AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION IN THE 

 PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS 



INTRODUCTION 



The secondary school/ especially the public high school, owes 

 a duty to the large majority of its students who do not go to 

 college. Its problems, therefore, must be studied as problems 

 concerned with the future of its students in the community. 

 Just as the city high school is seeking to an increasing extent 

 to adjust itself to present industrial conditions, so is there a 

 rapidly growing movement on the part of the rural and village 

 high schools to bring their work into intimate connection and 

 close sympathy wdth the life and interests of their environment. 



An examination of some of the features of this movement 

 at its present stage is the main purpose of this study. It aims 

 to furnish data much needed for that discussion which has had 

 to depend too largely upon individual experience for its basis. 

 Too often has personal enthusiasm been compelled to make up 

 for the deficiency of facts. Besides giving as accurate a picture 

 as possible of the present agricultural work in the high schools, 

 an attempt has been made to determine the relation of this 

 work to the school organization, to important local industries, 

 and to the distribution of the rural population. An inquiry 

 has been made into the present preparation of the teachers in 

 charge of the work and the opportunities offered them to 

 become better equipped to carry it on. An investigation has 

 also been carried on regarding the available supply of men 

 trained along agricultural lines, and the conditions, professional 

 and financial, tending to limit the supply that might otherwise 



^ The schools dealt with in this investigation are all listed in the pam- 

 phlet. Institutions giving instruction in agriculture, Office of Exper- 

 ment Stations, October 17, 1908, p. 10. This study deals with prac- 

 tically all of the high schools listed on pages 3-8 of the pamphlet. 



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