1922.] Agricultural Education in the United States. 985 



training work goes on, and which forms the main source for the 

 supply of graduates for the work. 



For the year 1921 New York State alone will draw a total of 

 $412,906 by fulfilling certain conditions. It has, for instance, to 

 appoint a State Board, which ma} T or may not include the Commis- 

 sioner of Education, and to match dollar for dollar from its own or 

 local funds. The principles lying behind this kind of grant are the 

 following. It is held that if an individual or a community 

 desires a thing strongly enough it will be willing to pay for it ; 

 that an individual or a community values most highly and 

 cherishes most carefully the thing in which it has made an 

 investment, and that Federal or State aid is for the purpose of 

 assisting a community and not of making it a gift. The cost of 

 establishing these Departments of Agriculture and of running 

 and equipping them falls upon the State and the community or 

 board which has made the initial demand. Already in 1920 there 

 were seventy of these Departments in High Schools in New 

 York State. 



In the words of the State Director of Agriculture : — "A high 

 school department of vocational agriculture is but a part of an 

 organised nation-wide movement to promote better farming, 

 better business and better living. Instruction in such a depart- 

 ment means more than an attempt to turn back to the farm the 

 tide that flows cityward or to induce children to stay in school, 

 although these are natural outcomes of such instruction. The 

 true purpose of agricultural education is to fit for agricultural 

 pursuits those who may cast their lot with the farm. It is based 

 on the recognition of the dignity of labour and the necessity for 

 practical experience in the attainment of a well-rounded educa- 

 tion. While emphasising training in the skill and knowledge 

 necessary to control plant and animal production such education 

 includes the usual instruction in English, history, economics, 

 science and mathematics which every boy should receive in pre- 

 paration for social efficiency and leadership in rural affairs." 



These departments form therefore an integral part of the 

 secondary school system of the State. The course is voluntary 

 but the pupils are still directly under the administration of the 

 Principal. Their establishment depends upon local initiative, 

 more especially from the farmers themselves. The following 

 particulars have to be provided : — the number of boys in the 

 academic department of the existing High School, the number 

 of boys residing on farms, the registration of boys in the grammar 

 grades of the rural elementary schools tributary to the high 



