLIOTT.... HENRY HARTMAN Pullman, Wash. CALIFORNIA II. K. Fox 6405 Regent St., Oakland, Cal. PURDUE M. H. OVERTON 216 Waldron St., W. LaFayette, Ind. KANSA ..A. J. MANGELSDORF K. S. A. C., Manhattan, Kans. WALTER K. MARSHALL ' \gricultural College, North Dakota. "ScovEi-L ^43 Harrison Ave., Lexington, Ky. MORGAN EDMOND C. PETERS 618 W. Main Ave., Knoxville, Tenn. GEORGIA JOHN M. PURDOM College of Agriculture, Athens, Ga. LOUISIANA R. C. ! m Rouge, La. OKLAHOMA Slillwater. O QUARTERLY of ALPHA ZETA Published Under Authority of the High Council Table of Contents Agriculture in Alabama High Schools W. C. Blasingame Agriculture in California High Schools W. G. Hummel Agricultural Education in Indiana Z. M. Smith Agricultural Education in Maryland J. E. Metzger The Massachusetts Home-Project Plan of Vocational Agricultural Education R. W. Stimson Agriculture in the Secondary Schools of Michigan W. H. French Agriculture in the Public High Schools of Minnesota A. V. Storm Agriculture in Montana High Schools C. A. Bush Agricultural Education in the State of New York L. S. Hawkins Agriculture in the Secondary Schools of North Dakota William A.Broyles Agriculture in New Hampshire High Schools Geo. H. Whitcher Vocational Agricultural Education in Pennsylvania L. H. Dennis Development and Present Status of Agriculture in the Secondary Schools of Texas J. D. Blackwell Agricultural Education in the State of Vermont F. B. Jenks Agriculture in the High Schools of Wisconsin H. N. Goddard Development of Special Agricultural Schools in the United States . .C. H. Lane 344178 i QUA of ALPHA XKTA Entered as second class matter January 29, 1907, at the postoffice, Columbus, Ohio, under Act of Congress, March 3d. 1879. Vol. XIV JUNE, 1916 No. 5 The Quarterly of Alpha Zeta is pub- lished quarterly in the interests of the Alpha Zeta Fraternity, under the direc- tion of the High Council. The subscrip- tion price is $1.00 per annum for the active members. The subscriptions to be collected by the Chapter Treasurer, and paid to the High Treasurer as so much dues as provided for under the Constitution. The subscription price to Alumni is 50 cents per annum, payable to the Quarterly Editor. All subscrip- tions payable in advance. Contributions are desired from all members Clippings, College Papers, Sketches, Verses and Personals espe- cially requested. All material for pub- lication must be in the hands of the editor by the First of November, Feb- ruary, May and August. Chapter cor- respondents will be held responsible for regular chapter contributions. All communications, exchanges or literary articles should be sent to the Editor, Bureau of Vocational Education, Harrisburg, Pa. L. H. DENNIS, Editor-in-Chief. Editorial VEN a hasty perusal of the following pages will disclose the fact that this issue of the Alpha Zeta Quarterly is devoted to a discussion of the teaching of agriculture in the high schools throughout the UnitedStates. This phase of public education is receiving the attention of the leading educators of our country. The reasons for teaching agriculture in the secondary schools are many. Some are pedagogical and others economic. There is no longer a ques- tion as to whether or not agriculture should be taught in the high school. That is not the problem. The question of how it shall be taught and un- der what conditions requires much careful thought and has given many a school official much concern. While the subject matter of agri- culture is very much the same in the various states, even under different conditions, yet the method of organization of instruction, the school plant and the political area to be served by the different types of schools varies considerably. It has been the aim of this series of articles to show along what lines secondary agricultural education has been developed in dif- ferent states. The teaching of agriculture in the public high school is yet in its in- fancy, and we are still in a state of transition with respect to method of organization, etc. The metamorphosis of the subject is by no means complete. If agriculture is to be successfully and efficiently taught in the sec- ondary schools of our nation, it will be because the problems in connection therewith are being handled by men of education and experience. This work even at the present time is already attracting to its ranks of teachers men who are unusually strong in personality, education and experience. It is hoped that this series of articles will be of some value to the strongest men among our Agricultural College graduates, and that what is set forth in these pages will show in a clear manner that in this line of work there is a wonderful opportunity for agricultural and educational service. QUARTERLY OF ALPHA Agrkuliiwo k Alabama 'High 3c hero Is W. C. BLASINGAME, High School Inspector N 1895 the Legislature appropriated $4500.00 to each of the Congres- sional Districts for the support of an Agricul- tural High School. The location of these schools was placed in the hands of a commission to decide be- tween competitive bids and offers of land, buildings, equipment and additional support. The course of study in these schools includes the regular high school course in English, Math- ematics, History, Science, (includ- ing Botany, Physics and Chemis- try). In addition to these, the course in Agriculture is as follows: First year, Elementary Agriculture and Farm Accounts. Second year, de- tailed study of Southern Crops, Horticulture, and Animal Husban- dry. Third year, dairying and plan diseases. Fourth year, Forage Crops and chemistry of soils and ferti lizers. Demonstration farms are worked by each school, and each boy must do a minimum of one and a half hours of work a week on the farm. In several of these schools practical work in dairying and stock feeding is carried on. Just at present, boll weevil makes stock breeding and raising, the growing of hay, and other feed stuff a very practical study for the schools. The efforts of many to get the soils inoculated for clovers, and vetches and furnish this to the farmers are winning the good will and sympathy of the community to an unusual degree. Eight years ago an appropriation of $3,000.00 was made to each county for the support of a County High School. Fifty-five of the six- ty-seven counties have met the conditions imposed, and have the schools in operation. The course of study in these schools is similar to that of the Agricultural Schools, except that more electives are al- lowed, and only two years of Ag- riculture are required of all students. The Principals of these High Schools are doing much extension work with the farmers, and through the Tomato Club girls, and the Corn and Pig Club boys are exerting quite a force in the counties. The demand for this extension work, not only along agricultural lines but cultural as well, is stronger than can be met, because until very re- cently, no training for this was con- sidered by the schools and colleges. The few men who have proven themselves capable community lea- ders have had their salaries almost doubled in the last few years. The salaries of teachers of Agri- culture are about 50% higher than those of the teacher of the classics, and the demand increases rapidly. In addition to the work of teaching agriculture we have a Farm Dem- onstrator in each county, and their salaries are about the same as those of the High School Principals. Many of the city high schools are offering limited courses in agriculture, and nearly all are offering Domestic Science. So attractive has this line of work become, that more than 200 students in the Alabama Poly- technic Institute, or 23% of the to- tal enrollment, have registered in the Department of Education, opened for the first time last Sep- tember. As an example of the practical work of these, will give the detail- ed work of one: Peaches, grapes, berries of different kinds are grown on the school grounds, that practi- cal work in pruning, spraying, can- ning, and marketing may be taught. Canning of tomatoes, okra, corn, beans and other vegetables and fruits, both in open ovens and under steam pressure is taught. Plots of all clovers that grow well here, vetch, alfalfa, and other leg- umes are grown in order to get the soil inoculated for the distribution to the farmers. Experiments of the effect of grazing dairy cows for short periods daily are made with the friends and patrons. Babcock tests of milk are made at as many schools of the county as want them, and as often as necessary to give the patrons help in testing their cows. Balanced rations are worked out for any one that gives a list of the feeds available. While there are more than a hun- dred high schools in the state giving varying amounts of text book in- struction in agriculture, only about one-third of these are making a thorough demonstration of the prin- ciples. Possibly another third are doing some work in school garden- ing. A very large third now give the minimum requirements, and do that because they have to. Not all teachers yet agree that children in a state whose population is 80% rural, need practical training for making a better living and living a better life. Agriculture in California High Schools W. G. HUMMEL N 1902, the University of California was the only institution in the State giving regular in- struction in agriculture. At the present time, agricultural in- struction is offered in five of the eight normal schools, in sixty-eight public high schools, in the two spec- ial state schools at San Luis Obispo and Davis, the State Industrial schools, and in several private schools and colleges. The Gardena High School (Los Angeles City) offers agricultural instruction as the one principal purpose of the school. The legislature of 1901 passed an act providing for the California Polytechnic School at San Luis Obispo and two years later the school came into being. This sec- ondary school was the first institu- tion outside the University of Cali- fornia to offer agricultural instruc- tion. The school has been a success from the start, and during the year 1915-1916, 31 of the 148 students enrolled in the school were taking the agricultural courses. The legislature of 1 905 made the first appropriation for the Univer- sity Farm, and the University Farm School at Davis, California. Here an opportunity is offered for prac- tice courses for college students at Berkeley, the majority of whom spend one semester at the Farm before graduation. In 1908, the first school building was erected at Davis, and in the spring of 1909 a three-year school of agriculture for boys who had fin- ished the eighth grade was started with an enrollment of eighteen boys. In 1913, the entrance requirements were changed. A three year course is now offered to young men who are eighteen or more years old, or who are high school graduates. Instruction in the public high schools may be said to have been inaugurated in this state by the offering of a course in "general science and botany, with special re- ference to agriculture" at the Gar- dena High School, in 1908. In 1909, a fourteen-acre farm was purchased by this school for $14,000, lath houses and green houses construc- ted, an irrigation system installed, and provision made for laboratory work. In 1910, the school was or- ganized as a special agricultural high school, a part of the Los Ange- les City school system. The school now has 225 students. In 1909, the high school at Im- perial, Oxnard, and Bakersfield em- ployed technically trained men to teach agriculture. Agricultural lab- oratories were equipped at all of these schools, including a dairy lab- oratory at Imperial. A greenhouse was built at Oxnard. School gardens were established at Imperial and Oxnard. During the same year, ex- periments in teaching agriculture in a small way were made at Glen- dale, Hanford, and a few other schools. During 1910, the folio wi ng schools placed technically trained men in charge of agricultural cours- es in their high schools: Stockton, Fresno, Econdido, Hollywood, Lordsburg Livermore, and Fern- dale. In a few others, one year general agricultural courses were offered by science teachers. Dur- ing the same year, 27 acres of land were purchased for the Bakersfield school, at a cost of $16,000. A house and barns were already built on the land. Improved stables, sheds, glasshouse, etc., have since been provided. A dormitory which will accomodate about twelve stu- dents has also been built on the school farm. In the same building is a laboratory, in which a part of the agricultural instruction is given. The livestock owned by the school includes two horses, two two colts, cows, pigs and chickens. During the school year 1911-1512, Los Banos, Brawley, Lompoc Yreka, King City, College City, and Ventura secured agricultrally trained men to present their agri- cultural courses; Hanford, Lodi Napa, Ontario, and Whittier fol- lowed in 1912 and 1913; Chico, Centerville, Hollister, Selma, Lind- say, Pasadena, and Tulare in 1913 and 1914; Hemet, Inglewood, Ker- man, Lemoore, Reedley, San Jose, Santa Ana, Turlock, Ukiah, Van Nuys, and Visalia in 1 9 1 4 and 1 9 1 5 ; INTERIOR OF LATH HOUSE, PASADENA, CAL., HIGH SCHOOL Ten acres of land, divided into orchard and field crop plots, was purchased by the Lordsburg High School in 1910. A potting house, lath house, and greenhouses were erected, and suitable laboratory equipment secured. Tentative experiments in agri- cultural teaching were made by science teachers at Petaluma, Santa Cruz, and a few other places and Cedarville. Laton, Los Angeles (Manual Arts High School), Oak- dale, Oleander, Paso Robles, Pom- ona, Redlands, Venice, and Marys- ville in 1915 and 1916. During the same years, 1911- 1916, a considerable number of high schools introduced agricultural work, offered by the science teach- ers. At the present time sixty-eight 8 JOTfE, California high schools are giving agricultural courses. There has been no legislation in this State with regard to the teach- ing of agriculture or other voca- tional work in the public high schools, except that it may be in- cluded in the curriculum and credit given for it as a part of high school work. During the year 1915, a bill providing State Aid for vocational instruction was passed by both houses of the State Legislature, but tion, we might mention the Kerman and Pasadena high schools. Kerman is located inthe rich farming coun- try of the San Joaquin Valley. Its population is about 500. The high school has about 70 students. Mr. Howard Dickson, a graduate of the University of California, majoring in Agricultural Education, started the work in this school in Septem- ber. 1914, and is now offering the following courses: First year, agri- cultural general science (consisting HOT BEDS AND FLOWER GARDENS, PASADENA, CAL., HIGH SCHOOL was not signed by the Governor and therefore did not become a law. The action of the University of California, in 1909, providing for the acceptance of certain high school agricultural subjects for matricula- tion, has undoubtedly encouraged the introduction of agriculture in our high schools more than any other one thing. As examples of California high school giving agricultural instruc- largely of the study of plant life, growth, and development, plant environment heat, light, moisture, soil, etc.); second year, dairying and animal husbandry; and the third year, horticulture. Next year course in farm mechanics, including farm buildings and farm manage- ment, will be offered. The school has twenty acres of land, four acres of which are used for a building site. The rest is used for demonstration (O? and experimental work, as follows: school gardens, one acre; field crops, ten acres; nursery, one acre; vine- yard, one acre; and orchard, three acres. The students are required to carry on a home project as a part of, and in connection with each of their high school agricultural courses. A temporary building, containing a dairy laboratory and a classroom, has been erected especially for the agricultural work. During the present year, a short course in dairying was offered for the farmers of the community. Lab- oratory facilities were not large enough for the number that applied for the course. The school is used as a civic and social center of the community, in which special meet- ings are held each month. The smal- lest number in attendance at any of these meetings has exceeded 200. The rural teachers of the commun- ity have also been organized to meet once a month, at which meet- ing the agricultural teacher offers them suggestions with regard to nature study and elementary agri- culture in their schools. The Pasadena High School, loca ted in a city of 35,000, has 1,643 students. 132 are taking the agri- cultural courses. Two agricultural teachers, are employed and are of- fering four years of work, as follows: First year agriculture, including the study of the plant and its environ- ment; second year, dairying, animal husbandry, and poultry; third year, horticulture; and fourth year, farm mechanics and farm management. It is planned to offer, soon, a course in floriculture, especially for girls. There is a special building on the grounds in which all of the agri- cultural instruction is given. Green- house, lath house, and hotbeds are provided and three-fourths of an acre is used for agricultural pur- poses. The school owns two cows and several pens of chickens. The accompanying illustration will give some idea of the equipment and the work of the agricultural department of the Pasadena High School. Ag rieMlfaral m Z. M. SMITH, State Director of Agricultural Education GRICULTURE has been taught in public schools in Indiana for several years. A quest- tionaire was sent out from Purdue University to Indiana school officials in 1910, relative to the teaching of agriculture. The re- plies received revealed the fact that many counties at that time had in- cluded agriculture in the courses for seventh, eighth and high school grades. In November, 1912, a ques- tionaire was sent to all County Sup- erintendents by Supt. H. L. Rogers of Pulaski County, who at the an- nual State Conference discussed "The Rural School Problem in Re- gard to Agriculture." The answers to Mr. Rogers' inquiries show that agriculture was being taught in every county in the State. While a great deal of the school work in agriculture was poorly done, yet interest in the teaching of the subject was aroused to the extent that the legislature of the State, without a dissenting vote, passed a law in 1913, which made mandatory the teaching of agriculture in the public schools of towns and town- ships. In accordance with the pro- visions of the law about seven thousands teachers are this year teaching agriculture to approxi- mately fifty thousand pupils in the seventh and eighth grades, and six hundred high school teachers have classes in agriculture. In addition to making the teach- ing of agriculture mandatory in the public schools of the State, the Indiana Vocational Education Law provides for establishing either vo- cational schools or departments which may receive State Aid. Be- cause of the excellent work that is being done in agriculture in the high schools of the State as well as in the seventh and eighth grades, there has been no demand for strictly ag- gricultural high schools as such. Substantial progress in vocational agricultural instruction has been made, however, through the voca- tional departments that have been established. These departments have been established in thirteen communities in the State under the direction of the State Supervisor of Agricultural Education, who, under the provisions of the Vocational Edu- cation Law is the joint agent of the State Department of Public In- struction and the Purdue Univer- sity Agricultural Extension Depart- ment. The teachers in these depart- ments are employed for twelve months in the year. Seven hundred and sixty boys and men have been enrolled in these vocational agri- cultural departments. During the summer of 1915 twen- ty-one vocational teachers were em- ployed to supervise the home pro- ject work of seven hundred pupils. The communities that employed these teachers were given state aid through the State Department of Public Instruction and the Purdue Agricultural Extension Depart- ment. The pupils under their sup- ervision earned during the summer, the sum of twenty-five thousand eight hundred and seventy-two dol- lars. A great deal of the agricultural work that is being done by the teachers in the public schools of Indiana is closely related to the 11 vocational agricultural instruction that is being given in the voca- tional departments. They have the boys do their work on a project basis and in many cases visit the homes of the pupils and personally supervise the projects. In many school districts in the State, farmers will not plant corn that has not been tested. For the most part, the corn is tested for the farmers, by the agricultural class in the home school. A great deal of prejudice on the part of parents had to be overcome before the value of testing seed corn could be demon- strated in a practical way by the boys. Gradually the rag doll and sawdust or sand testers have come into common use on the farms as a result of the work by the public school pupils. The schools have done a notable work in the improvement of the dairy interests of the State. Many unprofitable cows have been sent to the block as a result of the records which school boys have kept of their Babcock tests for butter fat and of the amount and kinds of feed used. In many cases good cows have been discovered by the boys and have been made even more profitable by the care given them and the rations fed in accordance with information obtained at school. This year three hundred pupils in Delaware County alone did the kind of work just de- scribed. Fruit and vegetable growing have received a great deal of attention in the schools in all parts of the State. Budding, grafting, pruning, and spraying of fruit trees have been practiced extensively by pupils and in many instances in Montgomery, Hamilton, Elkhart and Green Coun- ties the entire management of the home orchard has been entrusted to the boy who has studied agricul- ture in school. The home gardens have been planned, cultivated and managed in detail by pupils who have done the work as a part of their regular school course. The gardening work is not confined ex- clusively to country boys and girls. Last year twenty thousand pupils in town and city schools in Indiana