254 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Now, coming down to the direct question of the discussion of ag- 

 ricultural schools, as I shall have to jump into that now rather rap- 

 idly — there are in the United States to-day, three types of secondary 

 schools of agriculture. In discussing agricultural education now, 

 I shall say nothing about the agricultural colleges or higher agricul- 

 tural education. There are three types of agricultural schools in 

 this country, all doing about the same kind of work, dealing with 

 the same type of boy. 



In the first place, there is the congressional district agricultural 

 school which, as its name signifies, is a congressional district school, 

 that is to say, there is one school of this kind or type to each con- 

 gressional district in the State. The schools of Georgia are ex- 

 amples of this type of education. It has been my pleasure to visit 

 every one of this type in the United States, having visited every 

 state east of the Mississippi, except three or four, for the purpose 

 of visiting these schools and trying to get some measure of their effi- 

 ciency. The congressional district school must, of necessity, inasmuch 

 as it is intended to serve the entire congressional district, must have 

 a rather large equipment, it must have dormitories to take care of 

 the boys and girls who come from considerable distances. I have 

 found in all the congressional district schools I have visited, that a 

 large percentage of the boys and girls enrolled in that school come 

 from the county in which the school is located; most of them even 

 come from that section or the county in which the school is located. 

 I found one school down in the State of Georgia that was located 

 way up in a corner of the congressional district and about 65% of 

 the students came from that county, most of them coming from the 

 upper half of that county. There were one or two counties that 

 had few or no representatives in that school at all. The school at- 

 tempted to serve the whole congressional district. The school had a 

 school farm and rather a large school plant. 



The next type is the county agricultural school which is very simi- 

 lar to the congressional district school, in fact, I have found in some 

 states, county agricultural schools that had a larger plant than some 

 of the congressional district schools. They did not serve as large 

 an area or as many students, in some cases, but had more money 

 behind them to produce the schools. These county schools attempt 

 to serve the whole county, but even in these county schools, it is 

 necessary for bovs and girls to come to school and board or board 

 in town. That is true in Wisf^onsin where they have a number of 

 these schools and it is true in Maryland where they have a few. It 

 is necessary in such cases to have a school farm. 



The third tyne is the agricultural department in an existing high 

 school. It is the smallest type of the three; it is the type which is 

 the nearest to the people of the three; it has the smallest equip- 

 ment and takes the least amount of money to start it; but by the 

 way, you cannot measure the efficiency of a school by the amount of 

 money you put into it at all, though it is sometimes true, that if you 

 put little or no money into a thing, you get few or no returns. You 

 cannot expect in education, or anything else, to get something for 

 nothing. 



The advantage of this affricultural department in an existing high 

 school, the advantages. I shonld say, are chiefly these: In the first 

 place, the school is right at home; the boy and the girl can come into 



