756 THE RURAL COMMUNITY 



Perhaps the most stupendous undertaking in agricultural education 

 is the adequate development of secondary education in agriculture. 

 The overwhelming majority of young people who secure any agri- 

 cultural schooling whatever must get it in institutions that academ- 

 ically are of secondary grade. This is a huge task. If developed to 

 supply existing needs, it will call for an enormous expenditure of 

 money and for the most careful planning. From the teaching view- 

 point it is a difficult problem. Modern agriculture is based upon the 

 sciences; it will not do, therefore, to establish schools in the mere 

 art of farming. But these agricultural high schools must deal with 

 pupils who are comparatively immature, and who almost invariably 

 have had no preparation in science. Nor should the courses at these 

 schools be ultra-technical. They are to prepare men and women for 

 life on the farm - - men and women who are to lead in rural develop- 

 ment, and who must get so me, inkling at least of the real farm ques- 

 tion and its solution. The agricultural school, therefore, presents 

 a problem of great difficulty. 



A perennial question in agricultural education is: What is the 

 function of the agricultural college? We have not time to trace the 

 history of these colleges, nor to elaborate the various views relative 

 to their mission. But let us for a moment discuss their proper 

 function in the light of the proposition that the preservation of 

 the farmers' status is the real farm problem, for the college can be 

 justified only as it finds its place among the social agencies helpful 

 in the solution of the farm question. 



In so far as the agricultural college, through its experiment station 

 or otherwise, is an organ of research, it should carry its investigations 

 into the economic and sociological fields, as well as pursue experi- 

 ments in soil fertility and animal nutrition. 



In the teaching of students, the agricultural college will continue 

 the important work of training men for agricultural research, agri- 

 cultural teaching, and expert supervision of various agricultural 

 enterprises. But the college should put renewed emphasis upon its 

 ability to send well-trained men to the farms, there to live their 

 lives, there to find their careers, and there to lead in the movements 

 for rural progress. A decade ago it was not easy to find colleges 

 which believed that this could be done, and some agricultural edu- 

 cators have even disavowed such a purpose as a proper object of the 

 colleges. But the strongest agricultural colleges to-day have pride 

 in just such a purpose. And why not? We not only need men thus 

 trained as leaders in every rural community, but if the farming 

 business cannot be made to offer a career to a reasonable number of 

 college-trained men, it is a sure sign that only by the most herculean 

 efforts can the farmers maintain their status as a class. If agri- 

 culture must be turned over wholly to the untrained and to the 