cultivated home garden plots under the direction of the public schools. The important problem of poultry raising has not been neglected by the public schools of Indiana. Many schools have constructed poultry houses on the school grounds and have hatched chickens and fed hens for egg production. But a greater work than this has been done with poultry by the pupils in their man- agement of poultry at home. The practical management of poultry which is limited to the flock on the school grounds has comparatively little value. But when pupils react to the school instruction by manag- ing the home flock on a practical basis, then the work performed at school becomes of inestimable value. The pupils in the school at Star City have improved the poultry in the community to such degree that eggs produced in that locality bring from two to five cents more per dozen on local and New York mar- kets than do the eggs from other parts of Pulaski County. The lessons learned at school have given many boys confidence in their judgment of livestock and livestock management to the degree that they have mustered up enough courage to propose to their fathers that scrub stock be replaced by pure bred, and that more economical and nutritive rations be fed. Parents have learned to respect the work of the schools because of the pro- fitable results obtained by follow- 13 ing the suggestions which their boys have made. Purity tests with clover and al- falfa seeds which the public schools have made, have netted the farmers of the State an amount equal to a snug fortune. At Pine Village in Warren County, the seed dealer was elated over the fact that farmers would no longer purchase second grade seed because the boys had demonstrated in their agricultural work that high grade seed is cheap- er, and in addition to its being cheaper it is free from the seeds of obnoxious weeds which have been distributed far and wide in Indiana by sowing impure clover and al- falfa. Many Indiana teachers and their pupils have demonstrated that the personal interest basis of teaching agriculture is more productive of real achievement than any other method that has been used. By this method the boys deal with the practical problems of the farm on basis of their own personal interests. For example, if the problem is one of seed corn selection or one of corn growing, poultry or pig rais- ing, the question is not dealt with on the general basis of how to select seed, grow corn, raise poultry or pigs, but the problems are made specifiic. To each boy the question is "How shall I select my seed corn, grow my corn, raise my poultry or pigs?" The answer to the specific ques- tion is not found by the reading and rec tation method, but by actual demonstration by the boy. The demonstration is not made in the school laboratory, but in the home field or the home feed-lot. The importance of supervision of home projects and the value of the work are emphazised by the fact that one cannot measure their worth in dollars and cents. Parents are enthusiastic about the work and un- iformly report that their children have been led through the project work to take a keener interest in the daily duties of the farm. Teach- ers are agreed that the teaching of agriculture by the project method on a personal interest basis not only makes agriculture in the schools worth while, but develops the abil- ity to assume responsibility, strengthens the power to take in- itiative, substitutes for either idle- ness or drugery a pleasurable and productive employment, creates a desire for enjoyment through a- chievement, supplants the idea of mere fun-making with the ideal of genuine pleasure resulting from doing constructive work that is freighted with possibilities for com- munity betterment, and lays a foun- dation, broad and deep, upon which to build character and citizenship. 14 ISIS Agricultural KdueaLlon m Maryland J. E. METZGER Probably the most striking evi- dence of the increasing interest in secondary agricultural education in Maryland, is the large number of schools that have provided for this course during the past few years, and certainly no high school move- ment has aroused greater interest in the State than the introduction of agricultural instruction. There are at present in Maryland, twenty- one high schools, in which courses in agriculture are offered. In gen- eral, this work is organized as a special department of the school, and a specially trained teacher is em- ployed for its administration. The first agricultural high school to be established in Maryland was the Calvert School in Cecil County in 1907. Prior to this time the only agricultural instruction of a sec- ondary character that was conduc- ted in the State was that of the two-year course at the Maryland Agricultural College. Since the or- ganization of the first school, there have been organized other schools along two distinct types; first, the special agricultural high school, of which there are several in the State, and second, the agricultural depart- ment, the form of school most com- monly organized during the past few years. The addition of an ag- ricultural department to the already existing high school has become a favorite plan, largely on account of the economy rendered thereby in buildings, teaching force, admin- istration, and in affording a central location for the school. In most communities in Mary- land, there is a demand for high school courses of study of an acad- emic chacarter. The problem, then, has been to provide both the vo- cational and academic work in nearly every high school in the State. On account of using the ex- isting school organization and the local buildings for the new depart- ment of the high school, most of these schools are located in the county seats and the smaller towns of the State. Maryland has a county form of organization, and conse- quently the county high school, as a rule, is located at the county seat. This centralizing of the agricultural instruction in the villages and towns has not worked any hardship in re- gard to the agricultural instruction in Maryland. On account of its splendid roads and modern means of transportation, including the automobile, inter-urban cars and railways, it has been very easy to centralize the schools. The machin- ery, so far as organization was con- cerned, was already at hand. In a few instances, it has been neces- sary to build additions to the school buildings to accomodate the new work, but this has been at much less expense than would have been re- quired to build a new and separate school. The tendency, then, in the State in the past has been to favor the agricultural department, and in this State the work has not been handicapped by its vocational as- pect. The controlling purposes of the agricultural instruction in Mary- land are the making of useful citi- zens and the fitting of its boys for profitable work in the home com- munity. On account of its stringent requirements in English and mathe- 15 matics, it has not become a retreat for naturally backward or deficient students. The agricultural subjects have replaced for the most part the Latin and modern languages that are ordinarily taught in the high school. The general science work of the course in this State is ap- proximately the same as that of the acdaemic courses, except that it has been given a decided agricul- tural trend. As in other States, a partnership has been established between the State and the local community for securing effective training in rural vocations. As a member of the partnership, the State has insisted upon a cooperative spirit between local and State agencies. This part- nership has been in theform of finan- cial assistance and State super- vision of the work in the schools. The present law provides for a special appropriation to schools that maintain courses in two of the vo- cational subjects: agriculture, man- ual training, and domestic science. "Any high school in the State is entitled to the sum of $400.00, an- nually, on account of the instruc- tion in special subjects, to be desig- natedby the County School Board." A special provision in the law makes it possible for a teacher to divide his time between two schools. However, the work has taken such proportions wherever tried out, that it has not been found wise, except in one case, to take advantage of this feature of the law. One of the chief hindrances for the future development of the school in the State has been a pro- vision of the law which permits the local community to select between agriculture and commercial work. The organization of the commer- cial departments preceded the or- ganization of the agricultural de- partments, and since the law does not provide for special aid except for one of those departments, there are some rural high schools in the State that are training stenog- raphers for the offices in the city instead of training an agricultural citizenry. With the advent of the high school came the demand for teach- ers of this new type of school work. Since the State College was not able to furnish a sufficient number of trained teachers, the recruits re- present various degrees of prepar- ation for their work. Some of the teachers are from other state col- leges of agriculture, others are suc- cessful teachers of science, but for the past two years nearly all of the new teachers employed have had a special training for this work. One handicap that has been rather pronounced in the State of Mary- land, is the length of service of the agricultural teacher. A review of the length of service of the agricul- tural teachers of this State shows that the average tenure is less than two years. This has been due to the great demand for these men in other agricultural pursuits, and also to the fact that most of the teachers are employed for the school term only. A definite step is being taken at the present time toward remedy- ing this unfortunate condition. It has been proposed that the agricul- tural teachers become, during the summer months, leaders of the Jun- ior Extension work in their localities, but it is too early as yet to make any definite prediction as to the success of such an arrangement. There are hopes, however, that it will work for the benefit of both causes by dividing the expense between the local community and the Ex- tension service. There will be a uniting of forces and a minimizing JTOfSE, of duplication in the work. In ad- dition, it is hoped that this Junior Extension Work will also become a part of the local school activities, and thus make it possible to put into practice what has been taught in the school room. In addition to the regular class instruction and laboratory work of the agricultural department of the high school, there is a definite movement toward the development of the home project work. The aim is to have each student, in connec- tion with the course in agriculture pursued during the year, perform a definite project on the home farm. Among the projects that have been inaugurated are; records and ac- counts of farm activities; projects of a productive character relating to farm crops; market garden pro- jects; live stock and dairy projects, and poultry projects. In the in- auguration of this feature of high school work, two aims have been kept in view: first, to give the boy the opportunity to put into prac- tice the things that he learned in school, making him a producer on a limited commercial scale; and second, to secure a greater cooper- ation and sympathy for this type of school work from the patrons. It has been felt that unless some arrangement of this kind could be put into practice, the work of the department would become too acad- emic. Thus far, the work has met with not only the approval of the teachers, but all other school author- ities, and a good beginning has been made. Much good has been done by the frequent conferences that have been held by the teachers of agriculture. Two conferences are held annualy, one at the beginning of the school year and the other in connection with the State Teachers' Associa- tion. In these meetings, the men have exchanged ideas and plans freely and the benefit of the con- ferences is already apparent. One of the direct results of these con- ferences has been the preparation of a course of study and its contents which shall represent for Maryland a standard course. The agriculture, like the climate and topography of this State, is too varied to permit a uniform schedule for the schools of the State. An arrangement has been made so that the schools can adapt the work to the needs of the local community and at the same time give the standard course in each division of the subject. The difference comes largely in the time of giving the various subjects. In most instances, the patrons and school boards are greatly in- terested in the agricultural work taught in their school. There is abundant evidence that the voca- tional studies can be made to train boys in the things that they will do as men; that they tend to bring the high school in closer touch with the people; that they lead the boys to a greater interest in the farm and in the welfare of the rural community. 17 Tho Massachusetts Hlomo (^oject [Man. of Vocational Agricultural Kducmtloin R. W. STIMSON, Massachusetts Board of Education HE Massachusetts system of vocational agricultural education includes separate schools and depart- ments in high schools. In the case of a school, the State pays one-half the maintenance expenses; in the case of a department, two-thirds the salary of the agricultural in- structor. In all cases, the work centers on productive projects thor- roughly studied and carefully plan- ned at school, but carried out, with supervision throughout the pro- ducing season by the agricultural instructors, on the home farms of the pupils. Separate or County Schools The first school to do such work was the Smith 's Agricultural School at Northampton. A unique feature of this school is the architecture of the main building, a cut of which will be found on page 2. At the heart of the building is a large in- door arena. This has an earth floor. It may be used separately, or in connection with the auditorium, by throwing up rolling partitions. The entrance and exit to the arena are as ample as the big-door en- trance to a barn floor. All kinds of farm implements and machines may be studied and overhauled in it. Animals may be judged and trained here. The arena has been the scene of many notable community center occasions for the benefit of those interested in agriculture. At the Annual Poultry Show held last December, a thousand birds were exhibited. More than eighty horses were exhibited in sixteen classes, afternoon and evening, at a recent horse show in the arena. Last April, there was a County Confer- ence on Community Planning held at the school, with an exhibit in the arena of the products of seven- ty-five different manufacturing es- tablishments in the county. This school provides instruction in home- making for girls. The Essex County Agricultural School is conducted upon similar lines, with an enrollment of 200 pupils. At the Bristol County School, instruction for girls has not yet been introduced, but training in practical farm work on the school premises for city boys who wish to become farmers has been carried farther at this school than at any of the others in the State. Norfolk County is in the process of estab- lishing a vocational agricultural school, and may provide for in- struction in both agriculture and homemaking. As in the case of agriculture, so in homemaking every effort is being made to center instruction upon home projects supervised by the teachers, supervised at least to such an extent that the teachers shall be thoroughly familiar with the home conditions of the indi- vidual girls for whose training they are responsible. The land at these separate or county schools is well diversified 18 THE QUARTERLY OF A! and typical of the tillable land in the sections where the schools are located, the average amount avail- able being about 100 acres each. Agricultural Departments in High Schools The first high school to make special provision for agricultural instruction was that at Petersham. A new and very attractive con- solidated school building had been erected, from funds raised in part by taxation and in part from private subscriptions. On the rear was built a small greenhouse. The school grounds provided for some practical work in fruit growing and gardening at the school, and this land at the outset was used for such purposes. There are now thirteen high schools, each employing a specialist who devotes his entire time to the teaching of agriculture, the supervision of home projects, and advisory work among farmers in the vicinity who seek his help. As a rule there is neither land nor livestock at the school in the cases of these departments. The enroll- ment per instructor is limited to twenty pupils. In Concord, where there are thirty-five pupils, the or- iginal instructor has been furnished an assistant. Home Projects The emphasis put upon home projects in Massachusetts insures that the agricultural instruction shall not be merely academic. Where agricultural instruction is really scientific, there should be no hesitation in putting it to the test of producing work. Of our ag- ricultural instructors and of our boys, it is emphatically true that they are known by their fruits. In 1914, 235 of our boys, who turned in reliable accounts, showed earn- ings amounting to $42,060,73, of which sum, $37,936.67 was from farm work. In 1915, 418 boys showed earnings amounting to $56,254.75, of which $51,279.89 was from farm work, and of which $25,229.73 was cash, and the re- mainder credit given by parents for work and products furnished by the boys. Courses of Study In both schools and departments, one-half the school day is devoted to project study and project work. The ratio of work to study varies from time to time and from season to season, according to the require- ments of the projects which are in preparation or under way. Except occasional meetings, there is no formal classroom instruction from the time of closing the regular schools in June until their opening in September. All pupils, however, keep accurate bookkeeping ac- counts, and make written reports on their projects at the end of the season. Stimulated by frequent supervision, they are keen eyed-and observant, and, in some ways, the summer, when class work is suspen- ded, is the most important teaching season of the year. Agricultural de- partments are looked upon as being in session forty weeks a year, gener- ally March 1st to Thanksgiving; the schools are looked upon as in session fifty weeks a year. Pupils in departments in high schools, may devote one-half of their time to regular high-school subjects. Pupils in the separate or county schools have English every year, and give attention to such subjects as history, civics, agricul- tural economics, drawing, hygiene, physical training, and music, on one hand; and, on the other hand to a continuous line of development 20 in scientific studies, such as biology of farm plants, biology of farm an- imals, agricultural botany, agricul- tural chemistry, and farm drawing. Because the staff of the separate or county school is selected with spec- ial reference to the purpose of this type of school, which is to prepare boys for farming, all subjects, par- ticularly the science subjects just mentioned, are taught so as to show their relationship to the productive work the boys are carrying on and their bearing upon the careers the boys intend to follow. Stated in percentage, the separate or county school reserves about 50% of the time of the boys for project study and project work, about 30% for subjects whose relationships to ag- riculture are strongly emphasized and clearly brought out, and about 20% for non-agricultural subjects, such as good reading, writing and speaking, duties of citizenship, and wholesome recreation. "Professional Improvement" Agriculture is of all professions,, perhaps the hardest to master, and of all business, the least well or- ganized and established. No young man entering upon the teaching of agriculture can be supposed to be a master of farming, either as a pro- fession or as a business. This is emphasized in Massachu- setts by a definite provision for "professional improvement" work. Each instructor must devote ap- proximately two months a year to this purpose. One month is al- lowed for vacation. Nine months are devoted to teaching and super- vision of projects. Plant project instructors must be on duty throughout the summer. Their "professional improvement" work is generally done in winter. That of animal project instructors may be done in summer. With a limited number of pupils, it has been possible to take care of the project supervision in summer by devoting about three days a week to it. In such cases, two days a week throughout the summer may be reserved for "professional im- provement", and the period of ab- sence in winter correspondingly re- duced. The programs of "professional improvement" are never the same for any two instructors, and are seldom the same for one instructor any two years. By "professional improvement" is meant such pro- grams of work, observation study, and lesson planning as shall be ap- proved in each case from year to year by the Board of Education. This entire period has been spent by one instructor at the Massachu- setts Agricultural College. For a newcomer to the State such a course affords an admirable opportunity to make first-hand acquaintance with the specialists on the college staff, and to know the doctrines they hold to be important for the improvement of Massachusetts farming. This entire period has been spent by another instructor working for a market gardener, because his previous practical ex- perience has been somewhat de- ficient in this field. A month of such a period has been spent by an instructor in collecting farm manag- ment data in territory served by his school, and a second month in working on the school farm, in get- ting a better grasp of the all-round routine of practical farm manage- ment in the height of the producing season. Usually a program con- sisting of one month of investi- gation, at home or at a distance, and one month of preparation of lesson outline and teaching materi- als, is to be preferred. 