43 



The Committee presented in their report a number of tenta- 

 tive schedules for agricultural courses to be incorporated with 

 those already existing in different high schools, in order to show 

 that no violent reorganisation of programme is necessary. 

 Whenever manual arts or natural sciences are introduced into 

 high school courses, the practical effect is to reduce the time 

 given to ancient and modern languages. The programmes 

 submitted, however, leave it open to a student of agriculture 

 to take up at least one ancient or modern language if he wishes . 



The Legislature of Minnesota passed an Act in 1905 

 providing for the establishment and maintenance of County 

 Schools of Agriculture and Domestic Economy, and limiting 

 to £4,000 per annum the amount that any county may appro- 

 priate for this purpose, for which two or more counties may 

 unite. Schools are to be under the control of a County School 

 Board of three members. Each school must have with it a 

 tract of land suitable for experiments and demonstration of 

 not less than 10 acres. Tuition is to be free to residents of the 

 county or counties contributing to its support. The State 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction is to have general super- 

 vision over the schools and, with the advice of the Dean of the 

 College of Agriculture of the State University, is to prescribe 

 the courses of study. 



In Kansas a law of several years' standing provides for the 

 establishment of county high schools by local option. In one 

 of these, that of Norton County, which already gave courses 

 in chemistry, physics, and natural history, it was decided in 

 1905 to start a regular course in farming, which is the principal 

 industry of the neighbourhood, and a graduate of the Kansas 

 State Agricultural College was engaged to give the instruction 

 required. 



Both State and Federal officials were interested in the experi- 

 ment and assisted in working up public interest in it, with the 

 result, among others, that prizes to the amount of about £23 were 

 offered by farm implement dealers for a grain-judging contest, 

 while three others opened their warehouses in the town to the 

 classes in agriculture and supplied experts to give instruc- 

 tion on the care and use of farm machinery. 



The agricultural course includes botany, with special reference 

 to variation, development of species, hybridisation, and the 



