116 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



never thoroughly democratize our civilization until we have made 

 the public school system the feeder for all the great vocations of 

 life. Agriculture plays such an important part in our national 

 labor and life that no schenn? of vocational education could for a 

 moment ignore it. 



Let us pass to the final cjuestions, — To what extent and how can 

 elementary and secondary agriculture be made a part of the school 

 system ? 



First with respect to elementary agriculture. Certainly ele- 

 mentary agriculture should be taught in the rural schools, both 

 because the environment of the child must play so large a part in 

 his education, and because the study of agriculture in the country 

 school will lay a foundation for interest and skill in the agricultural 

 vocation, into which so many of the country-bred children will 

 go. To a degree, elementary agriculture should also go into the 

 city schools because the city environment yields so little to many 

 phases of the child's education, and because the material of agri- 

 culture is in itself so fresh, so interesting, so tonic. 



That there are difficulties in the way of introducing elementary 

 agriculture into the public schools we cannot deny, first because 

 of the lack of ciualified teachers, and second for lack of time. AVith 

 respect to the teachers it is safe to say that teachers of elementary 

 agriculture can be trained. They are being trained. But we 

 should not blink the fact that probably the ordinary teacher in the 

 country school who has to teach many things will hardly prepare 

 herself adequately to teach elementary agricultiu-e. If this work 

 is to be done at its best we can expect that only special teachers 

 specifically trained can meet the need. 



With regard to the lack of time the only solution is correlation of 

 subject matter. Agriculture may be taught through arithmetic, 

 or, better, arithmetic through agriculture. If agriculture is to be 

 introduced into the lower schools it must not come in simply as an 

 additional subject. It must be related to all other subjects in the 

 curriculum, but related in an organic and definite way. 



Now with respect to secondary agriculture. Shall it be put into 

 the high school as a means of education alongside the other sub- 

 jects, or shall it be only a means of vocational training by which the 

 school in which it is placed shall be a finishing school ? Or shall 



