AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 295 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



Report of the Rural Education Conference on a suggested type of agri- 

 cultural school {London: Bd. Agr. and Fish, and Bd. Ed., 1911, pp. 21). — • 

 This is a report of the Rural Education Conference which was appointed by 

 the i)residents of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Board of 

 Education, in 1910, to reiwrt, among other matters, on the question " as to 

 whether there is any place in the system of rural education, either generally 

 or in particular counties in view of special local conditions, for schools giving 

 to boys leaving elementary schools a 3-year course, from the age of 12 or 13, 

 in the theory and practice of agriculture, together with continued general 

 education." 



Among the findings of the committee are that the school i^i question would 

 not be practicable for boys who are to become agricultural laborers. There 

 appears to be a consensus of opinion among practical agriculturists that these 

 boys should get on the laud and into practical work as soon as possible after 

 leaving the elementary schools. In this connection the committee considers a 

 centralized rural continuation day school, where boys actually engage in work 

 on the land between the ages of 12 and 16, or even 18, might be brought in sev- 

 eral groups for 1 or 2 days a week to receive instruction in elementary science 

 and rural economics. It is also deemed necessary to extend and develop the 

 manual instruction and nature-study teaching given in the upper classes of 

 rural elementary schools. 



It is deemed essential that boys who intend to become farmers or workers of 

 small holdings, in addition to becoming familiar with the practical work of the 

 farm, should not leaA-e school without acquiring a good knowledge of the theory 

 and practice of agriculture, together with a good general education, both lit- 

 erary aud scientific. For these boys a trial could be made of what might be 

 called a higher-grade rural school which would not be unlike the agricultural 

 section of the French " ecole primaire superieure." The instruction in these 

 schools should include pra^ctical gardening and other manual instruction, as well 

 as nature study, elementary science, mensuration, and surveying, and rural 

 economy. 



Attached to the report are appendixes giving a list of the witnesses, notes of 

 the various types of schools which were considered, notes submitted to the 

 committee by individuals, and summaries of the evidence. 



Agricultural education in the Republic of Argentina {An. Hoc. Rural Ar- 

 gentina, 1910, Nov.-Dec, iip. ll/li-tSS, pi. 1, figs. 8). — This statement, issued by 

 the division of agricultural education of the Rural Society of Argentina, out- 

 lines the system of agricultural education prepared in April, 1907, by an ad- 

 visory commission on agricultural education, which became effective in Decem- 

 ber, 1907. 



The system comprises (1) higher instruction in agriculture by the faculties 

 of agriculture and veterinary science of the national universities at Buenos 

 Aires and lia Plata; (2) technical practical instruction in professional schools 

 of viticulture, arboriculture, sugar technology, agriculture, etc., of a distinctly 

 local character; (3) practical instruction for the future agriculturists, hoi'ticul- 

 turist, dairyman, etc., by regional schools of agriculture; and (4) extension 

 work, including courses for youths and adults, itinerant instruction, an infor- 

 mation service, cooperative experiments, local exhibits, aid to local agricultural 

 associations and syndicates, organization of regional " agronome.s," and instruc- 

 tion to soldiers. Brief accounts of the object and subjects of instruction of 

 individual schools ax"e given. 



