94 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 36 



in 1792 of the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, which 

 still exists, is followed by a discussion of some characteristics of a state system 

 of agricultural education, the types of work to be recognized, the groups of 

 persons to be reached, and the scope and administration of and necessary ma- 

 chinery for agricultural education. 



County training schools in Alabama, J, L. Sibley {South. Workman, 45 

 {1916), No. 7, pp. Ji0y-Jil2, figs. 6).— This article describes a new type of school 

 for negro youth, known as the county training school, which is being developed 

 in the South in cooperation with a number of educational agencies. 



The schools cover from 8 to 10 gi-ades of work and offer three courses, viz, 

 agriculture for boys, household arts for girls, and teacher training during the 

 last year for those who desire to teach in the rural schools of the county. In 

 Alabama three schools are already in operation. 



As soon as funds permit each school is to have a teacher's home so that 

 the school can be made the center of community life. The aim has been to 

 secure some 10 acres of land for the school site and small demonstration plat. 

 Extensive agricultural work is not to be done on the school grounds, as if is 

 thought that club work with boys and girls at their homes and demonstration 

 work with their parents will prove more effective. 



The principals and industrial teachers are employed by the year, the purpose 

 being to have them work in the community during the summer vacation months. 

 During the past two years annual farmers' conferences, annual county teachers' 

 institutes, and community fairs have been held at the schools. Two of the 

 schools will give short summer courses for teachers now at work in the county. 

 A supervising industrial teacher makes her nominal headquarters at the school, 

 but works mainly out in the rural communities. One or two days of each 

 month she devotes to the training school, helping the teachers in their industrial 

 classes, and addresing the students on the needs of the rural schools. 



Decline and fall of a state system of boys' and girls' agricultural clubs, 

 J. Main (School and Soc, 3 {191G). Xo. 67, pp. 5U-520, fig. i).— The author de- 

 scribes the system of boys' and girls' agricultural clubs in operation at the 

 Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College until the fall of 1914, when the 

 Federal system of clubs was substituted for it. He considers the following 

 peculiarities of this state system as contributing to the decline of the club move- 

 ment : The unfortunate conception of a " club " ; overemphasis of prizes to the 

 exclusion of the educational purposes of the organization ; disproportionate 

 prizes or a lack of careful supervision in the application of prizes to avoid over- 

 emphasizing some things to the exclusion of others equally important ; misfit 

 projects and failure to induce local initiative; propriety of scholarships based 

 on projects; inflation of membership; and political connections. The author 

 finds that the system " as a projiaganda did a great deal of good to the college 

 and to its membership by making a place for the club idea, as well as in the 

 lessons to be learned from its shortcomings. But the time always comes to a 

 propaganda when it should give place to more conservative and constructive 

 organization. And that time has arrived for all pha.ses of agricultural edu- 

 cation." 



School gardening a fundamental factor in education, \j. H. Harvet 

 (Nature-Study Rev., 12 (1016), No. 4, pp. nS-lSS). —Tho author, in analyzing 

 the inlUiences of soil contact as it reacts upon the child, holds that garden work 

 is auto-educative to an extent unequaled by any influence which the graded 

 school can bring to bear upon the child ; creates producers, instills civic interest, 

 and engenders the esthetic ; develops the faculty of cooperation ; fosters adapta- 

 bility, resourcefulness, and self-reliance; and forms the missing link between 

 the home and the school. 



