12 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



The educational work of this Office is now organized into two branches, 

 one dealing with agricultural colleges and schools and the other with fann- 

 ers' institutes and other forms of extension work in agriculture. The 

 work of the Office relating to agricultural colleges and schools includes 

 four general classes: (i) The collection and publication of information 

 regarding the progress of agricultural education at home and abroad; 

 (2) studies of different grades of American and foreign schools in which 

 agriculture is taught; (3) work in co-operation with the Association of 

 Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations and other important asso- 

 ciations dealing with educational matters ; and (4) the giving aid to agricul- 

 tural colleges and local school authorities along the lines of agricultural 

 education. This work is in charge of Mr. D. J. Crosby, as specialist in 

 agricultural education. 



This branch of the Office conducts a department of agricultural educa- 

 tion in the Experiment Station Record (17), prepares and publishes statistics, 

 courses of study, circulars of information, and other literature relating to 

 agricultural education, aids state and local school authorities in organizing 

 agricultural courses in schools and colleges and in securing competent teach- 

 ers, takes part in important agricultural conventions and conferences, aids 

 teachers in securing suitable agricultural literature for their work, and, in 

 short, acts as a clearing-house for agricultural education in this country 

 (16, pp. 7, 8). 



The work of the Office dealing with farmers' institutes and 

 extension work is in charge of Professor John Hamilton, farm- 

 ers' institute specialist Although all the work undertaken by 

 this branch of the Office has to do with agricultural education 

 as presented to adults, it also reaches the public schools indirectly 

 through correspondence with persons interested in agricultural 

 education by distributing agricultural literature, by preparing 

 and editing bulletins, illustrated lectures, and courses of study 

 for movable schools of agriculture (133, 143). In the movable 

 schools of agriculture a course is offered for country school 

 teachers including nature-study, school gardens and grounds, 

 and school architecture, and sanitation (18, p. 6). 



The attitude and interest of the Department toward unifying 

 our educational system, in so far as it concerns agriculture and 

 country life, into a complete system extending from the ele- 

 mentary schools, through the secondary schools, into the col- 



