PROGRESS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION TN AGRICULTURE. 937 



secondary instruction in agriculture. It is believed, therefore, that 

 the public high schools in or near the rural communities should offer 

 courses of instruction in agriculture. These schools draw heavih' 

 upon the adjacent rural comnuinities for their students and should 

 modify their courses accordingly. In order to point out the feas- 

 il)ility of introducing ag'ricultural courses into the high school pro- 

 grammes, the committee on methods of teaching agriculture of the 

 Association of American Agricvdtural Colleges and Experiment Sta- 

 tions, in its report to the convention of the association held at Atlanta, 

 Ga. , in October, 1902, outlined a number of high-school courses in 

 which agricultural topics were included. These were intended to 

 .show that such courses may be offered in the high schools without 

 any violent or radical reorganization of existing programmes for such 

 schools, the agricultural subjects, as a rule, taking the place of Latin 

 or Greek in the smaller schools and being offered as electives in the 

 schools where the elective system prevails. 



At present the problem of obtaining proper!}' (jualitied teachers for 

 this work is a serious one. Most of the teachers now employed in the 

 public high schools have been trained in literary and scientific institu- 

 tions or in technical schools where no agricultui'c lias been taught. 

 It is only now and then that a teacher is found who is in real sympa- 

 thy with agricultural education. Text- books on agricultural siil^jocts, 

 suitable for secondary schools, are also extremely scarce; l)ut the 

 trained teachers will appear and suitable text-books will be provided 

 when the demand for these grows strong enough. What is especially 

 needed now is an organized propaganda through the agricultural col- 

 leges, agricultural societies, boards of agriculture, farmers' institutes, 

 the agricultural press, and other agencies, with a view to impressing 

 on school oflicers and teachers and on the agricultural masses the impor- 

 tance and desirability of giving serious and active attention to this 

 matter. Every successful effort to maintain an agricultural high 

 school or an agricultural course in a public high school will add 

 momentum to this movement. When the advantages to be derived 

 from agricultural high schools and secondary courses in agriculture in 

 public high schools are once clearly demonstrated in a fcAV places, it 

 will not be difficult to persuade the taxpayers generally to contribute 

 the necessary funds for their maintenance. 



Technical education has proved a sure road to connuercial develop- 

 ment and greatly increased wealth in connection with every industry 

 which has received its benefits. It will prove equally so as regards 

 agriculture. The tremendously productive results which have already 

 come from the work of the agricultural colleges and experiment sta- 

 tions may be multiplied a hundredfold by introducing into the sec- 

 ondary schools definite and systematic teaching of the technique and 

 scientific principles of agriculture. 



