Agricultural Education. 



324 



[October, 1910. 



TEACHING AGRICULTURE IN HIGH 

 SCHOOLS, 



By A. McKbnny. 



(From the 31st Annual Report Ontario 

 Agricultural and Experiment 

 Union, 1909.) 



In the short time at my disposal, I 

 shall not make any attempt to go into 

 the history of the movement, which is 

 no doubt more or less familiar to tbe 

 most of you, bat shall confine my 

 remarks to the work which has been 

 accomplished and the present condition of 

 the experiment, Any views which I may 

 have to offer nave been derived from my 

 experience in endeavouring to work out 

 my plans of the Department for teach- 

 ing Agriculture in the Essex High 

 School. And while they may be true 

 under the conditions which exist in 

 Essex County, they might not apply to 

 other sections of the Province, 



When entering upon my duties, it was 

 understood that the important feature 

 of the work was to organise a class of 

 boys, who would take the prescribed 

 course in Agriculture. 



This course was planned to extend over 

 a period of two years, the work of these 

 two years was supposed to be equal to 

 one year's work at the Ontario Agri- 

 cultural College. It was hoped that this 

 course would appeal to boys from the 

 farm, who were attending the High 

 School and who would probably return 

 to the farm, or who were planning to 

 attend the Ontario Agricultural College 

 later. 



Theoretically, this course looked fine. 

 It was outlined to fit conditions in the 

 country surrounding the High School. 

 The principal of the school, the members 

 of ttie High School Board and others 

 identified in the improvement were 

 quite enthusiastic as to the value of the 

 work prescribed, and the probable num- 

 ber of farmers' sbns who would take 

 advantage of it. A vigorous advertising 

 campaign was undertaken through the 

 branch office of the Department of Agr- 

 culture. Extension work was carried 

 on throughout the country; judging 

 courses, farmers' clubs, etc., were or- 

 ganised and through these, the value of 

 agricultural education was emphasised. 

 But after two years' hard work, I regret 

 to say that our general course in agri- 

 culture has not proved the success which 

 we had hoped for in the beginning. 



Numerically, we seemed to be doing 

 fairly well, closing last year's work with 

 eight boys taking the work in agri- 

 culture. But of these eight only three 

 were farmers' sons, the remainder of the 



class being made up of boys from the 

 town who were only interested in certain 

 phases of the work. Though there were 

 many farmers' sons in the school, nearly 

 every boy was there for the purpose of 

 getting away from the farm and took 

 no interest in anything pertaining to 

 agriculture. 



This state of affairs.it seemed to me, 

 did not fulfil the purpose intended. The 

 question which arose was how to interest 

 the farmers' sons in the work we were 

 doing. The farmers themselves appeared 

 to be very much interested as evidenced 

 in the manner in which they had taken 

 up different lines which we had in- 

 augurated; as, for instance, the Ontario 

 Corn Growers' Association, which was 

 organised and is supported by the far- 

 mers themselves, and now has a member- 

 ship of over 500 in the Counties of Essex 

 and Kent. 



One of the most serious drawbacks in 

 connection with the long course work in 

 the High School, is that it opens in the 

 middle of September when every farmer's 

 son is busy at home on the farm, and 

 the only possible students we could hope 

 to get were young boys from twelve to 

 thirteen years of age who had just 

 passed the entrance. This shut out 

 dozens of young fellows from sixteen 

 years and up who were just beginning 

 to be interested in farm life, and who 

 had quit school before or immediately 

 after passing the entrance examination 

 and were now beginning to feel the need 

 of a better education. 



Having sized up the situation, we con- 

 cluded that our long course in agri- 

 culture in the High School was not 

 reaching the boys, who were most in 

 need of just such instruction as we 

 were prepared to give them. We 

 decided to draft a course which would 

 be particularly adapted to the needs 

 of the young farmers in Essex County, 

 In order to make this fit in with 

 thd season in our section and with 

 the work which we knew must be 

 done before these boys could hope to get 

 away, we advertised a six weeks' course 

 in agriculture to begin in January and 

 end about the middle of February, in 

 plenty of time for the Spring work, 

 which begins with us often as early as 

 the first week of March. 



Upon the day that we advertised this 

 course to open, instead of one or two 

 small boys, eighteen young men ranging 

 from sixteen to twenty-five years of age, 

 appeared prepared to take up the work. 



Many of these young fellows had been 

 away from school for from six to eight 

 years, and had forgotten a great deal of 



