EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 897 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



Agricultural education and its relation to rural sociology, A. F. Woods 

 (A))icr. Jour. Sociol., J7 {19U), Ao. 5, /)/>. 6'j9-6GH). — Tlio author discusses the 

 rural school, hoUliuj; that " faulty education and educational methods are amonji; 

 the more fundamental of the limiting factors to proper social development;" 

 economic conditions, which necessitate the development of better conununity 

 life in rural districts generally; and educational methods, including as most 

 effective the movable schools, short courses, institutes, the farmers' club, the 

 grange and other similar organizations, and local demonstration farms. The 

 work of the last-named " has been carried out with skill and the results have 

 been clear, but the educational effect produced has been as a rule unsatis- 

 factory." The average man who came to view the demonstration farm, while 

 fully impressed with the importance of the work, went away with the feeling 

 that it was something beyond his capabilities." Hence, less attention has been 

 given to state demonstration farms and more to directing the individual farmer 

 in reorganizing his own farm. He is shownti how cooperative marketing adds 

 greatly to the profits. This leads to cooperative buying and other cooperative 

 efforts. 



State and national aid in the improvement of public roads, drainage, the dis- 

 semination of agricultural information, and the improvement of the school sys- 

 tem, especially along industrial lines, is regarded as a great stimulus to improve- 

 ment in many rural communities. A brief survey is given of the results of state 

 aid for instruction in agriculture in the high schools of Minnesota. The author 

 emphasizes the cooperation of all educational agencies, both state and national, 

 as a means of accomplishing a socialization of country life according to the best 

 American ideals. 



Sequence of science and agriculture in the high school, J. Main (School 

 aSc7. ^nd Math., 13 (WIS), No. 8, pp. 695-700).— In this consideration of the 

 problem of what the high school sciences shall be, the order in which they shall 

 be given, and how they shall be affected by the introduction of industrial sub- 

 jects such as agriculture, the author thinks that the final analysis of accurate 

 gradation and sequence of all rational school subjects will probably be found 

 to conform to muscular development. In agriculture all the subjects involve 

 the use of both large and small muscles. Subjects demanding more use of the 

 finer muscles come later in the course than those involving more use of the 

 coarser. Those requiring skill and accuracy of the larger muscles may often 

 have an early or late treatment or both. He suggests a sequence of agricul- 

 tural subjects according to this test of motor adjustment. 



A course in the natural history of the farm, J. G. Needham (Xature-Studp 

 Rev., 9 (1913), No. 6, pp. 170-114, fig. 1). — In view of a lack of appreciation in 

 his students of any relation between their previous nature work and the studies 

 in pure science which occupy chiefly the earlier years of their college course, 

 the author began in the spring of 1913 the preparation of a course on the natural 

 history of the farm which he gave in the fall to a class of 400 freshmen then 

 entering the New York State College of Agriculture. It consisted of one lec- 

 ture and one field trip a week and proved very satisfactory. The field work is 

 described. 



Field work records, J. G. Needham (Nature-Study Rri., 9 (1913), No. 7, 

 pp. 203-207). — ^The author requires 4 different sorts of field work records ac- 

 cording to the nature of the work involved, viz, drawings and structural dia- 

 grams, maps, tables, and annotated lists, each of which is briefly described. He 

 points out that a record of field work facilitates the accumulation and com- 



