rj U PLICATE NOV1 1932! N. Y. S. l_ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS THE UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS agents THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY NEW YORK THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON AND EDINBURGH Agricultural Education in the Public Schools A Study of Its Development with Particular Reference to the Agencies Concerned Professor of Agricultural Education in Miami University WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CHARLES HUBBARD JUDD Director of the School of Education The University of Chicago THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS COPYRIGHT 191 a BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO All Rights Reserved Published March 1912 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Education Librarx 535 PREFACE P)-7Q LxocnOL. This work comprises a series of studies, carried on since the fall of 1909, on agricultural education in the elementary and secondary schools of the United States with special reference to the various agencies promoting it. Much care has been taken to make the bibliography representative of the literature of the different phases of the subject, and to annotate each title so as to give the reader a brief account of the original article or book. This seemed more essential than to undertake to give even an approximately complete summary of the literature of the subject, especially since such a summary would include many times the number of titles cited. The writer has attempted, as 'the subtitle indicates, to bring I together the work of the various agencies promoting agricultural education in the public schools, and to > show the contribution each has made or is making to its development. In this new and rapidly developing subject of education it is important for all who are interested to know the methods used and results obtained in different parts of the country, and to recognize the extent of public interest as expressed in federal, state, and private activities in its behalf. The demands for instruction in agriculture in elementary and secondary schools have grown so rapidly as to present a serious problem to teachers, both as to readjustment of their school work and as to their own preparation to teach the sub- ject. If this account of the development of agricultural educa- tion, such as is actually taking place in different parts of the country, with illustrations of types of instruction, and with sources of further information, may be of some service to the teachers of our rural schools, or to others interested in rural education, the writer will feel well repaid for all his efforts. The material for these studies has been gathered from all 865522 vi PREFACE available sources, much of it from personal correspondence. The writer wishes to express his appreciation of the cordial and ready response with which his numerous inquiries have been met. He is under particular obligation to Director Charles H. Judd, School of Education, the University of Chicago, for writ- ing the introduction, and for his many helpful suggestions during the progress of the work; to Mr. D. J. Crosby, United States Department of Agriculture, for the critical reading of several chapters, and for other assistance; to the United States Bureau of Education, to the State Departments of Education, and to many individuals who have furnished information not other- wise accessible. BENJAMIN MARSHALL DAVIS MIAMI UNIVERSITY, OXFORD, OHIO March, 1912 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTORY NOTE i CHAPTER I. THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE . 7 II. UNITED STATES BUREAU or EDUCATION 14 III. STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION AND STATE LEGISLA- TION 19 IV. SUMMARY OF STATE LEGISLATION AND OF WORK OF STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION FOR 1910-11 .... 27 V. AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES, INCLUDING EXTENSION WORK, DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION, AND SUMMER SCHOOLS FOR TEACHERS 38 VI. STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 47 VII. NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION STATE AND OTHER TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS 58 VIII. EDUCATIONAL PERIODICALS 67 LX. PERIODICAL LITERATURE 75 X. STATE ORGANIZATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE-FARMERS' IN- STITUTES 85 XI. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 94 XII. BOYS' AGRICULTURAL CLUBS 105 XIII. ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS 115 XIV. TEXTBOOKS 127 BIBLIOGRAPHY 132 INDEX . 161 INTRODUCTORY NOTE Agricultural education is the most widely and energetically cultivated form of industrial education in this country at the present time. Federal and local grants have made possible agricultural courses of different grades, and there is a large body o>f literature relating to scientific agriculture. This de- velopment of agricultural education is due, in the first place, to the large number of people who are dependent upon agri- culture for their livelihood. Any improvements which can be made in the methods of raising crops or live stock are of im- mediate importance to a large body of American citizens. In the second place, the economic value of the products of agri- culture has made it important for the community at large to organdze agencies which shall improve agricultural conditions throughout the country. Even the federal government has found it expedient to organize bureaus of investigation, and these bureaus of investigation have naturally come to be centers of educational activity. There have thus arisen organized centers for the collection and distribution of agricultural information. In the third place, the social movement which has been carrying the population in very large measure away from rural districts to the cities has made everyone aware of the necessity of de- veloping an educational system that shall make farm activities attractive to intelligent and well-trained people. Finally, students of education have come to see that the needs of children, quite apart from the needs of society at large, dictate a greater em- phasis upon outdoor experiences. The doctrine that children need to come into contact with Nature has been presented in different ways at different times. On the negative side it has been said that children should be taken away from books and from the artificial surroundings of large communities and should be brought into contact with things and natural laws. This, 2 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS we are told, can be accomplished best on the farm. Again, on the affirmative side, it has been said that the resourcefulness of the man who is engaged in the various occupations of the farm cultivates breadth of character and initiative in dealing with all the engagements of life. Whatever the terms em- ployed, the professional educator has come to regard the op- portunities which are presented in farm life as valuable means of training children. With the recognition of these numerous and strong motives for the development of agriculture as a part of the educational system, there comes a whole train of difficult problems of organization. Even those who recognize the importance and value of agricultural education are in doubt as to the best methods of attaining the result that they regard as ideal. One of the first questions that arises is the question of the level of training at which agricultural courses shall be introduced. Is the study of any phase of farming a suitable subject for elementary school children, and, if so, what simple elements of the subject can properly be taught at this early stage of school work? On the other hand, the problem of finding suitable agricultural courses for higher institutions is, no less difficult. The agri- cultural colleges have found themselves in frequent conflict with the traditional colleges. The agricultural colleges have sometimes been criticized for conducting a lower grade of work than that which is conducted by other institutions of higher learning. In spite of these criticisms, in some quarters the agricultural courses have developed to such an extent that the conventional academic courses have almost disappeared from the institutions in the state. In either of these cases the difficulty of organizing advanced work is manifest. It has sometimes been suggested that the agricultural high school is a better means of promoting agricultural education than is the elementary school or the university. When an agricultural high school has been organized it has degenerated at times into an ordinary high school with one or two theoretical courses in agriculture. INTRODUCTORY NOTE 3 In other cases the agricultural high school has differentiated itself so completely from the conventional high school that the students who graduate from these separate and distinct in- stitutions have been unable to go forward to higher institutions. All of these cases show the difficulty which is encountered in organizing the work in agricultural education. One of the cardinal difficulties in the organization of agri- cultural education is the lack of trained teachers. Teachers who have grown up in the normal schools or those who go into the profession from colleges and high schools without a normal training, very seldom have practical experience adequate to give them a comprehension of farm problems. On the other hand, those who have practical experience find it difficult to secure the scientific training which is necessary to make instruction in farming sufficiently advanced to justify calling it a science. The graduates of agricultural colleges are either so much in de- mand for practical positions, or so poorly qualified for the special work of teaching, that they do not enter upon the teaching profession after they complete their agricultural course. The result of this whole situation is that there are many efforts being made to teach agriculture from textbooks, and these efforts are being criticized by practical people and educators alike as too abstract. In other quarters instruction lacks that systematic and progressive character which can come only from the study of the sciences upon which farming must ultimately rest. Prac- tical farmers are no better teachers than the abstract students of textbooks. The situation requires a careful correlating of the different agencies that have been working in the direction of a more scientific and at the same time more practical course of study in agriculture. Professor Davis has attacked the problem of the co-ordina- tion of all the agencies now at work on the problem of agri- cultural education. He has performed in this book a service which will be appreciated by all who have any large knowledge of the problem and of the difficulties which the movement en- 4 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS counters. He has made an effort to canvass the whole field of agricultural education and to give a detailed exposition of the agencies that are now at work in building up a rational course of agricultural education. He has presented more fully than anyone else the materials which define the problem and which make it possible for the teacher to meet the problem intelligently. The annotated bibliography at the end of the book, with text references, will do much to make the best material available for anyone who finds it necessary to get hold of this material through independent study. Mr. Davis' statement of the work that is being done by various organized agencies will make it possible for the teacher to come in contact with all of the forces that are working to build up this special type of training. The book serves, therefore, as a general introduction to the study of agricultural education. Professor Davis' book is not a textbook of the ordinary type, in which a limited body of materials is presented in detail, but it is a type of textbook which is certain to become more common in our normal schools and in the teachers' libraries. It is a textbook which discusses the problems of education by dis- cussing the situation into which education fits and the instruments that may be used in solving its problems. It is an introductory encyclopedia rather than a brief summary. The student in the normal school who is trained not merely to understand the content of a single textbook, but to take a bibliography in hand and follow its guidance into the larger body of literature, will have an independent mastery of the subject which cannot be gained by any simple perusal of a single textbook. Professor Davis has performed a genuine service, therefore, for normal schools in preparing a type of textbook which encourages the student to go to the original sources, and shows him how to get at the different types of material which he will need in his own practical professional life. The teacher who has graduated from the normal school and is in practical service often finds the textbooks that are offered INTRODUCTORY NOTE 5 for his instruction too elementary and too closely confined to the kind of material with which he has already acquainted him- self in earlier courses prior to his work as a teacher. Such a book as that which Professor Davis has here presented overcomes the difficulties which attach to the reading of such an elementary book. He has opened up for the teacher not merely the possi- bilities of reading his own book, but also the possibility of se- curing without serious difficulty an extensive body of productive literature to which this book serves as a stimulating introduction. Finally, the professional student of education will find in this book material which will give him a general view of one phase of industrial education that will be very helpful to him in the discussion of the whole matter of educational reform for practical results. If one wishes to discuss the best methods of organizing courses for the industrial classes he should certainly begin with a careful review of that which has already been undertaken in agriculture. There are some bibliographies of agricultural literature, and there are scattered discussions of the different organizations which deal with this problem, but nowhere is there a carefully selected summary of the whole movement. Professor Davis has in this respect performed a service which will be appreciated by students of education and by the later historian of education who wishes to secure in compact form a statement of what is now being undertaken. CHAS. H. JUDD Chicago March, 1912 CHAPTER I THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Historically the movement for agricultural education in the United States dates back to 1785 when associations for the pro- motion of agriculture began to be formed. A few years later, in 1792, mainly in response to the agitation of these associations, colleges undertook to provide for instruction in agriculture, first Columbia, and then Harvard and Yale ( i ) - 1 It was not, however, until 1862 that the real movement for scientific agriculture had its beginning. Congress of this year authorized the establishment of a department of agriculture (2, p. 57), and also passed the Morrill Act giving to each state a grant of land with which to establish a state college of agri- culture and mechanic arts (2, pp. 62-64). The Hatch Act of 1887 provided for agricultural experiment stations in each state and territory (2, pp. 64-66), and during the following year the Office of Experiment Stations was created as a separate bureau of the Department to serve as the official head of all the agri- cultural experiment stations. On July i, 1862, the United States Department of Agri- culture was organized. Its growth as expressed in terms of people employed and total expenditures may be seen by com- paring 29, the number employed the first year, with 17,819, the number employed in 1908, and $63,704.21 expended the first year with $13,628,696 expended in 1908. For the last twenty years Congress has provided liberally for the maintenance of the De- partment. It has been estimated that nearly $100,000,000 has been spent during this time for agricultural research and edu- cation, for the most part through the Department. This vast expenditure, of course, would never have been made had it not * Figures in parentheses refer to corresponding numbers in the annotated bibliography , P- 132. 7 8 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS been justified by results as measured in dollars and cents. In 1908 the agricultural products of our country amounted to $7,778,000,000. The value of the corn crop alone amounted to J $1,615,000,000. It may be readily seen that a very slight in- crease in yield per acre would aggregate many times the run- ning expenses of all the institutions engaged in promoting agri- culture. The work of the Department has made possible not only a slight increase but in nearly all kinds of production a very large increase (2, pp. 44-46). The aim of the Department has been twofold : first, scientific, developing a scientific knowledge of every phase of agriculture ; second, educational, conveying this knowledge to all the people. In both these aspects of its work the Department has been closely allied with the land-grant agricultural colleges. Indeed, the Department and the agricultural experiment stations in differ- ent states and territories, organized chiefly as departments of land-grant colleges, stand at the head of our system of agri- cultural research and education. Since 1889 the Association of American Agricultural Col- leges and Experiment Stations has been holding annual meet- ings. Members of the Department take prominent part in these meetings, and the proceedings are published through the Office of Experiment Stations. The director of this office is chair- man and the specialist in agricultural education is secretary. The educational policy of agricultural colleges, such as terms of admission, courses of study, matters of administration, etc., is determined largely by a standing committee of this association known as the "committee on instruction in agriculture." For several years agricultural instruction of collegiate grade has been well organized and on a good working basis. Recently the efforts of this committee have been directed to a consideration of instruction of secondary grade. A course of study has been worked out in considerable detail to serve as a model for schools contemplating such instruction (3, 4). Some attention has also been given to work in elementary schools (5, 20). UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 9 The Department is organized into eleven scientific bureaus as follows : weather, animal industry, plant industry, forest serv- ice, chemistry, soils, entomology, biological survey, statistics, experimental stations, and public roads. All of these are doing much to encourage and help agricultural education throughout the country. In a general way they reach the people through publications, a great many of which are distributed free (6, 7, 9) while others are for sale at a nominal price (7, 8). Those for free distribution are as a rule written in a popular style, free from technical terms, and are easily understood by the aver- age reader. The series known as "Farmers' Bulletins" contains contributions from all the bureaus and there is scarcely any phase of agriculture that has not received attention. These bulletins are especially useful to elementary and secondary schools giving instruction in agriculture (7). Many of them dealing with such subjects as birds, insects, tree planting, school gardening, and plant propagation would be useful in any ele- mentary or high school. Besides general contributions to agricultural education made by all the bureaus of the Department, certain bureaus are taking an active part in public education. The Weather Bureau from its central office at Washington and through its officials at various stations throughout the country is doing much to encourage the study of meteorology. During the school year a million or more children of the public schools make weather observations and study the daily weather maps and fore- casts. From its earliest days the Weather Bureau has co-operated to some extent in public-school work, and during the past ten years this co-operation has been widely extended. The public schools and the Weather Bureau have a mutual interest in the matter. The school authorities have found in the study of the weather with the assistance of the Weather Bureau a means of satisfying part of the requirements of modern methods of study; and the Weather Bureau is able through the school gradually to dispell popular superstitions and fallacious beliefs that have hampered its work .... and to enable both the commercial and the agricultural world to make more intelligent and more complete use of the forecasts, special warnings, weather maps, and climatological publications (10, p. 267). io AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS About 15 per cent of the daily issue of weather maps is used in the public schools. Lectures are given by officials of the Weather Bureau at teachers' institutes and elsewhere. The policy of this bureau has been to assist the public schools in every way possible as far as general duties to the public will permit. The Forest Service is reaching the schools through its publi- cations, lantern slides, and other illustrative material concerning the conservation of the forests of our country. The Forest Service believes that "the public school should treat forestry as one of the important economic and public questions in the life of the world" (n, p. 6), and that forestry should have a promi- nent place in our education. "Below the secondary school forestry should form part of nature-study, arithmetic, and gen- eral geography; in the high school, of United States history, civics, physical geography, commercial geography, botany, agri- culture, and woodworking" (n, p. 7). One of the recent efforts of the Forest Service to co-operate with the public schools is through phenological studies of our native forest trees. On re- quest the Forest Service will send to any school a set of blanks on which to record observations on such matters as general character of country, situation of trees, character of season, date of swelling of buds, of bursting of buds, of beginning of leafing out, of general leafing out, of blossoming, of change of color in foliage, etc. (dates of fifteen special observations in all). These blanks are accompanied by a circular giving complete directions for study of trees and making records. This work is of great value not only in encouraging pupils to make a close acquaintance with trees, but also in the reaction that must come to them in feeling that they are materially assisting the govern- ment in its work. Similar phenological studies of common flowering plants have been carried on very successfully for a number of years by the public-school children of Canada under the direction of the Botanical Club of Canada. Suggestions for forest nurseries for public schools have also been prepared UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE n by the Forest Service (12). Directions are given in considerable detail showing just what to do to establish a nursery in con- nection with an average school. Three other publications are soon to be issued : Forestry in Nature-Study, Forestry in Agri- culture, and Forestry in Geography. The Bureau of Plant Industry has been especially active in promoting the movement for school gardens. At Washington, under direct supervision of the Bureau, experiments in school gardening have been carried on for several years. A part of the government grounds with a greenhouse has been devoted to this work. The Bureau sends to schools throughout the country special packages of vegetable and flower seeds accom- panied by circulars containing directions for planting and care of school gardens (13, 14). The Bureau also furnishes sets of one hundred samples of seeds of economic and wild plants put up in glass vials, labeled with Latin and common names and arranged in an herbarium tray for reference purposes. The seeds and the work of preparation are furnished by this office free of charge, but it is necessary for those desiring sets to supply the tray and vials used. These can be obtained at a cost of $1.50 from Messrs. Mackall Bros., Qth and H Streets, N.E., of this city [Washington, D.C.],to whom remittances should be made direct with the request that the material be forwarded to this office. At the same time kindly notify us that such remittance has been made.* Another phase of the work of this bureau is of especial interest because of its remarkable development during 1910 and 1911. This is the Junior Demonstration Work among the boys of the southern states (15). A brief summary of this work is given in chap. xii. The following is a good summary of the educational work of the Office of Experiment Stations : While the other bureaus of this Department are doing valuable educa- tional work along the lines of research in which they are engaged the Office of Experiment Stations is the general agency of the Department for the promotion of agricultural education throughout the United States and is constantly enlarging the scope and extent of this branch of its work. ' From circular letter: "Seed Laboratory," Bureau of Pant Industry, United States De- partment of Agriculture. 12 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS The educational work of this Office is now organized into two branches, one dealing with agricultural colleges and schools and the other with fann- ers' institutes and other forms of extension work in agriculture. The work of the Office relating to agricultural colleges and schools includes four general classes: (i) The collection and publication of information regarding the progress of agricultural education at home and abroad; (2) studies of different grades of American and foreign schools in which agriculture is taught; (3) work in co-operation with the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations and other important asso- ciations dealing with educational matters ; and (4) the giving aid to agricul- tural colleges and local school authorities along the lines of agricultural education. This work is in charge of Mr. D. J. Crosby, as specialist in agricultural education. This branch of the Office conducts a department of agricultural educa- tion in the Experiment Station Record (17), prepares and publishes statistics, courses of study, circulars of information, and other literature relating to agricultural education, aids state and local school authorities in organizing agricultural courses in schools and colleges and in securing competent teach- ers, takes part in important agricultural conventions and conferences, aids teachers in securing suitable agricultural literature for their work, and, in short, acts as a clearing-house for agricultural education in this country (16, pp. 7, 8). The work of the Office dealing with farmers' institutes and extension work is in charge of Professor John Hamilton, farm- ers' institute specialist Although all the work undertaken by this branch of the Office has to do with agricultural education as presented to adults, it also reaches the public schools indirectly through correspondence with persons interested in agricultural education by distributing agricultural literature, by preparing and editing bulletins, illustrated lectures, and courses of study for movable schools of agriculture (133, 143). In the movable schools of agriculture a course is offered for country school teachers including nature-study, school gardens and grounds, and school architecture, and sanitation (18, p. 6). The attitude and interest of the Department toward unifying our educational system, in so far as it concerns agriculture and country life, into a complete system extending from the ele- mentary schools, through the secondary schools, into the col- UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 13 leges and graduate schools has been well expressed by Assistant Secretary Willet M. Hays in a recent address (19, pp. 4, 5). He says : A movement is well begun to organize better, as a part of our great American school system, the secondary schools as to meet especially the needs of country life. This movement contemplates that, below and leading to our more than 6b state colleges of agriculture already established, we shall have 300 to 400 agricultural finishing schools practically one in each country congressional district of ten or more counties, either separate or as a strong department of an existing institution But vastly more important is the larger movement to establish a system of consolidated rural and village schools, and of courses in agriculture in town and city schools so near the homes of farm youth that something of instruction in agriculture, in home economics, and in social and civil affairs, as well as in the accepted subjects of a so-called general education, shall be taught to all the boys and girls of the farm. To meet this first need the consolidated rural school in the open country and the consolida- tion of rural schools about the villages and cities is rising rapidly into prominence along with the vocational high school; and many city and non- public schools of secondary and higher grade are seeking to add agricul- tural instruction to their courses of study It is conceded that the large and important task of supplying trained teachers for approximately 30,000 consolidated rural schools in our rich rural communities, for thousands of town and city schools, for 100,000 small rural schools in isolated and sparsely settled communities, for 300 or 400 large agricultural high schools, for 150 state normal schools, and for 60 state colleges of agriculture may be taken up in a practical way and solved in one or two decades. The demand and organization for training teachers going forward together will meet with only the usual pioneering difficulties. CHAPTER II THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION Agricultural education receives the attention of the Bureau of Education in several ways. These may conveniently be grouped under three heads : publications, land-grant colleges, and legislation. Having little administrative authority except that relating to land-grant colleges the Bureau has confined its efforts mainly to its publications and correspondence. "No other educational office of the world has done so extensive literary work as this office," is the fine tribute paid by the Royal Prussian Commission of 1904 in its report to the Prussian Parliament. The Bureau's publications consist of annual reports, special reports, circulars of information, and bulletins. The policy of the Bureau toward agricultural education re- cently expressed by the commissioner applies especially to its publications : It can do its best I think as a co-ordinating influence. It can bring to the notice of less favored institutions information concerning the experience of more advanced institutions. It can call attention from time to time to the relation of agricultural education to general education. It can survey the educational field and possibly point out dangers to be averted or weak places to be strengthened. It can, finally, discover things that need doing and are not attended to by any other agency, and can see that some part of such lack is supplied. So much as this I hope the Bureau of Education may be able to do for agricultural education. And so much as this, I may say, it will undertake to do as far as its resources will permit (22, p. 53). The Bureau has done much already in two ways: one by bringing to American educators the work of foreign countries, and the other by reviewing the work being done in various parts of this country. Of the former the most important are the accounts of agricultural education in Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Prussia. One of these publications on school gardens deserves special mention (23). 