A HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL (PARTS I AND II)

657 Pages·29.961 MB·English

by  KINNEAR, DUNCAN LYLE

A HISTORY OP AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA WITH
SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillm ent of the Requirements
for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the
Graduate School of The Ohio State
University
Pprt I
By
DUNCAN LYLE KINNEAR, B .S., M.S
The Ohio State University
1952
Approved by
Adviser
AC KNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer wishes to express his sincere appreciation
to H.L. Horn and H.W. Sanders of the faculty of the Virginia
Polytechnic Institu te for the encouragement and assistance
they gave him as he collected and organized the m aterial
for this dissertation.
To Dr. D.H. Eikenberry, h is major adviser, he extends
h is sincere appreciation for his encouragement and help.
To his w ife, Florence Price Kinnear, without whose help and
encouragement the completion of this dissertation would
have been im possible, he—extends his grateful acknowledgement.
i i
ES954M
TABLE OP CONTENTS
Chapter Page
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................. v ll
PART I: THE DEVELOPMENT OP AGRICULTURAL
EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA BEFORE
1900...................................................... 1
I SOME SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CON­
DITIONS IN VIRGINIA WHICH INFLUENCED LATER
DEVELOPMENTS OP AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION............... 1
Geographic, Agricultural and Economic
Developments.............................................................. 2
Beginning Sectionalism Between East and
West.................................................................................. 20
A System of Education....................................... 23
II AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES AND PAIRS BEFORE i 860 35
Efforts to Organize for Agricultural Im­
provement...................................................................... 37
The Programs of the Agricultural S ocieties 55
III THE AGRICULTURAL PRESS....................................................... 71
IV DIRECT AGITATION FOR AND ATTEMPTS AT TEACH­
ING AGRICULTURE BEFORE i 860......................................... 109
The E fforts on Behalf of Agricultural Edu­
cation at the University of V irginia I ll
Efforts for Agricultural Education Below
the U niversity Level......................... 133
Actual Attempts to Teach Agriculture Be­
fore i 860................................................................................. 151
V SOME DEVELOPMENTS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
EFFORT TOWARD A PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IN VIR­
GINIA SIGNIFICANT FOR AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION l 6Ij.
i l l
Chapter Page
The Creation and the Use of the Literary
Fund........................................................................................ 167
The Common School Revival of 1&40-60 in
V irginia..................................................................................... 176
The Establishment of the State Public
School System......................................................................... l £6
Influence of the Academies on Agricul­
tural Education............................................................. 193
VI THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL
AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE.................................................... 199
VII THE REORGANIZATION PERIOD OF THE STATE AGRI­
CULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE 239
PART II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICUL­
TURAL EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA
AFTER 1900 267
VIII THE EDUCATIONAL REVIVAL AND THE CONGRES­
SIONAL DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL HIGH SCHOOLS 267
The Early Twentieth-Century Educational
Revival in V irginia......................................................... 269
The Launching of the Congressional Dis­
tr ic t High Schools...................................................... 2Sl
IX THE INAUGURATION OF SMITH-HUGHES VOCA­
TIONAL AGRICULTURE IN VIRGINIA 324
The National Smith-Hughes Act................................. 325
The State L egislative Provisions for
Smith-Hughes Vocational Agriculture 331
The State Plan for Smith-Hughes Voca­
tion al Agriculture............................................................ 339
First High Schools Establishing Depart­
ments of Vocational Agriculture............................ 360
X EFFORTS TO DEVELOP AND EXPAND A PRACTICAL
iv
Chapter Page
COURSE OP STUDY FOR VOCATIONAL AGRICUL­
TURE IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS.......................... 372
The Struggle to Move from an Academic
Book-Type Instruction to a Practical,
Functional Type of In stru ctio n .. 373
The Development of the Supervised
Practice Program. .......................................... lj.00
The Development of Day-Unit Instruc­
tion ............................................................... l}.lf>
Efforts to Develop Instruction in Agri­
culture as a Scien ce.................................................. 1|22
XI THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VIRGINIA ASSOCIA­
TION OF THE FUTURE FARMERS OF AMERICA... 1^2
XII THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND
SUPERVISORY PROVISIONS FOR SMITH-HUGHES
VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE................................................... I4.63
Establishment of an Administrative and
