EDITORIAL. 409 



from college work, with the establishment of standard requirements 

 for entrance to the latter and for graduation. This the colleges can 

 now do with less difficulty than ever before. Provision for secondary 

 instruction in agriculture is being made more rapidly each year, in 

 response to a popular demand. This demand has reached not onlj'^ 

 the public schools but private schools and academies and many en- 

 dowed colleges, especially in the central West. 



A recently prepared list shows that, aside from the colleges of 

 agriculture and mechanic arts, there are now fully eight hundred and 

 sixty institutions in the United States giving regular courses of in- 

 struction in agriculture, as compared with about five hundred and fifty 

 a year and a half ago. Of these nearly seven hundred fall in the class 

 of public and jDrivate high schools, normal schools, and academies, 

 and hence are offering instruction of secondary grade. In addition, 

 there are forty-four industrial and farm schools where agriculture is 

 taught, usualh' in a more elementary way. In an increasing number 

 of cases credit for admission to the colleges of the State is being given 

 for agricultural work done in the high schools and academies. 



These things show how vast has been the change in public senti- 

 ment and attitude toward agriculture as a teaching subject. They 

 furnish a striking illustration of the potent and far-reaching influence 

 wdiich the agricultural college has exerted. 



The recognition of agriculture as worthy of a place in the secondary 

 school curriculum, and the influence of teachers in thorough sympathy 

 with country life, will have a potent influence on the country boy. 

 The least value of such teaching would be through " trade " instruc- 

 tion and operations on the farm. But in opening the mind of the 

 student to the possibilities of improved agriculture and the better- 

 ment of country life, the aid which the intelligent farmer may have 

 through the experiment stations and other public agencies, and the 

 satisfaction, as well as profit, to be derived from the rational study 

 and practice of his art, the public schools may easily become a power- 

 ful factor toward holding young people on the farms and improving 

 farm practice on a wide scale. Such instruction will increase the 

 demand for extension work of the agricultural colleges, as well as 

 fill their halls with a much larger body of students. 



With the establishment of elementary and secondary courses in 

 agriculture in thousands of schools, the development of a thorough 

 system of extension teaching and demonstration, our agricultural 

 colleges and experiment stations can and will devote themselves to 

 the higher work for which they are especially organized. 

 31125— No. 5—10 2 



