4 ie) ean ret) : i rp 4 ji Ss re : : ‘ i f 1 > ; i t i} ; iy ity ' ‘ f 9 ah We Rae he eee | i tie i Whe jal i MT” yee) ey eve BR tis ; ; i t “4 4 ebaiey i ibe balanal ak Site bee taht Lyitas Mb y4 | ‘ i BY eT I , a be: ! i ‘ J i ea tare at ae iit Leas ; ‘ f cee baal) CAE bt Bll) Bim isedvang beak De it ney Vebatend i hess BAL Ue pultit faveion tans pial hilal pee Giiwdesepideye pba Verge en) oT ei WMD en tie ec li 7h men tows Het _— a | f Che Commonwealth of Massachusetts. REPORT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION _ ,- OF MASSACHUSETTS ON AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. SUBMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH RESOLVES APPROVED May 28 anp JuNE 10, 1910. JANUARY, 1911. BOSTON: WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS, 18 Post OFFICE SQUARE. 1911. CONTENTS. PAGE Submission of the Report to the Legislature, : ; : ; 5 I. — Preliminary Statements, Summary of the Report and Recommen- dations, ‘ ; : ; : ; : : , i cf II. — Does Massachusetts Farming warrant the Establishment of a System of Agricultural Schools? . : : : ; 4 iby III. — The System of Agricultural Schools recommended for Massachu- setts, . : : : : : : : : : : 21 IV. — Co-operation between School and Home Farm Necessary to an Effective System of Agricultural Schools for Massachusetts, . 35 V.— The Part-time and Project Method Necessary to an Effective System of Agricultural Schools for Massachusetts, ; ; 41 VI.— The Problem of securing Competent Instructors for a System of Agricultural Schools in Massachusetts, . , : : 62 VIL. — Agricultural Departments in Public High Schools the Principal Present Need in Massachusetts Agricultural Education, . 3 66 VIII. — Possible Locations for Agricultural Schools or Departments, . 74 IX.— Recommendation with regard to Agricultural Education for Worcester, . : : : : . : : : ‘ 86 X.— Agriculture as a Phase of Liberal Education in the High Schools of Massachusetts, 87 XI. — Agriculture as a Phase of Liberal Education in the Elementary Schools of Massachusetts, * . : : : ; : : 93 APPENDIX. Proposed Codification of the Law relating to Industrial, Agri- cultural and Household Arts Education, : : : . 100 Che Commonwealth of Mlassachusetts. REPORT ON AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives. In accordance with the provisions of chapters 108 and 133, Resolves of 1910, concerning the advisability of establishing a system of agricultural schools throughout the Commonwealth, and concerning the practicability and desirability of establish- ing a farm school in the city of Worcester, the Board of Education herewith reports the results of investigations and recommendations, made under its direction by the Commissioner of Education, David Snedden, Deputy Commissioner Charles A. Prosser and Special Agent Rufus W. Stimson. The Board adopts the report and endorses the recommenda- tions. FREDERICK P. FISH, Chairman, SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD, ELLA LYMAN CABOT, SIMEON B. CHASE, LEVI L. CONANT, THOMAS B. FITZPATRICK, FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, PAUL Bo HANUS, CLINTON Q. RICHMOND, Members of the Board. Jan. 1, 1911. J, PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS, SUMMARY OF THE REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Following is the text of the resolves passed by the Legisla- Lure 2 — RESOLVES OF 1910, CHAPTER 108. Resolved, That the state board of education shall investigate the prac- ticability and desirability of establishing a farm school in the city of Worcester in which instruction may be given, free, in the raising of fruits, vegetables, flowers, grains, plants and trees, and in the care of domestic animals, and in which similar instruction suitable to their years may be given to children. The board shall report in print to the general court, with such recommendations as it may deem proper, not later than January fifth, nineteen hundred and eleven. [Approved May 28, 1910. RESOLVES OF 1910, CHAPTER 133. Resolved, That the board of education is hereby authorized and di- rected to investigate the advisability of establishing a system of agri- cultural schools throughout the commonwealth, and to report the result of its investigation with its recommendations to the next general court not later than the second Wednesday in January, nineteen hundred and eleven. [Approved June 10, 1910. In obedience to these resolves, the Board of Education di- rected the Commissioner of Education to make the necessary investigations and to engage expert assistance. Mr. Rufus W. Stimson, director of Smith’s Agricultural Sehool and North- ampton School of Industries, was appointed to assist in making the investigations and preparing the report. Special acknowledgment is here made of the assistance of the following: President Kenyon L. Butterfield and members of the faculty of Massachusetts Agricultural College; Secre- tary J. Lewis Ellsworth of the State Board of Agriculture; Mr. Dick J. Crosby, specialist, and Mr. F. W. Howe, assisi- ant specialist, in agricultural education, of the United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations; Mr. 8 Arthur C. Monahan, agricultural specialist of the United States Bureau of Education; the Hon. C. D. Richardson, Past Master, and the Hon. Charles M. Gardner, Master, of the Massachu- setts State Grange; and many other citizens of Massachusetts. A brief survey has been made of the development of agri- cultural education in Massachusetts and like work elsewhere. The economic status and prospects of farming, as conducted by both men and women, in this State, have been examined. Selected and typical centers have been studied, as to the facil- ities for transportation, as to the most promising lines of farm- ing in practice, and as to the probable enrollment in an agricultural school or department. All parts of the State have thus received attention, with the exception of the islands of Dukes and Nantucket. It will be easily understood that this report can deal only in general terms with the results of these local investigations. Printed sources of information have been used, and confer- ences have been held both with groups and with individuals. By far the largest number of consultations have been held on their own premises with farmers who are obtaining their liv- ing from their agricultural work, and who are regarded by their communities as sound in judgment, methods and ideas. No serious appraisement of educational needs and values has been undertaken, beyond the strict limits of agricultural train- ing adapted to youths from fourteen years of age upward. In fact, attention has been almost exclusively confined to agri- cultural education suitable for boys, and perhaps for some girls, who intend to follow farming for a livelihood, and who, but for the type of training recommended in this report, probably would follow the practice of a long line of their predecessors, and drop out of school altogether. Provision of agricultural education for girls who have passed their fourteenth birthday has been considered. This problem raises very important questions, both educational and economic. There is little experience, so far, by which to be guided. It is believed, therefore, that this subject should be further investi- gated, and that the questions involved can best be answered by actual experiments made in connection with the agricultural schools and departments proposed in this report. Frypines in Brier. The agricultural and educational conditions in this Common- wealth are believed to warrant the following conclusions : — 1. Farming in Massachusetts is a highly important vocation. 2. Massachusetts farming, where most profitably practiced, is peculiarly dependent upon, and responsive to, scientific knowl- edge and improved methods. Its increasing diversity and spe- cialization, which are such promising elements in its progress, make more difficult the task of preparation for it, and make more emphatic the duty of the State to the boys and girls who are to follow it. 3. Agencies for carrying scientific knowledge and improved methods to adults, and to students of such age and preliminary training as to enable them to meet the usual college entrance requirements, appear to have been both carefully considered and fairly well established. 4, There is a decided lack of, and a pronounced demand for, agricultural training of a scientific and very practical character, suitable for boys, and perhaps for some girls, fourteen years of age and older, who expect to gain their livelihood from, and to spend their lives on, Massachusetts farms. 5. The growing commercial and industrial school facilities open to boys and girls fourteen years of age and older, tend to lure away from the land and into the congested centers, in the absence of competent and attractive agricultural education, many young people whose natural aptitudes would make them, if properly trained, better and more prosperous citizens in the country. 6. Financial aid for agricultural education, suitable for adults and for college students, has for a half-century been fur- nished by this Commonwealth and by the federal government. State aid for vocational training of secondary grade in agricul- ture, is, moreover, entirely in keeping with State aid for inde- pendent industrial school work, and to some extent was provided for by chapter 505 of the Acts of 1906 and chapter 572 of the Acts of 1908. -7. The slow development of secondary agricultural schools, the testimony of farmers throughout the State, and the demand 10 for the investigation here reported which was made by the Legis- lature of 1910, are evidence of the need of additional legislation providing for this kind of agricultural education. 