238 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



of life. I know that thi.s is contrary to the general belief of the 

 people at large; as many there are who believe that all the Instruc- 

 tor has to do is to teach the farmer how to produce more to the 

 acre. Increased production is one thing, and getting adequate re- 

 turns for the thing produced, is quite another. Two factors which 

 make for success or failure on the farm are the cost of production 

 and the expense of distribution. It' is of but little use to teach the 

 farmer how to increase his production, improve his flocks, raise 

 the standard of his herd's and better the condition of his orchards, un- 

 less the additional time, labor and energy expended shall bring to 

 him and his family increased comforts and happiness. 



The problem for the instructor is how to raise the general level 

 of the farmer and his family. In other words, we must attach more 

 importance to the human side of agricultural progress, and this will 

 have a profound effect upon the work of all the agencies for agri- 

 cultural education. As home life on the farm is of greater import- 

 ance to rural happiness and contentment than the production of 

 crops and stock, it becomes necessary that we should teach more 

 of those things having something of a human element in them; 

 then the movement will gain in strength and favor. -The work of 

 the Institute has been so divided that where two evening's sessions 

 are held, one is to be devoted to the school, and the other to the 

 home. 



EDUCATIONAL NEEDS 



At each educational session, questions pertaining to the school 

 and the education of the farmer and his children, are taken up and 

 discussed at length. Statistics show that out of every 500 rural 

 boys and girls, only one ever enters an agricultural college. Only 

 five in every one hundred rural and village children ever reach the 

 high school. Furthermore, taking the entire number of boys and 

 girls in the United States, only six per cent, ever go beyond the 

 elementary schools. Hence ninety-four out of every one hundred 

 boys and girls in the United States finish their education with the 

 district school. This means that a large army of boys and girls 

 leave the school each j'ear at the tender age of fourteen. In order 

 that the great army of boys and girls, who cannot go to our Agri- 

 cultural College, might be reached, there grew up an insistent de- 

 mand, emanating largely through the influence of the Grange and 

 the Farmers' Institute, for the introdiTction of agricultural instruc- 

 tion in our rural schools, and the establishment of High Schools 

 where such instruction might be pursued at greater length, thus 

 keeping the boys and girls in school for a longer term of years. The 

 recent acts of the Legislature pertaining to High Scliools, Vocational 

 Training, and Agricultural Schools or Departments, are the most 

 far-reaching of any ever enacted. Pennsylvania now has a school 

 system, and a set of school laws that cannot be surpassed by any 

 state in the Union. Every school board in the State should take 

 immediate steps to establish schools and courses in accordance with 

 the provisions of the Act, thereby giving them benefits and privileges 

 granted to but few boys and girls in the United States. 



When all this has been done, when agriculture has been, and is 

 being taught in all our rural and high schools, the work of the Insti- 

 tute Instructor will not cease, as this instruction must be carried 



