Agricultural Education. 



142 



[August, 1910. 



tioual possibilities through the utili- 

 zation and development of agricultural 

 studies as an integral part of the general 

 educational scheme deserves more than 

 passing attention. 



The University of Tennessee has re- 

 cently inaugurated a unique plan of 

 agricultural extension work in certain 

 high schools of that State. The plan is 

 designed to illustrate in its practical 

 results the cultural value of instruccion 

 in agriculture to the general student in 

 secondary schools, as well as its useful- 

 nesss to those who may sometime follow 

 the busienss of farming. 



Briefly described, this plan provides 

 for the monthly visitation of a limited 

 number of high schools by the head of 

 the university department of agricul- 

 tural education, assistant professor 

 Josiah Main, who gives at each visit a 

 lesson and a demonstration, accom- 

 panied by an outline of work to be done 

 the next month with suggested readiugs 

 and reviews, He is also regarded as 

 available for any popular lectures on 

 education that may be arranged for in 

 connection with these monthly visits. 

 The university bears all the expenses of 

 this visitation and supervision of the 

 schools— unless the local community de- 

 sires to provide entertainmeut for the 

 visitor— but requires each school to 

 assume responsibility for the success of 

 the work by giving it a regular place 

 iu the school programme, providing a 

 regular teacher for the class between 

 visits, continuing the work from year to 

 year so long as the university offers co- 

 operation, and ultimately maintaining 

 the work independently of the university 

 connection as soon as finaucial support 

 and other conditions justify. The ex- 

 pense for material equipment for the 

 work will run from a minimum of $10 to 

 whatever the school is williug to provide 

 annually. 



At present eleven county high schools 

 in the State are taking advantage of 

 this co-operative plan. Bach lesson 

 given by the visitor presupposes the 

 mastery of all former lessons, thus mak- 

 ing the work cumulative and capable of 

 increasing technicality. The present 

 series will be collected into a printed and 

 illustrated form, which can be taught to 

 succeeding beginners' classes in each 

 school without the necessity of much 

 supervision. Iu this way the list of 

 schools and trained teachers is develop- 

 ed together, and schools that drop out 

 of the list are succeeded by new ones 

 from the waiting list. 



Several important advanatges at once 

 suggest themselves in thi9 plan, con- 



sidered as a whole, and the legislature 

 ha? indicated its approval of the experi- 

 ment by passing an act granting finan- 

 cial aid to high schools introducing 

 agriculture, domestic science, and me- 

 chanic arts. Such a plan makes effective 

 use of existing secondary schools. It 

 takes these schools aud teachers as they 

 are, and develops the new work with- 

 out displacing their present mechanisms 

 or personnel. It gives opportunity for 

 the demonstration of value. ble results 

 before calling for anything but nominal 

 local expenditures iu support of the 

 work installed. In short, it seems per- 

 fectly adapted to existing conditions 

 while affording the means of constantly 

 surpassing them through the new im- 

 pulse which must come with the wise 

 introduction of agriculturrl instruction 

 as a subject of general cultural value 

 iu secondary schools. 



We know of no other State institution 

 that has undertaken such a plan, and 

 the experiment will be watched with 

 much interest. The view-point which 

 regards agriculture as a legitimate and 

 valuable addition to cultural school 

 subjects, in addition to its value for 

 practical application in later life, seems 

 to be gaining increasing adherence. It 

 rests upon a much more secure found- 

 ation than do the argumeuts which 

 support the importance of so-called 

 manual training as a general school 

 subject. Aside from its informational 

 value for the student of whatever future 

 calling, the purely practical aspect of 

 agriculture includes much more than 

 merely a vocation. And this view of 

 the subject is clearly set forth in a 

 quotation from an official announcement 

 of the Tennessee plan : Agriculture " is 

 not only a business but a mode of life, 

 and no preparation for that mode of life 

 could be complete that does not include 

 not only farm husbandry, or agriculture 

 in its strictest sense, but also much of 

 the manual training peculiar to rural 

 pursuits, hygiene and agricultural econo- 

 mics, and even rural society education, 

 and general culture." 



The need of providing special assist- 

 ance and instruction for teachers who 

 have not heretofore appreciated the 

 educational value of agriculture in the 

 common schools, recognised in this 

 Tennessee plan of agricultural extension 

 work, is receiving increasing recogni- 

 tion in a number of other States, Thus 

 Louisiana, for exaxnple, has recently 

 made provision for a chair of agricul- 

 tural education with Prof. V. L. Roy, 

 formerly parish superintendent of Avoy- 

 elles Parish, as the first incumbent. 

 One-third of his salary is assumed by 



