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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924002853400 
 
THE TEACHING OF AGEICULTURE IN THE 
 SECONDARY SCHOOLS.* 
 
 Lerot Andeeson. 
 
 The other day a prominent San Franeiseo newspaper- 
 man told me that in his journeys up and down Market 
 Street he finds the business-men talking of two things, oil 
 and agriculture. There is abundant reason for business- 
 men to talk of oil in these days when much oil is being 
 found in California and many fortunes have been made 
 during the past few years and are still being made. There 
 is reason likewise for business-men, the city financiers, to 
 be talking of agriculture when there are so many large areas 
 in the State which need the development that can come only 
 by the application of capital, and which should provide 
 homes for thousands of families who are attracted to the 
 Golden State. There is more reason to talk agriculture than 
 oil. When the oil-wells have been pumped out and we are 
 seeking other materials for heat, light, and power, we shall 
 still be dependent upon the soil for our food and clothing. 
 Science may find other substances or forces equal in heat 
 and power-producing qualities to oil; but it is not likely 
 that there will be found a substitute for the common things 
 which the soil now provides for the maintenance of life. 
 
 It is appropriate in this discussion to ask of what agri- 
 culture consists. Does it consist of plowing and harrowing 
 
 * Address delivered at the tTniversitj of California, in the Course 
 on California Schools, February, 1910. Revised, November, 1910. 
 
and sowing, of harvesting and threshing, of planting and 
 pruning and picking, of mowing, raking and stacking, of 
 milking and making butter? Yes, it comprises these; but 
 still a great deal more, and the "more" is the interesting 
 part, the part which holds us to the soil, and which always 
 proves the attractive feature of farming as an occupation. 
 At the bottom of plowing lie the sciences of chemistry, 
 physics, bacteriology, botany, and zoology. It is not enough 
 that the farmer know how to hold the plow. He should know 
 why he plows, and to know why he plows he must study the 
 soil in its relation to these fundamental sciences, or study 
 the fundamental sciences in their relation to the soil. The 
 sower should know the character of the seed he is putting 
 in the ground. He should know its breeding, and should 
 have selected it in such a careful manner as to know that, 
 provided the soil has the necessary food constituents and 
 the waters come in due time, it will produce a higher yield 
 than any other seed which he can obtain. The farmer 
 should be a plant breeder, and enliven the otherwise tedious 
 days with the pleasures of seed selection and improvement. 
 One of the most prominent seed growers in the State, one 
 who has made a great deal of money in growing sweet-peas 
 and other flower, as well as vegetable seeds, told me that 
 the vocation would have little attraction for him if he were 
 not able continually to be breeding new and choice varieties 
 of plants. If we pay more attention to seed selection, har- 
 vesting and threshing take on a new aspect, and the farmer 
 gains a wider outlook upon the development of this chief 
 industry of which we are a part. When we are milking the 
 "Roan Durham" cow do we know what returns she is mak- 
 ing for the cost of the food and care which we give her? 
 Is she making more or less money than her neighboring 
 cows in the herd ? Are we handling the milk and the cream 
 so that they give the best possible quality of butter, or are 
 our returns from the creamery reduced because of careless- 
 ness or ignorance on our part ? 
 
Fully one-third of the population is engaged in agricul- 
 ture. In the country, both young and old profit by its 
 resources and may enjoy its realm of beauty and activity. 
 The entire population, whether urban or rural, is interested 
 in it and dependent upon it. Here is ample reason, there- 
 fore, why agriculture should be taught in our schools, — 
 reason enough without considering any other. Within the 
 last generation the entire public mind has come to realize 
 that agriculture is composed of subjects which may be 
 taught in the schools with the same interest and value in 
 mental training as other subjects which have formerly been 
 supposed to hold a monopoly for the development of mental 
 powers. In addition, at the same time, it supplies to the 
 individual a knowledge of the business in which he is 
 directly engaged, and gives him, therefore, greater confi- 
 dence and greater power in working and cooperating with 
 the natural forces with which he is constantly in contact. 
 