8. School committees have long been authorized and em- powered to provide instruction in agriculture in the public ele- mentary and high schools of the State. While this training has been more liberal and cultural than vocational in its aims and results, it merits the hearty support of local communities in this Commonwealth. Instruction in gardening and in other matters relating to the farm should be encouraged and guided in all the elementary schools of the State, where the home environment or the school facilities make productive work and personal observation by the pupils practicable, As an important aid to liberal education in all of the high schools of the State, particularly in those which have a rural environment, guidance and encouragement should be given, with a view to the incorporation of generous proportions of agricul- tural subject matter in the science instruction, and to the sym- pathetic correlation of certain parts of the instruction in English, history, civics and hygiene with rural life and labor, institutions and progress. 9. In order that more adequate school facilities may be pro- vided in this Commonwealth for preparing those above fourteen years of age for productive and profitable farming, vocational agricultural departments are proposed in this report for estab- lishment in existing high schools. The methods and vocational standards of instruction for the development of such agricultural departments have nowhere been tried in the exaet form proposed in this report. Such approxnnations to this kind of training as have been found in this State and elsewhere, and the very general interest in and approval of it found among representative Massachusetts farmers with whom it has been discussed, are believed to war- rant giving the department type a thorough trial. The experimental character of the department type, it will he noticed, has been recognized in the proposed codification of the law. It is designed that the problems whieh would con- front such departments shall be carefully studied, that their work shall be thoroughly done, and that no department shall ala be attempted where conditions for success are not reasonably favorable. While annual State aid to the amount of $10,000 might make ten departments possible, it is by no means certain that it would be found advisable to establish ten departments, or even five, the first year. On the other hand, if the proposed department type of agricultural training should prove in actual use to embody the merit which it is believed to possess, pro- vision for increasing the number beyond ten could in future be made. RECOMMENDATIONS. In view, then, of the needs of the State as we have found them, the following three recommendations are respectfully submitted : — 1. We recommend that State aid, equal to that granted any town, or group of towns constituting a district, for industrial schools, be continued as at present provided for in the case of any town, or group of towns constituting a district, for the estab- lishment and maintenance of an independent agricultural school. (See chapter 505, Acts of 1906, and chapter 572, Acts of 1908.) 2. We recommend that provision be made for the establish- ment of agricultural departments in existing high schools, with State aid, and with rigid definition and enforcement of voca- tional standards. 3. We recommend that the above provisions shall be con- sidered to be sufficient for meeting the needs of Worcester, in common with those of all other parts of the Commonwealth, and, therefore, to obviate all necessity for special legislation on behalf of that city. The above recommendations are, of course, to be interpreted in the light of this entire report. Proposep LrqisLation, The Board is submitting to the General Court a proposed codification of legislation relating to industrial, agricultural and household arts education. In that codification is included what is beheved to be ample legal provision for the establishment of a system of agricultural schools. For convenient reference, a copy of the proposed codifica- tion is bound herewith as an Appendix. 12 ive DOES MASSACHUSETTS FARMING WARRANT THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS? Does farming in Massachusetts offer sufficiently important and attractive careers to warrant the establishment of a sys- tem of agricultural schools in this Commonwealth, to train boys and girls who have reached their fourteenth birthday for farm life and work? The present chapter briefly reviews farm- ing incentives and prospects as they are found in this State to-day. 1. Incentives to Farming in Massachusetts are Many. — In a given farming enterprise there may be blended any two or three, or there may be blended all, of the incentives which make farming in this State attractive. (1) The stress and uncertainties of other callings lead many to engage in farming. Severe competition and uncertainty as to the future in business have resulted in the purchase and development of Massachusetts farm land. Prospects for a profitable investment, a stable occupation and a lifelong employ- ment at congenial work are incentives to redirection of effort in such a case. A section of this State was pointed out, during the investi- gation leading to this report, which was said to have been bought up, one small holding after another, by “ broken-down me- > Jt might be fairly considered one of the least chanics.’ promising sections for farming. The operations undertaken were on a small scale; in no instance on a large one. Health and vigor, and self-sustaining life for their children and them- selves, free from the severe competition in the trades and industries, were the primary incentives in these cases. Farming in Massachusetts has become increasingly attract- ive to immigrants who have left the old world and come here with the determination to sueceed. These immigrants are not so much peasants as they are pioneers. They are thrifty and observant; they are quick to adopt new ideas and methods. 15 Money is saved and invested. Theirs is a program of hope. As their savings and their holdings increase in value, their standards of living rise; they begin to educate their children, and presently are on a level with other good citizens in their communities. (2) The attractions and associations in the family are strong motives with many. Farm after farm is owned and operated now by the same family, in whose ancestral line it has remained for eight or even nine generations. (3) The natural charm of the country may be said to be the motive for the establishment of the growing number of more or less magnificent estates in Massachusetts. The North Shore, the South Shore and the Berkshires are noted for the men from the great cities and even from distant States who have sought Massachusetts land for its picturesque actualities and possibili- ties. Most of these estates possess well-rounded agricultural equip- ment, and have created a large demand for skilled gardeners, florists, fruit growers, herdsmen, grooms and trainers. They employ expert farm managers, and supply their own tables with the cleanest milk and the choicest farm, garden, orchard and greenhouse products. The stables of at least one of these estates shelter harness horse championship winners in international competitions. The owners pay the highest prices for the best- bred live stock, and in notable instances have put their farming operations on a strictly economic basis, as object lessons for neighboring farmers. Beside and among these more splendid estates there is a mul- titude of simpler establishments, maintained on a more modest seale, for ike purposes. Sometimes one hears the protest that such estates are, as a whole, detrimental to the public good. Whatever may or may not be the merits of this contention from the point of view of the community at large, it is certain that their establishment cannot at present be regarded as detrimental to the interests of those who must be dependent upon farming for a livelihood. (4) A life purswit to be found in farming is the compelling incentive of many people who engage in agriculture. This State has its misfits and failures on farms, as in every other 14 line of human activity; but it also has farmers who love, and are finding profitable, the careers on the land which they have chosen. The success of the latter is undoubtedly due to two causes: (@) to a fundamental king for the land and all the natural accompaniments of its cultivation; and (b) to the economic status and prospects of farming in this Common- wealth, discussed in the following section. The investigations on which this report is based yielded abundant and convincing evidence that Massachusetts farmers believe, not only that farm- ing in general offers a desirable career, but also that those who intend to make farming a life pursuit in this State will find themselves put to no serious disadvantage because their lot is to be cast in this Commonwealth. 