29 



of these small centers of population would forbid the existence 

 of so expensive an institution as the separate agricultural school. 

 In a system of agricultural education designed to meet the 

 needs of the youth of the entire Commonwealth, it would prob- 

 ably be necessary to provide either the boarding school of agri- 

 culture or the agricultural department in the public high school, 

 for the training of the young people of the isolated communities. 

 The boarding school of agriculture is worthy of considera- 

 tion, because of the attention which it has received in other 

 States. It does not, however, seem necessary to adopt it under 

 the conditions which prevail in a compact State like Massachu- 

 setts, where distances are so short and transportation facilities 

 are so good. Rather it is believed that here the separate local 

 agricultural school (without the boarding feature) should serve 

 the needs of thickly settled farming districts ; and that the agri- 

 cultural department in the rural high school, as described in 

 the closing part of this chapter, should, instead of the boarding 

 school, train for effective farming those who live in the more 

 sparsely populated farming communities. 



2. SEPARATE AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 



(1) General Observations. In preparing this report, a. care- 

 ful analysis has been made of the conditions of the smaller com- 

 munities as related to the necessary conditions of vocational 

 education in agriculture, with the result that a type of school 

 found developed to some extent in Canada suggests itself as 

 being the most feasible means of meeting Massachusetts re- 

 quirements. This has been styled the agricultural department 

 of an existing high school, and contemplates the building up 

 within an ordinary high school of a vocational department, 

 corresponding to the vocational departments in commercial 

 studies found in some village high schools. 



From facts and conditions adduced below, it is believed that 

 in some localities in Massachusetts, under very careful super- 

 vision, such agricultural departments would be possible, and 

 could, if rightly administered, give genuine vocational training 

 in agriculture. The " part-time work," or school and home- 

 farm co-operative method, discussed in chapter Y. of this report, 



