EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 693 



different conditions in those regions and states. The main point is to get 

 a fundamental elementary education along agricultural lines. We have 

 recently been interested in the department of agriculture, in an effort 

 made last year to establish a secondary agricultural school in a rural com- 

 munity in Maryland, and it may be of some interest to you, if you have 

 not followed that movement, to learn something about that school, which 

 is a little different in some respects from other schools of the same class. 

 There was a rural community in Maryland which found itself without high 

 school advantages and the people began to be waked up and of their 

 own motion want the high school. They took up the question with the 

 school commissioners and the more they talked about it the more they 

 thought they wanted to have agriculture taught in their schools. So they 

 called upon the department of agriculture at Washington and also upon 

 the Maryland Agricultural College, and we found there the first man, a 

 man who had already had experience in teaching agriculture in secondary 

 schools, and so there was established at Calvert, Cecil county, Maryland, 

 a school known as the Calvert Agricultural High School, and Mr. H. 0. 

 Sampson was made the teacher. 



Now, this finally became a town enterprise, and local people put 

 money into it, the county commissioners making an appropriation, to 

 get the school established. They were also fortunate in finding a build- 

 ing ready for their enterprise, which had been used as a denominational 

 school, and which they were able to obtain at a nominal rent. The school 

 opened on the first Monday in November with thirty-two pupils enrolled, 

 in age from twelve to eighteen year. They were arranged in two classes, 

 the one with what would be the first year in a literary high school, and 

 the other with what would be the seventh grade as a preparatory class. 

 It was thought that one teacher would be enough, but the attendance 

 increased so fast that they were soon obliged to secure an assistant teacher, 

 the attendance finally reaching fifty-two. 



This is simply an example to show you what can be done where the 

 people are interested in agricultural education. That school has the ordi- 

 nary high school course — a considerable amount of English and math- 

 ematics, some literature, and science and history. In the last two years 

 they have either a modern language, German, perhaps, or Latin, if they 

 prefer it, and after the pupils have completed the course they are en- 

 titled to admission to the Maryland Agricultural College. Now, the agri- 

 cultural part of the work includes text-book studies, talks by the teacher 

 supplementing this, and also demonstrations and experiments in practical" 

 agriculture, tree-growing and pruning, corn growing, stock judging, and 

 so far as possible, the ordinary studies are so planned as to co-relate with 

 the agricultural studies, so that with arithmetic and physical geography 

 they also have agricultural work. Then, during the first year, special 

 prizes were offered to create more interest in agriculture. Then an agri- 

 cultural program was given, in which outside speakers tried to interest 

 the people in Farmers'- institutes. This was held in a little town about 

 four miles from the school, and the school went out there in big farm 

 wagons and the boys showed how they could judge corn and stock. Now, 

 one of the most interesting things about this school is the number of 

 pupils who took no interest in the ordinary school course, but when they 



