5Q AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



only a little agriculture in connection with other science courses. 

 Eight were doing still more in connection with school gardens 

 and were planning to extend the work. The remaining forty- 

 six were giving definite courses in agriculture (64). 



During 1909-10 of one hundred and thirty-seven state normal 

 schools, eighty-seven were giving some instruction in agriculture. 

 In fifty-two of those offering courses, twenty-two made it 

 elective and thirty required it. Of those not giving (instruction 

 in agriculture, thirty-seven gave it incidentally in connection with 

 botany, nature-study, or some other course in science, and nearly 

 all those giving courses in agriculture also gave some attention 

 to the subject in other science work, particularly in botany and 

 nature-study. 



It will be seen from the above that normal schools are rapidly 

 introducing agriculture. The number of schools offering such 

 courses has increased from about 20 per cent in 1906 to more 

 than 50 per cent in 1909. Indeed, the demand for well-qualified 

 instructors in agriculture for normal schools exceeds the supply. 

 One normal-school president says that he tried for over one year 

 to secure a competent instructor. Davenport says : "The call is 

 sharp from the normal schools of the Middle West which have 

 this year (1909) taken some of the best trained and most 

 promising teachers of this class" (65, p. 144). The call is not 

 alone from the Middle West but the East as well. During the 

 present school year one of the normal schools of the Atlantic 

 Coast states secured a teacher who, at the time of his appointment, 

 was professor of agricultural education in an agricultural college 

 of the Middle West. 



Letters from presidents and others connected with normal 

 schools not now (1910) offering agricultural instruction indicate 

 that in many of these schools plans are under way to introduce the 

 subject as soon as possible. Included in this number are the 

 normal schools of New York and Pennsylvania, none of which 

 now (1910) offers such instruction except incidentally with 

 nature-study and other subjects. 



