This paper, read to the Prairie Club of Des Moines, December 17, 1910, seemed to the members so important that its publication was directed by unanimous vote. The conclusions and recommen- dations of the paper are endorsed by the Prairie Club, the members of which are the following named gentlemen : DR. A. R. AMOS, Physician. JOHNSON BRIGHAM, State Librarian. JAS. G. BERRYHILL, Capitalist. REV. J. P. BURLING, Greenwood Congregational Church. JUDGE GEO. H. CARR, General Attorney C. G. W. Railway for Iowa. E. E. CLARK, President Bankers’ Life Association. GARDNER COWLES, Proprietor of Register and Leader. WM. E. COMFORT, Merchant. JUDGE H. E. DEEMER, of the Supreme Court of Iowa. C. A. DUDLEY, Lawyer. JAS. C. DAVIS, General Attorney C. & N. W. Railway for Iowa. JUDGE W. D. EVANS, of the Supreme Court of Iowa. EX-GOV. WARREN GARST, Lawyer. GEO. F. HENRY, Lawyer. PROF. FRANK I. HERRIOTT, Professor of Economics and Political Science, Drake University. JAS. R. HANNA, Mayor of the City of Des Moines. JAS. C. HUME, Lawyer. JANSEN HAINES, Manager Des Moines Gas Co. DR. GERSHOM H. HILL, Physician. HARVEY INGHAM, Editor Register and Leader. REV. J. F. JAMIESON, Elmwood United Presbyterian Church. JUDGE EMLIN McCLAIN, of the Supreme Court of Iowa. JUDGE JESSE A. MILLER, Lawyer. H. S. NOLLEN, Secretary Bankers’ Life Association. W. O. RIDDELL, Superintendent of Des Moines Schools. JUDGE GEO. S. ROBINSON, of the State Board of Control. PROF. LEWIS W. SMITH, Professor of English, Drake University. H. H. STIPP, Lawyer. HENRY WALLACE, Editor of Wallaces’ Farmer. H. C. WALLACE, Associate Editor and Manager of Wallaces’ Farmer. JAS. B. WEAVER, JR., Lawyer. W. W. WITMER. CARROLL WRIGHT, Attorney C., R. I. & P. Railway for Iowa and South Dakota. EDUCATION FOR THE IOWA FARM BOY A paper read before the Prairie Club of Des Moines on December 17, 1910 HARDAWAY *" iLLINOf! EDUCATION FOR THE IOWA FARM BOY. By H. C. Wallace , Associate Editor of Wallaces’ Farmer. In recent years the higher prices of agricultural products and the consequent higher cost of living have turned the atten- tion of the nation, and especially of the residents of cities, sharp- ly toward the need for better farming and bigger crops. There has been widespread complaining against the farmer. He has for generations been making a bare living for his family. He . has sold the fruits of his labor, not for what he might determine to be a fair price after making due allowance for the money in- 9 vested and the labor expended, but for what the buyer has been willing to pay. If the average farmer has made money, it has been by the work of his children, by saving — through the prac- tice of the strictest economy — and by the increase in the value of his land through the growth in population. If the average farmer should deduct from his gross earnings a fair interest on the money invested in land and equipment, make a reasonable allowance for depreciation of equipment, and pay a fair price for all the labor used aside from his own, he would have for his own labor, during a ten-year period, less than the wages of the clerk, the stenographer or the freight brakeman. Without analyzing this condition, the bright farm boy has recognized its existence ; hence the' drift from the farm to town, and to new sections where cheap land can be had, thus duplicating for him the opportunities of his father. With the coming of the higher prices for agricultural prod- ucts came, as I have" said, widespread complaint against the 0493 4 farmer. From the humble toiler, thankfully receiving whatever the buyer saw fit to give him, and with his much-talked-of inde- pendence as his chief asset, he became, almost over night, the strong merchant, asking and receiving a fair price for his prod- ucts, and finally reached the point where he was not compelled to haul his crops direct from the fields to the market to pay accumulated debts. The buyer resented this change. He had so long looked upon the farmer as a poorly-paid laborer, thank- ful for the opportunity to serve, that his changed condition seemed the basest ingratitude. And so, from all sorts and con- ditions of men, came suggestions of ways to enable the farmer to produce larger crops, in order that they might be sold cheaper. The need for agricultural education has become gen- erally recognized. Every city consumer will agree that the farmer must be educated, not so much because he wants to help the farmer, but in the hope that educated farmers may mean cheaper farm products. Men in all walks of life have been active in this propaganda for agricultural education. Railroads have run special trains, carrying instruction in farming, and have invited the farmers to come and hear. Railroad presidents have made speeches in public, and have printed pamphlets for the farmer to read. Bankers have subscribed for cheap agri- cultural papers by the hundred and distributed them free, in- stead of calendars and chromos. Merchants have offered prizes for the biggest pumpkins and the largest ears of corn. State fairs have offered free scholarships at the agricultural colleges. A great western university has established an agricultural guild and arranged with the owners of country estates to permit city youths to work on them, so that if worst comes to worst the pro- duction on the farm may continue. Magazine writers have told of the romance of farming, of the success of bonanza farmers, and the magazines are full of pictures of the farmer in his auto- mobile, driving from one field to another, inspecting his crops. 