INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



Agricultural education is the most widely and energetically 

 cultivated form of industrial education in this country at the 

 present time. Federal and local grants have made possible 

 agricultural courses of different grades, and there is a large 

 body o>f literature relating to scientific agriculture. This de- 

 velopment of agricultural education is due, in the first place, 

 to the large number of people who are dependent upon agri- 

 culture for their livelihood. Any improvements which can be 

 made in the methods of raising crops or live stock are of im- 

 mediate importance to a large body of American citizens. In 

 the second place, the economic value of the products of agri- 

 culture has made it important for the community at large to 

 organdze agencies which shall improve agricultural conditions 

 throughout the country. Even the federal government has found 

 it expedient to organize bureaus of investigation, and these 

 bureaus of investigation have naturally come to be centers of 

 educational activity. There have thus arisen organized centers 

 for the collection and distribution of agricultural information. 

 In the third place, the social movement which has been carrying 

 the population in very large measure away from rural districts 

 to the cities has made everyone aware of the necessity of de- 

 veloping an educational system that shall make farm activities 

 attractive to intelligent and well-trained people. Finally, students 

 of education have come to see that the needs of children, quite 

 apart from the needs of society at large, dictate a greater em- 

 phasis upon outdoor experiences. The doctrine that children 

 need to come into contact with Nature has been presented in 

 different ways at different times. On the negative side it has 

 been said that children should be taken away from books and 

 from the artificial surroundings of large communities and should 

 be brought into contact with things and natural laws. This, 



