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OUTLINE

Preface: The writer's relation to agricultural education
during the past eight years.
a. High school agriculture.
b. The County Agricultural School.
ec. Juvenile clubs.
ad. Farmers' local short courses.
e. County agricultural agent.

f. Agricultural teacher training.

I. INTRODUCTION.

Influences inimioal to the adding of agriculture to the
high school curriculum.

The guiding purpose in high school agriculture.
Methods.

II. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN MICHIGAN.
The beginning.
New trails.

Relation of Michigan Agricultural College to high school
agriculture. Supervision.

Some mistakes:
Courses organized in wrong locality.
Poor teaching.
Local skepticism.

Present outlook.

A oriticism of the present plan.
THES!S
III. THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL.
Origin: The Wisconsin plan.
The Michigan legislative act.
But two such schools in Michigan.
Description of Menominee school.
Location.
Buildings and equipment.
Course of study.
Educational use of farm.
Failure to teach farming as an enterprise.
Other weaknesses Of gohool and of general plan.

Suggestions for improvement.

IV. THE JUNIOR MOVEMENT.
Growth of interest in boys' and girls' clubs.
Federal plan declined at first in Michigan. Reasons.
. The Michigan plan. Adopted by County School Commissioners.
Purposes aimed at in the plan.

V. FARMERS' LOCAL SHORT COURSE.
Organization, methods, etc.
. Mistakes.
A move in the right direction.

10249;
_»>y 2 an 9
VI. THE COUNTY AGENT.
The Indiana Law.
A new field.
The "Better Farming Association".
The work accomplished in Porter County, Indiana.
Qualifications of a good county agent.
Observations on what a county agent should do.

Need for special training.

VII. AGRICULTURAL TEACHER TRAINING.

The Joseph Slocum College of Agriculture - Education
Department.

Requirements of State Department.
Problem of supervised practice teaching.
A year of probation.
Calibre of candidates for the teaching course.

A proposed college curriculum for teacher training.
VIII. AGRICULTURAL TEACHING A CONTRIBUTION TO PEDAGOGY.

IX. RELATION BETWEEN THE HIGH SCHOOL AND THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.
Overlapping of high school and college ourricula.

Adjustment of college curriculum and teaching matter to
meet the new high school course.

Results of questionaire.

Is the study of agriculture conducive to good studentship?
PREFACE

During the past eight years the writer has been associated
with several phases of agricultural education, using that term
both in its narrower sense of academic or vocational school
agriculture and with the more comprehensive application to the
general development and dissemination of scientific agricultural
knowledge and practice. This experience covers a greater or
less degree of contact with each of the following divisions of
the work:

(a) Agriculture in the high school, in the earlier days of
high sohool agriculture in Michigan. As assistant in the Depart-
ment of Agrioultural Education in the Michigan Agricultural
College, during the year 1912-13, it was one of the writer's
duties to visit, from time to time, in behalf of the Agrioultural
College, each of the high school departments of agriculture, with
view to studying the situation and to rendering any assistance
possible in the organization and improvement of the work.

(>) During the years 1914 to 1918 the writer was superin-
tendent of the Menominee County Agricultural School, organized
under an act to be hereinafter degoribed. This is a type of
school which has played a part in the progress of secondary
agrioultural education and the four years of opportunity to
study its working, its product and the place it fills in our
educational system hag resulted in some very definite conclu-
sions in the mind of the writer.

(oc) Boys' and Girls' Clubs. During my year with the
Department of Agrioultural Education at M. A. C., referred to
above, as well as during my years with the Menominee County
Agrioultural School, I have been actively interested in this
movement, as an important feature in the development of intel-
ligent farmers for the future as well as a partial solution

of the problem of keeping the bright boys and girls on the
farm.

(d) Farmers' Short Courses. This has reference to the
organization of a small body of farmers, looally, under some
extension agency, not in the capacity of a farmers' institute,
but for the purpose of receiving a more or less connected
course of instruction in certain announced subjects.

(e) County Agrioultural Agent, now more generally and
significantly known, because of the organization of the Farm
Bureau, ag Farm Bureau Manager. The writer held such a post
in a Northern Indiana county from July, 1913, to September,
1914, a year of experience which has enabled him to appreciate
as he could not otherwise have done, the farmer's vital prob-
lems as well as the conditions which tend to impede the progress
or to advance the cause of popular agricultural education.

(f) Agricultural Teacher Training. After being connected
with the United States School Garden Army for nearly a year in
the oapacity of Assistant Regional Direotor, a work which was
limited mainly to cities and villages, with no special bearing
On the general subject of agriculture, the writer entered
Syracuse University, September, 1919, as Professor of Agriocul-
tural Teaching in the Joseph Slocum College of Agriculture,
continuing in that field until he was made dean of the college,
July 1, 19380. This has brought him into close relation with
the New York system of vocational secondary school agrioulture
as carried out under the Smith Hughes act.

The following paper is an attempt to bring together suoh
a series of observations growing out of the varied experiences
indicated above as may point somewhat to sane and conservatively

progressive policies in the field of agricultural eduoation.
I

INTRODUCTION

The grafting of agriculture upon the high school ourri-
culum had its initiation on the part of men whose business was
education rather than of those whose business was farming. In
the main farmers were skeptical. This skepticism but emphasized
the need for the innovation. Farming was looked upon as a proocés-
sion of manual operations. It has taken, is taking, time to
popularize the idea that farming is a business. The common query
was, what oan the teacher do in school that cannot be better
done by the father at home. To the extent that there was a sub-
conscious recognition of the fact that the farm is the real
agricultural laboratory the query was prompted by good sense.

Too often, however, the motive was made clear by the further
coment that the boy could learn all the farming he needed to
know at home.

In a few cases the cause was injured by unqualified
teachers, men whose qualifications were limited to a knowledge
of the subject matter or men whose farm experience had been
inadequate, as for example, the young man who taught that the
silo should be opened at the bottom and the silage dug out from
beneath.

Another objection to the introduction of agriculture into
the high school was made on the ground of overcrowding the
curriculum. Already, it was olaimed, so many subjects were being
taught that the work could be done but superficially.

Further, many fathers and, especially, mothers lacked

sympathy with the movement because they were not ambitious that
their offspring should be further trained for an ocoupation
that had meant only drudgery to them. The thought that farm-
ing could be made not only a business but a profession was not
@® popular conception.

The teaching of secondary agriculture is still too new to
gay what will, in the long run, be the guiding purpose. Will
it be vocational, the making of better farmers, or will it be
humanistic? In the earlier days the latter seems to have been
_the actuating purpose on the part of the profegsional pedagog,
while the farmer patron of the school and the state and federal
law-makers, when interested at all, hoped, thru high school
agriculture, to help keep the boys on the farm, to make them
more skilful farmers, and to inorease the agricultural produc-
tion.