 It increases the financial success of those who study it. 
 A recent investigation in western New York by the State 
 College of Agriculture has shown that education counts for 
 greater income. This investigation was conducted for the 
 purpose of determining the investment in different kinds of 
 farming operations and the income received from various 
 farms. Incidentally each farmer was asked to state the 
 highest school which he had attended, and calculation was 
 made as to his labor income. The farm income is considered 
 to be the difference between the sales and increase in inven- 
 tory on the one hand and the expense of operation on the 
 other. Deducting from the farm income interest upon the 
 investment, at the usual rate, gives what is known as the 
 labor income of the farmer himself. Data from some 570 
 farmers show that the average labor income of those who 
 had attended the comjnon schools only, was $318.00 a year, 
 while the average labor income of those who had attended 
 a high school or its equivalent was $622.00 a year. The 
 training given in our schools, therefore, is shown to have 
 a distinct money value. We have always believed it, but 
 
here are some actual figures. The increase in income 
 attendant upon instruction higher than the grammar schools 
 is equivalent to a $5000.00 hond bearing 6 per cent interest. 
 Fathers know full well that they can give their sons a high 
 school education for less than $5000.00. Do not understand 
 me to say that these farmers who have the high school 
 training received it in an agricultural high school. There 
 were none in the days of their school attendance. If, how- 
 ever, the usual high school course can double the income of 
 the attendant, how much more may be added if the instruc- 
 tion is more directly along the lines of his particular 
 occupation. 
 
 To conserve and enrich the soil resources is the problem 
 of modern agriculture, — to raise larger crops of better 
 products and still maintain the soil fertility; and the solu- 
 tion is largely a matter of education. Not one of our natural 
 resources demands more attention for its conservation than 
 that of the soil. The rapid increase in population must 
 depend upon two sources of food supplies, — new land 
 brought under cultivation and increased production from 
 land already under the plow. The latter must be our chief 
 dependence ; but we cannot hope for the necessary increase 
 of products unless the man who is tilling the soil really 
 knows something of the scientific basis upon which his 
 industry depends, and is trained to think about his activi- 
 ties. The nineteenth century shows an increase in popula- 
 tion in this country equal approximately to a doubling 
 every twenty-five years. The population in 1900 was a little 
 more than 75,000,000. If it increases at the same rate as 
 during the past century, the year 2000 will find us with a 
 population of more than 1,000,000,000. If it actually reaches 
 no more than one-third of this number we need to think 
 only a moment of that multitude of people to realize both 
 what the products of the soil must be to provide for their 
 daily wants, and also how wise and careful we must be if we 
 are to give posterity a goodly heritage. 
 
We should teach agriculture in order that no young man 
 or woman may leave the farm for another vocation, think- 
 ing that there is nothing worth while in farming. We are 
 not anxious to make farmers of those who really desire and 
 are especially fitted to be lawyers, or doctors, or ministers ; 
 neither do we want to make ministers, doctors, or lawyers 
 of those who had better be farmers. What we do want, and 
 what every person has a right to demand, is an opportunity 
 to find out in the schools that there is something in agricul- 
 ture which is worth the time of the best intellect and the 
 best talent, that a life on the farm is not mere drudgery if 
 the farmer knows the sciences and the literature pertaining 
 to agriculture. He wiU then know that his life may be 
 rounder and fuller and completer than it would be were he 
 shut up in a shop, store, or office in the crowded city. 
 
 I take it that we should teach agriculture in order that 
 the youth may be brought to appreciate the value of small 
 things, the value of a smaU farm. We are all, both old and 
 young, carried away with the spirit of speculation. In the 
 cities we want to make our fortunes in city lots. In the 
 southern half of the State we are hoping to become rich by 
 possessing an oil well. All over the State, we are looking 
 with envious eyes upon the man who owns hundreds, yea, 
 thousands of acres of land with an income in proportion, 
 and we think that there is no use of our trying to be a 
 farmer because we cannot buy as many acres as the man 
 who received his from a Spanish grant. It is only a small 
 percentage of our population that can hope to attain to 
 these large things. We will be grateful to them if they will 
 make less noise about their large holdings and resources and 
 cut them up into small farms for sale to us poor folk at a 
 price within our means and a price we can hope to pay 
 from the returns within a reasonable number of years. Our 
 schools and all institutions must somehow show the young 
 that the great majority of the population will have to be 
 content with smaller things, and that after all the greatest 
 contentment and the largest appreciation of nature and of 
 
social companionship will come from a quiet life spent upon 
 as many acres as one family can till. 
 
 We should study agriculture for the contentment which 
 it brings. Happiness is dependent to a very large degree 
 upon the intellectual interest which one has in his occupa- 
 tion. I cannot conceive of a farmer being happy who does 
 not have a mental understanding, at least partial, of the 
 forces with which he is daily working. I cannot conceive 
 of any one being more truly happy than the farmer who 
 understands, as thoroughly as modern science can let us 
 understand, the forces with which he is in daily Contact, 
 who appreciates that he is working in collaboration with 
 nature. Not only the contented farmer, but the successful 
 one of the future must have this knowledge. The school is 
 the place for him to obtain it. The farmer of to-day has a 
 right to demand that his son and daughter shall find this 
 training in the school nearest his home. It is incumbent, 
 therefore, upon every high school to teach some agriculture 
 in order that the proper knowledge may be distributed as 
 widely as possible throughout the State and Nation. 
 