14 UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 15 It contains a very complete historical account of school gardens and has been extensively quoted in the school-garden literature of this country. Of the reviews of work in our own country two are noteworthy. One written at the beginning of the move- ment for instruction in elementary agriculture is made up chiefly of reprints of leaflets from Purdue and Cornell universities (24). The other, appearing in 1907, gives an account of the present status of agricultural education throughout the world (25). The first Morrill Act of 1862, the second Morrill Act of 1890, and the Nelson Act of 1907 providing for government aid to agricultural and mechanical colleges are administered by the Department of the Interior (21, p. 31). The annual payments under the acts of 1890 and 1907 are made on certifi- cations of the Secretary of the Interior, which are based upon the proper ex- penditure of preceding appropriations. All of these reports required to be made by the act are collected and passed upon by the Commissioner of Educa- tion, upon whose recommendation is based the action of the secretary (ax, p. 32). While the duties of the Commissioner of Education in his relation to land-grant colleges consist chiefly in gathering sta- tistics and making reports to the Secretary of the Interior he has opportunities for making suggestions and recommendations of importance to agricultural education. For example, in his letter of April 17, 1907, to the presidents and boards of control of state colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts he calls atten- tion to a provision of . the act of 1907 "providing for courses for special preparation of instructors for teaching the elements of agriculture and mechanic arts" and adds, "With the increasing number of secondary schools of agriculture and of industrial and trade schools, there will arise a considerable demand for specially prepared teachers to give instruction in special branches of study" (26, p. 870). In his report of 1908 to the Secretary of the Interior he gives an account of the action of several insti- tutions taking advantage of this provision (27, pp. 740, 741). On July i, 1909, the Bureau appointed a specialist in land- grant college statistics who is expected also to pay attention to 16 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS the general subject of agricultural education and to be able to furnish information and advice concerning that subject. The Commissioner of Education holds an important advisory position with reference to any proposed national legislation con- cerning education, particularly agricultural education. During the sixtieth session of Congress several bills were introduced providing for national aid to education in agriculture and other industrial subjects. Of these the most important were the Burkett bill (S. 3,392) providing for "the advancement of in- struction in agriculture, manual training, and home economics in the state normal schools of the United States," and the Davis bill (H.R. 534) providing in a similar way for national aid to agricultural and industrial education in the secondary schools only. The latter was finally revised (H.R. 18,204) so as to include the provisions of the Burkett bill (S. 3,392). The Davis bill provides for annual appropriation of "ten cents per capita of the population of each state and territory and the District of Columbia" for aid to maintain instruction in agriculture and home economics in agricultural schools of sec- ondary grade, and an appropriation of one cent per capita to maintain similar instruction in state and territorial normal schools (24, pp. 85-87). The large amount of money concerned, and the establishment of separate schools not already a part of our national system of education called for careful study and deliberation. The Bureau of Education was freely consulted in the matter. No one had a clearer insight into the far-reaching influence of the bill, a clearer understanding of its importance upon the economic and educational welfare of the nation, or a greater appreciation of the principles involved in such legislation, than the Commissioner of Education. In a letter dated September 26, 1907, to Mr. Davis he says : One strong argument in favor of such national aid, when extended to special forms of education which are in special need of encouragement, may be drawn from the workings of the appropriation for support of land-grant colleges, contained in the second Morrill Act of August 30, 1890. The recent UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION 17 effect of the national appropriations under that act has been to stimulate greatly the support of the land-grant colleges by the states in which they are situated. He calls attention to a provision of the measure giving adminis- trative authority over the appropriations therein provided to the Department of Agriculture, whereas "appropriations which are primarily for agriculture are now administered by the De- partment of Agriculture, and these which are primarily for edu- cation (land-grant colleges) are administered by the Bureau of Education." I think Che says] as matters now stand this is a good working division, particularly as the relations between the Bureau of Education and the Office of Experiment Stations of the Department of Agriculture are very close and cordial. Educational interests are becoming so strongly unified through- out this country, and in fact in foreign lands, that the present tendency points to unifying of government activities of a purely educational sort, or of predominantly educational sort, under the Office of Education. Another reason for bringing the activities provided in your bill under the Bureau of Education is that they deal not only with agricultural high schools but with high schools of mechanic arts in cities as well. In institutions of both classes, while industrial ends are sought and industrial means employed, the main purpose, as I understand it, is educational. It seems to me worth considering, also, the question whether it is advisable that rural schools, to which the bill relates, should in all cases be designated as agricultural high schools. There is still a good deal of differ- ence of opinion as to whether high-school work in agriculture may be done to best advantage in general high schools which are properly equipped on the agricultural side, or in agricultural high schools which pay incidental attention to studies other than agriculture. It is likely, in fact, that we shall have institutions of both types for many years to come, and that both of them will do good and efficient work in the promotion of agricultural education. For this reason it seems to me doubtful whether it is wise to limit the distribution of the fund by using the distinctive designation of agricultural high school. In a letter to Senator Proctor, dated March 4, 1908, the whole matter of national aid as proposed by the Burkett bill and by the Davis bill is carefully reviewed. The entire letter should be read in order to form a just conclusion of the Commissioner's position. After citing the difficulties arising from our complex industrial i8 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS situation, both urban and rural, he recognizes the probable need of federal aid in the following words: For all these reasons (referring to our industrial situation) the problem of a better education of an industrial type, in both country and city, has steadily become more acute. It is extremely doubtful whether these growing needs can be met in the near future in the majority of the states, unless the encouragement of federal appropriations be added to the efforts of the states and of local communities. While approving the measure in principle he urges "that any forward step which the national government may take in the encouragement of public education should be carefully weighed, and given its proper place in a well-digested general policy." Furthermore, the conditions in several states are widely different, and any bill should be framed with a full knowledge of these differing conditions in order that it may be made sufficiently flexible to accomplish the best results in all parts of the country. In order "to make possible for Congress to act on bills like S. 3,392 with full knowledge of the situation and needs of the country" he recommends that a commission be appointed to make a thorough investigation of the question and "report to Congress on or before January I, 19 lo." 1 Neither the Davis bill nor the Commissioner's recommenda- tion became a law. The bill was an indication of the interest of the country at large in extending agricultural education into the elementary and secondary schools. The attitude of the Bureau of Education was one of accord with the general principles on which the measure was based, but at the same time one of caution, recognizing that national appropriation to agricultural education, when given, should be of the greatest possible service. 2 1 For permission to quote from letters to Congressmen Davis and Senator Proctor, and for other assistance in getting material for this chapter, the writer is indebted to Commissioner Elmer Ellsworth Brown. A portion of his letter to Senator Proctor appears in the Commis- sioner's Report of 1008. "The provisions of the Davis bill have been revised and amended and presented at each session of Congress. In its present form (Page bill, 1912) it has a much wider scope than the original Davis bill. Dr. P. P. Claxton, United States Commissioner of Education, is not only actively interested in the proposed legislation, but is making an active campaign for the betterment of rural schools. CHAPTER III STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION AND STATE LEGISLATION Each state or territory has at the head of its school system a central office. This office is administered in most states by a state superintendent or state commissioner of education, and in some states, as in Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, by a state board of education through its secre- tary or commissioner (29). These state offices vary in details and plan of organization, and somewhat in authority over educational matters, but are alike in essential respects. But however efficient the departmental organizations, the personality and aggressiveness of those in charge count for much in the influence that these offices exert in the educational welfare of their respective states. It is especially true that the introduction of a new subject of instruction like agriculture may be greatly hindered or promoted by the attitude taken by the state office. If favorable, the subject may be recommended for legislation, it may be put in the course of study, a textbook may be adopted, through personal influence on local boards it may be introduced in certain sections of the state, interest may be aroused by making it a reading-circle sub- ject, special publications may be issued to help teachers who wish to teach the subject, by promoting interest through clubs or other organizations. The main facts concerning the efforts of all the states and territories in the promotion of agricultural education in the elementary and secondary schools through their central offices of education and by legislation are indicated in the follow- ing tabulation. In Delaware interest in agricultural education has not seemed to warrant any attention from its state department of educa- tion. Kentucky, although it is an agricultural state, has 19 20 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS rt o a 1 o 3 2 1 , *&- o rt 5 ** Q _ ^5 r3 O J. ff rt o O }.Q S b J ' Q^" j'5 8 ~ ^!1 ** ii o 2 ^Ja w e to ( g ^^3 i ?3 1 1*^ "*" ^ 2 &TJ 8-3 u a CO 1 < pi!*] ||1 j ill pil|illll Sg S , r~ < O 'Sc/j-S'3 2 IS S & S ' ' .2 ' ~ j i 1 1 Pti ^w|S 1 ^e ^ SJ-s-Sll i 1 ffsas-sg ! i ! i !|fl i 2 2 1 o o 1 1 1 i i I i 4 < I s a i-S " |a o ^ . 1 m ffliJi B < il"? l'|| % \ || J. o g^^ O-S *fi u ^ CQ i (f gSbS ^ {i u 5 2 3 U w | - & ) i -. |2 5 2 1 v " o T: O 3 ii 1 U i o V "S & 1 S V " it E> o M I too W H ' y Q H g| & a - S s i H* > o M c> M < JH >< > i ^ - O 4 g " ^ M D 2 .c e ? o 5 3 7 (3.5 |s 1 8 8 < i w > < > > 1 " S. o 9 "^ M 1 H i-sl- fSli O _r o" A o iHttj c8 O. M -a! 'C .3 . q^, QCO fi^ II i 1 | f 8 H -*&< to H 11 1. lit p 5^~ c 2 M^ ~ H > > < > > w 1 I 1 i 1 i ! | I r| 'ff 7 - I 1 lie | 1 o fa o 2 STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION 21 d - - 8 1*11 S8JI JBJS 'WJ ait 3* i II S l 22 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS O.S Jllll 1*1 tllll itl ! . iSli H S-S 1^:88 i s 3 J3-' chers' nual 21 s a Plr< 1 SB I STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION 8- : ~1S#| \ rt " c* ^*2^ Silt; ttjuQ : gfl a M S; s o3 : j ^cj ' ' S C 2 - . : * X * * J! 1 i1| ".* S-t H.^fl * 3*g 1 11 II rill i iii si ill Educational campaign M g M : . g M jj S 8 S ~o -S -S -a u a 1 J 1. i P t H 't K ' t t t* M 00 8 : - 8 | 8 1 S- 9 ^ 1 C ^.& ij 'o " ^f S . oo"H M l * U^-g "S'sllS 1 W i | 1 I M IH i 8 8 8 : >* > >< s 1 < : 1 i 5 I ( <4 '* ! 1 J - 1 If | | oo n J3 i 1 1 1 1 j 3 i g ii g^^^^O * i^ 24 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 6-S 8-8 B5 ! A 9 tfl i I I JJ JS v o peci ^"H -rzsfe l ou St 8 ii 5-9 11 H (3 Ii ii & a H H & STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION 25 apparently shown much less interest in agricultural education than have other southern states. This may be readily explained by the fact that until 1908 the public-school system was organized under the old district plan. The schools were practically con- trolled by about 25,000 school trustees, 5,000 of whom could neither read nor write. The action of the legislature of 1908 has changed the whole aspect of the Kentucky educational situa- tion, and already remarkable progress has been made toward the improvement of her public schools. A glance at the tabulation shows that the southern states have been more active (at least recently) in the promotion of agri- cultural education than the northern states. This activity is a part of the general educational movement extending throughout the South. Educational campaigns have recently been conducted in several of these states and have done much to increase interest in all educational matters. The earliest legislation concerning introduction of agriculture into elementary schools was the Nixon law of New York in 1897 (24, pp. 161014). It provided for the extension of agriculture into the public schools under the direction of the Agricultural Col- lege of Cornell University. It was carried out by means of visits to schools and lectures before teachers' institutes, and by means of teachers' and pupils' leaflets for use in rural schools. The Cornell leaflets not only stimulated much interest in elementary agriculture and nature-study in the state of New York but in other states as well. Similar publications have since been issued by agricultural colleges of several other states. Requiring the teaching of elementary agriculture by law has not met with unqualified success. In some states where it is supposed to be in force little attention is paid to it on account of lack of qualified teachers. The establishment of state secondary schools of agriculture and provision for state aid to high schools teaching agriculture is probably the most important recent legis- lation concerning agricultural education. The latter form of state aid seems to be growing in favor. 26 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS Courses of study vary much in their treatment of agriculture as a school subject. The newness of the subject is usually recog- nized by special directions and suggestions for teaching. These are generally given in a state school manual or handbook for teachers. In some states they are in separate publications. In New York, for example, suggestions are outlined in syllabi, one for elementary schools and one for high schools. In other states bulletins on certain phases of the subject are issued, as in Michi- gan. Perhaps the most significant fact showing the widespread general interest in agricultural education in elementary and sec- ondary schools is the attitude of the administrative officers of the various state departments of education. Special mention of the subject is made in nearly all of the latest annual or biennial re- ports from these offices. In some reports considerable space is given to discussions of industrial education with particular refer- ence to agriculture. Finally, if any interpretation is to be made of the attitude of state departments of education toward agricultural education it must be remembered that these offices represent the people, and that any policy or action taken is in a certain sense an ex- pression of public opinion. CHAPTER IV SUMMARY OF STATE LEGISLATION AND OF WORK OF STATE DEPARTMENTS OF EDUCATION FOR 1910-11' The general discussion in the previous chapter of the attitude of states toward agricultural education in elementary and sec- ondary schools as shown by legislation and state departments of education was based on data collected for the years previous to 1910. In order to bring the subject up to date, and to show the rate of progress in the development of agricultural education in elementary and secondary schools as expressed in legislation and in the activities of state departments of education the fol- lowing summary by states is presented : Arkansas. The four agricultural high schools provided for by the legislature of 1909 opened in the fall of 1910 with a large attendance. The state provides about $20,000 per year for support and maintenance of each of these schools. State aid is also provided for high schools meeting certain require- ments fixed by the State Board of Education (Act 328, Laws of 1911). Although the law does not specify that agriculture shall be taught in these schools, the additional support re- ceived by them will no doubt enable many to give instruction in this subject as was suggested by the Educational Commission of Arkansas in its report recommending the passage of this act. The state office of education is active in its co-operation with the boys' agricultural-club movement. In addition to the boys' corn clubs already being promoted, rural-school poultry clubs are to be organized in 1911-12. California. High-school boards may prescribe an additional course, or additional courses of study, "including instruction in manual training, domestic science and art, agriculture, horti- culture, and dairying, to be duly credited as part of such high- 1 Unless otherwise cited the authority for statements made in this chapter is contained in letters received from state departments of education. 27 28 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS school work" (Cal. Political Code, Sec. 1750, May i, 1911). The state office of education is especially active in promoting agricultural education, co-operating with the college of agri- culture of the state university. Idaho. Rural high schools are established with agricultural instruction as part of the course of study. The subject of agri- culture fe put on the list of subjects required in examination for county certificates for teaching. Iowa. An act of the last legislature provides for the es- tablishment of departments for training of teachers in agriculture and home economics in forty high schools, and appropriates $500 special state aid for each of these schools. Kansas. A sum of $250 annually is available to such high schools maintaining normal training 2 as may organize courses in agriculture and domestic science under rules and regulations to be formulated by the state board of education. This pro- vision is also extended to such high schools as may hereafter introduce normal training. A law was also passed requiring an examination in agriculture for all forms of county teachers' certificates. Louisiana. During the years 1910-11 agricultural depart- ments were established in seventeen high schools, and the legisla- ture of 1910 appropriated $25,000 per annum for the years 1910-11 to aid these schools. No more than twenty agricultural departments will be recognized during the sessions of 1910-11 and 1911-12. The following is a summary of requirements made by the state board of education for the departments of agriculture of schools receiving state aid : A demonstration farm of at least five acres, which must be tightly fenced, and provided with barn containing full equipment; apparatus for teaching science, with an addition of at least $100 worth of apparatus especially for teaching agriculture ; at least $40 worth of tools and $140 worth of farming implements, and $250 for These departments for normal training in high schools were provided for by previous legislature. SUMMARY OF STATE LEGISLATION 29 maintenance; the teacher of agriculture must be satisfactory to the state department of education. To aid the department of agriculture and home economics of these schools a course of study, including state requirements for recognition, equipment, courses of study and practicums, has been issued by the state department of education (32). Maine. State aid is given to high schools and incorporated academies maintaining courses in agriculture. Maryland. State aid, not to exceed $2,500 each, is extended for the encouragement of high schools meeting the requirements set forth by the state board of education. Among these re- quirements is provision for manual-training and domestic-science courses, and also a commercial or agricultural course, as may be determined by the board of county commissioners. In the suggested course of agriculture for high schools two recitations of forty minutes each and one double laboratory period of eighty minutes are devoted to this subject each week for four years. The course is so arranged that a teacher of agriculture may teach in more than one high school, giving not less than two- fifths of his time to schools of the first group, and to no more than four schools of the second group. The sum of $400 is available to high schools of each group offering such instruction (School Code and By-Laws of the Maryland State Board of Education). Massachusetts. An act of the legislature of 1911 provides for agricultural departments in rural high schools. Such de- partments must devote their entire time to the theory and practice in agriculture. This work may be elected by pupils in the school. The pupils are to take all their studies except the training in practical farming in the regular classes of the school. The work is to be given by a special instructor who is to devote his entire time to the theory and practice of farming. He will be expected to supervise certain projects on the farm conducted by pupils, such as gardening, poultry-keeping, orchard- ing, small animal husbandry, etc., and to give in the classroom 30 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS the applied science, mathematics, etc., that may be necessary in order to bring about the practice of right methods. This teacher is not to teach any of the regular sciences in the school or any other subject save those that may be neces- sary to the group with which he deals in practical agri- culture. The state is to pay two-thirds of the salary of the instructor. The board of education has asked for $10,000 for the years 1911-12 in order to test the worth of this scheme. 3 Some of the details of this plan for part time or project method of agricultural instruction are given in chap, xiii, p. 125. In addition to the Report of the State Board of Education on Agricultural Education (166) referred to in chap, xiii, the board has issued a bulletin on Agricultural Projects for Ele- mentary Schools (33), the general scheme being the same as for projects for high schools. Michigan. The State Commission on Industrial and Agri- cultural Education appointed by the governor of Michigan in the summer of 1909 has made in its report the following recommendations: (i) provision of at least one high school with a four-year course in each township; (2) introduction as soon as possible of agriculture, manual training, and home economics into all high schools ; (3) certification of all teachers of agricultural and industrial subjects; (4) state supervision of all agricultural and industrial courses; (5) state aid for schools introducing high-school courses in agriculture and home economics, as follows: (a) the total not to exceed $30,000 for the first year, $50,000 for the third year, and $100,000 for any subsequent year; (&) an equal division of the funds be- tween agriculture and home economics on the one hand and industrial courses on the other; (c) schools certified for aid in agriculture and home economics to receive $500 for the first teacher employed, and $250 for each other teacher employed, no school to receive more than $1,000 in all (Rpt. Mich. State Com. on Indus, and Agric., 1910). From chap. 471, Massachusetts Code, and from letter of C. A. Prosser, deputy commis- sioner of education. SUMMARY OF STATE LEGISLATION 31 Minnesota. Three important laws relating to teaching of agriculture and industrial work were passed by the legislature of 1911 : 1. The Putnam Act amends chap. 247, General Laws of 1909, providing for state aid of $2,500 annually to high schools maintaining agricultural and industrial education, so as to author- ize rural schools to become associated with such state-aided high schools. The purpose of this amendment is to provide "training and instruction in such agricultural and industrial departments for pupils in rural schools, and to extend the supervision and influence of state high or graded schools to rural schools; one or more schools may become associated with a high or graded school in which is maintained an agricultural and industrial de- partment as herein provided." Each high school entitled to re- ceive state aid of $2,500 per year may receive, in addition, $150 per year for each associated school district, and each , school district forming such an association may receive $50 per year (Putnam Act, Laws of 1911). Thirty high schools during 1911-12 will each receive $2,500 of state aid. A number of these will receive additional state aid through their association with school districts as provided for in the Putnam Act. 2. "Any high school or graded school which shall maintain such a course as the High School Board of this state shall prescribe in agriculture and either in home economics or in manual training shall receive annually in addition to other aid the sum of $1,000 for maintaining such industrial courses, to be appropriated and paid from the appropriation made for state aid to high and graded schools" (Benson-Lee Act, Laws of 1911). About sixty high schools will receive the benefits of this law during the school year 1911-12. 