! ^„ . Agriculture In Minnesota Schools 



Gilbert H. Trafton. 



In 1909 the legislature of Minnesota passed the Putnam Act, 

 authorizing financial aid to schools teaching industrial subjects. 

 The sum of $2,500 was to be given annually to ten schools, either 

 high, graded, or consolidated, which met the following condi- 

 tions : (1) Departments of agriculture, manual training and 

 home economics — ^must be maintained; (2) the instructor in agri- 

 culture must have had special training in the subject equal to 

 graduation from an agricultural college; (3) a plot of ground 

 of at least five acres must be furnished to be used for experimental 

 purposes ; (4) the course of study must be approved by the State 

 High School Board. 



These schools were so successful that in 1911 the legisla- 

 ture reenacted the bill and provided aid for twenty additional 

 schools making thirty in all. 



In order to provide for those schools which could not meet 

 the requirements of the Putnam Act, the legislature passed the 

 Lee-Benson Act, appropriating the sum of $1,500 annually to 

 any high or graded school meeting the following requirements : 



(1) the school must maintain a department of agriculture and 

 either a department of manual training or one of home economics ; 



(2) the course must be subject to the approval of the State High 

 School Board; (3) the instructor in agriculture must have such 

 training as the State High School Board shall require. The 

 Board subsequently decided that the instructor must be a gradu- 

 ate of an agricultural college, or must have had an equivalent 

 training. 



Under this act, state aid was extended to fifty-eight schools 

 the first year, which together with the thirty Putnam schools and 

 • the three state agricultural high schools make ninety-one schools 

 receiving state aid for instruction in agriculture. This is a larger 

 number of schools receiving such aid than was reported for the 

 whole United States in 1910 in a bulletin issued by the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture. 



For a number of years Minnesota has had a law permitting 

 High Schools to institute Teacher's Training Departments, whose 

 purpose is to prepare teachers for the rural schools. There are 

 now eighty-four schools having such departments. 



This work in agriculture in High Schools is reacting on 

 agricultural instruction in elementary schools in two ways: first 



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