CHAPTER XII.

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

By A. C. MONAHAN,

United States Bureau of Education, and

C. H. LANE,

Chief Specialist in Agricultural Education, Office of Experiment Stations, Department of Agriculture.

CONTENTS.-Introduction of agriculture into the curricula of high schools-Agricultural education at meetings of the year-Agricultural education in other countries-Educational work of the Department of Agriculture-Educational work of the Office of Experiment Stations.

The movement for the introduction of agriculture into the curricula of public and private high schools continues as rapidly as in preceding years. Its extent may be estimated from the annual reports submitted by such schools to the Bureau of Education, which show the enrollment in various courses-academic, commercial, technical or manual training, training courses for teachers, domestic economy, and agriculture. In 1913 there were in all 13,445 public and private high schools, with approximately 1,283,000 pupils. Of these, 1,414 schools reported agricultural courses, with 29,825 pupils taking such courses. In 1914 the total number of schools had increased by 269, and the number of pupils by 90,652. There were 1,677, an increase of 263, reporting agricultural courses, with the number of pupils in such courses as 34,367, an increase of 4,552 over the previous year. In these annual reports no attempt is made by the bureau to determine whether the agricultural courses reported are "vocational" or "informational," or whether they are more or less than a full year in length. Such information has been collected at other times, however, and it is undoubtedly true in 1914, as in previous years, that the majority of agricultural courses reported by these 1,677 schools are brief textbook courses that deal with general information relative to agriculture and extend from a quarter to a full year. In very many, however, thoroughgoing, practical vocational courses extending from two to four years are given, and the number in which the practical course is replacing the textbook course is rapidly increasing. Data relative to the public and private high schools teaching agriculture are given in the tables below. It will be noted that approximately 40 per cent of the pupils reported in agricultural courses are females. In a certain way this is an indication of the character of

the courses, since the individual reports of the schools show that relatively few girls are enrolled in agriculture in the schools where such work is on the vocational basis and many are enrolled in the schools where informational textbook courses prevail. The names of the individual schools with agricultural courses, together with the number of students, are included in the annual Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1913, Volume II, chapter 11, pages 495-516. Similar data for the following year are given in Volume II of the report for

1914.

Public and private high schools teaching agriculture, and number of pupils studying this subject in the school years 1912-13 and 1913-14.

Public and private high schools-Number of schools reporting agricultural courses-Number of students in such courses, 1913-14-By geographical divisions.

The distinction between "high schools with agricultural courses or departments" and "agricultural high schools" is not as clearly indicated by their work as might be expected from their names. The group of secondary schools reported each year by the bureau as "agricultural schools" and "agricultural high schools" include such special agricultural schools as the congressional district agricultural schools of Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Virginia; the State agricultural schools of Arkansas, New York, North Dakota, Vermont, and Minnesota; the county agricultural schools of Wisconsin, Mississippi, etc. Altogether, 115 such schools reported to the bureau in 1913, and the same number in 1914. They are distributed among the geographical divisions as follows: North Atlantic Division, 10; North Central Division, 19; South Atlantic Division, 30; South Central Division, 54; Western Division, 2. It will be noted that 86 out of the 115 are located in the Southern States, where the number of regular high schools is relatively small. None of the schools in the Southern States confine their work to agriculture and the allied sub

jects. They include in their curricula many of the ordinary highschool subjects, in addition to those absolutely essential in a vocational agricultural school, serving for a part of their students as ordinary high schools. In fact, the district agricultural schools first established offered during the early years of their existence courses differing but little from that of the traditional high school, with two additional subjects-agriculture and household economy. There are many high schools with agricultural departments in the same group of States that are doing better work in teaching vocational agriculture than the majority of the special schools. In the Northern and Western States, where regular high schools are more plentiful, the special agricultural schools devote their time and energy more strictly to vocational agriculture.

A brief summary of the tables in Volume II of this report on the special agricultural schools is given below. For the complete summary the detailed tables of Volume II should be consulted. Similar statistics for the preceding year were included in Volume II of the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1913, chapter 11, page