3. Encouragement for consolidation of rural schools is ex- tended by the state through the Holmberg Act. Schools are classified as A, B, and C; schools of class A to have at least four departments; those of class B, three departments; those of class C, two departments. Each school of class A shall 32 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS receive $1,500; of class B, $1,000; of class C, $750. The principal of each school in any of these classes shall be qualified "to teach the elements of agriculture as determined by the state superintendent of public instruction" (Holmberg Act, Laws of 1911). Mississippi. "An act to provide for the establishment of county agricultural high schools and to provide for the equip- ment and maintenance of the same" was approved March 16, 1910 (chap. 122, Annotated Code of School Laws of Missis- sippi). According to provisions of this act any town or rural community in a county may bid for the location of an agri- cultural high school. But no bid will be considered that does not guarantee to the county a donation of at least twenty acres of land, suitable school building, and a dormitory with dining- room facilities to accommodate forty boarders. If no com- munity makes such a donation the above equipment may be secured out of any tax levy made for agricultural high-school purposes. When such a school is established it may receive state aid to the amount of $1,500 annually. The state department of public instruction has issued a course of study and general directions for conduct of these schools (34). Montana. The superintendent of public instruction urges that the subject of agriculture be given the time assigned to it in the state course of study. In this course the subject is outlined for the pupils of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Nebraska. Although there is no new legislation on agri- cultural education, considerable interest is shown in the subject of normal training courses (including agriculture) in high schools. A bill somewhat similar to those passed in Kansas and Iowa providing- for agricultural instruction in normal training courses in high schools and including state aid was presented at the last legislature, but failed to pass. Nevada. Provision is made in the course of study for in- struction in agriculture. Three high schools will give courses in agriculture in 1911-12. SUMMARY OF STATE LEGISLATION 33 New Hampshire. During the years 1911-12 seven regularly approved high schools will give courses in agriculture. An approved school must employ only graduates of recognized agri- cultural colleges to give instruction in agriculture. The high- school law of 1901 makes it possible to introduce the subject of agriculture into any high school of any community desiring it. In the state course of study for elementary schools agri- culture is given a place. New Jersey. Legislation relating indirectly to agricultural education is found in the provision made for a state commissioner of education who has, with the consent of the state board of education, the power to appoint four assistant commissioners, one of whom is to devote his time "to the inspection of industrial education, including agriculture." New York. In 1910 the state made provision for state aid to high schools giving instruction in agriculture. The sum of $500 may be apportioned to any city or union free school district maintaining a school of agriculture, mechanic arts, and home-making for thirty-eight weeks in a year, subject to approval of the state commissioner of education (162). Twenty schools have definitely adopted the special agricultural course for the year 1911-12, and will receive state aid. The New York plan is discussed in some detail in chap, xiii, p. 123. In the law of 1910 relating to agricultural education provision is also made for the training of teachers of agriculture for high schools at the state schools of agriculture at St. Lawrence University, at Alford University, and at Morrisville. North Carolina. An act was passed by the legislature of 1911 providing for the establishment and maintenance of county farm-life schools and for the promotion of agriculture and home- making (County Farm-Life School law, ratified March 3, 1911). "The aim of said school shall be to prepare boys for agricultural pursuits and farm life and to prepare the girls for home-making and housekeeping on the farm. The course of study in said school shall be subject to the approval of the state superintendent of public instruction and an advisory board in farm-life schools, 34 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS to be appointed by him; Provided, however, that the course of study shall include practical work on the farm, and practical work in all subjects relating to housekeeping and home-making by the girls." The state appropriates $25,000 to each school to aid in maintenance and support. The school cannot be lo- cated in any city or town of more than one thousand inhabitants, nor within two miles of any city or town of more than five thousand inhabitants. A complete equipment consisting of school building, dormitory buildings, barn and dairy building, a farm of not less than twenty-five acres of good land, and neces- sary furnishing, apparatus, and farm tools, all of which must be approved by the state superintendent of public instruction. Provision is also made for a high-school department to be maintained in each farm-life school that may not be established at the same place with some existing county high school. In addi- tion to the aim already indicated, it is intended for each school "to conduct agricultural and farm-life demonstration and ex- tension work throughout the country; to hold township and district meetings for the farmers and farmers' wives in all parts of the county from time to time; to co-operate with the county superintendent of public instruction and public-school teachers in stimulating, directing, and supervising farm-life work in the public high schools and elementary schools, and in providing instruction in such work for the teachers through the County Teachers' Association and through special short courses of study for public-school teachers; to provide, also, at said school short courses of study in farm-life subjects for adult farmers and their wives, and to hold at the school county meetings for fanners and their wives for instruction and demonstration work from time to time." Under provisions of this law two counties have voted for such schools, and several more have the matter under consideration and will call elections later. North Dakota. Three important measures in the interest of agricultural education became laws in 1911. Agriculture is made one of four optional subjects in examinations for first-grade teachers' certificates. This will probably be amended later, mak- SUMMARY OF STATE LEGISLATION 35 ing agriculture one of the required subjects. State aid is to be given to rural and graded schools. These are of two classes, but among the requirements for both classes are courses in domestic science, manual training, and elementary agriculture. Provision is made for the establishment of county agricultural and training schools. "Each of said schools shall receive state aid in the sum of $2,500 Not more than five schools shall be aided the first year nor more than five be added every two years thereafter." A state agricultural and training board is also created. This board "shall consist of the president of the state agricultural college, the state superintendent of public in- struction, and three practical farmers, who shall be appointed by the governor of the state. Ohio. An act to provide for the teaching of agriculture in the common schools became a law in 1911, but does not apply to city school districts of the state. The act requires "that the state be divided into four agricultural districts to be mapped out, located, and defined by the commissioner of common schools. .... The state commissioner shall also superintend all such agricultural education designated in this act and shall appoint in each agricultural district a person known as district super- visor of agriculture." Among the duties of this officer are visiting and co-operating with the several boards of education in his district in planning such a course of study in agriculture as they may think best adapted to the needs of the people of the respective school districts ; visiting the county teachers' institute in every county in his district, and giving instruction in agri- culture to the teachers of the several schools designated in this act ; co-operating with the state board of agriculture, and giving the state such time as may be necessary to lecture on agricultural subjects as are related to teaching in the common schools; en- couraging county agricultural societies in each county of his district to establish school children's agricultural exhibits at each annual county fair. The sections of the political code relating to teachers' examinations is amended so as to include "on and after September I, 1912, elementary agriculture." 36 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS Pennsylvania. The new school code provides for the ap- pointment of an expert assistant in agriculture for the state department of education and makes agricultural education a part of the objects to be promoted by the state board of education. Texas. State aid to the amount of from $500 to $2,000 is given for one year to high schools providing approved in- struction in agriculture. Utah. Agriculture is made a part of the course of study prepared by the state office of education for accredited high schools. Vermont. The state department of education has issued a Manual of Agriculture for the Public Schools of. Vermont (35). Washington. Elementary agriculture is made an optional subject in the eighth grade of the public schools of the state. Wisconsin. An act passed in 1911 makes available to each school "maintaining a department of manual training, or do- mestic economy or agriculture, or any or all of these departments one-half the amount actually expended for instruction in such department, not, however, to exceed $350 for each department above named which shall have been maintained in connection with the high school and the three upper grades below the high school, but not to exceed $250 for each department named maintained only in connection with the high school." It is possible under this act for a school district maintaining courses in these three subjects to receive $1,050 per year from the state. No state aid may be given to any school for instruction in agriculture, domestic economy, manual training, or industrial branches unless the salary of every teacher giving instruction in such subjects shall receive at least $60 per month. The maximum state aid to any county school of agriculture and domestic economy is raised from $4,000 per annum to $6,000- $8,000 per annum, depending upon average daily attendance. The Stout Institute located at Menomonie is to receive state support, $30,000 for the current year and $55,000 per annum thereafter. SUMMARY OF STATE LEGISLATION 37 TATE CER ULT CATI O G GRI ED II II -S 2 w 2" " Q'i -CO 8 n 2| 1 ||t * -a-o ljii-e%'?J C ^ G J3 O u y o *^ ^ M 1*8* 5? O - CHAPTER V AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES, INCLUDING EXTENSION WORK, DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION, AND SUMMER SCHOOLS FOR TEACHERS Of the many agencies now promoting agricultural education in elementary and secondary schools the most important are the state agricultural colleges, for they are the "only teaching insti- tutions that are in possession, at first hand, of the essential facts of rational agriculture." Until recently they have been too busy perfecting their own organization, and too greatly occupied in developing and promoting the scientific aspects of agriculture to give much attention to outside educational matters. It is difficult to determine just when the agricultural colleges began to take an active interest in the public schools. Dean L. H. Bailey says: More than any other institutions they stand for democracy and native- ness of education, for their purpose is nothing less than to reach the last man on the last farm by means of the very things by which that man lives (36, p. 40). This idea of bringing the college to the people found its first expression in various sorts of extension work dealing with the farmers directly. Now this work is well organized and is doing great service. Through farmers' institutes, farmers' conventions, fanners' excursions to the college, instruction trains, demonstra- tion farms, and other means, the man on the farm is having the college brought to him. These efforts of the colleges are now appreciated ; so much in fact, that it is often difficult for a college to meet the demands for this kind of outside instruction. But the farmer has not always had this friendly attitude. He was slow to recognize the value of what he called "book farming." Perhaps it was in these early days of agricultural extension that some of those in charge thought it worth while to give some attention to the coming generation of farmers, to the children in the public schools. 38 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXTENSION WORK 39 Doubtless many individuals connected with agricultural col- leges had put this idea into practice and had helped to introduce agricultural subjects in some of the public schools long before any college took official notice of this means of extension. The first college to take this matter up was the Agricultural College of Cornell University. Reference has already been made to this work under the Nixon law of 1897.* It assumed consider- able importance at once. The report of 1898 concerning this work says : Thirty thousand teachers are enrolled on our lists and have received leaflets, and many have attended lectures explaining the methods of pre- senting nature-study work in the schools. Sixteen thousand children have received those leaflets which are especially adapted to their needs (24, p. 1611). This work is administered by a department of the college known as the Nature-Study Bureau and consists of publications, correspondence, organization of boys' and girls' clubs, and lec- tures and demonstrations for teachers. Other agricultural col- leges soon took up similar work in their respective states until now nearly all are doing more or less extension work among the public schools. At present agricultural colleges are assisting agricultural education in the elementary and secondary schools (a) by various extension methods, (b) by organizing depart- ments of agricultural education, and (c) by conducting summer schools for teachers. Extension methods vary somewhat in different states. This is probably due to differences in local conditions, state support, and policies of the colleges themselves. Usually each college develops one particular method of reaching the schools although it may use several. Several colleges follow the Cornell plan (37> 38) of regular publications for teachers and pupils, for example, the agricultural colleges of California (39), Kansas (40), Ohio (41), New Hampshire (42), Rhode Island (43), and West Virginia (44). Purdue University, Indiana, and Pennsylvania State College published regularly for a while 1 Chap, iii, p. 25. 40 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS leaflets on nature-study. Others publish occasional bulletins on various phases of public-school agriculture, for example, the agri- cultural colleges of Massachusetts (45, 46, 47, 48), Illinois (49). Minnesota (53), Missouri (50), Pennsylvania (51), Tennessee (52), and California (54, 55). Material designed to aid teachers is sometimes prepared by faculty members of an agri- cultural college, for example, of the agricultural colleges of California (56), Illinois (58), and Michigan (57), to be pub- lished by the state department of education or by some school magazine. These extension publications are distributed free of charge and often large editions have to be reprinted to meet the demand. The extension bulletin of Ohio State Agricultural College (41), for example, is printed in editions of from 10,000 to 20,000. The maiiling-list is made up anew each year from responses to notices that names will be dropped from the mailing-list unless requests are renewed. Pupils of the public schools are expected to carry on some work suggested by the college and report upon this work in order to receive the bulletin regularly. In this way the extension department is kept in close touch with the teachers and pupils of the state. The bulletin serves several purposes : it is a means of com- munication between the college and the schools ; it presents vari- ous phases of agriculture of interest to the pupils; it assists in organizing agricultural clubs among the public-school children; it is the organ for promoting interest in rural-school improve- ment, such as consolidation of rural schools and beautifying school grounds. Each agricultural college has more or less correspondence among teachers and pupils but some colleges have encouraged it and made it a feature of their extension work. This method has the advantage that conies from establishing a sort of personal relation between the college and the individual. But the work involved in a correspondence dealing with several thousand indi- viduals is enormous and almost impossible for an agricultural AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXTENSION WORK 41 college, were personal answers given to each letter. A regular publication is necessary to outline and suggest work to be re- ported upon. The correspondence is really one-sided, for answers to individual letters may be given in the next publication or in cir- cular letters. Only a small percentage requires personal answers. The office work is thus reduced to filing and checking reports and preparing mailing-lists. The most extensive work of this kind has been carried on by Cornell University. "Uncle John," who is supposed to read the letters, is more widely known and is more popular among the young people of New York rural communities than any other member of the university. This method is also used by the agricultural colleges of Ohio and Rhode Island. The agricultural colleges of Florida, Kansas, and Pennsylvania (59) conduct correspondence courses in agriculture for teachers. The most successful form of agricultural extension among public-school children has been agricultural clubs (60, 6i). 2 They are now organized in nearly every state and are not only a means of imparting a knowledge of agriculture to their members, but have a wholesome reaction on the communities in which they are organized. The following is a statement of the work of boys' clubs of Louisiana: This year, 1909, we have about 2,000 boys in our agricultural clubs. Next year we expect to have 10,000. I shall devote all of December, Jan- uary, and February to the organization of these clubs in every parish in Louisiana. The corn crop in Louisiana this year exceeds in yield by 50 per cent the crop of 1908, and it is generally admitted that a large part of the increase is due to the interest created in corn during the last two years by the boys that are in the boys' clubs. The best corn show ever held in Louisiana was that of the boys' clubs at the State Fair at Shreveport the first days of this month. 3 The agricultural colleges of all the southern states are active in their co-operation with the government demonstration work among boys. The most complete state organization of boys' and girls' clubs is in Nebraska (60). Here the State Agricultural 'Boys' agricultural dubs are fully discussed in chap. xii. 'From a letter of Professor V. L. Roy, Department of Agricultural Education, State Agricultural College of Louisiana. 42 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS College and the State Department of Education work together. The organization consists of a state association, and county and local or district associations. The central or state association meets once a year and is composed of delegates from county associations. A special course in agriculture and domestic science for boys and girls will be given at the State University Farm, beginning Monday, January 17, and ending Friday, January 21, 1900. This course is planned for the dele- gates from each county of boys' and girls' agricultural and domestic science associations. Special arrangements have been made with the professors at the University College of Agriculture to give a course of instruction last- ing five days The laboratories at the Agricultural College will be at the disposal of the delegates from the different counties during this week and professors from the college will give the instruction. The course is filled with interesting and instructive lectures and demonstrations (60, p. n). The agricultural colleges reach the public schools in various other ways. The extension department of Ohio State Agri- cultural College gives much of its attention to rural schools. The superintendent of agricultural extension in this institution believes that the most important work of his department lies in improving the rural schools, not only by helping to introduce agriculture, but by interesting the patrons in consolidating small district schools, in making other improvements, and by encoura- ging the teachers to adjust their school work to fit the needs of the communities in which they live. The Mississippi State Agri- cultural College gives a short course of one week each winter in the county agricultural high school. Many colleges send rep- resentatives to address teachers' institutes and other teachers' meetings. They also furnish judges for boys' corn shows, and corn and stock- judging contests. The early extension work of agricultural colleges among the public schools was intended to awaken an interest in agricultural affairs. It was mainly propaganda for arousing a favorable sentiment toward the subject. The more recent work has had for its aim the actual introduction of certain phases of agriculture into the schools, and to render assistance to teachers who wish AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXTENSION WORK 43 to teach the subject. The demand on many colleges for this kind of work has become too great to be properly met by the regular extension departments. To meet this situation special depart- ments are being organized. These are usually known as depart- ments of agricultural education. The following tabulation shows the organization of these departments up to date: State Year State Year Alabama IQOQ Missouri IQOQ California IQOQ Nebraska. IQOQ Georgia IOII North Carolina IQOQ Idaho IQOQ Ohio IOIO Illinois *y^y ) 1905 Oklahoma 1909 Indiana ( 1909 1008 Oregon Pennsylvania IQ09 IQOO Iowa IOII Rhode Island I9II Louisiana IQOQ Utah IQII Kansas IOII Washington 1QII Michigan 1908 West Virginia I9II Massachusetts IOO7 Wisconsin . . . TQOO Mississippi IOII The agricultural colleges of Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin give courses in education to their students who expect to become teachers. The Agricultural College of Tennessee added a department of agricultural education temporarily in 1908 for one year and expects to re-establish it. A number of other colleges have signi- fied their intention to establish departments of agricultural edu- cation as soon as practicable. It will be seen from the above summary that most of these new departments began their work in 1908 and 1909. This is probably due, at least in part, to a provision of the Nelson amend- ment of 1908 (26, 36, p. 5) whereby "said colleges may use a portion of this money (referring to additional appropriation) for providing courses for special preparation of instructors for teaching the elements of agriculture and mechanic arts." Massachusetts in 1907 made a special appropriation of $5,000 for this work (36, p. 41 ). In addition to the regular instruction 44 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS given during the school year and summer school for teachers, the department conducted, in 1908, 1909, and 1910, conferences on agricultural education (46). At the conference of 1909, a committee appointed in 1908 made a report outlining a series of exercises "of experimental character that should serve as material for the teaching of agriculture in the common schools" (45). The department has extended its work to include courses of in- struction during the college year to undergraduates expecting to teach; lectures before teachers' and farmers' meetings; summer- school instruction to teachers of elementary agriculture and school gardening; co-operative work with the North Adams State Normal School; organizing boys' and girls' agricultural clubs; conducting school gardens on college campus for the school children of Amherst. The departments of agricultural education in other colleges are just getting under way, and it is therefore not possible at this time to give any report of their work beyond a few brief statements. Boys' clubs and teachers' institutes are receiving special attention in several states. In Missouri the schools of the county in which the University of Missouri is located are taking up the study of agriculture under the direction of the professor of agricultural education who visits the schools with the county superintendent, gives instruction in the seventh and eighth grades and makes suggestions to the teachers for carrying on the work. In 1910-11 work in thirteen of these "demonstra- tion schools" was conducted, and about fifty others were reached by correspondence. The University of Illinois is pursuing a sim- ilar plan. In Indiana the department was established especially to enable the students of Purdue University to comply with the state law requiring teachers in the public schools to have some pro- fessional training. In the University of California the depart- ment of agricultural education is especially well organized, cover- ing the following lines of work : instruction to teachers during the regular and summer sessions ; publication of circulars on school gardening, tree-growing, high-school agriculture, elementary AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXTENSION WORK 45 agriculture, etc. ; organizing and conducting school garden work in city and rural schools ; conducting seed exchange with schools interested in tree-growing and gardening; conducting organiza- tions for the encouragement of nature-study; visiting, super- vising, and teaching in the public schools ; assisting at teachers' meetings; organizing excursions of teachers to university sta- tions; organizing boys' and girls' clubs and publishing a paper to unify this work; assisting with the demonstration train; cor- respondence with superintendents, principals, and teachers, and others interested in educational work. Various specialists of Kansas Agricultural College, under the direction of the depart- ment of agricultural education, have prepared a series of six agricultural primers. These have been placed in the hands of each teacher of the state, and have been used as a text in all the normal institutes during the summer of 1911. In general, these new departments seem to regard the development of agri- culture in high schools as an important part of their work. Mention should be made in this connection of the co-operation of the College of Agriculture of Cornell University and Teachers College of Columbia University for the training of students for special work as teachers of agriculture in high schools and normal schools. "Appropriate courses in agriculture are taken at Cor- nell University and the study of educational problems at Teachers College" (36, pp. 36-37). The Pennsylvania Agricultural Col- lege offers a special course of one year for graduates of normal schools and colleges who expect to teach in the public schools. The department of agricultural education is also giving instruc- tion by correspondence to a large number of teachers. The University of Wisconsin is making special effort to prepare teachers for work in secondary agriculture in the public schools. One course of study leads to the B.S. degree in agriculture, and to a university teachers' certificate which requires a certain amount of work to be done in education; a second leads to the degree of A.B. with a minor in agriculture ; a third leads to the degree of A.B. with a major in manual arts and a minor in 46 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS agriculture; a fourth leads to the degree of B.S. in the college of agriculture with a minor in manual arts or physical or bio- logical science. The number of agricultural colleges giving summer courses for the benefit of teachers is increasing rapidly. During the year 1911 courses were given in the agricultural colleges of the following states : Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyo- ming, and perhaps others. These courses last from three to eight weeks and are well attended. The indications are that the attendance and interest will increase and that summer schools of agricultural colleges will become a considerable factor in ele- mentary and secondary agricultural education. CHAPTER VI STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS It is the business of state normal schools not only to train teachers but also, as far as conditions permit, to find out by ex- periment in practice schools, what to teach and how to teach it. When both aspects of the work of these schools are considered, the important relation which they bear to agricultural education, particularly in elementary schools, becomes apparent. The prob- lem of the normal school in this matter is twofold : (a) to meet the rapidly growing demand for teachers who are able to give satisfactory instruction in elementary agriculture, and (&) to reduce the subject to a proper pedagogical basis, in other words, to determine what phases of this great subject may be undertaken in the elementary schools under average school conditions both from the standpoint of the child and of the teacher. The following is a brief summary of the efforts of the state normal schools to find a solution of this twofold problem. The data have been gathered from one hundred and thirty-seven of the one hundred and forty-five schools now actively engaged in training teachers. 1 When the diverse social, educational, and industrial interests of the country as a whole are considered it is to be expected that these differences will be reflected in the types of instruction given in the various normal schools. To these differences brought about by conditions more or less local are to be added those due to tradition. The older schools are usually less elastic and adapt- able than the newer ones. Bailey regards the latter fact as a very serious obstacle in the way of a general introduction of agriculture into these schools. He says, "One cannot look to all the existing normal schools in the older states, or even to any 1 In 1910 the nine state normal schools of Oregon were closed, owing to lack of financial support from the state. 