4:; 
Adams BILL and MoNDELL Mimm, SCHOOL BlLL. 
II. P. Armsby, of Pennsylvania, offered the following resolution: 
Resolved. Thai the executive committee be Instructed t<> continue Its efforts to 
secure the passage by Congress of the Mil increasing the appropriation to the 
agricultural experiment stations and the mining school bill. 
On motion of w. a. Henry, of Wisconsin, the executive committee was in- 
structed to appoint a time for the discussion of this subjecl i^v p. 64). 
Standing < Jow m hi i i s. 
The question of the status of standing committees was briefly discussed and 
the matter was referred to the executive committee for reporl at the next. 
convention. 
Methods of Teaching Agbicultt/re — The Teaching of Agriculture in the 
Rural Schools. 
The report of the committee on this subject, which discussed "The teaching 
of agriculture in the rural common schools," was read by II. T. French, of Idaho, 
in the absence of the chairman of the committee, A. C. True, as follows: 
In accordance with the apparent wishes of the association as expressed in an 
informal discussion of the report of this committee at the meeting in Washing- 
ton last November, this ninth report of the committee on methods of teaching 
agriculture is devoted to a discussion on the feasibility of teaching agriculture 
in the rural common schools, and suggestions regarding the nature and extent 
of such teaching. In this discussion the term "common schools" is taken to 
mean schools giving instruction in grades below those of the high school, and 
the term "rural schools" will include not only the schools in extremely rural 
districts, hut also those in villages and small towns which draw largely on the 
adjacent country for pupils and financial support. It should also he understood 
that in this report attention is confined to matters relating to the teaching of 
agriculture in the rural schools as ordinarily organized in our public school 
system. We have not undertaken here to discuss the advisability of the estab- 
lishment of county or district elementary schools of agriculture as separate 
institutions or the courses of instruction suitable for such schools. 
DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IX THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 
Industrial training as a subject for regular instruction in the common schools 
has been until recently confined largely to manual training in the city schools, 
and even in these schools it is still far from being fully developed. However, the 
number of schools in which manual training (other than drawing) is given has 
increased rapidly during the past thirteen years. In 1890, when the Bureau of 
Education first began publishing the statistics of manual training in the United 
States, there were only 37 cities of 8,000 population and over in which manual 
training was taught in the public schools: in 1902 there were 270 such cities. 
The schools referred to are rho<e in which other subjects than manual training 
are mainly taught. ^ In 25 of these schools manual training is given in all 
grades, including the high school: in 64 it begins with the first grade: in ">."> 
it is confined to the high school, and in 206 (mere than three-fourths of all the 
schoolst it is given in some of the grammar grades. 
The introduction of manual training into courses of study which were already 
Crowded has involved problems requiring close and careful study of the needs 
of the pupils, and has generally resulted in greatly increasing the efficiency of 
the schools in which manual training is now taught. The effort has been made 
to retain all the essentials of the branches commonly taught in such schools 
a For previous reports see U. S. Dept. Agr.. Office of Experiment Stations Buls. 
41. p. 57; 49, p. 29; 65, p. 70; Id. p. 39; 99, p. 86: 115, p. 59; 123, p. 45; 142. 
p. 63, and Circs. 32, .IT. 39, 41. 45. 40. and 7C>. 
& There were also, in 1002. 163 schools devoted chiefly to manual and industrial 
training. 