Among the colleges, agricultural courses have been announced in a few additional institutions. The total number now reporting agricultural courses of college grade is seven, in addition to the 48 State colleges of agriculture. Few of these institutions are equipped to give courses comparable with those given by the State institutions. Among the State agricultural and mechanical colleges there has been unusual activity in the adjustment of organization, courses of study, and methods of instruction, due largely to the increasing demands placed upon them for graduates to go forth as teachers of agriculture in secondary schools and as agricultural extension workers. The demand that both agricultural teachers in secondary schools and county agricultural agents be "practical" farm men with wide farm experience has brought to the attention of these State institutions more strongly than ever before the need of requiring a definite amount of farm practice both for entrance and gradu

ation. Several institutions already are requiring all students not familiar with ordinary farm operations at entrance to college to acquire a knowledge of such operations by actual work upon the college farms or approved neighboring farms. This work is in addition to the regular college courses. At least two State colleges— California and Pennsylvania-require all students in agriculture to devote six weeks of the summer, between the sophomore and junior years, to farm work on an approved farm or to work in an approved commercial establishment where such work is closely related to the students' major subjects. The Minnesota agricultural college rents two farms for the benefit of students specializing in farm management and for work as county agents, each farm being sublet to a student. The student pays cash rent on the farm and receives $600 salary and his subsistence and one-half the net profits, if profits result. He manages the farm for a full year from the beginning of the last semester of his senior year and receives in addition to his bachelor's degree a special certificate. The Wisconsin agricultural college has prepared a list of certain farms selected by the faculty which are used for farm practice for advanced students under what the institution calls its "accredited farm system." A contract is made between the owner of each farm and the college, specifying the conditions under which the student works. For a full year's work on one of these farms, with supplementary reading, study, and investigation as outlined by the college, the student receives a half year's credit for his bachelor's degree. These few illustrations will serve to show the changes in instructional work among the agricultural colleges, resulting from the new demands placed upon them. Other changes of almost equal importance with those indicated here have been made in the regular course of studies.

The call for graduates of the agricultural colleges as teachers of agriculture in secondary schools is due in part to the increasing number of public and private high schools including agriculture in their curricula, but more to the rapidly growing demand that the agriculture taught by these institutions shall be of a vocational character. This matter is discussed later in this chapter (see p. 297). The demand for graduates for county agricultural agents is due in part to the passage of the Smith-Lever bill by Congress during the spring of 1914. The extension teaching activities of the agricultural colleges, such as "farmers' institutes," "educational trains," "movable schools,' 'demonstration farms," etc., have increased by leaps and bounds during the past few years. However, the passage of the SmithLever bill during the spring of 1914 has caused greater activities in the colleges in adjusting themselves to the increasing work for which they will be required to provide. The provisions of this act are given later in this chapter.

There has been agitation for several years for the establishment of a Territorial agricultural and mechanical college in Alaska, to be supported by land grants and to share in the appropriations of Congress made for the benefit of the State colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts. The first step toward this has been secured in the passage of an act by the Sixty-third Congress, reserving lands to the Territory of Alaska for educational purposes. This act sets aside two sections in each township as soon as the public lands of the Territory are surveyed, to be reserved from sale or settlement for the support of the common schools, and one section in each township in the Tanana Valley between parallels 64 and 65 north latitude and between the one hundred and forty-fifth and one hundred and forty-second degrees of west longitude for the support of a Territorial agricultural college and school of mines when such an institution is established by the Legislature of Alaska. Four adjoining sections in four different townships have been reserved for the site of the college. Part of this land reserved is now used by the Government of the United States as an agricultural experiment station, and the act of Congress provides that it may continue to be so used after the college has been established. Among the negro agricultural and mechanical colleges there are several developments in the interest of more efficient work in agriculture. The new Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Normal School for Negroes is now fully under way at the location purchased by the State three years ago at Nashville. The agricultural and mechanical institution for negroes of Louisiana is now located on a 500-acre farm on the Mississippi River, a few miles north of Baton Rouge. The old plant at New Orleans has been disposed of. New buildings, consisting of an administration, classroom, and laboratory building, a dormitory for girls, a dormitory for boys, a heating and power plant, have been erected at a cost of approximately $60,000, and the old farm buildings on the grounds are now used as carpenter shops, blacksmith shops, for laundry purposes, and for a dining hall. The school was held during the last half of 1914 on the new grounds in the old farm buildings purchased with the grounds. The new buildings were not ready for use until January, 1915. A similar movement to remove the negro Agricultural and Mechanical College of Arkansas from within the city limits of Pine Bluff out into the open country, either in the vicinity of Pine Bluff or in some other part of the State, is well under way and will probably be effected. during the coming year. The name of the West Virginia institution for negroes has been changed from the "West Virginia Colored Institute" to the "West Virginia Collegiate Institute.”

References have been made above to the Smith-Lever bill. Much confusion has existed with regard to the two measures, which have been before the United States Congress during the past half dozen