5 The governor and industrial agent of a great state have started a back-to-the-farm movement, and propose to locate city labor- ing men on twenty-acre plots. City school teachers are taking homesteads in sections where the normal rainfall is less than twelve inches, and where the only way to get milk from a native cow is to rope and throw her and take it away by force. And the improvement of farming is a subject which may well challenge the attention of the American people, irrespective of their occupation or avocation. With the growth of our popu- lation there must soon come an improvement in our methods of farming. We have now occupied practically all of our crop- producing land. We have heretofore been a nation of soil rob- bers. As long as there was new land to be possessed, we wor- ried little about wasted fertility. While we were harvesting the fertility of the ages, crop production was measured largely by the work expended. The most successful farmer was he who could work and work his dependents longest and hardest. But when successive crops have taken out of the soil the fertility which is immediately available, the farmer who grows a crop that will bring him more than it costs must learn how to unlock the reserve store which nature yields only to him who has studied her laws. He must use brains as well as strength. He must learn how to restore the fertility which he took away. He must learn the laws of breeding and feeding live stock. He must learn how to grow larger crops on less land. He must learn how to combat the various insect pests which multiply under ignorant farming. He must learn how to protect his crops from the rav- ages of various low forms of parasitic plant life. These things are not to be learned from the so-called practical farmer. How- ever skillful he may become in the art of farming, he can learn the science only from the scientist, or from the scientific farmer. Hence the education of the farmer becomes a matter of the greatest moment to the nation at large. Our population is in- 6 creasing and must be fed. Our land is practically occupied. Within a comparatively few years, as we measure time in a large way, we must increase our crop yields or go hungry. More in- tensive farming in the way of better cultural methods will tem- porarily increase the yield per acre. The labor now put upon a quarter section will, if intelligently expended on eighty acres, give as great or greater returns. But improvement in the art of “tickling the earth” is but a temporary expedient. The store of fertility in the soil is limited. If taken away year by year, and nothing returned, it will be exhausted as certainly as is the vein of coal. Improved cultivation, alone, acts upon the soil as a stimulant does upon the human organism — it exhausts its strength all the more rapidly. The great problem with which as a nation w r e are confronted, is not alone that of growing greater crops, but of doing this and at the same time so con- serving the soil that we — and our sons after us — may continue to grow them, and this problem can be solved only by the edu- cated, scientific farmer. It is the purpose of this paper, therefore, to consider what we have been and are now doing to educate the boys and young men who are to be the farmers of the future, and to tentatively suggest some things we should do hereafter if we work out this problem as satisfactorily as we have heretofore worked out other problems of similar importance. To this end I propose to outline as briefly as possible the general methods of education followed in some advanced foreign countries, and contrast them with our own ; second, to deal with secondary agricultural edu- cation in foreign countries ; third, to discuss the condition in this state, and offer some suggestions as to the methods by which it might be improved. My information on the school systems of foreign countries has been gathered and appropriated from a general reading of everything I have been able to find bearing 7 on the subject. The best single work I have found is Making of a Citizen, by Robert Edward Hughes, of Oxford. The German System. As one writer has put it, the German school system has long been the admiration of the pedagogic world. It is designed not alone to impart knowledge, but to make citizens. It is a national interest. The system is bureaucratic. A minister of ecclesi- astical education and medical affairs directs the educational work of the nation. The school officials are officers of the state. They appoint and dismiss teachers. They prescribe what is to be taught. The people at large have nothing to say concerning the manner in which the school shall be conducted. Education is compulsory, and it is estimated that fully ninety per cent of the total enrollment is daily in attendance at school. Going to school is a national habit. Parents are held strictly account- able for the attendance of their children, and are fined for each day the child is absent without good reason. If the fine is not paid they are sent to jail. The schools are very largely sup- ported by the state. City schools receive about one-third of the amount required to conduct them — the amount varying in pro- portion as the city is able to pay. Country schools receive about two-thirds of their total expense from the state. The atmos- phere of the schools is distinctly religious. In no country are the teachers so thoroughly prepared. Teaching in Germany is a profession, and the teacher ranks high in the social scale. It is said that one-fifth of the teachers are the sons of teachers. One-third of them come from the agricultural people. The Ger- man teacher is trained through a period of six years, first as a pupil in the normal preparatory school, then for three years a student in the normal college, and before being placed in full charge of classes must undergo a course of preparatory train- ing in actual school work, as an assistant teacher and under th^ 8 direction of a head teacher, and subject to frequent inspection and examination by government inspectors. The result is that German instruction is thorough and consistent. Being an officer of the state, the German teacher is pensioned after ten years of service, if he retires because of disability, and is retired on a full service pension at the age of sixty-five. The system of secondary schools is complete, and adapted to the needs of the various classes of German society. Three secondary schools have six-year courses and three others nine years. The work covered in the nine-year schools is equal to the courses of many leading universities of other lands. The teachers in the secondary schools of Germany are said to be the finest body of teachers in the world. They must first complete the nine years’ course ; second, they must attend for three years in the university; third, they must meet special state examina- tions. After having done this, they are assigned to certain sec- ondary schools under the care of the director. During the first year they do not teach at all, but watch the teachers at their work. Next they are permitted to teach two hours weekly in the presence of the director and regular teachers. Then comes the trial year, during which they teach regularly, a part of the time under the eye of a director. They then prepare a written report of progress made, and this report, together with the report of the director upon the candidate’s work, is sent to the provincial board, which appoints the candidate to a permanent place. The supply of teachers is plentiful, and very often the candidate must wait for some little time before securing his posi- tion. Having once gotten into the work, however, his tenure is secure. With such a system and with such teachers, it is not surprising that the Germans are in many respects the best edu- cated people in the world. 