The subject of materials and methods is closely allied
to the educational purpose in view. Josiah Main, writing in
the Popular Science Monthly in 1911, said: "The successful
teaching of agriculture in the school along with the traditional
courses depends, like all the rest, upon its being regarded and
developed as a humanistic subject as well. It will have to
make good pedagogically if it is to have a permanent place .....
Until there is a reoognition of something more than economic
ideals there may be danger of the industrial reform getting in
the way of educational progress, to the ultimate detriment of
both." He further says: "A usable pedagogy is necessary to
the golution of this problem. If pedagogy does not afford the

principles and terme with which to treat the subject it is a
sign that we need a new pedagogy."
Il

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN MICHIGAN,
1913 - 1918

The right of agrioulture to a place in the high school
curriculum had been well established in 19138. The Department
of Agricultural Education in M. A. C. had been organized some
five years prior to this, its function being primarily to train
teachers of secondary agriculture. In 1908 one school, North
Adams, had ventured to add a four years course in agriculture
to its ourrioulum. The experiment resulted satisfactorily,
and by 1913 twenty-three Michigan high schools were employing
teachers who were giving full time to the handling of a four
years course in agrioulture. These schools were in no wise
subsidized by the state, as was done in a number of other states |
about that time, the only state aid offered these schools being
that advisory service rendered by the Department of Agricultural
Education of the Agricultural College.

These twenty-three schools did not represent all the high
sohool instruction being given in agriculture in the state at
that time. Many schools were presenting general courses in
agriculture, covering one or two years, the instruction being
given usually from a textbook in the hands of a teacher of
natural science. Such a course was given, in fact, in 1906 in
the High School of Traverse City, of which the writer was then
principal. No doubt such instruction had some value, but was
of importance educationally mainly because it voiced the con-

sciousness on the part of school men, especially in the rural
high schools, that agriculture was entitled to a place on the
high school bill of fare.

It was true in 1913 that there was not an established
pedagogy of agriculture. A "new pedagogy" is in process of
formation. The teachers of agriculture in most of the 33
Miohigan high schools employing such teachers at that time,
were fresh from college. They had no student experience in
high sohool agriculture to guide them. There was no very
definite goal toward which they were working, therefore they
were at a considerable uncertainty as to what material to employ,
and their methods were quite likely to be those that they were
familiar with in oollege. Most of the present text books used,
in secondary school agriculture have been written since 1913,
many Of the text books of that time being of a general nature
and designed for one, or at most, two-year courses. Laboratory
work in the main followed the trend of that used in other science
courses. One of the debated questions was whether the school
installing a department of agriculture should provide a traot
of land. In some of the schools a small plot was rented or
loaned by some interested patron, and on these plots vegetables,
grains and grasses were planted. In the main these plots served
in the matter of nature study, but no real agrioultural projects
were carried, and little accomplished outside some observations
as to varieties of common plants and experiments with unfamiliar
species.

As stated elsewhere in this paper, the relation of the
Michigan Agrioultural College, Department of Agricultural Educa-
tion, to the high school departments of agriculture in 1913 was
mainly advisory. The College undertook to interest and consult
with boards of education, to prepare teachers for the work and
to supervise the work of these teachers by sending a representa-
tive of the department from time to time to visit them. Suoh
visiting constituted one of the principal duties of the writer
during that year.

In handling this work there was no regular itinerary, no
specific number of times the schools were to be visited. Those
in the hands of the more experienced teachers, such as Hillsdale
and St. Johns, received little attention, while those depart-
ments which had been recently organized or were being directed
vy inexperienced teachers, were visited frequently.

From a half day to a day was usually spent with a teacher
on such a visit, his class—-room work was observed, with attention
to methods of development of the subject, nature of the subject
matter, use of material, interest aroused on part of class, etc.
Note was made and advice given regarding laboratory and other
teaching facilities, such as plots of land and trips to neighbor-
ing agricultural plants. Superintendents, principals, and fre-
quently members of boards of education were interviewed and
students themselves engaged in conversation with view to ascer-
taining the status of the department, and especially to getting
in touch with all factors that would influence its success.

A glance back from the present point of observation reveals how
experimental and unorystallized the work was.

In the first place agricultural departments were established

in high schools where there was no agrioultural setting and no
agricultural foundation other than the desire on the part of
school officials to have everything in the school that would
insure its being up-to-date. The oity of Muskegon was a case

in point. Due to the energy and personality of the teacher a
fairly successful course was oarried for a number of years, but
neither the principal of the high school nor the high school
teaching force was in sympathy with the innovation, and in the
main oniy such students were interested as were attracted by

its novelty or the hope of finding something easy. There was
not a farm for miles in any direction from the school and
soarcely a possibility of developing one on the white lake sand
of that region. The teacher of agrioulture there has very wisely
given way to a teacher of gardening, much of his work being done
with the grammar schools of the city.

. In gome places it was found that agricultural teaching was
not making the progress it should because of one or more of
several reasons: Naturally there was some poor teaching and some
teachers of unfortunate personality. More frequently it was the
skeptical element on the board of education or among the school
patrons who were throwing cold water on the enthusiasm of the
few. In general there was a lack of a clear conoeption as to
what was to be accomplished,- was agriculture being taught for
agriculture's sake, was it being taught for education's sake,
was it to be taught for the sake of applying related sciences,
those sciences holding the leading role in the story, was it
to be taught as itself a pure science, what was to be its place

in our state system of education? Until agriculture could
establish its place -- we may even say until it oan establish
its place -— in our educational scheme, or, specifically, in the
educational scheme of any community, its tenure is bound to be
uncertain. Until it oan be made a vital, corporate part of that
syetem it is liable to be treated as a barnacle, to be soraped
off the firat time the vessel ig in dry dock.

Compare with those times the present status of secondary
agricultural teaching. What is the present objective? What is
the popular attitude today with regard to the work? What char-
acteristics of an agricultural pedagogy are taking shape? .

In 1918 nearly every state was recognizing agriculture as
a subject of secondary instruction in some form, in established
high schools or in special university, county, district or state
schools of agriculture, with or without special financial aid
from the state. It is of interest to a Wolverine to note that
Michigan, without offering special aid to high schools establish-
ing euch a department, was the first to install a four years
high school course in agriculture. Since then the Smith-Hughes
act has somewhat popularized and orystallized the work. Its
Place has been made sure and its purpose more or less determined.
By its terms secondary agriculture in this country is to be
vocational. It is specified that the course is for boys who
intend to become farmers, and further that one half the boy's
time must be given to actual farming. Likewise the teacher is
supposed to devote half his time to class room work and the
Other half to field work, and is employed for the entire year.

I am inclined to offer a oriticism here, to this plan.
The act does not seem to me in harmony with our American system
of education, which should open the door of any college of any
rank tO any man or woman who cares to enter. We offer a primary
education which leads to our seoondary schools, a secondary edu-
cation which leads to college. Perhaps the boy who drops out
along the way has not been specially fitted for a particular
calling, but he has been more or less fitted to become fitted

for a oalling. I do not believe we should open educational
gates to lanes that are closed at the other end. I do not
believe the boy of 14, just entering high school, knows whether
farming is or is not the most desirable ocoupation for him.

His course in agriculture should lead to the farm, if, after

four years of high school study, he finds that is where he wants
to go. It should lead to the agricultural college if he finds
that he wants and oan get a higher education, and it should not
close the door to a liberal or professional education. I believe
the course should be so adapted to the high school curriculum
that it will occupy a place co-ordinate with any other special
course, as science or the classics, and that the students should
be able to do the complete school year of work leading to credits
Of equal rank and preparatory value of other high school subjects;
and further that the project work should be confined to out of
school hours and vacation weeks, when boy nature is crying aloud
for something to do and boy character is demanding that what he
does be wisely directed toward the development of those quali-

ties which the project seeks to inculoate.
 
