INTRODUCTORY NOTE 3 



In other cases the agricultural high school has differentiated 

 itself so completely from the conventional high school that 

 the students who graduate from these separate and distinct in- 

 stitutions have been unable to go forward to higher institutions. 

 All of these cases show the difficulty which is encountered in 

 organizing the work in agricultural education. 



One of the cardinal difficulties in the organization of agri- 

 cultural education is the lack of trained teachers. Teachers who 

 have grown up in the normal schools or those who go into the 

 profession from colleges and high schools without a normal 

 training, very seldom have practical experience adequate to give 

 them a comprehension of farm problems. On the other hand, 

 those who have practical experience find it difficult to secure the 

 scientific training which is necessary to make instruction in 

 farming sufficiently advanced to justify calling it a science. 

 The graduates of agricultural colleges are either so much in de- 

 mand for practical positions, or so poorly qualified for the special 

 work of teaching, that they do not enter upon the teaching 

 profession after they complete their agricultural course. The 

 result of this whole situation is that there are many efforts being 

 made to teach agriculture from textbooks, and these efforts are 

 being criticized by practical people and educators alike as too 

 abstract. In other quarters instruction lacks that systematic 

 and progressive character which can come only from the study 

 of the sciences upon which farming must ultimately rest. Prac- 

 tical farmers are no better teachers than the abstract students 

 of textbooks. The situation requires a careful correlating of 

 the different agencies that have been working in the direction 

 of a more scientific and at the same time more practical course 

 of study in agriculture. 



Professor Davis has attacked the problem of the co-ordina- 

 tion of all the agencies now at work on the problem of agri- 

 cultural education. He has performed in this book a service 

 which will be appreciated by all who have any large knowledge 

 of the problem and of the difficulties which the movement en- 



