124 AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 



possible for a school to select subjects adapted to the particular 

 agricultural interests of the community (163). 



Agriculture in the technical type of secondary schools re- 

 ceives much the same attention as in the district type, the chief 

 difference being that the latter offers no courses in mechanic 

 arts. These schools seem to be patterned after state agricul- 

 tural and mechanical colleges, but offering only instruction of 

 secondary grade. A good example of this type is the Cali- 

 fornia Polytechnic School, which was opened in 1903 at San 

 Luis Obispo. This institution is supported by the state, and is 

 intended "to furnish to the young people of both sexes mental 

 and manual training in arts and sciences, including agriculture, 

 mechanical engineering, business methods, domestic economy, 

 and such other branches as will fit students for non-professional 

 walks of life" (16, p. 22). 



Agricultural education in State Normal Schools has already 

 been discussed in chap. vi. Instruction in agriculture in these 

 schools is usually of secondary grade but with the special aim 

 of preparing teachers. In some of these schools considerable 

 emphasis is placed upon agriculture, and work corresponding 

 to some of the 'best agricultural high schools is offered. For 

 example, the Cape Girardeau (Mo.) State Normal School has 

 a department of agriculture not only for teachers but for 

 furnishing "young men from the farm an opportunity of obtain- 

 ing the equivalent of a good high-school education of such a 

 nature as will fit them to carry on the business of farming 

 according to the most approved farm methods" (164, p. 63). 



The development of secondary agricultural instruction has 

 proceeded along two lines, one by employing existing high 

 schools, the other in organizing separate agricultural high 

 schools. The recent tendency as indicated by the statistical sum- 

 mary introducing this discussion seems strongly in the direction 

 of the former. No doubt there is much to be said in favor of 

 separate agricultural high schools to meet conditions in certain 

 localities, but taking the country as a whole the natural tendency, 

 as above indicated, of maintaining the unity of our present 