Imi
THE COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL

The County Agricultural School and other special schools
of agriculture result from the thesis that agriculture is a
peculiar subject, requiring peculiar equipment, and not adapted
to the ordinary high school. The first state to establish the
county agricultural school was Wisconsin, an act permitting
their establishment passing the Wisconsin legislature in 1901.
Under the terms of this act any county might establish such a
school by providing grounds, buildings and equipment and offering
courses of study that met certain requirements, and having met
these conditions the county was entitled to financial aid from
the state to the extent of one-half the ourrent expenses up to
a limit of four thousand dollars. There have never been at one
time more than seven schools in operation under that law.

In June, 1906, a gentleman from Menominee, Mioh., was
invited to address the graduating class of the Menomonie, Wis.,
County School of Agriculture. He was much impressed by the
nature of the work done and what he considered the possibili-
ties of that school, and at once began a movement for the pas-
sage of an act in Michigan permitting the building of similar
schools. With a business man from Sault Ste Marie, he spent
some time with the legislature and in 1907 succeeded in securing
the passage of an act almost identical with the Wisconsin act,
authorizing the county agricultural school. During that same

year grounds were secured, buildings erected, and a sohool of

agriculture and domestic economy opened in Menominee, Mich.,
10

and a similar one in Chippewa County, about fifteen miles from
Sault Ste Marie.

It may be said that the Michigan Agricultural College was
not in sympathy with this act, it being held by the Department
of Agricultural Education that the existing high school should
be made the seat of secondary agrioultural instruction, utiliz-
ing as far as possible existing educational machinery. fhe
soundness of this judgment has been substantiated by the develop-
ments of the past 135 years, the Menominee and the Chippewa county
schools having been the only ones established. The enrollment
in the former has ranged between 30 and 60 students, while in
the latter the attendance has at times gone down to nearly zero.
A number of other states have since provided for the establish-
ment of the county agricultural school, or schools of a similar
nature, but few schools of that character have been built since
1912.

As fairly representative of that class of special schools,
a brief desoription and some observations concerning the Menom-
inee County school, of which the writer was principal for four
years, will be given. |

The school lies at the outskirts, but within the limite,
of the city of Menominee. The grounds comprise 105 acres, about
ten acres of which are devoted to campus, residences and farm
buildings, 60 acres are under cultivation and the balance in
wood and grove. The soil is extremely light, consisting mainly
of white or gray sand, the timber growing on it being principally
sorub oak and jack pine. The buildings include a main school
11

building, dormitory, blacksmith shop, large barn and cow stable,
a hog house, a hen house, and a tool shed. The school is fairly
well equipped for wood and blacksmith shop work, science labora-
tory, drawing, and home economics. A herd of about ten regis-
tered Jersey and Holstein cows are kept, with necessary young
estook. One or two teams of mares, a number of pure bred hogs
and a good flook of poultry are kept. By oareful cultivation
and judicious fertilization the soil has bean made fairly pro-
ductive, growing reasonably good orops of clover, alfalfa, oorn
and rye. Some other small grains, sugar beets and potatoes are
usually grown but with indifferent success. A fine young apple
orchard of about SO trees is just coming into bearing.

The course of study covers two years, students entering
being supposed to have finished the eighth grade. English,
arithmetic, geography, American history, civics and botany, shop
work, inoluding work in wood and iron, drawing, and agriculture
are inoluded in the curriculum. A diploma is granted at the end
of two years.

At the present time all the farm work is being done by
students, under the supervision of the Superintendent and Teacher
Of Agriculture. In fact, Superintendent Kebler informs the
writer that no outside help has been employed for the past two
years.

Thus we have here a fairly satisfactory educational plant
and also a well equipped farm. The question naturally ariees,

what educational use is made of the farm?
12

Theoretically, and to an extent practically, the farm is the
agricultural laboratory for an institution whose avowed purpose
is to teach boys to become farmers. Good farming means, doing
certain things right. If boys learn to do by doing, then we
should expect them to learn to farm by farming, and we should
expect that such a farm laboratory would provide a place where
this might be done. As a matter of fact it has worked out that
way only partially. Good use is made of the little orchard for
exercises in pruning, spraying and general orchard practice.

As stated above,the actual work on the farm is performed by
students; farm machinery, fences and buildings are kept in repair;
feeding rations are not only computed but actually mixed and fed
and records kept of results. The process of butter making is
carried thru from the drawing of the milk to the packing and
marketing of the completed product by the class in dairying;

of course the live stock and field products are used by classes
in judging. Thus the farm gives opportunity for practice in
performing the several manual operations, but as yet has not
been used to any great extent in doing one important thing, that
is, teaching how to operate a farm.

We can conceive of a man's being able to perform skilfully
all the labor of the farm; yet not be a successful farmer, not
able to launch an enterprise, see it thru to a successful finish
and make it pay dividends. Right here is where the institution
fails; here is where much of the high school agricultural
instruction has failed; and here is where our agricultural ool-

leges, from a vocational standpoint, have failed. Agriculture
13

has been taught in detail, but the details have not been synthe-
sized into the one big project of farming.

We oall this synthetic process "Farm Management." I do
not believe it oan be learned satisfactorily from books or lec-
tures alone. It is a oase of learning to do by doing. The
project work as carried out by high school departments of agri-
culture under the Smith-Hughes law is a practical attempt to
correct this defeot. Its system of definite planning, studying
the project, supervision by the instructor of work performed,
records, cost accounts, galesmanship, and written conclusions
seem to me to constitute the sanest work that has been done in
farm management, and is the feature of our new agricultural
pedagogy.

The weaknesses of the County Agricultural School are, as
I see them:

1. The students are not on the school farm, under the eye of the
instructor, during the most important months of the farming
season. Most of them are on the home farms, which would be still
better were it not that their work is not directed by the school,
they make no report to the school -- they cease for the time to
ve students.

a. They have no part. in the actual planning of the work of the
farm, or any portion of the work. They are not made responsible
for any farm project. There is no real laboratory work in farm
management.

5. The course leads only to the farm. In fact it was a preamble

in the minds of its founders that it.should lead only there
14

rather than to a higher institution. The educational appetite
may be whetted by his taste of knowledge, but at the end of two
years the boy finds himself fitted to be only a good farm hand.
Fortunately the broad-guage superintendent of the local oity
school has offered a full two years of credit to graduates of
the agricultural school, a few of whom have entered the oity
high school. However, if the student wishes to prepare for ool-
lege he must either take an extra year in high sohool or enter
college with entrance conditions.

I pelieve this and similar schools should be closely
affiliated with the state agricultural college, so that graduates
of the one, while prepared for the farm if they desire to go
there, would also be prepared to enter the higher institution.

It would mean an adjustment of the curriculum of the school some-
what as well as a revision of the preparatory requirements on

the part of the college.

4. The County Agricultural School is not a block in the mosaic

of the educational system of the state. It is a little system
by itself, requiring separate, and I believe, unnecessary mach in-
ery. | |

On the other hand, the special agricultural school has
served a purpose and can, I believe, be made to serve a much
larger purpose. As to its past, the Menominee County Agrioul-
tural School has quickened the life and agricultural interest
of a farming population made up to a considerable extent of
retired lumber jacks. It has been the center of agricultural

missionary activity, and for years played the part of farm

bureau, with its superintendent as farm bureau manager and its
15

instructors as his assistants. It has opened the way to some
secondary school education for many boys and girls who other-
wise would not have gone beyond the eighth grade. As to its
future, I believe:

1. It should open a wider door of opportunity. Like the special
agricultural schools of New York, it should be supported by the
state, ceasing to be a county institution. A tuition fee should
be charged, to be paid by the district from which the student
comes, unless that district already offers high school opportu-
nity for the study of agriculture, and this fee should be levied
upon the district regardless of the age of the student, provided
his qualifications are such as to admit him to the school.

8. As already suggested, the school should be so affiliated with
the state agrioultural college that all work which it offers
would be acceptable as preparatory credit.

53. The course of study should provide for at least one major and
one minor, closely supervised, agricultural project on land or
with equipment provided by the school, or at the students home,
at his own option. This would necessitate keeping the school
open during the summer, as it should be. In case the student
chose to do the project work at home, where he could not be under
the immediate supervision of an instructor, arrangement might be
made with the farm bureau manager in the student's home county
to visit him from time to time.

4. The management of the farm should be done by a council con-
sisting of students of the upper class, meeting regularly ina
deliberative body, under the direction of the superintendent.
16

This council would study the equipment and recommend changes,
plan the system of oropping, and in short assume oontrol of the
farn.

5. This school should reach out especially for the young man in
any part of the state, who has not had, or who has not taken
advantage of, educational opportunities until past the ordinary
common school age. He should have -- does in fact now have --
an exceptional chance to retrieve his position and be fitted for
a successful oareer as a farmer or even fitted to go on to college.
6. The gchool should furnish an opportunity for practice teaching,
in oo-operation with the department of agricultural education of
the state agrioultural college, for a limited number of men and
women who have had the necessary academic and technical college
training and desire to go into the field of agricultural teaching.
7. In oonolusgion, regarding this sohool, the county has here an
educational plant whose possibilities are too broad to be limited
by the boundaries of, and whose operation is too expensive to

be borne by a single county, even with such aid as the state now
renders. Its use should be so modified that, without diminish-
ing the credit to the county for its establishment and in no

wise lessening its educational value to the county, rather enhan-
cing it, it could be fitted into a state system of agricultural

education.
17
IV

THE "JUNIOR" MOVEMENT

Hand in hand with the growth of the academic instruotion
in agriculture has gone the development of the boys' and girls'
club movement. At the beginning of the time covered by this
paper corn clubs were popular in many sections. Boys living
within given territory might be enrolled for such work by any
person who was sufficiently interested to give the matter his
attention. The purpose of the olub was, interesting boys in
the growing of corn. Oertain rules and regulations were adopted
regarding acreage, seed, records, exhibiting of product, etc.,
and some substantial prizes were offered. Excellent results
were obtained with many of these clubs. Clubs for oarrying on
other projects were formed -- potato Clubs, poultry clubs, pig
clubs, and others.

Dur ing the fall of 1913 Mr. 0. H. Benson of the Department
of Agriculture, visited the Department of Agrioultural Eduoation
at M. A. C., and offered to aid this state with Federal funds in
the support of a olub organizer, who should oarry out his plan
of organization. After due consideration it was deemed wise not
to accept the offer at that time, there being other plans in
process of development.

Out of this work of Mr. 0. H. Benson has come that growth
made possible by the Smith-Lever act, of the present system of
Olub organization, with its national, state, county, and commun-
ity leaders, and ita enrollment of many thousands of boys and
girls.

This work is educational in the best sense. Again it is
the application of the principle of learning to do my doing.
18

It oarries the urge of competition, the incentive of promieed
reward, the pride of accomplishment, the desire for ownership.
It was the parent of the project in the teaching of agriculture
under the Smith-Hughes law.

Some of the reasons for declining the proposition of
Mr. Benson in Michigan in 1913 were these: It was felt that
the club-plan as outlined, while educational, was not attached
to any educational organization -- that it should be related to
and in charge of the schools. There seemed to be nothing of
permanence about the olub: after a project was completed the boy
or girl was no longer a olub member. The club automatically
dissolved until another was formed. The club was not an organ-
ization but a group. Federal aid would involve Federal oontrol
to some extent, and to that extent would restrict the free initia-
tive of the state.

With these points in view the Department of Agricultural
Education at M. A. C. developed a plan of boys' and girls' club
organization which we may call the Michigan plan. The organiza-
tion was to be statewide, and was to be known as the Junior
Agricultural Association. There was to be a county and a local
organization, the latter to be called the Junior Agricultural
Club. The county organization was made up of representatives of
the olubs, and the state organization of representatives of the
counties, though every club member was a member of the state
Organization. The operation of the club was to be under the
direction of a local leader, preferably a country teacher, and

the county organization under the county sohool commissioner.
19

The state director of the Junior Agricultural Association was
the head of the department of Agricultural Education at the
pollece. Officers of the state association were chosen from
county commissioners.

A club was to be formed in a school district or community
whenever a certain number of boys and girls who desired to
become members petitioned the county commissioner that it be
done, he either meeting the group in person to perfect the organ-
ization, or appointing a qualified adult to meet them.

Each club had its own by-laws, conformable to the consti-
tution of the state association. Officers were to be elected
and meetings held at stated intervals. Twice a year representa-
tives were to meet in a county convention and county club
matters discussed. Once a year each county was to send repre-
sentatives toa state convention to be held at the Agricultural
College. Eaoh club was to choose an adult adviser, who was to
attend the club meetings and confer with the members regarding
their projects.

Qualifications for membership included certain age limits
and the promise to conform to the by-laws of the club.

Each member agreed to carry out each year at least one
project of an agricultural nature, or, for the girls, some house-
keeping, sewing or garden project. These projects were to be
specified and outlined in advance and accepted by the olub, and
reports on the progress of the projects were to be made from time
to time at the club meetings. Each member might undertake a
different project or the entire club might work on the same kini
80

of a projeot. Blank forms were published and issued to the
Clube by the Department of Agricultural Education on whioh to
report various projects, these reports when completed to be
filed with the club seoretary, and ultimately to find their
way to the State Secretary at East Lansing.

The plan was put before the state convention of county
commissioners in Grand Rapids in the spring of 1915 and adopted
by them, and some 30 clubs started in various parts of the state,
notably in Newaygo, Kalamazoo and Kalkaska counties. The writer
resigned from that work the following July but the work was
pushed by his successor, and the report of the department of |
Agricultural Education for 1914 stated that about 60 active clubs
were in operation, with a total membership of about 1500. About
this time, the Smith-Lever law having gone into effect, it was
deemed advisable to co-operate with the Federal division of boys'
and girls' club work, under Mr. Benson, carrying out the plan
which has since obtained.

Several purposes were sought in this Michigan Plan, some
of which it was felt the Federal plan did not offer:

1. Training boys and girls to organize and oo-operate. These
are great words in the story of the social and economic progress
of farmers.

