18 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



the civilized world had been to school; that anything like one-half 

 of the civilized world had learned to read and write and had come 

 under the influence of the school. . . . The people of the world, 

 even at the present time, have barely begun to go to school." 



Your David Harum may not be long on book learning, but he is 

 not short on wit; the deacon cannot beat him twice on a horse 

 trade. Men school each other. Nature, that sometimes kind, 

 sometimes stern teacher, schools all. Life is a labyrinth of edu- 

 cational forces. Vocational education, in relying less on books, 

 relies more on the activities and actualities of the economic world, 

 and has no fear that its selection of a course or courses to be 

 followed will be wanting in either human worth or educational 

 efficiency. 



The serious problem of vocational education, we see, then, is 

 the conservation of the natural resources of childhood, — particularly 

 the years fourteen to sixteen, by educational methods which natur- 

 ally and effectively appeal to the active, but non-bookish, boy and 

 girl. Mr. Frederick P. Fish, Chairman of the Massachusetts 

 Board of Education, has well put the case. 



"Sad is the lot," he says, "of the ordinary boy or girl who leaves 

 school and goes to work at fourteen. The skilled employments 

 have no place for such; they are likely to drift into the very 

 lowest grades of work and stay there for the rest of their lives. 

 If the vocational school were of no value except as a device to 

 keep at school for an additional two years those who would 

 otherwise go to work prematurely, its existence would be justified." 



Vocational Agricultural Education. 



Agricultural education, as a phase of vocational education, is 

 that form of vocational training which fits for the occupations 

 connected with the tillage of the soil, the care of domestic animals, 

 forestry and other wage-earning or productive work on the farm. 

 Vocational agricultural education is, thus, one phase of the effort 

 toward conserving the valuable years of youth for the best uses 

 of both society and the individual. 



