CHAPTER I 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 



The Committee on Industrial Education in Schools for Rural 

 Communities^ expresses the opinion that " industrial education 

 has for its purpose the acquiring of a body of usable knowledge 

 of greater or lesser extent relating to industrial conditions, 

 processes, and organization, and to the administration of affairs 

 incident to the environment of the individual being educated, 

 involving the gaining of some skill in the use of such knowledge, 

 and the securing of mental, aesthetic, and ethical training through 

 the acquisition and use of the knowledge indicated." The mem- 

 bers of the committee were L. D. Harvey, chairman, L. PL 

 Bailey, Alfred Bayliss, W. T. Carrington, and W. M. Hays. 

 To make the above statement apply exclusively to agricultural 

 education it is only necessary to qualify appropriately the word 

 environment. In a narrow and more formal way, agricultural 

 education might be regarded as the mastery of the principles 

 underlying farm practice. Agricultural training, on the other 

 hand, is the gaining of considerable skill in carrying on farm 

 operations. It may be and usually is obtained by imitation or 

 by following rules derived the user knows not how. A proper 

 mastery of principles, however, involves more or less participa- 

 tion in the operations, used solely as laboratory exercises, whether 

 carried on indoors or out. 



A Brief Historical Sketch 



One of the earliest proposals in this country to regard agri- 

 culture as a fit subject for higher education is found in a pros- 

 pectus issued by W'illiam Smith, in 1751. designed as a model 



'Report of the committee in the National Education Association, 

 Journal of proceedings and addresses, July, 1905, p. 10. 



