740 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



our arrricultural ('(Inciitioii service to meet more fully the demands 

 which the States and Territories are makin<r upon it. 



I recommend that at least $10,000 he added to the appropriation 

 for the work of this Office in agricultural education for the fiscal 

 year 1912. 



The educational work of the Office is divided into two sections, one 

 dealing with agricultural colleges and schools and the other with 

 farmers' institutes and other forms of extension work in agriculture. 



THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS. 



The recent gi'owth of sentiment in favor of agricultural education 

 through colleges and schools has been more rapid than even the most 

 sanguine friends of the movement dared to anticipate. Since Octo- 

 ber, 1908, the number of institutions in the United States giving in- 

 struction in agriculture has increased from 545 to 875, a gain of 330 

 institutions. In other words, the lists published by this Office in 

 May of this year contained GO per cent more names of colleges and 

 schools teaching agriculture than did the lists published nineteen 

 months earlier. 



This remarkable increase in the facilities for agricultural education 

 has occurred largely among the secondary institutions — the agricul- 

 tural high schools' and the public and private high schools and 

 academies, of which there are now 630 with students in agriculture. 

 This number does not include normal schools and other institutions 

 conducting teacher-training courses in agriculture, of which there 

 are now 214. Much of this work is secondary, but some of it is ele- 

 mentary and some collegiate. 



Such developments among the institutions that look to the ngri- 

 cultural education service of this Office for publications and for ad- 

 vice concerning teachers, courses of study, equipment, methods of 

 instruction, and in general, the relation of their work to the practical 

 problems involved in agricultural production and the satisfactory 

 development of home and social life in rural communities, have 

 naturally resulted in heavier demands upon this service than could 

 be met satisfactorily with exactly the same staff and the same ap- 

 propriation as in"^ the previous year. Consequently the work 

 of the Office in relation to agricultural colleges and schools has not 

 changed materially. We are aiding them as far as we can, but very 

 inadequately. 



There has been, as formerly, clearing-house work for these institu- 

 tions, cooperation with them and with associations representing their 

 interests, and expert services in connection with the inauguration of 

 new agricultural educational institutions, courses, and projects. This 

 work has been in charge of Mr. D. J. Crosby, specialist in agricultural 

 education, who has been assisted by Mr. F. W. Howe, assistant in 

 agricultural education; Miss M. T. Spethmann, m charge of statis- 

 tics and the review of foreign literature on agricultural education; 

 and Miss M. A. Agnew, in charge of the card directory of teachers 

 and investigators in agriculture and of the organization lists of agri- 

 cultural colleges and experiment stations. 



In addition to the regular editorial work of the agricultural education 

 service in connection with the department of agricultural education 