8. Teaching its members how to officer and conduct a public
meeting, with practice in public speaking.

5. Arousing the interest of communities of boys and girls in
farm and home matters.

4. The development of character, of habits of observation,
61

accuracy, system, industry, judgment, in short all those educa-
tional qualities which have given value to the home project as
it is now oarried out in the teaching of agriculture in the
secondary schools, introducing a new pedagogy to the teaching
profession.

5. Above all, this plan places the club work under the guardian-
ship of the schools, where I feel that it should be, beoause it
is educational; because there is opportunity to correlate the
work with such academic subjects as English, arithmetic, geog-
raphy, nature study, civics; because the organization is made
more permanent; and because it would lead to the rural teacher
requirement of more agrioultural knowledge and keener appraci-
ation of rural life. That thie judgment is sound is borne out
by the fact that even under the Federal plan, organized as it
is by the Department of Agriculture, independently of any school
system, the olub organizer and the club leader doff their hats
to the country teacher and say, permit us to come to your school
and enlist your boys and girls with your help, in this education
work.

The plan may have seemed at first glance somewhat compli-
cated, but it was not more so than any machinery that would have
gained the resuit sought. The expense involved in staging it
was not greater than that under which the work was subsequently
done. It would have required time and a certain amount of educa-

tional campaigning to interest county commissioners and teachers
generally in club work, but the fact that that would have been
necessary was proof for the need for having that very thing done,
and might have ultimately resulted, here and there, in a much

needed renovation of the office of county commissioner.

BR
B35
V

FARMERS' LOCAL SHORT COURSE

Progress in agricultural education in the public schools
has not been made without a corresponding awakening of interest
in better farming on the part of adult farmers. In fact we
could scarcely have had one without the other. It is not our
purpose here to discuss the cause of this awakening, but rather
to review what has been done and to refer to such agencies
through which progress has been wrought as the writer has been
connected with.

The first of these was the one-week farmers' courses, Six
of these were conducted in various parts of the state during the
winter of 1918-13, one in company with the late W. F. Raven and
five with Comfort A. Tyler. These courses were usually arranged
by a local teacher of agriculture, who attended to the advertis-
ing, providing rooms and other necessary details. In the main
the course consisted of four series of lectures and conferences,
two each day by each of the two conductors, each series adhering
to one line of instruction, as feeding dairy cows, growing corn,
alfalfa culture, etc.

The attendance at these courses was exceedingly varied,
ranging from five to seventy-five farmers. Sessions were held
both forenoon and afternoon, the attendance at the forenoon
sessions usually being small. Naturally those who enrolled were
the most progressive men in the community, and in the confer-
ences there were many exohanges of valuable experiences and

ideas.
 

B4

As to the value of this work I would say that it did not
seoure the results it should have done, though no doubt suffi-
cient was accomplished to warrant the expenditure of time and
money. In the first place, the courses were handed to the
farmers as a free-will offering from the atate, aomething that
had not been asked for and, on the part of the many, not wanted.
Usually the agricultural teacher would announce that such a
course would be held at a specified time and place, and farmers
were urged to be present. They oame often in the spirit of
confering a favor on those who were handling the course. No
enrollment fee or other expense was attached, and, as is usual
in such cases, held to be worth by many, I believe, about what
it cost. Had the farmers themselves taken the initiative in the
matter, as they might have been led to do, and had there been a
guaranteed enrollment with a fee of a dollar or two, the course
would have assumed more importance in the eyes of those whom it
was intended to benefit. In fact, I believe this plan was later
adopted with good results.

However, the community farmere!' short course was a step
in the right direction. It was a moving away from the old
Farmers' Institute, with ita one or two days of unrelated leoc-
tures, and an attempt to do extenaion work in a more systematic
way. It introduced a bit of the oollege short course to the
local community. It brought a good number of farmers into con-
tact with college men and college ideas, and it aided, I believe
in giving a standing to the then new department of agriculture
in the high school.
25

Those of us who participated in conducting those courses
probably received more benefit than any who sat under our lectures.
The writer has been instrumental in establishing several such
courses, both in Indiana and in Northern Michigan, and he has

been able to avoid many of the mistakes that were made then.
36
VI

THE OCOUNTY AGENT

The Land Grant College, the Experiment Station and the
County Agent constitute the great triumvirate of modern agri-
culture in the United States.

In 19135 the legislature of the state of Indiana passed
an act providing, among other things, for the teaching of agri-
culture in the village and rural schools, and incorporating in
the same act a provision for co-operating with the Federal
government in the establishment of the county agent. By the
terms of this act, if any citizen, group of citizens, or asso-
Ciation, should deposit with the county treasurer the sum of
$500 and request the appointment of a County Agent, the Board
of Trustees, corresponding in a measure to the Board of Super-
visors of Michigan, was bound to employ such agent. The candi-
date must be recommended by the state leader of county agents
and by the Board of Trustees. His salary was paid one half by
the state, one-fourth by the county and one-fourth by the
Federal Government. The county agent was under the supervision
of the County Superintendent of Schools, tkru whom he reported to
the county board. He occupied the anomolous position, usually,
of being paid a higher galary than the superintendent under whor
he worked, and of being under a man -- or woman -- who ordinar-
lly knew about as much about agriculture as the average member
of a echool board knows about schools. The county agent was
supposed, among other duties, to direct the instruction in agri-

culture in the gchools.
37

Unless both superintendent and county agent were men of
amiable disposition, broad vision and unusual forbearance, jeal-
Cusy and friction were liable to arise, because of the larger
salary paid the latter, because of the prestige which he might
enjoy in the eyes of the schools, the popularity he might win
beoause of the nature of his work, and because of his lack of —
regard for the authority of his immediately superior officer.

The writer was persuaded to accept an appointment as
county agent in Porter County, Indiana, and began work there
July 1, 1913. I found that the demand for such an official had
come from a comparatively small number of farmers, re-enforced
by a group of business men, but under the law the appointment
was imperative. The county school superintendent was in scant
sympathy with the movement, and while a number of the trustees
were open to conviction and willing to be shown and two or three
of the twelve well informed on the subject and in sympathy with
the work, an embarassing per cent of the number were ready to
throw a wrench into the machinery at every opportunity.

At that time the Qounty Agent movement was young. No
trails had been blazed and we were all groping more or less in
@ wilderness of what we were fully aware was a perfect tangle
of opportunity for service. It was necessary to educate farmers
as to the meaning of the job and to gain their favor and support.
To do this it was imperative that something be accomplished and
that the accomplishment be fully advertised. That meant making
friends with the press. If the thing that was accomplished were

somewhat on the spectacular order, so muoh the better. In the
28

writer's case, a friendly farmer, a sick alfalfa field and a
farmer-poet-reporter on the leading daily of the county consti-
tuted the opening wedge.

There were other sick alfalfa fields to be visited, many
of which needed lime. Lime had to be, was being, shipped into
the county from Illinois. That led to a search for a local
supply. Marl was the answer to the question. No one knew of
any. The geological formation of the land led to the belief
that it might be found in the county. Finally an excellent bed
was discovered,near the center of the county, easily accessible,
and covered by only a thin layer of muck. This was the thing
spectacular. The papers made much of it. The county agent had
earned his right to an existence. He had paid back to the county
all he would cost. Incidentally interest was increased in the
Liming of a sour goil and the growing of alfalfa.

