Barbara Mandrell sings a song titled "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool." Back in 1917 many agricultural teachers could have sung a modified version of that song, "I Was An Agriculture Teacher Before Smith-Hughes." Many people believe the teaching of agriculture was started with the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. The fact is, the teaching of agriculture was well established before the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act. In the 1914-15 school year, a couple of years before the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act, agriculture was taught in 4,390 secondary schools to 85,573 secondary students (U.S. Commissioner of Education, 1916). This article describes the development of agricultural education before the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act.

When the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, they knew little about the Massachusetts soil or crops. Squanto, the Indian, knew both and came to the aid of the Pilgrims by teaching them how to plant corn and fertilize the crop. He told the Pilgrims, "In these old grounds corne without fish" would "come to nothing." He also taught them when, where, and how to get the fish (Stimson and Lathrop, 1942, p. 178). One could claim that this was the beginning of the teaching of agriculture in America.

To identify when agriculture was first taught in a more systematic, scientific fashion, one would look to Georgia. Before sailing for the new world, James Ogelthorpe planned a definite system of agricultural education for the colonists. The plan provided for:

1. Using the agricultural practices of the Indians who inhabited Georgia.

 
2. Establishing an experimental farm for trying out new crops and discovering effective cultural methods.
3. Providing special instructors and training in agriculture for all the colonists.

The first agriculture to be taught in a school setting occurred in 1734 in Georgia. The Salzburgers established an orphan's school near Savannah where agriculture was taught. This was followed by another orphan's school in 1738 at Savannah that ". . . taught pupils to work so as to be able to earn their own living from farming" (Wheeler, 1948, p. 12). Most of the agriculture teaching in schools during the remainder of the 1700s and early 1800s was primarily in schools for orphans or in missionary schools.

During the latter part of the 1700s, agricultural societies were established in many states, the first two being in Philadelphia and South Carolina in 1785. The societies promoted the study of agriculture through a variety of activities such as discussions, experiments and publications (Ellsworth, 1968). In the early part of the 1800s, the teaching of agriculture emerged in a number of private schools. The Gardiner Lyceum, a school devoted exclusively to agriculture, was established in Maine in 1821. Agriculture was also taught at the Rensellaer School in New York which was established in 1824 (True, 1928).

Agricultural instruction in private schools and through agricultural societies flourished during the first half of the 19th century but declined during the War Between the States.

The Morrill Act of 1862 provided for the establishment of one college in each state where agriculture, along with other subjects, was to be taught. While the long term effects of this legislation were beneficial to agricultural education, the short term effect was not. Hamlin (1949, p. 418) observed that, "Those interested in agricultural education centered their attention for many years before and after 1862 upon getting state institutions for agricultural education established and functioning, and attention to agricultural education in the secondary schools languished." After the passage of the Morrill Act many people were of the opinion that there was no need for instruction in agriculture in the public schools because any student who wanted to learn agriculture would go to the land grant college.

Not much interest was shown in agricultural education at the secondary level until after the passage of the Hatch Act in 1887. The purpose of the Hatch Act was ". . . to aid in acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture and to promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting the principles and application of agricultural science." Most people think the Hatch Act only established agricultural experiment stations; that is partially correct. The agricultural education aspect of the Act, the diffusion of useful and practical information, was taken seriously by the early agricultural leaders.

During the 1890s the Office of Experiment Stations in the U.S. Department of Agriculture started an active campaign in different parts of the country to promote agriculture in the public schools. The Director of the Office of Experiment Stations, A.C. True, advocated the establishment of courses in agriculture in schools near the farmer's home. In the Yearbook of Agriculture for 1901 (p. 135), True urged the farmers to ". . . take an active part in this movement (educational reform), impress upon the schoolmen their (the farmers) real education needs, and help to adjust the public schools to the advancing requirements of agriculture."

In 1901, Dick Crosby was added to the staff of the Office of Experiment Stations as a special assistant to the director in work related to agricultural education. For the next decade Crosby, True, and the Office of Experiment Stations were the banner carriers for the agricultural education movement. They were instrumental in getting the NEA to support agricultural education. Reports on the status of agricultural education were published, bulletins designed to help teachers with subject matter were developed, lantern slide series were prepared, presentations were made, and a model curriculum was developed. Nearly every issue of the USDA Yearbook of Agriculture from 1901 to 1913 contained an article by either Crosby or True describing the current work in agricultural education and advocating even more effort. Farmers were urged to ally themselves with their counterparts in the cities who were promoting industrial education.

The efforts of True and Crosby, the farmers, and others interested in agricultural education bore fruit. In the 30 year period between 1887 and 1917, the growth of agricultural education could be described as phenomenal.

In some states special agricultural schools of less than college grade were established on the campus of land grant colleges. In 1888, after widespread dissatisfaction with the teaching of agriculture at the University of Minnesota, a school of less than college grade was established on the grounds of the agricultural experiment station. The school was very successful. This type of school was soon found in other states. In 1915-1916, the Bureau of Education listed 24 land grant institutions as maintaining secondary schools or secondary courses of agriculture covering from one to four years.

