74 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



It has been said that a feminine toilet table is an altar raised by 

 vanity to self-love. This Institute is something far more important — 

 it is an altar raised by co-operation to self-development. Your co- 

 operation in it is for your betterment, and not only this, but for the 

 advancement of us, your fellow citizens in this great commonwealth of 

 Michigan. 



THE TREND OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



L. H. BAILEY, PROFESSOR OF HORTICULTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



The speaker outlined the present day movements in education, ex- 

 plaining the meaning of the extension idea, and specifying ways in 

 which the higher education is taken directly to the people. Originally, 

 education was aristocratic. It was the privilege of the few. Universi- 

 ties were established before common schools. It is only within the last 

 century that it has become an axiom that everyone should be educated. 

 The general trend of education, therefore, is from the top downwards. 

 In the course of his remarks the speaker gave an outline of the history 

 of agricultural education, some of the leading points of which are 

 specified below: 



The first distinct advance in the actual teaching of common-life sub- 

 jects to common people, seems to have been that of the great Francke, 

 16G3 to 1727, at Halle, Saxony. He was the center of the Pietist move- 

 ment, which sought to impress the spiritual aspect of religion into 

 teaching. He was deeply interested in the poor and the orphans, and 

 established schools for them. To these pupils, aside from the regular 

 subjects, "there should be taught out of school hours, and particularly 

 in excursions or walks," according to Rein, all kinds of useful knowl- 

 edge, *'as it were by play," 



With this came the beginnings of manual training, since the orphans 

 during their leisure hours were required to grind with the hand mill, 

 to work in- the house, kitchen and garden, to sew, knit, card wool and 

 spin. The plan of studies of these schools was first published in 1G97. 

 The educational and philanthropic enterprises set on foot by Francke 

 are still in existence at Halle. 



The ideas of Francke spread and prospered; and many fearless inno- 

 vators espoused them. Into this awakening consciousness came Ferdi- 

 nand Kindermann, "father of industrial education," He w^as a Bohe- 

 mian. His teaching attracted the attention of Maria Theresa, who, to- 

 wards the close of her reign, inaugurated, in the language of S. Gr, 

 Williams, "a work for schools such as no crowned head had ever 

 dreamed of." Her educational reforms were in the hands of Von Fel- 

 biger. The purpose Avas to popularize education. Kindermann had in 

 troduced hand work into his parish schools in 1771. 



Even before Kindermann had established his technical school train- 

 ing, distinct progress had been made in the undertaking of agricultural 

 education. These early attempts were necessarily supported by indi- 

 viduals, societies or religious bodies, for the era of state aid for general 



