work in rural education in three summer schools and had charge of the programs on rural education in more than half a dozen general conferences. He is chairman of the educational committee of the National Survey Association organized at the Chattanooga meeting of the Southern Conference for Education and Industry. The rural schools studied were in Ontario, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Iowa. He has prepared the following bulletins: "Efficiency and preparation of rural school teachers;" "The rural school system of Minnesota;" "The school system of Ontario, with special reference to the rural schools;" "The status of rural teacher preparation in county training and high schools." The most important work of the specialist in rural school practice and the assistants in rural education has been a study of the rural school curriculum for the purpose of reorganizing it on the basis of what farmers and farmers' wives, men and women who live in the country, make the country homes, and cultivate the soil, need to know. This I regard as the most important piece of work ever undertaken for the improvement of rural schools in this country. If well done, its effects will be farreaching. Plans for the National Rural Teachers' Reading Circle have been completed and the books selected. The purpose of this is to encourage the ablest and most progressive rural teachers to systematize their professional study and to extend it far beyond that which is usually done in State and county reading circles for teachers. The result should be the development of more intelligent leadership. In cooperation with the specialist in rural school practice, the assistant specialists in rural education have prepared a bulletin on "Teaching English in rural schools." One of them conducted through a period of two months an experiment in teaching English in one of the rural schools of Clarendon, Va.

The rural school extension agent attended 48 national, sectional, State, county, and local conferences on rural schools and rural school extension in 19 States and made from one to five addresses at each of these. He prepared the program for and conducted the first national conference on teacher training for rural schools, which upon the call of the Commissioner of Education met at Chicago September 26-28, 1914. In October he assisted the State superintendent of Vermont in a campaign for the improvement of the rural schools of that State. In November, at the request of the Board of Education of Alabama, he assisted in a survey of the normal schools of that State. He prepared the program for the meeting of the national association of inspectors and supervisors of rural schools, held on the call of the Commissioner of Education in connection with the meeting of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association at Cincinnati in February, and participated in the discussions of this meeting. In April and May he assisted the State

school officers of Maryland in a State-wide campaign for the improvement of the rural schools of that State, making addresses at large meetings of citizens in nine counties. He prepared the program of the conference on rural libraries held in connection with the Southern Conference for Education and Industry at Chattanooga, in April and May, and acted as secretary of this library conference. In May and June he assisted the school officers of Dade County, Fla., in a very successful campaign for school consolidation in that county. He prepared for the commissioner's report the chapter on progress in rural education. He has prepared a list of books for rural school libraries, and has carried on an extensive correspondence on the preparation of teachers in rural high schools, on rural school extension and rural life betterment. For publication in educational journals and the general press he has prepared the proceedings of the First National Conference for Teacher Training for Rural Schools, and articles on teacher training in high schools, women's clubs in rural communities, and the needs of farm women. He has also conferred with school officers on plans for a cooperative nation-wide campaign for lengthening the terms of rural schools and for their better equipment and general improvement.

SCHOOL AND HOME GARDENING.

Within the year the division of school and home gardening was established, with two specialists and an assistant specialist. The assistant was appointed in September and the two specialists in January. In the establishment and maintenance of this division the bureau has had the valuable cooperation of the International Child Welfare League.

The purpose of this division is to promote home gardening by children of school age in cities, towns, suburban communities, and mill villages, both for its educational value and for the contribution which may thus be made to the support of the families of which the children are a part. This purpose is set forth in more detail in section 6 of the introduction to the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1913. The plan as worked out by the specialists in the division involves: (1) The utilization of home back yards, vacant lots, and other available plats of land for children's gardens, to be cultivated under school supervision. (2) The employment of a teacher trained and skilled in gardening for each elementary city school; two or more for each large school. These teachers should be employed for the entire year, with a brief vacation in the winter if desired. (3) During school hours garden teachers should give classroom instruction in elementary science, nature study, and if required, other regular school subjects. Actual work in the garden should not be attempted during regular school hours. After school hours, on

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Saturdays, and during vacation the garden teachers should spend their time in assisting the children in finding suitable places for gardens, showing them how to prepare the soil for planting, helping to select sites, directing the planting, cultivation, and harvesting, and assisting in marketing and preserving the vegetables and fruits produced. The garden work should continue as nearly all the year as the climate of the place will permit, and every plat of land should be made to produce as large a quantity as possible of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. (4) Children should be urged to make their gardens as large as they can cultivate thoroughly, if so much land can be had, but the garden should never be larger than can be cultivated properly. (5) The products of the garden should be used, first, to supply the homes of the children, and only the surplus should be sold or canned. Concisely, the plan calls for an intensive system of gardening done by children under the direction of the school, the application of business methods and intelligent direction and close supervision.

