AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXTENSION WORK 39 



Doubtless many individuals connected with agricultural col- 

 leges had put this idea into practice and had helped to introduce 

 agricultural subjects in some of the public schools long before 

 any college took official notice of this means of extension. The 

 first college to take this matter up was the Agricultural College 

 of Cornell University. Reference has already been made to 

 this work under the Nixon law of 1897.* It assumed consider- 

 able importance at once. The report of 1898 concerning this 

 work says : 



Thirty thousand teachers are enrolled on our lists and have received 

 leaflets, and many have attended lectures explaining the methods of pre- 

 senting nature-study work in the schools. Sixteen thousand children have 

 received those leaflets which are especially adapted to their needs (24, p. 

 1611). 



This work is administered by a department of the college 

 known as the Nature-Study Bureau and consists of publications, 

 correspondence, organization of boys' and girls' clubs, and lec- 

 tures and demonstrations for teachers. Other agricultural col- 

 leges soon took up similar work in their respective states until 

 now nearly all are doing more or less extension work among the 

 public schools. At present agricultural colleges are assisting 

 agricultural education in the elementary and secondary schools 

 (a) by various extension methods, (b) by organizing depart- 

 ments of agricultural education, and (c) by conducting summer 

 schools for teachers. 



Extension methods vary somewhat in different states. This 

 is probably due to differences in local conditions, state support, 

 and policies of the colleges themselves. Usually each college 

 develops one particular method of reaching the schools although 

 it may use several. Several colleges follow the Cornell plan 

 (37> 38) of regular publications for teachers and pupils, for 

 example, the agricultural colleges of California (39), Kansas 

 (40), Ohio (41), New Hampshire (42), Rhode Island (43), 

 and West Virginia (44). Purdue University, Indiana, and 

 Pennsylvania State College published regularly for a while 



1 Chap, iii, p. 25. 



