10 AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS IN UNITED STATES. 



To further promote vocational education throughout the United 

 States, Congress passed in 1917 the Smith-Hughes Vocational Educa- 

 tion Act, under which Federal funds, offset by State funds, are provided 

 for secondary instruction in agriculture, home economics, trades, and 

 other industries and for the training of teachers of these subjects. 



FEDERAL AGENCIES PROMOTING EDUCATION. 



The Bureau of Education of the Department of the Interior promotes 

 education in a broad way throughout the United States by the collec- 

 tion and dissemination of statistical and other information regarding 

 the organization and work of universities, colleges, and schools in this 

 and other countries. It has the administration of the Federal acts 

 granting funds to the State land-grant colleges and has charge of the 

 public schools in Alaska. Its publications contain considerable infor- 

 mation regarding education in agriculture and home economics. 



The Federal Board for Vocational Education administers the Federal 

 vocational education act (Smith-Hughes Act) and studies and reports 

 on the problems of vocational education in agriculture, home economics, 

 trades, and other industries. 



The United States Department of Agriculture, besides administering 

 the Smith-Lever Extension Act and cooperating with the State agri- 

 cultural colleges in carrying on extension work in agriculture and home 

 economics, has a division in the States Relations Service which prepares 

 subject matter and illustrative material in form for the immediate uses 

 of teachers in schools where agriculture is taught. It cooperates with 

 the Bureau of Education, Federal Board for Vocational Education, 

 State departments of education, and agricultural colleges in studying 

 the problems of agricultural education and the preparation of agricul- 

 tural courses for secondary and elementary schools. 



AGENCIES FOR RESEARCH IN AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS. 



The principal agencies for research in agriculture and home economics 

 are the United States Department of Agriculture and the State agri- 

 cultural experiment stations. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The Department of Agriculture, under the act of Congress of 1862 

 establishing it, has authority "to acquire and to diffuse among the 

 people of the United States useful information on subjects connected 

 with agriculture in the most general and comprehensive sense of that 

 word." Subsequent laws have enlarged its functions by establishing 

 within it regulatory and service agencies, some of which have duties 

 outside the agricultural field. In 1889 the department was raised to 

 the first rank, having at its head a member of the President's Cabinet. 



