﻿BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 7 



Contribution from the Office of Experiment Stations, A. C. True, Director. 

 October 18, 1913. 



AGRICULTURAL TRAINING COURSES FOR EMPLOYED 



TEACHERS 



With a Suggested Reading Course in Agriculture Based on Farmers' Bulletins. 



By Edwin R. Jackson, 



Assistant in Agricultural Education. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Perhaps the most noteworthy feature in the educational progress 

 of the Nation during recent years has been the development of agri- 

 cultural education, particularly in the public schools. From May, 

 1910, to March, 1912, the total number of institutions giving courses 

 in agriculture increased from 863 to 2,575, or at the rate of more than 

 76 each month; and this increase is found almost entirely in schools 

 of the secondary grade. This does not take into account the vast 

 number of elementary and rural schools into which some instruction 

 in agriculture has been introduced of which no definite record is 

 obtainable, but of which there must be an enormous number, since 

 in at least 19 States agriculture is required by law to be taught in 

 the common schools. 1 



It is altogether probable that the spread of agricultural instruc- 

 tion would have been even more rapid had it not been for the diffi- 

 culty which has been encountered in procuring teachers able to give 

 instruction in the subject. Responding to the demand for teachers 

 of agriculture, the normal schools are very generally introducing 

 courses in agriculture, while many of the agricultural colleges, on 

 the other hand, are offering special courses for teachers. This has 

 resulted in providing a limited number of trained teachers — hardly 

 mough, however, to supply the needs of the secondary schools and 

 special schools of agriculture. Few, indeed, of the normal or col- 

 lege trained teachers find employment in the rural common schools. 



1 The States in which agriculture is required to be taught either in all common schools or at least in rural 

 schools are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, North 

 Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West 

 /Irginia, and Wisconsin. In some of these States the subject is not required by legislative act, but is put 

 into the required course of study prescribed by the State superintendent of public instruction pursuant 

 to authority of law. In addition to these, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Utah require agriculture taught in 

 all rural high schools. 



5773°— Bull. 7—13 1 