9 The French System. Like the German, the French system of education is national in its character and bureaucratic in its administration. The head is the minister of public instruction, who has about him an advisory council of sixty members. Of these, three-fourths are appointed by the professors and teachers, and one-fourth by the president. The minister of public instruction keeps in very close touch with the work of the schools throughout the nation, through ten general inspectors and a large number of primary inspectors, who make their headquarters at Paris. The system is divided into seventeen academies, each academy being com- posed of the local university and all the secondary and primary schools within its area. These academies are presided over by rectors, appointed by the president. They are in turn divided into departments, with a civil head, the prefect, for each depart- ment. He appoints the teachers from a list drawn up by the academy inspectors, of which there is one to each department. Under this inspector are the primary inspectors, numbering be- tween 450 and 500, each one having the supervision over about 150 schools. The departmental council, made up of fourteen members, constitutes the departmental board of education. This council is composed of four counsellors, elected by the teachers, the directors of the normal training college, two primary in- spectors appointed by the minister of education, and two male and two primary female teachers elected by the teachers of the department. This council supervises the courses of study, methods of instruction, and has general supervision over the schools. The people have little to say concerning the education given their children. Compulsory education goes to the extent of even supervising the instruction given children in private schools and families — the children under special teachers at home being examined at the end of each year by a committee, 10 of which the primary inspector is chairman, and if the result of the examination is not satisfactory, parents are required to send the children to either public or private schools. This sys- tem is not followed as closely now as some years since. A list of the children of school age is made up each year, and if the children are not in school, or if a reasonable excuse is not fur- nished for absence, the parents are warned, and if warned twice within a year, they are fined. The laws concerning the employ- ment of children are strict. Nothing is permitted to come be- tween a child and his opportunity for at least a primary edu- cation. The state pays the teachers of the primary and infant schools, of the higher primary and manual training schools, and of the normal schools ; also it pays all inspectors and other officials, and their traveling expenses. The department pays a certain sum per annum to each primary inspector. The state contributes from fifty to seventy per cent of the cost of maintaining the public primary schools, and in some cases even more. In the cities, the cost is mostly borne by the municipality. Between six and seven thousand of the primary schools are pro- vided with gymnasiums, and nearly one thousand have work- shops for manual training. In the cities, practically every boys’ school is provided with a manual training workship, and manual training is compulsory. In the neighborhood of sixty thousand primary schools have school gardens. The nation controls the secondary schools as completely as the primary. There are two principal secondary schools in France — the Lycee and the Communal College. Children enter the Lycee at eight years and graduate at eighteen, with the degree of Bachelor of the Uni- versity of France. Those who wish to do so remain for two years longer, and thus obtain exemption from two years’ mili- tary service. The work in the Lycee is absolutely regulated by the state, and is uniform throughout all of the schools. The 11 Communal College is a local institution, although the state con- tributes materially to its support. As in Germany, the teachers in^France are employes of the state. The preparation of the teachers is of the same general nature as in Germany, but not so thorough. The requirements, so far as mental equipment is concerned, are strict, but there is less attention given to the ability of the teacher to teach. The teacher’s promotion depends, however, upon his individual abil- ity, and there is less difference in the wages paid teachers in classes. They are entitled to a pension at sixty years of age, and in case of death a certain portion of this pension passes on to the widow. The pension fund is accumulated in large part by a deduction of five per cent per annum from the teacher’s salary. The English System. The English nation was the last of the great nations to admit the obligation or the desirability of the state to educate or even partially educate its youth. Not until 1870 were there any state schools in England. Education fa s secured entirely at private schools — some of which, however, received financial aid from the government. The educational act of 1870, and those which followed, resulted in placing schools within reach of practically all the children in England and Wales. The schools are controlled entirely by the communities in which they are located; but certain conditions are imposed before they can secure funds from the board of education. The law requires' every child between the years of five and fourteen to attend every session of the school unless the child is receiving proper instruction elsewhere or is exempt because twelve years of age and has reached a certain standard of proficiency; or thirteen years of age and has made, for five consecutive years, 350 attendances per annum. There are further exemptions in 12 the case of country children. The percentage of attendance has been steadily increasing, the average for children over seven years of age running close to ninety per cent. When the educa- tional act was passed, the number of children in the