 Interest in teaching agriculture is world wide, and all 
 evidence points in the direction of its usefulness and of its 
 success as a subject for secondary schools. The main agri- 
 cultural topics have been so well reduced to pedagogical 
 form in the colleges that their presentation in secondary 
 schools is a matter of adaptation, which in the hands of 
 wise teachers is easily accomplished. One marked advantage 
 of the secondary agricultural school is the possibility of its 
 securing the attention of the boy and girl at an age when 
 the majority of boys and girls are finding the high school 
 inadequate to their future as they see it, and when some- 
 thing vocational strongly appeals to them. The school 
 brings to their mind the fact that on the farm there is some- 
 thing of scientific value and study which is worthy of the 
 best intellects, and that there is something to the farm 
 beside manual labor and drudgery. This school provides 
 the agricultural training at an age when the majority of 
 
9 
 
 young people are able to devote time to study; and it has 
 the added advantage of coining closer to the people. Since 
 they are not so expensive to establish as colleges, agricultural 
 schools can be distributed over the state in such a manner 
 as to be reasonably near to all prospective students. Because 
 of their number and distribution, and because of their 
 greater democracy, as it were, in teaching, they, instead of 
 the college, are being looked to to develop the educated 
 farmers of the future. 
 
 The necessity for a wider distribution of agricultural 
 instruction throughout this state is seen in a little calcula- 
 tion as to the number of persons to be reached by available 
 schools. The census of 1900 gives the number of farms in 
 California as 72,542. An estimate by the State Board of 
 Trade places the number in 1909 at about 100,000. It is not 
 too much to desire that there be on each farm a man who 
 has had some education in agriculture. To insure this 
 permanently, each farm would need one such man each 
 generation, or every thirty-three years. Placing the length 
 of the course at three years, as is usual in special schools, 
 and assuming that the farm boy would finish the course, 
 it would require a continual attendance of 9000 boys. Or 
 if the average attendance were only one year the number 
 would be 3000. Surely a promising opportunity for the 
 schools ! 
 
 Let us examine more closely the two general methods 
 employed in presenting agriculture to pupils of secondary 
 grade, viz. : in the special and in the regular schools. 
 The special agricultural school is understood to be an insti- 
 tution founded mainly to give instruction in agriculture, 
 and it usually also carries instruction in household arts. 
 This school is, in part, at least, a protest against the regular 
 high school, as the college of agriculture and mechanic arts 
 was a protest against the established colleges of fifty years 
 ago. Boys who attend these schools do so because they 
 desire to study agriculture, and the whole atmosphere is 
 agricultural. Of these there are almost as many types as 
 
10 
 
 there are states that have established them. Minnesota, 
 Nebraska, Colorado, and California each has one in connec- 
 tion with the College of Agriculture. "Wisconsin has com- 
 mitted herself to the plan of a county system, and now has 
 one in each of five counties. New York has attached two 
 to as many old time colleges and established a third as a 
 distinct and separate institution. Alabama and Georgia 
 have established one in each congressional district. Okla- 
 homa is divided into six districts for the founding of as 
 many separate institutions. California has one set away 
 by itself at San Luis Obispo, without connection with any 
 educational system or any college. 
 
 Special agricultural schools enjoy some advantages 
 which are akin to those of the college of agriculture. "When 
 connected with the college they share the college's equip- 
 ment, and their instruction is usually given by the staff of 
 the college. "When not connected with the college they are 
 separated far enough from each other, and draw upon a 
 territory wide enough to be provided with a goodly sized 
 farm and money for a very respectable equipment, includ- 
 ing also livestock, which is the most expensive feature. They 
 are able to employ a teaching and experimenting staff 
 especially trained in agriculture, the members of which can, 
 in addition to teaching in the school, hold farmers' insti- 
 tutes, conduct demonstrations, and carry on other extension 
 work in the immediate community. They are, accordingly, 
 to the county or district, what the college is to the state, 
 while they have the advantage of proximity to local condi- 
 tions and needs, and, therefore, of a better understanding 
 of those conditions and needs. 
 
