AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XVIII, Issue 4, 21 April 1919, Page 245

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

The matter which follows is extracted from a lecture* given at Melbourne by Mr. A. E. V. Richardson, M.A., B.Sc., Agricultural Superintendent, .Victoria Department of Agriculture, who recently visited America for the purpose of investigating agricultural conditions, &c. He states : —-

The bill, for agricultural education, • research, and extension (in the United States) approximates £12,000,000. . . . What have been the results of the expenditure ? Primary production for the fifteen years prior to the war had been increasing to the value of £90,000,000 annually, and £90,000,000 per annum extra production is a fine dividend to realize on the amount spent for agricultural education.

Let me briefly review the forms of agricultural education. Agricultural education, taken in the broadest sense of the term, may be said to cover all those activities undertaken for the promotion of sound and profitable agriculture of a country. These may be classified as (1) instructional work, (2) investigational work, (3) extension work. By instructional work we mean all the formal teaching of agriculture from the primary schools to the University. The investigational work involves the discovery of new facts and principles . pertaining to agriculture. By publicity or extension work is meant the conveyance and dissemination of agricultural information to those who are unable to take advantage of the formal teaching of the schools and colleges. The three great institutions are (1) the Agricultural College, (2) the Experiment Station, (3) the Federal Department of Agriculture. •

INSTRUCTIONAL WORK. THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

The agricultural colleges were born in the throes of the Civil War—at a time when the very existence of the nation was at stakewhen doubt and pessimism seemed to reign supreme. They have had a chequered career. At first they attracted no students. To-day they are crowded. Forty years of failure and twelve years of dazzling success is the epitome of the history of the colleges. Last year 130,000 students were registered in the fifty-three colleges of agriculture in the United States, and of these 16,000 were undergoing a four-years course for the degree of Agricultural Science. It would take me too long to trace the history of the colleges, but success came when the Federal and State Governments began to invest money liberally in the colleges, and provide them with proper equipment, and high-class specialists as teachers.

Twenty years ago the students came to the colleges fresh from the cornfields, with no prior training. Now, however, they must have a high-school training before they are allowed to enter the colleges. The curriculum has gradually developed in such a way as to secure a unique blend of the vocational and nonvocational in varying proportions, with enough of both to turn out an efficient business man without sacrificing his education as a citizen. The authorities aim at making a good farmer, but they aim, too, at making the student a good citizen as well. Ninety-five per cent, of the students who graduate from the colleges either go on' the land or take up some form of agricultural teaching, investigational work, or extension work. Of those who do not graduate practically all return to the land. In either case failures are almost unknown.

For those who cannot attend the full courses,' short courses extending from two weeks to two months are held, so that they who desire to increase their knowledge of agriculture may do so. These' courses are given by specialists, and thousands of farmers attend them every year. . At Ohio there were over three thousand farmers in attendance at the College of Agriculture at the time of my visit. '

A feature of most American colleges of agriculture is the provision made for the teaching of domestic science and home economics. Within the college is a group of buildings devoted exclusively to the training of young women in domestic

science. In the American view, both men and women should be equally interested in farm life, and if training is necessary for the one it is equally essential for the other. Consequently regular four-year courses of instruction are provided for women, just as courses in agriculture are provided for men. Ninety-five per cent, of the women of America become home-makers sooner or later in their —some of them become home-breakers too ! For that reason, home-making, with all that it implies, forms the principal subject of instruction for women. The object is to teach the principles underlying the proper administration of the household, and to study foods, hygiene, nutrition, dietetics, textiles, clothing, and household management.

. The equipment is usually very complete. Laboratories are fitted with gasstoves, and gas, coal, wood, and electric ranges. Each girl is provided with a kitchenette, where her work in cooking is done. A practice cottage is associated with every course in home economics. This is usually a six-roomed, house, furnished and equipped to accommodate five or six students and an instructor in charge. The furnishings are simple and typical of the average American home. The purpose is to provide an opportunity for students to gain practical experience in managing a household. The students are responsible for the planning, preparation, and serving of the meals, marketing and household accounting, and cleaning and laundering of the household linen. Emphasis is laid on the importance of a proper system of keeping household accounts. Each girl becomes in turn hostess, cook, waitress, maid, and laundress of the cottage. A feature of the course is the efforts made to reduce drudgery in the farm home to a minimum by the use of various types’ of labour-saving devices, and by the wise planning of the kitchen and kitchen equipment.

The number- of students taking courses in home economics range from three hundred to a thousand, according to the size of the college and the number of its rural population. . . . The old idea that anybody can farm and that anybody can cook and manage a home has well-nigh disappeared, and with it the idea that farming means ploughing only, and that the activities of the home are fully represented by the making of hot scones. The schools of home economics have dignified labour by sending forth from their halls not merely cooks, but educated women who, because of their knowledge and skill in the practices and principles of the arts of the home, are able to use them as a means of expression for their best endeavours. ■ ■

The Americans believe that for the young man who takes up farming an agricultural education is especially necessary. He faces more difficult problems than any preceding generation of farmers. He must go on to land many times more valuable than his father first occupied, and at the same time this land has lost much of its fertility. He must fight against more destructive insect and fungus pests and animal diseases than any farmer preceding him. He faces new problems in management and marketing. He must face these problems not only with experience, but with science as his ally and intelligence broadened by the best education.