21 Cooperation of Educators Both schools and departments work in closest cooperation with the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege and the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture. All joint un- dertakings, such as promotion of club work, making of farm manage- ment surveys, demonstration of improved methods of farming, are covered by written memoranda of agreement with the director of the Extension Service of the College, iated with the other farm bureaus of the State and the work of which is done in cooperation with the State Leader. Thus, we feel that in Massachu- setts we have a smooth running and thoroughly efficient plan of organization of our various activ- ities in agricultural education, Fed- eral, State and local. We are un- dertaking to avoid overlapping of functions and needless duplication of expenditures of public funds. AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT IN HIGH SCHOOL, PETERSHAM, MASS. as the joint representative of the College and the United States De- partment of Agriculture, with the title of "State Leader." Instruct- ors in departments cooperate close- ly with the farm bureaus in their counties. Our law provides that there shall not be county-aided farm bureaus in counties where there are county agricultural schools. County schools, however, maintain farm bureau departments which are affil- The board of education, whose duty it is to supervise the State-aided schools and departments, has made it its first business to promote the cooperative plan above outlined. Cooperation with Farmers Of course we feel that little could be accomplished through the co- operation of educators without the heartiest and closest possible co- operation betweem them and prac- 22 tical farmers. Wherever there is a department or a school, our law requires that an advisory com- mittee of farmers shall be appointed to advise with and assist the ad- ministrative officers and the in- structors in charge of this work. School projects are important for illustrating approved methods and providing convenient facilities for group teaching in observational and practice work; but more and more are we emphasizing home pro- jects, not merely because home projects are an aid to keeping the study of agriculture from being too bookish, but because each project generally becomes a demonstration in its neighborhood of a better method of farming than is com- monly followed in that vicinity, and because things done by farmers on their own farms are usually more convincing to farmers as to the value of improved methods than are things done on the premises of a school. President Waters, in the preface to his recent book, "The Essentials of Agriculture", says: " In no way is it possible for the school to serve the local community more successfully than through instruction in agriculture. This may be best accomplished through the utilization of the facilities of the neighborhood as a lab- oratory. The gardens, or- chards, and farms, and, in- deed, the gardeners and farm- ers themselves, should be utilized to the fullest extent. By this means the school and the community are brought into the closest relations, and there is awakened among the farmers a lively interest in the work of the school." There is a superlative in every sentence of this statement. But our experience in Massachusetts since the beginning of our home- projects efforts in 1908, leads us to believe that at every point it is fully warranted. 23 IF Agriculture in the Secondary of Michigan W. H. FRENCH American High School is a form of secondary education created to meet the , . demand of the people for a broader education than the elementary school affords, and in its origin its supporters maintained that it should train the American student for the activities of human life. Its development has been rapid in recent years and today it is the most effective agency for shaping the character of American life, both rural and city. After nearly 100 years of de- velopment we are beginning to de- monstrate that the High School can serve all clases of people if it is properly organized and conducted. We have long recognized the fact that the High School period is the formative period, but there has been a wide difference in the ideas of educational leaders as to what constitutes an education and what should be the content of educa- tional training. We are now mov- ing rapidly in the direction of industrial training, that is, we are introducing into High School courses both the theory and the practice of certain vocations on the ground, first, that the High Schools should assist the student in finding out what he likes to do, or what he may desire to do in the near future. Second, by making the work actual, that is, the student performs an industrial project on a commercial basis, thus developing skill and at the same time defining the term "profits". If these courses are to be any more than a "mere job" the school must give the student a carefully planned course of development, as far as possible adapted to needs and ability, and at the same time in- clude such subjects as will give a vision of future possibilities. All will probably agree that the means and methods of education should enable the boy to get a purpose in life, if possible, before he leaves the High School, and the subjects taught the boy should be such as will be val- uable to him mentally, morally, and vocationally. In Michigan the work of intro- ducing agricultural courses in sec- ondary schools was begun in 1 908. We have a law permitting the intro- duction of such courses, but the State does not give special financial aid to the schools which intro- duce them. The courses have been introduced under the di- rection of the Department of Ag- ricultural Education of the Agri- cultural College, and as rapidly as school Superintendents and Boards of Education could be convinced of their utility. In the beginning of this work it was nescesary to in- form the people of the plans and purposes of such courses and to solicit their aid in carrying out the line of instruction proposed. Public interest has been slowly growing and gathering in force. The plan for the Michigan High School is as follows: 1 . The course in Agriculture consists of four units, or one unit 24 in each year of the High School period. 2. The subjects for each year are as follows: 9th year Ele- mentary Science and Botany, 10th year Farm Crops and Horticul- ture, 1 1 th year Animal Husbandry and Feeding, 12th year Soils and Fertilizers, Farm management, and Farm Mechanics. This plan permits the students to take the subjects as one of the elective High School subjects thru the High School course, and also permits special students to enter the same, and these projects are worked as nearly as possible under actual farm conditions and for the purpose of either experiment or of demostration for profit. The pic- ture given herewith shows one pro- ject undertaken by a group of boys, which was the building of a wire fence on a farm near the city. In this case the owner furnisheed the material and the students did the work at a price agreed upon. An- other picture shows the students at work on a job of farm leveling, preparatory to drainage. Another picture shows a group of children the school and take all the agricul- tural work in one or two years, as they may desire. The students in each year pursues text book and laboratory work which is prepara- tory to the performances of project work during the summer season. These projects are worked out for city boys on plots of ground with- in or near the city rented for the purpose. The farm boys work out their projects on the home farm. The schools have a uniform plan of developing the project work and for reports from the students upon in the grades working out a project in gardening. These gardens were individual affairs but all grouped on the same plot of ground. An- other picture shows a group of boys in a village engaged in a project of cleaning up the back- yards and alleys. While this is not strictly an agricultural project, it was a community project requiring labor, skill, and tact. Many more illustrations might be given. Many of the boys are engaged in raising potatoes, corn, beans, taking charge of a small dairy herd, 25 ,Y Off 1 ALPHA or raising a litter of pigs. One young man undertook the care of all the farm machinery for the season, in- cluding gas engine and spraying apparatus. Thus, it will be seen that such courses afford an oppor- tunity to introduce the young men to the usual work of the farm from a new viewpoint and with a scien- tific purpose. The aim of this in- struction is not merely to train the young man to do the work more successfully but to develop in him the highest possible ideals of efficien- cy and, therefore, of individual and agricultural work and in this de- partment the instructor in Agri- culture is supreme. The laboratory is fitted up with suitable file cases, tables, water supply, and such ap- paratus as is recommended by the Department of Agricultural Ed- ucation for the instruction. In this laboratory will usually be found displays of farm products, farm machinery, seeds, grains, and gras- ses, for the use of the student. The picture (page 25) shows a corner in one of these laboratories. About twenty-five other High Schools STRETCHING THE FENCE HIGH SCHOOL CLASS IN AGRICULTURE, MICH. community happiness. The co- operative working out of a project affords one of the best possible means of developing the community spirit. At the present time we have fifty High Schools giving the four year course in Agriculture. The school furnishes usually a special laboratory or laboratories for the are giving some instruction in Ag- riculture but without the special teacher. The number of students taking these courses in each school varies from twenty-five to one hundred and fifty. The typical department in the medium sized High School would have about fifty students in Botany, and about twenty in each 26 of the other years of the High School, in the agricultural subjects. We find that the agricultural sub- jects are freely elected by both young men and women. In addition to the instruction of the High School and the super- vision of the project work, the in- structor in Agriculture becomes the advisor and helper of the farmers of the neighboring country, and this constitutes a real form of ex- tension service that is of the utmost value, both to the farmers and to the schools. In counties where an Agricultural Agent is employed the High School instructor cooperates with, and assists the County Agent in giving instruction and in super- vising certain demonstrations which the farmers are carrying on. This type of work in the sec- ondary schools develops the in- terest of the entire community, and stimulates community spirit and community development. We are well aware that this work cannot always produce an immediate re- volution in the agricultural methods of the community, but we are specifically aiming at the next gen- eration of young farmers and their successors. This field of educational effort is an inviting one to a young man trained in Agriculture and who is willing to undertake the work in a community and continue it for a series of years Students in Agricultural Colleges are gradually getting the vision that secondary agriculture affords an opportunity for rare constructive work, and the communities are slowly beginning to recognize the vital relation which the Public High School bears to the present and future welfare of rural life. The teacher of secondary ag- riculture must be a very human teacher and realize that his work is an humanizing process. Also that his subject is the connecting link between ordinary scholastic train- ing and the real activities of human life, and such opportunities are bound to attract the virile young men from Agricultural Colleges. 27 \ o "1 , , 1 i "^ I I } f 'f 1 'C5 1 A.;ncxdi;uro in the i \ibiic Huh S o irmeiom A. V. STORM, Professor and Chief of Division of Agricultural Education, College of Agriculture, University of Minnesota There are one hundred seventy- six high schools in Minnesota, each authorized by the State High School Board to maintain a department of agriculture and to receive state aid therefor if the work is ap- proved. Only three schools are in towns of over 10,000 population. Most of them are in towns and villages of small population, sur- rounded by agricultural conditions. State Aid The aid received from the State is not to exceed $1 ,000 annually and may be less. If the amount ap- propriated by the last session of the legislature is not sufficient to pay the entire amount to each school it is prorated among the schools maintaining satisfactory de- partments. In addition to the state aid received for agriculture, the school may receive annual aid for the following: For a department of Home Economics, $600; For a de- partment of Manual Training, $600; For a department of Commercial Training, $600; For a department of Normal Training, $1,200; For each "associated" rural school, $200; For meeting the conditions of a high school, $1,800; (or for meeting the conditions of a graded school with a high school depart- ment, $600, plus $100 for each teacher in excess of four employed and $250 for each high school teach- er employed the total not to ex- ceed $1,300. Under this system it would be possible for a school to receive the following annual aid from the state, viz: Being a high school $1 ,800 Four vocational departments 2,800 Normal Training De- partment 1 ,200 Associated Rural Schools. . . . 2,600 $8,400 In addition to the above there is annual aid of $50 to each rural school that "associates"; and to a consolidated school $500 for Class A and $250 to Class B, with reim- bursement for transportation up to, but not to exceed $2,000. Con- solidated districts providing new school buildings are reimbursed one fourth of the cost not to exceed $2, 000. Besides this there is library aid, other forms of special aid and the annual state apportionment amounting to nearly $5.00 per scholar. Conditions to be Met For the special aid for agricul- ture, application is made in March, the High School Board designates the school in September, the in- spectors observe the school during the year and if it is approved, the aid is awarded in August. If the agricultural instructor teaches any other subject than ag- riculture, the amount of state aid is diminished by the rate which the time spent on the other subjects bears to the length of the school day. Each school must maintain also a department of home training. The 28 QUARTERLY OF AX. superintendent must supervise the associated schools and the voca- tional instructors must visit each at least once each month, the cen- tral district furnishing the necessary transportation. All pupils in as- sociated districts are entitled to free tuition in the Central school. In future the school house of an as- sociated district must be within four miles of the Central building. The agricultural course of study must be as follows: At least one class for boys in the seventh or eighth grade (or both) of at least two forty minute periods per week for a year. One class of high school agriculture for each year the school receives aid until a three year course is provided. Agronomy and Animal Husbandry shall each be given a full year. Farm management, farm mechanics, soils and horticulture are also recomended. A young people's short course of three months shall be maintained, unless the school be excused for good reason. A school plot of five acres is re- commended. The instructor must be a grad- uate of a standard agricultural col- lege, with fifteen semester hours of professional preparation, of which three must be methods of teaching agriculture and three actual teach- ing under supervision. He must be employed for the full year of twelve months and must have one fourth of each school day free from regular school work to utilize for the short course or extension work. The summer months are to be de- voted to extension work. The board must allow a reasonable amount for transportation expenses. The equipment must include suitable rooms, a good library, facilities for preserving and display- ing products, apparatus for testing milk, soils, and seeds. The quarters must be easily accessible to farmers. This rapid increase has brought with it one serious difficulty. It was absolutely impossible in the earlier years to obtain a supply of suitably prepared teachers. In 1912-13 the first thirty schools I visited contained agricultural teach- ers from fifteen different states. Fortunately, this ratio has not continued. The largest number of men from any state come from the Agricultural College of Minnesota; over half of them come from Min- nesota and the States touching her borders, and over three-fourths from these states plus the states north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi rivers. Less than 4% of them come from east of Ohio or west of Nebraska, and practically all of these came in the early years when men were very difficult to obtain. Those regions are furnishing none now. The state department has declined to certificate men from distant re- gions where agriculture differs great- ly from that found in Minnesota, because the teacher is also a farm advisor for his community and must have practical knowledge of local agriculture. The quality of the teaching force is improving. Most of the men are strong, virile, practical men for whom Minnesota conditions have an attraction. The twelve months year, part time for extension service of a practical nature, the winter short course, the special equipment, limiting his teaching to agricultural subjects, and a reasonable salary have drawn here a better group of men than could possibly have been obtained had agriculture been in- troduced into the high schools on the conventional academic basis. 30 Another important influence in improving the teaching personnel is the selection of new county agents from the high school agricultural teachers who have demonstrated their ability through their high school extension work. Having dis- covered that they run very little risk in appointing as county agent a man who has shown signal ability in his high school community work, Minnesota and many other western states have adopted the policy of taking practically all of their county agents from the ranks of the high school agricultural teachers. With- out looking the matter up, I recall that recently the states of Min- nesota, Montana, North Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and New York have offered county agencies to men teaching agricul- ture in Minnesota high schools. Extension Work The rules recognize and encourage extension work, and it is usually approved by the superintendent, the board and the business man. With one-fourth or more of each school day and all Saturdays, even- ings, and summer months available for community service, with trans- portation furnished by the district, augmented frequently by the autos and teams of the business men, and farmers, and with the co-oper- ation of the business men, farmers and both city and county super- intendent of schools the agricultural teacher of ability has been able to do a large amount of vital extension work. Farmers' clubs, cow testing as- sociations, live stock shipping as- sociations, potato growers' asso- ciations, silo clubs, crop breeding associations, alfalfa clubs, live stock improvement clubs and similar or- ganizations come rapidly into ex- istence. Contests, fairs, lectures, and demonstrations in country school houses or churches, village halls, and residences were held. Testing seed corn and other seeds, clearing land, cleaning seeds, spraying orchards, testing cattle for tuberculosis, testing milk for fat content, judging stock, con- structing silos, surveying, ditching, tiling, roadbuilding, farm planning, as well as planning barns, houses, water supply, heating, ventilating, and lighting systems have spread over the state from these schools as centers. Transportation for Extension Work. The means used for transpor- tation in extension work include auto, motor cycle, bicycle, horse and buggy. Ownership is in the district, the teacher or the livery. If in the livery, the district pays the bills, if in the teacher the board pays him mileage (from 5 cents to 1 5 cents per mile, according to agreement) or a flat sum per annum from small amounts to $300, and if in the district the expense is borne by the district. The most satisfac- tory plan seems to be ownership of an auto by the teacher, the dis- trict paying him a lump sum or mileage. The School Plot From the beginning in 1909 until the present school year, cer- tain schools were required to main- tain a plot of ground for the use of the school, containing not less than 5 acres. At the present time no school is compelled to maintain a plot but all are advised to do so. Many not originally required to maintain plots did so voluntarily and con- tinue to do so. With no experience nor precedents many errors were made in the early use of the school plot. Slowly the schools are dis- 31 tinguishing between what is sound and what is unsound use of the school plot; also that what is wise in one part of the state is not necessarily wise in another. They have learned that a school plot cannot be a "farm" but is an outdoor laboratory; that it should be used primarily for teaching the school students and only secondarily to teach adults; that it should return an educational profit and not necessarily a financial profit (any more than any other laboratory); that in no sense is it school plot is much needed to de- velop proper home gardening; that the growth of good seed is a valu- able use of the school plot in some neighborhoods; and many other valuable truths. Of the 147 agricultural high schools last year 78 reported having plots though only half that number were required to do so by law. Of the 57 furnishing data on income and expenditure only 24 reported the expenditures more than the in- come which is remarkable since BOYS PROJECTS, MINN. an experimental plot; that many things tried on the school plot are better carried on as co-operative demonstrations on the neighboring farms; that if the class room teach- ing of agriculture is to be real and vital the teacher must have a piece of ground where the theories of the class room can be actualized; that through the school plot ground may be furnished to those pupils who have none at home; that a sample home garden exemplified on the financial profit is not a great