704 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOKD. IVol. 36 



tion hitherto unreached directly by the Federal Government. On the 

 one hand, by offering instruction along vocational lines and of sub- 

 collegiate grade, it supplements the Morrill Act, the expressed 

 purpose of which is to maintain colleges "to teach such branches 

 of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts .... 

 in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the in- 

 dustrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." On 

 the other hand, since it contemplates a system of training in the 

 schools, it also supplements the Agricultural Extension Act of 1914, 

 in which the service provided is " the giving of instruction and prac- 

 tical demonstrations in agriculture and home economics to persons 

 not attending or resident in state colleges in the several communities." 

 Since it imposes definite requirements as to the training of teachers, 

 it also represents a material extension of authority over the purely 

 permissive provisions of the Nelson Amendment of 1907. 



The principle of extending financial aid to education through the 

 States rather than by direct appropriations to institutions is again 

 adhered to, as is also that of requiring expenditures by the States or 

 local communities on a dollar-for-dollar basis. The States may, 

 however, if they desire, accept the benefits of the act only for agri- 

 culture or for the trades and industries, thereby receiving funds and 

 assuming obligations accordingly. It would thus be unnecessary for 

 States desiring federal appropriations only for vocational training 

 in the trades and industries to maintain a system of vocational train- 

 ing in agriculture, or vice versa. This feature is of course quite 

 different from the provisions of the Morrill Acts, which contemplate 

 for each State the maintenance of instruction in both the mechanic 

 arts and agriculture, and attempt no division of funds between the 

 two branches. 



The most radical innovation in the act deals with the method of its 

 administration. Previous legisla*;ion along these lines has regarded 

 the college of agriculture and mechanic arts as the state unit, whether 

 for college instruction under the Morrill Acts and acts supplementary 

 thereto, the preparation of teachers under the Nelson Amendment, 

 the conducting of research in agriculture under the Hatch and Adams 

 Acts, or the carrying on in cooperation with the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture of extension work in agriculture and home economics 

 under the Extension Act. The administration of those measures 

 dealing with college instruction has centered in the Department of 

 the Interior, and of those dealing with research and extension work 

 in agriculture in the Department of Agriculture. The vocational 

 education act in both respects establishes a new administrative 

 system. 