2. Farming prospects are good, and are steadily improving. Having glanced over some of the incentives which have led men to engage in farming operations, we may now consider certain facts and figures with regard to the condition of agri- culture in this State. (1) The agricultural census of Massachusetts shows that farming prospects are good. The Massachusetts State census for 1905 reported the value of property devoted to agricul- ture in general in this State as $288,153,000. The annual farming output was valued at $73,110,000. The growth of agriculture in importance is shown by the fact that in 1875 the total value of output was $37,073,000; in 1885, $47,756,- 000; in 1895, $52,880,000; and in 1905, $73,110,000. In 1905 the value of the agricultural products of Worcester County was reported as $14,279,000; and of the city of Worces- ter alone as $1,491,000. There is no reason for believing that State census figures for 1910 would show retrogression. In three decades, ended in 1905, the annual value of agricultural products in this State had practically doubled. The United States census may not show large additions to the agricultural population of this Commonwealth, but it may reasonably be expected to show gains, at least commensurate with those of the last generation, in the annual value of Massachusetts agricultural products. (2) Massachusetts farmers say farming prospects are promis- ing. Most of the conferences held in preparation for this report 15 were personal interviews with Massachusetts farmers on their own premises, — farmers who are regarded by their communities as thoroughly reliable, and who are dependent on their farming for a living. In all sections of the State the prevailing opinion is that no State offers a better opportunity for profitable agri- culture and a satisfactory home life on the farm than does Massachusetts. This was shown by statements such as the following : — “We have good land.” “We have the best markets in the world.” “ We have good roads and short hauls.” ‘ We have excellent shipping facilities, and the cost of shipment is light when compared with the cost of shipping produce from distant points.” ‘“ We can generally get enough good help.” “I inerease my market garden production a little every year; the more I produce, the more I can sell.” “The cities are growing so much faster than the rate of increase of production from the land, that excessive competition is not to be feared, and prices for prime farm products are bound to continue good and are likely to become better.” “ The great variety of soils and products is favorable to satisfactory farming, taking one year with another, in this State.” “A keen eye to the markets, and shipment to New York or other out-of-the-State points, when prices rule low here and high there, take care of any temporary surplus or slump in home market prices.” “ For choice fruit there are almost unbelievable possibilities in the home market, with the port of Boston ready for shipment of practically unlimited quantities, especially of apples, to foreign markets.” 9 “ We have good libraries, publie schools and churches.” ‘* The Grange in Massachusetts is a splendid organization for getting the farmers together for pleasure and the improvement of their life and work.” Such are the things said by the farmers themselves of the advantages of farming in this State. (3) The small number of abandoned farms shows farming prospects to be improving. Secretary Ellsworth of the State Board of Agriculture now has in press a report of 160 pages, entitled ‘ Massachusetts, her Agricultural Resources, Advan- tages and Opportunities, with a List of Farms for Sale.” The publication of this report at just this moment is singularly op- portune, and makes unnecessary any extended treatment in this chapter of the subject now touched upon. In his preface Secretary Ellsworth says that his publication 16 is issued at the beginning of an exceptional era in Massachusetts agri- culture... . While an effort was made to secure the names of parties owning or controlling strictly abandoned farms, the attempt was in- effectual, and we are foreed to confess that in our belief there are few such farms in the State. Nevertheless, reports confirm the opinion that there is an enormous amount of land lying idle or partly deserted, and that many farms are not worked to anywhere near their limit. (4) Improved tillage makes farming prospects better. Mas- sachusetts land is remarkably responsive to better farming. Land once tilled but now lying for the moment largely or even entirely neglected may well be regarded as a sign post of dor- mant fertility. Such land is simply resting. Striking examples of this fact came to view during the investigation the past sum- mer. One instance may suffice for the present purpose, and the fact that this is furnished by the work of a woman whose farm was visited renders it none the less significant. The owner of an intensively tilled farm, with a model dairy and well-developed piggery, poultry, market-garden and green- house departments, desired to increase her output. She therefore bought a 20-acre field. This lay next adjoining her own im- proved land, but had not been cropped within the memory of the oldest inhabitant of that section, —not for at least sixty years, and probably not for more than a century. It was sparsely strewn with wild grass, gray moss, sweet fern and bay- berry. The former owner had often said that he would keep a yoke of oxen if he only thought he could grow enough feed for them, but he did not believe he could do it. The past summer, its first season in tillage at the hands of its present owner, this field yielded 10 acres of rye, straw and grain ; 250 bushels of splendid potatoes; 80 tons of ensilage, now in the silo; 2 acres of heavy field corn, at the time of the inter- view standing in the shocks; and 2 tons of sugar pumpkins; while at the time the field was visited there were 8 acres in clover, sown in the rye and showing a good “ catch,” 1-acre in turnips, with the remainder of the field laid down to rye again. (5) Increase of investments in land shows that farming is becoming more attractive as a business enterprise. een busi- ness sagacity has led a caterer well known in this State to 17 purchase a farm and develop it as an adjunct to his city busi- ness. His farm is a strictly financial proposition. Though model equipment and conditions have been established, he does not use it for a summer residence, and his visits to the farm are for inspection and for conference with his manager. Strict accounts are kept. Waste from the catering kitchens is sold to the piggery department. Poultry, market-garden, pig- gery, fruit and dairy products are sold to the catering ends of the combined business. The books show that the farm is a paying investment. “ Golden New England,” by Mr. Sylvester Baxter (‘‘ The Outlook,” Sept. 24, 1910, pages 179-190), is an account of the status and prospects of farming in this section. Mr. Bax- ter gives the following instance: — On a certain Essex County place a Boston business man has gone into apples in a way that ranks the undertaking as a great business enterprise. A single place, with something lke 50,000 apple trees, not only cuts a large figure in Massachusetts, — even in the great west it would mean “ going some.” (6) With little farms, intensive farming yields large returns. Contrasted with the western prairies, the smaller fields along and among the hills and streams of Massachusetts have seemed to some impossible of profitable cultivation. By them it is even asserted that Massachusetts is “not an agricultural State.” Such a remark is met by the Massachusetts farmer with a blank look of amazement. He has no doubt that farming in this State is a permanent and an increasingly important vocation. He knows that fundamental to advancing agriculture is a market commensurate with its output; and he sees the manu- facturing towns in his neighborhood growing with a rapidity almost beyond belief. Even in the west, not the enormous holding, but the smaller one is now recognized as the more promising basis for the most permanent and profitable agricultural production, Evidence is abundant that the little farm may yield large returns. One of the tidiest bits of farming seen the past summer was on a 10-acre farm, of which part was in pasture and only about: 6 acres were under cultivation. Some of the land was tilted on We 18 edge, in typical New England fashion. All of the fields were more or less irregular in their boundaries, and from some of them cartloads of stones had been removed, with more to fol- low. The land was “kept busy.” Market gardening was the main feature, but there was fruit; and there were “ side lines ” . of dairying and poultry, for utilizing “ clippings” and unsal- able remnants of the principal products. This farm is yield- ing a profit of $5,000 a year. Other farms visited, which to the unaccustomed eye might look small, are yielding net returns of from $2,000 to $10,000, and even $12,000, a year. Greater thrift and satisfaction in work well done one could not hope to find in any State. Mr. Baxter, in the article above cited, gives the following imstances : — A half-aere strawberry patch, ... yields 5,000 quarts, worth $625. Eleven hundred dollars have come from an acre and a half of canta- loups. There are thousands of acres in asparagus in Massachusetts alone, with