Z BULLETIN 7, U. S. DEPAKTMEXT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The result is that while there has been a widespread demand for the 
teaching of agriculture in the rural schools, the teachers who are found 
in these schools are generally poorly equipped to give such instruction- 
Added to the urgent demand from the schools themselves that 
teachers should have training in agriculture, there has been the spur 
of legislation in some 19 States in which an examination in agricul- 
ture is now one of the prerequisites for obtaining a teachers' cer- 
tificate. 1 
Thus it will be seen that one of the most urgent things which now 
needs to be done in order to promote the development of agricultural 
education is to provide better means of training teachers in agri- 
culture. This need is especially urgent in the case of teachers 
already in service in elementary schools. The widespread movement 
toward the development of teacher-training courses in high schools 
and the parallel growth of agricultural courses in these schools will 
undoubtedly result in a few years in producing teachers for the com- 
mon schools who have had considerably more training, both profes- 
sionally and in scientific agriculture, than those now in service. The 
immediate need, therefore, seems to be to provide means by which 
teachers now engaged in regular school work, who have not had the 
opportunity to study agriculture, and who can not afford to take a 
year or more away from their employment in order to pursue a course 
of study at an agricultural school, may still receive a working knowl- 
edge of the subject in order to keep abreast of the times, as well as 
to comply with the requirements of the law in those States where 
agriculture must be taught. 
With a view to ascertaining just what means are now open to em- 
ployed teachers, by which they ma}' acquire agricultural training 
and at the same time continue in service, this office has undertaken 
an investigation of the subject among the educational institutions 
of the country, and the report of this investigation is included in this 
bulletin. 
MEANS BY WHICH EMPLOYED TEACHERS MAY ACQUIRE AGRICULTURAL 
TRAINING. 
SUMMER COURSES. 
Without doubt the most popular as well as the most efficient 
means of giving training to employed teachers are the summer courses 
offered by the colleges and normal schools, and a large proportion 
of these include more or less complete courses in agriculture. Since 
those summer sessions are almost without exception intended spe- 
cifically for the benefit of teachers, it follows that in the majority of 
1 These Stairs arc: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri. 
Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota (optional), Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina (may be required 
for county certificates), Tennessee, Texas, Virginia (optional), West Virginia, and Wisconsin. 
