AGBICULTUBAL EDUCATION. 297 



or farm institute where the teacliers would receive free instruction and their 

 ordinary pay; (3) local education authorities should encourage rural teachers 

 by making their pay more nearly equal to that of town teachers; (4) the cur- 

 riculum of the rural secondary schools should be modified to include special 

 courses in rural subjects for bursars and other intending rural teachers, and 

 (5) additional aid should be given to county local education authorities to 

 enable them to carry out the suggestions made. Summaries of evidence are 

 appended. 



Seventh report of the Rural Education Conference on manual instruction 

 in rural elementary schools and the individual examination of children in 

 rural elementary schools {London: Bd. Agr. and Fisheries and Bd. Ed., 19 IS, 

 pp. 23). — This seventh report of the Rural Education Conference is devoted to 

 a consideration of (1) the possibility and advisability of introducing manual 

 instruction, i. e., instruction in cookery, laundering, housewifery, dairying, and 

 gardening for girls, and gardening, handicraft, and light woodwork for boys, 

 and (2) the initiation of a system of periodical individual examination of 

 children in rural elementary schools. The conference recommends that the 

 county education authorities encourage the gradual introduction of the manual 

 method of teaching into these schools. Summaries of evidence are appended. 



Agricultural education in Prussia (Jour. Bd. Agr. [London}, 20 (1913), 

 No. 1, pp. 1-lJf). — This is a short account of elementary agricultural education 

 in Prussia and of the facilities provided at the present time for educating 

 farmers' sons. 



Attention is called to the tendency shown by winter schools to increase and 

 by the lower agricultural schools to decrease. " The important inference would 

 appear to be that schools with farms attached have been shown to be for the 

 most part not necessary as long as the class from which the students are taken 

 is an agricultural one ; in cases where they are not so drawn the argument 

 applies, or does not apply, according to whether a period of apprenticeship is, 

 or is not, required, before attending .such a school." 



Special reference is also made to " the decentralization of lower agricultural 

 education and the payment of a small fixed sum as state aid with indirect 

 assistance given in the form of grants for peripatetic work. This system 

 appears to have worked well as soon as the local authorities and local agricul- 

 tural societies had realized their responsibilities in the matter." The agri- 

 cultural education facilities offered in Prussia are regarded as " suitable to the 

 various classes requiring them, and are so arranged as to correspond to the needs 

 of these particular classes, but do not supply anything in the shape of an 

 educational ladder." 



[Agriculture for teachers] (Bui. Okla. Agr. and Mech. Col., 8 (1912), No. 

 36, pp. 4, figs. 3; 9 (1912), Nos. 38, pp. 2; 39, pp. 2; 41, pp. 2; 42, pp. 2; 43, pp. 2; 

 9 (1913), Nos. 44, pp. 2; 46, pp. 2; 49, pp. 2).— These issues of the teachers' 

 series of bulletins comprise the following topics : Nature study — the experience 

 of an Oklahoma school teacher, how to secure literature on agriculture and 

 domestic science — rural school reading table and library suggestions, school 

 district agricultural resources, nature's cycle, hibernation of insects, the role 

 of organic matter and micro-organisms in the soil, suggestions from nature in 

 rearing and feeding dairy stock, relative economy of food producing farm 

 animals, and the planting of trees. 



[Agricultural instruction for the teachers of Porto Rico] (Agr. Col. 

 Weekly [P. R.], 1 (1912), Nos. 3, pp. 13-16; 4, pp. 17-23, fig. 1; 5, pp. 25-28; 6, 

 pp. 29-32; 7, pp. 33-36; figs. 3; 8, pp. 37-40; 9, pp. 41-48, fig. 1; 10, pp. 49-52; 

 11, pp. 53-56, figs. 2; 12, pp. 57-60, fig. 1; 13, pp. 61-64, figs. 3; 14, pp. 65-68, 

 figs. 2; 15, pp. 69-80; 1 (1913), Nos. 16, pp. 81-88, figs. 7; 17, pp. 89-92; 18, 



