FOREWORD 



During the past decade the subject of agricuhural edu- 

 cation for our secondary schools and colleges has received 

 much attention. Prior to this period a number of general 

 texts on agriculture for schools, elementary in character, pre- 

 pared by men trained in general science or classics, were 

 published. These texts had a limited distribution, partly 

 because of lack of interest in the subject by teachers and 

 pupils, and partly because of the methods of presentation. 

 These authors saw no way of handling the subject, except- 

 ing by a more or less stereotj^ped stjde, in which chemistry, 

 or some natural science, furnished the reasoning basis. 



The establishment of agricultural colleges, equipped with 

 farms, and working laboratories of greenhouses, orchards, 

 gardens, field crops, and stables with their contents of farm 

 animals and utensils, paved the way to a new and interest- 

 ing treatment of agricultural subjects. The introduction of 

 popular short winter courses about 1890, was the first im- 

 portant step in this direction. Simple laboratory exercises 

 in dairying, horticulture, and live-stock judging, appealed to 

 students, and added much to the popularity of the in- 

 struction. As an outgrowth of these has come the great 

 popular movement in America in behalf of agricultural edu- 

 cation. Not only the colleges, but many secondary schools 

 have adopted agricultural courses, and some have been 

 equipped with farms and laboratories, where the students 

 are taught the relationship of principles to farm practice. 



The evolution in agricultural education has been asso- 

 ciated with the development of texts that have covered a 

 wide range of instruction, and which have supplied a vital 

 interest quite lacking in most of the books published prior 

 to the year 1900. In fact, we have a new agricultural litera- 



