The Public High School 19 



agriculture.* During the year 1907-8, forty students were 

 enrolled in the first and second years ; so that it is hardly proper 

 to offer an adverse criticism because any of the work is not 

 elective. During the year 1908-9, one, at least, of the con- 

 gressional district agricultural schools of Alabama required its 

 students to take both Latin and agriculture.'' Sixty pupils were 

 enrolled in the eighth (the first year of high-school work), ninth, 

 and tenth grades. 



A school in Mississippi, organized under "An Act to provide 

 for the establishment of county agricultural high schools," and 

 advertised to open September, 1909, includes Latin and Greek 

 in the second and third years of its suggested course of a 

 study.* 



On the other hand, the printed courses of study of the Beaver- 

 head County High School, Dillon, Mont. ; the Guthrie County 

 High School, Panora, Iowa; and the Norton County High 

 School, Norton, Kans., for 1907, 1908, and 1909, respectively, 

 show that optional courses of four years each are offered in the 

 classics, commerce, and agriculture. But these schools consider 

 themselves only general, or non-specialized, high schools. The 

 township high schools at Petersham, Mass., and Waterford, Pa., 

 offer classical and agricultural " courses " of four years each, 

 while the John Swaney School, Magnolia township, Putnam 

 county. 111., offers a choice between Latin and agriculture or 

 manual training in each of the four years for the boys, and 

 between Latin and home economics for the girls. The John 

 Swaney and Petersham township high schools enrolled in the 

 first and second years' work (the only ones yet in operation) 

 only 32 and 37 pupils, respectively, in the year 1907-8, but 

 neither made it necessary for every student to take Latin, nor 

 did they style themselves " agricultural high schools,"' although 

 the former has an 8-acre state demonstration plat, and the 

 latter 2 acres for student experimentation. But these can hardly 

 be classed with the 150-acre farm forming the experiment sta- 

 tion of the school at Athens, Ala. 



* Proceedings of the National Education Association, for 1908, p. 409. 

 'Catalogue of Eighth District Agricultural School, Athens, Ala. 

 'Catalogue of Yalobusha County Agricultural High School and Ex- 

 periment Station. 



