37 



ISfoRxiNG Session. Wednksdav. Xoveaii'.eu ir>, 1905, 



The convoution was called tti unlrr at ;»..'!(• o'clock a. iii. by llie ju'csidiMil, 

 K. li. Voorhees, of New Jersey. 



II. V. White, of (leorgia, announced the order of Imsiness for the day recom- 

 mended by tlie executive conmiittee, which was accei)ted witlumt discussion. 



II. ('. White also announced that, on accoiuit of death in his family. Prof. 

 L. I). Harvey, of Menomonie, Wis., asked to be e.xcused from presenting the 

 paper on " The relation of the agricultural colleges to industrial education in 

 its elementary and secondary j)hases," which he had agreed to prepare for this 

 convention of the association. 



On motion of Doctor White, the association extended to Professor IIai'V(\v the 

 expression of its regret that he could not keep his engagement, and its sym- 

 pathy in the sorrow that had come to him. 



Report of ('oMMnxEK o.\ .Methods of Teaching Agriculture. 



The report of the conimitt(M> on tliis subject was read by A. ('. True, as 

 follows : 



At the meeting of this association in Washington in 1!)03 there seemed to be 

 a desire to have the committee on methods of teaching agriculture investigate 

 and report on the f*'asil)ility of teaching agriculture in the rural schools. Your 

 committee made such an investigation and embodied its results, along with sug- 

 gestions on the nature and extent of such teaching, in a repoi't jtresented at the 

 Des Moines meeting. This report was |ml)lished as Circular ('>(• of tlie Office of 

 Experiment Stations, and later was I'lnbodied in the proceedings of this asso- 

 ciation. The first edition of Circular (>0 (.'"),(iO(l c-ojiies) was exhausted in less 

 than six weeks, in another month the second edition of o.OoO was gone, and at 

 the present time only 3,500 copies remain of an edition of lO.OoO issued March 

 27. As a result of sending the circular to the State suiierintendents of educa- 

 tion, requests were received to send it to several thousand county, township, 

 and city superintendents of schools. The circular was frequently referred to 

 and portions of it quoted by agricultural and educational .iournals, and that 

 part of the report designated "Syllabus of Elementary Course in Agriculture" 

 was embodied in the very important and comprehensive report of the committee 

 of five of the National Educational Association on industrial education in 

 schools for rural connnunities. 



The widespread interest thus indicated in the teaching of agriculture in the 

 public schools led your committee to continue its investigations along this line 

 with a view of reporting on the availability of illustrative material and exer- 

 cises for the use of teachers and pupils in school agriculture. The agricultural 

 extension officers in a number of the land-grant colleges were consulted. Schools 

 in whicli agriculture is being taught were visited, and the text-books and other 

 literature prepared for the use of public schools were collected and studied. 

 As a result of this work your connnittee has arrived at the conclusion that 

 there is an abundance of suitable material with carefully prepared suggestions 

 for its use in illustrating the principles upon which the science of agriculture 

 is based. But this material is scattered through many text-books, bulletins, and 

 circulars of information, and as a natural result the exercises lack cohesion. 

 They are not arranged in progressive series and they are neither available 

 nor suitable for general use in the public schools throughout the United States. 



Furthermore, many of the best exercises are embodied in i)ul)lications issued 

 by agricultural colleges or State departments of education, and their distri- 

 bution is limited by law to the States in which they are luMnted. Your com- 

 mittee is of the opinion, therefore, that this material should be brought to- 

 gether and subjected to a thorough sifting process. Unsuitable material should 

 be discarded ; exercises which are suitable for school use in their present form 

 should be published with due credit to their authors ; those needing revision 

 should be worked over, new exercises should be prepared to fill in gaps, and 

 finally all of this material should be pedagogically arranged, suitably illus- 

 trated, and published in such form that it can be used to supiilement the text- 

 book of agriculture in the pul)lic schools. There should also be a careful study 



