of agriculture it has tacitly been assumed that there is
a demand for agricultural teachers, i.e., specialists who
devote themselves exclusively to the teaching of agriculture.
It is obvious that such a teacher needs a different training
from one who teaches agriculture together with other subjects.
To be sure, the best work in agriculture cannot be done where
the teacher is burdened with many other duties, nevertheless,
if conditions make it impossible to employ a teacher of agri-
culture alone, it is the duty of the agricultural college
to prepare teachers who will best meet these conditions.
In short, it is necessary to know what the demand for
teachers to teach agriculture is, to what extent other duties
are imposed upon them, and what tangible rewards are offered.
The nature of the training courses will largely depend upon
these factors.

Other teaching duties.

The sphere of greatest usefulness will be in the rural high school. Thorndike has shown that

"the most typical, in the sense of the most frequent secon-
dary school in the United States is the school taught by one
teacher. The secondary school in the country with only one
teacher outnumbers by a considreable figure all those with
five or more teachers. Those with only one or two teachers
outnumber by a considerable figure all the rest. Those with
one, two, or three teachers are ten times as frequent as
those with ten or more teachers and five times as frequent
as those from five up to ten teachers." (1)

Robison found that teachers of agriculturel were teaching many
The following table shows how much they were

subjects.

1, Thorndike.

Educ. R. 33:245-55, 1907.

Thus but two teachers did not teach other classes, while more than half had five or more additional classes. In 1913-14 Illinois had 116 special teachers of one science only including 4 special teachers of agriculture; excluding the schools of Chicago 6.23% of the teachers of all subjects were teaching one subject only.(2) Jessup found but 19% of the teachers in 200 schools studied in this class.(3) Courts shows that the teachers of the high schools accredited by the North Central Association 39.6% of the teachers teach 5 periods daily, 31.0% teach 6 periods, and 2.8% teach 7.(4) Since the same report shows that the median number of units in agriculture offered is 1/2 unit, (168 school giving that number as compared with 13 schools giving 4 units) it is evident that there cannot be many teachers who teach agriculture alone. The official school directory of Wisconsin shows that the median number of teachers in the 53 schools receiving state aid for agriculture is only 4,

1, Robison.

op. cit. p.93

2, Eikenberry. School Rev. 22:185, 1915.

3, quoted ibidem.

4, Study of the colleges and high schools in the North Central Association. U.S.Bur.Educ., Bul.1915, 5. p.74-5, 109.