schools was less than eight per cent of the estimated population. The num- ber now is nearly twenty per cent. Between eight and ten thou- sand savings banks are established at the primary schools, and about the same number of school libraries. The English teachers are of four different classes — the cer- tificated teachers, which hold their certificates from the board of education; these certificates are for life, and these teachers are entitled to a pension at sixty-five years of age. Assistant teachers are those who have passed certain exami- nations but have not had normal school training. The examina- tion is one held by the government for the selection of candi- dates for training colleges. Additional teachers are those who have had no professional training of any sort. They are young women approved by the government inspector without examination. Pupil teachers are engaged by the school management, and are fifteen to eighteen years of age. They teach under the superintendence of the head teachers, and receive suitable instruction while teaching. The pension fund is made up of contributions by the teach- ers, supplemented by the government. These contributions are used to purchase an annuity at retiring age, which averages something over $320 for male teachers and $210 for females. From the pedagogic viewpoint, the educational systems of Germany and France are admirable. They are well adminis- tered, economical and efficient. There is no lost motion. In these countries, and in England as well, the lines of class are firmly drawn,' and the educational systems are devised to give the youth of each particular class the kind of knowledge and 13 early training which will make them most useful for service in that class. The life work of the youth in any particular class is determined at an early age, and his schooling is such as to fit him, so far as possible, for that particular work. The oppor- tunity for the boy of one class to break through the barriers into the class above him are limited, are hedged about in every way, and the educational systems do little to break down these barriers. On this subject, Draper, commissioner of education of New York, says : “The English purpose would have every English child read and write and work. England has simple but effective elemental schools for the peasant class. All peasant children go to them. Although they know nothing of American opportunities, the percentage of illiteracy is lower than in our American states. Of course, England has schools for the higher classes, but there is no educational mixing of classes and no articulation or con- tinuity of work. The controlling influence in English politics is distinctly opposed to universalizing education through fear of unsettling the status and letting loose the ambition of the serving classes. “So it is also in France. Notwithstanding the republican form of government, the thought of a thousand years is con- trolling. The children of the masses are trained for service, and humble service, though possibly somewhat higher than across the Channel. They are trained for examinations and for routine rather than for power. “There is more to admire in the German purpose and plan, for ambition and determination are not lacking in the nation, and the kaiser knows that the material strength and the military power of the German empire rests upon the intelligence of the German masses and the prductivity of the German labor.” 14 The American System. The American system, or lack of system, as some are dis- posed to regard it, could exist only in such a country as Amer- ica. While the national government has, especially since the middle of the last century, taken an active part in encouraging educational work, and has from time to time given large tracts of land and made large money appropriations for educational purposes, its part has been to encourage, not to direct or con- trol. Through the bureau of education the nation collects a vast amount of helpful information, and its influence in educa- tional matters is steadily growing — not through any additional powers which may have been given it, but through recognition by those who bear the responsibility of its ability to help them. In the founding of this nation there was no recognition of the need of general education. That came with the working out of democratic government, and it came slowly. Not until some time after the constitution was adopted did our forbears begin to see that the instruction of the youth of the land was a matter which must engage their earnest attention. But when they were once squared away to the real task before them, when it was finally settled that this would be a government by the people, when it was determined that the citizen was the sovereign, they were not long in coming to the conclusion that the sovereign must know something if he was to rule intelligently; that he must be educated. And as all citizens were equally sovereigns, so all must have equal opportunities so far as the state was con- cerned. And so it came about that as the people pushed west and new states were formed, the duty of the state to educate its youth was written into the constitution, and the subject of edu- cation became more and more important in the eyes of the people. With each succeeding generation the desire of the par- ents that their children shall have the education which they failed to get has grown until it has become almost a passion. 15 Without central control or direction it was inevitable that there should be no general educational system. Each state evolved the plan which seemed best suited to its needs and con- ditions. In some states we have the school district as the unit, the districts varying in size according to the density of popula- tion. In others the township is the unit. In still others — more particularly the southern states — the county. The full time — indeed, much more than the time permitted for a paper of this sort — could be consumed in tracing the de- velopment of our public school system. There were many efforts to engraft upon it the French system of centralized control in some of its important features. Jefferson suggested such a scheme for Virginia in 1817. At least one state and possibly others provided by law for some of the essential features of a thorough state system. All of these efforts failed. Our sys- tems of secondary education, as we now have them in our splen- did high schools, have been developed