It is now the purpose to consider, at some length, the work of the agricultural colleges in preparing (1) agricultural teachers and (2) general rural-school teachers.

ESTABLISHMENT OF PROFESSIONAL CHAIRS IN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

By degrees, consciously or otherwise, the trend toward industrialism has forced the introduction of industrial subjects into every variety of institution of public education. Agriculture, home economics, and manual training are getting a firm grip on all the schools, and not the least on the rural schools. The chief difficulty up to the present time has been a lack of trained teachers for these subjects, and schools in which to procure the necessary preparation. This defect is now, fortunately, met in many of the agricultural colleges through the creation of divisions of agricultural education. The new chairs aim primarily to prepare teachers of agriculture and other industrial subjects for secondary and higher schools, such as high schools, normal schools, and other agricultural colleges, as also for the new consolidated rural schools. The product of long-course teachers has not yet been sufficiently large to reach many of the smaller rural schools. It is to meet in some measure the demands for the latter that summer-school courses of a large variety are offered. These are proving of great value to rural and village teachers. Only a few of the agricultural colleges have yet seen their way clear to organize special departments or courses for general rural teachers.

PREPARING INDUSTRIAL TEACHERS FOR SECONDARY AND OTHER SCHOOLS.

The agricultural colleges and agricultural departments of the universities have for some time been the best prepared among schools to teach the subject matter of the new industrial subjects. Now the new professional divisions are supplying what has been lacking for the proper presentation of the industrial subject matter in the classrooms.

The work of one of the 27 schools reporting distinct departments for the preparation of agricultural and other industrial teachers is offered to illustrate the work of all.

College of Agriculture, the University of California. The division of agriculture teaching offers a number of thoroughgoing courses for high-school teachers and also two for graduate students. These are as follows:

For the recommendation of the department for the high-school teacher's certificate the following requirements must be met:

1. The applicant, if a graduate of the University of California, in 1914 or thereafter, shall have taken his major in agricultural education.

2. The applicant shall have had the following work, or its equivalent: (a) Agricultural education 101, 102, 104.

(b) At least one course in soils, economic botany, plant propagation, pomology, agronomy, landscape gardening, plant pathology, economic entomology, farm management, live stock, dairying, poultry, veterinary science, farm machinery, irrigation.

LOWER DIVISION COURSE.

5. Agencies for Rural Progress.-A study of country-life problems, agencies for rural progress, and the best means of utilizing those agencies for the improvement of rural communities. Lectures, assigned readings, and reports. 3 hours, 3 units. Each half year.

INTERDIVISION COURSE.

99. Practice in General Agriculture.-A six weeks' course, beginning May 14, covering the practical operations on a farm, including methods of tillage, irrigation, and crop culture; care and management of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, and poultry; practice in dairy work; care of orchards and vineyards. The course is intended to familiarize the students with the practical operations on the farm. 6 units. Prerequisite: Two full years of college work.

UPPER DIVISION COURSES.

100-A. Agricultural Nature Study in Elementary Schools.-Lectures and laboratory. The course is especially designed to meet the needs of prospective teachers and supervisors of nature study and school gardens. 5 hours first half year. 3 units. 100-B. Agriculture in Elementary Schools.-Lectures, laboratory and garden work. The course is especially designed to meet the needs of prospective teachers of elementary agriculture. 5 hours second half year. 3 units.

101. High-School Farms, Gardens, and Community Work.-Lectures, reports, and conferences on the utilization of land in connection with high-school agricultural teaching and a study of the means by which the agricultural education faclities of a school can be brought into intimate and helpful relation with the farm and home life of the community supporting the school. Practice in planning and executing school farm problems and demonstrations. Ways and means by which the agricultural interests of a community can be promoted through the local schools. 3 hours lecture or report; 3 hours practice. Second half year, 3 units.

102. General Science and First-Year Agriculture. Teachers' Course.-The aim and values of a general science course in the high school, comparative study of typical courses, and exposition of the peculiar adaptations to the general science work of a beginning agriculture course in which plant study forms the basis of continuity. The materials and methods suited to such a course in the high school will be fully discussed. The nature and amount of practical work needed in the course, including field trips and excursions, outdoor and laboratory exercises, will be considered in detail, together with the equipment for the same. 3 hours. First half year, 3 units. 104. Agriculture in Secondary Schools.-A study of agricultural teaching in the high school, including its history, the teaching methods to be employed, and the equipment needed. A general consideration of the educational aims and values of the work and of the organization of the course is followed by a detailed study of materials and methods involved in the teaching of the various subjects of the agricultural courses; beginning agriculture, dairying, animal husbandry, horticulture, etc. Lectures, readings, and assigned practicums. 3 hours. Second half year. 3 units prerequisite.

