4. Law on minimum salaries for teachers. No person shall be employed to teach in any public school in Ohio for less than $40 a month. When a school district has not sufficient money to pay its teachers such salaries for eight months of the year, after the board of education of such district has made the maximum legal school levy, three-fourths of which shall be for the tuition fund, then such district may receive from the State treasurer sufficient money to make up the deficiency.

5. Law for State aid to weak school districts appropriates the balance of former appropriations and the sum of $85,000.

6. Law providing that agriculture shall be taught in all the common schools of all village and rural school districts which are supported in whole or in part by the State. It may be taught in city school districts at the option of the board of education. Four district State supervisors of agricultural education are to be appointed by the superintendent of public instruction.

7. Law on standardization of village and rural schools. Instead of examining the pupils for admission to high schools, the elementary rural schools from which they come are to be examined in equipment, courses of study provided with competent and ever-present supervision, and standardized so that the school and the teacher may stand the test as well as the pupil.

To get a clear understanding of how all this was accomplished, it is necessary to know something of the Ohio State school survey which preceded this legislation. The story of this survey is given in the report to the governor of Ohio by the State school survey commission, created by an act which passed the general assembly February 26, 1913, to conduct a survey of the public schools, normal schools, and the agricultural schools of the State. The survey was a cooperative field study conducted by Dr. Horace L. Brittain, of the New York Training School for Public Service. It comprised an intensive study of 659 rural village schools in 88 counties, and an extensive study of 9,000 schoolrooms and 395 school systems. It was participated in by 44 professors in professional schools for the training of teachers and 116 students in these institutions, most of whom had had experience in rural teaching, 395 superintendents of schools and other school men and women, and 9,000 teachers who supplied information for the commission. It was a State-wide revival in school matters, as well as a State-wide scientific survey of school conditions. Gov. Cox named November 14, 1913, as State school-survey day for the entire State. In his proclamation he said: "Let it be a day of genuine awakening. The necessity and opportunity of the hour call for it." It is estimated that 4,000 community meetings were held on this date, where probably 500,000 citizens of Ohio learned of school conditions throughout the State and listened to the remedies suggested for improvement.

The commission, in its letter of transmittal, says:

We have tried to make a matter-of-fact statement of the results of our field work. Our motto has been: "Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice." We have taken no pleasure in laying bare deplorable conditions. We believe the simple statement of these conditions will do much to bring about the reforms which we urge. We have also found much to commend--good teachers, good conditions, and a good spirit. On these we must build.

FREE TEXTBOOKS.

Rural schools have been at considerable disadvantage as compared with city schools, through lack of free textbooks. In 1913 Missouri and Oregon' secured laws permitting the local school authorities to adopt the free textbook system. This policy is strongly advocated in many States where it has not prevailed hitherto-Florida and Louisiana, particularly. State Supt. Harris has recommended, in his official report to the Legislature of Louisiana, the enactment of a law providing for free public school readers, with special thought for the rural schools. In support of this measure he says:

The most important textbook in the course of study is the reader. I suggest the passage of a law which will relieve the children of the State from the necessity of buying readers, and requiring each parish school board to furnish at least three sets of different readers for each grade and for each public school, from the first grade to the fifth, both inclusive. This would furnish ample reading material, and would relieve children of the necessity of buying readers. Granting that the life of a reader is three years, the annual cost to the State would be between thirty and forty thousand dollars. This amount distributed among all of the parishes would not prove a burden, I think, to any one parish.

It can be safely affirmed that wherever proper attention has been paid to the administration of the free-textbook law the results have been highly satisfactory to school authorities, teachers, and patrons. It is, furthermore, safe to assume that having once come to understand the advantages of this logical extension of the free school idea, the people of a State will not willingly go back to the system of pupil ownership of school textbooks. In those States that have mandatory statutes providing free textbooks this policy has proved a far greater success than in the States where it is optional. Free textbooks in all the States will remove another handicap which the country districts have had as compared with most cities.2

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND HOME ECONOMICS.

Evidence of the progress made in agricultural education and home economics in the rural schools of the United States for the school year 1913-14 is found in the farm life schools of Minnesota, in the $100,000 increased appropriation for the county agricultural high schools of Mississippi, and in the Smith-Lever Act previously referred to. The appropriation under this act begins at $480,000, increasing each year until it continues permanently with an annual appropriation by Congress of $4,580,000. As each State must make an appropriation equal to its share of this sum, it means that, when this act is in full operation, over $9,000,000 a year will be available for extension work in agricultural education and home economics.

1 Repealed in 1951.

2 The textbook situation in the various States is treated in detail in a bullet in now in preparation.

AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOLS.

1. Minnesota.-An extensive, liberally supported, and successful system of agricultural high schools is found in Minnesota. There are 176 of these schools-60 Associated Farm Life Schools, and 116 Consolidated Farm Life Schools, with a total high-school attendance. of over 30,000 pupils who are pursuing industrial education.