profits of $300 or even $600 an acre. An Italian makes from $4,000 to $5,000 a year off of 4 acres in market gardening. Five acres in peaches have yielded $2,500 in one year. Apples! That is a story in itself. And flowers? Well, there is a lady on Cape Cod who makes $200 or so every summer on a patch of sweet peas little bigger than a eity back yard. As for potatoes and corn, there are numerous big records. (7) Comparison of productivity with other States shows farming prospects to be good. Secretary Ellsworth, in the pamphlet before mentioned, is outspoken and explicit in his estimate of the agricultural prospects of Massachusetts. This has previously been intimated, and will more clearly appear from the following passage : — ... When ratio of aggregate production to aggregate acreage, yield per acre of certain crops and character of tillage are considered, Massa- chusetts ranks favorably with the leading agricultural States. The following data, gleaned from the latest official statistics, add strength to this statement : — In 1900 Massachusetts had 3,147,064 acres in farms, which yielded the previous year $42,298,274 worth of farm products. As compared with the five leading agricultural States, we find California, with nine times this number of acres in farms, producing only three times as 19 many dollars’ worth of farm products; Illinois, with ten times the farm acreage, producing eight times as many dollars’ worth of farm products; Iowa, with eleven times the farm acreage, producing nine times as many dollars’ worth of farm products; Kansas, with thirteen times the farm acreage, producing four and one-half times as many dollars’ worth of farm products; and Texas, with forty times the farm acreage, producing five times as many dollars’ worth of farm produets. Further, from the estimates of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1908 these striking figures are obtained: the average production per acre of Indian corn for the United States was 26.2 bushels; for Massachusetts, 40.4 bushels; of oats for the United States, 25 bushels; for Massachusetts, 33 bushels; of potatoes for the United States, 85.7 bushels; for Massachusetts, 95 bushels. In relative rank of production per acre, Massachusetts stands among the States, for corn fourth, for oats thirteenth, for potatoes twelfth. When compared with the leading States in these products, Massachusetts ranks in production per acre, for corn fourth, for oats first and for potatoes second. The crops used for comparison are not the leading agricultural! products of Massachusetts, but the figures indicate what the intensive methods of agriculture practiced by her farmers is bringing forth from the soil. While comparative figures for other States of those products which are most valuable to Massachusetts are not available, it is safe to assert, without fear of contradiction, that, whereas the production per acre of such field crops as corn, oats and potatoes is relatively high, the production per acre of fruits and other vegetables which respond so much more readily to intensive treatment is not exceeded by that of any other State of the same or higher latitude. 3. Conclusions. — It is believed, in short, that the experience of those who are successfully engaged in farming here, and the economic status and prospects of farming in this Common- wealth, show conclusively that exceptional success awaits the work of the exceptional man or woman in this field of economic activity; and that farming is bound to afford a profitable and satisfactory living for the average boy or girl who enters this field with a thrifty, alert and progressive spirit, and with a proper preliminary education. At the beginning of the investigation leading to this report, the question was raised as to whether a system of agricultural schools would be likely to result in increased valuation of taxable property on farms, and thus return directly to the public treasury at least scme portion of its cost. One farmer put the gist of the answers of all his fellows into the succinct reply, 20 ¥ that it did not take the assessors long to discover any improve- ments that he made on his farm as a result of better methods. Finally, it appears that farming in Massachusetts, viewed from the standpoint of both its present status and its prospects, is a calling the successful pursuit of which requires a know]l- edge of the science that lies back of the practice of agriculture as a handicraft; that, in order to secure a widespread pro- ductive and profitable agriculture, it is necessary that voca- tional schools supported and controlled by the public should train the youth in the best methods of farming; and that farm- ing in Massachusetts is a calling of sufficient importance to justify both local and State support of those forms of educa- tion that will effectively prepare boys, and, to some extent at least, girls, for it. 21 att, THE SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS RECOM-— MENDED FOR MASSACHUSETTS. It was pointed .out in the previous chapter that the condi- tion and prospects of farming in Massachusetts seem to justify a system of agricultural schools. The question arises as to what types of schools are desirable for this Commonwealth. Two promise to be etfective. These are the separate or inde- pendent agricultural school, and the agricultural department in the publie high school. 1. Srparatre AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL. (1) Definition and Examples. — The separate agricultural school aims to promote, by education, economic farming. Its location, plant, staff and courses of training are determined by this object. Such a school may, or may not, be on the same site with an institution of different grade or type. Whatever its proximity to other kinds of institutions, it requires a dis- tinctly agricultural atmosphere and a farming environment. Instances of this type are: Minnesota Agricultural School, St. Anthony Park; the secondary agricultural courses at Guelph, Ont., and Storrs, Conn.; and Smith’s Agricultural School, Northampton, Mass. (2) Minimum Standards. — Present experience seems to show that schools designed to give vocational education must meet certain minimum requirements in order to do effective work. The following may be given as examples of such re- quirements for the separate agricultural schools: — A. Location and Plant.—a. Accessibility.— The eco- nomic operation of a separate agricultural school and its use- fulness to the State depend upon a considerable enrollment of students. Experience demonstrates that an attendance of less than 100 means either an excessive per capita cost or inferior teaching. The spot selected for it, therefore, should be easily reached from a considerable farming area. 22 b. Acreage and Variety of Soil. — The land should be typi- cal of the surrounding region, and permit of demonstration of the best methods of farming for that section of the State. If not a special school, devoted, for example, to market gardening, it should have a sufficient acreage and variety of land for land- scape gardening, forestry and general farm tillage, as well as for gardening and nursery plots. c. Buildings. — The buildings should be especially designed and grouped for the peculiar work of the school. Such build- ings as barns and poultry houses should be of the kind any farmer with a moderate amount of capital would wish to erect as parts of a convenient, sanitary and practical plant. d. Live Stock. —- Quarters for all kinds of live stock suited to the locality should be provided. The school might, or might not, own the live stock dealt with in class demonstrations. The best obtainable specimens of the breeds studied should be seen and handled, and proper accommodations for keeping them should make it easy to borrow or hire the animals when needed. When not filled with live stock, these quarters would still be on view as models of their several kinds for housing and car- ing for the various types of farm animals. e. Other Equipment. — The equipment should be moder: and varied, but every piece should be applicable to some proj- ect in practical farming. Submitted to the test of practical farming, much, for example, of the equipment usually found in high school science laboratories would be omitted and other equipment would be selected. A museum for collecting out-oi- date farm implements and machines would serve a most ex- cellent informational purpose; but the main object should be to provide the best models of implements and machines for pres- ent economic use. B. Support and Contrel. — The cost of such schools is large, generally too large to be provided by a single community. In good schools the initial cost of the plant, including adequate land, buildings and equipment, and of providing for from 100 to 150 students, has been from $40,000 upward. The annual mainte- nance cost has varied from $8,000 upward. In some eases the cost has been less than, in others it has considerably exceeded, the figures here named for both plant and maintenance. 