 It is some twenty-two years since the establishment of 
 the first special school of agriculture at St. Anthony Park 
 on the site of the Minnesota College of Agriculture. The 
 enrollment of students has increased from 40 during the 
 first year to 700. at the present time. Two more such schools 
 have been opened in Minnesota within the past five years, 
 one in the northeastern and one in the western part of the 
 
11 
 
 State. In 1898 Nebraska opened a similar school at the 
 College of Agriculture with an initial enrollment of three 
 students. The number during 1909-10 was 350. Colorado 
 is the winning state in the way of popular response to the 
 announcement that a school of agriculture would be opened 
 at the College. Such news was spread in August, 1909, and 
 more than 100 appeared upon registration-day, early in 
 October. Before the holidays the enrollment had increased 
 to 200. The University of California opened her school at 
 Davis in January, 1909, with twenty students, and the 
 present term has an enrollment of seventy-seven. Data are 
 not at hand, nor does space permit, to record the growth 
 of county and district agricultural schools in other states. 
 Suffice it to say that as evidenced by attendance, all such 
 schools have uniformly had reason to believe that the 
 instruction given was meeting a distinct need in the 
 community. 
 
 Agriculture in the established high schools is of more 
 recent development than in those just described. The 
 growth, however, in the number of schools attempting to 
 teach the subject indicates a belief that the people desire 
 such instruction. In some states the introduction of agri- 
 culture has been made possible by legislative aid ; in others, 
 by local and voluntary effort. I am glad to say that in no 
 case, so far as I know, has this state aid been accompanied 
 by a mandatory act compelling the teaching of agriculture. 
 In 1908 the New York legislature passed a law for the 
 encouragement of industrial education by providing that 
 any public school above the elementary grades that estab- 
 lishes such work shall receive from the state $500 for one 
 teacher so employed and $200 for each additional teacher. 
 Last year fourteen New York high schools were reported 
 as teaching agriculture, and at least fifty more would be 
 teaching the subject if qualified teachers could have been 
 secured. 
 
 In the same year, 1908, the Virginia legislature passed 
 an act appropriating $20,000 annually to each of ten high 
 
12 
 
 schools that would employ an agricultural teacher. The 
 schools were located by a board, which provided for a fair 
 and even distribution of the funds, and work began in the 
 Fall of that year. A personal visit to one of the schools 
 in January, 1910, showed good work accomplished in the 
 face of many difficulties. The most promising feature was 
 the formation, under the leadership of the teacher, of a 
 Farmers' Institute, which during the first year enjoyed an 
 average attendance of seventy-five at the monthly meet- 
 ings. This insures the support of an organized community, 
 which means success. 
 
 Following the example of New York, the Minnesota 
 legislature in 1909 made an appropriation to aid the teach- 
 ing of agriculture, manual training, and domestic science 
 in high, graded, and consolidated schools. The act provides 
 that the school applying for aid shall employ trained in- 
 structors in industrial subjects, and shall have a tract of land 
 suitable for school gardens and demonstrations, of not less 
 than five acres ; that each school shall receive state aid equal 
 to two-thirds of the amount actually expended upon such 
 department, but in no case to exceed $2500 per year; and 
 that not more than ten schools shall receive aid the first 
 year, nor more than ten be added to the list every two years 
 thereafter. Minnesota is thus committed to both the special 
 and the regular types of agricultural high schools. 
 
 Nebraska was deterred from passing a similar act in 
 1909 only by the amount of the appropriation, which in 
 their case would have been $100,000 for the biennial period. 
 The State Superintendent, in cooperation with the College 
 of Agriculture, has suggested and 'outlined five subjects 
 for introduction into high schools, each to occupy a half 
 year, viz., animals, horticulture, soils, farm ctops, and 
 dairying. In order to fit themselves for the good time 
 coming the county superintendents and high school men 
 of Nebraska have organized a "School Masters' Agriculture 
 Club" to study these subjects. This year (1909-10) they 
 are studying animals, and they meet monthly at Lincoln 
 
13 
 
 for a conference, part of which is held at the agricultural 
 college. A Federal report of May, 1910, says Nebraska has 
 103 high schools giving instruction in agriculture. Michi- 
 gan has begun in much the same manner, as has Nebraska 
 and California, without any special state aid or legislation. 
 In 1908 the Board of Education at North Adams, Michigan, 
 requested the college of agriculture to outline a course of 
 study for them. The result was that one of the graduates 
 of the college began teaching agriculture in that high school 
 the following Fall. Now, nine high schools are giving the 
 work and others are clamoring for teachers. 
 
 California began in 1909 with four high schools having 
 specially prepared agricultural teachers, viz., Bakersfield, 
 Oxnard, Gardena, and Imperial. Fresno fell in line the 
 following February. The Fall of 1910 sees several more 
 added to the list, among them being Brawley, Holtville, 
 Huntington Beach, Porterville, Hanford, Ceres, Stockton, 
 Salinas, Livermore, and Ferndale. Evidence of support 
 on the part of governing boards cannot be better shown than 
 by a few illustrations citing equipment provided in the way 
 of land. Within the year Oxnard High School has secured 
 four acres, a city block; Gardena fourteen acres at a cost 
 of $14,000; Bakersfield twenty-four acres to establish a 
 small dairy and other demonstrative features; Huntington 
 Park twenty-one acres ; and St. Helena is to begin soon with 
 sixteen acres. To the advocate of industrial education, this 
 popular approval and support accorded agriculture in the 
 regular school system is most refreshing. 
 
 I am reminded of a conversation a few months ago with 
 a leader of industrial schools in the raiddle west whose 
 opinion of high school agriculture may be thus epitomized : 
 first, the atmosphere of the high school is all wrong; it is 
 too academic, since its first use is and has been to 'fit' 
 for the University; second, the students we want to reach 
 are not in the high schools and will not go to high schools ; 
 third, the high schools can never hope to have sufficient 
 equipment to teach agriculture in a complete and dignified 
 
14 
 
 manner that will command the respect of an agricultural 
 community. 
 
 This indictment is severe; the first two items may be 
 deserved in many high schools, but their number is grow- 
 ing less every year. Evidence already given above shows 
 that sentiment at least is undergoing a change. The third 
 point must be well taken when high schools are compared 
 with special agricultural schools established by state aid 
 in counties and congressional or even larger districts. An 
 equipment such as is possessed, for instance, by the Cali- 
 fornia Polytechnic School, enables it to give a class of 
 instruction and to enjoy a prestige to which regular high 
 schools cannot hope to attain, for the reason that there is 
 not money enough so to equip every high school. Nor is it 
 necessary or desirable. There is a place for both and a 
 work for both to do. The majority of young- people must 
 needs secure what education they may from the home 
 school. So far as concerns agriculture, let it consist (1) 
 of the science underlying the industry, with a strong 
 industrial or practical bearing, and (2) of distinctly agri- 
 cultural subjects in so far as they can be presented and 
 demonstrated in class room, laboratory, on a few acres of 
 land, and by visiting neighboring fields, orchards, flocks, 
 and herds. If the teacher be right minded, the pupils will 
 receive a vast fund of information and inspiration for their 
 life on the soil. Schools of the San Luis Obispo type, then, 
 are for young men and women who are led to want more 
 agriculture by the taste for that subject received in the 
 grammar or high school, and for those who, for reasons 
 of maturity or business, desire to gain as much instruction 
 as possible in a short period. 
 
 Surely California is making splendid progress in pro- 
 viding opportunities for instruction in agriculture. It was 
 in 1901 that the legislature passed the act establishing the 
 California Polytechnic School at San Luis Obispo, and the 
 institution opened two years later to teach agriculture, 
 mechanics, and household arts to pupils who had completed 
 
15/ 
 
 the grammar grades. In 1905 t^e legislature made an appro- 
 priation to purchase a farm ikpon which the University of 
 California should establish aichool of agriculture. Recently 
 the President of the University has publicly announced that 
 another such school shall, be placed upon the magnificent 
 Kearny tract as soon as the debt on the estate is paid. 
 Within two years nearly twenty high schools have begun to 
 teach agriculture with an enthusiasm and vigor that augurs 
 well for wider instruction. 
 
 There is need for teachers in this line of secondary 
 work. The best men in the University are required, — men 
 who can become leaders in the community by force of their 
 character, personality, and training; men who can train 
 others to become leaders; men who are willing to settle 
 down for a life work in a given community, study its agri- 
 cultural and other problems, and become a recognized 
 authority to whom all may come for assistance. Perma- 
 nency of tenure is even more necessary in the teacher of 
 agriculture than of academic subjects, because it requires 
 two or three years to begin thoroughly to understand local 
 conditions. The right man may in every case make his 
 school the real center of the life of his community, — a little 
 college if you will — holding a relation to the locality as 
 the bigger college does to the state. His salary, larger than 
 the average, will be greatly augmented by the satisfaction 
 of doing something really worth while in the world.