May, 1910.] 



418 



Education. 



Consequently the need of a training 

 for the vocation of agriculture is forced 

 upon our attention, and we find a great 

 movement setting in in which agricul- 

 ture, as well as our industrial vocation?, 

 is knocking at the doors of the schools. 



Before going further it would be well 

 to signify that agriculture as we use it 

 implies a rather definite sort of thing. 

 It is not chiefly an art ; it is a body of 

 knowledge. While it may not perhaps 

 be justly called a science, such as 

 chemistry, it is an applied science, such 

 as medicine. It has to do not primarily 

 with practices, but with laws. What 

 are the underlying principles that 

 govern soil activity and plant and animal 

 growth, and how may these laws be 

 utilized by man in the production of 

 economic goods? True, agriculture in- 

 cludes the art of farming, although 

 training in agriculture does not attempt 

 to perfect one in the art. On the 

 technical side agriculture would develop 

 reasons for processes. 



But it has also a business side. It 

 involves the question of selling, —con- 

 sequently that of marketing and that of 

 farm management. 



It has a social side, Agriculture is 

 related to other industries, and indeed it 

 is fundamental to them. The rural 

 voters are of great political significance, 

 and our forty millions of rural people 

 constitute a great factor in the develop- 

 ment of our national life and thought. 



Agricultural education, like all other 

 forms of industrial education has, then, 

 its vocational purpose, but it also has its 

 pedagogical purpose. That is to say, it 

 has educational value. It is interesting 

 to know that in the argument made for 

 industrial education to-day men con- 

 tinually hark back to the old days of the 

 farm home regime for children and 

 describe the educational v ilue of the 

 experience in the typical farm home. 

 They say frankly that the chief reason 

 for putting industrial education into 

 the schools, at least so far as mere 

 schooling is concerned, is that if possible 

 something may be developed which shall 

 take the place of this old farm home 

 training. Furthermore, we have come to 

 recognise the value of manual skill in 

 training the mind itself. Even with our 

 definition of agriculture there is room 

 there for manual training. It follows 

 therefore that agriculture may be used 

 for strictly educational purposes, without 

 reference to vocational ends. While in 

 the main agriculture will be taught as a 

 vocational subject, it is worth while to 

 keep in mind that it has also a definite 

 and specific educational value, even for 



those who are not to follow agriculture 

 as a vocation. Agriculture presents facts 

 that are worth knowing by every in- 

 telligent man. It develops principles 

 that illustrate natural laws in many 

 fields. It organizes processes. It gives 

 manual work. All of these things are 

 of definite value to the growing mind. 

 They are educational. 



There are three grades of school work 

 in agriculture. First, the college and 

 graduate grade, which may be grouped 

 together for our purposes ; second, the 

 high school grade ; and third, the element- 

 ary grade. The first two define them- 

 selves. The third perhaps requires a 

 word of explanation. The schools have 

 been giving natura study for a number 

 of years. Nature study uses many of 

 the materials of agriculture, and while 

 there is perhaps no very sharp line of 

 demarcation between nature work and 

 agriculture in a general way, the two 

 things should be kept apart. Nature 

 work is relatively unorganized and un- 

 systematic. It does not confine itself to 

 any one body of knowledge. It aims to 

 teach the child to observe, to love nature, 

 to appreciate the beauty of the common- 

 place, and to look for the cause behind 

 the phenomenon. Even elementary agri- 

 culture is rather definite and fairly well 

 organized. It studies processes. It has 

 an economic bearing. It deals with an 

 industry. It shows the interests of men 

 making a living from the soil. Its 

 illustrations are specific, such as come, 

 for instance, by the use of school gardens 

 and the incubator. 



Now the real question that arises after 

 this brief preliminary survey is this : 

 Shall agriculture as we have defined it 

 be utilized to any large degree in the 

 public school system ? So far as college- 

 grade work is concerned this question 

 has been settled. Agricultural colleges 

 have been supported at public expense 

 for fitty years. We need not discuss 

 that question further. The point at 

 issue concerns the work of secondary 

 and elementary agriculture. It seems 

 to me that we may at once answer this 

 question also in the affirmative, provided 

 we are ready to acknowledge the value 

 of agriculture as mental training and 

 are willing to assent to the proposition 

 that the school system shall be utilized 

 for purposes of vocational traiuing, 



I do not think it needs elaborate 

 argument to prove that the subject 

 matter of agriculture properly taught 

 gives abundant material for training of 

 the mind. The educational value of 

 science in general and of applied science 

 in particular is pretty commonly recog- 

 nised, Agriculture offers a mosbiuvit- 