de- sideratum. The Project Beside those, the school plot, the class teaching and the extension work have been promoted by pro- jects on the farms of the pupils' parents or of other farmers. The production of seed grains; the in- troduction of new crops or varie- ties; methods of cultivation or of treatment; systems of farm manage- 32 , aai-s ment including records are a few of the ways in which the agricul- tural teacher has used the project, not to mention the large amount of work done with boys and girls clubs, contests, fairs and shows. Minnesota has a national reputa- tion for the work done in boys and girls clubs and the agricultural teachers have assisted in creating it. "Project" is a very indefinite term in these days. The popularity of the new term has caused it to be used to cover a multitude of very loosely organized efforts. It is a far cry from the fully wrought out and closely supervised project work of Massachusetts to the non- supervised "contest" of many other localities. So far as the schools of Minnesota have promoted projects they have gone to neither extreme. Schools have reported projects on the school plot as follows: De- monstration, 69; pure seed produc- tion, 55; production of laboratory material, 44; variety tests, 37; school gardens, 25; fertilizer tests, 22. In addition there are large numbers of home projects carried on by pupils. The Three Month Short Course The statute and the rules re- quire each school to maintain a three months short course for those who cannot attend school during the remainder of the year. These are held from December first to March first at the school but in rooms separate from the other pupils. The daily hours are shorter, beginning later and closing earlier than the regular schools. Persons who are not attending regular schools are urged to attend even tho beyond the maximum school age. The work given is very prac- tical and is intended for immediate use on the farm. It includes agri- culture, farm arithmetic, farm woodwork and iron work, farm english, farm civics, farm account- ing and farm business. Text books are not largely relied upon, but real things and conditions are studied. The short course has been of great value not only for the direct good done to those who at- tend but also the regular students by its influence in making their courses more practical. The Preparation of Teachers The College of Agriculture offers facilities for the preparation of ag- ricultural high school teachers. En- trance requirements are the same as the most exacting colleges of the University full four years in an accredited high school. A full four years college course is re- quired, including fifteen hours in professional subjects such as Princi- ples of industrial education (3) history of industrial education (3), Psychology (3), Methods of teach- ing Agriculture (3) Actual teaching of Agriculture under supervision (3), Organizing and managing Ag- riculture in a Minnesota High School (3), the last three courses being required. The supervised teaching is done in the school of Agriculture of the University, the public high and graded schools of Minneapolis and nearby cities and towns and the country schools near University Farms. The num- ber of college students electing this work has increased with striking rapidity since the department was organized less than three years ago. Nearly a year ago this division had the second largest number of Sen- iors who had chosen this depart- ment for specialization of any of the eight lines of specialization offered in the college, altho it was the youngest division organized. 33 AVfn Agilcuiltui n Moimtiimm 1 [I gib C. A. BUSH GRICULTURE is being taught at present in five high schools in Montana, these being the Flathead County High School, Fergus County High School, Beaverhead County High School, and the High Schools at Belt and Victor. Perhaps of the schools teaching this subject the earliest were the Flathead and Beaverhead Schools. Within the last year the subject has been added at the Fergus, Belt and Victor schools. The State can boast of no reg- ular Agricultural High Schools as yet, altho the Legislative Assembly voted $5000 to establish an Ex- periment Station and Agricultural High School on the Old Fort As- sinaboine Farm in northern Mon- tana. Only the Experiment Station was established last year and the school will be started when more funds are appropriated. The teach- ing of Agriculture is not made com- pulsory in any way in Montana, nor is it assisted by legislation. The Flathead School is reputed to be a little in the lead of the other schools in the line of Agriculture. The subject was added as a one year course six years ago. For three years only a one year course was taught, but in the fall of 1912 the present instructor started to build up a four year course. At present three years of the course are in operation and the fourth will be added next year. In the first year the subjects of Soil and Field Crops are studied, in the second, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, in the third Agricul- tural Engineering and Fruit Grow- ing and in the fourth Farm Manage- ment and Agricultural Economics. The above subjects along with the general High School subjects in- cluding four years of Manual Train- ing entitle the student to graduate from the agricultural course. Prac- tically the same course has also been adopted at the Fergus School. In the fall of 1913 a short course for farm boys was started for those who had finished the eighth grade but for various reasons had not entered high school. These boys are in attendance from November first till March fifteenth and at present both the beginning class and second year class are attending. In the first year the subjects of Soils and Crops, Manual Training Farm Arithmetic and English are taken up while the second year boys study Dairying, Carpentry, Mathematics and English. The girls taking the Normal Training course and preparing to teach in the Rural Schools are turned over to the department for one semester when they are given a course in Agriculture for the rural schools. At present six classes in Agri- culture meet daily which requires the time of the regular instructor and part of the time of the State Agent in Dairying, F. M. Hillman, who teaches the two classes in dairying. All classes recite three times each week and have two double labora- tory periods, also some special home project is required of each student during the summer following the year's work; such project must be completed and reported upon before 34 JXTIflS, credit is given for the class work. For three years the Annual Farm- ers short course has been held dur- ing the holidays with an attendance as high as 400 farmers and farm women. Work in home Economics is also given at this time. Speakers for these events are secured from the State College, Department of Agriculture, and other sources. The department aims to make itself useful to the farming com- munity and succeeds in doing so by performing all manner of ser- liminary surveys have been run to ascertain the advisability of draining or irrigating certain tracts. By acting as a medium for the State College variety rests have been made on a large number of crops. Other co-operative tests have been carried on with farmers such as fertilizer tests, and test of new crops. Milk has been tested for farmers at the rate of nearly a sample for every school day and co-operative herd records have been started in many cases. Up to March SURVEYING FOR IRRIGATION, FARM ENGINEERING CLAfS, MONTANA HIGH SCHOOL vice in its power. The classes have surveyed and planned three ir- rigation systems, which are now in successful operation. They have built an Ames Hulling and Scaufying Machine, which is in- stalled in the school where farmers bring their sweet clover seed to be treated at a nominal charge. This machine has increased the germi- nation of samples by 1 5%. The Engineering class is now constructing a concrete corrugated roller for a farmer. Several pre- first of this spring one hundred thirteen samples of seed had been tested for germination and purity. Many samples of soil have been sent to the State College for an- alysis and many simpler tests made at the school. With the aid of the College soil chemist, special soil problems are being worked out. In all this work the State College has always met the school more than half way and it is believed the county has secured a greater pro- 35 JS^T,, portion of the good things the Col- lege has to offer. Contests have been inaugurated, such as an acre yield contest on potatoes and corn, the winners of which attended free to themselves the Annual short course at the State College this year. The Animal Husbandry class have set an incubator, part of the hatch of which will be divided among the class to take home and after raising exhibit at the County ments were given. A class of rural teachers come to the High School on Saturday to study Agriculture with the instructor and by co-opera- tion with theCounty Superintendent simple exercises in Agriculture are supplied the employed teachers and other things done to help along the teaching of Agriculture in the Rural Schools. An Advisory Board of nine leading farmers meet twice yearly to advise with the department, PUKITY ANALYSIS, FARM CROPS CLASS, MONTANA HIGH SCHOOL Fair where prizes have been offered by the poultry association. The balance will make up the flock which will furnish eggs and meat for the school dormitory. The department for two years has managed a sort of Lyceum system of entertainments which are given in rural schools, making use of any free talent including talks on rural problems illustrated by lantern slides of local views, also made by the department. Last year thirty-eight such entertain- making suggestions and review the work done. Farmers are coming to rely on the school and only a few days ago six farmers called on the department concerning various sub- jects. It is safe to say there are more calls from farmers than there are school days in the year. Boards of Education act wisely in putting Agriculture into the course where over half the students are from the farms; yet the work which the High Schools are capable of doing along this line will never be reached so long as vocational work is cramped into the old daily programs of the classical studies. Changes must come to accom- modate these vocational subjects as they still fit like square plugs in round holes in the old order of things. Teaching Agriculture in a high school offers exceptional opportuni- ties for the Agricultural college grad- uate, in that there is the chance and incentive for a little deeper study, a sort of a review of work taken in college. If the teacher keeps properly connected with the farm- ers of the county, there is a fine chance to settle down to the proper perspective of things. To get the farmers viewpoint is what many Agricultural workers need badly. 37 QU ,Y OF ALPHA Z1STA C 1 N w fork L. S. HAWKINS OR many years the New York State Education Department has recog- nized agriculture as a proper subject for school study and ten years have passed since the first outline of a course in agriculture was included in the courses of study for secondary schools. Not until 1910, however, was there any provision made for instruction of a vocational nature. At this time the legislature enacted a law authorizing the Commisioner of Education to apportion public money for the partial support of schools of agriculture, mechanic arts and homemaking. In 1913 this law was amended to its present form. The following briefs indicate the main provisions of the original law and amendments. Schools of Agriculture, Mechanic Arts and Homemaking. LAW 1910 1 . Such schools may be estab- lished in union free school districts when authorized by a district meeting. 2. Such schools are to be under the direction of the authorities that have charge of other public schools of the district. 3. The Commisioner of Educa- tion shall annually apportion $500 for the first teacher and $200 for each additional teacher provided. (a) Such teacher devotes his work exclusively to such school. (b) Such school is independently organized. (c) Such school has an enroll- ment of at least 25 pupils. (d) Such school maintains a course of study approved by the Commissioner of Education. 4. All money so apportioned is to be used exclusively for sup- port and maintenance of such school. AMENDMENTS OF 1913 1 . Such schools may be estab- lished in union free school districts or in common school districts when authorized by a district meeting. 2. No change. 3. The Commissioner of Educa- tion shall annually apportion a sum equal to two-thirds the salary of the first teacher and one-third the salary of each additional teacher, also $200 additional if such teacher is employed for the full year (in- cludes summer vacation) provided (a) No change. (b) Such school may be a de- partment or course of instruction established and maintained in a public school. (c) Such school has an enroll- ment of at least 1 5 pupils. (d) Such school maintains an organization and a course of study and is conducted in a manner ap- proved by him. 4. All money so apportioned is to be used exclusively for the payment of the salaries of the teach- er. The amendments of 1913 do not change the fundamental principles of the original law but give to them 38 LTSRX.Y OF AL increased effectiveness. The re- duction of the required number of pupils from twenty-five to fifteen enables a school to start the work without overcrowding the classes, encourages the smaller schools to undertake this instruction and gives opportunity for the schools to make the work really vocational without fear of reducing the enrolled number below the requirement. This last point is especially significant as a great effort is being made to have pupils who wish to study agriculture, give enough time to it and continue its study for a period sufficient to make it worth while. The change from a fixed ap- portionment for each teacher to a fractional apportionment based on the salaries of the teachers, en- courages the local authorities to secure better teachers and once having secured them, to grant rea- sonable yearly increases. The provision for an additional apportionment to each school which contracts with the teacher for an entire year, makes possible an ef- fective teaching plan. Thus far sixty-four school dis- tricts have availed themselves of the provisions of this law and pre- sent conditions indicate that event- ually nearly all of the rural high schools will be giving instruction in agriculture. Fully as important as the number of schools taking up this work, is the type of instruction given. The plan of organization provides that about one-half the pupil's time during the four years shall be given to the study of agriculture, and the other half to English, history and mathe- matics. Since agriculture deals with concrete material and is to a great extent objective, much of the time given to this subject is spent in the field and laboratory, connecting in as many ways as possible everyday objects and occcurrenes with the general principles of science. For this purpose the barns, machinery, herds, flocks, fields and crops of neighboring farmers are usually accessible and available. Each school also has a shop for general construction and repair work in wood and iron, a laboratory equipped to carry on demonstrations and ex- periments necessary for an under- standing of the underlying science, and a library of books and bulletins dealing with the best science and practice. Each school includes in the work of four years, something of wood and iron construction, poultry husbandry, agronomy, fruit growing, animal husbandry dairy- ing, and farm machinery and farm management; but the amount of time given to each branch, and the phases emphasized depend, to a large extent, upon local conditions. In any case the availability of concrete material determines the sequence of topics; hence, in some lines the season determines the order of topics for the greater part of the year. In scope, the high school work confines itself to accepted facts, or to general practices where experimental data is insufficient to clearly establish facts. Although great emphasis is placed on concrete class instruction, this, by itself, does not go far enough. In order that a boy may really fix his knowledge of poultry husbandry, it is necessary for him to engage in the poultry business. In order that he may gather together his knowledge of agronomy it is nec- essary for him to grow a crop and that in accordance with what he has learned about crop production. Incidentally, in this way he gets much information about the subject which he never could get from class, 40 JUNE, 191S laboratory or books. With these ends in view each pupil is required to carry on at home a project in that line of agriculture which he is studying in school each year. About the first of March the time given to general instruction is great- ly reduced and each pupil works on the plans for his project so that, when the time comes to launch his enterprise, he has a definite course of procedure. From the time the project starts, the pupil keeps ac- curate accounts of all income and expenditure, including his own time, and at the end analyzes his own business. Parents are also interested in the project. The boy and the teacher consult with them from the beginning. The teacher explains to the parents that these schools of agriculture are conducted on the principle that there are still ed- ucational opportunities at home and that the school, in order to perform its functions properly, must make use of those opportunities. The father must be in sympathy with the idea that the school and home need to work hand in hand to offer the best educational advantages to the boy. Besides the educational value to the boy, the home project plan gives to the teacher a better idea both of the home conditions of particular boys and of the general farming conditions of the com- munity. It helps to keep his teach- ing within the realms of possibility. In order that the teacher of ag- riculture may be available to super- vise the projects during this summer months, the Commissioner of Edu- cation is authorized to apportion two hundred dollars to each school district which extends the contract with said teacher to cover the full year. Although supervision of home projects is the primary business of the teacher during the summer period, he also has opportunity to collect materials and make plans for the work of the coming school year. He becomes better acquainted with the farmers and the farming of the community and finds many opportunities of letting the people know what the school is doing, and can do, for them. Besides the classroom instruction and the supervision of the home projects of boys regularly enrolled in a four-year course in agriculture, there are other activities carried on by these schools. Short courses of two to three months in length are conducted for those who for any reason are prevented from attending the regular course. A few of the schools offer evening instruction. Week extension schools from Cor- nell have been held at several of these schools. Many of the teachers supervise the projects of the boys and girls during the summer. Although the extension field is broad and affords plenty of room for many agencies, it is generally conceded that in order to secure the best results for the energy expended it is best for all such agencies to act in cooperation. The county farm bureau is at present the logical cen- ter for cooperation. These schools are now working in close coopera- tion with the county agents. Ten of the present Farm Bureau Agents are former teachers, and thoroughly understand the possibilities of the teacher's acting as local agent. The teacher in visiting farmers to arrange for field demonstrations, and in visiting the homes of pupils to assist them with the projects, be- comes well acquainted with a num- ber of farmers. It is but natural they should ask him for advice and assistance. If he cannot help them, he directs them to the proper sources for help. Last year school 41 spray pumps were used on more than five thousand trees, one school alone spraying over twelve hundred. The milk from nearly five hundred cows was tested in school testers. In these and many other ways the school is beginning to function in the life of the community. There are certain points which should be noted as characteristic of these de- partments or schools: (1) They are universal in the sense that any school district may establish one. (4) At least one trained teacher must give his whole time to the work. (5) The work continues whether or not school is in session. (6) The school and the home are joined in an educational enter- prise. (7) The instruction is suited to the local community. Hannibal is a little hamlet boast- ing a population of 432. It is not a peculiar community not an un- VOCATIONAL-ASEICUETURE -IN- NEW YORK ST20B LITTLE VALLEY MMMOMOPOr *! ...tu. HIGH -SCHOOLS- IN -WHICH FOU- YE A- COURSES HAVE: BEEN -ESTABLISHED- MIOOUTOWN (2) A department may be es- tablished only when public senti- ment as expressed by a majority vote favors it. (3) Although the State aids in the support of the school, the com- munity must pay its share. usual community. It is like hund- reds of other localities of New York State, each of which has its own spe- cial conditions and opportunities. It has, however, had the unusual ad- vantage of rearing in its midst and retaining as its high school principal, 42 J1JH3B, 1316 a man of excellent judgment, ster- ling integrity, high ideals, inex- haustable energy, wonderful fore- sight and abounding enthusiasm. Largely through his efforts the school has developed from an old line classical institution with six academic pupils, four teachers, a four room building and an annual income of $87.00 for non-resident tuition to "The Hannibal Voca- tional Schools for Leadership in Country Life" with a registration of 90 in the academic department, about one-half of whom are enrolled in the agricultural and homemaking courses, a staff of ten teachers, an annual tuition income of $1300 and a ten room building besides the two room agricultural and homemaking building, built by the agricultural students in 1912. The first class in agriculture was orginized in 1908 with S. R. Lock- wood, the principal, as teacher. The work grew and developed dur- ing the next three years to such an extent that Hannibal was recog- nized as one of the first vocational agricultural schools organized under the law of 1910. The homemaking work was started one year later. Of all the pupils who have taken the agricultural course, 74% are now living in the country and 26% in the city. In the seven year period from 1901-1908, of all the graduates 81% are now in the city and 19% in the country, while of the suc- ceeding seven year period 1 909- 1915, of all graduates, 50% are now in in the country. the city and 50% Alumni 1901-1908 1909-1915 Agriculture boys 1908-1915 Percentages now found in City Country 81 50 26 19 50 74 This figures plainly show that this school is really educating for the open country. For miles around the farmers look upon this school as the source of agricultural in- formation. A lecture course (in- cluding field demonstrations) is one of the features of the school. The lecturers are successful farmers from the neighborhood and the demon- strations are on the home farms. Mr. Lockwood, the principal and teacher of agriculture, lives about three miles from the school house on his own farm of twenty-seven acres. He keeps a horse, two cows, 100 hens and has 150 apple, 200 cherry and 250 pear trees. He is a successful farmer and a successful teacher. This community stands as a monument to his labors. 