PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 279 



friends of agricultural progress believe that agriculture should and 

 will be taught in the public schools," and outlined a general system 

 of agricultural education for California from the university dowTi to 

 the elementary school. We have since been asked to discuss some- 

 what more in detail the topics which should be included in nature 

 study and elementary agricultural instruction and the methods which 

 should be followed in this work. We have consented to do this, not 

 with the expectation of setting forth a complete system of nature 

 study and elementary agriculture exactly adapted to the require- 

 ments of California schools, but rather in the hope that a more defi- 

 nite outline of these subjects will call forth further study and discus- 

 sion of these matters b}^ California school officers and teachers with 

 the result that the attempts at such instruction now being made in 

 different parts of the State may be brought more largely to public 

 notice and that others may be encouraged to undertake experimental 

 efforts in this line in the schools under their direction. 



For this whole subject is still in an experimental stage. Wliat is 

 feasible and proper in one part of the United States or in one part of a 

 State may not be at all adapted to the conditions elsewhere. It is 

 especially desirable now that this matter is being widely agitated that 

 we should have during the next few years a large number of experi- 

 ments in different localities which may result both in establishing 

 some general principles on which such instruction may be safely based, 

 and also in developing the especial requirements of different regions 

 for this kind of educational effort. 



Fundamentally the teaching of nature study and elementary agri- 

 culture in the primary schools is an attempt to educate the child 

 through his environment. Theoretically it might be desirable to 

 make the natural environment of the pupil the basis for his education 

 along all lines, and it is possible that this may be done in our schools 

 o-enerallv when our educational svstem has further developed and our 

 educational ideals have more completel}^ changed. W^e should not, 

 however, wait for such an evolution of pedagogy to be completed, but, 

 taking our present school system with all its faults in theory and prac- 

 tice, we shoidd attempt to devise a practical modus vivendi for nature 

 study and elementary agriculture along with the other subjects usually 

 taught in our common schools. In doing this we should not leave out 

 of sight the desirability and importance of correlating the new sub- 

 jects with the old ones. It would be strange, indeed, if nature study 

 and agriculture should gain a firm foothold in our public school cur- 

 riculum without materially affecting and even improving the instruc- 

 tion in English, arithmetic, geography, etc. It is hoped that the new 

 subjects will in a few years so unite themselves in bonds of friendship 



a This address has been published as Circular No. 17 of the California Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, and may be obtained on application to the station at Berkeley. 



