824 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



in an advisory capacity to school officers and teachers and greatly 

 promote efficient instruction in agriculture throughout the United 

 States. Moreover, there is a great work to be done in putting into 

 available form for school use the information on agricultural sub- 

 jects constantly being accumulated l)y this department and the ex- 

 periment stations. This office, acting in cooperation with the other 

 bureaus and the stations, should be in a position to prepare bulletins, 

 charts, and other illustrative material showing how agricultural sub- 

 jects may be utilized for the education of our people with a view 

 to malring our agriculture most productive and country life most 

 satisfactory. 



In order to perform work in these lines in a more satisfactory and 

 adequate measure I recommend that at least $10,000 be added to the 

 appropriation for the work of this office in agricultural education for 

 the fiscal year 1914. 



And since the agricultural education work of the office is largely 

 concerned with conferences and conventions, as well as with special 

 schools for teachers, institute workers, and others, many of which, 

 especially those most in need of help, have no funds to pay the ex- 

 penses of employees of the office, I urge that specific authority be 

 given the officers and employees of the Office of Experiment Stations 

 to pay necessary expenses for travel and subsistence from the funds 

 appropriated for their work. 



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. 



All phases of agricultural education have advanced rapidly dur- 

 ing the fiscal year 1912. The land-grant colleges have enrolled more 

 students and reached many more people through extension schools 

 and courses than in any previous year, and more than two-thirds 

 of them engaged in one way or another in the preparation of teach- 

 ers of agriculture. 



Agricultural schools of secondary grade have increased in number 

 and many public high schools have inaugurated courses in agricul- 

 ture, home economics, and manual training. According to a list 

 published April 30 by this office, the total number of secondary 

 schools teaching agriculture has increased from 566 in May, 1910, to 

 2,103 at the present time. 



Increasing attention has been given to the elementary phases of 

 instruction in agriculture. In the South the membership of boys' 

 and girls' agricultural clubs increased from 46,000 in 1911 to about 

 60,000 in 1912, and there has been a corresponding growth of this 

 movement in other parts of the country. Of colleges, public and 

 private, and all grades of lower schools teaching agriculture, the 

 number on the lists of the office increased from 863 in 1910 to 2,575 

 in 1912, an increase of nearly 200 per cent in two years. 



Through its agricultural education service the Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations has maintained advisory relations with all phases of 

 this movement. Upon invitation it has conferred with State school 

 authorities and others regarding courses in agriculture, the estab- 



