318 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS, 



into a printed and illu-strated form which would be avaihiblo to suc- 

 ceeding l)e<;inners' ehisses in each school without the necessity of nnich 

 supervision. In this way the list of schools and trained teachers 

 would be developed together, and schools that drop out of the list 

 would be succeeded by new ones from the waiting list. 



Several important advantages at once suggest themselves in this 

 plan, considered as a whole, and the legislature indicated its approval 

 of the experiment by passing an act granting financial aid to high 

 schools introducing agriculture, domestic science, and mechanic arts. 

 Such a plan makes etl'ective use of existing secondary schools. It 

 takes these schools and teachers as they are, and develops the new 

 work without displacing their present mechanism or personnel. It 

 gives opportunity for the demonstration of valuable results before 

 calling for anything but nominal local expenditures in support of 

 the work installed. In short, it seems jjerfectly adapted to existing 

 conditions while atil'ording the means of constantly improving them 

 through the new impulse which must come with the wise introduction 

 of agricultural instruction as a subject of general cultural value in 

 secondary schools. 



TEXAS. 



The legislature of Texas at its last session appropriated $32,000 

 to provide a fund from which the state board of education is to 

 duplicate amounts, not less than $500 nor more than $2,000, that 

 shall have been appropriated b}^ the trustees of any common school 

 district or independent school district to the establishing, equipping, 

 and maintaining of departments of instruction in agriculture, in- 

 cluding courses in manual training and domestic economy " sub- 

 sidiary to agriculture." State aid shall not, however, be given more 

 than twice to the same school, and the geographical location of the 

 school shall be considered with a view of locating such a school, if 

 possible, in each of the senatorial districts of the State. Unlike many 

 of the acts intended to promote instruction in agriculture, this one 

 makes it obligatory on the part of the school board to provide labora- 

 tories for instruction in botany, zoology, and other elementary 

 sciences related to agriculture, and land for the production of farm 

 and garden plants, and to employ a teacher who has received special 

 training in agriculture and allied branches. 



VIRGINIA. 



As noted in Progress in Agricultural Education, 1908, the legisla- 

 ture of Virginia api^ropriated $20,000 to be used in maintaining 

 courses in agriculture, domestic science, and manual training in at 

 least one high school in each of the ten congressional districts in the 

 State. The first high school to take advantage of this legislation was 