In addition to planning the work, preparing and distributing a series of circular letters, outlining the plan and giving instruction for putting it into operation, making suggestions as to the care of gardens, and giving information about progress of the work, the specialists and the assistant specialist visited many cities, towns, and mill villages in Arkansas, Missouri, and most of the States east of the Mississippi River, talked with school boards, superintendents, principals, and teachers, and with members of women's clubs and civic associations interested in this subject, assisted in making garden surveys of available vacant lots in several cities, held meetings of teachers employed in garden work, attended meetings of education associations, and in many other ways disseminated information about this work and made sentiment for it. Response to their efforts has been very generous. Of 820 city superintendents replying to a letter on the subject sent out by the bureau, 647 expressed interest in it. Reports received show that more than 100 superintendents have adopted the plan and that 35 have already put it into operation in one or more schools. In several other cities the older plans of school gardens have been modified by the adoption of the main features of this plan. No attempt has yet been made to do systematic work in the States west of the Mississippi River, and for greater effectiveness each member of the division has attempted to cover only a limited field. The chief of the division has spent much of his time in Westchester County, N. Y., where, through local assistance, an attempt is being made to put garden work into all the schools of the county. The other specialist has given much time to the State of Delaware, where plans have been formulated to put school gardening into all the city and town schools of the State, and has made a careful study of several

cotton mill towns in Georgia and the Carolinas. The assistant specialist has spent most of her time in Virginia, the Carolinas, east Tennessee, and Alabama.

The principal difficulty in having this plan put into operation comes from the lack of teachers prepared to do the work. For this reason arrangements were made with Cornell University, Teachers College of Columbia University, and George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tenn., for courses in gardening in their summer sessions, and the three members of this division were detailed to teach in these schools, one at each place, the schools paying their traveling and local expenses. Attendance on the classes was encouraging. Several cities sent teachers to each of these schools that they might be prepared to undertake this work next school year. Similar courses were conducted at some other schools at our suggestion.

Although the attention of this division has been confined to sections of States east of the Mississippi River, interest in the plan has extended to all parts of the country. There is great need of more help in the division, so that the systematic work of promoting the plan may be extended to other parts of the country. The correspondence of the division has grown to such an extent that it requires all the time of one person.

NEGRO EDUCATION.

The work of the division of Negro education, which has been continued through the year with the cooperation of the Phelps-Stokes fund, has included two distinct lines of activity: First, a comprehensive survey of all private and higher schools for Negroes; second, constructive efforts to improve the work of these schools.

The fieldwork of investigation completed in June, 1915, entailed from one to four visits to each of 575 private, secondary, and higher schools, as follows:

Inquiry was made in regard to 50 or more schools generally included in lists of schools for Negroes, but which were found not to

be in existence. In cities where private schools for Negroes were visited, the public schools for Negroes were also studied and special reports were made on the public high schools for Negroes.

Three agents, special collaborators of the Bureau of Education, have given their time to this study from its inception in 1913, and a fourth was added in August, 1914. In addition to the work of these regular agents, experts in accounting, in architecture, and in industrial education have visited and inspected schools of strategic importance.

The questionnaire used in making the study of the Negro schools covered ownership, management, attendance, teachers, organization and curriculum, finances and plant. A full report on each of these features was obtained by conversation with school officers and examination of the records at each institution.

In addition to the questionnaire, a card showing age, grade, home address, and course of study was filled by pupils above the eighth grade and in some schools by pupils below the eighth grade. In many schools teachers were also requested to fill special cards.

The summer months have been spent in tabulating the statistics and preparing reports on individual schools. In so far as possible, particular care is taken to work out constructive recommendations in each report.

An analysis of the facts assembled shows that the great needs of the worthy schools are a better system of records and accounting, simplicity in the arrangement of their courses of study, and adaptation of their teaching to the needs and condition of their pupils.

The need of such a report on schools for Negroes as is made possible by this study is shown by the number of applications for confidential information on the schools studied. In the past many donations have been made to unworthy schools. Donors are realizing this fact and are asking more and more for the information gathered by this division to enable them to decide wisely whether or not to continue their donations.

In order to correct some of the conditions found in the Negro schools, the most obvious faults have been selected. On the basis of some of the audits made, systems of accounting have been proposed for several schools and small financial assistance secured to aid them in installing the systems. To create an interest in home training and to make the domestic-science courses more effective, schools have been urged to inaugurate regular dormitory inspection. As dormitories for boys were found uniformly in worse condition than those for girls, a fund of $100 was secured from the Phelps-Stokes fund to be offered as prizes in four schools for the boys who kept their rooms in the best condition for a year. The rules for this contest were carefully worked out, after studying the regulations governing

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