AGRICULTURE IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 67 



usually ridiculed the idea of teaching any such thing to chil- 

 dren. Such attempts as were made to carry out the law were 

 in most cases wholly futile. In a few years the law was 

 repealed, to the relief of all connected with the schools. In 

 the meantime, however, since the law was on the statute-books, 

 a large number of teachers endeavored to prepare themselves 

 for it. The subject was introduced in the normal schools, and 

 the classes in entomology in the University, which had always 

 been very small, at once began to grow, and were soon large 

 and interesting. When the law was repealed they at once fell 

 back almost to their old numbers. All this shows that it is 

 usually impossible to push reforms much in advance of public 

 sentiment, and yet that, if enacted into law, and kept long 

 enough on the statute-book, such a movement will in the end 

 result in an adequate supply of those competent to carry it on. 

 The California law was repealed just as it was about to become 

 possible to properly execute it. It was very faulty, however, 

 in that it made insect life the main end of study, which should 

 be plant physiology and hygiene. 



The foregoing, with a perusal of the documents relating to 

 this subject which will be found in the appendix, will give an 

 idea of the conception of agricultural instruction in the common 

 schools as it exists to-day. Its object is. to impart to children 

 such elementary knowledge as is possible of all the natural 

 sciences underlying the operations of the farm. In the present 

 crowded state of our school curriculums, the introduction of a 

 new subject, in w^hich any real progress is expected, must 

 usually involve the displacement of something else. One 

 practical question must be as to what shall be omitted that is 

 now taught. There will be advocates of that subject, whatever 

 it may be, who will fight its displacement. In rural schools it 

 is not at all unusual for the teacher to conduct twenty-five or 

 thirty recitations each day. The actual school day, deducting 

 recesses, is about three hundred and twenty minutes. Dividing 

 this number by thirty, the average time that can be devoted to a 

 recitation is but little over ten minutes. If there are but twenty 

 recitations per day, the average time for each is sixteen minutes. 

 Any effective study of natural science will use up several of 



