48 



colleges in many of the States. Some of these officers doubt the possibility or 

 wisdom of teaching agriculture in the common schools on account of the lack of 

 text-books, or the lack of trained teachers, or for some other reason. It is, 

 however, a notable fact that in the States where such officials are cooperating 

 actively and earnestly in conducting a lively campaign along these lines, agri- 

 culture is actually being taught with considerable success, and teachers who feel 

 that they are u'.ipreitared in this branch are flocking to summer schools, where 

 they can make the necessary preparation. 



Another difficulty is that the teachers in rviral districts are mostly women 

 with little or no normal training either in the ordinary branches taught in the 

 common schools or in special subjects. There is no teaching profession in the 

 rural schools. The salaries are so low that they do not attract those who have 

 prepared themsehes for the profession of teaching. As a consequence, most of 

 the teachers found in I'ural schools are beginners or those who have not been 

 sufficiently successful to be called to positions offering a higher salary. Most 

 of the men who are teaching in the country are doing so merely for the purpose 

 of raising money to go away to school or to go into business. 



These conditions result in a rapid shifting of teachers from school to school. 

 which is another serious drawback to i)rogress of any kind. Again, the terms 

 of school are too short. When a child can go to school only four or five months 

 in the year there is little time in the lew years that he is in school for the study 

 of other subjects than i-eading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history. 

 Before much progress can be made in the introduction of agriculture into the 

 rural schools much must be done for the general imi)rovement of those schools. 

 This improvement will be brought about partly by remedying the conditions 

 already mentioned in the school districts as they are now organized, and partly 

 through the consolidation of small districts and the organization of centralized 

 schools, including rural high schools where village high schools are not readily 

 available for those who can go beyond the grammar grades. The practice of 

 consolidating schools has already been resorted to in California, Colorado, Con- 

 necticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa. Kansas, Maine, ilassachusetts, Mich- 

 igan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North 

 Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Rhode Island. South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, 

 and Wisconsin. Notable movements toward the consolidation of schools have 

 recently been inaugurated in Louisiana, Missouri, and North Carolina. While 

 this movement toward consolidation has spread to all parts of the country, 

 there are relatively few localities iu any State in which the system has been 

 adopted and brought into working order. Hence the full effect of this important 

 change in school policj' has not been telt, even in the States where consolidation 

 is a feature. 



In the localities where consolidation has been thoroughly tried, however, it 

 has usually met with general approval. It has enabled the school officers to 

 grade the schools more effectually, thereby opening the way to greatly enriched 

 courses of study ; to lengthen the term of school ; to employ better teachers at 

 higher salaries and keep them for a number of years, and to employ several 

 teachers instead of one, each to give instruction in only a few subjects or to 

 only two or three grades, thereby opening the way to the more continuous and 

 profitable employment of the pupils' time. It is notorious that in the ordinary 

 country school, where the teacher has from 25 to 30 recitations in a day and can 

 not personally direct the study of the children, the latter waste fully half of 

 their time in idleness or mischief-making. This and many other defects of the 

 rural common school are remedied by consolidation, and the transportation of 

 pupils from distant parts of the district at public expense is accomplished at no 

 additional expense per unit of attendance. The Commissioner of Education, in 

 his annual report for 1903, says: "The possibilities of consolidation in the way 

 of furnishing better and cheaper schools have been fully demonstrated, and such 

 being the case its general adoi)tion would seem to be only a question of time." 



While consolidation opens the wa.y for the more general introduction of 

 courses in agricultiu-e in the rural schools, it does not help supply the demand 

 for teachers competent to give such special instruction. This can only be done 

 b.v a more general and concerted effort on the part of the agricultural colleges 

 and schools and the State nornial schools, at present through the introduction 

 of short and special courses in agriculture for teachers, and later through 

 regular normal courses in agriculture. 



Fortunately, the attention of the general school officers throughout the 

 country is now being strongly drawn toward the needs of the rural schools, and 