47 48 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS considerable part of them, for the training of teachers for this kind of work" (36). This statement must be qualified for there are many exceptions. For example, the Johnson State Normal School of Vermont has been offering courses in agriculture for over eight years, while the one at Laramie, Wyoming, recently established, does not give courses in agriculture but prepares its graduates to teach in cities. The number of graduates of state normal schools that teach in agricultural communities varies exceedingly not only in different states but among the schools of a single state. Re- ports from seventy-six show that twenty-eight have from 60 to 100 per cent of their graduates 'going into schools of rural communities; twenty-seven have from 20 to 50 per cent; and twenty-one have from I to 10 per cent. Of the twenty-eight having from 60 to 100 per cent of their graduates teaching in rural communities, twenty are offering instruction in agriculture and fifteen require it; of those having from 20 to 50 per cent, twenty offer instruction in agriculture and nine require it; of those having from i to 10 per cent, eleven offer agriculture and three require it. If this proportion should apply to all the schools it would seem to indicate that the number of graduates of normal schools going into agricultural communities is quite large, per- haps larger than generally supposed. It indicates also a tendency of the schools to adapt their work, at least to the extent of intro- ducing agriculture, to the needs of the communities where their graduates teach. This estimate is only approximate and only inferences may be drawn from it. It does not take into con- sideration the large number of students who take a portion of the course and who for the most part go into the country to teach. One normal-school president says : "There are very few of our graduates who teach in rural schools, but there are multitudes of our undergraduates who do so." This statement suggests an- other phase of the problem of normal-school instruction which has received little or no attention, viz., what recognition in the course of study or character of instruction should be given to the STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 49 fact that so many who attend the normal school for part of the course drop out and become teachers in rural schools? For example, in the school just referred to, the instruction is evidently adjusted to meet the needs of students who expect to teach in city schools. No agriculture is taught although "multitudes of the undergraduates" become teachers in rural schools, and in the state itself agriculture is the chief industry. The development of agricultural instruction in state normal schools has on the whole kept pace with the growth of the general interest in the subject. It is hard to say just when this subject was first taken up. Probably the first institution to begin this work under the name of agriculture was the Rock Hill State Normal School of South Carolina, which offered courses in agri- culture as early as 1895. The Johnson State Normal School of Vermont offered its first course in agriculture in 1901, and about this time the subject was introduced in some of the state normal schools of the Middle West (62). In 1906 a report on "Preparation of Teachers to Give Instruc- tion in Elementary Agriculture" was prepared for the Joint Board of the California State Normal Schools trustees (63). This re- port showed that the normal schools of Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, and South Carolina were attempting to prepare teachers to give instruction in elementary agriculture; that some attention was being given to the subject in the normal schools of Illinois, Utah, and Oklahoma ; that nothing was being done to furnish such training in the schools of Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Alabama, North Carolina, or New York, but that several of these schools were, however, getting ready to undertake the work as soon as possible. In a study of ninety-one state normal schools reported to the National Education Association in 1907, it was shown that seventy-five believed in an instruction in agriculture, and were either giving it in some form or desired to do so. Sixty-one of this number were either offering courses or had made plans for such courses for the following year. Seven of these were giving 5Q AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS only a little agriculture in connection with other science courses. Eight were doing still more in connection with school gardens and were planning to extend the work. The remaining forty- six were giving definite courses in agriculture (64). During 1909-10 of one hundred and thirty-seven state normal schools, eighty-seven were giving some instruction in agriculture. In fifty-two of those offering courses, twenty-two made it elective and thirty required it. Of those not giving (instruction in agriculture, thirty-seven gave it incidentally in connection with botany, nature-study, or some other course in science, and nearly all those giving courses in agriculture also gave some attention to the subject in other science work, particularly in botany and nature-study. It will be seen from the above that normal schools are rapidly introducing agriculture. The number of schools offering such courses has increased from about 20 per cent in 1906 to more than 50 per cent in 1909. Indeed, the demand for well-qualified instructors in agriculture for normal schools exceeds the supply. One normal-school president says that he tried for over one year to secure a competent instructor. Davenport says : "The call is sharp from the normal schools of the Middle West which have this year (1909) taken some of the best trained and most promising teachers of this class" (65, p. 144). The call is not alone from the Middle West but the East as well. During the present school year one of the normal schools of the Atlantic Coast states secured a teacher who, at the time of his appointment, was professor of agricultural education in an agricultural college of the Middle West. Letters from presidents and others connected with normal schools not now (1910) offering agricultural instruction indicate that in many of these schools plans are under way to introduce the subject as soon as possible. Included in this number are the normal schools of New York and Pennsylvania, none of which now (1910) offers such instruction except incidentally with nature-study and other subjects. STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 51 The character of the work in agriculture varies much in different schools. But there is one feature of the instruction that is common to all, viz., evidence of the newness of the subject and of the fact that it is in an experimental stage. In some schools the work in agriculture is only in name, much better instruction being given in other schools in courses in nature-study. The time given in the course of study varies from ten weeks to two full years, the average being less than one year. One interesting reaction following the demands for agricultural in- struction is to be found in the readjustment in science courses, especially in the biological sciences. The title agricultural botany and agricultural zoology frequently occurs in courses of study. One fails to find in some of these, however, justification for the new titles, for the instruction remains much the same, with emphasis on morphology. The attitude of certain teach- ers of biology toward their subject is well illustrated by the following extract of a letter received from a member of the faculty of a large state normal school. "I obtained over one dozen kinds of water animals one day from a pool when the science (biology) teacher said he saw none in it. He was send- ing to New York City for crayfish when a brook near the building was full of them. The boys (in training school) had made nets and would have been glad to have caught the animals for him." Perhaps the influence of such a teacher was partly responsible for the ignorance of a practice teacher (a senior) who stood in a bed of marigolds and asked if there were any marigolds in the garden. The introduction of agriculture will no doubt have much to do in changing this attitude. It will in the end exert a profound influence upon the teaching of general science. There is no manner of doubt that the masses of people are best benefited by the teaching of science in its applied form Agriculture is evidently to be the pioneer in this business of the adaptation of science to the common affairs of life in the schools that are attended by the masses, and if this is true its incidental service may be even greater than its direct. In the meantime it is vastly significant that the schools 52 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS where teachers are made have at last commenced to study real life in one of its most concrete forms (65, pp. 45-46). Normal schools have so far been too much occupied in pro- viding for instruction in agriculture to give much attention to the pedagogical problems of the subject. These problems con- cern (a) the organization of courses in the normal school itself, and (&) methods of teaching the subject in the public schools. Naturally, the former has been the first to receive attention. The organization of work in agriculture has been in two directions, one in the science work already referred to, and the other in the purely agricultural courses recently introduced. Special efforts of adjustment have affected nature-study more than other science studies. Many believe that as far as the ele- mentary schools are concerned agriculture should have the nature- study aspect, or as some prefer to say, nature-study should have an agricultural trend; that since nature-study has to do with material drawn from the child's immediate environment, and since a large part of this environment is more or less agricultural (consisting of animals and plants under control of man) a good course in nature-study forms an adequate preparation for a teacher to give such agricultural instruction as will meet the needs of rural schools, and at the same time enables a teacher to make use of school gardening and other practical or economic phases of the subject in city schools (66). The particular direction in which nature-study has been most modified in its readjustment has been in the school garden (67). It has been found that the school garden may serve as a very effectual means of unifying most all nature-study work. Chil- dren are not only able to "grow things" in gardens, but in doing this work successfully have had to solve many of the problems that are fundamental to agriculture. The character of the soil, the conservation of water by cultivation, the protection of plants from insect and other enemies, and many other factors of suc- cessful plant-growing are encountered. Many normal schools have regarded this readjustment of nature-study and other sci- STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 53 ence work as sufficient to meet the demands for agricultural instruction in the training of elementary teachers, and are work- ing with this end in view. Some of the normal schools of Cali- fornia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and other states, and many of those schools now offering courses in agriculture, have made substantial progress in the readjustment of science work. Instruction in agriculture as a separate subject in normal schools is now in an experimental stage. Yet certain work and methods seem to have proved successful. The first publication of work adapted to normal schools was in the form of a textbook based on teaching experience in the Kirksville (Mo.) State Normal School ( 1 76) . Recently a very concrete treatment of the problem has appeared as a government publication. It is an account of what is actually being done and how it is done in a typical normal school. The writer says in his introduction, The aim of the normal school is to prepare young men and women to teach in the elementary schools of the state. The young people who attend come from farms or smaller towns, and when they go out to teach they are called upon to give instruction in what is known as elementary agriculture. To meet this demand, a department of agriculture was established four years ago. The course at first extended through one term's work but has been lengthened until practically two full years are now devoted to agri- cultural instruction. The work has attracted many young people, and the success with which they have subsequently instructed others along these lines indicate that the instruction has been effective. Not all the problems in teaching agriculture have been solved but it may justly be claimed that a few of the more difficult of them have been solved (68). Other similar publications of successful practice which have been tested by the work of students who have become teachers will contribute much toward the pedagogical efficiency of the subject. From the standpoint of methods of teaching the subject in the public school, little has been done. A very promising begin- ning of the study of this question was made at the Peru (Neb.) State Normal School in February, 1909, when the Normal Agri- cultural Society was organized. The purpose of this society is to aid teachers in "handling the new subject of agriculture in 54 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS public schools of the state." Those interested in its organiza- tion have expressed the hope that "it will become a pedagogical laboratory for testing and discovering methods to improve and extend the teaching of agriculture throughout the schools of Nebraska." The director is the head of the department of agri- culture in the Peru Normal School and conducts for the society a column in the Nebraska Farmer which is to be the official pub- lication of the society (69). An interesting experiment limited to one phase of agriculture is now being conducted at the Western Illinois State Normal School at Macomb in co-operation with the Illinois State Agri- cultural Experiment Station. A soil experiment field of two and one-half acres has been provided by the normal school. The school as its share of the responsibility, takes full charge of the field operations implied in the plans. Such co-operation provides for both scientific and educative values in the work and it is proposed to make the results as far reaching as possible. Not alone to teachers and prospective teachers will it be valuable but as well to persons now engaged in agricultural practice (70). A few helps to teachers have been worked out in normal schools and published, for example, from Cape Girardeau, Mo. (71), Los Angeles, Cal. (72), Greeley, Colo. (73), Hays, Kan. (74), and Chico, Cal. (75). They consist of discussion of agri- cultural subjects suitable for public schools, and methods of instruction. There is one large class of normal-school students already mentioned that is not adequately provided for. This class is made up of students who wish to teach in rural schools and who can spend only a year or part of a year in preparation, and is the largest in states where emphasis is placed on examination for certification. These students attend primarily to prepare for examinations. It has been the custom in most schools to provide for these students by offering short review courses. Often instruction in elementary agriculture and sometimes in manual training forms STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 55 a part of this work, and is really the only part that takes into consideration the life of the community in which these students are to teach. These short courses are generally regarded by normal-school teachers as unsatisfactory, both on account of the shortness of the time given and the irregular preparation of the students themselves. Although the situation is recognized as a difficult one very little has been done to improve it. There are several schools, however, that have undertaken to give their students of this class some real preparation for this work as teachers. Some have arranged with local public-school authori- ties for a one-room rural school to be used as an observation or practice school. Others have built or have control of a one-room schoolhouse and have endeavored to make it a model of its kind so as to show concretely the possibilities of a rural school. For example, the Kirksville (Mo.) State Normal School has a well- appointed single-room schoolhouse. It has been designed and constructed to show that a rural school anywhere can have all the conveniences and comforts offered in any city building. The children are transported in covered vehicles to and from school. It is a model school so far as it can possibly be made such. It is to exemplify the best things which a school board and a good teacher with up-to-date facilities can do in and for a rural school. Special provision is made for instruction in manual training, elementary agriculture, and home economics. 2 Two somewhat similar plans for rural education should be mentioned in this connection. Both of these have the larger possibilities of teaching in rural communities in view. One is a course of two years called "rural arts" given by the Harris- burg (Va.) Normal and Industrial School for Women. The course requires high-school graduation for admission. The object is to give its students a training of mind, heart, and hand which will fit them for efficient service in rural schools, and for intelligent and appreciative participation in the life of rural communities. It will not attempt to train farmers; it cannot be expected to turn out agricultural experts. Its work 'Bulletin First District Normal School, Kirksville, Mo., DC, No. i (1909), 9-16. 56 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS will be limited to those phases of farm life in which women usually, or frequently, or may properly participate, and to that portion of agricultural instruction which may properly be given by female teachers in elementary and high schools. The course includes besides some of the regular normal courses, horticulture, elementary agriculture, rural sociology, poultry- raising and bee culture, dairying, forestry and floriculture, and theory and practice in rural arts. 3 The other is a course of two years known as "rural industrial education" given by the Ohio State Normal College of Miami University. Its requirements for admission are the same as for other college courses. This course is expected to meet the needs of township superintendents, principals, and science teachers of high schools in rural communi- ties, and to enable these teachers to adapt the work of their high schools more nearly to the life of the school communities. The course includes education, school administration, rural sociology, agriculture (two years), forestry, botany, manual training, rural education, methods of rural-school organization, physical geog- raphy, entomology, and physics of farm machinery. In plan- ning this course, which is at present a tentative one, the in- fluence of the high school of an agricultural community on the elementary schools was carefully considered. Most of the teachers in the elementary schools of these communities are graduates of these high schools. They seldom receive further training. Therefore, with a high school organized to meet the needs of the community, its influence should thus extend to the elementary schools through its graduates who become teachers (76). Any account of the work of the state normal schools in agri- cultural education would be incomplete without some special reference to the teachers themselves who are engaged in this work. Many are doing their work under considerable disad- vantage. This applies not only to the fact that agriculture is a new normal-school subject to be adapted to new conditions but ' Bitllclin Slate Normal and Industrial School, Harrisburg, Va., I, No. i (1909), 88-92. STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS 57 also to the fact that it has been added as an additional subject to a teacher's already overcrowded program. One teacher writes that he is offering agriculture this year for the first time, but is expected also to teach physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, physi- ology, geology, and physical geography. Several teachers have bought small farms primarily in order that their students might have the advantage of actual field experimentation. With the earnest body of teachers now beginning to take up the work and with the progress already made it seems likely that the demands for agricultural instruction in the training of teach- ers in state normal schools will soon be met. The real test of the value of this training is in the work of the teacher who goes out from the schools and it is now too early to pass judgment. CHAPTER VII NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION STATE AND OTHER TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS It is said of the National Education Association that it "has been, and is now the body-guard of public-school instruction in our country." While this statement may not be taken literally, the fact remains that this Association is the one educational organi- zation which is truly national in character, embracing as it does the interests of all parts of the country and all phases of educa- tion. It was organized in Philadelphia on August 26, 1857, under the name of the National Teachers' Association by a group of teachers who met in response to a call sent out the previous year to all the local teachers' associations. The call itself is significant, for it expresses the spirit which has, on the whole, been manifest during the entire existence of the Association: to teachers of the United States "who are willing to unite in a general effort to promote the general welfare of our country by concentrating the wisdom and power of numerous minds, and by distributing among all the accumulated experiences of all" (77). The name was changed in 1870 to the National Educa- tional Association and in 1907 to the one it now bears. As it was founded to meet the demands of a natural growth, it has never departed from the essential principles on which it was founded. The extent to which the "accumulated experiences of all" have been "distributed among all" may be seen by a reference to the published list of titles of papers and discussions from 1857 to 1907. This list covers over seventy pages and embraces almost every imaginable subject of educational interest (78). Many discussions are of only passing importance; some are but means of exploiting favorite theories; others are real contributions to educational thought. 58 STATE AND OTHER TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS 59 Beyond the propaganda which is expected of any large educational body the most valuable work of the Association has been through its committees which have been appointed from time to time to investigate and report upon various im- portant questions of general interest. The Association being a sort of clearing-house for educa- tional ideas, its published Proceedings provide a valuable source of information concerning all kinds of tendencies and move- ments in education. Agricultural education has received a share of attention proportional to the different stages of its develop- ment. The interest of the Association in this subject as re- flected in the Proceedings extends over four periods : the first from 1857 to 1897, the second from 1897 to I 93 tne tmr cl from 1903 to 1906, and the fourth from 1906 to the present time. Agriculture was not considered as a separate subject except as referring to agricultural colleges until the latter part of the first period. Industrial education, however, was discussed as early as 1866. In 1875 a Department of Industrial Education was formed. At this meeting the question : "Can Elements of Industrial Education Be Introduced into Our Common Schools ?" was discussed in a paper by John D. Philbrook. He said: "Science and art with reference to their special application to industrial pursuits must be included in the modern school course." Drawing, geometry, natural history, physics, and chemistry were mentioned as the branches which lie at the foundation of indus- trial education. At the meeting of the following year (1876) William T. Harris in his report as chairman of the committee on "Course of Study from Primary School to University" refers to the diffi- culty of deciding "the amount of prominence to be given to industrial branches in comparison with those chiefly productive of theoretical culture." He says also : "The primary school has been called upon to fit for life." In the course of study reported by the committee for the district schools, topics relating to nature 60 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS are suggested as follows: "Inorganic arithmetic, oral lessons in natural philosophy; organic geography, oral lessons in natural history." These two references to the early discussions of industrial education are given to show that the need of such instruction was being considered at this time, and from a somewhat general viewpoint which might include agriculture although it was not specifically mentioned. The Department of Industrial Education, however, gave its attention almost wholly to urban conditions. Drawing and manual training held prominent places in the dis- cussions of all the meetings. In 1890 the name of the Depart- ment was very properly changed to Industrial and Manual Training, and in 1899 to Manual Training. In 1893, at the International Congress of Education held under the auspices of the Association, agriculture had a place on the program (79) but the paper was read by a Russian. Perhaps his account of the use of agriculture in the rural schools as a school subject had something to do with direct- ing the attention of the Association to the rural-school prob- lem. At any rate, at the meeting of 1895 a committee of twelve was appointed to investigate and report upon rural schools as to maintenance, supervision, supply of teachers, and instruction and discipline. The report was submitted to the meeting of 1897. It con- tains a number of suggestions which involve more or less agri- cultural instruction such as surface features of the earth includ- ing soils, weather, plant and animal life, etc. It also emphasizes the need of a course of study "framed with direct reference to actual conditions that prevail in country life and in large measure determine it. Among the most important points to be kept in mind are the following: (i) There is a general lack of apprecia- tion of immediate surroundings; (2) there is an almost total lack of scientific skill in farm work; (3) in the country there is a great dearth of social life." Under (2) certain phases of mechanics, manual training, biology, meteorology and physics STATE AND OTHER TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS 61 of the atmosphere, mineralogy, and chemistry were included. Another portion of the report is devoted to the "farm as the center of interest," and a great many things which we now find in all textbooks on elementary agriculture are mentioned (80). During the latter part of the second period (1897-1903) agriculture appeared as a topic for discussion at nearly every meeting. At the meeting of 1902 five papers were read as follows: "The Value of a Large Agricultural School in Indian Service"; "Correlation of Schoolroom and Farm Work"; "The Education of the American Farmer"; "The Practical Value of Teaching Agriculture in the Public Schools" ; "The Teaching of Agriculture with Reference to Future Employment." In 1903 a committee on "Industrial Education in Schools for Rural Communities" was appointed. The committee made its report at the meeting of 1905 and represents the most important contributipn of the Association to agricultural education in the third period (1903-6). A considerable part of the report deals with agricultural subjects and their adaptation to elementary and secondary rural schools. Among the recommendations of the committee are the following: "A modification of the course of study should be made for the introduction of work, especially in the elements of agriculture and domestic science, and such further lines of industrial education as local conditions make feasible The establishment of schools distinctly indus- trial (agricultural high schools) in their character is absolutely necessary for the proper development and organization of the rural-school system." A detailed course of study for all the grades is submitted. It is an interesting contrast to the course of study reported by the Committee of Twelve of 1897. In the latter the idea that agricultural subjects should receive attention in the rural schools is suggested rather than definitely stated and outlined. In the former this idea is expressed in a definite and concrete outline with illustrative lessons. The work in agriculture for the secondary schools is particu- 62 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS larly well outlined, and illustrated by accounts of work actually carried on in two existing agricultural high schools: one the Dunn County (Wisconsin) School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy; the other, the Minnesota Agricultural High School connected with the Agricultural College of Minnesota (81). The fourth period is characterized by a more active interest in agricultural education. Three important steps were taken : (a) continuation of Committee on Industrial Education in Schools for Rural Communities; (fe) formation of National Committee on Agricultural Education; (c) organization of a Department of Rural and Agricultural Education. The Committee on Industrial Education in Schools for Rural Communities made two reports, one at the meeting of the Association in 1907 and the other at the meeting of 1908. In some preliminary investigation for the supplementary report the correspondence showed that "what was most wanted was a definite statement of what was actually being done in different parts of the country in providing facilities for industrial education in rural communities." The supplementary report represents the efforts of the committee to satisfy this demand. It consists of three parts : a discussion of the general problem, including school buildings, school gardens, manual training, na- tionalizing the work (referring to the Davis bill then before Congress) and in what schools agriculture should be taught; industrial work in New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York; experiences and opinions of individual teachers in the preceding territory (82). The second report (1908) is limited to "a presentation of what is being done in schools representing four types of organi- zation, as showing the possibilities in other schools of these types and the conditions under which these possibilities may become actualities." The schools selected and reported upon are the Waterford High School, at Waterford, Pa., the Cecil County High School, at Calvert, Md., the John Swaney Consolidated School, in Magnolia Township, Putnam County, 111., and the STATE AND OTHER TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS 63 congressional district agricultural schools located at Americus and Monroe, Ga. Each type