60 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



are suggested as follows: "Inorganic arithmetic, oral lessons 

 in natural philosophy; organic geography, oral lessons in 

 natural history." 



These two references to the early discussions of industrial 

 education are given to show that the need of such instruction 

 was being considered at this time, and from a somewhat general 

 viewpoint which might include agriculture although it was not 

 specifically mentioned. The Department of Industrial Education, 

 however, gave its attention almost wholly to urban conditions. 

 Drawing and manual training held prominent places in the dis- 

 cussions of all the meetings. In 1890 the name of the Depart- 

 ment was very properly changed to Industrial and Manual 

 Training, and in 1899 to Manual Training. 



In 1893, at the International Congress of Education held 

 under the auspices of the Association, agriculture had a place 

 on the program (79) but the paper was read by a Russian. 

 Perhaps his account of the use of agriculture in the rural 

 schools as a school subject had something to do with direct- 

 ing the attention of the Association to the rural-school prob- 

 lem. At any rate, at the meeting of 1895 a committee of 

 twelve was appointed to investigate and report upon rural 

 schools as to maintenance, supervision, supply of teachers, and 

 instruction and discipline. 



The report was submitted to the meeting of 1897. It con- 

 tains a number of suggestions which involve more or less agri- 

 cultural instruction such as surface features of the earth includ- 

 ing soils, weather, plant and animal life, etc. It also emphasizes 

 the need of a course of study "framed with direct reference to 

 actual conditions that prevail in country life and in large measure 

 determine it. Among the most important points to be kept in 

 mind are the following: (i) There is a general lack of apprecia- 

 tion of immediate surroundings; (2) there is an almost total 

 lack of scientific skill in farm work; (3) in the country there is 

 a great dearth of social life." Under (2) certain phases of 

 mechanics, manual training, biology, meteorology and physics 