23 a. Local Support. — The school should be established and equipped by the local community, by a town or city, or by a group of towns or cities, or towns and cities formed into a dis- trict. This should insure economy of construction and adapta- tion to local needs. The local community should provide, also, ° one-half the cost of maintenance. b. State Support. — One-half the maintenance cost of these schools should, in accordance with present statutory provisions, be borne by the State. In consideration of State support, the school should be subject to supervision and approval by the Board of Education as to organization, control, location, equip- ment, courses of study, qualifications of teachers, methods of instruction, conditions of admission and employment of pupils and expenditures of money. CO. Conditions of Admission and Promotion. — All applicants for admission above fourteen years of age should be received, provided, after a brief. probationary period, they proved able to profit by the instruction. Advancement from subject to subject or from class to class in farming subjects should be dependent solely upon the proficiency of the pupil in such subjects, and not upon his standing in Eng- lish, history or other similar studies. Upon withdrawal from the school, whether upon graduation or earlier in the course, every student should be given a certificate containing a statement of the work which he had satisfactorily completed. D. Teaching Staff. —a. Vocational Spirit. — The teaching staff must be in complete sympathy with the vocational purpose the school is designed to serve. The instructors should be chosen from those who have found, or who intend to find, their hfe work in this field of education. b. Fitness. — Aptitude for teaching fourteen to eighteen year old boys of exceedingly practical interests and tendencies is indis- pensable. One may succeed as a teacher of men, and fail as a teacher of boys. One may succeed in a cultural school with book subjects, yet utterly fail in teaching practical subjects in a vocational school. To natural aptitude must also be added spe- cial training in the science and in the practice of different kinds of farming. c. Originality and Resourcefulness. — In devising and lead- . 24 ing the students to work out definite farming activities, the teachers must be able to bring to bear in new and largely untried ways knowledge of the general field of agricultural science and practice. Having selected things to be done, it must rest with the teaching staff to find help for doing these things, — in related portions of mathematics, chemistry, physical science, biology and economics. d. Co-operation. — One teacher must help another. Unity of effort is no less important than is unity of spirit. All eyes must first be fixed on the things to be done; then, towards doing those things in the most intelligent and skillful manner, each member of the staff should contribute his particular part. EH. Course of Preparation for General Farming. — Courses should be provided for boys and girls. The girls should be trained in all household arts and affairs. They should also be allowed, if not required, to take training in such subjects as gardening, poultry raising, bee-keeping and ornamental planting. Here, however, only the agricultural course as designed for the boys is discussed. a. Length of Course. ing at fourteen should be provided. Each year, however, should A four-years course for boys enter- be complete in itself. This would permit of withdrawal with profit at the end of any year. It would permit, also, of admit- ting for a year, or for two years, an older student who could not eive longer time to the work. b. Length of Session.— The year should begin not earlier than the middle of September, and close not later than the mid- dle of June. This would make possible a school year of thirty- six weeks, or a school year of some fifty weeks, under a co-opera- tive home and school plan. The period of each school day de- voted to the school study and activities should probably not ex- eeed six hours as a maximum. The time before and after the daily school session and on Saturdays would afford proper opportunity for day-to-day work at home, where continuity of effort, as in the care and handling of live stock, is a necessity. F. Principles to be observed in Methods of Instruction. — a. Interest. — The essential minimum of the study of books should be combined with the maximum attention to practical work. ‘Things themselves should be handled, studied and rea- 29 soned about; operations, many in number and of an extremely practical nature, should be performed. General rules, statements or ideas may follow fresh handling of concrete detail, — they should seldom precede it. b. Responsibility. — Active relationship to real life, and per- sistent participation in farming affairs while the student is yet in school, should be fundamental aims. Methods should be devel- oped, therefore, which involve student ownership and home co- operation. G. Gradation of Farming Actiwities or Projects. —a. Pirst- year projects.! — The first year should deal mainly with proj- ects which involve an elementary knowledge of soils and plant life, together with the mathematics related thereto. Kitchen garden vegetables and flowering plants should be grown. b. Second-year Projects. — Certain second-year projects should involve extensive experimental study of agricultural botany; others should involve the scientific principles and the mathematics necessary for successful work in handling the smaller farm animals, such as poultry, pigs and bees. c. Third-year Projects. — Fruit-growing and market-garden- ing projects should receive chief attention in the third year. The first principles of agricultural chemistry and the manipu- lation of the laboratory apparatus required for their elucida- tion should be mastered. Some attention should be given to the mathematies required for field surveys, for business transac- tions and for figuring the cost of producing and marketing the crops under consideration. A careful study should be made of the pumps, engines and other mechanical devices necessary for spraying, d. Fourth-year Projects. — The major projects of the fourth year should deal with animal husbandry, including dairying. There should be one term of advanced agricultural chemistry. Here the greatest maturity in age and mental grasp have been attained. The largest money values are here involved, and the most difficult problems of land fertility, rotation of crops, ra- tions, breeding and animal diseases are here to be finally dealt with. Farm management, law of contracts and farm accounts should be studied. 1 The word “ project,’’ as here used, is defined in chapter V. 26 e. Possible Modifications. — It is believed that the above gradation of projects by years would be found a good outline for the development of courses of study suited to local needs. It would afford much flexibility as to details of schedules and in- struction. At the same time it is recognized that other outlines worthy of approval may grow from year to year out of the work of the separate agricultural schools. HH. Good Citizenship. — Along with the major farming in- terests of these four years there should be developed the inter- ests and powers of good citizenship, through reading, discus- sion of current events, and the clear and logical expression of ideas in writing and public address. I. Home Residence and Work.—a. Home Influence. — Students should reside at home. The age of the students makes this desirable, if not imperative. b. Home Haperimentation. — Residence at home should vastly multiply the benefits of the school. There would be op- portunity for the orderly but immediate trying out of new ideas and methods, where otherwise habits of postponement would be formed. From day to day the teachings of the school should be subjected, on a modest scale at least, to the practical tests of the home farm conditions of every student. In no other way can the maximum value of such a school be realized. c. Home Credit. — Home work should be provided for in the system of marking, and full credit for it should be given towards graduation. For promoting a keen spirit of emulation, eatherings of pupils, parents and others should be held at the best farms, or where the teachings of the school are best ex- emplhfied. Prizes for excellence in home work should be awarded. J. School Supervision. — Wome work should not only be advised or suggested, it should also be actively supervised from month to month. At least one instructor should be employed for this purpose throughout the growing and harvesting seasons. Ik. Student Ownership. —a. At the School. — All flower and vegetable gardening products of the student plots at the school should be the property of the students, provided the plots be regularly and properly cared for throughout the sum- 20 mer. The plots should be of such size that about one-half day a week during the summer would suffice for their cultivation. Experience has shown that plots of this size yield crops of sufti- cient value to repay the students for their work. Here school control should be absolute. b. At Home. — Parents should give the students at least modest property rights at home, and exact proportionate re- sponsibility and industry. Part of the garden might be given or rented the first year; a pen of poultry, a pen of pigs and a hive of bees, the second; part of the orchard, the third; and a cow, the fourth. Accurate account of outgo and income should be kept in all cases. No better test of the practicability of the teachings of the school could be made. Though school control is likely to be more or less modified by home control, good results should still be had by proper choice of projects and harmonizing of inter- ests, L. School Operations and Products. —a. School operations should be primarily for educational purposes. A bad method may be followed, and beside it an approved method; the profit of one may, or may not, offset the loss of the other. Both to- gether make a perfect demonstration for purposes of instruction. The results of such demonstrations should be followed and observed at proper intervals by the students. They should be required to report at the school on the call of the instructor for noting the demonstration work of the school in connection with the instruction they have severally received. b. School Products. — Apart from the products of the first- year gardening work, all products of the school farm should be disposed of for the benefit of the school. The operations of the school departments should be under the direct control of the in- structors who teach the subjects the departments represent. Accurate profit and loss accounts for each department should be kept. M. The Special School.