Ii8 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



in elementary schools has produced a much better type of in- 

 struction than the former or mandatory method. This is partly 

 because the results of boys' clubs have shown the value of agri- 

 culture as a school subject, and have thus secured for it public 

 approval and support, and partly because experience in man- 

 aging these clubs has given the teachers some insight into 

 methods of adapting the subject to the needs of the school, and 

 of making it an effective part of the regular school work. 



Teachers who have been the most successful are those who 

 have selected agricultural subjects of special interest to the 

 school community, and who have used methods calling for self- 

 activity on the part of the pupils having the pupils learn by 

 doing rather than by reciting. The following is a list of various 

 kinds of work reported to be successfully adapted to rural 

 schools (147) : experimental plots for plant breeding, soil in- 

 oculation, and other soil experiments; ear-to-row method of 

 improving corn, and use of acre plots ; seed germinating includ- 

 ing tests of viability; collection of economic plants, weeds, weed- 

 seed, and insects; budding, grafting, pruning, and spraying 

 fruit trees ; milk testing with Babcock milk tester. 



The importance attached by pupils and patrons to such work 

 is well illustrated by the following report. In one county in 

 Iowa it is the practice for each school to have in the spring a 

 germinating test for corn. One teacher says of this work : 



My boys who would not go across the road for a song book went two 

 miles in the snow to get some sawdust for a germinating box. When the 

 corn had germinated, the farmers came to the schoolhouse to see how their 

 corn had turned out, and incidentally saw the work of the school. Why, 

 farmers came who couldn't 'remember when they had been inside the school- 

 house before! (148, p. 18). 



The rural school is badly in need of redirection, but it will 

 take more than the teaching of agriculture to bring this about. 

 However, some sort of nature-study agriculture that has ele- 

 ments of interest to pupils and parents alike may do much 

 toward putting the rural school in the way of redirection. Here 

 and there are promises of the fulfilment of L. H. Bailey's vi- 



