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Education. 



As an avenue of communication between the pupil and the teacher, 

 it being a field in which the pupil will likely have |a larger bulk of 

 information than the teacher, but in which the training of.the 

 teacher can help to more exact knowledge. 



Several States have made provision for training the teaciiers in agriculture, 

 and make it a compulsory subject in their examinations. At Cornell University a 

 two-years' normal course is provided in nature study and gardening. Ten normal 

 training-schools have been opened in Michigan for the express purpose of training 

 teachers for rural schools. 



Text-books have been published suitable for the various States. In North 

 Carolina State 12,000 children received instruction in agriculture last year. 



In addition to the education in the rural schools, the provision made in 

 the splendidly staffed and equipped agricultural colleges in evei y State, in 

 proportion to its population, is not rivalled in any part of the world. The 

 courses are arranged to meet the requirements of all classes of agriculturists, and 

 extending from periods of twelve weeks to five years. The longer period course 

 in most instances entitles the student to present himself for the Bachelor of 

 Agricultural Science Degree, which is granted at all the American Universities. 



The training in the High Schools is essentially such as to mentally and 

 physically equip a lad for the specific education in an agricultural college. The 

 subjects of manual training, physiography, elementary chemistry, physics, 

 geology, algebra, mathematics, and geometry are taught. 



POPULAR EDUCATION OP THE FARMER. 



For those farmers and their sons who are unable to attend the agricultural 

 colleges of the various States, several schemes have been evolved. Short courses 

 have been offered, and farmers' clubs organised on the University Extension plan. 

 Under the auspices of the agricultural colleges and kindred establishments, such 

 as the experiment stations and agricultural associations, farmers' institutes are 

 now very popular, at which lectures and demonstrations are provided by the 

 State experts, and often by those sent by the central authority at Washington. 

 Michigan set the example in 1892. The railway companies realise how important 

 it is to their revenue to have a welll-educated class of farmer on the land 

 through which their lines run, and offer the greatest facilities to farmers to attend 

 courses of instruction. In fact, they supply special trains free to bodies of farmers 

 of sufficient number to convey them to the agricultural colleges on special occasions 

 to inspect the crops and methods pursued at these and the experiment stations 

 where lectures are given by the officers. 



One of the most recent methods adopted to reach the farmer is for the State 

 to fit out two railway cars, one as a store for roots and seeds and as an agricultural 

 museum or exhibit, the other suitably seated to act as a lecture room and 

 sleeping apartment. Expert itinerant lecturers are engaged, and are conveyed 

 through the rural districts free. A systematic course of lectures is thus given at 

 every station where these cars are left, to the farmers in the district, either during 

 the day or in the evening, whichever is found most suitable to the local residents. 



Instruction is given, the exhibits are fully explained, seeds and roots are 

 distributed free, and the railway companies are recompensed for their enterprise 

 by the increased production and carriage on their lines, as a result of this advanced 

 technical education. 



This brief and necessarily incomplete precis of educational effort as it is 

 conducted in the advanced countries of the world evidences the great attention 

 now being devoted to it, and the stimulus thus provided for increasing the value 

 of the primary industries. 



