196 EXPEKIMENT STATION RECORD. 



assistant commissioner of education in New York ; Rural School Supervision, 

 by N. C. ScbaeCfer, State superintendent of public instruction in Pennsylvania ; 

 and The Adjustment of Our School System to the Changed Conditions of the 

 Twentieth Century, by E. G. Cooley, late superintendent of schools in Chicago. 

 Each of these papers dealt in part with agricultural education and was fol- 

 lowed by from five to ten three-minute papers and by informal discussions. 



At the formal opening of the convention on Monday evening, the annual pres- 

 idential address by L. D. Harvey' dealt with The Need, Scope, and Character of 

 Industrial Education in the Public School System. The principal address at 

 the general session on Wednesday afternoon was on Education for the Im- 

 provement of Rural Conditions, by J. W. Robertson, president of Macdonald 

 College. 



Agricultural education came in for a large share of attention not only in the 

 papers mentioned above and in the programme of the department of rural and 

 agricultural education, but also in other departments of the association. Two 

 papers read before the department of secondary education dealt almost en- 

 tirely with agricultural education. These were Educational Unity and Its 

 Preservation while Meeting the Demands for Industrial Training, by Eugene 

 Davenport, of Illinois, and The Ethical Value of the Vocational in Secondary 

 Education, by F. H. Hall, of Illinois. In the department of normal schools 

 H. H. Seerley, chairman of the special committee on agricultural and indus- 

 trial education, discussed the Davis bill in its relation to noi-mal schools, and 

 in the department of manual training President W. J. Kerr, of the Oregon 

 College, discussed the question of trades school courses as related to agricul- 

 tural interests. In the department of science instruction, a paper on the prog- 

 ress in conservation, by H. A. Wlnkenwerder, professor of forestry in Colorado 

 College, was devoted largely to an appeal for instruction in forestry in the 

 public schools. 



The sessions of the department of rural and agricultural education were well 

 attended and the discussions on the different papers indicated a lively interest 

 in all matters pertaining to instruction in agriculture in public schools. The 

 programme of the first session included an address on Agricultural Education 

 for Rural Districts, by S. A. Knapp of this Dei)artment ; Some Means of Awak- 

 ening and Maintaining Interest in Agricultural and Other Industrial Education, 

 by E. E. P.alconib, of Oklahoma ; and National Aid in the Preparation of Teach- 

 ers of Agriculture for the Public Schools, by H. H. Seerley. 



The second session of this department was devoted to a round-table confer- 

 ence on How May the Rural Schools be More Closely Related to the Life and 

 Needs of the People? led by D. J. Crosby, of this Office, who was assisted in the 

 discussion by Dr. J. W. Robertson, president of Macdonald College; E. T. 

 Fairchild, of Kansas; J. D. Towar, of Wyoming; Mrs. Katherine M. Cook, of 

 Colorado ; and others. The topics discussed at this conference included the 

 impi'ovement of the equipment of rural schools, consolidation, the teaching of 

 agriculture, the organization of boys' agricultural clubs, and the training of 

 teachers to meet the new demands made upon them in rural districts. 



The third session of the department was devoted to business matters and to 

 the presentation and discussion of the following papers: The Present Status of 

 Agricultural Education in the Public Schools, by E. C. Bishop, of Nebraska ; 

 Some Factors in the Making of a High School Course in Agriculture, by Josiah 

 Main, of Tennessee ; and Agriculture for the Elementary Schools, by R. O. 

 Johnson, of California. A conunittee 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 