In addition to the fifty-three colleges, agriculture is being taught in four thousand high schools and one hundred, thousand elementary schools. America began her agricultural instruction in the colleges and universities. When a supply of highly trained teachers of agriculture was available agricultural education was extended to the high schools. Then, when the elementary teachers had received a training in agriculture, the subject was brought into the elementary schools.

INVESTIGATIONAL WORK. THE EXPERIMENTAL STATION

Agricultural investigation and research work is regarded both in the United States and Canada as a necessary and vital part of any system of agricultural education, and must form the basis for framing a sound policy for future agricultural development. The American experiment stations were founded by the Federal Government in response to a desire for aid in solving problems in American agriculture, and to perfect methods of improving agricultural practice. There are sixty of these experiment stations, and the average expenditure on each is per annum.

Some idea of what a single experiment station has accomplished during the last century may be obtained by considering the results obtained at Wisconsin. It is demonstrable that the added wealth of the State of Wisconsin each year, as a result of the activities of the experiment station, is many times the whole appropriation made by Wisconsin for agricultural education. Of the seven tests widely used

in dairying, six originated at the Wisconsin station. The Babcock fat-test, invented in 1890, furnished a simple means of paying for milk on the basis of quality and for detecting fraud. It saved the factory system of buttermaking from ruin. This test permits of a more careful control of factory processes than formerly, thus saving more than half of the fat formerly lost in the skim-milk produced in creamery operations. For Wisconsin alone this amounts annually to a saving of over 1,500,000 lb. of butter. The greatest service of the Babcock fat-test, however, has been in making possible the improvement of dairy cows by eliminating unprofitable animals, and thus giving a scientifically accurate foundation for dairying. The Wisconsin curd-test detects the quality of milk as to taints. The casein-test, invented in 1909, registers the casein-content, which is of importance in determining the proper value of milk for cheesemaking. Many improvements in dairy processes relating to the pasteurization of milk, curing of cheese, have originated at this station. ■ ■

These tests and experiments made at the Wisconsin station, which together form the most important contribution ever made to the science of dairying, and; the work of the Wisconsin Dairy School,, have enabled Wisconsin to gain the first rank among the States of the United States in the production of both cheese and butter. Since the Babcock fat-test was discovered the value of the dairy products of the State has. increased from £4,000,000 to £16,000,000 per annum. It cannot be doubted that a considerable percentage of this increase has been due to the campaign of investigation and education which has been carried on by the University.

One of the greatest possible improvements in agricultural production is through the substitution of improved seed for scrub varieties. Beginning about 1898, efforts were made to develop seeds adapted especially to Wisconsin soil and climatic conditions. New varieties of maize, barley, and oats have been evolved at the station, and have added millions of bushels annually to the yields of Wisconsin fields. . . . Though only two-thirds the size of Victoria, and though the northern half of the State is mostly poor land in need of drainage, Wisconsin, besides producing £16,000,000 worth of dairy-produce, raises 100,000,000 bushels of oats, 70,000,000 bushels of maize, and 25,000,000 bushels of barley.

EXTENSION WORK

The most significant feature in agricultural education in the United States during recent years is the development of . the co-operative extension or publicity service in each State of the Union. The object of the extension work is to disseminate as widely as possible the mass of information which has been accumulated as a result of the investigations of the experiment stations and agricultural colleges.

■. Since the experiment stations were founded there has been gained by patient investigation sufficient exact and detailed knowledge of soils,. crops, and farmanimals to enable the total wealth from agricultural production to be greatly augmented if the information could be widely disseminated and brought home to the last farm and the last farmer. There are many farmers who regularly secure double and treble the yields of their neighbours. A wire fence frequently divides the grower of a 30—40 bushel crop from the grower of a 10-15 bushel crop. To encourage the-many to do what the few are doing is the objective of the extension or publicity work. The .principal forms of extension- are (1) the county agent scheme, (2) home demonstration agents, (3) boys and girls’ clubs. The experience of the last fourteen years has demonstrated fully the value of the county agent as a means of bringing to the people on the farms the results Of experience and scientific investigation. Nearly every one of the three thousand counties of the United States has a county agenta trained agriculturist located in the district works in co-operation with local organizations to advance the agricultural interests and improve agricultural practice in the county.

Yields of Wheat and Oats. — Returns of actual threshings received up to 19th March by the Government Statistician worked.out at an average Dominion yield per acre of 34-22 bushels for wheat and 36-59 for oats in cases where particulars of areas were furnished. The great bulk of the grain threshed to that date was in Canterbury, with averages of 34-37 bushels for wheat and 36-46 bushels for oats.

* Published in the Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria