AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS. 117 



both be done? I advocate that it be introduced into the schools 

 for both reasons. There are difficidties in making agriculture a 

 part of the regular high school curriculum and in some schools it 

 will be a long time before that is done. But it is worth doing. 

 I am satisfied that there is a movement now setting in which arises 

 from the interest of the teachers and looks toward this very thing. 

 Some wish to teach agricultural subjects in order that the pupil 

 may be better able to enter the agricultural college. 



There can be but one answer to the cjuestion, — Shall agriculture 

 of secondary grade be given as a vocational subject ? It is needed 

 badly. Our agricultural colleges are doing well, and a few years 

 hence they are going to have many more students than they are 

 having today. But as every one knows, they do not meet the 

 need of the great body of young men who will never go to college 

 no matter how good the course, no matter how great the need of 

 training. 



Perhaps the most important question which faces us at this 

 time is whether we shall have separate schools of agriculture or 

 whether we shall put agriculture into existing high schools. Agri- 

 cultural educators and others are gradually taking sides on this 

 question and I think it is only fair to say that, whereas a short time 

 ago the idea seemed to be running in favor of separate schools of 

 agriculture, today some of our leading men are making serious 

 objections to the separate schools of agriculture and are advocating 

 very strongly that agriculture shall be put into existing high schools 

 and recognized as a subject of study there. While I do not expect 

 to say the final word on this question, and while in fact I hold my- 

 self in readiness to change my opinion, my present answer to this 

 inquiry is that we should do both. I believe keenly, to put the 

 matter in a nutshell, that we ought to place agriculture in the high 

 schools alongside of other subjects of study, but I believe that at 

 the same time we should establish separate schools of agriculture 

 substantially of secondary grade. 



Let me state some of the advantages of the separate schools. 

 In the first place, they emphasize vocation. It seems to me that 

 the ordinary course of study in the high school, in the nature of 

 things cannot, and perhaps should not, give due emphasis to a 

 particular calling. The special task of the high school is to give 