The secondary agricultural schools associated with land grant colleges were well received but did not meet the educational needs of the population since there was generally only one secondary agricultural school in each state. Because of this, special agricultural schools were established in some states in each congressional district Alabama [1889], Georgia [1907], Virginia [1908]; state supreme court judicial districts (Oklahoma [1908]); or in some type of county or district scheme (Wisconsin [1901, 1909], Michigan [1907], Mississippi [1908], Arkansas [1909], North Dakota [1911], and Massachusetts [1913]). These schools often had dormitories to board the students and operate school farms.

Around the turn of the century, agriculture was also taught in normal schools. Normal schools were institutions designed to train teachers (normal is derived from a French word meaning model). Normal schools were generally state, county, or city supported. The curriculum was two years in length and consisted of a review of the subjects taught in common schools plus some courses in teaching. The students typically were common school graduates (8th grade) with some having a high school education. To prepare the teachers to teach agriculture, courses in agriculture were implemented in a number of these schools. Agriculture was being taught in 124 public normal schools by 1915-16.

The greatest growth in the teaching of agriculture prior to the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act occurred in the public schools of the various states. The forerunner of agricultural education was nature study and school gardens, primarily in the elementary schools. A leader in the nature study movement was Liberty Hyde Bailey of Cornell, who in 1896, prepared a bulletin titled How a Squash Plant Gets Out of the Soil. A number of bulletins on various aspects of nature study followed during the late 1890s and early 1900s (True, 1928). Elementary school teachers made extensive use of the nature study bulletins and often formed junior naturalist clubs. In most of the nature study materials there was a distinct agricultural flavor.

Along with nature study, the school gardening movement provided impetus for the study of agriculture. Beginning around 1900 school gardens were planted to both beautify the school grounds and to be used for teaching purposes at the elementary level. By 1903 the school garden movement was well established in 21 states (Crosby, 1903).

The nature study movement and the school garden movement evolved into the teaching of agriculture in the elementary schools. However, because of the inadequate knowledge of agriculture on the part of most elementary school teachers and the crowded elementary school curriculum, it was realized that the teaching of agriculture should be in the high school.

The growth of agricultural education in high schools started in about 1906. Individual states started passing laws requiring the teaching of agriculture in the high schools. Federal legislation was passed in 1907 (Nelson Amendment) that allowed land grant colleges to use federal funds ". . . for providing courses for the special preparation of instructors for teaching the elements of agriculture . . ." Starting in about 1908 the number of high schools teaching agriculture started rising rapidly. Between 1908 and 1910 the number of schools doubled, between 1910 and 1912 the number of schools tripled. In 1912, Crosby (p. 471) wrote, "More than 2,000 public high schools in the United States are now teaching agriculture; 16 years ago there was not one." In 1912 agriculture was being taught in 335 high schools in Ohio, 191 schools in Nebraska, 167 schools in Missouri, 132 schools in Kansas, 118 schools in Wisconsin, and 85 schools in Pennsylvania (Crosby, 1913). The teaching of agriculture in the high schools continued to grow prior to the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act. The passage of the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917 could be regarded as more of an "AMEN" to the teaching of agriculture than the start of it.

Prior to 1917 agriculture was being taught in every state of the Union as many of the states had passed laws providing for the teaching of agriculture in public schools (Ekstrom, 1969). However, it should be noted, that the agriculture being taught was more general than vocational and there was great variation in the quality of the agriculture programs from state to state. The Smith-Hughes Act established strict guidelines for the conduct of agricultural programs thus improving the quality, provided federal funds so more programs could be established, and made the programs more vocational. Although, the Smith-Hughes Act provided for uniformity and the expansion of agriculture, the foundations of agricultural education had already been laid by a group of hard-working people prior to the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act.

Crosby D.J. (1903). Report on school gardens. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations Report, 1903. pp. 573-584.

Crosby, D.J. (1913). Agriculture in public high schools, YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE, 1912. Washington, DC: United States Department of Agriculture.

Ekstrom, G.F. (1969). HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES PRIOR TO 1917. Final Report. U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Ellsworth, L.F. (1968, June). The Philadelphia society for the promotion of agriculture and agricultural reform. AGRICULTURAL HISTORY, 42, 189- 197.

Hamlin, H.M. (1949). AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN COMMUNITY SCHOOLS. Danville, IL: Interstate Printers and Publishers.

REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION - VOL. II (1916). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Stimson, R.W. and Lathrop, F.W. (1942). HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION OF LESS THAN COLLEGE GRADE IN THE UNITED STATES [Vocational Division Bulletin No. 217, Agricultural Series No. 55, U.S. Office of Education]. Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office.

True, A.C. (1902). Some problems of the rural common school, YEARBOOK OF AGRICULTURE, 1901. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

True, A.C. (1928. A HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES,1785-1925 [U.S. Department of Agriculture, Miscellaneous Publication NO. 36]. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

Wheeler, J.T. (1948). TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN GEORGIA. Danville, IL: Interstate Printers and Publishers.