276 REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE, ETC. 



material can be carried on. This is supplemented by having agricultural experiment 

 grounds or gardens convenient to the school where various aspects of gardening, 

 field husbandry and horticulture are dealt with from year to year, the students 

 themselves with their instructor doing practically all the work. Class excursions to 

 the best farms in the community in which the school is located, for the purpose of 

 observing and discussing the methods followed in the various lines of farm practice, 

 are frequently conducted. The individual students carry on a well-regulated scheme 

 of home projects in agriculture having direct bearing upon the work taken up at 

 school. In some instances the home projects are standardised and conducted under 

 rules involving a competition in the production of garden or field crops or the raising 

 of young animals or poultry. In such cases the home projects are made the basis of 

 organisations now widely known as Boys' and Girls' Agricultural Clubs. In com- 

 puting the standing of the students in agriculture at the end of the year, 50 per cent, 

 is based upon a uniform provincial examination and 50 per cent, upon term work, 

 the latter being determined hj the instructor. 



* Students who elect agriculture for junior matriculation or for the teachers' High 

 School Course, and who afterwards complete the Normal Training Course, are granted 

 a special diploma in rural science or elementary agriculture. The agricultural option 

 has obvious advantages for teachers who afterwards teach in rural or village schools.' 



Main Purpose and Objective. 



' Boys taking the High School course in agriculture are not regarded as prospective 

 farmers^ and no special effort is made to induce them to go into farming as their 

 life-work. The study of agriculture as conducted in our High Schools is regarded as 

 a valuable and almost essential part of a good liberal education. Its interests are 

 healthful and its iniiuences positive and beneficial. It calls out personal initiative 

 and helps to develop self-reliance and resourcefulness. It gives new interest and new 

 meaning to other science studies by affording innumerable examples of science applied. 

 It affords one of the best avenues through which to approach the great biological 

 secrets and mysteries of plant and animal propagation and the laws of heredity. It 

 develops certain skills incidental to scientific experimentation and to approved 

 practices in farming and gardening. 



' In all these aspects it is essentially and primarily educational and suitable alike 

 to girls and boys, regardless of the particular vocation which each may ultimately 

 choose. On the other hand, it may be of great value in setting up new standards 

 and new conceptions of the true nature and meaning of agriculture in the minds of 

 these young people, as a result of which they may be drawn to choose farming as an 

 occupation. 



' When such an educational and scientific basis has been laid for the farmer of 

 the future the quality of our rural citizenship will advance, and not till then.' 



Saskatchewan . 



Abstract from a Report of Director of Education. 

 Introductory. 



' The field of activity known as Agricultural Education may be roughly divided 

 into two sections or divisions, the chief emphasis in the one being placed on subject- 

 matter or content, in the other on educational values. The former is frequently 

 designated Education in Agriculture, and includes all forms of vocational training in 

 agriculture whether conducted in High Schools or College or through extension 

 courses. The other, which is quite properly called Education through Agriculture, 

 embraces the agricultiire courses in Elementary and High Schools as well as the 

 project work carried on by Boys' and Girls' Clubs. 



' Agriculture as a subject of study in the school grades requires no defence. It 

 is now almost universally accepted as a regular feature of school routine, although 

 frequently found under another name. There is still a difference of opinion as to its 

 content — should it be more of the nature-study type, or should it assume the form and 

 methods of science ? This problem must ultimately be settled by a consideration 

 of the child rather than the subject, and the work must be graded to suit the mental 

 possibilities of the pupils.' 