— A separate agricultural school might be either general or special in character. If general, such a school would undertake, usually by a four-years course of training, to fit its pupils for at least the general lines of farm 28 production practiced in the surrounding territory. If special, a separate agricultural school might limit the length of its course to one or two years, and confine its instruction to a single specialized line of production, such as market gardening. Such a special school might receive students after they had spent two or more years in an agricultural school devoted to preparation for general farming; and it might also admit older students without previous preparation in a general school, if they were able to profit from the training offered. N. More Advanced Education. — If on graduation a student should desire to enter the Agricultural College, one or two years of further study at his local high school should enable him to meet the conventional college entrance requirements. He might have to enter conditioned in one year of French or German; but a condition in such a subject could be easily removed, since credit should be given for his extensive agricultural training. (3) General Observations. — That a thoroughly vocational education in agriculture can be given in the separate agricul- tural school, where properly equipped, has been sufficiently demonstrated by experience to be beyond the range of uwncer- tainty. As noted before, however, such a school in this State should be so situated as to be easily accessible to 100 or more pupils; its plant would be expensive and its maintenance cost by no means small. The separate agricultural school, as herein discussed, might be a local school, readily accessible to a considerable farming population, whose pupils lived at home and secured a part of their practical training through the directed performance of their duties on the home place; or it might be a boarding school for pupils gathered from a considerable area. Such a local school is impracticable in agricultural areas inter- sected by mountains and pasture lands, where but a compara- tively small number of suitable pupils are within daily travelling distance of a central point. Many communities of this type exist in Massachusetts. Many towns or groups of towns, so situated, are able to main- tain only moderate-sized high schools, and have within easy reach only a limited number of students. The taxable valuation 29 of these small centers of population would forbid the existence of so expensive an institution as the separate agricultural school. In a system of agricultural education designed to meet the needs of the youth of the entire Commonwealth, it would prob- ably be necessary to provide either the boarding school of agri- culture or the agricultural department in the public high school, for the training of the young people of the isolated communities. The boarding school of agriculture is worthy of considera- tion, because of the attention which it has received in other States. It does not, however, seem necessary to adopt it under the conditions which prevail in a compact State ike Massachu- setts, where distances are so short and transportation facilities are so good. Rather it is believed that here the separate local agricultural school (without the boarding feature) should serve the needs of thickly settled farming districts; and that the agri- cultural department in the rural high school, as described in the closing part of this chapter, should, instead of the boarding school, train for effective farming those who live in the more sparsely populated farming communities. 2, Separate AGRIcuLTURAL DEPARTMENT. (1) General Observations. — In preparing this report, a care- ful analysis has been made of the conditions of the smaller com- munities as related to the necessary conditions of vocational education in agriculture, with the result that a type of school found developed to some extent in Canada suggests itself as being the most feasible means of meeting Massachusetts re- quirements. This has been styled the agricultural department of an existing high school, and contemplates the building up within an ordinary high school of a vocational department, corresponding to the vocational departments in commercial studies found in some village high schools. From facts and conditions adduced below, it is believed that in some localities in Massachusetts, under very careful super- vision, such agricultural departments would be possible, and could, if rightly administered, give genuine vocational training in agriculture. The ‘ part-time work,’ or school and home- farm co-operative method, discussed in chapter V. of this report, 30 would, it is believed, make such departments vocationally effec- tive as preparatory courses for productive farming in this Com- monwealth, (2) Definition and Present Attempts. — Vocational agricul- tural education as a separate department in a high school should be as distinctive in its object and atmosphere as is the separate agricultural school. Such a department would best be estab- lished in a secondary school which had a farming environment and an abundance of readily accessible illustrative material, in varieties of farm land, equipment, operations and products. There are fourteen departments somewhat of this type in the Provinee of Ontario: six established in 1906, two in 1908, three in 1909 and three in 1910. It is intended to develop this work until every county in that province has been covered. Work of like nature is now being given its first year of trial by the Friends’ Bloomingdale Academy, Bloomingdale, Parke County, Indiana. The practical courses in farm management established by the Agricultural Guild of the University of Chicago, in 1908, utilize for practical experience farm equip- ment privately owned and land operated for economic purposes, as distinguished from land and equipment provided and main- tained by endowment or puble funds. (3) Minimum Standards. — The agricultural department must maintain minimum standards of similar character to those fixed for the separate agricultural school. An outline is here given of vital factors for the suecess of such a depart- ments A. Instructor. — There should be at least one specialist for instruction in agriculture. This teacher should be a man, should preferably have been brought up on a farm, and should, where practicable, be a graduate of an agricultural college. In short, he should be, first of all, practical, a man interested in farming and capable in farm work and management. His time and attention should be devoted exclusively to farm- ing subjects. THis service should be rendered throughout the erowing and harvesting seasons, in part as supervisor of school projects at the homes of the students, in part as teacher of agriculture at the school. He might also, if requested to do so. act as advisor among farmers in the vicinity of the school. 