The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-04-17
agriculture in High Schools.

The introduction of Agriculture in
to high schools is making rapiC
strides to the front, and promises soor
to be the leading course in all the
high schools OF our agricultural
states, as it is in some of them now
All of our waste lands that can be
proitably farmed unuer our present
system of agriculture have been re-
claimed, and the price of real estate
is gradually soaring upwards as its
prOductiveness decreases. The large
farms must be cut up, sometimes in
the near future, or else, to give room
for the increase in population, most
of the farmers families must move
into the city, AS our inward expan.
sion in population increases so must
the productiveness of the farmers
soil grow, instead of the once increase
in acres. II not, we will become an
importing nation, instead of the pres.
ent exporting one. The tendency of
our lands to decrease in productive.
ness and the reclamation and produc.
tlveness of our now waste lands, can
only be met by more scientific farm
ing methods. 1t was once thought
that anybody could farm, in case they
failed at everything else; but that
idea has gradually been dropped and
the reverse is now nearer true. The
poorer class workmen and men who
must be watched and taken through
| each detail of their work should not
try to be farmers, for they will never
| rise above the wages-state. The
place for this class of men is in the
city factory where the wages are much
better for their skill than on the
farm, and foreman stands at their
elbow constantly, to keep them going
in the right path.
The successful farmer is no longer
a rule'of-thumb man but reader of
the experience of others, and a man
who can select and supply their ex-
prience to the best advantage, under
his own conditions. These readers
and thinkers can be developed only
by proper schooling.
A very small percent of the farm
boys can afford to attend the agri-
cultural colleges, but many could at
tend some local school for four or
five months and many could attend
the entire term. 10 meet the need
of these country boys, together with
many in the town and city who care
to take agriculture, some of our more
progressive states had divided
their territory in various districts
from single county to fourth part
Of the state and established schools
therein; many others have offered
state aid to schools teaching agricul
ture, yet many schools take it up in
dependently.
The necessity OF agriculture in
high school. rather than any other
class of school, and the popularity
with which it has been met can easily
be seen from the following extract
from the last statistical report of the
United States Department of Ag-
riculture on Agricultural Institutions.
1t includes only schools for whites
that offer definite instruction in agri.
culture.
Colleges increased from eighty-one
in 1910 to one hundred and three in
1912; normal schools, including coun.
ty training schools and industrial
schools for women, from one hundred
and flfty-six in 1910 to one hundred
and ninety-six in 1912; high schools
receiving state aid from eighty.six
in 1910 to three hundred and sixty
seven in 1912; other high schools and
academies, from every state in the
union except Delaware, New Jersey,
and Rhode Island, from four hundred
and thirty-four in 1910 to one thou
sand six hundred and thirty in 1912.
This rapid increase in favor of the
high schools can easily be under
stood from the fact that they are not
the cheapest means of offering agri-
cultural training; they do not COM
pete with our higher institutions of
learning they are free to residents
of the state in which they are estab
lished, therefore giving all an equal
chance; and the exact needs of the
industrial student is met Branches
of study that he is not interested in,
or that he will never need are not
forced upon him.
The centralized agricultural high
school fills the, need of,-the country
boy who can attend only short win.
ter course; the boy who cannot afford
to attend college at all; the boy who
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