43 OF AIL, Agriculture in the Secondary School of North Dakota WILLIAM A. BROYLES Principal Walsh County Agricultural and Training School Park River, North Dakota HE State of North Da- kota is essentially a rural state. There is no town of thirty thousand. Most of the county seats are mere villages. There is scarcely any manufacturing. It is all farming. The Red River Valley of the North, in spite of thirty-five years of culti- vation, still will raise wheat and wheat is still the leading crop. On the "slope", west of the Missouri diversified farming is of necessity, more common. The population of North Dakota is largely made up of patches. In Walsh county, for example, are settlements of French, Bohemians, Icelanders, Swedes, Poles, Syrians, while the great bulk of the popula- tion is Norwegian. North Dakota has been a treasure house for the immigrant. She has endowed him richly with free land and after a decade or so he has the power of wealth. The agricultural training for North Dakota youth at this time should be fitted for land- owners, actual or would-be. Agriculture is a recognized sub- ject in the laws and curricula of North Dakota schools. The law provides that it be taught in all rural schools. But so many subjects have been incorporated in the course of study by statute, such as physical education, kindness to animals, that the burden is a great deal for un- trained teachers. Many teachers if they teach agriculture at all make it a mere textbook matter. The law will no doubt work out in time so that agriculture shall be taught in the schools where it is most val- uable and nearest to the people. The industrial contests directed by county superintendents include acre yields of corn competitions and contests in butter making. Canning club work is also planned in several counties for this season. In the high schools a peculiar condition exists. Technically speak- ing there are five schools in the state designated by law as "high schools maintaining an agricultural department." As a matter of fact, however, the larger high schools of the state quite generally teach agriculture. Larimore, Devils' Lake, Jamestown, have school farms; Grand Forks has just in- troduced the department last year. The law of 1911 provided that any high school suitably located and housed might qualify as a high school maintaining a department of agriculture. There was to be but one in a county, the high school was to maintain a winter short course, to cultivate ten acres of ground, employ teachers in agri- culture, domestic science and man- ual training, and for these quali- fications was to receive from the state a yearly subsidy of $2500. Five high schools, located at Beach, Velva, Carrington, La Moure and Grafton, immediately qualified for the subsidy, but the number has never been added to for reasons of economy. Meanwhile, during the 44 JUNE, ISIS five years, the pressure for industrial subjects became strong enough so that the more aggresive high schools of the state have put in the depart- ment of agriculture, without wait- ing for the state aid. Short winter courses are offered in a number of high schools and the high schools often carry on a series of meetings in the rural schools nearest the town where the high school is laocted. The course of study provides for Farm Crops and Horticulture in sentation, including as it does, building construction, road con- struction, concrete, power machin- ery and farm implements. These things cannot be brought into the ordinary school room and the course is not of much value unless the objects are at hand. The work in Farm Animals seems to be rather universally popular. Dairying is hard to present concretely, but the subject has been worth while if only to introduce the Babcock tester to WALSH COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AND TRAINING SCHOOL, PARK RIVER, N. D. the first year, farm animals and dairying in the second, rural en- gineering and soils in the third and Farm Managemet and County-Life Problems in the fourth. Of these, farm crops is the most easily pre- sented. The experiment plots are used to raise samples for class room use and the equipment and samples require little care and expense. Of all these required subjects rural en- gineering is the most difficult of pre- the people of the state. The use of this machine is such a convenient form of demonstration for rural meetings, that it promises to become familiar. The amount of state aid ($2500) for high schools maintaing agri- cultural departments was seemingly little enough for offsetting the ad- ditional expenses, if the equipment and instruction was to be adequate. The high school committee of the 45 State Board of Education, how- ever, in the paragraph of the report dealing with the Five Schools, said, "The Committe, however, feels that there is much work to be done in this field and that the demon- stration offered does not recommend the extension of the plan at pre- sent." Some harm has no doubt been done in all secondary schools which have undertaken vocational work by undertaking instruction which called for more equipment, smaller time and grows out of the unfamil- iarity of executives with the re- quirements of actual performance. Besides the high schools with ag- ricultural departments, there are two separate agricultural schools in North Dakota. The first of these was established in 1913, in Walsh County; the second, the following year, in Benson County. These schools were established not as a substitution for any existing school, nor as an addition to any system existing. They are addditional to *. PLANTING THREE HUNDRED TREES ORCHARD AND ORNAMENTAL, PARK RIVER, N. D. classes and more teaching force than was available. For example, one school advertised forge work for all boys in the winter short course. Investigation showed that the only equipment was the use of one hand-blown forge and anvil sev- eral blocks from the school. Another school printed an elegant "exten- sion" bulletin announcing services which the faculty were utterly un- prepared to render. This difficulty will pass away with a little more all schools previously existing, and are intended to serve as centers for rural life discussions. The county is made the unit for their support. The state aid is only $3000 yearly and the community establishing them must furnish grounds, build- ings, and maintain a complete course of instruction. Funds were raised largely by pri- vate subscriptions for these schools. The Benson County institution has forty acres of ground, while the 46 Walsh school has but 1 T/i acres. Plans for barns and stock are in- cluded in the aims of the school, but so far the principal part of the ex- penditure for equipment has been for machinery and appliances inside the building, such as forge shop, power saws and lathes. The Walsh County school has a second build- ing, a small frame affair in which the classes in rural engineering are housed. located in the same village with us, show consistent growth. These students board and room in the homes nearby and a dormi- tory is an urgent necessity. To meet this condition in some measure, we have turned the school building into a social center, where the stu- dents spend their evenings and Saturdays. The domestic science department serves a lunch daily at 1 5c and the school building is almost BUTCHERING DEMONSTRATION CONDUCTED WITHOUT OUTSIDE HELP. PARK RIVER, N.D. I have been head of the Walsh County School since its establish- ment. The personnel of the student body is very high. While rural, they are not poverty stricken, for there are practically no poor people in North Dakota. They are ambitious to learn music, art, sewing and machinery. They are not so am- bitious in literary lines. We enrolled this year one hundred twenty stu- dents and at the same time the high schools of the county, even the one a home. Classes close at four, but students make no concerted de- parture; they find their greatest interest in the school itself. The tree planting and plot cul- tivation is of great interest in the spring. The work in agriculture is much the same as in the agricul- tural high schools of the state, ex- cept that the work in rural engine- ering is more exclusively a machin- ery course. Building construction is given in the carpentry course. 47 The extension work of the school is rather inclusive, but this work is a matter of much time and money. The Better Farming agent is partly supported by the school and he has his office in the building. During the winter months he teaches in the shops. The prospects for further state aid for high schools maintaining departments of agriculture are very poor. The County Agricultural Schools shared in the action of the action of the last Legislature which wiped out the mill tax and ap- propriated instead, a lump sum to meet the state aid for the two schools established. This has op- erated to discourage further es- tablishment of these schools also. My own hope, however, is very strong that the need for agricultural instruction in the rural schools, vil- lage schools and whatever form of larger unit schools the consolidation movement may take is already an assured fact. The difficulties in the way are mostly those of finance and of intelligent supervision. With the growth of population and the em- ergency of educators trained in the newer aspects of rural life and edu- ucation, schooling in agricultural districts will unconsciously become redirected, so that the adjective "agricultural" will no longer need to be prefixed to the word education, but will be taken for granted. ffiT 48 Agriculture in New Hampshire High Schools GEO. H. WHITCHER Deputy State Superintendent EW Hampshire has been very fortunate with re- spect to thedevelopment of the new Practical Art Education Courses that now parallels the old Liberal Art Courses in nearly seventy percent of our existing High Schools, be- cause of the fact that there has been no State Aid or other over-stimulat- ing Agencies employed. Doubtless such aid would have extended this work more rapidly, but it most likely would have been a mushroom growth fluctuating and in many ways unstable, and on the whole less desirable than the pre- sent naturally adjusted develop- ment. Such growth as has resulted, and it is by no means insignificant, has been based upon a genuine de- mand, the State Department of Public Instruction of course point- ing out at all times the need, and rendering personal assistance when- ever there has been evidence of a local desire for improvement in a school system. In considering the few statistics given, it must be remembered that New Hampshire is a small state having a population of only 430,000, a public school enrollment of 64,000. Our total number of High Schools is only 89. Among these eighty-nine, twenty- seven or over 30% have full fledged four years courses in Agriculture; fifty or nearly 54% have equally comprehensive courses in Domestic Arts; 38 or 40% have four years courses in the Commercial Arts, and eight (8) have very strong Mechanic Art Courses. Cumulatively this means that out of eighty-nine (89) high schools, sixty-four (64) or al- most 72% have from one to three Practical Art Courses. This indi- cates better than pages of argument can do, that New Hampshire sec- ondary schools are making large use of the practical activities of the human race, as means whereby boys and girls in early and mid adoles- cence are being physically, mental- ly and morally nurtured to meet the ever increasing demands of home and community life. One-fifth of these sixty-four schools offer three Practical Art Courses each. I have said that the state gives no aid, meaning direct financial aid. Not a dollar is available to any town for special encouragement, either in way of salaries, equipment or supplies, other than is available for any and all courses, liberal or practical. The state did, however, in 1913 establish a Deputyship in the Department of Public Instruc- tion, whereby one man's time is given to inspection and supervision of, and suggestions relative to all Practical Art Courses. Agriculture It is not yet ten years since the first course in agriculture was es- tablished in a New Hampshire sec- ondary school, and naturally enough this is the only school where such a course once established has failed. The failure however, was due wholly to local mismanagement. In every 49 other instance agriculture once started, has continued as an impor- tant, often a dominant part of the school efforts. Looking over the list of twenty- seven schools where real agricultural courses exist, one is impressed with this fact: namely, that thirteen (13) of these are typical old New Eng- land Academies saved to us from an earlier order of things before the days of free High Schools. their doors towards the home and farm. There is no conflict here be- tween the Liberal Art Pupils look- ing towards the so-calledT "learned profession" and the Practical Art Pupils looking towards the basic in- dustries upon which all human so- ciety rests; side by side each group by rubbing elbows gains advantage from the other. The general type of the Agricul- tural Curriculum is the same for all DOING THEIR OWN WORK.ANTRIM, N. H. This is a significant fact for it shows as nothing else does, the ten- dency of education today, to minis- ter to the every-day needs of every- body, rather than as of old to pro- vide special mental equipment for a selected few. Today these vener- able treasure-houses of the past, these centers of a limited distribu- tion of traditional education, these proudly superior conservers of an- cestral literatures have opened their windows towards the East, and of these schools. Ten periods per week for four years are given to dis- tinctively agricultural topics, the balance of the curriculum is in gen- eral coincident with some other course or courses offered in the same school. That this is a more or less tentative plan is evi- denced by a commendable ten- dency to make the mathematics of Agricultural Course grow out of land surveying or other practical farm measurements, or to develop 50 a type of bookeeping suited to the needs of the farm. History too is beginning to deal with an industrial background and civics shows signs of centering more closely around local requirements. There are schools managed by two teachers and others having five times that number, and there are schools in villages of 200 to 500 population, and others in centers ten times as large. There are also schools where every pupil in Agriculture has a boys to whom an Agricultural Cur- riculum with its applied physical, chemical and biological sciences would not only be attractive, but would unquestionably offer the most sane and effective line of approach that the teacher could possibly follow. Plan of New Hampshire Agricultural Courses Three simple, direct principles dominate, namely, (a) that the ap- EXHIBIT AT TOWN FAIR, HOPKINTON, N. H. farm up-bringing and an occasional class in some schools is made up of pupils, 90 f "( of whom have had no farm experience. There is probably not a single High School in the State, however, that might not advantageously add an Agricultural Curriculum to its existing courses, for, from a ped- agogical point of view there are, even in our largest manufacturing centers, a considerable number of plications of science must be first experienced by the early and mida- dolescent pupil if his later scientific generalizations are to have maxi- mum meaning and value. This means school and home and pro- jects in every line of work, garden and field crops, orchards and small fruits, live stock for breeding and feeding, actual productions, har- vesting and marketing, (b) That simple fundamental processes with 51 A'f, tools that involve elementary prin- ciples must precede the more re- cent complex tools and processes, if the pupil is to aquire a large ability to adapt himself to whatever con- ditions he may later encounter. This means plowing, harrowing, planting and cultivating. It means working with hand tools on wood and iron. It means propagating plants by all practical methods, building hen-houses, swine houses, ice-houses, dairy-rooms, remodeling stables, laying concrete walks and erecting concrete walls, (c) That "Habit tends to destroy the very plasticity which gave it birth." Un- der this there must be an avoidance of the fatal fallacy of working for pre- cision and skill at a time when nerve and muscle demands the widest pos- sible varity of activity in order that a maximum of cortex functional- ization may result. Some Typical Agricultural High School Work It is impossible within the limits set to more than suggest what is being done. The few photographs reproduced are selected from scores of equally significant ones. No one school is best in all lines. A small school at Alton enabled four Jun- iors to earn $215, by pruning or- chards and this before and after school sessions and on holidays. The school at Antrim teaches boys to plow by plowing (See cut) and to harvest potatoes by very prac- tical work. The project work at the Hopkin- ton High School is noteworthy. At this same school during the winter of 1914-15 a series of home projects in poultry feeding accompanied by marketing of products proved of high educational as well as, economic value, in addition to these the fact that two boys from this school went home and commenced a complete re-organization of the home farm, shows that this kind of school work does function immediately in an im- provement of Agricultural practice. 52 Vocmlloem! Agrieiiiltaral Edbeatlon m Pemnisylvama L. H. DENNIS Director of Agricultural Education r the head of all sciences and arts, at the head of civilization and pro- gress, stands not mili- tarism, the science that kills, not commerce, the art that accumulates wealth but agricul- ture, the mother of all industry, and the maintainer of human life." Pennsylvania has been making rapid strides recently in the de- velopment of its public educational system. Not only has much been accomplished but many compre- hensive plans are now being put into operation, which will very materially increase the efficiency of our school system. The passage of the School Code in 1911 marked the beginning of many important developments in this State. The codifying of the school laws was in itself of great value and importance. The publicity thereby given to some features of the school system has also proved to be of great value in producing public sentiment for some of the movements since un- dertaken. This State has provided in a very definite way for the building up of a permanent State School Fund which will eventually prove of in- estimable value to the people of the Commonwealth in the management of the schools. The State Board of Education has been empowered to use certain funds in the equalizing of educational advantages in the State. It is also charged with the inspection and approval or rejection of new school buildings, there being a requirement in the School Code covering the heating, lighting, and ventilation of school buildings. A great many new school buildings have been built during the past three years. Among them are a number of attractive and exception- ally well planned high school build- ings, costing from $50.000 to over half a million dollars each. The State seems to be enjoying at the present time an epidemic of school house erection. The improved phys- ical conditions thereby resulting are having a beneficial influence on other phases of school administra- tion. School gardens are being es- tablished in towns and cities all over the State and a great deal of attention is being given to the ac- quiring and equipping of school play grounds, which in most cases are open and supervised all summer long. Another important step is the purchase by the State through the State Board of Education of the State Normal Schools of the State. In the State of Pennsylvania there are many large industrial cen- ters. Very naturally therefore, there have sprung up in these centers in- dustrial and trade schools of various kinds. The Legislature of 1915 pas- sed .one of the most significant ed- ucational acts of recent years, the Child Labor Law. As a result of this law children between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years are being provided with continuation schools and their hours of labor re- duced. Progressive development in pub- 53 *Tm^ lie education has not been confined to the city schools alone, as the rural dis- tricts of Pennsylvania have awak- ened to the new possibilities within the public school plant. There has been a marked awakening of public spirit. Community meetings are being held in many rural centers. In some cases, the whole county has been organized by communities. Parent-Teacher Associations have been organized and have been in- strumental in creating public sen- timent in the interests of progressive education. The consolidation of rural schools has already become a movement of considerable pro- portions and a large number of dis- tricts are planning to consolidate next year. In several cases, auto- hacks are used for the