It was felt by the State Leader and those associated with
him that there was need for some local organization of farmers
to co-operate with the county agent, and this need was felt most
keenly by the agent himself. My first constructive study in the
new position was turned to this question. The county agents
were the capillaries of a system in which the experiment station
was the heart and the college the arteries. It was necessary to
be able to come quickly. in touch with every farmer in the county.
Market exigencies, outbreaks of contagious plant or animal dis-
ease, notices of extension activities and other propaganda
demanded it.

About 100 representative farmers of the county were invited

to attend a meeting one afternoon at the courthouse, the need of
29

an organization of farmers to co-operate with the county agent
was placed before them, and a plan presented which was adopted.

The organization was called the Porter County Better
Farming Association. In its motive and purposes it was the fore-
runner of the Farm Bureau, since established. The township was
the unit of organization, the township branch being complete in
itself. The president of the township branch was a director in
the county organization. A small membership fee was charged.
Monthly meetings were to be held in each township, the dates so
arranged by the county board of directors that two meetings
should not occur on the same evening, thus enabling the county
agent to attend all meetings. Most meetings were held at school-
houses, and teachers and students gave valuable assistance.

Ae a means of reaching the farmers of the county and inter-
| esting them in the projects of the county agent the organization
became very effective. In most of the townships the meetings
were held quite regularly. The direotors held monthly meetings
at the county seat. They included some of the best farmers in
the county, and rendered material aid in carrying forward the
following projects:

An alfalfa campaign, lasting two days, in which a meeting was
held at some farm home at one or more points in each township.

A seed oats and seed potato campaign, with talks and demonstra-
tions on the formalin treatment for smut and scab.

A four days' Short Course for farmers and housekeepers, held
at the county seat and very largely attended.

The organization of a cow-testing association, the second one
in the state.
30

The reawakening of interest in the county fair, and putting
on, after a lapse of three years, with no use made of the fair
ground exoept for private purposes, one of the most successful
fairs ever held in the county, and showing a finanoial balance
of about $700, instead of a deficit, as had been the oustom.

The work of that busy 14 months as county agent, inolud-
ing visits to farmers for almost every sort of advice, -- a new
kind of silo to be inspected, June grass +o be eradicated from
an alfalfa field, a 24 mile drive over almost impassable roads
to tell a farmer that his hogs were dying from pneumonia instead
of cholera and to advise regarding their housing, a new weed to
be investigated; talks on agriculture at every kind of meeting,
from teachers’ conventions to Sunday School picnics; acoumulat-
ing and placing before farmers hundreds of bulletins; and other
services such as every county agent finds it possible to render,
demonstrated the need for this new institution. It also demon-
strated the versatility of qualification for the office, includ-
ing a wide agricultural training, both in college and in practi-
cal experience, the ability to teach either adults or children,
the ability to speak on every kind of a subjeot, fluenoy with
the pen as well as with the tongue, tactful in dealing with
people, a good mixer, industrious and not afraid of overtime
work, resourceful, irreproashable in character, an organizer and
a leader. In view of all this, the wonder is that there has
been go small a percent of failures among the hundreds of men
who have filled such positions during the past ten years. The
further wonder is that not more atress has been laid by our

land grant colleges on the special training necessary for county
o1

agent work. It is a job that demands the highest collegiate
and professional training, and should offer a salary commensur -
ate with those requirements.

Before the end of the year,I may say, the place of the
county agent wag fairly well established, and there was no dis-
position on the part of the Board of Trustees to discontinue
the work. Farmers had learned that he would not meddle with
their affairs or impart personal advice unsolicited. He had
been able to give substantial aid to the rural teachers in
their new task of teaching agriculture. The way had been paved
for more constructive assistance from him in matters of farm
management, and, perhaps best of all, the foundation had been
laid for a well-organized, active Farm Bureau.

The experience in Porter county convinced me that the
greatest need to be met by the county agent, a need which I
believe has been receiving a considerable attention since then,
is not in the details, such as how to grow alfalfa or feed hogs,
but how to manage a farm as a business proposition. He should
sO secure the confidence of the farmer that he will be called
in as a real adviser. His oalls upon the farmer should not be
pastoral calls nor society calls, but he should go on to a farm
and study it as an enterprise in which dividends are the objec-
tive. This may mean that he will give a day or two or more to.
& gingle plant, studying every detail, its productive power,
the relation of investment in live stock, equipment, land and

operation; studying marketing practices and possibilities;
looking for the leaks.
 

38

A series of such studies as this would be the most potent
factor in teaching a farmer to study his own business and also

in encouraging co6éperative organizations for economic purposes.
33
VII

AGRICULTURAL TEACHER TRAINING

As suggested elsewhere in this paper, the field of agri-
cultural instruction in the public schools demanded a new type
of teacher training, a new pedagogy. Under the Smith-Hughes
act, states accepting its terms are required to provide for
such training.

In September, 1919, the writer accepted an invitation to
take charge of the Department of Agricultural Teacher Training
in the Joseph Slocum College of Agrioulture, at Syracuse Univer-
sity, Syracuse, N. Y. This is not a state inatitution, receives
no state or Federal aid, and is therefore not subject to Federal
control. However, like every other educational institution in
the state of New York, it is under the general control of the
Regents of the University of New York. In its Department of
Agricultural Teacher Training, it aims to meet all the require-
ments for the preparation of teachers to take positions under
the regulations of the New York State Vocational law.

The State Department of Vocational Education in New York
has specified very definitely about seventy semester hours of
required college credit for candidates for agricultural teaching.
Of these requirements, four hours are in the introduction to
education, four in general methods in vocational education, and
three in “agriculture in the high school." The remaining hours
cover the whole range of general agricultural subjects, includ-
ing Animal, Dairy and Poultry Husbandry, Agronomy, Horticulture,
Rural Engineering and Rural Economics and Sociology. In the
past, students preparing for teachers of agriculture in the

Joseph Slocum College have taken the same courses required of
 

 

ae) J
34

all students during their Freshman and Sophomore years. In the
Junior year a general requirement for all students working for a
Bachelor's Degree has been the subject of Rural Sociology, and
in the Senior year at least one course in Farm Management. In
addition to the State requirements, our students have been given
extra work in Farm Mechanics, notably a Senior course in Shop
Practice with view to special preparation for high school teach-
ing in both Wood Work and Forge.

The most serious problem in our teacher training has been
that of supervised practice teaching. To be of value it should
be done under conditions similar to those which the teacher will
face when he actually aasunes control of a high school course in
agriculture. The seasonal presentation of the subject, the organ-
ization of material frequently which cannot be carried into the
class room, the attitude of mind brought to the subject by a
class of rural pupils, planning, supervising and correlating the
projects, all require that the work be done, not on a class
called in to be practiced upon, but right in the established
agricultural department of a high school.

In Syracuse two plans were put forward: First; apprentice-
ship teaching. It was proposed by the State Specialist in Agri-
cultural Education that during the student's Senior year he be
Placed for a number of months in some high school agricultural
department as assistant to an experienced teacher, to work with-
Cut pay, or to receive, if terms could be so arranged with the

school board, merely enough to pay living expenses. It was
stated that this was the plan to be followed at Cornell, in the

State Agricultural College. We were unable to learn of any
35

specific cases where it was actually oarried out.

