566 ANlSrUAL EEPORTS or DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUEE. 



committee to study entrance requirements and the general content 

 of courses of instruction. And in 1895 the association appointed 

 a standing committee on instruction in agriculture which has made 

 reports annually since that time and which has had a broad in- 

 fluence on the organization and progress of agricultural education 

 in this country. The director of the Office of Experiment Stations 

 has been a member of this committee since its beginning and since 

 1902 has been its chairman. Having unusual facilities for the col- 

 lection and dissemination of information on this subject, this office 

 naturally became the headquarters of this committee, which thus 

 was enabled to conduct its studies regularly and persistently. 

 Gradually the office became a clearing house of information on agri- 

 cultural education in this country and abroad. Annual reports on 

 the progress of agricultural education were published for a number 

 of years. The work went beyond collegiate instruction. Much 

 active propaganda in favor of the introduction of agriculture and 

 kindred subjects into secondary and elementary schools was carried 

 on, definite propositions for courses of instruction in such schools 

 were made, and in general there was much participation in the 

 movement which has resulted in the teaching of agriculture in many 

 secondary schools and in consolidated and some other elementary 

 schools. 



In the earlier years much attention was given to the encourage- 

 ment of nature study and school gardening as introductory to more 

 formal teaching of agriculture. 



In 1902, on the suggestion of T. F. Hunt, dean of the College of 

 Agriculture of Ohio State University, the first graduate school of 

 agriculture in America was held at that university. The director 

 of the Office of Experiment Stations was dean of that school. The 

 faculty consisted of leading agricultural experts from the United 

 States and other countries and the term of the school was the month 

 of July. This school was so successful that a plan was worked out 

 for other sessions under the auspices of the Association of Agricul- 

 tural Colleges and the Department of Agriculture. Sessions were 

 held with the same officer as dean at the agricultural colleges of 

 Illinois in 1906, New York in 1908, Iowa in 1910, Michigan in 1912, 

 Missouri in 1914, and Massachusetts in 1916. 



By this time much graduate instruction leading to advanced de- 

 grees had developed in the agricultural colleges, and it was there- 

 fore unnecessary to continue this school, which had largely served 

 its purpose as an encouragement to the establishment of regular 

 graduate courses in these institutions. 



In 1906 a section on agricultural instruction was organized in the 

 Office of Experiment Stations and this was carried over into the 

 States Relations Service. When the Federal Board for Vocational 

 Education was established after the passage of the Smith-Hughes 

 Act in 1917, the States Relations Service undertook to cooperate 

 with that board in the preparation of subject-matter material for 

 the use of teachers in the Smith-Hughes schools. This work is 

 still continuing, and recently much attention has been given to 

 formulating job analyses of various agricultural enterprises. 



In the work relating to elementary instruction there has been 

 cooperation with a number of State departments of education and 

 agricultural colleges. In recent years, since the Bureau of Educa- 



