8 Agricultural Instruction in the Public High ScJwols 



1906 to 1907, while that of the agricultural courses increased 

 25 per cent.^^ Using comparable data in the report of the 

 Commissioner of Education for 1908, the increase in the enroll- 

 ment in the engineering and purely agricultural courses is 10 

 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.^" 



In the following year we find a decrease in the gain in both 

 courses, with the disparity growing greater. The increase in 

 the enrollment in the agricultural courses was 14 per cent, 

 while the enrollment in engineering courses was practically at 

 a standstill." 



The primary purpose and function of the experiment station 

 is research, invesigating both general and local problems. These 

 stations are attached to the state agricultural colleges except in 

 Ohio and Georgia, where they are separate and in different 

 localities. Separate stations also exist in many states for the 

 study of special problems, and there are stations in Alaska, 

 Hawaii, Porto Rico and Guam. When established as depart- 

 ments of the colleges, part of the time of the staff is available 

 for instruction. 



The disbursements from the United States Treasury to the 

 states and territories for agricultural experiment stations under 

 the so-called Hatch and Adams acts of 1887 and 1906 amounted 

 for the year ending June 30, 1909, to $1,248,000.00." 



Present Agencies of Agricultural Education 



The earliest organized form of agricultural education is 

 to be found in the farmers' clubs and societies started in the 

 older states at a very early day, and later in the arrangements 

 now generally known as farmers' institutes, by which speakers 

 were provided through a central authority, either for these local 

 societies, or for general public meetings. We find the Pennsyl- 

 vania Society for Promoting Agriculture as early as 1785. 



" Report of the United States Commissioner of Education, 1907, p. 871. 



"Ibid., 1908, vol. 2, p. 738. 



"Ibid., 1909, vol. 2, pp. 1012-13. 



"Report of Office of Experiment Stations, 1909, p. 226. 



