172 AgrictiHiiral Instruction in the Public High Schools 



The Teacher Problem 



Few high schools of villages and the poorer townships can 

 aspire to get a teacher trained in agriculture as easily as they 

 now get teachers trained in Latin or mathematics, because the 

 present supply is so much smaller than the number of small 

 schools already teaching the subject and the competition for the 

 men available is too keen on the part of institutions able to pay 

 much larger salaries. Reference to Chapter V will show how 

 large a proportion of the graduates of the agricultural colleges 

 is absorbed by the colleges themselves, the experiment stations, 

 and the state and federal governments. Commercial lines have 

 also attracted a number. A census taken in another year or two 

 would show a large percentage of these graduates secured by 

 the special state and county schools being so rapidly organized. 

 This last source of competition will probably absorb practically 

 all the output of the colleges who have the advantage of teach- 

 ing experience or pedagogical training. As the salary neces- 

 sary to secure the desirable men equals or exceeds that paid the 

 principal of the smaller high schools, the only way for such 

 schools to have agriculture taught by a teacher fitted to do so 

 is to elect principals competent to handle the work. 



The figures just referred to show the following significant 

 facts : 



Of all the teachers of agriculture reported upon, 109 are 

 principals or superintendents, and 51 are assistants, including 

 agriculturists. Sixty-eight of the 79 teachers reported from 

 Missouri and Ohio are principals or superintendents. A majority 

 of the teachers in these two states receive less than $612 and 

 $733 respectively. 



The salaries of seven-eighths of the 33 trained agriculturists 

 teaching in secondary schools, who reported their salaries, are 

 $750 or over, including three-fourths of those who are only 

 assistants. 



The Text-Book Problem 



Wlien asking for a statement of difficulties, no clue was given 

 as to what it was supposed they might or could be ; it was quite 

 surprising to find so many respondents characterizing their text 



