944 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



agriculture in a high school. Boys who are planning to pursue the 

 agricultural course in the university can now take elementary work in 

 the high school without endangering their standing for entrance to the 

 university. It is believed that this recognition will stimulate the 

 offering of agricultural subjects in the high schools, and that advan- 

 tage will be taken of this opportunity by a considerable number of 

 pupils. Several of the schools have shown an interest in agricultural 

 work and desired to introduce it, but have been deterred by the neces- 

 sity of meeting the requirements in the subjects credited. 



A somewhat conditional victory in this direction has also been 

 gained in New York State. There the State regents of education 

 determine what subjects are to be credited in the regents' examinations 

 for entrance to colleges or universities in the State, and agriculture 

 has not been included in the list. Naturally no other subjects would 

 be offered at high schools except as electives, and pupils fitting for 

 college would not be likely to take such elective studies with no 

 chance for credit. This has handicapped the college of agriculture at 

 Cornell in its efforts to extend the teaching of nature study and ele- 

 mentary agriculture in the public schools, and that institution has 

 brought its influence to bear upon the regents of education. At a 

 meeting held last winter the regents decided to allow credits in the 

 regular high school courses for nature study and elementary agricul- 

 ture, provided the courses in these subjects were so prepared as to 

 show educational values comparable with other subjects now recog- 

 nized. Since this announcement the faculty of the college of agricul- 

 ture has been at work on the syllabi of courses in the subjects under 

 consideration, with a view to securing their approval by the board of 

 regents. In that case it is expected that several of the high schools 

 will offer elective courses in agriculture, which will enable them the 

 better to prepare students for the higher agricultural work of the 

 college. 



It was the contention at the meeting of the Association of American 

 Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations at Des Moines last fall, 

 that the public schools should lead up to the agricultural colleges us 

 they now do to colleges of arts and sciences; and Doctor Jesse explained 

 that in Missouri "we are risking our entire future on the doctrine 

 that the college of agriculture should rest on the public high school, 

 and we are going to make the public high school agricultural so far as 

 it ought to be agricultural." The recognition of agriculture as a teach- 

 ing subject and as having an educational value will do much to bring 

 about this desired end. It will bring elementary and advanced work 

 in agriculture closer together, and will articulate the agricultural col- 

 lege and the high school as they have not been before. 