Objections to the plan were manifest. It would mean that
the student must seoure oredit hours during 34 years in college
to meet graduation requirements, except such hours as could be
credited for practice teaching, an unwise thing for any but the
exceptional student to attempt, and sometimes an impossible
thing because of schedule conflicts. Or it meant that the can-
didate for a teaching position be required to take a half year
in addition to his four yeare baccalaureate training. This plan
might be satisfactory if government funds could be used to sup-
port and remunerate the candidate with the same liberality with
which they are used in educating prospective officers for the
army. Without such aid oandidates will be very likely to take
positions offering immediate returns.

The second plan which was proposed and which the State
College was said to be intending to adopt, was to place an
assistant in the department of agricultural education in some
neighboring high school with whom terms could be arranged, to.
supervise the work of student teachers who would go out to the
echool from the college two or three half days a week for a
semester. It was proposed that the supervisor be on the pay
roll of the college, but that the school furnish the equipment.

The main objection to this plan was the expense involved
as compared to the number of students trained. It would seem
Out of the question to give practice work to more than four
students each semester in this way, and they would not be in

position to give much attention to home projects.
36

The plan which at present seems to be most feasible harks
back to those early days in Michigan. It is to give the men the
full four years of technical agriculture and pedagogy, and then
Place them in positions on probation on salaries commensurate
with their inexperience, where they will be the regular teacher;
then to have visits made to them as frequently as may seem
necessary by a representative of the Agricultural Teaching Depart-
ment of the college, who shall spend as much time with them as
seems necessary, helping them to solve their problems and to
correct their errors.

The teachers could submit to the supervisor Plans and
outlines; at least two meetings of the probation class should ve
held at the college during the year with the supervisor and a
representative of the State Department; and each probation teacher
visited at least twice by the State Specialist. On completion
of a year of satisfactory work of this sort, the probationer
would be qualified to enter the ranks as a regular teacher of
agrioulture.

I believe this plan will seoure most satisfactory results.
The men will be on the job thruout the year and come in contact
with all phases of the work. They will have a sense of respon-
sibility that will keep them keyed up to their best effort. The
preatige of being the teacher of agriculture instead of an appren-
tice will be a constant spur. On the part of the supervisor,
hia vieite to different communities with their varied interests

will be of egpeoial value to him in his instructional work.
37

I wish to say a word here regarding the general character
and caliber of the men who enter the teacher training work. To
my mind they are rather outstanding as serious minded and capable
young fellows. About four out of five of them are Christian men.
They include the more mature of our students, and practically
all are men of some experience either ag teachers or in industry
or business. I believe what is true of this class in the Joseph
Slocum College of Agriculture is generally true in the State
Colleges. This is certainly ground for an optimistic outlook in
the solution of the multitude of problems connected with this
new phase of education.

Regarding the collegiate course of study for agricultural
teachers, I feel that we have not yet entirely provided for the
training that should be given. Something of a revision of our
Own course of study will go into effect in the fall of 1921.
Under this the agricultural teaching group will cover the follow-
ing work:

(Referring to the number of hours a course is given, the
semester hour is understood. )

Bacteriology, 6 hrse., 3 hours of general bacteriology and
3 poure of dairy bacteriology, preparatory to a course in market
milk.

Botany, 9 hra., including general agricultural botany and
a course in plant diseases.

Chemistry,8 hrs., inorganic. As soon as sufficient teach-
ing help and laboratory room oan be made available in the chemis-
try department, this will be increased to 13 hours, inoluding a
brief course in qualitative analysis and 4 hours of applied
organic chemistry.

Economics, 3 hra., general.
English, 9 hrs., 6 of composition and rhetoric, general

principles and themes, and three semesters in the junior and
senior years, one hour each semester in public speaking.
38

Farm Economics, 6 hrs., general farm management and farm
pookkeeping. )

Geology, 3 hrs., especial attention being given to dynamic,
and a brief survey of historical, geology.

Genetics, 3 hrs., pre-requisite to plant and animal breed-
ing. (I question the wisdom of this order.)

Mathematics, 3 hrs., offering a brief course in plane
trigonometry.

Mineralogy, 3 hrs., pre-requisite to advanced soil study.

Zoology, 9 hrs.,- 3 of general entomology and 3 of economic
entomology.

Agronomy, 10 hrs., including crops and soils.
Agricultural Law, 3 hrs.

Animal Husbandry, 7 hrs., 4 in types and breeds of farm
animals and 3 in feeds and feeding. .

Dairy Husbandry, 5 hrs., 3 hrs. in milk testing and 3 in
market milk.

Drawing, 3 hrs., leading to simple representation of farm
plots and building plans.

Farm Engineering, 3 hrs., laying out ditches and drains.

Farm Mechanics, 13 hrs., 8 of which are in wood shop,
forge and cement work; and 4 in farm machinery and farm motors.

Horticulture and Plant Propagation, 8 hrs.

Poultry Husbandry, 6 hrs., including a 3 hour course in
general farm practices and another of 3 hours in incubators and
brooders with special reference to project and club work.

Principles of teaching, 4 hrs.

Psychology, general and vocational, 4 hrs.

Teaching Vocational Agriculture, 6 hrs.

Rural Sociology, 3 hrs.

Seminar, 2 hrs.
39

I believe this covers the necessary college work about as
well as can be done in four years, and with the year of proba-
tional teaching under college supervision, will fairly well equip
the candidate for meeting the requirements of the Vocational
Department. However, the knowledge of subject matter should be
so broad and so general that we would urge a young man preparing
for this field of work to take, if possible, an extra year, cover-
ing the technical agriculture and soience subjects during hie
baccalaureate training, and putting in a fifth year in profes-
gional courses, and we hope to see some provision made whereby
this fifth year can be used to earn for the candidate a Master's
Degree. This has not yet been worked out with our graduate

school, but we believe it can be done.
40
VIII

A CONTRIBUTION TO PEDAGOGY

In this paper we have referred several times to the
"new pedagogy" of agriculture. This idea deserves further
attention. The student who has followed the ordinary course
in one of our Normal schools or colleges and nothing further,
has missed the point. This new pedagogy works out along two
special lines; first, partially as a result of the war, there
is a new psychology. We are scrutinizing the pupil now with
view to determining not how well he will fit into our cast-
iron mold, but with view to determining what he can do. He
comes with certain physical- development and physical possibil-
ities; he comes with certain mental development and mental possi-
bilities. It is the business of the teacher to be able to
inventory the development and to discover the possibilities.

For want of a better term we oall this “vocational psychology."
A part of the training of a prospective teacher should be in

the technique of making the necessary investigations and dis-
coveries regarding the physical and intellectual mass of materia
which makes up the student.

