Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-13
TEACHING FARMING.
What is Being Done by the Agri-
cultural Department.
LECTURES AT COLLEGES
Sent Out From Here to Give Latest
Information
AS TO THE BEST METHODS
To Be Employed in Tilling the Soil,
Running Dairy, Caring
for Stock, &c.
) TO THE BEST METHODS

Agriculture is being taught in the public
schools of more than a dozen states now,
and the practice is spreading This is a
new departure and the United States is the
first country in the world that has made
such study apart of its regular curriculum.
1t is to many of the country schools what
manual training Is to the schools of the
city, and every effort is being made to inn
prove the methods and get as much prac-
teal benefit out of 1t as possible. The gen.
eral government is taking a hand in the
movement to the extent of making the
bureau of experiment stations of the De-
partment of Agriculture sort Of clearing
house through which to gather informa-
ton as to methods and what is being done
and to disseminate this information among
the communities that need 1t.
Mr.. H. o. Sampson of the bureau Of
soils has just come back to Washington
from a lecturing tour that took in two
points in Wisconsin, one in Pennsylvania
and wound up at the Maryland Agricultural
College outside of Washington. The meet
ings that he addressed were teachers in
stitutes, where the best methods of agricul-
tural- teaching were discussed and the
teachers were helped with the problems
that will confront them during the coming
school year. Dr. A. c. True, the director
of experiment stations. has made a tour as
far as California addressing teachers on
the same SUBJECT, and Mr.. DICK j. CROSBY
of the SAME bureau has lectured through
the south and middle west on the same SUBJ
ject. Altogether it is probable that 1900
or 10000 teachers were reached last year
and the work is spreading and growing in
popularity. '~%
What Teaching Agriculture Means.
1t may occur to many people to ask what
teaching agriculture in the schools means
anyhow. The reply, is that 1t means teach
ing as much of farming as can be learned
from text books and giving the pupils the
benefit of as much practical instruction as
they can get from the diaries, FARMS stock
ranches and orchards of their vicinity. The
most of the pupils of the rural schools
come from the farms and most of them go
back to the farms after they have quit
school. They learn a great deal of farming
in a practical way at home; but the object,
of the school work is to release them from
the rule of thumb methods that many of
them learn and show them the reason II
there is one that lays back of any given
farming practice and keep them from I'M
necessary drudgery where there is no good
reason existing.
AS one Of the teachers said in speaking
of the work, 1t is certainly just as i'm
portant to teach the pupils how a model
dairy should be run and why John Smith
Of their own county is making a success of
his stock farm, or why William Smith is
getting better crops than his neighbors, as
1t is to teach them the names of capes and
mountains In countries that they probably
will never visit
There are not many good agricultural
text books in existence. They are being
produced, however, and the teachers who
have taken up the work Of agriculture in
various schools are always ready to impart
and exchange information as to methods.
The bureau of experiment stations is in
good position to act a clearing house for
this sort of Information. 1t is hard for the
various states to communicate with each
other except to a limited extent but when
Of Agriculture to which information can be
sent and whence it can be distributed the
work becomes much simpler.
Aim of the Department.
What the department is aiming at is to
train the teachers rather than the scholars.
During the recent trip of Mr. Sampson
there were teachers meetings held at
Dodgeville and Jackson, Wis, another at
Erie, Pa, and perhaps the largest at the
Maryland Agricultural College. There were
from $50 to 300 teachers at each of these
meetings and they were told the best
methods of instruction that the department
had been able to gather from the schools
of the various states where a certain por-
ton of the time is now devoted to agri-
culture.
few of the more progressing states have
established model schools with small farms
and diaries attached and the pupils are
given a chance at practical farming, plant
ing and cultivating grain flowers and trees,
the management of stock and are shown
the practical difference between dairy and
meat stock, the methods of butchering and
the approved cuts of meat, the different
breeds of horses for draft and driving and
are given the practical reasons underlying
blowing, cultivating and all the annual
round Of farm labor. The idea is to give
them an intelligent interest in farm work
and open their eyes to the possibilities Of
improved methods and altogether rear a
more intelligent race of young farmers who
when they stick to the soil will know how
to make the most out of it and take the
fullest advantage of the life in which their
lot is likely to be cast