54 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ment, summer school, short courses, farmers' weeks, graduate 

 schools, and demonstrations on steam and electric railways, not to 

 mention the many experiments in progress on farms in different 

 parts of the state suggest how great a circle its usefulness includes. 

 This extension work is specific proof of a redirected education that 

 reaches the people and the spot. 



( >ur schools (graded, high, and industrial) are undergoing great 

 changes. In this connection it is interesting to note that while 

 agriculture has been taught for one-third of a century in land grant 

 colleges, only one agricultural high school was reported 12 years ago 

 and only IS high schools taught agriculture two years ago. Now 

 there are more than 100 high schools in 17 different states, besides 

 several thousand high schools in 23 states giving instruction in 

 agriculture. Recent data show that agricultural instruction is 

 given in the rural schools of 44 states; 14 states by law require that 

 the elements of agriculture be taught in rural schools and 12 states 

 require it in graded schools. There are 28 states that have enacted 

 special laws permitting such instruction, while in others local 

 authorities are free to introduce the subject. Does not this re- 

 markable change within a half-dozen years indicate a redirected 

 education? And is it not a factor in our new agriculture? 



Then this spirit of associated science and practice, or applied 

 knowledge, is being carried into every section of the state through 

 various agricultural organizations like the board of agriculture, 

 dairymen's associations, horticultural societies, poultrymen's asso- 

 ciations, bee keepers' societies, swine and sheep breeders' associa- 

 tions, and agricultural societies which give annual fairs. Note 

 that most of this work is being conducted along redirected lines. 

 The aim is to reach the everyday farmer who has practical problems 

 which must be solved. In many cases this applied knowledge 

 almost has to be forced upon the farmer, so firmly rooted is the 

 spirit of opposition to science or theory. Occasionally communities 

 are found which have not yet felt the power of this redirected educa- 

 tion. 



None of the agencies contributing to this new order of things 

 gives me more satisfaction than the work of boards of trade and 

 commercial organizations. They are rapidly waking up to the 

 fact that they and the industries they represent cannot prosper 



