Nc. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 3&5 



"I am unable to express the value of the general surroundings and environ- 

 ments of the University, and habits formed while there. The longer I am 

 away, the clearer do I see the results. The cost is trifling when I spread it 

 over my life, as the advantages obtained will always remain with me." 



It should be noted here that the students in the short winter 

 courses have not generally been persons of high school age, but 

 have been older students often with some high school preparation. 

 We must, I think, recognize age as a factor in mental development 

 entirely aside from scholastic training. 



Professor Henry says: ''The short course is not successful with 

 young men under 20 years of age and those who have had no 

 practical farm experiences. But it succeeds splendidly with boys 

 who have completed the district school work and who have been 

 partners, as it were, with their fathers in farming or who have 

 actually run farms themselves. There is all the difference in the 

 world between lads who have never had any care or responsibility 

 in their lives and those who have carried such responsibility." 



The next step in the evolution of secondary instruction in agri- 

 culture was the organizing of definite separate secondary schools 

 within the agricultural colleges themselves. The first separate 

 school of this type was organized in the University of Minnesota and 

 is known as the Minnesota School of Agriculture. This institution 

 offers a three years' course of six months each, November to April 

 inclusive, thus enabling the boys and girls in that state of long win- 

 ters and short summers to be on the farm during the greater part 

 of the gr.owing season. 



The school was established in 1888. The total attendance in the 

 regular course in the school since its opening has been 4,283 students 

 not counting any duplicates. There have been 870 graduates, o/ 

 whom 197 were young women. 



Special industrial schools have been established in several state! 

 as in Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, New York, and Wisconsin. 

 These schools place principal emphasis upon instruction in agricul- 

 ture, manual training and home economics, while the ordinary high 

 school subjects, as such, are made incidental. Perhaps the most 

 important schools of this type are those in Wisconsin. Tn 1901 

 the Legislature of Wisconsin enacted a law authorizing counties to 

 establish secondary schools of agriculture and domestic economy 

 and providing that the State shall pay each county maintaining such 

 school a sum equal to two-thirds the amount actually expended for 

 maintaining such school during the year, provided that the total 

 amount so apportioned shall not exceed $4,000 to any one school in 

 any one year. 



In 1902, two schools of this class were established, one in Menom- 

 onie, Dunn County, and the other in Wausau. Marathon County. 

 Students are admitted directly from the rural schools. The regular 

 course consists of two years, of eight months each. The tuition is 

 free to students of the county. It is reported that there was a good 

 attendance at the opening of each school, which has steadily in- 

 creased each year. 



This movement for specialized secondary industrial schools, in- 

 cluding agriculture, mechanic arts and domestic or household sci- 

 ence, has attracted widespread attention. Besides being under con- 



25—6—1907. 