is described in sufficient detail to give a clear understanding of its organization and actual work. The final conclusions of the Committee are summed up in nine paragraphs, two of which should be quoted here since they refer to conditions that continue to exist : That the supply of properly trained teachers for carrying on this work is totally inadequate to meet even the present demand, and that the increase in the demand for such teachers in the near future requires a very large increase in the facilities for their preparation, and to supply these facilities special training schools should be established throughout the country for the preparation of elementary rural-school teachers; that the normal schools whose graduates find positions in rural schools should broaden and strengthen in every way their courses of instruction along industrial lines adapted to the needs of rural schools; that the agricultural colleges favorably situated for such work should undertake to organize special courses for the purpose of training teachers for the secondary schools, capable of giving instruction in agriculture and related subjects. That in the growth of public sentiment, in the development of ideals, in the preparation of courses of study, and in the facilities for the training of teachers for industrial work in rural schools, decided progress has been made in recent years; but that much yet remains to be done before the importance and value of this kind of industrial education shall be fully appreciated by all concerned, and before it shall receive its appropriate recognition and find its proper place in our educational system (83). In 1906 a call was sent out to members of the Association who were interested in agricultural education to be present at the annual meeting of the Department of Superintendence for the purpose of discussing various problems concerning this sub- ject. There was an encouraging response and an interesting meeting was held. At this meeting the National Committee on Agricultural Education was formed. The second conference of this committee was held at the meet- ing of the Association of 1907. At this session three important papers were read and discussed: "The Work of the National Government in Extending Agricultural Education through the Public Schools" ; "What Has Been Done and Is Being Done by 64 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS Normal Schools and Agricultural Schools for Popular Education in Agriculture" (84) ; "The Work in Agriculture as Conducted by State and County Organizations of Young People in Club Contests." The third conference of the committee was held at the meeting of the Department of Superintendence held at Wash- ington in 1908. Just at this time the Davis bill (28) and the Burkett bill (28) were being considered as separate measures. Under the direction of the National Committee on Agricultural Education a conference was held with all parties interested in the two measures, resulting in the introduction in Congress of a new bill embodying the essential features of the two separate ones. A subcommittee conferred with the President of the United States, and also with the Senate Committee on Agri- culture in behalf of national aid for agricultural instruction. The fourth, fifth, and sixth conferences of the committee were held at the meetings of the Department of Superintendence of 1909, 1910, and 1911. At the fourth session two committees were appointed, and reports were made at the fifth session. These were on "Credit Value of High-School Agriculture for College Entrance" and "The Course of Study in Agriculture What Shall It Be?" Considerable attention was given at each of these meetings to federal aid measures (Davis bill, Dolliver bill, Page bill) before Congress. At the nineteenth annual convention (1905) of the Associa- tion of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, K. L. Butterfield introduced the following resolution: WHEREAS, This Association believes that the questions involved in the general and technical education of the rural people are of sufficient impor- tance to warrant special recognition in the great gatherings of American edu- cators: Therefore, be it Resolved, That our executive committee be hereby instructed to take such steps as it may consider necessary in an endeavor to secure the consent of the National Education Association to add to its list of special departments a de- partment or departments of rural and agricultural education (85, p. 28). This resolution was adopted by the Association and D. J. Crosby was delegated to bring the matter before the National STATE AND OTHER TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS 65 Education Association (85, p. 47). As there was no meeting of this Association in 1906, the application was deferred until the Los Angeles meeting of 1907, when on July 8, Mr. Crosby presented the following: In view of the widespread and active interest in the improvement of rural schools and in the development and extension of instruction in agriculture and the allied subjects of nature-study and school gardening in the colleges and public schools of the country, and in view of the fact that there is no national organization of teachers for discussion of rational methods of instruction in these subjects, the undersigned active members of the National Education Association respectfully request permission to form a Department of Rural and Agricultural Education co-ordinate with the other regularly constituted departments of this Association (followed by signatures of twenty-eight active members). This petition was received and authority was granted to form such a department (82, pp. 44-45). The department was organized at the Los Angeles meeting, but owing to some irregu- larity in the proceedings it was not officially recognized. The official organization of the department took place at Washington, D.C., February 27, 1908, during the 1908 meeting of the De- partment of Superintendence (83, p. 136). Four regular meetings of the Department of Rural and Agri- cultural Education have been held (in 1908, 1909, 1910, and 1911). As they are fully reported in the Proceedings of the Association no further reference need be made here, except to state that they were well attended and much (interest was shown in the discussions. It will be seen from the foregoing account that the National Education Association has been and is an important factor in agricultural education, first in the way of propaganda, by bring- ing the subject prominently before the teachers of the entire country, and second by real constructive work through its com- mittees and its Department of Rural and Agricultural Education. Through the published Proceedings of the Association the development of the movement for agricultural education can be followed as in no other educational literature excepting that of 66 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS the National Government through its publications of the Depart- ment of Agriculture and of the Bureau of Education. STATE AND INTERSTATE TEACHERS' ASSOCIATIONS There are about seventy of these associations. Some were in existence long before the organization of the National Teachers' Association. Most of them publish proceedings of their meet- ings, but for lack of funds and other causes accounts of these meetings are not always published except in local papers. Enough of these proceedings, however, are available in published form to trace any educational movement as reflected by the dis- cussions of these meetings. One finds that agricultural education began to receive attention from these associations about the same time that the National Education Association became actively interested in it. We find, for example, the Alabama Educational Association in 1905 devoting a considerable part of its program to the subject, and calling W. M. Hays to give an address; the California State Teachers' Association in 1905 holding joint sessions with the State Farmers' Institute, and call- ing L. D. Harvey and A. C. True to make addresses ; the Georgia Teachers' Association in its meetings of 1903, 1906, 1907, and 1908 giving prominence to the subject, in 1908 holding a con- ference with representative business men from forty- four of the fifty counties of the state concerning the district agricultural high schools. These illustrations are typical of the consideration given agricultural education by most of these associations at their recent meetings. Their contribution consists chiefly in creating an interest in the subject. Sometimes, however, move- ments are started that result in state legislation. It is not possible in the limits of this chapter to enter into further discussion of the work of these associations, instructive as it might be to follow carefully the development of agricultural education as expressed by these bodies of teachers in various sections of the country. CHAPTER VIII EDUCATIONAL PERIODICALS The number of educational periodicals published in the United States probably exceeds that on any other subject. Most of these publications are in the library of the United States Bureau of Education. In 1906 they numbered one hundred and fifty-six (86). For purposes of classification the periodicals included in this number may be considered fairly representative of all such pub- lications in the United States. They naturally fall into three groups: (i) general, including those devoted to subjects of general interest or to various general problems in education, and whose circulation is not limited to any particular section of the country or class of readers; (2) special, including those devoted to some single phase of education, as, for example, orthography, penmanship, phonetics, geography, school art, manual training, science, etc.; (3) local, including those whose main circulation is confined to a single state or group of states. The bibliography alone of contributions and references to agricultural education in these periodicals would occupy several times the space allotted to a single chapter of this book. It will therefore be necessary to confine the discussion of this sub- ject, as represented in various educational periodicals, to some references of historical interest in Barnard's Journal of Educa- tion, and to a brief account of each of the above three groups. No investigation of an educational movement would be com- plete without consulting Barnard's Journal of Education. "Wherever libraries of education are now gathered his encyclo- pedic journal has a place of honor. Whoever will found such a library must look first to secure a set of this great work. Because he saw so far, the contents of that great work will not soon grow out of date" (87). In this work are many references to agri- 67 68 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS cultural education. Three are worthy of special interest: early agricultural schools ; agriculture in schools for homeless children and in schools for delinquent children; and agricultural educa- tion in foreign countries. An account is given of probably the first agricultural school in the United States. It was founded in 1797 at Lethe, S.C., by Dr. John de la Howe. He left a will which provided for the endow- ment of "an agricultural or farm school in conformity, as near as can be, to a plan proposed in the Columbian Magazine for the month of April, 1787, for educating, boarding, and clothing twelve poor boys and twelve poor girls of the Abbeville District." The endowment consisted of 500 acres of farm land and 1,000 acres of forest (88). An account of another early school is of interest because it anticipated some of the present notions of industrial education. The following is a quotation from a letter of a Mr. Coe to the son of Josiah Holbrook, the founder of the school : He [Josiah Holbrook] had long cherished the idea of endeavoring to found an institution in which the course of instruction should be plain and practical; an agricultural school, where the science of chemistry and me- chanics and land surveying should be thoroughly drilled into the minds of the pupils by practice. With these views the agricultural seminary was commenced in Derby (Conn.) in 1824, and continued to the fall of 1825, under the direction of your father and myself; and, as far as I know, was the first educational movement of the kind in all that region We did what we could to train the students in the analysis of soils and in the application of the mechanical powers to all farming operations, and took out our young men often into the field and country for practical survey- ing, geological excursions, road making, and the labors of the farm; but not being able at that time to place the school on an eligible foundation, it was abandoned (89). Josiah Holbrook after giving up his school turned his atten- tion to adult instruction which was somewhat like our present agricultural extension among farmers. Our present organization of agricultural colleges is very similar to a plan for such schools proposed in Barnard's Journal of Education in 1856 by Professor John A. Porter of Yale. EDUCATIONAL PERIODICALS 69 This was the year after the act establishing the first agricultural college (Michigan) was passed and the year before it was formally opened. He deplored the lack of agricultural instruc- tion in this country and suggested that such instruction might be supplied by having a demonstration farm, an experiment farm, and means of instruction in all sciences connected with culture of the soil. He says : What a center of light would such a school as here described be to the whole agricultural community. All purported discoveries in agriculture would come to be tested, and important truths developed by experiment would go forth from it into the world Through its pupils it would disseminate widely the varied practical information which its courses would furnish, and beyond this, it might be made a means of eliciting the experi- mental labor of hundreds of intelligent farmers throughout the country, for the decision of the important agricultural questions which are still un- settled (88). In a footnote at the end of the article the editor calls atten- tion to an account in his National Education in Europe of the system of agricultural education established in France as it was in 1854, and also to the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Wurtemburg, and the system of agricultural education in Ireland. Pestalozzi and his work, particularly his influence on our own school practices, receive much consideration in the journal under discussion. For example, we find the historical beginning of nature-study in this country in the object-teaching at Oswego. This attempt to put his doctrine into practice is described in great detail (Sga). In another place Pestalozzi is quoted as say- ing with reference to objective teaching that "agricultural labor offers a wider field than any other employment for this means." This statement should be contrasted with the absurd efforts made in some schools to apply these principles. It would be interest- ing in this connection to trace the influence of these early object- lessons on nature-study teaching and to discover to what extent it is responsible for the struggle which nature-study has had to find a legitimate place in our schools. The agricultural school of De Fellenburg and Wehrli was a yo AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS school for the poor at Hopvvyl, and many of the pupils were juvenile offenders of various sorts (90). Several Fellenburg schools were established in this country in the early part of the last century. The Journal brought the work of these schools in this country and in Europe into notice again. About the same time there seems to have been a revival of these methods in certain schools and institutions in this country. Practically all of the reform schools for boys in the United States are now provided with farms, and agriculture is an important part of their work. How much influence, if any, the Journal had in bringing this about we do not know. But we find it giving, on the one hand, details of such work as in the agricultural school just referred to, and on the other, accounts and discussions of reform schools and institutions for homeless children in this country (91). Education in foreign countries occupied a prominent place in the Journal. From time to time accounts of agricultural education in various countries appeared. A good example of these accounts is to be found in one devoted to agricultural edu- cation in France and about twenty different parts of the world. This is a part of an exhaustive study of scientific instruction applied to national industries in different countries (92). The first group of educational periodicals those mainly de- voted to general problems of education or to publication of educa- tional research is quite small in number compared with the other two groups. Their circulation is also much less than most of those of the third group. Notwithstanding their small number and limited circulation these periodicals contain some of our most valuable educational literature, and are, on the whole, a source of high authority in educational matters. The attention given to agricultural education is much less than would seem to be warranted in view of the great public interest in the subject and of the fact of its rapid introduction into schools of various sec- tions of the country. Compared with other sources the litera- ture on this subject as found in the leading periodicals of this EDUCATIONAL PERIODICALS 71 group is very meager (Barnard's Journal excepted). A few of the earlier articles discuss how agricultural education might be gradually developed in the elementary and secondary schools. Some work of an extension character was regarded at that time (19001901) as the most feasible and practicable, nature-study, reading courses, itinerant schools, and short courses being sug- gested as the best means of creating an interest in the subject (93, 94). A little later the place of agriculture in our public-school system is carefully considered with conclusions favorable to its introduction (95). In the meantime the subject is being rapidly introduced in our schools, and certain tendencies are arising that are viewed with some alarm because they are not in harmony with the national policy in school matters. An editorial in one periodical calls attention to some of the dangers arising from the establishment of agricultural high schools : If the new type of work means the establishment of a separate system of high schools, the existing high schools will be sapped of the very means of their existence There is one other and more urgent reason why a separate class of high schools must not be allowed to spring up. Just as sure as they do they will breed social distinctions and cause stratifications in society. It has been our boast that children of all nationalities, occupa- tions, and creeds enter our schoolroom doors and emerge together as American citizens. The American public school is the greatest factor in developing American citizenship that we possess, and its function in de- veloping American citizenship is greater than teaching arithmetic, Latin, or trades. Social efficiency is much more needed just now than business efficiency. But alas, too many are thinking only of business acumen The one who argues for the establishment of a separate system of agri- cultural high schools or separate industrial high schools is wittingly or un- wittingly an enemy to our present high schools and to true democracy (96, PP. 57-59). The implication in this editorial that existing high schools furnish all that is really needed in secondary education is open to question, and soon brings a rejoinder: I am afraid that the distinctions are here or have got to come, and that the high schools which are nothing more than college preparatory 72 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS schools will have to sink into relative insignificance compared with schools which will teach the masses how to make a living as well as how to live. .... We need as never before many-sided men and women, but men and women who will put how to live and how to make a living first, and how to use one's leisure second (97, p. 199). At present the importance of the problem suggested in the foregoing discussion is being appreciated, and all the more because agricultural high schools continue to be established. Besides general discussions of the whole question of industrial education as related to elementary and secondary schools two plans for agricultural education in existing high schools are pro- posed and are being considered. For example, one writer believes in the correlation of high-school science and agriculture and gives numerous illustrations to show that "the benefit of correlation inures as well to the fundamental sciences as to their application in agriculture" (98). Another thinks that agriculture should be taught as a separate science. He says : "Educators are coming to see more and more clearly that agriculture is both a science and an art, and as a result it is being taught in ways which are not strictly applicable to the teaching of other sciences." He sums up fifty-six replies to a question- naire sent out to secondary-school men and college professors and concludes that a "majority who have had actual experience in teaching the subject advocate its being taught separately" (99). Among the periodicals of the second group two are devoted to special phases of education that include agriculture. One is School Science and Mathematics and the other is the Nature- Study Review. The former is published in the interest of sec- ondary education and the latter of elementary education. The editors and associate editors of both periodicals are well-known schoolmen who are actively interested in the various problems of education of their own special lines of work. In a recent number of School Science and Mathematics we find among the introductory sentences of an article on biologic science in secondary schools the following: EDUCATIONAL PERIODICALS 73 This is pre-eminently an age of applied science; it is an intensely practi- cal age; the average individual comes in daily contact with problems of science as never before. It is self-evident that science work in elementary schools should play an important part in the education of our youth who go into life as a vast majority do with no further fitting than that re- ceived in the elementary school or secondary school. It was with this thought in mind that the writer began the following preliminary investi- gation which aims in the first place to present some statistics bearing upon the teaching of science, and especially of biologic science, in the secondary schools, and in the second place to suggest possible modifications in our present courses in biologic science that will make such courses a better preparation for the kind of life into which most of our young people are launching, the active life of the thinking, doing citizen (100). This somewhat lengthy quotation with respect to one secondary- school subject is given because it represents very well the general attitude of the recent contributors to this journal. Agri- culture is closely allied to all of the fundamental sciences and any such modifications of science teaching as indicated in the above reference will have an important bearing on agricultural educa- tion in the secondary schools. These contributors are already teaching particular branches of science, and their writings have to do with their own subjects in relation to agriculture rather than with agriculture as a separate subject. The general field covered by the Nature-Study Review in- cludes, as is stated in the introduction to the first number, "school gardening and the closely allied elementary agriculture" (101). This magazine is now in its seventh volume and has published numerous articles on agriculture as adapted to the elementary schools. For awhile, from September to December, 1909, a special department of school agriculture was conducted. But it was abandoned, the policy now being to devote certain numbers exclusively to this subject, as in the May number of Vol. VI. 1 The third group includes about one hundred periodicals in which every section of the country is represented. It is through these that the masses of the teachers are reached. In many states 'Another periodical perhaps should be included: School Agriculture, "a semi-monthly text for use in country, town, and city schools, homes and clubs," published by The Orange Judd Co., beginning January i, 1911. 74 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS some educational periodical becomes a sort of official organ for the state department of education. Practically all whose subscribers are teachers in the rural schools give considerable attention to agriculture, mainly in the way of suggestions and helps to teachers. The effect of these periodicals on the actual teaching of agriculture in the public schools has been, up to the present, far greater than of any of the first or second group. One periodical, the School News (Illinois), has been referred to in a previous chapter (58). It was one of the first to take up elementary agriculture in response to the new demand upon the rural teachers. In 1900 it began to publish short articles on various phases of agriculture adapted to the ele- mentary schools. The practical efforts of this magazine to help the rural teachers is further shown in connection with the new course of study for the state of Illinois. This course includes agriculture. The department of the magazine devoted to school work in agriculture expands the course of study in agriculture into descriptive details and gives specific directions to teachers as to how to present the new work (102). The Nebraska Teacher, besides publishing special articles on various phases of agriculture, is now publishing a series of articles by Superintendent E. C. Bishop on "Agriculture and Home Economics" (103). These articles are intended to assist teachers in their work with the boys' and girls' clubs of the state. Many similar examples might be given but these two are typical of the work that is now being done by many if not most of the periodicals of the third group. They are close to the teachers and seem to know what they need, or at least what they want, and give it to them in a simple and concrete way. CHAPTER IX PERIODICAL LITERATURE Popular periodicals have become an important factor in education. They reach thousands of people. Several have a circulation of more than 100,000, and a few claim to reach a million readers. Every subject of popular interest is exploited. This popular interest determines in a large measure the choice of subject-matter, but not always. Interest in new things is often stimulated by well-written articles. Indeed there is a keen search for new things or the beginnings of new move- ments that may seem to have elements of popular interest. The importance of rural education, the inefficiency of the pres- ent system, and the need of redirecting rural education are new things from the standpbint of the popular periodical. An educational system which originated in pioneer days, and which served its purpose well in those days, persists today with less modification than has taken place in any other fea- ture of rural life. The few changes that have taken place were brought about largely through imitation, either voluntarily or impressed by law, of urban schools, and were not the changes of an adaptive growth. This static condition of rural educa- tion was until a few years ago, and is, in most communities at the present time, looked upon with complacency and satisfac- tion. Patrons who were not satisfied quietly moved to some town or city where their children might have better educational advantages, but little or no criticism of the rural school was ventured and little or no effort made to improve it. With this situation in mind, it is easy to see why any departure from the established routine in rural-school manage- ment or any effort to make its work better adapted to rural conditions would be regarded by editors of popular periodicals as something new and worthy of wide publicity. 