PKOGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 275 



Resolved, Second. That since it is essential to the successful teaching of industrial 

 subjects in the public schools that the teachers shall first be trained for this work, we 

 urge the State- normal schools to give special attention to instruction in elementary 

 agriculture, manual training, and domestic science. 



Resolved, Third. That in order to meet the extraordinary expenses of properly 

 equipping these schools for giving this instruction we urge the adoption of the Burkett- 

 Pollard bill now before Congi-ess making appropriation to the States for this purpose. 



In California at a joint meeting of the State Teachers' Association 

 and the State Farmers' Institute, held at the University of California 

 in December, 1905, and attended by some 7,000 persons, the subject 

 of agricultural education was discussed from various points of view, 

 and as a result of this meeting a committee was organized to promote 

 the interests of such education in the public schools of the State. 



At a conference for education in the South, held at Lexington, Ky . , 

 in May, 1906, and attended by leadmg educators from a number of 

 States, much attention was given to the claims of agriculture to a 

 place in the school curriculum. A similar conference on secondary 

 education in the South, held at the University of Virginia, devoted 

 one whole session to the discussion of problems involved in introduc- 

 ing agriculture into the public schools. It developed that much 

 thought is being given to these matters by professors of secondary 

 education in the universities of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. 



At the meeting of A^irginia State Teachers' Association and affiliated 

 organizations in November, 1906, the teaching of agriculture in the 

 public schools was widely and thoroughly discussed, and President 

 Alderman, of the University of Virginia, in the closing address of that 

 great meeting, declared that among the things which should be con- 

 sidered as settled in the campaign for a better school system now 

 being actively carried on in that State was that agriculture in some 

 form should be generally taught in the schools. 



The examples given are sufficient to show the trend of thought in 

 educational bodies assembled to consider general educational prob- 

 lems. The meetings during the year of associations primarily agri- 

 cultural have been marked by even more earnest discussion of the 

 elementary phases of agricultural education. During the last six 

 months of 1906 no less than five national agricidtural organizations 

 discussed these matters and adopted resolutions calling upon Congress 

 for additional funds to enable the Office of Experiment Stations to 

 promote the extension of farmers' institutes and agricultural instruc- 

 tion in schools. These organizations were the Farmers' National 

 Congress, the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations, the American Association of Farmers' Institute 

 Workers, the National Grange, and the Graduate School of Agricul- 

 ture. The Farmers' Congress of Texas adopted resolutions calling 

 upon the State legi. lature to enact laws to bring about the introduc- 

 tion of elementary agriculture into all public schools of the State. 



