400 EXPEKIMENT STATION KECOKD. 



work. E. C. Bishop, of tbe Iowa Ctollege, reported for the committee on courses 

 of study in agriculture. Among the features especially considered were a uni- 

 form coui-se of study, development of project work, home and school gardouing, 

 farm management, farm mechanics, agricultural booklets, community surveys, 

 boys' and girls' clubs, preparation of teachers, use of the textbook, the made-up 

 text and theme book, and personal, home, and community hygiene. 



The department of rural and agricultural education held a joint session with 

 the department of normal schools, at which points relative to the conduct and 

 management of these institutions and the aid they can be to each other were 

 discussed. The discussion on What Ought to be Done in Pairal Education, 

 Social-Center Work, etc., in the Country School find in Rural Communities 

 was led by W. J. Hawkins, of the Warreusburg (Mo.) Normal School. Prof. 

 Hawkins believed that teachers in rural schools should be able to adapt them- 

 selves to local conditions, and that agriculture in the normal school should be 

 so coordinated as to allow any pupil to elect agriculture for its general benefits. 

 D. W. Plays, president of the state normal school at Peru, Nebr., read a paper 

 on What the Normal School Can Do and Ought to Do With the Training of 

 Teachers for Rural Communities, advocating that particular attention be paid 

 to those students who intend to teach in rural districts. 



At the first session of the School Garden Association of America the present 

 status of the work in the United States was discussed by L. R. Alderman, of 

 Portland, Oreg. ; Louise Klein Miller, of Cleveland, Ohio ; and United States 

 Commissioner of Education Claxton. Instances where it is particularly pro- 

 gressive were cited, as well as the obstacles which lie in the path of its de- 

 velopment. The speakers agreed that this work has spread rapidly and is 

 now being pushed in all sections of the country with great diligence, and 

 prophesied that within a reasonable time it will become one of the important 

 features of the daily school curriculum. At another session Miss Alice Joyce 

 outlined school garden work in Oregon and more especially in Portland, where 

 an interesting feature is a juvenile market, open daily, to which children may 

 bring vegetables from the gardens; cakes, bread, or jelly they have made; fruit 

 they have picked ; and even pets they have raised or wish to dispose of. 



A. Kennedy, of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, spoke on The Rural School Gar- 

 dens. Three plans of financing have been tried in Canada. The first was the 

 tstablishing of the Macdonald rural school fund in 1903. So long as this fund 

 was available the movement prospered, but it censed as soon as the fund was 

 withdrawn. The second plan consisted of grants by the provincial govern- 

 ments to school districts, or bonuses to teachers, but this point of attack is 

 failing because it arouses only an artificial interest. The third plan is to ap- 

 peal directly to the people for assistance through the usual school taxes. In 

 this way it is possible to interest all of the people and have them realize that 

 school gardening is essentially educational. 



C. A. Duniway, president of the University of Wyoming, presided over a 

 meeting of the department of higher education, at which a paper on Relation 

 of the Agricultural College to the State Normal School was presented by A.shley 

 Van Storm, of the University of Minnesota. President Hamilton, of the Mon- 

 tana College; President Kerr, of the Oregon College; Prof. Merrill, of the 

 Utah College; and C. H. Lane, of this Department, participated in the ensuing 

 discussion. 



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