i8o Agricultural Instruction in the Public High Schools 



Table 54 

 Topics in Agricultuue Most Difficult to Teach 



Soil work: 



No. 



Soils 17 



Soils and rocks. ... 2 



Analysis of 3 



Cheiiiistry of 8 



Drainage of 1 



Fertility of 4 



Nitrification of . . . . 1 



Physics of 3 



Fertilizers 2 



Fertilizers, artifi- 

 cial 1 



Tests 1 



Total 43 



Animal husbandry: 



No. 

 Feeds and feeding 14 

 Feeds, analysis of 1 

 Animal husban- 

 dry 1 



Dairying 1 



Livestock 1 



Stock raising. ... 1 



Total 19 



Miscellaneous: 



Insects 2 



Pests 1 



"All testa" 1 



Total 4 



Plants and crops: 



No. 



Field crops 2 



Horticulture 



Orchards 



Plant breeding, . . 



Plant propagation 

 and improve- 

 ment 



Budding and 

 grafting 



Plant diseases. . . . 



Chemistry of 

 plants 



Total . 



1 



Total of items 74 



Number of schools reporting them 52 



Number of schools reporting " none " 4 



One report stated that all the topics were easy, another that 

 all were of equal difficulty, and a third that all were too easy 

 in the text. Eight of the schools reporting difficulties teach the 

 subject in the third year, and four in the fourth year. 



Many, no doubt, failed to report because no one topic stood 

 out prominently as being particularly more difficult than the 

 others. The concentration of the replies on two points, soils 

 and feeds, may mean (i) that these two subjects are not treated 

 in the texts with the same clearness as the others; (2) that they 

 are inherently more difficult than other topics; or (3) that 

 they are, in many respects, too difficult for the pupils in the 

 lower years of the high school. Probably all three factors are 

 concerned. The writer has called attention at some length" to 

 the uneven and otherwise unsatisfactory treatment of " soils " 

 in books of high-school grade. Justification of the second sug- 

 gestion is found in the fact that both topics draw heavily on 



* Some Text-Books for Secondary-.school Agriculture, Nature-Study 

 Review, Vol. Ill, pp. 180-185. 



