218 REPOET OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



Course in Agriculture, a review of progress in agricultural education 

 in 1905, and a Yearbook article on "The use of illustrative material 

 in teaching agriculture in rural schools." A bulletin containing 

 exercises and describing illustrative material for teacliing agriculture 

 in elementary schools has been prepared for the printer. The work 

 of card indexing references to American and foreign schools in wliich 

 agriculture is taught has been continued. The number of cards now 

 completed is about 3,300, of which about 2,300 were added during 

 the past year. The card directory of teachers and investigators in 

 agricultural subjects has been revised and about 200 names added, 

 making a total of about 1,400 cards now in the directory. 



The Director of this Office has continued to act as bibliographer of 

 the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations and as chairman of the committee of that association on 

 instruction in agriculture. Upon invitation of the committee the 

 expert in agricultural education of this Office has acted as its secretary, 

 conducting correspondence for the committee and assisting in the 

 preparation of reports. The giving of aid to agricultural colleges 

 and schools and to State and school authorities along lines of agricul- 

 tural education is an item of work which has increased greatly in 

 importance and has taken much time. The correspondence has been 

 large; the applications for publications have been numerous, some- 

 times involving the sending of several thousand publications for use 

 in school classes in a single day, and the requests for addresses at 

 large educational gatherings and for lecturers at teachers' institutes 

 have been far in excess of the ability of this Office to meet. The 

 Director of the Office has addressed a number of important meetings. 

 The expert in agricultural education has lectured at similar meetings, 

 taken part in several important conferences, and helped to organize 

 a number of agricultural schools and prepare courses of study for 

 them. Through the courtesy of the Chief of the Bureau of Soils the 

 Office was able to send Mr. H. O. Sampson, of that Bureau, to lecture 

 for three weeks at teachers' institutes in Wisconsin, one week at a 

 teachers' institute in Pennsylvania, and one week at a teachers' insti- 

 tute ia Maryland on the teaching of agriculture in the public schools. 

 Mr. Sampson's experience as a teacher of elementary agriculture in a 

 small high school in Pennsylvania has given him good preparation 

 for this work, and his services in the teachers' institutes were highly 

 appreciated. He has since been transferred to this Office, and is now 

 on furlough to engage in the experiment of starting an agricultural 

 high school in a rural community in Maryland. It is hoped that as 

 the educational work of the Office develops, the services of Mr. Samp- 

 son and other experts in agricultural education may be made avail- 

 able to assist in organizing different phases of agricultural education 

 work in the United States, and in conducting agricultural features of 

 instruction in summer schools and institutes for teachers. 