only in the last sixty or seventy years. Prior to that time, secondary education must be had in the academies which succeeded the old grammar schools, the latter being mostly allied to some particular college. These grammar schools, and academies as well, were conducted for the purpose of preparing students for the colleges and universities, were almost entirely schools for boys, and naturally for those boys whose parents were in better than average circumstances. They were, to a considerable extent, therefore, class schools, entirely different from our democratic high schools. Not until very recent years has the education of the farmer attracted the attention even of leaders in educational thought. Back in the ’60’s, Justin Morrill secured the enactment of the law which has always been known by his name, establishing the land-grant agricultural colleges. But there has been no general or even local plans for furnishing the boys of the farm secondary education which would prepare them for these colleges. In 16 their earlier years, the requirements for admission to the state agricultural colleges were not so high, and the bright boy from the country was able to secure admission — if not to the regular college classes, at least to the preparatory classes, which his strong, young body and vigorous mind enabled him to wade through in a short time. As time went on, however, the agricul- tural colleges became more ambitious, and gradually raised their standards, until now from Iowa east the boy who secures ad- mission to the freshman class must bring with him either a cer- tificate from an accredited four-year high school, or must be able to pass examinations which are practically equivalent to the work of a high school of that class. We have, in short, gradu- ally built up the walls surrounding the agricultural colleges, and neglected, at the same time, to provide within convenient reach, ladders by which they might be scaled by the boy from the farm. This compels the farm boy to spend three to four years in the town or city high school before he can prepare him- self to enter the agricultural college. The training he gets at the average high school is not the sort of training which is likely to keep his thoughts directed toward the farm. He goes with the ambition to excel in his studies. He too often discovers that excellence in studies is not the most honorable accomplishment in the eyes of the student body. He finds that the “shark” is very often considered a freak ; that the energy and enthusiasm, which should be conserved for those things which make for effi- ciency in life, for lack of better direction finds an outlet in one- sided athletics ; that the student body is divided up into classes and sets by fraternities, or, if these are forbidden — as they are now in many high schools — clubs which form their equivalent; and that too often foolish fathers and silly mothers encourage immature society life. It requires a boy of more than ordinary steadfastness to pass through four years of this sort of thing without being weaned away from the farm. The number which 17 does finally reach the college is very small, and the number that goes back to the farm from the college still smaller. Even if this condition did not exist — if we had an easy road from the farm to the college — we would not have made any material prog- ress in giving a knowledge of the principles of agriculture to the men who are to cultivate the farms of Iowa. Not one-fourth of one per cent of our future farmers can ever be expected to go through the agricultural college. If we are to give agricultural instruction to the boys who are to do the farming, it must be given in local schools. And the future of Iowa agriculture will be determined by the wisdom with which we work out this problem. AGRICULTURAL TEACHING IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. What follows is a very much abridged quotation from a monograph on agricultural education, by James Ralph Jewell, published by the United States Bureau of Education : A thorough and comprehensive system of agricultural edu- cation is of more importance to France than to many other coun- tries, because, owing to the law of divided inheritance, most of the sons of French peasants will one day have strips of land of their own. France has an excellent agricultural system, and the agricultural schools which the government ranks as second- ary are really on a par with the higher institutions of several other countries. Instead of maintaining a large number of small, secondary schools, France supports three large national agri- cultural schools in widely separated districts. The course of study covers two years, and is arranged to meet the needs of the various sections of the country. One school is devoted especially to vine and olive culture, sheep farming, the breeding of silk- worms and the making of wine and olive oil. Another pays espe- cial attention to cider making, pasturing, farming on the share system, and the agricultural products of most importance in 18 western France. Another deals especially with artificial pastur- age, cultivation of cereals, stock breeding, and the wine indus- tries of northern France. The students of all of these schools must spend their vacations on farms and report what takes place there. There are, in addition, four special schools, one devoted to horticulture, one to agricultural industries, one to dairy farming and the colonial agricultural school at Tunis. In Belgium there are both agricultural schools and agricul- tural sections. The schools give exclusively professional instruc- tion, while in the sections a part of the time is given to the gen- eral education of the students. The schools have a three-year course with one exception, where the course is but two years. They are for farmers’ sons who intend to continue in their fath- ers’ vocations. Tuition is free, and the state gives scholarships to deserving students, all of whom must have been through the elementary schools. There are eighteen of these schools in Bel- gium, and a government official says of them: “The greatest service these schools have rendered has been to raise the agri- cultural profession to an interesting art, which fascinates the learner, and which he never desires to abandon.” In the agricul- tural sections young farmers may get a general as well as a pro- fessional education. Thirty public and private secondary schools give short courses in