transporta- tion of pupils. One of the most significant moves has been the introduction of agri- culture in the public schools. Ed- ucators and patrons have realized that the whole spirit of the country school has been such as to educate away from the farm toward the life of the city. The introduction of ag- riculture as a public school subject has helped very materially to crys- tallize the movement toward revital- izing the curriculum of the rural school. By means of agricultural instruction, the boy of the farm can be educated in terms of his en- vironment. He can be prepared in a very specific manner for that en- vironment in which he finds him- self and for the life on the farm which he expects to follow. The school Code of 1911 made the teaching of agriculture in town- ship high schools obligatory. In these high schools agriculture was at first taught as one subject among many in a crowded curriculum. Possibly the most important result of the introduction of this subject in our high schools was the fact that it proved conclusively the need for more efficient training along ag- ricultural lines in the secondary schools of the open country. As a result of this aroused public senti- ment, agricultural education on a vo- cational basis was authorized by the Legislature of 1913, which passed an Act known as the Vocational Education Act. This Act provided for Special State Aid for school dis- tricts maintaining approved Voca- tional Departments of Agriculture in high schools and for special Vo- cational Schools offering courses in agriculture and home making. The development of this work is in charge of the Bureau of Vocational Education of the Department of Public Instruction, acting as the agents of the State Board of educa- tion. Where a Department of Agricul- ture is established in connection with an existing high school, a Supervisor of Agriculture is em- ployed to take charge of this work. He devotes his entire time to the teaching of agricultural subjects. He is employed for twelve months of the year. In most of these de- partments provision is made for an agricultural laboratory, a poultry room, a dairy room, a woodworking shop and a blacksmith shop. A course of study extending through four years is offered in this Depart- ment of Agriculture, which as a course, is elective to boys when they enter the high school. Individual subjects in the course however are not elective. The boys taking this course spend practically one-half of each day in this Department, in recitations, in the laboratory, in the shop, or in the field work. Many trips are taken to the farms of the community for instruction and prac- tical work. The instruction in the 55 OF woodworking shop is correlated as far as possible with the instruction given in the various agricultural subjects. In connection with the study of poultry raising, the boys build trap nests, feed hoppers, hov- ers, brooders and colony houses. Hot beds and cold frames are made by the class in vegetable gardening. Each boy taking the agricultural course must each year carry on an approved agricultural project. This nected with the tillage of the soil and other activities of the farm. The Supervisor of Agriculture is em- ployed for the entire year for the specific purpose of supervising these agricultural projects during the summer months in connection with the other community work carried on by him. One boy will take the growing of an acre of corn for his project. Another boy grows three acres of potatoes. One boy raised .* JUDGING HORSES, VOCATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, PENNSYLVANIA HIGH SCHOOL project work is the connecting link between the home and the school in the boy's education. By means of this project work, which is both productive and educational, the boy's training is carried on at home as well as at school. It is this prac- tical work with its close correlation with the work of the class room, laboratory and shop that makes the work vocational in its nature, as it thus aims in a very definite way to prepare boys for occupations con- 1 500 tomato plants. He purchased two canning outfits, with which he canned his products. In addition to canning tomatoes, he canned corn, beans, and peas in his spare moments. He had his own labels printed and put upon the market his own brand of canned corn, beans, tomatoes and peas. This he accomplished at the end of his first year in the agricultural course. He learned much during this summer about the value of labor and thrift. 56 He had few idle moments for loaf- ing. He gained some specific know- ledge concerning the raising and canning of tomatoes and incident- ally he cleared for himself the nice little profit of $130.00, after paying for his canning outfits and all ex- penses in connection with his pro- ject. The project work begins in the class room long before the ground is prepared and the seed sown, as true sense of the word. A new type of service is being undertaken. Al- though much has been accomplished already along this line, yet it is but a beginning of what is planned. The Supervisor of Agriculture has on file in his Department, all of the available agricultural bulletins, all classified and arranged for ready reference. These are frequently used by the farmers of his com- munity. The class in dairying with- FARMER S CLUB HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PENNSYLVANIA each boy makes a very definite study in advance of the project which he expects to undertake. He also keeps a record of books and authorities consulted, methods to be used, receipts, expenditures, labor, results, etc. This record in itself is of considerable educational value. The new High School Depart- ment of Agriculture and the Voca- tional Agricultural School are pro- ving to be community -^hools in the out charge tests the milk of the cows in the farmer's herd and the class in farm crops tests his seeds for him. Farmers' Night Schools have been organized all over the State of Pennsylvania. Over 1500 farm- ers were reached in one week by these night schools in these voca- tional schools and departments. In many cases the night schools closed with a two days' Farmers' Insti- tute. In some instances the Farm- ers' Institute closed with a Farm- 57 IF* ers' Banquet. Where Departments of Home Making were in operation in the school where these meetings were held, the girls provided the meals. Those engaged in developing ag- ricultural education on a vocational basis in Pennsylvania are well aware that this work is as yet in its infancy and that there are great possibili- ties awaiting development. To hasten the increased efficiency of this work and for the purpose of eliminating the weak spots, an An- nual Conference of all Vocational Supervisors of Agriculture is held at the Pennsylvania State College of Agriculture each year for a period of ten days. At this conference ad- ministrative problems, school or- ganization, subject matter, project work, community service and other problems are discussed. At this time these men are brought in touch with the leaders of agricultural thought in the State and lines of development are determined upon. There is a close cooperation be- tween the Farm Bureau Agent and the Vocational Supervisor of Agri- culture. The farm Bureau re- presentative takes charge of several sessions of the Farmers' Night School. In arranging for a Farmers ' Institute, the Supervisor of Agricul- ture at all times consults the Farm Bureau man in order that the work in his community may be a part of the plan for the county. The State Department of Agriculture also co- operates in an efficient manner, furnishing speakers for many meet- ings. One of the most encouraging signs in Pennsylvania at the present time for the development of Agri- culture, is the willingness of all ag- ricultural leaders to cooperate in the interests of agriculture. Our present Secretary of Agriculture, Charles, E. Patton and Dean R. L. Watts and Prof. M. S. McDowell, in charge of the Agricultural Ex- tension Work of the College are all offering hearty cooperation in the development of Vocational Agri- cultural Education. This means much for the future of this work. Our experience in Pennsylvania has been such as to bring us to the conclusion that the success of vo- cational agricultural education in each community depends very larg- ely upon the type of man selected in each case. To handle such a po- sition as this successfully, a man must have had practical farm ex- perience, a good secondary educa- tion and scientific training in agri- culture. This alone does not insure his success. He must have the abil- ity of meeting people and working with them. He must have a vision of the possibilities of the service he can render to his community. He must be a community leader in every sense of the word. More is probably expected and required of men who go into this service than of any other type of position at the present day. For this reason, we believe that the compensation of- fered should be commensurate to the demands made upon the men undertaking the work. In fact the market value of men of this type is naturally high. Pennsylvania re- cognizes this fact and is paying bet- ter salaries for this work than is usually paid in the teaching profes- sion. Financial remuneration, how- ever, is not the only compensation for those who enter this field of service. The opportunities for pro- fessional advancement and personal service should be of great consider- tion to young men graduating from Agricultural Colleges. As this work developes in this State this body of trained and skillful agricultural and community leaders will be- 58 aaie; come of increasing importance in the development of agricultural and rural interests of the Common- wealth. The awakened public sen- timent on the part of our rural school directors and progressive farmers has already clearly indica- ted that many of these men will be needed in this State as the work de- velops. 59 Development and Present Status of Agriculture in Secondary Schools of Texas J. D. BLACKWELL Associate Professor of Agricultural Education, Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas HE development of ag- riculture in Texas can be measured by illus- trations and examples into her States. As in other sections of the country, it has only been within recent years, that any rapid or definite progress has characterized the development of high school agriculture in this State. It was at the annual meeting of the State Teachers' Association, in December 1903, that the idea of giving agricultural instruction in high schools, was first agitated by Dean E. J. Kyle, of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. Very little thought had been devoted to the subject, by Texas educators, previous to this, and practically no definite plans had been formulated. It was a layman, imbued with the seriousness of the problem, who has the distinction of being the first man to actually introduce the subject of agriculture in the high schools of Texas. Judge V. W. Grubbs, of Greenville, Texas. He conceived and put into practice the idea of giving a series of lectures on agricul- ture to the high school students of his city, and so feasible was his plan, that other schools in the State began to adopt the idea. Publicity of this kind always attracts much atten- tion, and as a result of Judge Grubb's efforts, much interest in the study of the subject was aroused. Sentiment began to spread rapid- ly, so rapidly, in fact, that in 1905, the legislature passed a law requir- ing that agriculture be taught in the schools of Texas. The insistence for the work grew, and so large became the demand for qualified teachers of agriculture, that the legislature passed another law, making the teaching of the subject compulsory in the State Normal Schools. One of the fisrt definite steps in placing the work on a pedagogical basis, came when the Thirty-Second Legislature, realizing the need of financial assistance to the schools, taking up the work, passed a bill providing $100,000 in the form of State Aid to schools teaching agri- culture, manual training, and do- mestic science. By the provisions of this act, the State Board of Ed- ucation is authorized to duplicate the amount which may vary from $500.00 to $1 500.00 to schools of the first and second class and $500.00 to $1000.00 to schools of the third class, so designated by State in- spection, for the purpose of es- tablishing, equipping and maintain- ing Departments of Agriculture. Certain conditions must be met before any state aid of this charac- ter can be secured. In the first place, the city Board of Education must meet the legal requirements, as specified by the State Board of Ed- ucation, including four important provisions, to-wit: the ownership 60 131 3 of three acres of land, conveniently located and suitable for garden and field crops; the employment of a teacher who has received special training in agriculture; the pur- chase of the required laboratory, field and library equipment; and the support of the department, after the State Aid is withdrawn. As the result of the liberality of the thirty-third and thirty-fourth legislatures, making the same pro- visions for agriculture, that were made possible by the thirty-second legislature, approximately 1 50 dif- ferent schools in the State, are now receiving State Aid for agriculture. During the year of 1911-13, fifty, nine schools teaching agriculture- received State Aid. There were also many schools teaching the subject which did not apply for assistance. At present, the average value of high school agricultural equipment is approximately $130. The month- ly salary is approximately $100. A recent survey of methods of work, shows that the usual textbook is supplemented in many cases by inside laboratory work, field ex- periments, individual gardens, feed- ing experiments, home projects, caring for the school grounds, or- ganizations of boys' and girls' clubs, testing farmers' products, holding school fairs, and organizing school-house meetings for the par- ents. A report from the Cleburne High School for 1915 is suggestive of the manner in which the school farm is being made use of : Value on Crop Acreage Yield Total Value Acre Basis Cotton 4 2 bales $150.00 $ 37.50 Corn .8 Roasting ears 32.00 40.00 Fodder 6.00 7.50 Potatoes .4 100 bushels 100.00 250.00 Feterita, following potatoes 1 ton 6.00 15.00 Feterita .5 3 tons 18.00 36.00 Sudan grass .8 4.5 tons 27.00 33.75 Peanuts .8 1 .5 tons hay and nuts 40.00 50.00 Pop Corn .06 275 pounds 13.75 216.25 Total acreage 7.36 Total income $412.75 In addition to these field crops, every student in the boys' and girls' agricultural class worked a garden plot about 45 sq. yds. The income from these plots went to the students, averaging $5.00, or a total of $200.00. The expense of all of this work was very small, since the school owns a team of mules, wagon, mow- ing machine, cultivator and all the other necessary implements, and practically all of the work is being done by the students. At Yancey, the teacher created unusual interest in agriculture by carrying on a feeding experiment with school pigs. Each member of the class selected a pig, weighed it, than after feeding it a definite ra- tion for 120 days, again weighed the animal and estimated the profit. 61 THE QUARTERLY OF ALPHA ZETA Bishop High School has the dis- tinction of being the first to offer school credit for home project work. By doing this, the superintendent has brought about a noticeable co- operation between parent and teacher. Members of the agricul- tural class at Gatesville have been given the care of a five acre school grove, including pruning, spraying, cultivation, etc. At Fowlerton, students are testing dairy cows for ing rural high schools, and in better- ing general rural school conditions. This bill provides $200.00 to $500.00 State Aid to schools with a scholas- tic population of less than 200, which can at the same time satisfy other requirements, essentially nec- essary to school success. The Agricultural and Mechanical College, through the Department of Agricultural Education, and through the Extension Service, is TAKING THE HIGH SCHOOL OUT OF DOORS TEXAS tuberculosis. Trips are made into the country on motorcycles. At Whitt, a school fair was recently held, and 50 different prizes were awarded contestants. The entries consisted of home, farm and school products. All over the State, teach- ers are assisting in organizing boys ' and girls' clubs. School house meetings have been successfully carried on by many rural high schools this year. Interesting agri- cultural programs are given at these meetings. Governor Ferguson's Million Dollar Rural School Bill has lent a strong incentive toward establish- assisting many secondary schools. In order to meet the demand for skilled teachers of agricul- ture, courses are offered in "meth- ods of teaching agriculture", in- cluding organization of subject- matter, lesson plans, observation, etc. Directions for supervizing school gardens, fairs, home pro- jects, and community organizations, and the discussion of general prob- lems confronting the teacher of agriculture, is an interesting feature of the work. During the last two years, more than twenty graduates of the college have been placed in high schools, at salaries ranging 62 3.3)21 S from $800.00 to $1500.00 for nine months. This year there has been an unsual interest shown in the work especially by seniors, and twenty to thirty graduates will be available for positions. During the past year teachers' institutes have been visited by members of the Department of Ag- ricultural Education. At such meet- ings practical demonstrations were prises from time to time. One mem- ber of the department spends his entire time in the interest of rural and high school agriculture, visiting schools, standardizing the work, and organizing home projects. Correspondence Courses, offered by members of the teaching staff of the College, through this depart- ment, make it possible to give agri- cultural information to many teach- ONE OF THE DEPARTMENTS RECENT GRADUATES STARTING A PRACTICAL FEEDING EXPERIMENT TEXAS given in corn judging, milk testing, budding, etc., the teachers being given practice also in scoring and judging live stock. As a general rule, teachers are "getting into the game" enthusiastically. The department has come into personal contact with a thousand rural school teachers, by sending them bulletins and circular material, giving directions for carrying on home project work, for organizing school fairs, and for bringing about various community school enter- ers in the State. A Summer Normal and Rural Life School, recently organized, offers opportunities to teachers, for acquiring agricultural information. While rapid strides have been made in the development of agri- culture in secondary schools in this State, much remains to be accom- plished. There is a real opportunity in Texas for wide-awake teachers of agriculture, especially those who can vitalize their work, and prove themselves to be country life leaders. 63 Agricultural Kdueaiiion m i:ho Stato F. B. JENKS Professor of Agricultural Education ERMONT is fortunate in that there have been no compulsory laws such as have been pass- ed in a number of states requiring the teaching of agricul- ture in every school without first allowing time for the teachers to prepare for it. A great many schools in Vermont are now making some attempt to teach agriculture and with varying degrees of success. The development along this line in the high schools and academies has been quite rapid. In 1913-14 there were only four such schools employing a specially trained agri- cultural teacher. In 1914-15 there were nine, and this year, 1915-16, there are no less than fifteen. In fact, the number of schools desiring to introduce agriculture, is growing more rapidly than teachers are being trained, and the most difficult prob- lem is the securing of competent teachers. The last legislature revised the educational laws of the state, and a number of items in the new law will affect directly agricultural educa- tion. A brief discussion of certain features appears pertinent at this time. 1 . The school year shall not be less than thirty-four weeks in all public schools. 2. Junior high schools may be maintained in any town where the number of secondary school pupils warrants it, and each junior high school shall have a "four years course flexible in character, designed for the instruction of pupils who have completed an elemen- tary course of not less than six years, and suited to the number and need of the local pupils." The course of study for these schools is to be arranged by the state board of education, and must include vo- cational opportunities. The expense of maintaining the vocational courses shall be borne by the towns in which the schools are located, but the state board of education shall reimburse the towns for "such expense as will tend fairly to equalize the facilities afforded by such courses and the burden of maintaining the same." The state board may also provide land for instruction in ag- riculture at the expense of the state. The law provides also that the state board of education shall "prescribe and supervise all vocational courses with the further provision that all courses in agriculture both of junior and senior high schools, shall be ap- proved by the trustees of the state agricultural schools." Each junior high school is required to give "a vocational course in one or more of the following subjects: Agriculture, manual arts, commercial subjects or domestic science appropriate to the needs and environment of the particular school." Since junior high schools will, of course, be located in the small towns or vil- lages, and since the vocational course is required to fit the needs of the community, it will mean that agri- culture must be taught in prac- tically all of the junior high schools. 