Problems of Instruction in the Secondary School 149 



duce work in farm accounts, farm surveying, laying out of 

 fields, and the determination of slopes for the purpose of fixing 

 drainage lines. Just how much of the algebra and geometry 

 can be " agriculturized " is not apparent at first sight. Unless 

 we propose to throw out all that is inapplicable, that is, the 

 bulk of it, the present mathematics must evidently hold its place 

 for a supposed disciplinary purpose. 



If we grant the desirability of maintaining separate agricul- 

 tural schools in order that they may develop untrammelled their 

 own body of cultural material, it is still possible, if we keep the 

 goal plainly in view, to bring about an ultimate articulation 

 between them and the rural high schools along the lines sug- 

 gested by Assistant Secretary Hays. The only procedure neces- 

 sary would be for the special school to " raise the standard," 

 that is, to lop ofif its lower grades as soon as the local schools 

 seem to be able to offer all the agriculture that the younger 

 pupils of the high school may advantageously pursue. That 

 this can be done is shown by the action of the Alabama schools 

 in dropping the work they formerly carried on below the seventh 

 grade. As General Hancock remarked about the tariff, agricul- 

 tural education is largely a " local issue." Both the subject 

 matter and the administration should be conditioned by the 

 environment. One is told in Iowa that neither the boys nor 

 the community could be interested in poultry — they were " too 

 busy getting rich to bother with chickens." Nor would they have 

 been much interested in the Michigan boys' work with the 

 polariscope, except as a toy. Iowa was not one of the states, 

 however, that reported " animal feeding " as one of the difficult 

 topics of instruction. So the form of organization of the facili- 

 ties for teaching agriculture might well be modified in different 

 sections of the country to meet existing local needs, and to articu- 

 late with the existing school system. 



The principal difference of opinion among educators regarding 

 the early drafts of the so-called Davis bill has centered around 

 this point. In its present form* it proposes " to co-operate with 

 the states in encouraging instruction in agriculture, the trades 



* H. R. Bill 20374, 6ist Congress, 2nd. Session, introduced by C. R. 

 Davis, of Minnesota, February 8, 1910. 