agriculture and horticulture, one each week through the year. There are four agricultural sections for girls and several high schools of agriculture with courses of at least two years, for girls. There are four dairy schools for young men in various provinces, with four months’ courses, to provide managers for dairies. There are also ten traveling dairy schools for women, giving four months’ courses of a not- ably high grade. Two hours a day, six days a week, are de- voted to theoretical instruction and three hours daily to prac- tical work. In Holland there are six permanent winter schools of agri- 19 culture and horticulture in session from October to April, and a two years’ course of study. They are intended for the sons of small farmers and market gardeners. There are also four horticultural schools. Finland supports secondary agricultural schools at two dif- ferent points, as well as at the University of Helsingfors. These courses are for two years. In Denmark there are numerous agricultural trade schools which have grown largely during the past ten years. Since 1892, the state has granted funds to any people’s high school which teaches agriculture and gardening, the limit being seven hundred dollars annually to any one school. The agricultural schools and the high schools of Denmark are so closely connected that in some parts of the country it is difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between them. In Sweden there are two agricultural high schools, each with a two years’ course. In every province in Germany there is an agricultural school. In Switzerland there are four theoretical and practical schools of agriculture, the theoretical work being given during the winter, so as to leave the summer for outdoor work. In ad- dition, winter courses are given for those unable to attend the full course. In Portugal there are two secondary agricultural schools. In Japan a secondary agricultural school may be established by any city, town or village when the local finances permit with- out detriment to the elementary schools of the place, and the government gives a subsidy to each such school running for five years. In 1904 there were fifty-seven of these schools, with 7,146 pupils, and the number has rapidly increased since then. The course of study is usually one of three years. There are three 20 higher technical schools of agriculture which devote their ener- gies to special lines, with courses of three years in length. Secondary Agricultural Education in the United States. In the United States we have made barely a beginning in secondary education for farm boys. Condensing again from Jewell: Agricultural high schools supported at least in part by the state are in successful operation in Wisconsin, Alabama, and California. In 1902, the first two of four county high schools in Wisconsin were opened at Menomonie and Wausau, the state paying a substantial share of the first cost and after- wards a sum not to exceed half the amount actually expended in such schools. In connection with the school at Menomonie is a county training school for rural teachers, which gives the county a body of teachers fairly well trained for rudimentary instruc- tion in agriculture. The annual teachers’ institute is made a part of the agricultural summer school, and the teachers are given special instruction in agriculture, manual training and domestic economy, instead of reviewing the common branches over and over again. To operate one of these schools costs the farmer twenty cents on each one thousand dollars of his assess- ment. There are now five such schools in Wisconsin, and twenty- one county training schools for teachers in which agriculture is taught. In 1896, the legislature of Alabama established an agricultural school in each congressional district of the state — nine in all — in which agriculture is taught in the seventh to tenth grades, inclusive. Over two thousand boys and girls attend these schools annually, and a larger proportion of them are do- ing definite work in agriculture now than ever before. In 1906 a law was enacted in Georgia providing for the es- tablishment of a secondary school of agriculture in each of the eleven congressional districts, the schools to be branches of the 21 state college of agriculture. The annual income of each of these new schools is estimated at six thousand dollars, but the locality securing the school must furnish not less than two hundred acres of land and necessary equipment in the way of buildings, live stock, machinery, farm implements, etc. Nine separate build- ings are contemplated for each school. The course of study will cover four years, including one year of elementary school work, and will prepare graduates for entrance to the state col- lege of agriculture. Michigan, in 1903, established ten county normal training schools for rural teachers, in which instruction in elementary agriculture is given during the spring only, so that it really amounts to work in school gardening and to making them some- what familiar with the better text-books on agriculture. There are now forty-five of these schools in Michigan. The six normal schools of Missouri give each year a good course in agriculture, two of them devoting five periods a week through the entire year to it. The California Polytechnic School, at San Luis Obispo, a state institution established in January, 1902, offers second- ary courses in agriculture, domestic science and mechanics, cov- ering a period of three years. There are here and there through the country three or four private secondary schools in agriculture, maintained without state aid. One of these is a Catholic school at San Francisco. Another is the Mount Herman school, founded by D. L. Moody, near Northfield, Mass. The third is the National Farm School, at Doylestown, Penn., a school for Jews, and here and there through the country city high schools have developed quite strong agricultural courses. Minnesota has an excellent secondary school in agriculture in connection with her state agricultural college, and has estab- lished another at Crookston, in the northwest part of the state, which offers a three years’ course of six months each, to which 22 students from the country are admitted without examination. Popular short courses of one week each are also held at this school. Ten high schools give instruction in agriculture. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and many other states are rapidly consolidating the rural schools, grading them, and introducing agricultural instruction in the higher grades. In Indiana eighty- two of the ninety-two counties have consolidated schools. Nebraska has five normal schools which give instruction in agriculture, and one hundred and three high schools in which some phases of the subject are taught. In Ohio there are now forty-seven township and thirty-nine city high schools which teach agriculture; in Missouri, sixty-one; in Illinois, eleven; in Indiana eleven. The Condition in Iowa. Iowa is the greatest all-around agricultural state in the Union. In intelligence, thrift, and the qualities which go to make good citizenship, her people are believed to be the equal of the people of any other state and the superior of most. But in the systematic education of her youth .she is far behind most other states north of Mason & Dixon’s line. Only the length of this paper enables me to resist the temptation to discuss the chaotic condition of our educational system in general. We have about 12,000 rural schools in Iowa, and Superintendent Riggs is authority for the statement that more than 2,000 of them never enroll more than ten pupils each in a given term, wdiile many of them enroll less than five. Less than 3,000, or about 25 per cent, enroll more than twenty pupils in any given term. And enrollment is not synonymous with attendance. Our efforts as a state to give our youth the knowledge of the prin-. ciples of agriculture are confined to the work done through the State College of Agriculture. In a few counties, progressive county superintendents have voluntarily introduced the study 23 of corn and other grains, and some of the simple nature studies, in the rural schools. The pioneer in this line was Cap. Miller, of Keokuk county. In Page county, Miss Jessie Field caught the spirit and has carried this work still further, until practi- cally every rural school in the county is devoting considerable time each week to studying the simpler things of agriculture. O. H. Benson is doing work of the same sort in Wright county. In other counties here and there, scattered over the state, an occasional real teacher, encouraged by some progressive farmer in the neighborhood, has taken up the work. Some seven or eight high schools have inaugurated some agricultural work, and two or three of the smaller colleges of the state. Nor have we as yet taken even the first step toward remedy- ing this unfortunate condition. While many of our people and many of our teachers understand our shortcomings, no system- atic effort has been made toward improvement. While other states are redirecting their rural schools and educating teachers to take charge of them, we are doing nothing at all in this direc- tion, except that the Extension Department of the college has held one summer institute for country school teachers in a north- western county. The work of the Iowa Agricultural College consists of : First. — Providing various four-year courses in agriculture, civil and mechanical engineering, veterinary science and general and domestic science. These are open to students from accred- ited high schools, or to those who can pass an examination of the same grade. Second. — A special two years course in agriculture, to which is admitted students who can not meet the entrance requirements to the regular course. Third. — Experimental work in agriculture, carried on by the Experiment Station, which is supported in part by the ; national government. The results of this work are disseminated 24 in the form of bulletins, which are sent free to residents of the state who apply for them. Fourth. — A two weeks’ course in agriculture, open to boys and men of any age, at which is taught corn and livestock judg- ing, dairying, etc. Fifth. — Extension work which is carried on by a special corps of instructors who conduct short courses of one week each in various counties of the state, twenty-one being planned for this winter. The Extension Department also publishes bulle J tins written in popular form and mans the special trains run by the railroads. The Agricultural College graduated its first class in 1872. From a list of the alumni, published by the college in January, 1910, and which therefore does not include the class of 1910, I find that a total of 362 have been graduated with degrees of Bachelor of Agriculture, and Bachelor of Scientific Agriculture. Of these there are nine whose addresses are not known, five are dead, 212 reside outside of Iowa, and 136 reside in Iowa. How many of those remaining in the state are on farms or engaged in agricultural pursuits, I have not been able to ascertain. It is of course true that many times this number of students have studied agriculture at this institution one or more terms. The number this year, reported in the four years courses in the agri- cultural department, is 703, while there are 134 in the spe- cial two-year course. Better work is now being done at the college than at any previous time, but the figures quoted show how far short it falls of meeting our real needs. We have more than 200,000 farms in the state of Iowa, and it is perfectly evident that if any considerable percentage of the boys who will till these farms in the future are to have even a partial knowl- edge of the principles of agriculture, they must get it elsewhere than at the State Agricultural College. It is worthy of note that the total enrollment in all the state agricultural colleges of 25 the Union, not including the schools for colored people and not including the short and special courses, was 61,662 for the year 1909, and of this number but 5,873 were enrolled in the agricul- tural courses ; or about nine and one-half per cent of the stu- dents of the agricultural colleges studied agriculture. For the year ending June 30, 1910, our Agricultural College received for educational support, $276,935 ; for fees and tuition, $58,214; for scholarship fund, $1,350; for agricultural exten- sion work, $32,000; for experiment work, $78,000, and for building and equipment fund, $163,815, or a total of over $610,- 000 during the one year. During the last five years $718,526 was expended for building purposes, included in this being $329,934 for a hall of agriculture. The work of the short course which is held at the college for two weeks during the winter vacation, and the work of the Ex- tension Department, is designed not to furnish an agricultural education, but to