In addition to a liberal local tax for the support of these schools, it is possible for them to receive in the aggregate each year $1,500,000 direct State aid. There is State aid given to a school (1) as a high school; (2) as a consolidated high school; (3) as an associated farm life school; (4) as a teacher-training high school; and (5) for industrial work in agriculture, normal training, and home economics.

These schools do not stop with the regular instruction of those in actual attendance; the extension work is a strong feature, consisting of evening schools, correspondence courses, and numerous community activities. In brief, these schools are civic, social, industrial, and educational centers for their respective communities.1

2. Mississippi.-The State department of education in Mississippi secured the passage of an act by the legislature of the State in 1908 authorizing the establishment of county agricultural high schools. After several schools had been established and were in operation, the Supreme Court of Mississippi declared this act unconstitutional. The interest in these schools was so great, however, that they did not close their doors. Provision was made through private subscription to continue their work until the succeeding legislature might have opportunity to meet the constitutional objections. The legislature of 1910 passed an act coinciding with the views of the court, and no constitutional objection has since presented itself.

The county agricultural high schools of Mississippi are supported by both the county and the State. The proper taxing authority in any county may levy the required tax for the establishment of a county agricultural high school upon proper petition signed by a certain number of taxpayers and by giving due notice in the county papers without submitting the question of voting a tax therefor to all of the legal voters in the county, provided that when a petition is signed by 10 per cent of the taxpayers of any county protesting against such tax, then the question must be submitted to a vote of the taxpayers before the tax can be levied and the school established. A majority vote decides the question.

Within the last five years about 45 counties have established these schools. As evidence of the increasing interest among the people of Mississippi in agricultural education it is sufficient to point to the increased appropriation made by the legislature in February,

1A bulletin on the Minnesota schools is in preparation.

1914, for county agricultual high schools-$167,500-an increase of $100,000 over that made two years ago.

In the 45 county agricultural high schools of Mississippi there are now nearly 5,000 young men and young women enrolled, 75 per cent of whom are from the farm, and over 50 per cent are boarding students.

The attendance of farm boys and farm girls at these schools argues eloquently for the county system of agricultural high schools, as compared with the congressional district system in some other States. While these district agricultural high schools would naturally receive a larger appropriation for buildings and equipment, they do not reach anything like the number of students the county schools would benefit. By the time Mississippi has an agricultural high school in every county the aggregate attendance in all such schools will be over 10,000 students.

The low cost of board in these schools is probably not equaled in any other State. The reasons for this are the climate, which gives a garden season the year round, the opportunity given students to pay their way in whole or in part by work, and the recognition of the schools by the trade as merchant buyers, whereby they get all their supplies at wholesale prices. Before giving credit for work done by the students, the boys working on the farm and in the garden and the girls helping in the kitchen, waiting on table, and assisting in the poultry department, the average cost per student is about $6 per month. After giving credit for such work, the average cost per student is less than $4 per month.

Room rent is free. In many of these schools the dormitories are equipped with electric or acetylene gas, hot and cold water baths, and inside toilets.

Hon. J. H. Powers, former State superintendent of public instruction, now chancellor of the State university, says:

I feel safe in saying that not more than 12 per cent of the students enrolled as boarders would be in our agricultural high schools were it not for the low cost at which they are being educated.

The material equipment of the school plant is usually an administration building, which includes the recitation rooms, a dormitory for girls and a dormitory for boys; a farm properly platted and stocked, including barns and farm machinery. The value of these plants varies from $15,000 to $50,000, owing to the local donations made in order to secure the school and the amount given by the county. For example, the farm at Ellisville contains only 40 acres, while at Brooklyn it is 320 acres and at Perkinston 575 acres.

As to the practical things done in all of these schools, good examples are found at Ellisville and Poplarville. In Jones County last year there was an epidemic of hog cholera. Principal John R.

Hutcheson and some of the young men among his students at Ellisville went to various parts of the county and "inoculated" over 2,000 hogs affected with cholera for the farmers of Jones County. Over 90 per cent of the hogs treated got well. Such a practical demonstration convinced the farmers that there is something worth while in the work of the agricultural high schools. They learned a lesson that meant dollars and cents to them.

The conservation of human life marks the work of Miss Rowan, the home-science teacher at Poplarville, in Pearl River County. An invalid mother was induced by Miss Rowan to let the schoolgirls take care of her baby under Miss Rowan's instructions. It is the school baby. It has had the best care that human hands, directed by skill and science, could give it. When asked why she had placed such a task upon herself and her young women of the school, Miss Rowan replied:

Last year, immediately after school closed, several of my freshman girls married, and still a larger number of girls married in the other three school classes. I do not propose hereafter to let my girls take upon themselves the awful responsibilities of motherhood without knowing how to raise a baby.