No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICUr/TURE. 257 



scbool, but primarily, it is to give the boy or girl the type of edu- 

 cation he should have, and I think that school should give him 

 some information about the business he is engaged in and which 

 he })robably will follow when he gets through with this school work. 



This agricultural school work started in Pennsylvania two years 

 ago with the passage of the Vocational Education Act. Five 

 schools were started; this year we have twelve schools in operation 

 in twelve different counties, and next year there will be many 

 more in other counties. As I said a little bit ago, I believe it 

 is time we all pitched in and co-o})erated with each other. My 

 theory is this: That these agricultural high schools ought to be 

 local centres for the various agencies that are carrying on their 

 very efficient work, and I want to say right here, that all of 

 these agricultural high schools stand ready to assist and co-operate 

 in any and all of these movements for the improvement of agri- 

 cultural conditions in the State of Pennsylvania. The agricultural 

 high school movement is only one, is a small phase, not to mini- 

 mize the work they are doing, at all, but it is only one phase of 

 this great movement for better agricultural conditions in the State. 

 It has its peculiar work to do, but we do believe while it is doing 

 this work, it can work hand in hand with those who have some 

 other phases of the work to do. 



Now, without further comment, I want to throw on the screen 

 a few slides showing some typical scenes in a few of our agri- 

 cultural schools. You will notice as these pictures are thrown 

 upon the screen, that the scenes, as they are presented, do not 

 represent the ordinarj^ school room. The atmosphere of the or- 

 dinary school room is not present in our agricultural school. The 

 work is practical. Allow me to say here also, however, that in 

 our enthusiasm, we do not allow ourselves to forget, as I stated 

 twice this evening, that the chief business of this school is to 

 give an education to the boy and the girl that comes to this school. 

 Training for citizenship is not lost sight of, and half of the boy's 

 time is spent in the study of practical subjects. The other half 

 is spent in the study of academic subjects because the boy on the 

 farm will always have as much need of English, and the same 

 English training, bv the wav, as the bov who enters the factory 

 or the shop or the bank or the store. This particular school hap- 

 pens to be located in a court house, there being no available space 

 in the school house. But this is a high school located in one of 

 the northern tier of counties of the State. There happened to be 

 no room in this building for the agricultural department. The 

 next building with the white columns, had a very large basement 

 which was utilized for this purpose, a series of rooms being fitted 

 up for the agricultural department. This, it happens, was not the 

 slide supposed to be in that particular place. It happens to be 

 a picture of the prize winners in the bread and cake contest in 

 one of the high schools in the northern part of the State. It 

 goes without saying that the study of soils is an important part 

 of the work in these agricultural schools. The work of these schools 

 consists partly of recitation work in the agricultural class room, 

 or the laboratory, as it is called, consists of experiments in the 

 laboratory and consists of field trips. The previous pictures 

 showed a class in agriculture under the direction of the super- 



17—6—1915 



