48 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



considerable part of them, for the training of teachers for this 

 kind of work" (36). This statement must be qualified for there 

 are many exceptions. For example, the Johnson State Normal 

 School of Vermont has been offering courses in agriculture for 

 over eight years, while the one at Laramie, Wyoming, recently 

 established, does not give courses in agriculture but prepares its 

 graduates to teach in cities. 



The number of graduates of state normal schools that teach 

 in agricultural communities varies exceedingly not only in 

 different states but among the schools of a single state. Re- 

 ports from seventy-six show that twenty-eight have from 60 

 to 100 per cent of their graduates 'going into schools of rural 

 communities; twenty-seven have from 20 to 50 per cent; and 

 twenty-one have from I to 10 per cent. Of the twenty-eight 

 having from 60 to 100 per cent of their graduates teaching in 

 rural communities, twenty are offering instruction in agriculture 

 and fifteen require it; of those having from 20 to 50 per cent, 

 twenty offer instruction in agriculture and nine require it; of 

 those having from i to 10 per cent, eleven offer agriculture and 

 three require it. If this proportion should apply to all the schools 

 it would seem to indicate that the number of graduates of normal 

 schools going into agricultural communities is quite large, per- 

 haps larger than generally supposed. It indicates also a tendency 

 of the schools to adapt their work, at least to the extent of intro- 

 ducing agriculture, to the needs of the communities where their 

 graduates teach. This estimate is only approximate and only 

 inferences may be drawn from it. It does not take into con- 

 sideration the large number of students who take a portion of the 

 course and who for the most part go into the country to teach. 

 One normal-school president says : "There are very few of our 

 graduates who teach in rural schools, but there are multitudes of 

 our undergraduates who do so." This statement suggests an- 

 other phase of the problem of normal-school instruction which 

 has received little or no attention, viz., what recognition in the 

 course of study or character of instruction should be given to the 



