I.

B. AGRICULTURE

DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONSES TO THE INQUIRY IN AGRICULTURE

The responses to the inquiry into the status of the teaching of agriculture were received from 49 schools distributed as follows:

The inquiry in agriculture was so framed as to learn the status of the teaching of both general agriculture and specialized courses in the subject. A course in general agriculture appears in 26 of the 49 schools, while specialized courses are reported by 31 schools. The offering in 8 schools includes both general agriculture and specialized courses in the subject, but in only 3 of these is the course in the former a part of the sequence in agriculture extending through two or more years.

The specialized courses appearing are farm crops, animal husbandry, soils, horticulture, farm accounts, farm mechanics, and farm management. The last two appear sometimes as separate courses and sometimes as constituents of the same course. The courses classified here do not always bear the names we have given them. The courses to which we have given the name farm crops are frequently reported as agronomy or field crops. Under

the single rubric animal husbandry have been included two courses named specifically dairy husbandry and three others reported as animal husbandry and dairying. Soils is in a few instances reported as soils and fertilizers or soils and soil fertility. Under horticulture have been listed courses given that name as well as those reported as vegetable gardening, fruit-raising, or vegetable gardening and fruit-raising. Farm mechanics is sometimes reported as agricultural engineering, and farm accounts as farm bookkeeping.

The amounts of this specialized work, exclusive of botany (or botany and zoology or botany and general science) which appears in the sequence of 5 schools, are as follows:

These facts indicate that in those schools which offer specialized sequences the general practice is to extend them through three or four years.

YEARS OF APPEARANCE

The years in which the course in general agriculture appears were not investigated. In the three schools in which this course is reported as a part of the sequence of two or more years of agriculture, it is reported in the first year of the high school. However, the years in which specialized courses in agriculture appear were investigated. Table LI shows the results of the compilation of the facts. Farm crops is here seen to be most markedly a firstyear course, although it appears in other years in some schools. Animal husbandry is similarly predominantly a second-year course. Soils and horticulture do not seem to gravitate toward any single year of the high school. Farm mechanics and farm management are third- and fourth-year subjects and, when all the figures for them as separate and as a single subject are taken into consideration, practice tends to recommend them predominantly for the latter. Farm accounts appears in third and fourth years. The agricultural sequence recommended by practice seems to be this: first year, farm crops; second year, animal husbandry; third year, soils

(one-half) and horticulture (one-half); fourth year, farm mechanics and farm management. Soils and horticulture are placed in third year, not because practice recommends them for this par

TABLE LI

NUMBER OF SCHOOLS REPORTING THE SEVERAL YEARS IN WHICH SPECIALIZED COURSES IN AGRICULTURE APPEAR

ticular year, but because the other courses are so recommended for the years in which they have been listed. This sequence is further supported by the usual lengths of the courses, as may be seen in the next section.

TIME ELEMENT

Length of the courses.-Table LII indicates the practice as to the lengths of the several courses in agriculture: general agriculture is much more commonly a full-year than a half-year subject; farm crops and animal husbandry are somewhat more often full-year than half-year subjects; soils and horticulture are predominantly half-year subjects; farm mechanics and farm management when taught separately are more often half-year than full-year subjects, and correspondingly are taught as one course, which usually extends through a full school year; farm accounts is a half-year course.

Total time per week.-Table LIII presents the total time per week, including both recitation and laboratory, devoted to the several courses in agriculture. This seems to be very similar to that obtaining in other science courses, as shown in Table XLV. It is seen to range between wide extremes, but for no course does it in any

instance fall below 200 minutes. The more common practices are 225-249 (usually 225), 275-299 (usually 280), and 300-324 (usu

ally 315) minutes. The first of these, distributed in five 45-minute periods per week, is reported in such schools as do not provide separate laboratory periods or laboratory time equivalent in amount

to that generally considered to be adequate for courses in science. Attention is called to the relatively large number of schools reporting this amount for animal husbandry and at the same time to the large proportion in this subject—almost half of those reporting the course —who give no answer or indefinite answers. This is due in large part to the fact that in this course larger provision must be and is made for observation trips, as will be pointed out under "Methods," p. 86. These observation trips, because of the nature of the course, take the place of much of the laboratory work. Their length is probably so irregular as to make impossible definite answers as to time devoted to the course. The other two practices, 275-299 (usually 280) and 300-324 (usually 315) minutes, represent conformity to the time allotment, already seen to be common in the other sciences, of three single recitation periods of 40 or 45 minutes each, and two double laboratory periods of 80 or 90 minutes each.

III.

ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT OF THE COURSES

Inquiry was made into the constitution of courses in general agriculture. If the general field is separated for this purpose into five main divisions, viz., (1) agronomy, (2) animal husbandry, (3) horticulture, (4) farm mechanics and farm management, and (5) rural sociology, the representation of these constituents in the 26 courses in general agicrulture is as follows:

Omitting some one of the first four constituents.... 5

The content of the course in general agriculture is thus seen to be very commonly true to name.

The content of specialized courses in agriculture is to be implied in the names given them, and these have already been referred to. Some additional information as to this content may be found in what is reported under the head of "Practical Exercises,"

P. 86.