PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 275 



Dr. J. W. Robertson, president of Macdonald College; E. T. Fair- 

 child, of Kansas; J. D. Towar, of Wyoming; and Mrs. Katherine M. 

 Cook, of Colorado. 



The other sessions of the department of rural and agricultural 

 education were also well attended, and the discussions on the different 

 papers indicated a lively interest in all matters pertaining to agri- 

 culture in public schools. Dr. S. A. Knapp, of this Department, 

 discussed the rural education problem as it appeared to him in the 

 South, and dwelt especially upon the effectiveness of boys' clubs and 

 the need of teaching the young the value and importance of the 

 garden, the poultry flock, and the cow, and how to care for them 

 and realize the most from them. Valuable suggestions concerning 

 the making of a high-school course in agriculture, and the correla- 

 tion of agriculture with other high-school science, were made by 

 Josiah Main, of the University of Tennessee, and suggestions for the 

 elementary course by R. O. Johnson, of the State Normal School at 

 Chico, Cal. There was also a suggestive paper on Some Means of 

 Awakening and Maintaining Interest in Agricultural and Other 

 Industrial Education, by E. E. Balcomb, of Oaklahoma ; a compre- 

 hensive account of The Present Status of Agricultural Education in 

 the Public Schools, by E. C. Bishop, of Nebraska; and a paper by 

 H. H. Seerley, of Iowa, setting forth the need of national aid in the 

 preparation of teachers of agriculture for the public schools. 



A committee appointed last year reported progress in the matter 

 of securing university credits for high-school agriculture to apply on 

 entrance requirements, and at its own request was continued for 

 another year. Another special committee, consisting of E. C. Bishop, 

 Josiah Main, and R. O. Johnson, was appointed to report next year 

 on a suitable high-school course which should include agriculture. 

 The officers elected by this department for the ensuing year were: 

 President. K. L. Butterfield, of Massachusetts: vice-president, C. A. 

 Lory, of Colorado: and secretary, E. E. Balcomb, of Oklahoma. 



Another matter which was discussed pro and con at this convention 

 related to the establishment of special agricultural schools, but the 

 various papers were presented at such widely different times and 

 places as to render it difficult to get at the consensus of opinion. The 

 matter was considered first in the department of manual training, 

 where the question of establishing separate trade schools was under 

 discussion, and President Kerr, of the Oregon Agricultural College, 

 argued against separate trade schools for agriculture. I^ater. in the 

 department of secondary education. Dean Davenpoit. of the I'^^niver- 

 sity of Illinois, read a paper in which he presented arguments against 

 the establishment of special agi-icultural high schools, on the ground 

 that instruction in agriculture should be given in the public high 

 schools, that courses in special schools must of necessity he narrow, 



