PREFACE 



ALTHOUGH the advanced work in agricultural education has long 

 been provided for in both Europe and America by Colleges and 

 Chairs in some of the Universities, it is only of recent years that 

 the public has awakened to the pressing need of practical agricul- 

 tural instruction in our public schools. 



The demand for this work is growing stronger and stronger all 

 the time, and wherever the subject of agriculture has been taught 

 in the public schools the results have been highly satisfactory. 

 President Koosevelt, through the National Commission on Country 

 Life, aroused a great deal of interest in country life and country 

 social conditions which is finding expression in many ways. Our 

 whole nation is beginning to realize the need of better rural schools 

 and more practical instruction. 



The Committee on Industrial Education for the Country Com- 

 munities appointed by the National Educational Association in 

 1905 struck the keynote when it said: "The country schools, which 

 train nearly one half of the school population of this country so far 

 as school training goes, should definitely recognize the fact that the 

 major portion of those being trained will continue to live upon 

 the farm; and that there should be specific, definite technical train- 

 ing fitting them for the activities of farm life. Such schools will 

 not make farmers nor housekeepers, but they will interest the boys 

 and girls in farming and housekeeping and the problems connected 

 with these two important vocations." 



Likewise it is no less important that pupils in our city schools 

 should receive some instruction in agriculture so that they may 

 have a proper conception of the country and the opportunities they 

 might enjoy there which would be denied them in the city. 



The tendency of our ambitious young people to collect in the 

 cities and large centers of population is fraught with the gravest 

 danger. In the country there are health, wealth, and happiness, 



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