75 76 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS Consolidation of rural schools began in the early nineties. Various periodicals gave accounts of the schools of Kingsville Township, Ohio, which in 1892 instituted a plan of consoli- dation for rural schools. This movement soon attracted much attention, and many visits were made to Ohio for the pur- pose of seeing the plan in actual operation. In a few years the plan was not only extended to other parts of Ohio but was introduced in many other states. It has worked so successfully as to be considered one of the most important features of any general scheme for improving rural schools. The work of Kingsville Township was not the historical beginning of the consolidated-school movement, but it was the potential beginning, largely due to the public notice it received through newspapers and periodicals. Superintendent O. J. Kern, of Winnebago County, 111., had barely demonstrated the success of his Farmer Boys' Experi- ment Club which he had organized in February, 1902, among the schoolboys of his county, when he was asked to give an account of it in one of our leading popular magazines. This work of his was something new in a county system of schools, and furthermore it had begun at once to interest farmers and to change their attitude toward the rural schools. Winnebago County was a typical county with large agricultural interests. Its problems and interests were like those of hundreds of other counties. Superintendent Kern had found something that looked toward making the school life of the country boys more worth while, but he had much more in mind than his Boys' Experiment Club. He believed that the whole rural-school system needed readjustment and that it might be slowly brought about. Here was a chance for the magazine to be of service by giving publicity to successful work, and for the writer to get others interested in his plans, and to get them to work along similar lines. The article appeared under the title of "Learn- ing by Doing for the Farmer Boy" and was illustrated by five good pictures with the "boy" prominently in the foreground of PERIODICAL LITERATURE 77 each. The title and the pictures were attractive and were likely to cause the reader to pause in turning through the pages of the magazine long enough at least to read the introductory para- graph. This was an expression of an ideal for rural education which up to that time (1903) had not come much into public notice : It is not the belief or wish of the writer that we should educate country boys to be farmers merely, any more than that we should educate boys to be blacksmiths, carpenters, or electricians. We should aim to train boys to be men in the highest sense of the term. But why not a course of training in the country school for the country boy which shall teach him more about country life around him? Along with his study of the kangaroo, the bamboo, and the cockatoo, why not study the animals on the farm and a proper feeding-standard for them, the care and composition of the soil on the farm, the improvement of types of grains and vegetables, and the pro- tection of birds beneficial to the farmer? Instead of all the boys' arith- metic being devoted to problems, more or less theoretical, on banking, stocks, exchange, brokerage, alligation, and partnership, why not some practical problems with reference to farm economics? For the boys who will remain on the farm (and 85 per cent perhaps will) the course of instruction should be such as will be an inspiration and a help in their future life-work (104). A year later under the title of "Common-Sense Country Schools" a description of Mr. Kern's work appeared in another magazine (105). Other references to his work have been pub- lished from time to time. Boys' clubs for carrying on agricultural experiments have been organized in all of the agricultural states. Accounts of their work are attractive reading, and no doubt not only stimu- late the boys in other localities to form similar clubs but help to educate adult farmers to be more appreciative of expert opinion. But the most important contribution made by periodi- cals to agricultural education through boys' clubs has been in making the way easier for agricultural colleges and public-school officers to carry on the work in various parts of the country. In the same number of the magazine in which Mr. Kern's article appeared is another dealing with the problem of rural education (106). The need of a school system adapted to rural 78 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS conditions is set forth. Special emphasis is placed upon the value of agricultural high schools and of consolidated rural schools. At that time there were twelve agricultural high schools in the United States; in 1910 over seventy-five. Another account of important work in agricultural educa- tion was published in the same year (1903) with the title "Teaching Farmers' Children on the Ground" (107). It is of interest to compare the opinion of Superintendent Kern as to the needs of the rural school with that of the writer of this article who was not professionally engaged in education. The following is taken from his description of a rural school: But there is more the matter with the ordinary country school than its smallness of scale Yet that these children come from homes where the livelihood is earned out of the ground is ignored in the lessons. The instruction as far as it goes is good: it is staple reading, writing, and arith- metic, with a little grammar, geography, and history. This is all. It might do well enough if the boys and girls were all going to be clerks or traders; or if, in the fulness of their ambition, they were to strike out for profes- sional careers. But of sowing and reaping there is never a word; nothing about planting and tending of trees, the production of milk, butter, and cheese. Never, even remotely, does a lesson touch on building and drain- age, on the composition of foods or chemistry of fuel, or light up for so much as a moment the drama of struggle and survival of which every clover patch is a theater. It is well that children should learn at school useful lessons they can learn nowhere else, but should not the children of the farm be led to see somewhat of the inexhaustible scope for brains which offers itself to the farmer? The fact is, that rural instruction has been largely devised in cities with a view to city conditions. And the courses in city schools are faulty enough, ridden as they are by clerky tra- ditions which permit the word to usurp the place of the act, instead of being merely its symbol and aid. The second evil in rural education throughout America is the stress laid upon verbal studies, the blinking of the actual world of duty and joy for which country children should be in- formed and trained. This is followed by a description of the proposed scheme for the improvement of rural education in Canada planned on a scale to include the whole Dominion. Not only is this descrip- tion accurate but it includes a good historical and economic PERIODICAL LITERATURE 79 background. This account of the "Macdonald Movement" before it was carried out in actual practice prepared the public mind for the numerous reports of the work that have appeared since. Mention should be made of one more popular article on rural education appearing in '1903, entitled "Farmer Children Need Farmer Studies" (108). The title indicates the general nature of the discussion. That the writer is in full accord with the views already noted of other contributors is shown by the fol- lowing statements: Our educational system has been made for city people, and the country school finds it second hand and ill-fitting and unattractive. To this fact more than any other, perhaps, is due the backwardness of education in agri- cultural states. Quoted from a private letter : Statistics show that in this state each year sixty young men take up ministry, sixty-six law, and seventy-two medicine, while 13,000 annually take up agriculture as a gainful pursuit. But our school books are written for the few not the many At present the entire curriculum leads away from the farm Pick up any high-grade arithmetic in use in the rural schools and you will find no lack of attention to banking and commissions and foreign exchange and commercial affairs generally. But agriculture arises to no such dignity not even in schools that will find five times as many recruits for the farm as for the city. The same applies to other texts. The typical examples above presented of popular periodical literature on rural education appeared in 1903. This year was chosen because it seemed to mark the beginning of a somewhat general public interest in the subject, and partly because most of the development of agricultural education in elementary and secondary schools has taken place since that time. During the period from 1904 to the present the subject of rural education has continued to receive notice in popular peri- odicals (105, 109, no, in, 112). The public has been kept in- formed concerning various phases of its development, agricultural and other industrial work in schools receiving especial attention. 8o AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS One magazine addressed the following question to a num- ber of prominent educators : "What new subject or new method or new direction of effort or new tendency in educational work is of most value and significance and now needs most emphasis and encouragement?" (113). Nineteen replies were received. As most of the writers were college presidents various college problems were mentioned as of greatest importance but no two proposed the same problem. The only subject that was men- tioned by more than three was practical education, summed up as follows: Trade work in public schools; interest in rural schools; practical studies; agriculture for rural schools; reach- ing all the people; teaching every man his job. A good account of the present status of agricultural educa- tion in elementary and secondary schools appeared under the title "Catching Them Young" (114). After describing some recent progress in farming methods the author adds : Of what value is this knowledge if the sons and daughters are to quit the farm, leaving corn-belt prosperity to the haphazard agriculture of the city-born and of transplanting foreigners who find conditions and climate vastly different from those of the fatherland? Therefore the corn-belt has at last set itself to raising that greater and more valuable crop of farm boys and farm girls who find material comforts and ample financial recom- pense on the farm. The greatest factor in the raising of this new crop is education But the farm boys and girls in order to be interested must be caught young. Before they are old enough to enter the land-grant col- leges the lure of the city has entered their minds and the mischief is done. Raising bumper crops of corn and oats, the typically agricultural states of America have heretofore failed to raise satisfactory crops of stay-at-home boys and girls. An editorial in another magazine revives the criticism which appeared against rural schools a few years before. It is entitled "The Martian and the Farm" (115) and makes the remarks of the supposed Martian who is represented as visiting an ordinary country school the basis of some pointed comments on the rural schools : I notice that these Americans seem to think the raising of crops to be quite unnecessary; and that they are applying their remarkable intelligence PERIODICAL LITERATURE 8l to the task of depopulating their rural regions. They have acuteness to see that if they are to drive people out of the country, they cannot begin with the adult population. Life in the open country is so alluring and so natural that even when it has not been made as complete as it might be, it holds people fast. So these far-reaching Americans, in order to crowd people back into the cities, where they obviously want them to be, have devised a cam- paign of education directed toward the children. They have planned all their rural schools on city models. Even in such details as arithmetic problems, they see to it that the children's minds should be directed toward urban life If this visitor were told what he interpreted as an astute campaign was a mere matter of stupidity and tradition, and that the American People were really wondering how they could check the congestion of cities, he would be forced, out of decent respect for the people he was visiting, to be in- credulous. How can a child born and reared in the country respect the life of the farmer when the community in which he lives does not regard the farmer's occupation worthy of study? How can he be expected to look with ambition toward agriculture as a vocation when he finds that training for it is regarded as less important than preparation for a clerkship? How can he think of village and rural life as anything more than a makeshift when he finds that in the schools he attends there is not a word taught concerning crops or cattle or roads? The situation in this country is then contrasted with the national policy of rural education recently inaugurated in Canada and the importance of a similar movement in this country suggested. The criticism of the condition in rural schools as to their indifference to rural life does not go unchallenged. In a later number of the same magazine appears a reply in which the editor is brought to task for making implications that were not warranted by the facts in the case. The work in agricultural education of the Middle West is cited as a refutation. The writer in a five months' visit in Canada had been unable to see any reason for holding up the Canadian scheme for rural edu- cation as a model for this country (116). Another letter of reply is published from a farmer who could see no more reason why "a country child should be taught how to run a farm than a city child should be taught how to run a bank." 82 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS It seems plain to me [he says] that the public schools are intended to give the young a practical education to prepare them for life, not to prepare them for any particular work in life Why tax the community in general to instruct its children for work and life on the farm, when many of the patrons and many of the children themselves would prefer general education? (117). The above editorial and its sequel, the two letters of reply, give some insight into the present situation. No doubt the condition referred to in the editorial does not apply to all rural schools but in general it is not much overdrawn. The writer of the first letter unduly magnifies the work of agricultural education in this country, for it has not had time to modify the ordinary rural schools to any considerable extent, even in the favored Middle West. On the other hand, his five months' visit in Canada failed to show him that the efforts of the Canadian educators are aimed directly at the rural schools. The second letter reveals an attitude which is familiar to those who have undertaken to hold up the chief interest of a rural community as a motive for better schools. In reviewing the relation of popular periodicals to agricul- tural education only typical examples have been given. No attempt has been made to have the references complete. Suffi- cient citations have been given to indicate the character and scope of the discussions of the subject as they have appeared in these periodicals, and to show the service rendered by keeping the subject before the public, and by helping to secure a favorable attitude toward the improvement of rural schools. Brief reference should be made also to periodicals whose circulation is limited to smaller groups of readers. There is a large number published in the interest of farmers. Most of them are local, being chiefly confined in circulation to a single state. Many are of doubtful value. Those that are really sincere in their efforts to improve farm life have exerted considerable in- fluence for the betterment of rural schools and for the introduc- tion of agriculture. Special articles as well as letters from sub- PERIODICAL LITERATURE 83 scribers are published. The most important of these are reviewed from time to time in the Experiment Station Record of the United States Department of Agriculture (17) and need not be men- tioned here except in this general way. On the whole, agricultural! periodicals have maintained too conservative an attitude toward agricultural education, both as to colleges, and to elementary and secondary schools. One cannot avoid the suspicion that this attitude on the part of some of these publications is not wholly disinterested. Agricultural education would, among other things, most certainly develop more critical readers, and this would soon react upon the circulation or upon the character of the matter published. Again, the fear of offending some of their readers, thus affecting circulation, makes the publishers cautious in giving space to views that might unsettle the faith of the fathers in the little one-room school. Occasionally a well-written article on agricultural education appears in the more special periodicals. For example, in a maga- zine "devoted to the philosophy of science" we find a discussion of "Agriculture the Basis of Education" (118). The writer regards the two primal contacts of the child, with nature and with parents, as more fundamental than all questions of subject- matter and methods of formal education. "The mental con- ditions of agriculture are just as essential to normal development of the human mind as air, food, and exercise for the development of the human body." He refers to the education of the early Greeks in support of his views: "The young Greek of the Homeric age appears to have had much more intimate and adequate contacts with nature and with his elders than our modern education provides, or even permits." A similar conclusion as to the educational influence of agri- culture, though discussed from an entirely different standpoint, is found in an article on "Farm Life as a Basis of Practical Education" (119). The subject for another discussion is the "Need for Agricultural Education" (120). The economic im- 84 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS portance of this kind of education is urged. Another point of view is set forth under the title "Rural Education" (121). Rural education is but a section of the general school question; agricul- tural education is a branch of technical training. These two phases of education of the farm population meet at many points, they must work in harmony, and together they form a distinct educational problem. Three difficulties are mentioned: (i) To secure a modern school equal to the city school; (2) to enrich and expand the cur- riculum so as to make it a vital and coherent part of rural- community life; (3) to provide adequate high-school facilities in the rural community. CHAPTER X STATE ORGANIZATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE-FARMERS' INSTITUTES Perhaps no other offices concerned with the public business of various states include so wide a range of activities, duties, aims, and methods as do the state organizations for agriculture. One state commissioner of agriculture says of his department : If I were asked to supply a name, it would be called the Dumping Ground for a Legislature to place all subject-matter that body finds neces- sary to frame into law. The justice of this observation will be more readily appre- ciated by reference to the following constitutional provisions for his office: He shall perform such duties in relation to agriculture as may be pre- scribed by law, shall have supervision of all matters pertaining to the public lands under regulations prescribed by law, and shall keep the Bureau of Immigration. He shall also have supervision of the State Prison, and shall perform such other duties as may be prescribed by law. Some state organizations for agriculture have even a wider range of duties. On the other hand, there are some in which the duties of this office are limited to the supervision of the state agricultural college, or to the management of the state fair. There are five forms of organization. The first includes those organi- zations known as "Departments 1 ' and consists of a commissioner and one or more assistants. The second form comprises the boards, which are com- posed of a varying number of members, some appointed by the governor and others being members of the board by virtue of their official position in the state. The third includes bureaus which are essentially the same as the boards. The fourth form is a combination of the first and second ; the regular department is supervised by a board of agriculture. The fifth and final form is that known as the Michigan organization, under which the state board of agriculture is merely a board of trustees for the state agricultural college (122, p. 328). 85 86 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS In about half the states the administrative officer is chosen by popular vote; in the rest he is appointed by the governor or chosen by the members of the board. Being thus a political office in some instances, the position as secretary or commis- sioner of agriculture is more or less on a political basis, and therefore fails properly to fulfil the purpose for which it was intended, viz., to promote the agricultural interests of the state. It is the purpose of this chapter to sum up the work now being done by the various state departments, and by the state farmers' institutes in promoting agricultural education, particu- larly in elementary and secondary schools. In one-half of the states the farmers' institutes are con- ducted under the direct or indirect control of the state organi- zations for agriculture; in the other half they are conducted by the state agricultural colleges. Since the methods and aims of all farmers' institutes are essentially the same in both groups, those under state supervision and those under state agricultural college supervision will be considered in the second part of this discussion. As might be expected, the attitude of the various state organizations for agriculture is favorable toward agricul- tural education in the public schools. In many reports of sec- retaries or commissioners of agriculture much emphasis is placed upon the importance of recognizing agriculture as a school subject. The following extract is typical: The Department has continued its efforts to impress upon the people of the state the importance and necessity of agricultural and industrial instruction in the public schools. These schools should fit for vocation. The population of this and other states is continually increasing, and in order for the farms to meet this increase there must be a more intelligent system of agriculture. This can best be brought about by teaching the principles of agriculture in the public schools. The farmer has a business to be studied and learned. It needs a trained mind as much as any oth r occupation. Let us educate our boys who are to be farmers of the future, for that work. Specific training of a practical kind is a necessity for the coming occupants of our farms, as well as those engaged in mechanical industries. The most valuable asset of the state is her children. They STATE ORGANIZATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE 87 should be trained to high ideals of every day living and to high efficiency in their respective vocations (123, p. n). At the annual meetings of boards of agriculture of several states agricultural education receives attention, special addresses being given on this subject and published in the proceedings (124, 125, 126, 127). Special bulletins or leaflets are published and distributed by a few state offices of agriculture. The Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture has issued from time to time leaflets on elementary agriculture and nature-study. The New York State Department of Agriculture publishes annual reports of the state Experiment Station at Cornell University. These contain reprints of various nature-study, rural school, and teachers' leaflets sent out from Cornell University, and also accounts of the extension work in agriculture and nature- study conducted by the university among the schools of the state. The Missouri State Board has recently published a bulletin on elementary agriculture meant to be used "only as the first year's work," and "written on the supposition that neither teacher nor pupils know much of scientific agriculture" (128). About half of the states hold annual state fairs under the management of the state offices of agriculture. In nearly all, there is a department of education in which prizes are offered for school exhibits. Some give special encouragement to agricultural subjects. The prizes amount to a few dollars in some fairs and to several hundred in others. The Nebraska State Fair offered "to the Nebraska boy under eighteen years of age, growing the largest yield of corn from one acre of ground, in the year 1910, $50; second, $25; third, $20; fourth, $15; fifth, $10; and to the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh, $5 each." The South Dakota State Fair made the boys' and girls' contests a special feature at its recent meeting. Three hundred and fifty dollars were offered in cash prizes, the largest first 88 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS prize being one hundred dollars. The contest was announced in a special bulletin containing instructions as to the details of preparation for the contests (129). One of the most popular buildings at the last Minnesota State Fair was the Agricultural Hall Annex which was devoted entirely to the exhibits in agriculture, household arts, and manual training of the ten high schools receiving state aid for teaching these subjects. The Oklahoma State Fair of 1910 arranged for a school of agriculture to be held on its grounds. Each county is entitled to two delegates, one hundred and fifty- four boys being provided for. "This work will be done at the fair grounds. The boys and instructors will sleep in a large tent." A portion of each day is to be devoted to instruction, lectures in the mornings and object-teaching or laboratory work in the afternoons (130). A similar school for boys is conducted by the Illinois State Fair (131). Contests, for example, corn contests, are held in some states under the direction of the state office of agriculture. Such contests are being held in Missouri this year all over the state, and a Farm Boys' Encampment is conducted under the same management. In South Carolina contests have been held through- out the state under the joint direction of the State Department of Agriculture and the United States Demonstration Work. In the state contest which is soon to take place over three thousand boys are enrolled. The winner of last year's contest, Bascomb Usher, raised on one acre one hundred and fifty-two and one- half bushels of corn. The average production of corn per acre for the entire state was about eighteen bushels. A number of other southern states are conducting similar co-operative contests (see chap. xii). South Carolina, through its Department of Agriculture, has been aiding the practical teaching of agriculture in a few high schools by maintaining a skilled teacher and operating a farm STATE ORGANIZATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE 89 and practice garden in connection with the school (132). The commissioner says: This has been in the nature of an experiment, but we have gone far enough in the matter to see that admirable results may be obtained, and at a very minimum of cost. The only cost, in fact, to us is the salary of the man nine months in the year. The land is furnished by the patrons of the school, as are also the work animals, implements, fertilizers, etc., and the school is given the profits from the farm.i These are typical examples of the work of various state offices of agriculture in promoting an interest in agriculture and rural life among boys and girls. Many others might have been given. It is a new field of activity for these offices, and promises much if organized and extended so as to co-operate with other educational efforts. Perhaps the greatest value of such work for agricultural education to the public schools lies in placing the stamp of official approval upon this kind of education. In many states practically nothing has been done by these offices, and in none more than a beginning of what might be done. The state and county fairs, for example, offer unusual educational opportunities. If the same energy now expended in managing and controlling amusement-park features of these fairs (which are of doubtful value at best) were directed toward helping the schools of rural communities there might be a great educational gain for the state (133). STATE FARMERS' INSTITUTES The farmers' institute movement in the United States has now reached a degree of importance and development that places it along side of the leading institutions of the country organized in the interest of industrial education. Forty-five states and territories held institutes in 1905, aggre- gating 10,555 half-day sessions, which were attended by 995,192 persons, chiefly adults ^134, p. 7). The growth of this movement may be seen by comparing the above summary for 1905 with the following summary for 1908: number of institutes 4,643; half-day sessions 13,056; 1 Quoted from private letter. 90 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS attendance 2,098,268. In addition to the regular institutes included in the above a number of special institutes were held with an attendance of 340,414, which, added to the attendance at the regular institutes, make a total of 2,438,682. There is no record of attendance of 732 meetings of women's institutes, of 174 meetings of boys' institutes, or of several other meetings which might be regarded as farmers' institutes (135). The function of the farmers' institute is to educate the people on their own ground. It is a phase of extension work that carries education directly to the localities in which the people live. It deals less with indi- vidual men on their farms than with small communities or groups of men ; it therefore has the opportunity to exert great influence in developing the social life of rural neighborhoods (122, p. 462). With these aims on the one hand, and with an attendance of over two million on the other, farmers' institutes become a factor in rural education second only to the public schools. Although the institutes are intended for adults it must be remembered that adults are patrons of the rural schools, and wherever the farmers' institute arouses the adult population to a realization of a need for better schools, improvement in these schools is likely to follow. In 1896 the American Association of Farmers' Institute Workers was organized and has held annual meetings ever since. This association is a sort of clearing-house for exchange of ideas and methods, and is intended also to secure a more or less uniform type of institute in the several states. In 1898 the association requested the secretary of the Department of Agriculture at Washington to arrange for a division in con- nection with the department to be known as the Division of Farmers' Institutes. This request was subsequently granted by establishing the office of Farmers' Institute Specialist. 