115. Individual Study of Selected Topics in Agricultural Education.-Each half year. Time and credit to be arranged.

GRADUATE COURSES.

200. The Practice of Teaching Agriculture.-This course, if taken in connection with education 201, will satisfy the requirements in practice teaching for the highschool teacher's recommendation.

202. Special Studies in Agricultural Education.-Each half year. Time and credit to be arranged.

COURSES FOR RURAL TEACHERS AND OTHER RURAL LEADERS.

Twenty-two agricultural colleges report special departments, or, at least, specific courses for rural teachers. Others offer rural leadership courses for teachers and farmers. Of great importance to rural-school departments under agricultural-college direction is the positive industrial atmosphere and environment offered, not to mention the complete technical-practical equipment of such schools for successful industrial work.

Agricultural colleges with rural-school departments are not limited to any one special section of the country.

The department of rural education in the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University has, in the past, limited its work to conducting extension courses among teachers, to the publication of the Cornell Rural School Leaflet, and the holding of conferences for rural teachers. Strong courses have also been offered in rural economy and rural leadership, open to teachers and others.

Recently, however, the work of the department has been reorganized, so that at this time a professor of rural education offers courses in rural education, methods of teaching, types of rural schools, and practice work in teaching classes.

The Agricultural and Mechanical College at West Raleigh, N. C., offers three specific courses for rural teachers: A two-year course, a one-year course, and a two-weeks' spring course. The instruction is devoted chiefly to industrial work and reviews in the elementary subjects. The short course is intended for teachers already in the field who feel the need of more thorough preparation in the new subject matter. Courses are offered in school management, agriculture, nature study, school gardens, farm crops, farm animals, horticulture, soils, insects, poultry, and arithmetic, English, history, etc.

The College of Agriculture of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebr., maintains as one of its departments a secondary agricultural school which offers four-year courses in agriculture and in homemaking, and a normal training course of two years open to students in the above courses, which covers the junior and senior years.

Dean E. A. Burnett makes the following comment on the value of this work for rural teachers:

About 50 per cent of the young women taking the home economics group take the normal training course, which prepares them for rural teachers with specially strong qualifications in domestic science and domestic art.

The young men graduating from the secondary school of agriculture are specially qualified as agricultural teachers for rural and village schools.

Forty per cent of the work of the young men is done in technical agriculture— agronomy, animal husbandry, dairy husbandry, horticulture, animal pathology, and manual-training work. This makes these young men especially proficient in agricultural subjects. The Normal training Law requires instruction in the five essentials

and the passage of a State examination qualifying the student for a second-grade certificate.

Graduates of the school of agriculture receive instruction for one semester in political economy and for one semester in rural economics; also for one year in farm management. No specific work is offered in rural sociology.

In regard to professional work in the college of agriculture proper,

he says:

From one-third to one-half of the students graduating from the college of agriculture take special work in education and prepare to teach agriculture in the normal training high schools or in the Shumway schools, where manual training and agriculture are subsidized by the State. These men have opportunity to secure instruction in rural sociology, in addition to their instruction in political economy and commerce and in farm management and rural economics.

Women graduating from the college of agriculture secure four years of instruction in domestic science and domestic art, qualifying them as teachers or supervisors of this subject in city schools or colleges. In addition, they secure information in education qualifying them for a first-grade State certificate which, after one or two years of successful experience, entitles them to a life certificate in the State of Nebraska.

SUMMER SCHOOLS IN THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES.

Nineteen agricultural colleges report summer schools for rural and village teachers, and 11 others are expecting to inaugurate such courses by another year. Several of the schools make use of rural practice schools in these short courses and nearly all of them utilize practical demonstration work in laboratory and farm.

A good typical course of this is offered in the summer school of Purdue University, La Fayette, Ind. The plan of work comprises groups (1) for students who have not taken courses in these lines and (2) for students who have already spent one season in attendance or who have had equivalent training:

Group I. Plans of study for teachers taking up this kind of work for the first time. The aim is to give a general view such as is needed in introducing the work into the public schools.

Agriculture:

Required courses: Farm crops 2, soil studies 2, horticulture 2, dairying 2, animal husbandry 2, poultry 2.

Elective course: Mechanical drawing 2.

Home economics:

Required courses: Foods 2, sewing 2, general lectures and reports 2.

Home economics and agriculture:

Required courses: Foods 1, sewing 1, shop work and mechanical drawing 1. Manual training and agriculture:

Required courses: Shop work and mechanical drawing 1, soil studies 1, horticulture 1, poultry 1.

Manual training:

Required courses: Shop work and mechanical drawing 2.

Manual training and home economics:

Required courses: Shop work and mechanical drawing 1, foods 1, sewing.

Group II. Plan of study for teachers who have had the antecedent work included in Group I above or its equivalent.