teacher doing all the teaching) may be worth the while in starting the new education, or in the lack of teachers. The second phase (the directing of other teachers) is very effective when the individual teachers are not themselves expert, and it should have a marked effect on the teacher. This plan has been tried in Canada, and one teacher there writes:

The teacher must be trained, and it may be by a graduate of a normal school or an agricultural college, or by a director or supervisor of nature study. I think the last way is a good one. It improves the instruction in the school at the same time that the teacher is being trained, and many teachers think they can learn to better advantage in a school of their own than at a normal school. Of course, normal training should come first, and further training in nature study can be given the teacher while at her work, by a director of nature study; but this director should be an educator and not a mere specialist in some branch of natural science.

In some places it may be possible for a teacher of agriculture in a high school to inspect and supervise the agriculture teaching in the elementary schools of the region. If he is himself well trained, he should be able to exert a great influence in putting the other teachers on their feet.

(G).-UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

Much of the work of the national Department of Agriculture is distinctly educational and is of great value to teachers; and the Office of Experiment Stations maintains an organization to aid schools, colleges, and teachers in their pedagogical work. This Office is able often to send speakers to teachers' institutes and elsewhere; it maintains a large correspondence with school men; it publishes bulletins of information and advice on school gardening and agricultural teaching; it collects data on both foreign and American school work for the purpose of keeping the public informed of the state of agricultural education; and in general it lends counsel and encouragement to those in need of it.

(2).—THE TRAINING OF NEW TEACHERS.

We now come to the real question before us-where the agriculture teachers of the future are to be prepared.

Seven types of institutions or organizations are now beginning to train teachers for agriculture: (a) State normal schools; (b) local normal schools; (c) high schools and training classes; (d) separate agricultural schools; (e) special detached foundations for industrial work; (f) education departments of colleges and universities, and teachers' colleges; (g) agricultural colleges. It is not the purpose of this report to make any full discussion of these categories, unless perhaps the last one, but only to indicate what seems to be the most

promising field for each group of institutions. The agencies comprised in the above categories are not always distinct from some of those that aim chiefly to aid the present-day teachers (see page 25). These two groups merge, some of the shorter-course agencies often being conducted by the organizations mentioned in the present list. The purpose of the division into the two groups, however, is not to classify organizations or agencies, but to clarify the discussion by calling attention to the two main lines of effort. In general, an organization that maintains a continuous course of work for at least one school year is placed in this second group. It is not the object, in either of these groups, to make a complete list of the subclasses of institutions or organizations, but only to indicate the leading types. It may probably be taken for granted that in the end adequate preparation for the teaching of agriculture in the secondary schools, special industrial schools, and normal schools can be secured only in some kind of professional institution organized for the training of teachers; but the serious work of training teachers for agriculture in the schools is only begun here and there, and adequate systems are yet to be worked out.

(A).-STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS.

Nearly all the correspondents who have contributed suggestions to this report express the opinion that the regular normal schools should train teachers for agriculture. Theoretically this may be true, but the normal schools, as other institutions, face the practical conditions under which they exist. In a western State where cities are few and small, where agriculture is the dominant industry, and where normal schools are new, the educational problem is very different from what may obtain in one of the easternmost States. In the Eastern States the normal schools are taxed to their full capacity to supply teachers for the cities; the cities pay good wages for teachers; the normal schools are likely to be located in cities and without farm land; their energies are consumed in a line of work for which they have become adapted by years of effort. In such cases good agricultural work can not be added without a new and radical type of extension of the school; and it then becomes a question whether it would be better for the State to make such extension or to establish a new kind of training school elsewhere. It is a question, also, whether the normal method, as developed in some of these schools, is sufficiently elastic and adaptable to render good agriculture teaching possible. At all events, one can not look to all the existing normal schools in the older States, or even to any considerable part of them, for the training of teachers for this kind of work.

In the Middle West and in the newer States many of the normal schools are beginning to train in agricultural subjects. Heretofore the courses in these subjects have been largely adjuncts to the natural science teaching, but the work is now being differentiated. In Georgia it is expected that the State normal school will train teachers of agriculture for the elementary schools. "No one is given a diploma who does not take the prescribed work in agriculture. There is a regular professor of agriculture and he has about 20 acres under cultivation." Such courses, the correspondent thinks, "will assure a constantly increasing number of trained teachers for the elementary schools." For the most part, however, the regular State normal schools, particularly in thickly settled States, will probably train teachers for graded town and city schools rather than for elementary rural schools. Public pressure may force such of them as are most advantageously situated to establish special courses or classes to meet the needs of the rural schools, in much the same way that agricultural colleges have been obliged to organize short courses for farm youth.

