198 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 35 



a plea for a national commission to study the farm home and the farm woman, 

 and a resolution requesting President Wilson to appoint such a commission was 

 adopted by the association. 



In a paper before the Department of Rural and Agricultural Education, 

 M. C. Burritt, state leader of farm bureaus for New York, enumerated as 

 among the fundamentals in agricultural extension to-day the following: (1) 

 Local responsibility for and partnership in any plan for the education of adult 

 farmers and the development and organization of rural communities is essen- 

 tial. This may be obtained through a county farmers' association which has 

 joint power and responsibility with the representative of the agricultural col- 

 lege in the management of the work. (2) The most efficient way to work in 

 a specific community is through a community group and through local workers, 

 as through a county advisory council with representatives in each community. 

 (3) If the work is to be permanent, local initiative must be encouraged and 

 developed and local leadership further trained and connected up with indi- 

 viduals of organizations in such a way that the work will be continuous and 

 effective. This may also be done through the advisory council. (4) Experience 

 indicates that the most effective method of teaching the best agricultural 

 science, practice and organization, is that of the " demonstration." This is 

 worked out in the farm bureau movement in New York State through local 

 cooperators and the advisory council. 



Field Exercises in Their Relation to Agricultural Teaching was the title of a 

 paper by K. C. Davis, in which he maintained that agriculture must be kept a 

 practical subject. Although agriculture is founded on both practice and science, 

 he held that there is danger that in an effort to make agriculture a culture sub- 

 ject many schools will fail to maintain the practical side. The more practical 

 phases may be given to the students through field exercises with soils, crops, 

 orchards, live stock, machinery, etc., and through laboratory exercises, school 

 and home demonstrations, and school and home projects. When the values of 

 these methods of training and instruction are neglected the instruction may 

 become too theoretical and too abstract and receive the criticism of being 

 bookish. The paper suggested many concrete examples of field exercises, among 

 them the identification of annual weeds in cultivated fields, making a school 

 collection of ripe weed seeds, laying out drainage lines, collecting and studying 

 nodules on roots of legumes, mapping, replanning, and remapping the farm, 

 determining the expense for extra fencing on a poorly planned farm, comparing 

 several farms with reference to methods or places for starting fruits, root crops, 

 corn, small grain, and other staple products, and comparing farms in regard to 

 the benefits of shrubbery, vines, and flowers used in beautifying the grounds. 



L. H. Dennis spoke on The Home Project in Secondary School Agriculture, 

 concluding that " the home project is an integral part of the scheme to furnish 

 specific preparation for life on the farm. ... To eliminate the home project 

 from the vocational agricultural course would be equivalent to removing the 

 means whereby theory and practice meet. While the home project idea has 

 already been extensively developed, its possibilities have by no means been 

 exhausted." 



E. M. Tuttle described Rural School Extension Work by the New York State 

 College of Agriculture. This now embraces the department of rural education, 

 the publication of the Cornell Rural School Leaflet, and the junior home project 

 work, begun within the past year, and directed exclusively by the educational 

 authorities with the cooperation of other agencies. 



Ofiicers of this department of the association elected for the ensuing year 

 Include W. H. French, Michigan Agricultural College, president; Z. M. Smith, 