64 Six such schools are already start- ed, though they are not yet well or- ganized. Here again the problem of securing the right teacher is most difficult. The principal of the junior high school should not only be a teacher with sufficient experience to enable him to organize his work, and teach the academic subjects well, but he should also be able to con- nect the work of the school with the home life of the pupils. He should be a leader in community life as well considerable aid outside the avail- able funds of the local community. The State Board of Education has adopted certain rules and regu- lations concerning the organization of Junior High Schools to go into effect at the opening of the next school year, that will help to stand- ardize the work and make it more effective. Among those affecting the teaching of agriculture are the fol- lowing: PART OF CLASS OF ' I 5 IN AGRICULTURE, ORLEANS HIGH SCHOOL, ORLEANS, VT. as a practical farmer. The unusual character of his work calls for a man with initiative and he must be a tireless worker since the demands upon him are necessarily much greater than on the average teacher. It is needless to say that the man who measures up to the demands can command a salary above that of the ordinary teacher. In many in- stances, no doubt, it will require a. The teacher of agriculture must be a graduate of an agricul- tural college (or the equivalent thereof) and must have had suffi- cient practical farm experience to enable him to interpret local con- ditions. b. He must devote at least one- half of his time to the teaching of agriculture. The time devoted to each subject must be at least one 65 0!F 40 minute period each day with one double period per week for labora- tory and field exercises. Extra time to be given when projects demand it. c. The equipment must be ad- equate to supplement the recitation and should include a laboratory or laboratories, ample in size and with sufficient apparatus to permit in- dividual work. d. The school year shall be at least 36 weeks in length. The through practical instruction in ag- riculture, including tillage, crop raising, orcharding, forestry, farm management, marketing and the allied subjects of domestic science and the arts." This enactment is the result of the gift by Theodore N. Vail to the state of Vermont, of the Lyndonville Agricultural School and the Speedwell farms. This school was established several years ago by Mr. Vail and has been very successfully conducted by him since GREENHOUSE USED IN AGRICULTURAL COURSE IN HIGH SCHOOL, ORLEANS, VT. teacher of agriculture must be em- ployed for the 12 months, devoting the summer months when school is not in session to the supervision of home project work. 3. "A state school of agricul- ture to be known as the Theodore N. Vail School and farms is hereby created and established at Lyndon for the purpose of developing the agricultural resources of the state that time. It has grown constantly in number of students since its es- tablishment, and is one of the best equipped agricultural schools in the United States. This with the State School at Randolph constitute the state agri- cultural schools, and the law pro- vides for a board of trustees com- posed of "the commissioner of agri- culture and the Dean of the State 66 College of Agriculture, ex-officio, and three trustees to be appointed by the governor. ' ' The commissioner of agriculture shall be chairman. The board of trustees shall have general care and supervision, man- agement and control of all schools of agriculture and farms maintained or in any way aided by the state. There were during the past year about 1 50 students in these two ag- ricultural schools, and the number is steadily increasing. A former law which is still in force grants $200. to each 4 year high school in the state that has a department of agriculture with a specially trained teacher. The re- quirements are very similar to those of the teacher of agriculture in the Junior High Schools. There are eight such schools at present. The State Board of Education has invited the State Agricultural Col- lege to assist in the supervision of Junior High Schools and the teach- ing of agriculture and home econ- omics in all other high schools. The department of agricultural educa- tion will be charged with this sup- ervision. A new curriculum for the college of Agriculture of the State Univer- sity was put into effect upon the opening of school in September 1915. The courses of study are planned so as to equip the student that he may meet successfully the problems which he will have to face in whatever line of agricultural pursuit he ray desire to enter, whether it be in practical farming, teaching or research. In order to accomplish this the instructional staff believe the college should give a broad, scientific training with con- siderable time devoted to the so- called cultural subjects. This, of course, is done without discounting the value of practical demonstra- tions and field operations. The emphasis, however, is placed upon lectures, text book and laboratory work, which they could not get otherwise, rather than on the tech- nique of sundry operations con- nected with agricultural pursuits which they may, in most cases, secure to better advantage outside of college. The methods pursued have in view the development of the powers of observation, and thought more than the accumalution of facts. Students thus broadly educated will become not only better farmers but better citizens. Their training should not only fit them the better to earn a livelihood, but to play well the part of man in the world's work. Four courses of study are now offered, viz: A course in Agronomy. A course in Horticulture. A course in Animal Husbandry and Dairying. A course for the Training of Teachers of Agriculture in the Sec- ondary Schools. These four courses are indentical during the first two years. During Freshman year all the students take the usual fundamental studies, i. e., Mathematics, Chemistry, English, either French or German, as well as courses in agricultural botany, dairying, drawing and surveying. In sophomore year English and Botany are continued, zoology be- gun, and soils and soil management, vegetable gardening, types and breeds of domestic animals, stock feeding and forestry are studied. Thus it is seen that during the first two years the student deals not only with the fundamental science and language studies, but he takes also at least one course in each of the following branches of technical agriculture: Agronomy, horticul- ture, animal husbandry, dairying and forestry. Beginning with the junior year a higher degree of specialization is entered upon in accordance with the choice of the individual student. In no case, however, is this special- ization so narrowed as to preclude the choice of outside subjects. In the first three courses some election each semester must be made of studies from other courses. The stu- dent preparing to teach agriculture in the secondary schools must take a full course in education and sub- jects from the four groups of agron- omy, horticulture, animal husband- ry and dairying ,and forestry. This arrangement permits spec- ialization, but not too narrow a specialization. The policy which has long dominated the furnishing of a broadly scientific, rather than a nar- rowly technical course, one more- over in which the humanities are not forgotten is still maintained. 68 Agriculture in the High School H. N. GODDARD State Inspector of High School Agriculture, State Department of Education, Madison, Wisconsin N 1901, thru the recom- mendation of Hon. L. D. Harvey, then State Superintendent, the Wisconsin legislature passed a law requiring examination in the elements of agriculture of all candidates for certificates to teach in the elementary schools. At the same time provision was made by law for the establishment of two County Agricultural Schools for the vocational training of boys and girls in agriculture and domestic science. A liberal amount of state aid was provided for these schools, while the remaining cost was to be furnished by the county. Four years later, in 1905, thru the recom- mendation of the present State Superintendent, Hon .C. P. Gary, a law was passed requiring the teaching of agriculture in all the country schools in the state. These laws together with the reports and discussions connected with their passage, resulted in a very general movement toward introducing ag- riculture not only into the country schools, but also into graded and secondary schools and into the nor- mal schools. The number of county agricultural schools has increased until eight have been established. One was discontinued last year. These schools at first adopted a two year course for pupils beyond the eighth grade. However, during the last few years, in order to attract a lar- ger number of students, at least three of the schools have adopted full four year high school courses. These schools have thus become distinctly agricultural high schools. All the county agricultural schools have been splendidly equipped and provided with well trained instruc- tors. They have been able to free themselves easily from the tradi- tional, bookish, academic standards and have developed thoroly prac- tical courses, which are contribut- ing largely to the community prob- lems of their localities, as well as to the general agricultural movement. Therearemany indications that they may in the future fill a still larger place in the educational system, altho at the present time their future is not a fully settled problem. However, this may be, the num- ber of students seeking such in- stitutions, at first was somewhat of a disappointment and it became evident that a great number of parents preferred to give their children an education in a local high school, even one of the ordinary academic type, rather than to send them to a distance to attend a dis- tinctly vocational agricultural school. This led many of the advocates of ag- ricultural education to the conviction that the public high schools, being peculiarly the schools of the people, were eminently fitted todevelop such training. Furthermore, the new view point in education began to demand that the high school courses should become vitalized byprograms more closely related to social and indus- trial needs. 69 Accordingly, in response to a gen- eral demand thruout the state, the legislature of 191 1 passed a law giv- ing special state aid to high schools maintaing courses in maunal train- ing, domestic science and agricul- ture. Commercial courses were two years later included under similar provisions. For some years before the passage of the 1911 law, pro- gressive high schools had been giv- ing considerable work along these lines, but the new law led to a standardization of courses, and to a very rapid increase in the number of schools offering such work. By 1913 over sixty high schools had adopted the agricultural course, while at the present time there are over eighty high schools giving this work. In addition, many high schools are giving from a half to a full year's work without special aid. Furthermore, the 1913 legislature provided one hundred dollars spec- ial aid to any state graded school (usually a consolidated school of eight grades) on condition that in- dustrial work be developed to a standard approved by a state in- spector. This industrial work in- cludes for the most part manual training, domestic science and agri- culture. It is thus seen that the ag- riculture has been developed along with the other industrial subjects, the idea being to offer as varied lines of vocational work as possible in order not only to meet the special needs of the communities, but also to offer the greatest opportunity possible for each pupil to discover his tastes and aptitudes in relation to fundamental lines of life activity. To this extent the work is intended to be vocational. Many schools offer several and some all of these courses. The present law provides aid to the extent of one half of the cost of instruction in the special branch, up to a maximum of two hundred and fifty dollars ($250), if the work is given in the high school only, or three hundred and fifty dollars ($350), if given also in seventh and eighth grades. The teacher must be specially licensed by the State Board of Examiners, and a course of study approved by the State Superintendent must be adopted. This course of study must be also the equivalent of the course of study prescribed for free h i gh schools, the idea being to link up the agricultural or other vocational course with a strong general course which is adapted to the needs of good citizenship. A four year agricultural course has been required by the State Superintendent. peneral science may be offered as the first half year. The other units include a year of farm plant life, a year of animal husbandry, half a year of soils, and half a year of each farm mechanics and farm management. A good deal of flexibility is allowed in the ad- ministration of this course accord- ing to local conditions. From the beginning the indust- trial or project side has been re- garded as essential in the agricul- tural work of the high schools. It is expected that one or more special projects shall be carried out by each pupil during each year of the course as a condition of state aid. The term project, as distinguished from the practicum or exercise, is understood to be a piece of farm practice extended over a long enough time to round up a complete and productive result, and it is believed that such a result should be, wherever possible financially productive. The individual or home project has been considered as of first importance, but school or collective 70 projects have been extensively carried out and are believed to have many decided advantages not so fully realized by the home project alone. In fact it has been uniform experience that the school project stimulates and encourages the home project. School projects have in- cluded the management of a school plot, steer fattening, managing sev- eral dairy cows and marketing the product, poultry work and horticul- tural work. During the year 1914-15 nearly half of the high schools re- ceiving aid for agriculture operated school plots, varying in size from a small garden patch to ten acres. Raising an area of pure bred corn, producing a field of certified pota- toes, starting a plot of alfalfa, hot bed work, or growing the common garden vegetables have been some of the common forms of the school plot work. Home projects have included acre corn work, potato raising, gardening, hot bed work, raising and canning tomatoes (for girls), poultry raising, calf raising, pig fattening, cow testing and land- scape work. A large amount of club and contest work has been carried out, much of it in cooperation with the Boy's and Girl's Club and Con- test Department of the agricultural college. School exhibits and fairs have become very general. In Feb- ruary of the present year, a state wide stock judging contest was carried out under the direction of a special committee appointed by the agricultural section of the State Teacher 's Association. High schools having agricultural d e p a r t- . ments and the county agricultural schools were grouped into districts in each of which a preliminary contest was held. Winning teams then came to Madison for a final contest at the agricultural college. This resulted in a greatly increased interest in the agricultural work among the high schools of the state. Arrangements have now been made to make this an annual event. The employment of the agricul- tural director for an eleven month 's year has not been required by law, but the plan has been urged by every other means, with the result that now more than a third of the schools are following this plan. Summer supervision is considered absolutely necessary for school plot work. A clearer and more definite idea of the character of the work in these high school agricultural depart- ments may be gained by a descrip- tion of some of the special schools. The one at Green Bay, West Side, is a good example of the city type, Green Bay being a city of about 30,000 population. This course is directed by Mr. R. H. Cameron and has been in operation about four years. A four year course of study is offered with the usual lines of work, including systematic class room instruction, laboratory ex- periments and demonstrations, field study, and project work. Con- siderable farm carpentry work is done in connection with the pro- jects. Conditions have not been favorable here for much of what is ordinarily considered extension work, tho much interest has been aroused among the surrounding farmers. The practical or project side of the work has been given great prominence from the begin- ning, including both school and home projects. Conditions in this city have been particularly favorable for the development of the former, but it is interesting to note that this has only served to stimulate and promote the latter. Market gardening, poultry work and dairy- ing have been especially developed 71 THE QUARTERLY OF as school projects, while gardening and poultry work have been most popular as home projects. The "school farm" as it is called, began with a plot of two acres which was rented and operated as a gar- den. This plot has been increased from year to year until during the last year it had grown to ten acres. Fourteen acres will be operated next year. Early in the work with the farm a model poultry house was equipment, also paid for out of pro- ceeds of the work. On the comple- tion of the barn, the dairying feature was added by the purchase of two grade cows, the milk being market- ed with the other products. A horse and delivery wagon have been pur- chased for the delivering of pro- ducts. Practically all of the work con- nected with this farm is done by the students themselves and all the & SHOP AND FORGE BUILDING, MONDOVI, WIS. erected by the students and poultry raising became a prominent feature of the work. About a year ago a model barn was planned and built under the supervision of the manual training department of the high school, all the work being done by the boys. Lumber for the building itself was furnished by the school board, but the cement floor and mo- del furniture were paid for out of the profits of the farm. Last fall a fourteen ton silo was added to the products from garden, dairy and poultry are marketed in the city. Much of the work is done as a part of instruction or demonstration, but when the students have learned the principles and practice and the work becomes pure labor, then financial reward is offered and pu- pils are paid by the hour for their work. The students are carfully or- ganized so that they may look after every phase of the work. One is appointed the "boss farmer" while 72 others are captains of groups, each group being assigned to special duty in charge of the captain. Any boy has the opportunity to work for pay whenever his studies are all up to a satisfactory standard, his time being carefully checked. Students are allowed ten per cent commission for securing orders. These orders are filed on a special spindle, being taken from there by the captain of the group on duty for the day. This careful accounts of every phase of the work is made a definite and im- portant feature. The gross receipts from the farm during the last school year, between Sept. 1, 1914, and Sept. 1, 1915, were $600. For the poultry work, four or five incubators installed in a special basement room have been used for hatching the chickens. The farm poultry house is stocked from this source. At the same time pupils BARN IN CONSTRUCTION, WEST SIDE, WIS. captain directs the work of gather- ing preparing and delivering the products. More recently one of the students has been engaged at a salary of $18 per month as "barn boss", while another takes special charge of the delivering at a salary of $5 per month. The profit of the farm after paying all expenses are turned into the funds of the depart- ment and used for the purchaseof fur- ther equipment or for other needs. Effort is now being made to get enough ahead for the purchase of an automobile to be used for deliver- ing, field trips, etc. The keeping of have used these incubators for their home poultry work. Each pupil starting a poultry project, after selecting his breed, is expected to purchase pure bred eggs and then he is permitted to use the incubators for hatching by paying a small fee for fuel. When the chicks are hatched the pupil takes them home, constructs his own brooder, later constructs necessary coops, and before winter, gets ready a suitable house for wintering the birds ard carrying on an egg producing pro- ject. This work has aroused unusual interest. A remarkable thing about this course has been the great number of city boys that have chosen the work. During 1 9 1 4- ' 1 5 out of about three hundred and seventy-five pu- pils in this high school, one hundred and fifty-one were in the agricultural course. Of these, nearly a hundred had gardens at home last year and over a hundred were raising chick- ens. One year 500 chickens were raised on the school farm. Exhibits and contests have been made a prominent feature in con- nection with all the work, especially the garden and poultry. An exhibit of garden products in the fall and a poultry show in the winter, have become important annual events. Many of the boys have taken prizes at the county fair and at local poultry shows. The agricultural director has been employed for a year of twelve months, with the ex- ception of the first year, when he gave the summer work supervision without pay. Altho conditions here have not seemed favorable for any system- atic effort to carry on extension work among the farmers of the sur- rounding regions, nevertheless, large numbers of farmers have become in- terested and have shown this in- terest by coming in to see the equip- ment and to discuss the problems involved. The work developed in the Mon- dovi high school has been of a more distinctly rural type. This course, directed by Mr. James Coyner, has been in operation also for about four years. Mondovi is a rural cen- ter with about thirteen hundred in- habitants, and surrounded by an extensive and fertile farming region. Here much less has been done with a school farm and more has been de- veloped along the line of home and community work. A good deal of attention has been given to farm shop work including carpentry, forge work and cement construc- tion. A cement block shop was con- structed by the pupils and this was equipped with benches, forges and cement forms. A large amount of stock judging has been done among the herds of the region. Special stock judging contests have been planned during the last two years. Since alfalfa was comparatively new in this region and farmers were skeptical about its success, the agri- cultural class undertook the project of starting a field on one of the farms. An unusually fine stand was developed. Community