give to the practical farmer information of a quasi-scientific character, and to stimulate interest in better farming. The Extension Department is doing by word of mouth what the better agricultural papers have been doing for years in a very much larger way by the printed page. The state is getting very much greater direct material benefit for the money it spends in this extension work than for any other money spent through the Agricultural College. This benefit comes not alone from the knowledge imparted. The best teaching is not the im- parting of knowledge, but the creating of an appetite for it, inspiring the desire to learn and know. We can establish better schools only where the people want them and are willing to take the initiative. The extension work prepares the way. The ex- tension worker must be an inspirational teacher. His pupils come to hear him — not because they want the credits necessary to secure a diploma, but because they want to learn what he can teach. If he does not interest them, they do not come back. The best teachers in the state are those of the Extension Department ' — the most unselfish, the most enthusiastic, the most devoted. But the work being done by the Agricultural College in it» various activities — important as this work is — is not the work that most needs to be done for the betterment of Iowa agricul- ture and for the betterment of the farm boy. We must place the opportunity to secure a knowledge of scientific agriculture within reach of the average boy on the farm. It seems foolish to permit the boy to grow up in ignorance of the things he most needs to know in his business, and then try to teach the man in short courses of a week each year. We should in some way build a system of secondary education designed to meet the needs of the boy who will be a farmer. Ignorant men can not long cul- tivate lands worth $200 an acre. The prosperity of Iowa depends upon the intelligence of the men who till her farms. The resi- dent of the town and city must, for his own preservation, aid in placing the right sort of education within reach of the farm boy. In conclusion, I have not an elaborate worked-out system to propose, but I suggest certain lines along which we should move: First, we can not supply agricultural education by legislative dictum. Efforts to enact laws which will require forthwith the teaching of agriculture in all schools or in all rural schools are not well directed. Second, the state can not, as in other countries, control en- tirely the education of its youth, but without more direct aid of the state than has been given in the past, we will make no general progress. This aid can be most effectively given in two ways. First, training teachers competent to give instruction in agricultural subjects. This should be begun in a wholesale way by a course in agriculture at the State Normal School, by estab- lishing a special summer school for rural teachers at the State Agricultural College, and by holding special short courses for rt teachers under the direction of the Extension Department in various parts of the state. In these ways we can make a begin- ning, but at the earliest possible moment we must provide train-- ing schools for rural teachers which will really fit them for rural teaching. Second, by giving financial aid to rural schools which provide secondary courses. Our people can most easily be in- duced to spend their own money when by so doing they can get some of the state’s money. Only in this way can the state exer- cise a strong influence upon the character of the rural schools. Third, the foundation of any real system of agricultural ed- ucation is the rural school. As a state we have spent so much time and money in fashioning the lily-work on the pillars and constructing a band-stand on the roof, that we have given almost no attention to the foundation. The first step toward the im- provement of the rural school will be in the direction of consoli- dation. Efforts to introduce agricultural instruction in pri- mary schools have not been successful. The most that can be done in this direction is to give primary studies an agricultural flavor and interest the children in certain forms of nature work. With the consolidated school, however, grades can be estab- lished, and in the higher grades excellent work in agriculture and domestic science can be carried on by competent teachers. Fourth, we must have a system of secondary agricultural schools open to boys and girls from all the rural schools and planned with especial reference to their needs. The school year should not exceed six months. Our ultimate aim should be to place a first-class secondary school within driving distance of every farm, and these schools should, so far as possible, be in the country and not in the small town, to the end that around them may be built up a rural social life. For lack of teachers it may be necessary to first establish a secondary school in each congressional district, which can later be developed into training schools for teachers, but township high schools should be the 28 goal, and they should be made available at once to every com- munity that is now ready for them. The courses of study at these schools should be planned solely with the purpose of giving the farm boy and girl the education they most need for farming, and not with a view of preparing them to enter the agricultural or any other college. Ninety-five per cent of the pupils who attend them will attend no other school. Fifth, the Extension Department should be provided with greatly increased funds, that it may be enabled to extend its short course work and inaugurate a series of institutes at which rural teachers may be given the inspiration which they so much need and the instruction which will enable them to introduce nature work. The state now gives this department $32,000 an- nually. Last year the communities in which it worked contrib- uted over $31,000. Not less than $100,000 per year should be made available for the sole use of the Extension Department. Finally, if we wish to improve our schools, we must be will- ing to spend our money. We have spent freely in the past for our higher educational institutions, which educate the few. We must spend freely in the future for grade and secondary schools to educate the many. This state can well afford to support both. But if to re-direct our schools we must re-direct our ap- propriations for education, then let it be done.