ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART XI 651 



And that bacteria in general are agents for good rather than ill, 

 without them plant and animal life would be impossible on the face of 

 the earth. 



FARMERS* INSTITUTES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



Out of every 500 young people in the country districts in the United 

 States only one ever enters an agricultural college. Of every 100 rural 

 and urban children only five ever reach the high school and only six 

 ever go beyond the elementary schools. Ninety-four out of every 100 

 children therefore finish their education with the district school. Inas- 

 much as these 94 children include those in cities and towns as well as those 

 of the country districts, and since city and town children continue 

 longer in school than do those of the country, it is safe to say that fully 

 97 out of every 100 rural boys and girls finish their education with the 

 district school. 



In order to reach the 499 out of every 500 rural boys and girls 

 who can not go to an agricultural college, and yet in whom some attach- 

 ment for and interest in rural life should be inculcated, there has devel- 

 oped quite generally a demand for the introduction into the rural schools 

 of subjects that will educate in the direction of appreciation of rural 

 life and its opportunities instead of confining the teaching as hitherto 

 to studies that ignore the country and direct the scholar's attention to 

 the occupations of the towns and cities. 



AGRICULTURE IN THE BURAL SCHOOLS. 



The first effort to meet this demand was made by the town and city 

 schools through the introduction of topics which later were all embraced 

 under the term "nature study." After the value and practicability of 

 this new feature in education had been demonstrated by the towns and 

 cities, rural school authorities became interested and a few of the more 

 progressive introduced it into their course of studies. 



The rural school began its work of agricultural instruction by directing 

 the scholars' attention to some of the simplest and most common natural 

 objects in the neighborhood of the school itself. Gradually this was 

 extended to critical observation of various phenomena in the growth and 

 development of plants and animals. Later, elementary text-books on 

 these and other subjects connected with rural life were introduced and 

 studied. 



Among the country schools, however, only the most favorably situated 

 have been able to conduct even elementary work along this line. There 

 are several reasons for this. The subject is new in school work with 

 children, and the majority of public school teachers are not prepared 

 to give instruction in agriculture because until recently there was no 

 demand for such instruction and consequently no provision had been 

 made either for qualifying a teaching force for imparting it or for 