2 The general policy of farmers' institutes is influenced greatly by the association and by the office of Farmers' Institute Spe- cialist. At the meeting for 1908, the ' The work of this office was referred to in chap. i. STATE ORGANIZATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE 91 subjects for discussion in the general program were mainly directed toward defining the status of the farmers' institute in its relation to other forms of agricultural education. The points brought out were that the farmers' institute occupies the position of field agent for agricultural education; that it provides a most efficient channel for carrying agricultural information directly to the farmer who is unable to leave his occupation to go to school ; and that it should broaden its work until it embraces other more advanced forms of educational work and extend its efforts until all rural people have full opportunity to enjoy its benefits (135, p. 293). Farmers' institute workers are further assisted by state meet- ings where they gather together to plan the year's work. Here the policy for the work of the whole state is determined. In many of these meetings the relation of the institute to the public schools receives attention, and methods for assisting the introduction of agriculture and other rural-life subjects into the rural schools are discussed. The following extracts of letters from some state directors or superintendents of farmers' institutes will indicate more definitely what these institutes are doing in this matter: In connection with the Farmers' Demonstration Train we always send preliminary notice to the schools where the train is scheduled to stop, inviting them to have their pupils visit the train (Cal.). At our annual conference of institute workers, the question of the relation of the school and church to the farm and rural life receives due consideration. The result is that an atmosphere favorable to the develop- ment of the schools along practical lines is pretty generally diffused (Ind.). The farmers' institute lecturers have encouraged institute patrons to insist in their respective counties that agriculture be taught in the public schools (Md.). Not only is this subject discussed by many of the lecturers, but at a large number of the institutes special speakers upon this and allied subjects are provided (Mich.). For two years we have been giving lectures in agriculture and allied subjects in the high schools of the state; last year to the extent of eighty. Plans are nearly perfected for increasing this line of work the coming season, giving lecture courses consisting of four lectures in each of such schools as apply for them (Mont.). 92 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS We have several speakers who lecture before evening sessions of farm- ers' institutes on such subjects as: agriculture in the rural schools, domestic science in the rural schools, value of agricultural education, etc. (Neb.). Each of the four corps of institute lecturers is accompanied by a repre- sentative of the Educational Department who arranges for special sessions in the public schools in connection with institutes where he can secure co- operation of the local school authorities. At these special sessions the farmers' institute lecturers give talks on elementary agriculture and nature- study. The total attendance at these special sessions held during the school periods amounted to 22,697 (N.Y.). When we are holding an institute in a town we very often send the lecturers to the schools to speak to the school children on certain phases of farm life (N.D.). No instructions are given institute lecturers regarding this work; how- ever, at many institutes teachers and pupils are called to the meeting and special lectures are given them (Okla.). We are trying to give a good deal of attention to the introduction of agricultural education in the public schools. I have attended ten teachers' institutes during the summer with this object in view, speaking at some of them three times, and I think the subject has been discussed by some person in every institute in the state (S.D.). Our farmers' institute instructors do what they can to promote and encourage the teaching of agriculture in the rural schools. Many of them have lectures upon this subject (W.Va.). For the last twenty-four years a great deal of attention has been given to the discussion of agricultural education in the public schools of Wis- consin by the farmers' institute workers of this state; in fact, we feel that public sentiment among farmers has been developed by these discussions until Wisconsin has, we think, a little more practical agriculture in her schools, from the rural district up through the county agricultural schools and the agricultural college, than has any other state in the Union (Wis.). In most states where the farmers' institute is conducted by the agricultural college there is a close correlation between this department and that of agricultural extension. In some colleges they are practically identical. As has been indicated in chap, v, provision is made by several colleges for extension work among the schools. Where this arrangement obtains, the farmers' insti- STATE ORGANIZATIONS FOR AGRICULTURE 93 tute workers merely co-operate with those engaged in the work among the schools, and do not initiate any work themselves. From what has been presented concerning the organization and work of the farmers' institutes it will be seen that they have been a considerable factor in the movement for agricul- tural education in the public schools, first, by arousing favorable sentiment among the farmers, and second, by direct help to teacher and pupils. While these institutes will doubtless continue to encourage the introduction of agriculture into the public schools and em- phasize the importance of re-directing rural schools, in many states, and soon in all the agricultural states, the demands of the rural schools for help along industrial lines will require some special attention not now provided. CHAPTER XI AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES The development of agricultural societies may be divided into four periods: (i) from 1785 to 1850 the period of begin- nings; (2) from 1850 to 1870 the period of agricultural fairs; (3) from 1870 to 1892 the period of great organizations; (4) from 1892 to the present the period of adjustment (122, p. 291). FIRST PERIOD The first period in its relation to agricultural education is an important one, particularly in its historical significance. The influ- ence of these early societies on agricultural education is perhaps greater than that of any other single factor contributing to its development. The idea of such an education is regarded by some as originating in these societies. That it was much ex- ploited by them is certainly true. The idea persisted and grew, and may be followed from this early period to the establishment of land-grant colleges. The idea persists today, but modified to include elementary and secondary education. In 1785 the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agri- culture was organized, and later in the same year a similar society was formed at Charleston, S.C. Within the following decade a number of other societies was organized. Among the members of these societies were many prominent men such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Timothy Pickering. These men were also interested in education. It is not strange that the two interests should be combined in their minds into the idea of agricultural education. Benjamin Franklin had given expression to this idea many years before the founding of the first agricultural society. Referring to the education of the youth of Pennsylvania he says : 94 AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 95 While they are reading natural history might not a little gardening, planting, grafting, inoculating be taught and practiced, and now and then excursions made to the neighboring plantations of the best farms, their methods observed and reasoned upon for the information of youth, the improvement of agriculture being useful to all and skill in it no disparage- ment to any? (122, p. 361). This idea was first put into actual practice in 1792 when agriculture became a subject of instruction in Columbia College. This was brought about chiefly through the agitation of the New York, and other agricultural societies. Another example of the attitude of these early societies toward agricultural education is found in the action of the Philadelphia Society in 1794. The society appointed a committee to outline a plan for establishing a "State Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, connecting with it the Education of Youth in the knowledge of that most important Art while they are acquiring other useful knowledge suitable for the agricultural citizens of the State." The plan which was drawn up and presented to the society includes some very definite references to agricultural education. Agricultural information was to be disseminated in whatever manner the legislature should think best, "whether by endowing professor- ships to be annexed to the University of Pennsylvania and the College of Carlisle, and other seminaries of learning, or for the purpose of teaching the chemical philosophy and elementary parts of the theory of agriculture." County societies were to be created with "county schoolmasters" as secretaries ; and the school- houses the places of meeting and the repositories of their trans- actions, models, etc. "The legislature may enjoin on these school- masters the combination of the subject of agriculture with other parts of education. This may easily be effected by introducing, as school books, those on this subject, and thereby making it familiar to their pupils" (122, p. 363). The fact that the plan of the committee was rejected does not alter its significance in its bearing upon subsequent developments in agricultural educa- tion. It is especially noteworthy that the plan proposed is in harmony with some present-day practices : the rural school as a 96 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS community center, correlation of agriculture with other school subjects, and agricultural textbooks. During this entire period the subject of agricultural education was much discussed. Various plans were proposed for its develop- ment. Some provided that the societies themselves should organ- ize stock companies to establish schools for instruction in agri- cultural subjects. Several such schools were started, but owing to difficulties (chiefly financial) they were not successful. These attempts were an important stage in the evolution of the agri- cultural college. Stock-company plans were succeeded by others involving state or federal support. The agricultural societies representing asso- ciated effort were finally able to secure the attention of legis- lative bodies. In New York State, for example, the New York State Agricultural Society began a campaign for a school of agriculture soon after the date of its organization (1832), and continued it until 1853 when the legislature granted a char- ter for such an institution. The founding of the Agricultural College of Cornell University was no doubt due in a large measure to the activity of the New York State Agricultural Society, and of other agricultural societies of the state. The Michigan State Agricultural Society which was formed in 1849 immediately set to work to secure a state agricultural college. Its efforts at once secured the attention of the legis- lature. The matter was brought up at each session of the legislature until, in 1855, a bill authorizing the establishment of the State Agricultural College of Michigan became a law. "The Industrial League of the State of Illinois," chiefly composed of farmers, had much to do with the passage of the Land Grant Act of 1862. This League was an outgrowth of the meeting of a convention held at Granville, Putnam County, Illinois, November 18, 1851. The object of this convention "was to take into consideration such means as might be deemed most expedient to further the interests of the agricultural com- munity, and particularly to take steps toward the establishment AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 97 of an agricultural university" (136, p. 20). Jonathan B. Turner proposed a plan at this meeting which included "a university for industrial classes in each state in the Union." The plati adopted was published and widely circulated throughout the country. Another convention was held at Springfield, Illinois, June 8, 1852. At this convention a memorial was presented, containing, among other things, a definite plan for organizing agricultural colleges : "An appropriate endowment of universi- ties for the liberal education of the industrial classes in their several pursuits in each state in the Union" (136, p. 22). A third convention was held at Chicago, November 24, 1852. It was decided at this meeting to organize "The Industrial League of the State of Illinois" for the purpose of forwarding the objects of the convention, one object being "to obtain a grant of public land to establish and endow industrial institutions in each and every state in the Union. "A fourth convention was held at Springfield on January 4, 1853. Here a final plan was approved in the form of a petition to Congress (136, pp. 24 and 104). Copies were distributed to the various other agricultural and industrial societies throughout the country. These societies were asked to adopt the plan and urge its approval by Congress. The campaign for passage by Congress of an act embodying this plan was actively continued by the Industrial League of the State of Illinois, and by similar organizations in other states until it became a law, July 2, 1862. The activities of the agricultural societies of New York, Michigan, and Illinois in promoting agricultural education is typical of what was accomplished by similar societies in Pennsyl- vania, Connecticut, and other states during this period. SECOND PERIOD In 1858 there were over 900 agricultural and horticultural societies listed at the Patent Office, and in 1868 the Department of Agriculture listed 1,350. All but about 100 of these were organized after 1849 (122, p. 292). 98 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS The chief interest of most of these societies was in holding fairs. In many ways these fairs were of considerable educa- tional value, especially in diffusing new ideas, in furnishing an opportunity for social intercourse, and in introducing better farm practice and new types of farm products. Often addresses by prominent speakers were provided as special educational features. On the whole this period was marked by a great development of organized effort, including associations of many kinds, and ranging from national organizations to mere local farmers' clubs. THIRD PERIOD This period is characterized by large associations, national in scope. It represents a stage in development when agricultural people began to recognize the importance of "getting together," and of using co-operative means for securing better business and educational opportunities, and more favorable legisla- tion. This was undertaken through large formal organizations, through co-operative concerns which were intended to do away with the "middleman," through activity in politics, and through education, directly by means of colleges and other schools, and by means of discussions and publications. Several large organi- zations constituted the machinery of this movement, the most important of which were the Grange and the Farmers' Alliance. The Grange was founded in 1867, and became a national society in 1873. l It is a very complete organization with the lodge as a unit, subordinate to the County Grange which is sub- ordinate to the State Grange, this in turn being subordinate to the National Grange. The purposes are fraternal, social, educational, political, and financial. Educational work is a feature of each meeting, a certain part of the program being devoted to this subject. Sometimes the educational work of the lodges of a whole state is planned definitely by one of the state officers, the state grand lecturer. The meetings of the lodge are often held 1 D. W. Aiken, The Grange Its Origin, Progress and Purposes, U.S. Dept. of Agric., Misc. Ser., Special Report a; Charles W. Pierson, "Rise of the Granger Movement," Pop. Sci. Mo., V, 32, p. 199. AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 99 in schoolhouses, thus making the school property a community center for adults as well as children. The interest of the Grange in the school does not stop with the use of the school- house as a meeting-place, but it lends its support to all measures intended for the betterment of rural education, and particularly to those involving a greater use of country-life subjects. The Grange was for a time a very powerful society, but by 1880 its power as a national organization was lost. 2 It declined rapidly both in membership and influence until ten years later when it began to revive again. The Farmers' Alliance was somewhat similar to the Grange in plan and purpose. Its activity however was chiefly directed toward securing better legislation favorable to rural interests, mainly financial. Soon after the formation of the Populist party little was left of the Farmers' Alliance as an organization. FOURTH PERIOD With more than a century of experience agricultural societies are now being readjusted to secure for all interests of agricul- ture and rural life advantages that may be secured only through organized effort. They may be classified into three groups : national, state, and local. A large number of each group is devoted to some special agricultural interest, such as bee-keeping, apple production, sheep-breeding, and the like, almost every con- ceivable phase of agriculture being represented by an organization. Of the national societies the Grange is perhaps the most important. Since 1890 it has emphasized social and educational features, and has recovered from the decline of the previous decade. Its interest and influence in educational matters are greater than ever before. The rise and decline of the Grange is well illustrated by the number of granges organ- ized each year in Illinois for a period of eight years: In 1869 2 In 1873 761 In 1870 i In 1874 704 In 1871 S In 1875 50 In 1872 69 In 1876 27 A. E. Paine, 'The Granger Movement in Illinois," Univ. of III., Bull. V, 2, No. 2 (1904), p. 10. ioo AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS There are now over seven hundred state agricultural societies most of which are devoted to special interests. In some states the state society has no connection with local societies, but in others the state organization is made up of representatives from local societies. The latter plan is well illustrated by the Michigan State Association of Farmers' Clubs. In 1908 the state associa- tion included one hundred and twenty clubs from thirty-two counties. In 1908 these clubs had a membership of over seven thousand. The association holds an annual meeting in which a majority of the associated clubs are represented. The program consists of reports of various clubs, several addresses on sub- jects of general interest to farmers, and reports of committees. A good example of the work of a local club is shown by the following synopsis of its annual report to the association: The club is eleven years old, with a membership of 71, and average attendance of 50. Annual dues are ten cents per member; the club holds twelve meetings a year, all-day meetings from October to April. Men's meetings in February, May; temperance meetings in February, March; young people's meetings in April; ladies' meeting in May; club fair in October; picnic in August. The club publishes a paper called the Rural Grit (137, P- IS)- The addresses at the annual meetings are on topics of general interest to farmers, often on agricultural education. The most important committee is the one on resolutions. Some recom- mendations directed toward legislation are usually found in its reports. The published proceedings of the various agricultural socie- ties contain important contributions to the literature of agri- cultural education. The importance lies not so much in the new points of view or new ideas presented as in the fact that these articles indicate the attitude of the most progressive farmers on this question. The Report of the Proceedings of the New Jersey Horticultural Society for 1910 contains a discussion of "What Shall We Teach the Farmer's Child?" (138). A scheme is proposed for dividing the school year into more equal periods AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 101 between farm practice and school work. The difficulty of apply- ing such a plan is found in the present long high-school year and short vacation period, and in the absence of instruction in agricultural subjects. The author may have had in mind some shop work, as is being introduced in Cincinnati, and in other places. The idea is suggestive of possibilities that might be developed in rural schools to advantage, provided the long vacation period were spent in applying the scientific principles of agriculture to farm practice. The boys of the Baltimore County (Md.) Agri- cultural High School carry on extensive experiments on their home farms during vacation periods. Their work is inspected from time to time by the teacher of agriculture in the high school, the teacher being employed to give his time during the entire year to school matters. This plan has been in operation only one year, but the results have been very satisfactory. Such an arrangement would do away with some of the objections to the present system of education raised by the above paper, that the high schools are simply feeding the boys and girls to universities and general colleges, but unfitting them for the practical duties of life One great trouble with farming today is the fact that for half a century or more country teachers have worn the label and wire of an education arranged for a town school. The material benefits of education, such as they are in a public way, and the public spirit of it, have been town bred and built. One great reason why farming of late years has become more hopeful and prosperous is because we are at last developing a definite form and spirit of farm education. There are so many societies publishing proceedings that no further reference will be made except to refer to the fact that the discussions appearing in these proceedings on instruction in agriculture in the public schools usually favor such instruction, but not always. Occasionally views are expressed against it. In the Proceedings of the Iowa Horticultural Society for 1909 we find an example of the latter (139). The writer reviews the conditions of the Iowa rural schools. His own county has 102 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 208 rural schools. He regards the introduction of agricultural instruction in these schools as impossible, even if desirable. He would improve the teaching of these schools by placing more emphasis on the "three R's." He says, "the most persistent and able advocates of agriculture in the public schools are teachers and professors in our state and other colleges." This is not an isolated example of the conservative attitude of the farmer toward education. Similar views are held in every farming community in the country. The little one-room school is re- garded as necessary for any scheme of rural education. If the scheme does not fit into the existing system it is unworthy. Much of the opposition to consolidation is no doubt due to the reluctance of abandoning the single-room school, and to the inability to see how a readjustment of school affairs can be brought about. The sentence just quoted referring to "teachers and pro- fessors" advocating agricultural instruction shows a little of the resentment that has grown up lately in several parts of the country toward the activity of those interested in the promo- tion of agricultural education in the elementary and secondary schools. A prominent agricultural journal has recently cast some reflection on the motives of some of the men now engaged in agricultural extension among public schools, intimating that the matter is being agitated for the benefit of agricultural col- leges. The editor finds some sympathy among his readers, as evidenced by a protest from one subscriber against so much space being given to school matters, and so little being given to the discussion of sheep-killing dogs ! Particular mention should be made of the work of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in its relation to the school- garden movement (140). Soon after Henry L. Clapp intro- duced school gardening into the George Putnam School of Boston, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society began to encourage the establishment of school gardens in other places in New England by offering prizes for the best gardens entering competition, and AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES 103 by giving prominence to the subject in its published proceedings. Since 1893, one feature of its annual meeting is the session devoted to hearing reports on school gardens. The growth of the school-garden movement of the United States owes much to this society. The following are a few extracts from letters written by officers of some agricultural societies in answer to an inquiry as to what their societies are now doing toward promoting agricultural education. These are typical expressions, and are taken at random from a number of replies : Our meetings are always public and we invite teachers, students, and the general public to attend the sessions. We have not taken any definite steps toward the teaching of agriculture or horticulture in the schools, although whenever occasion offers, we are glad to say a word favoring the move- ment (Vermont). We have held sessions at the State Normal Schools and have had ad- dresses that we thought would be of value to prospective teachers (New Jersey). We think it is an important subject and hope to see more of at least the rudiments of horticulture taught in the schools soon (Kansas). We have papers and discussions in nearly every volume we publish re- garding horticultural subjects, bearing on their relation to the public schools (Illinois). We have undertaken recently the task of improving in some measure the grounds surrounding the rural schools of the state. We have realized for years the deplorable conditions in this respect; the lack of adequate play- grounds; the lack of order and even common cleanliness, the utter lack of any decoration, and other things too numerous to mention. We are feeling our way carefully and so far have but little to report. We have selected seven districts widely separated and for these schools we furnish land- scape plans and trees and shrubs to plant the same. We also furnish expert superintendence and inspection. So far the work has been very dis- couraging on account of the lack of co-operation or even friendly spirit on the part of school officers and teachers. We hope, however, for better things and intend to keep on (Wisconsin). The brief account just given of agricultural societies is suffi- cient to indicate at least some of their most important relations to 104 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS agricultural education, and to impress upon the student of rural education the value of their influence in any movement affecting the country schools. Being composed of representative mem- bers of the very communities that are supposed to be benefited by improved rural education, their point of view in educational matters must be considered in any plans to bring about better rural-school conditions and their co-operation is needed for an attempt to carry out these plans. CHAPTER XII BOYS' AGRICULTURAL CLUBS The actual introduction of agricultural subjects into the public schools has developed along two lines, one indirect and informal, the other direct and formal. They may be regarded as two stages of one development, for experience seems to indicate that creating an interest informally by means of boys' agricultural clubs is often, if not always, the most successful method of introducing the study of agriculture into the schools of a com- munity. Indeed, in many places where formal instruction has failed boys' clubs have been a great success. This is well illustrated in Louisiana. In that state, although the teaching of agricul- ture has been required since 1898, it has not received much serious attention in the elementary schools. But boys' clubs are being organized in every parish in the state, one parish school boys' club, for example, enrolling during the present year 555 members. This form of agricultural instruction is extending rapidly over the entire country, and is becoming a very impor- tant extension work in education as well as in agriculture. It tends to ally itself more and more with the public schools, until finally some more or less formal instruction becomes a regular part of the school work. Thus in Ohio the state superintendent of agricultural extension work writes that most boys' and girls' club activities are now conducted as a part of the school work and that agricultural clubs as such are becoming a thing of the past, so that no separate records or statistics are now generally kept in the state (141, p. 12). Two good accounts of the agricultural club movement have been published by the United States Department of Agriculture, one tracing its development to 1904 (6.1), the other from 1904 to 1910 (141). The following discussion will therefore be con- 105 106 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS fined chiefly to the present status of the movement with typical examples of successful work, and to the reaction of the agri- cultural clubs on rural education. Various agencies have taken the initiative in starting this movement under particular local conditions, but the inspiration for state-wide activity in these lines has generally come from some individual or official source connected with the state department of education, the state agricultural college, or the United States Department of Agriculture. In the absence of such initiative the work has sometimes begun in the zeal and wisdom of some county officer or association, as the county superintendent of schools, the farmers' institute society, the county fair association, or teachers' association, the Grange organization, or the Young Men's Christian Association. Experience has shown that the work has always been most permanent and productive when it has resulted in a definite local organization, preferably under the leadership of the county school superintendent (141, p. 7). Reference has already been made to the work of the state and college extension departments, of state departments of edu- cation, and of other agencies in the organization of these clubs (37, 39, 4i, 43, 61, 142). During the present year (1911) this work has been extended, and is becoming better organized. In 1909 there were clubs in twenty-eight states with a total membership of approximately 150,000. During the present year many new clubs have been formed, and the membership in many of those already organized has increased. An instance of the latter is found in the increase in membership of one club from 17 in 1909 to 555 in 1910. In the above estimate for 1909 several states that now have clubs are not included. For example, Kansas has one or more clubs in each county, with a total membership of more than 5,000. The eleven southern states that had a membership of about 13,000 in 1909 have this year nearly 50,000 enrolled. The total mem- bership of 1910 for the entire country may conservatively be estimated at more than 300,000. The most important recent development is that of the Boys' Corn Club work in the southern states. This work was under- taken by representatives of the United States Bureau of Plant BOYS' AGRICULTURAL CLUBS 107 Industry through county superintendents of education four years ago. Three years ago it was extended in a few counties of the Gulf states where the boll weevil was damaging cotton crops. At the beginning of 1909 a systematic plan was under- taken to organize boys' corn clubs in a few counties in each of the southern states. There were enrolled 12,400 boys. During 1910 in response to further demands the organizations have been extended into nearly 600 counties, with a total enrol- ment of 46,225 boys. Although no statistical summary of the work has been issued, a number of reports have been received by the department which show excellent work. In one county in Mississippi 48 boys produced an average yield of 92 bushels per acre; 20 boys in one county of South Carolina made 1,700 bushels of corn on 20 acres. Another club of 142 boys produced an average of 62 bushels to the acre, several going above 100, and two or three above 150 bushels. 