31 B. School Quarters and Equipment. — a. Class Room. — A class room should be given this instructor for his exclusive use. This should be on the ground floor, or in a high, well-hghted basement, and should be such as to permit of in-door demon- strations of farm animals, implements and machines. It might, or might not, be in the high school building. b. Equipment and Appurtenances. — His equipment should at least include a Babcock testing outfit, seed-corn germinators, special agricultural physics apparatus, individual sets of gar- dening tools, hot beds and cold frames. Greenhouse space, though not more than a 6-foot by 380-foot lean-to, heated from the regular school-heating plant, would be an advantage; as would, also, be an acre of land for garden, nursery and demon- stration plots. c. Headquarters for the Instructor. — An office should be provided. This should be large enough for a library and read- ing room, and fitted up for such use. There should be furnished in this room as complete a file as possible of books, bulletins and periodicals on farming specialties. C. Home Equipment and Co-operation. — Practically all the materials, implements and animals required for demonstra- tions should be brought to the school by the students, or should be examined on thrifty farms not too far distant. Everything examined would thus be part and parcel of actual farming out- fits: each implement, animal and building would represent some farmer’s judgment and money. The school would at every point be dealing with definite economic propositions. D. Conditions of Admission and Promotion. — Boys above fourteen years of age should be admitted to the work of the agricultural department of the high school when, upon trial, they show themselves able to profit by the training, even though they have not satisfactorily completed all the work of the ele- mentary school. Girls of the same age might attend certain classes. It would be necessary, as is pointed out at another place, for those pursuing the work of the agricultural department as an elective course to take all studies save the art and science of agriculture in the regular high school classes. No student should be prevented from attending the agricultural classes or 32 be deprived of promotion in them by: inability to take high rank in other subjects. HH. Course of Study. — The agricultural department in the school should offer training in the practice and the science of agriculture. The course in agriculture should be elective to the regular pupils of the high school, and, as before said, should be open to those above fourteen who intend to be farmers, even though they might not be able to pursue successfully certain other branches of study offered by the school. Regular pupils pursuing the course in farming should be permitted to substitute satis- factory work therein for the requirements of the school in such cultural subjects as Latin or German, or for certain courses in physics, chemistry and biology. In this way it would be possible and advisable that regular pupils, pursuing, as a legitimate part of their study, the course in agriculture, should at the close of a four years course gradu- ate with their fellows, and receive a certificate or diploma setting forth the work which they had satisfactorily performed. The school course should permit of continuous work at home, morning, evening and on Saturday, as in the separate agricul- tural school. a. Dominant Motive. — As in the separate school, the atmos- phere and the dominant object in the agricultural department should be agricultural and vocational. Much of this atmosphere might with profit be extended to other departments of the school. Contact with farming objects and activities would vital- ize the instruction in the regular courses in science and in manual arts. b. Grouping Studies and Students. — By putting first and second year students together in one class, and third and fourth together in another, each student would be given double the amount of distinctively agricultural training by the instructor which would be possible were the students handled in four divi- sions instead of in two. By the same means the efficiency and enthusiasm of the teacher would be multiplied. In alternate years the energy and attention of all could be concentrated now on animal husbandry and then on horticultural subjects, or vice versa. do c. Winter School at the Agricultural College. — Moreover, the regulations should permit a student who could meet the age requirement to take winter short courses, at least during his third and fourth years, at the Agricultural College, with no prejudice to graduation with his class; that is to say, credit for a short course at the college should be accepted as meeting in full the winter-term demands of any year at the school. d. Schedules of the Instructor and Students. —'The program should schedule the instructor for from sixteen to twenty periods a week during the fall and spring terms, and allow the winter term for his vacation. The instructor, in close connection with his class instruction, should be scheduled for inspection and ad- visory work at the homes of the students and among other farms throughout the summer. e. Transfer of Students to a Special School. — Should a spe- cial school for such training as market gardening be established, with a one-year or a two-years course, a student desiring the special training of such a school might be transferred to it at the close of the second or third year of the general farming course of the agricultural department of an existing high school. F, Support and Control. —a. State Support. — The salary of instructors for such departments would probably vary from $1,000 to $1,500 a year, and should be paid in part by the State, as elsewhere proposed in this report. (See Appendix, page 100.) b. Local Support. — Quarters and equipment, and the neces- sary adjustments of curriculum for providing a well-balanced course of study, inclusive of the agricultural subjects, should be furnished by the local authorities. If the local school possessed wood-working, forging and drawing equipment, correlation of the manual arts work with farming would add decided value to the work of the agricultural department. The local authorities should also pay one-third of the instructor’s salary. c. Local Committee. — This department might be visited by a special local committee interested in practical farming, and the advice of such a committee might be sought in developing this branch of the work of the school. d. State Supervision and Approval. — All matters relating to organization, control, location, equipment, courses of study, o4 qualifications of teachers, methods of instruction, conditions of admission and employment of pupils and expenditures of money, while immediately in charge of the local school authorities, should be subject to supervision and approval by the Board of Education. G. More Advanced Training. — A student who had decided to go to college should find the same opportunities open for preparing himself for college entrance as does the student in the separate agricultural school. An unusually capable boy might carry a course in mathematics or a foreign language in the reg- ular classes of the school while taking his agricultural course. On completion of his agricultural course, one additional year of study would perhaps suffice for completing his college pre- paratory work. Up to this point this report has discussed the farming sit- uation in Massachusetts that seems to justify a system of agricultural education for the Commonwealth, the types of vo- eational schools in agriculture that seem to be advisable for such a system, and the standards which should be insisted upon in order to make their work effective. oo Or IV. CO-OPERATION BETWEEN SCHOOL AND HOME FARM NECESSARY TO AN EFFECTIVE SYSTEM OF AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS FOR MASSACHUSETTS. The previous chapter discussed the separate agricultural school and the agricultural department in a high school as desirable types of vocational school education in agriculture for Massachusetts. It is the purpose of the present chapter to point out why co-operation between the school and the home farm is necessary, in order to make the work of such schools effective. Vocational education is education that has for its controlling purpose the fitting of persons of either sex for definite callings or pursuits. Vocational schools of every type are coming to a recognition of the fact that practice and thinking about the practice, practical and technical training must go hand in hand in effective vocational education. The reason is not far to seek. Most people learn better by seeing and by doing, than from books. The experience of a con- siderable portion of the pupils in industrial and agricultural schools proves conclusively that many persons who have been unable to master principles and theories as taught by the or- dinary method of the book, have large power of mastering prin- ciples when these are approached through the background of their daily employment; and that, best of all, they possess large capacity to retain and apply knowledge so taught and so com- prehended. Practice and thinking about the practice constitute the key to the situation. Industrial and trade schools are securing the needed practice for their pupils to-day, either through school shops which they are endeavoring to make economically pro- ductive, or through the actual wage-earning occupations of the pupils. Thinking about the practice is secured by a prop- erly selected and adjusted course of closely related studies 36 at the school in which part of their time is spent. The shop provides in illustrations and practical work the raw materials ; the school, the finished educational product. Farm Boys may be favorably placed, but require Concurrent Practice and thinking about that Practice. — Boys and girls who expect to follow farming for a living probably are not ex- ceptions to the general rule. Vocationally effective education for them, also, must involve an intimate relationship between practical and technical training. Related Study at the School.