PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 377 



THE STOCKTON PLAN. 



One of the most comprehensive schemes for a high-school depart- 

 ment of agriculture, including extension Avork, is that devised by 

 Superintendent James A. Barr, of the Stockton (Cal.) schools. 

 Stockton is a city of about 25,000 population, with 16 teachers and 450 

 pupils iji its high school. The school is " rural " only in the sense 

 that it is in the center of a rich agricultural region, from which it 

 draws many of its pupils and for which it furnishes nearly all the 

 teachers. 



The Stockton plan, which aaxis definitely adopted by the school 

 board in 1910 and goes into operation in the fall, includes (1) 

 two-year and four-j^ear courses in agriculture and home economics 

 closel}^ related to the practical affairs of the farm and home; (2) 

 work directly related to the agricultural problems of San Joaquin 

 County, such, for example, as problems relating to peat lands, irriga- 

 tion, alfalfa, grape growing, dairying, and local insect pests; (3) 

 courses appropriate for girls along the line of household arts, dealing 

 with the domestic, household, and health questions of the home, and 

 including instruction in cooking, the chemistry of foods, invalid cook- 

 ery, sewing, home nursing, house furnishing, sanitation, care of chil- 

 dren, and home management; (4) short courses for farmers and those 

 interested in agriculture who can not take a full course, to be given 

 in a cooperative way by the school and the State college of agricul- 

 ture; (5) the preparation of teachers to the end that both the graded 

 and rural schools throughout the district may be provided with 

 teachers having a knowledge of and a sympathy for farm life; 

 (6) the publication and distribution of leaflets bearing on the agri- 

 cultural problems of the district; and (7) the cooperation of the 

 State college of agriculture, the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, and the agricultural department of the high school in hold- 

 ing county and district institutes of teachers, farmers, and students 

 jointly to consider educational and agricultural problems. 



The high-school department of agriculture is to be in charge of an 

 expert director, who will be called upon to teach not to exceed one- 

 third of his time, the rest of the time to be devoted to a study of the 

 agricultural problems at first hand throughout the farm area tribu- 

 tary to Stockton. The director in charge will be the connecting link 

 between the problem of the individual farmer on the one hand and 

 the research work of the United States Department of Agriculture 

 and of the college of agriculture at Berkeley on the other. The 

 director will take up any agricultural problem with any of the 

 farmers at any time, go to their farms, and help in finding a solu- 

 tion. By this means the farmers will be reached directly and made 

 to feel that the agricultural high-school course is their course and 