1 The Boys' Corn Club work is the Junior Department of the Government Demonstration Work now being carried on in all the southern states. The results of the boys' work have at- tracted the attention of the entire country. Considerable promi- nence was given to it by the public press in 1909, but much more to the results of 1910, particularly to the remarkable achievement of Jerry Moore of Winona, S.C., a boy not fifteen years old, who produced 228^ bushels of corn on one acre of land, this being the second largest yield per acre in the history of corn production. 2 The crowning event of the work of 1910 was a visit to Washington on December 12, 1910, of the prize winners from eleven southern states. They were awarded diplomas of merit by the Secretary of Agriculture, presented to the President of the United States, and personally conducted by O. B. Martin, 'The above facts were furnished in a letter from O. B. Martin, government assistant in charge of Boys' Demonstration Work. A full account of this work has since been published ds). 'Results of 1009: Youth's Companion, April 10, 1910; Results of 1910: Associated Press account, Chicago Record-Herald, December n and 18, 1910. io8 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS assistant in charge of the Junior Demonstration Work, over the city of Washington, visiting all places of interest. The relation of this work to the schools is indicated by the following extracts from directions for organization and instruc- tion sent out by the department: Where this work is being introduced in a county, the county superin- tendent of education and teachers can reach the boys in all sections of the county more quickly and more effectively than any other agency. The superintendent can explain the plan to the teachers, and they can explain it to the boys and secure the names of all the boys who will agree to plant one acre of corn Just as soon as the names of all the boys are assembled in the office of the county superintendent of education, duplicate lists should be sent to Dr. S. A. Knapp, Washington, D.C., who has charge of the Farmers' Co-operative Demonstration Work. These boys will from time to time receive circulars of instruction and information in regard to preparation, fertilization, cultivation, seed selection, etc. These circulars furnish excellent subject-matter for discussion at a club meeting, or for a lesson in school. They lead to further study of farmers' bulletins and books. A boy will profit much from such lessons, discussions, and books, because he is making practical application of the principles taught. He learns scientific agriculture because he needs it, and not because it is scien- tific The object of the Boys' Demonstration Work is the same as that among men, namely, better methods of farming and greater yields at less cost. Many of the boys in the clubs who begin to study agriculture in this way will continue the study in agricultural colleges; others will continue such efforts on their farms, and all of them will make useful and more effective citizens.* The organization of the clubs in various states differs some- what in details, but in general there is a close co-operation between the state departments of education and the state agri- cultural college. A good example of a state organization is the Farm-Life Club Movement in Alabama: The leading objects of the Farm-Life Club Movement are educational and for this reason it is our desire to make this movement have a close and vital connection with the work of the county superintendents of educa- tion, the teachers, and the schools of the state. There are many important educational problems in Alabama today, but the largest one is the question 'From mimeograph directions sent out by O. B. Martin, assistant in charge of Boys' Demonstration Work, June i, 1910. BOYS' AGRICULTURAL CLUBS 109 of better farming. In beginning the work in a county we first secure co- operation of the superintendent and through him interest the teachers. The work is discussed at a teachers' institute and later a letter is mailed request- ing each teacher to interest the boys in his school and his community in this work. The names of the boys are sent to the county superintendent by the teachers. This work furnishes the greatest opportunity yet launched for the county superintendents and teachers to be of invaluable service to the people in arousing interest in better farming and in improved agriculture. The ultimate purpose of the work is to aid the great movement for better farming all along the lines, and to encourage the boy to get an edu- cation in agriculture and to remain on the farm. The work in Alabama has been in progress scarcely a year and the results are very encouraging indeed. At present the work has been started in about 17 counties in the state. There is a total of approximately 2,000 boys listed in the work. There have been raised locally among merchants, bankers, and other public-spirited people over $2,000 in prizes. In addition to this the state fairs in Birmingham and Montgomery are offering a total of about $500 for the boys in the corn clubs. After making these exhibits at the state fairs the best of these will be carried to the National Corn Show. It has been my pleasure during the last month to hold boys' meetings in several counties and to visit a large number of individual acres of corn. The yield in a great many cases is very remarkable. For example, one boy's acre of corn will yield at least 65 bushels of corn-, and in addition to the corn there will be enough snap beans and corn middles to pay all the expenses for making the corn, including rent of land and interest on investment. I quote below from a letter recently received from a gentleman who lives in a community where a club has been organized : "Some of the boys are going to make 75 and 85 bushels per acre, and some are going to make as much as 100 bushels." Another letter from a business man will give some idea as to how the business men regard the work : "I think the Boys' Corn Club has worked wonders in the cultivation of corn in this state. I have never seen as much enthusiasm among the old farmers as now pre- vails, and I feel certain that the Boys' Corn Club is largely responsible for it." At a meeting held in northern Alabama I asked some of the boys to give me an idea as to the outlook of their corn crop. One, in making a report of his work, said : "Every farmer in a radius of two miles of my acre has visited my corn and said, 'If you make 35 bushels of corn on this acre we are going to follow your method.' " Prospects were good for a yield of more than 50 bushels on this acre. The father of this boy said, no AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS "I have a special acre myself and do not propose to have my boy beat me raising corn." This movement is not a question of adding new duties to the county superintendent and teachers without additional pay, but a question of oppor- tunity and service. No movement has yet been projected where superin- tendents of education and teachers may be of greater service to the people than in the organization of the Farm-Life clubs. This plan also furnishes the best method yet devised of bringing together in harmonious co-operation all the interests looking to better education and better farming. In this work the county superintendents, the teachers, the merchants, the newspapers, the State College of Agriculture, the State Department of Agriculture, and the State Department of Education can all work together for the common good. 4 Another important phase of the agricultural-club idea is being developed by the Farmers' Institute Specialist of the Office of Experiment Stations of the United States Department of Agriculture. It is known as Farmers' Institutes for Young People. The following statement in regard to these institutes will indicate the object and character of the work undertaken: In order, therefore, that opportunity to become acquainted with agri- cultural operations may be given to those who have left the public school and from whose ranks the future farmers and their wives must be supplied, the farmers' institutes in several states have organized and are now con- ducting what is known as "institutes for young people." The majority of these are not institutes in the sense in which the work of the farmers' institute has come to be defined. They are in reality boys' and girls' clubs conducted in the same manner as those operated by the public schools Because of the fundamental difficulty in securing teachers capable of giving vocational training and instruction in agriculture in the rural schools, and from the fact that after the scholars leave school no provision has been made for giving them the opportunity to receive such instruction, the farmers' institute has undertaken the training in agriculture of rural chil- dren after leaving school. In doing this it has found it necessary to drop from its system of instruction the purely educational feature and to devote itself strictly to giving vocational instruction. Such studies and practice, therefore, as the institute utilizes have in view the perfecting of the indi- vidual in his vocation. The institute system, therefore, partakes more nearly than any other of the trade-school method, and is intended for youths 4 From a letter written by L. N. Duncan, U.S. demonstrator for Alabama, and professor of school agriculture, Alabama State Agricultural College. BOYS' AGRICULTURAL CLUBS in above 14 years of age. It will become the connecting link between the agricultural-club movement on the one hand and the regular farmers' insti- tutes for adults on the other (143). In 1909, 20 states and territories are reported to have held institutes for young people. This system seems to be the best organized in Indiana, where about one-third of the counties have such institutes with an enrolment of over 12,000. The young people's institutes are held at the same time as the farm- ers' institutes but in separate sessions. The public is interested as indicated by liberal contributions, one county appropriating, in 1909, $1,000 for this work. The extension department of the Kansas State Agricultural College is just introducing a correspondence school in connec- tion with its young people's extension work. The object of this is similar to that of the young people's institute, being designed to help boys and girls who have been compelled to leave school. The boys' clubs of Kansas, whose work thus far has been almost wholly confined to corn contests, are now being organized on a somewhat different basis. The plan follows that of the Boy Scouts of America and the clubs are known as the "Rural-Life Scouts." Although just started, considerable interest is being shown in these clubs. The leaders are generally principals of village schools or pastors of village churches. In counties where there is a Y.M.C.A. secretary, the organizations are affiliated with the Y.M.C.A. work. The county superintendent of education and his teachers have been an important factor in making boys' clubs a success, whether under the auspices of the Government Demonstration Work, state agricultural colleges, or state departments of educa- tion. The work in large units, state or sectional, is really made possible by successful work carried out by county superintend- ents of schools or teachers in the various parts of the country. It may be of interest at this point to give somewhat in detail a concrete example of how a county superintendent of education 112 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS went about organizing successful boys' agricultural clubs in his own county. The county superintendent of Delaware County, Iowa, began to organize boys' clubs six years ago, holding township meetings where the boys brought corn selected from their fathers' seed corn. The meetings were addressed by an expert, on "What Constitutes Good Seed Corn." This was accompanied by demon- strations from samples of poor and good ears. The corn brought by the boys was then judged and commented upon by the expert. The superintendent then distributed seed corn which he had bought for this purpose. The year following the boys came together in a contest showing the results obtained from the corn distributed the year before. This work was continued through the next year, except that the boys selected their own seed corn from their fathers' corn. A short course in agriculture was held at Manchester, the county seat, which about sixty boys attended. The corn clubs continued to grow in interest from year to year until most of the boys were as good as, or even better judges of corn than, their fathers. Last year the work was varied by using oats instead of corn. The superintendent purchased forty bushels of Canadian oats, and distributed the seed among the boys of the county. At the close of the season a contest was held at which the results of the season's work were shown. The experiment was watched with much interest throughout the county, and the farmers were eager to purchase seed from the boys for their own farms. In one year the value of Canadian oats for Delaware County was demonstrated by the boys, and oat production in the county was greatly improved. All this was extra school work, but the superintendent made good use of the interest thus aroused to help and improve the regular school work. Raising corn and oats became subjects of compositions, references to bulletins and books were used as reading lessons, and estimates of cost and yield furnished mate- rial for arithmetic. By means of printed instructions sent to teachers from time to time, the formal work of the schools be- came enlivened and strengthened by its practical application. BOYS' AGRICULTURAL CLUBS 113 The work in Delaware County is a typical example of how the education of a county or township system may be redirected by means of boys' clubs. Springfield Township, Ohio (142), Keokuk (61) and Page (144) counties, Iowa, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, Winnebago County, Illinois (145, 146), Wexford County, Michigan, and many other places might be mentioned where boys' agricultural clubs have not only been the means of improving school conditions but by their success have led to similar work being introduced in other places. Although not connected in any way with the public schools, the work of W. B. Otwell, editor of the Otwell's Farmer Boy, Carlinville, 111., deserves special mention. Mr. Otwell is chiefly responsible for the beginning of the state-wide development of boys' corn clubs in Illinois, and had charge of their exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition, where 1,250 boys' exhibits received awards. By means of his paper he is interesting a large number of boys of the Middle West. He conducted in 1910 a corn con- test in which 25,000 boys were competing. 5 Another feature of his boys' club is an annual encampment for those who can attend, for the purpose of agricultural study. In order to give description in sufficient detail, the foregoing discussion of boys' agricultural clubs has been limited to a few typical examples of what is now actually being accomplished. References have been made from time to time to the public inter- est in the clubs and to their influence upon the public schools. It was the intention in preparation of this chapter to include a fuller discussion of the relation of this movement to rural education than space will permit. Opinions have been gathered from a number of state superintendents, and from others in- terested in rural education as to the reaction of the agricultural club movement upon the rural schools. These opinions are well summed up in the following: Keeps boys in school longer; gives teacher greater influence and power; convinces farmers that school people want to and can be useful to the 'Otwell's Farmer Boy, Carlinville, 111., December, 1910. H4 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS farming interests, and tends to make the school the center of community life; stirs farmers to greater endeavor and to better methods of farming, and increases general interest in agriculture and returns. Perhaps the most important contribution that these clubs are now making to agricultural education in the public schools is the recognition by the patrons of the direct value in dollars and cents that such instruction has, a recognition which will lead to better support of the schools by the community and greater interest in them. CHAPTER XIII ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS One of the most important recent tendencies in education is the redirection of schools of a community in terms of the daily welfare of its people. For a rural community such redirection must be largely in terms of agriculture and of other country- life interests. It is for this reason that so much emphasis is placed upon agriculture as a means of increasing the efficiency of rural schools. When this idea began to express itself in practice in rural communities the elementary school was the first to receive at- tention. But age of pupils, many grades in one room, lack of properly qualified teachers, and various other limitations have led many to doubt the wisdom of this selection. The results of introducing agriculture as a school subject into the elementary schools have thus far not been entirely satisfactory. Neverthe- less adjustments are taking place, so that agriculture, not as a systematized subject of instruction but in certain of its nature- study aspects, will no doubt find an important place. About all that may reasonably be expected of agriculture in the ele- mentary schools is to interest the children in country-life sub- jects so that they may know the common birds, insects, trees, weeds; the meaning of some of the best farm practices, such as selecting and testing seed, how the soil holds water and means of preventing its loss, care of milk and value of its fat content, etc. ; and through such studies to lead the children to appreciate the fact that there is something worth while in the immediate world in which they live. The rural high school is now being recognized as the best place below the college for instruction in agriculture. Such a high school is closely related to rural education in two ways : one in the adjustment of its own work to the industrial and "5 Ii6 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS social needs of its community, the other in giving its graduates who expect to teach in rural elementary schools some prepara- tion for teaching country-life subjects. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS The introduction of agricultural subjects into elementary schools has proceeded mainly along two lines one as a result of legislation, the other as a natural outgrowth of boys' agri- cultural clubs. In many places in states where agriculture is a required subject for instruction in rural schools no such legislation was really needed, for the subject was already being introduced in a sane and effective way, and was being made use of as far as the experience of the teacher and conditions of the school en- vironment would permit. The results of compulsory teaching of agriculture in the ele- mentary schools have been twofold: first, in stimulating those in charge of the administration to provide helps to those teach- ers who are expected to carry out the provisions of the law; second, in the production and use of textbooks on elementary agriculture. The first has been done through bulletins, teachers' leaflets, institute instruction, summer normal schools, and in vari- ous other ways. Some agricultural colleges have been called upon to give attention to elementary education sooner than they other- wise would. They have been forced to study the rural-school situation and devise means for improving it. The work of state offices of education and of agricultural colleges in promoting agricultural education in rural communities has already been considered somewhat in detail in previous chapters. But the con- tributions of these two agencies to agricultural education in elementary schools must not be ascribed wholly to legislation, for in several states having no requirements as to teaching of agri- culture both state departments of education and agricultural colleges have done excellent service in providing helps for teachers wishing to introduce the subject in their schools. ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS 117 The second result has been less satisfactory. Indeed, in some instances it has proved a positive detriment to agricultural education. It has in effect added another textbook subject to an already crowded rural-school curriculum, for many teachers, in spite of whatever suggestions they may receive from leaflets or institute instruction, know of no other way to teach except by means of a textbook. It has put undue emphasis on the agricultural textbook. More than a score of elementary text- books have appeared within a decade. Publishers have been very active in securing the use of their books in the rural schools. While the value of a good textbook must be con- ceded, it is apt to be the means of substituting agricultural in- formation for real agricultural instruction. The kind of agri- cultural instruction best adapted for the elementary schools cannot be given merely by means of recitations from a text- book. There may be some justification in making the teaching of a subject compulsory on the ground that otherwise it would never be taught. On the other hand it may seriously be questioned, since the whole burden of such a measure falls upon the teach- ers, whether efficient teaching of any subject may be secured by mandatory legislation. The length of teaching service of the average rural teacher is very short, perhaps less than three years. As a result rural teachers are constantly being recruited from the young graduates of grammar and high schools. It is claimed by some that whatever preparation these inexperienced teachers may make is largely determined by what they are ex- pected to teach. If they must teach agriculture they will make some effort to prepare themselves to teach this subject. It is probably on this theory that so many states have tried this plan of introducing agriculture into the rural schools. At least sixteen states have tried this plan, and in several other states bills providing for such instruction were considered by legislatures last in session, and one (in Ohio) became a law. The second line of development of agricultural education Ii8 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS in elementary schools has produced a much better type of in- struction than the former or mandatory method. This is partly because the results of boys' clubs have shown the value of agri- culture as a school subject, and have thus secured for it public approval and support, and partly because experience in man- aging these clubs has given the teachers some insight into methods of adapting the subject to the needs of the school, and of making it an effective part of the regular school work. Teachers who have been the most successful are those who have selected agricultural subjects of special interest to the school community, and who have used methods calling for self- activity on the part of the pupils having the pupils learn by doing rather than by reciting. The following is a list of various kinds of work reported to be successfully adapted to rural schools (147) : experimental plots for plant breeding, soil in- oculation, and other soil experiments; ear-to-row method of improving corn, and use of acre plots ; seed germinating includ- ing tests of viability; collection of economic plants, weeds, weed- seed, and insects; budding, grafting, pruning, and spraying fruit trees ; milk testing with Babcock milk tester. The importance attached by pupils and patrons to such work is well illustrated by the following report. In one county in Iowa it is the practice for each school to have in the spring a germinating test for corn. One teacher says of this work : My boys who would not go across the road for a song book went two miles in the snow to get some sawdust for a germinating box. When the corn had germinated, the farmers came to the schoolhouse to see how their corn had turned out, and incidentally saw the work of the school. Why, farmers came who couldn't 'remember when they had been inside the school- house before! (148, p. 18). The rural school is badly in need of redirection, but it will take more than the teaching of agriculture to bring this about. However, some sort of nature-study agriculture that has ele- ments of interest to pupils and parents alike may do much toward putting the rural school in the way of redirection. Here and there are promises of the fulfilment of L. H. Bailey's vi- ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS 119 sion of a rural school living up to its possibilities. Referring to the kind of agricultural studies suggested in the above report, he says : All such teaching as this will call for a new purpose in the school build- ing. The present country-school building is a structure in which children sit to study books and recite from them. It should also be a place in which the children can work with their hands. Every school building should have a laboratory room, in which there may be a few plants growing in the win- dows, and perhaps an aquarium and terrarium. Here the children will bring flowers and insects and samples of soil, and varieties of corn or cotton in their season, and other objects that interest them, and here they may perform their simple work with tools. Even if the teacher cannot teach these sub- jects, the room itself will teach. The mere bringing of such objects would have a tremendous influence on children : patrons would ask what the room is for; in time a teacher would be found who could handle the subject peda- gogically. Now we see children carrying only books to school; some day they will also carry twigs and potatoes and animals and tools and contrivances and other personal objects (122). SECONDARY SCHOOLS Previous to 1906 there were but few high schools (except- ing agricultural high schools) giving instruction in agriculture; in 1906-7 there were 75-80; in 1907-8, 240-50; in 1908-9, over 500; in 1909-10, probably 1,000; in 1910-11, incomplete data indicate as many as 1,500. The number of agricultural high schools (those giving two or more years of agricultural instruction) in 1909 was 125; in 1910, 144. Of these there were receiving local support, in 1909, 24; in 1910, 33; receiv- ing state aid in 1909, 29; in 1910, 39; technical schools giving agricultural instruction in 1909, 37; in 1910, 47; connected with agricultural colleges in 1909, 34; in 1910, 35 (149, pp. 333~35; W PP- 23-25). Secondary agricultural education has developed along sev- eral lines, giving rise to as many as eight more or less distinct types, viz. (a) agricultural-college, (&) district, (c) county, (d) village-township, ( S3; New Jersey, 53; New York, 49, 50; North Carolina, 49; Ohio, 49, 56; Oklahoma, 49; Oregon, 47; Penn- sylvania, 49, 50; South Carolina, 49; Utah, 49; Vermont, 48; Virginia, 55; Wyoming, 48 Seed collection, n South Carolina: Agricultural Society, 94; boys' clubs, 107; legislation, 23; State Department of Agriculture, 48; State Normal School, 49 South Dakota, 24 State fairs, 88, 89 State organizations for agriculture, 85 State teachers' associations, 66 Summary of legislation, 27, 37 Summer schools, 46 Teachers' associations, 58 Tennessee: Agricultural College, 40, 43, 46; legislation, 24 Texas, 24, 36, 37 True, A. C., 66 Turner, Jonathan B., 97 United States: Bureau of Education, 14; Department of Agriculture, 7 University of Pennsylvania, 95 Utah: Agricultural College, 43, 46; legislation, 24, 36, 37; State Normal School, 49 Vermont: Agricultural College, 43, 46; legislation, 24, 36; State Normal School, 48, 49 Virginia, 24, 55 Washington: Agricultural College, 43, 46; legislation, 24, 36, 37 Washington, George, 94 Waterford High School, Pa., 62 Wehrli, 69 West Virginia: Agricultural College, 39, 43, a6, 92; legislation, 24 Winnebago County, 111., 76 Wisconsin: Agricultural College, 43, 46, 92; agricultural high schools, 120; legislation, 24, 36, 37 Wyoming: Agricultural College, 46; legis- lation, 24; state normal schools, 48 Yale, 7 Y.M.C.A., 106, 112 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. DUE MM JUN OCT 1 4 ' DEC 2 8 2000 SRLF 2 WEEK LOAN Porn TO THE LllWAKY JUJNIVEIISITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELB8 L 005 ^82 1 93 5 Education library S 533 D29a . :/ - ' V* **