Another line over which the new pedagogy works is that of
carrying the instruction out into the regular affairs of life.
Does a boy wish to learn farming? Then have him farm. It is
not sufficient to sit with him in the classroom and talk about
visionary cattle and poultry and oorn, but he must be taken out
and given actual project work with the herd, with the flock, and
in the corn field. The mental reactions that reault from the
purely classroom approach to the subject will be wholly idealis-
tic. The reaction from the actual oarrying out of the work,

oo
{ _
41

the program varied to meet the special conditions; the constant
exercise of judgment to dispose of the multitude of questions
that arise, the satisfactions that come from securing looked-for
results, all this is practical, and is the kind of training thet
must be had sooner or later before the boy can become the farmer,
and perhaps before he can determine whether or not he wishes to
become a farmer. The visionary, the idealistic, has its place,
but it should be based upon the practical notions resulting from
the carrying out of the actual project.

The value of the mental training growing out of a well
conducted project is not likely to be overestimated. Carrying
out the project involves imagination, initiative, system,and,
above all, judgment, with all that goes to make up judgment. It
involves the solution of a series of problems. Whatever we do
in life, whether it be the building of a bridge, the writing of
&@ book, the trying of a case at law, the healing of a patient,
we are confronted by a series of problems. He who can most
clearly state, most logically analyze, and most accurately solve
those problems, is the one who is most successful. In the under-
taking of a project a good teacher of agriculture will require
the student to state and analyze the problems before him. Is the
project that of rearing and cartng for a flock of chickens,
problems such as these arise: "What provision can I make for
housing? How shall I start the flock, by hatching or purchasing
Chicks? If by hatching, shall it be with the incubator or the
natural method? What feed? Where shall it be obtained most

reasonably?" Etc., etc. Every one of these problems requires
428

the exeroise of judgment and the mind reactions which occur

are those which are bound to produce the desired results in

the training of the pupil. This to my mind is the greatest
pedagogical contribution which agrioulture in public schools
has made. If the result upon the pupil is to lead him into

the profession of farming, is to produce a generation of better

farmers, well and good, but that is incidental.
43
IX
RELATION BETWEEN THE AGRICULTURAL
HIGH SCHOOL AND THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

Since we have been discussing both secondary and college
agricultural education we should not leave the subject without
some Observations as to the influence the secondary agricultural
education is having on the work of the agricultural colleges.

I pelieve that occasionally the work of the secondary school
in agriculture has been an embarrassment to the college. When
agricultural colleges opened their doors there was no great body
of teaching material available. The relationship between agri-
culture and the natural and physical goiences had not been
established. There had been no experiment stations to furnish
the agricultural world with a body of empirical knowledge. Even
the technique of agriculture was simple as compared with present
practices, under the development of modern machinery, high bred
live stook, the influence of factory methods and our complex
social organization.

The evolution of the college ourriculum has been along
three lines, namely, soientific, technical and social-economic.
Of these the technical field is where the student from the school
of vocational agriculture is likely to feel that he is "pump ing
eand." Much of the "practical" work which the colleges have
been giving, as pruning and spraying orchards, treating grain
for smut, dressing beef, testing milk, eto., can as well be
handled by a boy of 14 as by a college student, and in fact is
included in the agricultural high school curriculum.

This overlapping also extends to some of the semi-scientific

work, such as is involved in elementary soil studies, judging
44

live stook and farm orops and the principles of heredity and
selection in breeding.

All this means that the agricultural colleges must modify
both curricula and the composition of certain courses.

A letter was sent to 20 of the prominent agricultural
colleges scattered over the United States, asking, (1), what
changes had been made on the college ourriculum, and (2), what
effect had been noted in the nature of the college work as a
result of the teaching of agriculture in the secondary schools.
There was great similarity in the replies received and as glean-
ings from these replies the following statements oan be made:

1. As yet comparatively few candidates for admission to college
have presented entrance oredita in agriculture, but the number
offering such oredits is rapidly increasing, most noticeably
in the middle and western states.

8. Some of the states, notably Missouri and Kansas, report
that "the introduction of agriculture into the curriculum of the
high schools has resulted in the elimination of a material amount
of elementary agricultural teaching in the college." A number
of those heard from predict that this will occur in the near
future. Others express the opinion that it will always be neces-
sary to offer this elementary work, because of the fact that
there will always be students entering the agricultural colleges
who have not studied agriculture in the high sohool.

5. A few of the colleges - and this will be increasingly true -
have received a sufficient number of students with preparatory

training in agriculture to warrant the formation of seotiona
45

for more advanced study of the scheduled subjects than the main
body of the freshman class.

4. Dean Farrell, of Kansas, writes that vocational agriculture
in the high school is increasing the demand for economics, public
speaking, history, civics and sociology, partly because these
subjects are required of candidates for teaching positions in
agriculture. I suspect that this increasing demand is in part
due to the gradually broadening agricultural outlook, resulting
from the various educational agencies that are at work among rural
people.

5. All recognize that we are in a transitional stage and that
we are facing a problem both of curriculum and of teaching matter
that must be solved in the near future. President Butterfield
has at this time written the presidents or deans of a large nun-
ber of eastern colleges proposing a oonference to discuss this
matter.

In the Joseph Slocum College of Agriculture, few students
have presented high school credits in agriculture. Our policy
is to excuse such students from such courses as would be a repe-
tition of high school work and permit them to elect other courses
in their stead.

I believe the ultimate effect of high school agriculture
upon the work of the college will be:

1. A more flexible curriculum, possibly in line with that of
Cornell, where there are no fixed requirements in agricultural
subjects, the entire course being practically elective. It is

required, however, that the student shall elect a specified

number of houre from each of several groups of subjects indicated.
46

3. More advanced undergraduate work, with less stress upon
the technique of farming and more upon research.

3. The offering of opportunity for a greater degree of special-
ization.

4. Increasing stress upon the social sciences and an increasing
demand for the so-called humanistic subjects.

I would close this division of my paper with an observation
regarding the desired preparation of a candidate for admission
to an agricultural college.

Dean Mann, of the New York State College of Agriculture,
writes me that the students who have presented preparatory cred-
its in agriculture have so far, in the majority of cases, been
unsatisfactory, not prepared for the more exacting college work.
He admits, however, that there has not yet been a fair test as
the agricultural departments of high schools are only in the
process of organization. Professor Waugh, of Massachusetts, in
his book on "The Agricultural College", recommends the prospec-
tive college student in agrioulture to avoid agricultural courses
in preparatory work, but to stress the fundamentals which have
long been held to be the basis for collegiate work, especially
English, mathematica and physical and natural soiences.

Inasmuch as Professor Waugh advocates a reversal of the
order in which technical agriculture and the so-called supporting
sciences are usually given, claiming that the science should be
based upon the knowledge of agriculture, we cannot help thinking

that he is a bit inconsistent in not favoring the placing of

those subjects earlier still in the college student's scheme of

work, and offering it to the student during those years when
47

powers of Observation are even more keen.

If Dean Mann states a general condition, I believe the
answer is not in the nature of the subject of high school agri-
culture, but rather in the way it has been taught and in the
calibre of students who have elected that subject. I believe
that in many cases we owe to the high school agrioulture the
fact that the student has arrived at college at all. However,
I believe that the high school teacher of agriculture and the
pupil himself should see to it that habits of deep study,
reflection, the mastering of the difficult lesson, are formed.
If the subject of agriculture does not invite this studious
attitude of mind, then the high school course in agriculture
should be strongly supplemented by such subjects as history,
mathematics and physics, for the habit of study is the greatest

asset the student can have.