DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 



Conducted by BENJ. M. DAVIS 

 Miami University, Oxford, O. 



AGRICULTURE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN CALIFORNIA 



By ERNEST B. BABCOCK 

 College of Agriculture, University of California 



Since the day in December, 1905, when Dr. A. C. True, Director 

 of the U. S. Office of Experiment Stations, addressed the joint 

 session of the CaHfornia Teachers' Association and State Farmers' 

 Institute, on behalf of agriculture in the public schools, definite 

 progress has been made toward establishing such study . Said 

 Dr. True, "So the farmer comes with his economic, social, and 

 industrial needs to the teacher and asks what the schools can do 

 to make him a more successful business man, a better citizen and 

 neighbor, a more intelligent and happy man." And further, 

 "We will not permit the adherents of old educational ideals to set 

 an industrial education over against what they call a cultural 

 education. It is an education truly and completely cultural 

 which we demand, and our insistence is that no education can be 

 completely cultural which does not contain the manual or indus- 

 trial element." 



California deserved some credit for having already made a good 

 beginning in establishing a state polytechnic school in 1901. 

 "The purpose of the school is to furnish to young people of both 

 sexes mental and manual training in the arts and sciences, includ- 

 ing agriculture, mechanics, engineering, business methods, 

 domestic economy — ." This institution is situated at San Luis 

 Obispo, which is near the coast and two hundred and fifty miles 

 south of San Francisco or midway between that city and Los 

 Angeles. It has been a success from the beginning and the 

 attendance has grown to nearly one hundred and fifty with about 

 one-third in the agricultural course. 



Another step in the right direction had been taken by the 

 Legislature of 1905, when an appropriation of one hundred and 

 fifty thousand dollars was made to purchase a site for a university 

 farm, with the understanding that a secondary school of agricul- 

 ture should be established thereon. In 1906, a site was chosen at 

 Davis, near Sacramento, seventy-five miles northeast of Berkeley. 

 In 1907, a second appropriation of one hundred and thirty-one 



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