BULLETIN OF THE 
fflOFAmiM 
No. 7 
Contribution from the Office of Experiment Stations, A. C. True, Director . ?"*"© £4 O f " 
t ^ — Q 
October 18, 1913. I ^ H v t/i 
AGRICULTURAL TRAINING COURSES FOR EMPLO YED & 
TEACHERS 
With a Suggested Reading Course in Agriculture Based on Farmers' Bulletins. 
By Edwin R. Jackson, 
Assistant in Agricultural Education. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Perhaps the most noteworthy feature in the educational progress 
of the Nation during recent years has been the development of agri- 
cultural education, particularly in the public schools. From May, 
1910, to March, 1912, the total number of institutions giving courses 
in agriculture increased from 863 to 2,575, or at the rate of more than 
76 each month; and this increase is found almost entirely in schools 
of the secondary grade. This does not take into account the vast 
number of elementary and rural schools into which some instruction 
in agriculture has been introduced of which no definite record is 
obtainable, but of which there must be an enormous number, since 
in at least 19 States agriculture is required by law to be taught in 
the common schools. 1 
It is altogether probable that the spread of agricultural instruc- 
tion would have been even more rapid had it not been for the diffi- 
culty which has been encountered in procuring teachers able to give 
instruction in the subject. Responding to the demand for teachers 
of agriculture, the normal schools are very generally introducing 
courses in agriculture, while many of the agricultural colleges, on 
the other hand, are offering special courses for teachers. This has 
resulted in providing a limited number of trained teachers — hardly 
enough, however, to supply the needs of the secondary schools and 
special schools of agriculture. Few, indeed, of the normal or col- 
lege trained teachers find employment in the rural common schools. 
1 The States in which agriculture is required to he taught either in all common schools or at least in. rural 
schools are Alabama. Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, North 
Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West 
Virginia, and Wisconsin. In some of these States the subject is not required by legislative act. but is put 
into the required course of study prescribed by the State superintendent of public instruction pursuant 
to authority of law. In addition to these, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Utah require agriculture taught in 
all rural high schools. 
5773°— Bull. 7—13 1 