work has received considerable attention. First a campaign against hog cholera, a disease then raging in the region, was started under the leadership of the agricultural director aided by his classes. Community meetings were held in the school houses of many of the surrounding districts, when talks and latern slide demonstra- tions were given, supplemented by musical and literary numbers. As a result many permanent farmer's clubs were organized for regular study of farm problems. Many car loads of lime have been shipped in and distributed to the farmers at cost, thru the efforts of the agricul- tural department of the school. Emphasis has here been placed upon the practical or project side, because of the conviction that ag- riculture in the schools to realize its proper educational value must be treated rather as an industrial art than as a mere science to be studied by the recitation and laboratory methods alone. It should be under- stood, however, that systematic class room instruction and suitable experimental and demonstration al work constitute an essential phase 71 of the work in all Wisconsin high schools. It is not the object of this paper to give any detailed account of this side of the work except to say that the systematic instruction and the project work are carried on to- gether and as closely related as possible. There is much yet needed to bring this work to its greatest efficiency. An active movement is already in operation to secure some increase in the state aid so that all schools may itations, may become the rule. Adequately trained teachers have been hard to secure, but special courses now established at the agri- cultural college, and at two normal schools of the state are furnishing an increasing number of well trained men for this field. The improving of these courses is receiving large attention. Salaries have likewise been inadequate, but there is a con- stant tendency for these to increase, as the men on the field demonstrate INCUBATOR ROOM, GREEN BAY, WEST, WIS be required to employ their agricul- tural directors for at least eleven months of each year. Another need is getting greater permanence of ser- vice on the part of the agricultural directors. It has become a convic- tion that at least three years of ser- vice is necessary in the same place in order to secure strong work. Hard- ly more than a start can be made in one year. It is hoped that three year contracts with, reasonable lim- to communities the value of the work. Salaries in the high schools now range from about $800 for nine months' service to $1500 for eleven months. The maximum will un- doubtedly increase considerably in the next few years. There is much need for more systematic plans of carrying out and crediting the pro- ject work, but considerable progress in this direction is being made each year. 75 Y OIF As to the general success of the work, it may be said that while old academic standards have made it hard to develop the most practical work in some schools, nevertheless, in many, the work has completely changed community sentiment toward the school. Furthermore, many boys are being kept in school thru their interest in this course. At the same time, they are being led to appreciate the value cf a scientific study of farm problems. Likewise, they are gaining an understanding of the large opportunities in agricul- ture for the well-trained men, and are thus being led to look to the farm for their own life occupation. Finally, a growing interest and in- telligence are being awakened among farmers themselves in the application of the best knowledge and the best methods to their work, leading to better social and economic conditions, and to greater content- ment and prosperity in this most fundamental of American indus- tries. 76 elopment of Special Agikidt Schools in the United States C. H. LANE Chief Specialist in Agricultural Education, U. S. Department of Agriculture INTRODUCTION PECIAL agricultural schools apart from the State Colleges of agri- culture are now main- tained, wholly or in part by state funds, in at least six- teen states. These schools vary greatly in work, equipment, in- come, and size of district served but have one point in common by which they may be distinguished from public high schools which maintain courses in agriculture, viz., that while the latter offer general or col- lege preparatory secondary courses in agriculture, mechanic arts, and home economics, supplemented by such work in mathematics, English, and the natural sciences as is needed to round out the technical work into a fairly good vocational course for young men and young women who do not intend to pursue a college course. The area served by the agricul- tural schools in the different states varies from a single county to a large indeterminate area comprising a third, a half, or a whole state. Massachusetts, Michigan, Missis- sippi, North Dakota, and Wisconsin have adopted the county unit; Alabama, the congressional district; Oklahoma, the supreme court judi- cial district; while California, Col- orado, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont have agricultural schools serving large, indeterminate areas. Wisconsin was the first state to establish county agricultural schools. In 1915 North Dakota had two such schools in operation, Michigan 2, Wisconsin 7, and Mis- sissippi 41. Alabama has a com- plete system of congressional dis- trict agricultural schools, 9 in num- ber; Georgia has 1 1 agricultural district schools, and Arkansas 4 geographical district schools. Okla- homa has 5 judicial district agricul- tural schools, and 1 special district school in the "Panhandle." Of the indeterminate district schools Cal- ifornia has 1 , Colorado 1 , Minne- sota 2, Nebraska 1 , Vermont 2, New York 5, and Pennsylvania 8. The annual cost of these schools for maintenance alone is about three- quarters of a million dollars. Some of the states have special agricul- tural schools connected with the state agricultural colleges. These are not included in the figures just given. Since the first school of agricul- ture was opened in Minnesota in 1888 this class of schools has been watched with much interest. They have truly been on trial in the pub- lic mind. The progress of these schools has been one of the most interesting educational problems since the establishment of the so- called land grant colleges for the teaching of agriculture and rre- chanic arts. This new step in the extension of agricultural education to the masses was one which made 77 r,l? J the educators of the country look on with mingled doubt, and hope. In all the instruction in this new type of school the useful side of the knowledge and training given to students is emphasized. This is the principle on which they are founded. The extended knowledge which the farmer must have should be made as practical as possible. At every point the school is made to co-oper- ate with the farm, the shop, the dairy, and the home. The courses in wood and iron making are made far more practical and useful than such courses usually are. Nearly all the time of the classes is utilized in making articles of use on the farm, in the home and in the school, and shop. The same feature of use- ful training prevails in the domestic economy, in home economics, plant life, farm accounts, the study of soils, poultry, and in fact all sub- jects. The farm demands men who are prepared in special schools. Men with the best brains are wanted on the farm. The time is rapidly drawing near when no occupation can be found which will demand a better preparation than farming. A wide knowledge of science, a thorough acquaintance with the world's markets and how to use them, a clear insight into the reasons underlying all farm operations, a thorough attention to all details of the business, a steadiness in all mat- ters pertaining to life on the farm, courage to act and act quickly at the proper time, good physical strength and power of endurance these are some of the qualities de- manded of the farmer by the farm of tomorrow. There is a call for such men. The advocates of the special schools of agriculture, there- fore, do not believe that the course of study need be whittled down to the extent that they shall be less cultural or less truly educational than the existing high school courses. It is believed, on the contrary, that better courses than usually offered in schools attended by pupils from rural districts can be worked out for these special schools, courses which contain all that is essential in the old and, in addition, provide for training along distinctly agricul- tural lines. We shall now mention some features of the system as required throughout the country. MINNESOTA Prof. Edward D. Porter, in charge of the department of agriculture of the University of Minnesota, was probably the first man to advocate the establishment of a school of agriculture of secondary grade. The board of regents of the University of Minnesota gravely shook their heads when the proposition to start a school on the University farm was first broached at their meetings. One day in October, 1887, however, the regents decided that Professor Porter might put up a schoolhouse. This was at four o'clock in the after- noon. Before six o'clock the Pro- fessor had let the contract for the erection of a building to carry on the work for the first special school of agriculture of secondary grade es- tablished in the United States. "Our aim here," said Professor Por- ter, "is to take boys right off the farm where they are living and in- struct them in a clear, practical way and then send them back to the farm, to make practical farmers of them. They do not have to take any preparatory courses or spend four years at college. They come here from the district schools with only such knowledge as they have JUNE, 3.93,$ gained there and are admitted to our course of study." As a matter of fact, the school of agriculture taught in these early days, much besides agriculture. The district school education of the boys was supplemented and extended by instruction in the English branches. The agricultural teaching was by lecture courses and covered the range of practical agriculture, horti- culture, arboriculture, agricultural chemistry, veterinary medicine and surgery, economic entomology, an- atomy and physiology of the domes- tic animals, and economics. The school as it is today and ever since its inception has been a success. Two other schools of agriculture have been established in Minnesota, one at Crookston and the other at Morris. A word concerning some features of the work at the Northwest School of Agriculture, at Crookston, Minn., organized in 1906 as a department of the State College of Agriculture, will suffice for the Minnesota sys- tem. In addition to a three-year course provided by this school, the students carry on at their homes during the summer, a number of very interesting and valuable demonstra- tions in putting into practice vari- ous lines of work they learn at the school. This work is called "sum- mer practicum work." Each boy selects one or more lines that he finds it will be practical to follow on his own farm during the two summers that come between his entrance into, and graduation from the three-year course of the school. The project selected must be submitted to the station council for approval before March 1 . Regular reports of the progress of some work are recorded each month. Some one connected with the school and experiment sta- tion usually inspects the work at least once during the summer. Sug- gestions regarding the work are given and the progress being made noted. Those students who are unable to carry on the summer pro- ject work at home during the two summers are expected to do extra work in some department of the Northwest Experiment Station, which is a part of the school at Crookston, to supplement their class work. Two hours of credit are given for the work satisfactorily completed each summer. Reports of the best summer project work are published in the school circular with the rank secured by each student. Some of these home projects selected by the students are feeding horses and record of feeding work, fruit trees or shrubbery planted, cultiva- tion vs. mulching and orchard, chic- ken experiment -100 egg hatch, alfalfa growing, milk and cow test- ing cost, organization of local test- ing, small buildings work and cost, installation and cost of septic tank, install a gasoline engine and its oper- ation cost work, etc. In order that the course of study as offered at Crookston may not be considered a blind alley in American agricultural education, an advanced course is given for graduates of the school of agriculture. The academic subjects covered in the advanced course include elementary algebra, plane geometry, general history, rural sociology, and elementary economics. Since the work of the special schools of agriculture in Minnesota is quite similar to that carried on in other states having a similar organ- ization of area served, we shall go to the county unit of administration. WISCONSIN Wisconsin was the first state in the Union to organize a county 79 THIS QUARTERLY OF ALPHA 2ETA school of agriculture and domestic economy. The early history of sec- ondary agricultural education in Wisconsin dates back to the winter of 1899 when the state legislature appointed Dr. L. D. Harvey, then state superintendent of public in- struction, a commissioner "to inves- tigate and report upon the methods of procedure in this and other states and countries in manual training, and in the theories and arts of agri- culture in the public schools." On the strength of Doctor Harvey's report and recommendations the legislature of 1901 passed a law per- mitting the establishment of two schools. This law has since been amended to permit the establish- ment of seven schools. The Wisconsin type of county agricultural school is largely adapted to the conditions found in the coun- ties where such schools are located. Special efforts are made to furnish additional opportunies for school- ing to the 94 out of every 100 rural and urban school children who would otherwise finish their education with the common schools. These county schools at the begin- ning offered only two years of work and were, strictly speaking, agricul- tural trade schools and had for their sole object the education of the farmer's boys and girls who did not wish to take up an extensive college course but who were anxious to get that form of training that would be most useful to them when they took charge of the home farm or the farm home. Unlike the congressional judicial districts the county is a taxable unit. The state aid given these schools shall equal the amount expended for salaries of properly qualified teach- ers, not to exceed from $6,000 to $8,000, based upon enrollment. There seems to be a tendency on the part of some of these schools to extend their courses from two to four years so that when a boy has completed the four-year course he may enter the state agricultural college without examination. Some ways in which these schools help the farmers are to prepare plans for farm buildings, make suggestions for remodeling old buildings, build forms for and supervise the con- struction of cement silos, water troughs, and small structures, test all kinds of dairy products, assist in the selecting of farm animals, land draining systems, test farm seeds for germination, test cattle for tuberculosis, test soils, and recom- mend systems of rotation. The table will show the states with the county unit and number of schools established. ARKANSAS Arkansas was the first state to be divided into four nearly equal geo- graphical agricultural school dis- tricts designated numerically and containing from 1 7 to 20 counties in each district. The question of establishing agri- cultural schools in Arkansas is said to have originated at a meeting of the Washington County Farmers' Union in 1906 by the passing of a resolution indorsing the establish- ment by the legislature of special agricultural schools. The first ac- tion taken by the legislature was in 1907, when a bill for the establish- ment of one agricultural school was passed, but was vetoed by the gov- ernor. In 1909 the question of establish- ing agricultural schools came up again in the legislature and this time a bill dividing the state into four districts and providing for the estab- lishment in each of these districts of an institution, to be known as "The 80 State Agricultural School," was passed and signed by the governor. This bill carried an initial appropria- tion of $160,000, which was divided equally among the four districts to supplement local contributions for land, buildings, equipment, and the maintenance for two years of the schools to be established. It also provides that "after the first build- ings are erected and ready for tem- porary use, all work in, on, and about said school, whether it be farming, building, care of stock, or whatever kind of work, shall be performed by students of said school." Each agricultural school in Arkan- sas is controlled by a board of five trustees "who shall be intelligent farmers," appointed by the governor for a term of ten years. They may fix the rules of admission so as to equalize the attendance among the counties. They may limit the num- ber admitted to suit the capacity of the school, but shall not charge tui- tion. Students must be 1 5 years of age. The four-year course of study is prescribed in each case by the board of trustees, but must include instruc- tion in agriculture and horticulture, and not later than one year after the opening of each school "there shall be established in connection here- with a textile school, in which shall be taught the art of cotton manu- facturing and other textile manufac- turing, should the board of trustees deem it expedient." With the inauguration of these schools Arkansas has in operation a definite system of agricultural edu- cation, beginning with the common schools and extending through a four-year college course. ALABAMA The Alabama system of congres- sional district agricultural schools was initiated under the provisions of a bill "to establish a branch agricul- tural experiment station and branch agricultural school in North Ala- bama" which was approved Febru- ary 21, 1889. With one exception, the institutions located at Abbey- ville and Athens by the above act were the first secondary agricultural institutions for white students re- ceiving state aid to be established in the United States. The "board of control" for each school consists of the governor, the superintendent of education, the commissioner of agri- culture, one secretary-treasurer for all the schools, a resident member, and one other member selected from the district. The amount of state support has risen from $2,500 given each of the two schools originally established in 1889, to $4,500 at the present time. Each school has an experimental farm in its vicinity in charge of a trained agriculturist. The law requires that $750 of the state appropriation shall be ex- pended on the experiment station. The district schools of Alabama have been greatly benefited by standardization, made possible by the association of presidents and agriculturists of the nine district schools, organized in 1907. One result of their labors is the course of study which went into operation in the fall of 1909. GEORGIA The bill providing for the estab- lishment and maintenance of schools of agriculture and the mechanic arts in the respective congressional dis- tricts of the state of Georgia, passed in 1906, provides that "They shall be branches of the state college of agriculture, a department of the University of Georgia," and that "the general board of trustees of the University shall exercise such super- 81 QUARTERLY OF AZ. vision as in their judgment may be necessary to secure unity of plan and efficiency in said schools." An act approved August 19, 1911, amends the act of August 18, 1906, by adding a new section which reads as follows: "Said schools shall be known in the future as agricul- tural districts schools and their boundaries shall remain as now fixed by law without future refer- ence to congressional districts." We give A Day's Program for the District Agricultural Schools of Georgia. OKLAHOMA The Oklahoma schools of agricul- ture are under the general manage- ment of the "State Commission of Agricultural and Industrial Educa- tion," consisting of the State Super- intendent of Public Instruction, the president of the state board of agri- culture, and the President of the Oklahoma Agricultural and Me- chanical College. A condition of the location of the schools is that "they shall be provided with not less than 80 acres of land without cost to the state and deeded in perpetuity to the state." No pupil is admitted to the lower grades who has similar privileges in his home district. Stu- dents over 1 6 years of age may take certain special courses. Some of these schools also maintain "short courses" of two weeks for farmers and their wives. These courses in- clude instruction and demonstration in domestic economy, canning, pre- serving, and cooking for women, and various agricultural subjects for men. The schools were authorized in 1908. The school for the second district at Tishomingo opened the same autumn. In 1910 the three counties of the fifth school district composing the "Panhandle" were made into a special agricultural school district, with a school located at Goodwell. Starting with an ini- tial appropriation of $20,000 for buildings and equipment the five district schools have received an- nually increasing appropriations, now almost as much as the original sum voted. Since there is much confusion as to just what is meant by the "agri- cultural high school" and a "special agricultural school," it may be said that the special school is one in which agriculture predominates and in which some of the usual high school subjects, particularly foreign languages and higher mathematics, are not required or not even offered. It is distinctly of secondary school grade including no grammar grades; it should require the students to spend at least one-half of the entire time on agriculture (or home eco- nomics for girls) and that it should make definite provisions for prac- tice in farm operations. 82 AR OVERDUE. LD2 l-100m-7,'39(402 S Gay lord Bros. Makers Syractise, N. Y. "pM.JAN.21,WOa /. 3 /6 g I At. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY