No. 4.] LESSONS FROM THE CENSUS. 69 



The data concerning public schools and public education 

 will form one of the interesting divisions of the work of 

 the twelfth census. The school population in 1900 is approx- 

 imately 22,300,000, with an average attendance of a little 

 over 11,000,000, and with an annual expenditure for educa- 

 tion of something like 1210,000,000. The average attend- 

 ance daily is now 48 per cent, whereas thirty years ago it 

 was only a little over 30 per cent, showing that enormous 

 strides have been made in thirty years in the matter of public 

 education. Thus, while the population of school age has 

 advanced only 85 per cent, the average school attendance has 

 risen 175 per cent. As in former censuses, it will be seen 

 that New England has the most liberal expenditure, while 

 the schools of Southern States still show a meagre support. 



In this connection let me add a word as to agricultural 

 education in the United States. I have already suggested 

 that the census statistics in agriculture are supplementary 

 to those gathered by the Department of Agriculture, and 

 which are presented in the Annual Year Book. The Year 

 Book for 1899, which has just been distributed, presents to 

 the reader a most interesting account of the development 

 of agriculture in the United States during the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, and of its condition at this closing year of the century. 

 Among other subjects treated in this Year Book is that of 

 agricultural education and the attempts which have been 

 made to introduce instruction in agriculture into elementary 

 rural schools. The report shows that these attempts have 

 been practical fiiilures. A new movement, however, has re- 

 cently been started by the College of Agriculture at Cornell 

 University, and l)y other State colleges, for the introduction 

 of what are called "nature studies" into the elementary 

 schools. To accomplish the object aimed at, which is to 

 call attention early in the student's life to the practical prob- 

 lems of agriculture and to the help which science may give 

 in the solution of these problems, object-leaflets, containing 

 suitable matter for lessons, have been issued, and model 

 lessons are given in the schools l)y travelling inspectors. 

 Up to the present time, however, little has been done toward 

 the establishment of second-grade agricultural schools, and 

 agricultural subjects are as yet not taught in the high schools. 



