1 8 Agricultural Instruction in the Public High Schools 



schools when they continue the classical or college preparatory 

 work as before.'" The five schools thus reorganized by 1909 

 all maintain college preparatory (classical) courses, and the 

 other four may be doing so. In some cases the schools report 

 that the growth of the agricultural work has been impeded by 

 the reluctance of the local patrons to allow the agriculture to 

 be substituted for anytliing else, instead of its being superadded 

 to an already full curriculum. 



None of the state laws or regulations, so far as I have been 

 able to determine, contain anything to obstruct the introduction 

 of agricultural instruction in the high-school curriculum if it 

 received the sanction of the proper supervisory authority. In- 

 deed, its actual introduction into the high schools of many 

 states is largely due to the persistent efforts of the state depart- 

 ments of public instruction. For example, the state departments 

 of Indiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, and New York, have 

 carefully planned curricula centering about the agricultural sub- 

 jects for the guidance of high schools and academies. Several 

 state universities have defined such a " unit in agriculture " as 

 they will accept for entrance credit into courses leading to 

 one or more degrees. The Massachusetts Industrial Commis- 

 sion and the Agricultural College at Amherst are performing a 

 like service for their state, exercising close personal supervision 

 over the work at Montague and Petersham through Professor 

 W. R. liart, in charge of education at the Agricultural College, 

 and through the agents of the commission. Professor \V. H. 

 French, late of the department of public instruction of Michigan, 

 holds a similar position at the Michigan Agricultural College, 

 and has oversight of the effort to conduct a model agricultural 

 high-school course at North Adams. 



From the foregoing survey it will readily be seen that the 

 term " agricultural high school " is largely a matter of definition. 

 It would seem as logical for a high school offering Latin and 

 a four-year commercial course to call itself a commercial high 

 school, as for one offering Latin and a four-year agricultural 

 course to call itself an agricultural high school, .\ccording to 

 its course of study, the Cecil County Agricultural School, Cal- 

 vert, Md., requires all of its students to take both Latin and 



