Education, 



417 



May, 1910. 



others, to be always ready to learn, and 

 to seek opportunities by which their 

 knowledge may be made greater. With 

 the present progress in agriculture, it is 

 very necessary that such individuals 

 shall begin the acquisition of such know- 

 ledge under as favourable conditions as 

 possible— that they shall be set in the 

 right way, so that no time may be lost, 

 and.that their efforts to gain knowledge 

 shall have the merit and use of order- 

 liness. It is easily seen, in this connec- 

 tion, that the Courses of Reading in 

 Practical Agriculture, cf the Imperial 

 Department of Agriculture, have been 

 devised for this very purpose. The 

 steady pursuit of these will make it 

 evident why the education of the prac- 

 tical agriculturist is never regarded as 

 being finished, and why active sympathy 

 with the work of his advisers is neces- 

 sary to his best welfare. 



AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 

 IN THE SCHOOLS. 



By Pres. Kbnyon L. Buttebfibld, 

 Amherst, Mass. 



Given before the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society, March 7th, 1908. 



(Prom the Transactions of the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society, 1908.) 



I like the word "vocational" as ap- 

 plied to a system of training for one's 

 life work. While it suggests that one is 

 preparing for an occupation, it seems to 

 imply that technical skill is not all of 

 vocation, and that the man himself as 

 well as the work he has to do are to be 

 considered in preparation for vocation. 

 This is so because if you show a man 

 what he ought to know about his calling 

 in life you must indicate to him not 

 merely how be may become a skillful 

 worker, but you must tell him how 

 his particular calling is related to other 

 callings, how it is bound up with the 

 welfare of the State and nation, what 

 bearing it has upon the development 

 of civilization, and indeed you must 

 show him also its moral aspects. Con- 

 sequently while a vocational training 

 prepares men and women for work, it 

 is far from blind to the fact that mere 

 individual skill and efficiency are not 

 sufficient. 



It may be objected of course that 

 vocation is not all of life, and conse- 

 quently that a vocational education is 

 not a liberal training. But I contend 

 that for most people vocation is the 

 larger proportion of life, when you take 

 into consideration all these industrial, 

 political, social and moral relationships. 



The areas of the two circles are sub- 

 stantially the same. At any rate, this 

 may be said, that for most people voca- 

 tion is the key to the most of life. 



We have several great divisions of 

 vocation, namely, — agriculture, manu- 

 facturing, transportation and commerce, 

 home-making and other work for women, 

 and the so-called professions. With 

 respect to the last it may be said that 

 gradually new professions are arising 

 out of the old vocations. It is becom- 

 ing increasingly evident that education 

 for all these vocations is necessary. 

 In the past we have emphasized the 

 professions and have neglected training 

 for the manual vocations. Furthermore, 

 we have laid stress on the training of 

 leaders ; we have not given enough at- 

 tention to the preparation of subordi- 

 nates. We have attempted to train 

 men who are supposed to do mental 

 work chiefly ; we have neglected to train 

 people whoaretointellectualize muscular 

 work. We have attempted to train 

 generals ; we have not trained captains. 

 We have made it possible for the few 

 to find their niche in the world's woik ; 

 we have turned the mass of boys and 

 girls loose to get along as best they 

 could in the struggle for existence. 



But now we have come to see that 

 there is a supreme industrial reason 

 for training for vocation. We need to 

 develop the maximum skill of indivi- 

 duals in the interests of production, 

 just as we need to secure the maxi- 

 mum return from a machine or an 

 acre of land. We have learned also 

 that sociologically there is a strong 

 reason for vocational training, lying in 

 the desirability of adjustment of the 

 individual function and ability to social 

 progress. We need to have each man 

 doing the work for which he is best 

 fitted and which the world wants done. 

 We must put the square pegs in the 

 squaie holes, both in the interest of 

 the individual and of society. 



In our industrial problems heretofore 

 agriculture has been treated largely 

 as a non-mental pursuit. It has been 

 looked upon as an art, an art with 

 a low degree of skill, — "any one can 

 farm." But we have reached the time 

 when the abundance of scientific know- 

 ledge about agriculture shows that this 

 opinion is no longer tenable. The de- 

 pletion of soils, under our old system 

 of agriculture which "anybody could 

 follow," further emphasizes our mistake. 

 Furthermore, land was formerly given 

 away and some of it held by the in- 

 efficient, now we are approaching a 

 time of land scarcity and a time wnen 

 land can be held only by the efficient. 



53 



