their pupils only what seemed most necessary for their success 

 when they should move to the city. The farms of New England 

 are, in large measure, deserted or are passing into alien hands. 

 To retain the country boy on the land and to keep our soil from 

 exhaustion, it is high time that all our rural schools turned their 

 attention, as some of them have done, to agriculture. . . . 

 The gain for the nation would be incalculable. Scientific 

 agriculture practically taught, is as necessary for the rural 

 school as is manual training for the city school." 



A very important report on the subject of industrial training 

 (agriculture, domestic science, and manual training) was sub- 

 mitted to the meeting by the committee especially appointed 

 by the association in 1903 to investigate the subject. In 

 general the decisions arrived at may be stated as follows : — 



(1) On account of want of rooms, the quality of teaching, 

 the immaturity of many pupils, and the crowded condition of the 

 programme, but little in the way of industrial or agricultural 

 education can be expected in the existing one-room district 

 schools. 



(2) That in a consolidated school* having at least four 

 teachers, one of whom is prepared to teach the elements of 

 •agriculture and manual training, much more can be accom- 

 plished. The committee therefore favours the consolidation 

 of the one-room district schools, and recommends that wherever 

 this can be accomplished agriculture be included in the pro- 

 gramme, and that a room be provided in the school house 

 for this purpose, and plots of land set apart for illustrative or 

 experimental work in agriculture. 



(3) That in township or other distinctly rural high schools 

 attended by a considerable number of children, such a modifica- 

 tion of courses, especially in regard to agriculture and domestic 

 sciences, be introduced, as local conditions may make feasible. 

 Teachers must be secured who have been specially prepared, 

 and a text book treating of botany from an agricultural or 

 economic standpoint is needed. 



(4) That th? success of the existing agricultural and industrial 

 high schools, few as they are, presents the strongest reasons for 

 the organisation of this type of school in large numbers. The 



* I.e., a school formed by the amalgamation of two or three distinct schools in 

 neighbouring districts. 