In some States a special effort is made to interest the country boys and girls in the normal-school training. In Illinois, for example, a law was passed in 1905, called the "Normal school scholarship law," which provides that one pupil from each township in the State, selected by competitive examination, shall annually be awarded free tuition in one of the five State normal schools for four years. This makes it possible for each of the 1,887 townships of Illinois to have in the normal schools four pupils who at any one time are taking advantage of these scholarships. These boys and girls are from the common schools, graduates of the eighth grade, and, as the law is now working, 95 per cent of them come from the country districts. Having been born and bred on the farm, they are familiar with farm conditions, and have sense experience of farm life. These persons go into the normal schools for one term, two terms, or a year of work, and then return to teach in the country schools, coming again, it may be, to the normal school to do further work. It is expected that this plan will supply many energized teachers for the rural schools.

(B).-LOCAL NORMAL SCHOOLS.

The inability of the regular normal schools to supply teachers for rural elementary work has led to the establishing of county and other normal schools. In Wisconsin there are sixteen county institutions, and four more in process of organization. The sole purpose of these Wisconsin schools is to train teachers for the rural communities. The diploma is a three-year certificate, permitting the holder

to teach for that length of time in the rural or ungraded schools. These certificates may be renewed for another three years, provided the holder can give evidence of having taught successfully. The Dunn County Normal School, one of the first to be established, has been in operation for eight years, and it is reported that there is scarcely a rural school in the county that is not taught by its graduates. It is apparently only a question of time and legislative action before practically all the counties of the State will have such schools. The Wisconsin county normal or training schools are among the best institutions yet developed in this country for the direct training of teachers for local rural schools. They are organized for a specific purpose. The salaries are now as good as in the State normal schools. In Menomonie, Wausau, and Marinette the county normal school is in the same building with the county agricultural school; the instructor in agriculture in the latter school takes the normal school students for work in agriculture, and the normal school reciprocates by giving an equivalent amount of academic work to the agricultural students. This tends to set a standard for the pedagogical instruction in such other normal schools as are not fortunate enough to be in direct connection with a school of agriculture. The course of study in the normal schools is now two years, or high school graduates may take a one-year course. A well-known educator of Wisconsin writes that "the schools have so thoroughly approved themselves to school officials and to the public generally in the counties where they have been in existence that it is almost impossible for a person to get a position in the counties where these schools are located who has not had at least the work which the training offers." The work in agriculture in these normal schools is as yet not large, but it will increase. The course of study in the Richland County Training School is here given as an illustration of the content of the work, as all these schools have similar curricula:

Second year of the two-year course, or the one-year course for those prepared

After having taught in a rural school for a time, it is to be expected that most of the graduates who desire to continue to teach will enter State normal schools or other institutions, and prepare for city school work. The rural schools do not yet offer sufficient attractions to secure well-prepared teachers for a long tenure.

(c).—HIGH SCHOOLS AND TRAINING CLASSES.

It is often urged that high schools give instruction in agriculture as a part of their general course for the purpose of fitting teachers in the subject. It is very doubtful, however, whether we should really look to the ordinary graduates of high schools for rural teachers. It requires more than the usual maturity, and considerable experience in affairs, to handle a rural elementary school effectively; and if a direct appeal is to be made to the farming constituency on the basis of agricultural work in the school, the teacher must be sure of his practical ground. Again, the high schools are not professional schools, and are not organized for normal work. The teachers that may be expected from them are mostly women. Agriculture should be introduced into the high school for its educational value. It will then constitute a good ground work for later training in education in a training class or elsewhere.

Another means of fitting teachers for rural elementary schools. is in training classes developed in high schools or other institutions. These agencies have been widely adopted, but opinion as to their ultimate value seems to be divided. They are usually organized specially to meet rural school conditions. They are commonly connected with an accepted high school. The course of study covers one year or more. The students may or may not be high school graduates. Usually the work covers the elementary syllabus of the State, and this syllabus may contain agriculture. The successful completion of the course certifies the student to teach in certain of the schools. Agriculture is often a regular part of the course of study in these

31388-Bull. 1-08-3