— The question now arises, Where is the boy to secure correct experience in farming? It will not be difficult for the school to give related scientific knowl- edge, provided the pupil brings to it a background of experi- ence in agricultural activities that enables him to assimilate it, and provided he is able, through his practice on a farm of some type, to fix the principles and theories gained in the school room. Previous Farm Practice not Sufficient. — It seems to be clear that the pupils of an agricultural school do not, as a rule, bring to their studies about agriculture a body of previous farm ex- perience which the school can utilize in giving a working mas- tery of the principles and theories that lie back of the best practice. The greater number come from farm homes where they may, or may not, have been fortunate enough to receive directed practice in scientific agriculture. There is at least a slight movement from city to country. It may be expected that a small portion of the enrollment in agricultural schools of secondary grade will consist of city and village boys who have had no training in the routine of the farm. In order that such boys may bring to their training something like the same ad- vantages possessed by the country-bred pupil, they should, if possible, previous to entering the school have spent at least one year on a farm. While this discussion is primarily con- cerned with the country-bred boy, it is, in the principles it lays down, equally or even more forcibly applicable to the city or village boy who has farming aspirations. The previous farm experience of the country-bred boy may have been directed by a farmer who has been too hard pressed 37 by his own farm routine to reflect on his own practice in agri- culture, or to direct the work of his son so that it might be most educative from the vocational point of view. It is significant that many of those who are most desirous that their sons shall receive agricultural education through the instruction and direction of the school are among the most intelligent and prosperous farmers in the Commonwealth. They clearly see, for the reasons given in chapter VII., that’ even the best farmers cannot expect to be the best schoolmasters in this line of training. The condition of Massachusetts farming in general is not satisfactory to the leaders of agriculture nor to the community at large. This means that most farm boys, so far as they bring farm experience to the school, are more likely to have been brought up to use bad or indifferent methods than to use the best. Moreover, the boy of fourteen as a rule has been too young to have been able to reflect seriously or extensively on the problems connected with the agricultural activities which he has observed or in which he has had a part. It is possible, even in the absence of closely related practice, to give much effective vocational training in the sciences related to different farming operations to those of mature mind who have had experience in them. ) 12 2 a | > ed wt ~~ 10 LL. 12 HR 14 eo 16 LF 102 board of trustees for vocational edueation, establish and maintain independent industrial, agricultural or household arts schools. Such district board of trustees may consist of the chairman and two other members of the school committee of each of such cities and towns, to be appointed for the purpose by each of the respective school com- mittees thereof; or any such city or town may elect three resi- dents thereof to serve as its representatives on such district board of trustees. 2. Such a district board of trustees for vocational education may adopt for a period of ene year or more a plan of organization, administration and support for such schools. Such a plan, if ap- proved by the board of education, shall constitute a binding contract between the cities or towns which are, through the action of their respective representatives on such a district board of trustees, made parties thereto, and shall not be altered or annulled except by vote of two-thirds of the entire district board of trustees and the consent of the board of education to such alteration or annulment. Section 6. Loeal and district boards of trustees for vocational edueation, administering approved industrial, agricultural or house- hold arts schools, shall, under a scheme to be approved by the board of education, appoint an advisory committee composed of members representing local trades, industries and occupations. It shall be the duty of such advisory committees to counsel with and advise such loeal or district boards of trustees and other school officials having the management and supervision of such schools. NON-RESIDENT PUPILS. Section 7. 1. Any resident of any city or town in Massachusetts which does not maintain an approved independent industrial, agri- cultural or household arts school, offering the type of training which he desires, may make application for admission to such a school maintained by another city or town. The board of education, whose decision shall be final, may approve or disapprove such application. In making such a decision the board of edueation shall take into consideration: the opportunities for free vocational training in the community in which the applicant resides; the financial status of the community; the age, sex, preparation, aptitude and previous record of the applicant; and all other relevant circumstances. 2. The city or town in which the child resides, whose application for admission to an approved independent industrial, agricultural or household arts school maintained by another city or town has been approved, shall pay such tuition fee as may be fixed by the board of education; and the commonwealth shall reimburse such a city or town, as provided for in this act. If any city or town neglects or 18 19 20 OSOoOnanrk wn e oOoOMON CO OK WwW PH 10 fo wo Ww bh bw bl BwD re © On Bw do 105 refuses to pay for such tuition, it shall be liable therefor in an action of contract to the city or town, or cities and towns, maintaining the school which the pupil, with the approval of the said board, attended. REIMBURSEMENT. Section 8. Independent industrial, agricultural and household arts schools shall, as long as they are approved by the board of education as to organization, control, location, equipment, courses of study, qualifications of teachers, methods of instruction, conditions of admission, employment of pupils and expenditures of money, constitute approved local or district independent vocational schools. Cities and towns maintaining such approved local or district inde- pendent vocational schools shall receive reimbursement as provided for in sections nine and ten of this act. Section 9. 1. The commonwealth, in order to aid in the mainte- nance of approved local or district independent industrial and house- hold arts schools and of independent agricultural schools consisting of other than agricultural departments in high schools, shall, as pro- vided for in this act, pay annually from the treasury to cities and. towns maintaining such schools an amount equal to one-half the sum to be known as the net maintenance sum. Such net maintenance sum shall consist of the total sum raised by local taxation and expended for the maintenance of such a school, less the amount, for the same period, of tuition claims, paid or unpaid, and receipts from the work of pupils or the sale of products. 2. Cities and towns maintaining approved local or district inde- pendent agricultural schools consisting only of agricultural depart- ments in high schools shall be reimbursed by the commonwealth, as provided for in this act, only to the extent of two-thirds of the salary paid to the instructors in such agricultural departments: pro- ’ vided, that the total amount of money expended by the common- wealth in the reimbursement of such cities and towns for the salaries of such instructors for any given year shall not exceed ten thousand dollars. 3. Cities and towns that have paid claims for tuition in approved local or district independent vocational schools shall be reimbursed by the commonwealth, as provided for in this act, to the extent of one-half the sum expended by such cities and towns in payment of such claims. SECTION 10. On or before the first Wednesday of January of each year the board of education shall present to the legislature a state- ment of the amount expended previous to the preceding first day of December by cities and towns in the maintenance of approved aAanN ae oO ON ys CO! DD Ca “I SD eri ao © LEN ‘II 104 local or district independent vocational schools, or in payment of claims for tuition in such schools, for which such cities and towns should receive reimbursement, as provided for in this act. On the basis of such a statement the legislature may make an appropriation for the reimbursement of such cities and towns up to such first day of December. ACTS AND PARTS OF ACTS REPEALED. , Srcrion 11. 1. Sections one to six inelusive of chapter five hun- dred and five of the acts of nineteen hundred and six, sections one to four inclusive of chapter five hundred and seventy-two of the acts of nineteen hundred and eight, chapter five hundred and forty of the acts of nineteen hundred and nine, and all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith, are hereby repealed. 2. Schools, heretofore established under the acts and parts of acts repealed by this section, and approved by the board of edueation, shall continue in operation subject to the provisions of this act for such schools. — THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS a a REPORT OF THE BOARD OF — EDUCATION ON AGRI. CULTURAL EDUCATION Submitted to the Legislature of Massachusetts of 1911, in accordance with Chapters 108 and 133, Resolves of 1910 ~ yen. ca way at, Ue! Lites < 1 ~~. mo :} tay gery eae a Ve ee re Paget “1 SP As Pigp? Tae Pe av nel are anes 0 HUAN