192 EXPEEIMENT STATION RECORD. 



the secondary scbool course. . . . The course is primarily a cultural one. It 

 can be so organized as to give great breadth of view." 



Vocational training in agriculture, on the other hand, is defined to mean such 

 training as obviously results in mastery of the practice of farming. " It is clear 

 that a secondary school student can be directly and positively equipped for the 

 practice of farming in a school designed for this purpose. In order, however, 

 chat agricultural education may result in vocational efliciency. certain conditions 

 are essential : The pupil must give the major portion of his time to concentrated 

 work in this subject; he must not only have practical work, occupying at least 

 half of his time, but his practical work must itself be carried on in large 

 measure subject to commercial conditions; that is, he must produce a definite 

 output and must be able to appreciate the result of his own efforts in terms of 

 profit or loss; he must focus his attention upon the agriculture which is profit- 

 able in the neighborhood in which he lives ; and such related studies as science, 

 mathematics, accounting, economics, etc., must be held strictly subordinate to 

 and intimately related, with the practical work which he is doing." 



The greatest danger to agricultural education, as brought out in this discus- 

 sion of the two types of agricultural education, is that efforts will be made to 

 identify them. " Too many educators still think that vocational elficiency can 

 result from three or five hours per week of verbal instructions in a practical 

 subject. It is for this reason that the public often becomes impatient with the 

 schoolmaster's academic attitude. Most of the agricultural instruction now 

 found in high schools has absolutely no significance in a vocational way. apart 

 from its incidental contributions to the development of vocational ideals. Too 

 many school men are at present palming off on the public bookish courses in 

 agriculture which are certainly a delusion from the vocational point of view. 



" Vocational education in agriculture is going to prove expensive as an in- 

 vestment, but it must be regarded as an investment. If rightly conducted it will 

 bring back to the individual taking it and to the community sustaining it, mani- 

 fold returns within a few years." 



"New York high school course in farm mechanics and drawing, F. W. 

 Howe (Syracusan, Ii {1912), No. 7, pp. 25-32). — This paper differentiates in a 

 fundamental way the high school course in farm mechanics from that in manual 

 training. 



A course in farm mechanics aims " not so much at personal skill of hand as 

 at the understanding and application of mechanical principles in farm work, 

 and its products are designed to be put to the test of practical use rather than 

 to satisfy mere esthetic standards. It prefers, for example, to produce a me- 

 chanically correct ' evener ' rather than an artistically correct dove-tailed joint 

 on an inlaid collar box. It builds a concrete walk rather than a china closet. 

 It designs the model of a farm gate or a gasoline engine rather than a hand 

 loom. It constructs a set of farmers' bulletin cases rather than an ornamental 

 pen tray. It makes a serviceable grafting tool in preference to a carved paper 

 knife. It does not discourage skill and good workmanship, but it saves time 

 to develop the ' know how ' to attack all sorts of problems that the handy man 

 on the farm is expected to solve. It does not teach the ' use of tools,' but it 

 uses tools in the construction of things that are themselves to be used." 



Course of study and manual of methods for the district schools of Michi- 

 gan, L. L. Wright {Lansing, Mich.: State Supt. Pub. Instr., 1912, 10. ed., pp. 

 160, pis. 2, figs. 25). — This edition of the course of study outlines for the first 

 time a plan of work in elementary agriculture for the rural schools of 

 Michigan. 



