PTlOMOTIOlSr OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 43 



At the invitation of the committee on graduate study of the 

 Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations, the Director of this Office acted as dean of the Graduate 

 School of Agriculture which held its second session at the College 

 of Agriculture of the University of Illinois in July, 1906, and was 

 in every way successful. The number of students was larger than 

 at the first session of the school and a larger number of specialists 

 in agricultural education and research took part in the instruction 

 and the conferences. 



The land-grant colleges have had larger funds, more students, and 

 more graduates than ever before, they have added materially to their 

 general and agricultural equipment, they have made progress in the 

 differentiation of agricultural instruction and the organization of 

 faculties of agriculture, including special faculties for extension 

 work, and several of them have undertaken well-defined work in the 

 preparation of teachers of agriculture for secondary and primary 

 schools. 



Additional secondary schools of agriculture have been started in 

 connection with agricultural colleges. Private and denominational 

 colleges have begun to organize secondary courses in agriculture. 

 A new agricultural high school has been started in Maryland and 

 eleven have been provided for in Georgia, and many of the normal 

 schools are organizing agricultural courses. Progress has also been 

 made in the introduction of agriculture into the public secondary 

 and elementary schools and in the preparation of text-books, man- 

 uals, courses of study, and other aids for teachers and pupils in agri- 

 culture. 



Agricultural education is making friends ever^^where. The Presi- 

 dent of the United States, the Secretary' ot Agriculture, the governors 

 of several States, the presidents of some of the great universities, and 

 other officials high in the councils of the nation have given public 

 utterance during the year to their belief in the instruction of the 

 masses of our rural people along agricultural lines. Xumerous bills 

 providing for additional Federal aid to agricultural education of 

 different grades have been introduced at the second session of the 

 Fifty-ninth Congress, and the State legislatures have given in several 

 States large, and in many States substantial, aid to agricultural 

 colleges and schools and to itinerant agricultural enterprises of edu- 

 cational nature. The Association of American Agricultural Colleges 

 and Experiment Stations, the American Association of Farmers' 

 Institute Workers, the Xational Grange, the National Farmers' 

 Congi'ess, and other large associations of educators and farmers 

 have adopted resolutions declaring in unmistakable terms their be- 

 lief in agricultural education, and their desire that it receive more 