Supervisory Organization at the State
Level..............................................................................
The Development of Provisions for D is­
tr ic t Supervision............................ If74
Reorganization of the State Department
of Education Affecting Vocational
Agriculture............................................ 1^79
Provision for the Local Administration
and Supervision of Agricultural Edu­
cation............................................................... If.82
Changes in Administrative and Super­
visory Personnel ....................... Jj. 95>
XIII SETTING UP PROVISIONS FOR THE TRAINING
OF TEACHERS OF VOCATIONAL AGRICULTURE... 50?
The F irst State Plan for Training
Teachers of Vocational A gricu ltu re.... £08
v
Chapter Page
The Establishment of the Department
of Agricultural Education at the Vir­
ginia Polytechnic In stitu te.......................... 513
Curricula for the Preparation of
Teachers of Vocational A gricu ltu re,... 517
Expansion of the Practice-Teaching
F a c ilitie s .................................................................... 526
The In-Service Teacher-Training Program 532
The Personnel Having Engaged in Teacher
Training in Vocational A gricu ltu re..., 537
XIV SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS........................................... 5Mj-
BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................ 57^
APPENDIX ............................................................... 605
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.................................................................... 635
vi
INTRODUCTION
Virginia has been studied thoroughly and en th usiasti­
cally by the historian, and her place and Importance in
history are generally recognized. Her agricultural history,
e sp e c ia lly her history of agricultural education, however,
has received very lit t le attention, in comparison with her
p o litica l, social, and economic history. As far as the
writer can determine, no comprehensive history of agricul­
tural education In Virginia has ever been w ritten, nor does
this study undertake such a task. It is w ell to point out
at once, therefore, the purpose, the plan, and the lim ited
scope of this study.
The primary purpose of the present work is to recount,
with particular emphasis on the secondary school lev el, a
selected part of the long struggle beginning in the
eighteenth and ending at the middle of the twentieth century
to establish a system of agricultural education for white
people in V irginia. It is not the purpose to present a
critic a l appraisal of the events in this long story except
as such appraisal may be necessary to clarify the events
themselves. Rather, chief emphasis is given to relating the
events in the story in such a manner as to present a com­
prehensible story of the developments for agricultural educa-
v ll
vi 11
tion. Where deemed necessary to accomplish this purpose of
comprehension, the social, the p o litica l, or the economic
conditions are introduced.
The plan of presentation should be noted. Part I re­
lates the events of the story of agricultural education as
it occurred prior to 1900. As a background for the nineteenth-
century developments a summary of the factors which oc­
curred prior to 1800 but whose influence clearly extended
on over into the nineteenth century and helped shape the
events in this la tter century is presented and summarized
in Chapter I. The program of agitation for agricultural edu­
cation carried on so vigorously by the agricultural so cieties,
fa irs, and agricultural press, as well as the direct efforts
to teach agriculture before the successful establishment of
an agricultural school, are presented in Chapters II, III,
and IV. Since the development of agricultural education
became so closely tied up with the struggle for a state-
supported public school system, sane of the events in this
public school struggle having significance for agricultural
education are presented in Chapter V.
Following the conclusion of the C ivil War and the estab­
lishment shortly thereafter of the state agricultural co l­
lege, the agitation for agricultural education became
largely centered around this new college, with lit t le , if
any, agitation being carried on for agricultural education
ix
on the secondary school lev el. Chapters VI and VII, there­
fore, deal with the establishment and the development of the
state agricultural college and thus conclude the story of
the nineteenth-century efforts on behalf of agricultural
education.
In Part II the story at the turn of the twentieth cen­
tury is picked up but at the same time is purposely re­
stricted to the developments of agricultural education as an
integral part of the white secondary school program. The
events of the la st part of the nineteenth and the fir st part
of the twentieth century which led to the inauguration of
the fir s t agricultural high schools are related in Chapter
VIII, along with an account of the actual inauguration of
these schools. The subsequent chapters in Part II are de­
voted to the chief incidents relative to the inauguration
and the development of the program in Smith-Hughes vocational
agriculture offered for boys enrolled in all-day and day-unit
classes conducted in the secondary schools of the state.
R estrictions as to the scope of th is study should be
noted in addition to those b riefly indicated in the fore­
going plan. This study in no way attempts to te ll the fu ll,
complete story of the development of the total program of
agricultural education in V irginia.
Part I traces the movements, the organizations, the in­
stitu tio n s, and the educational developments prior to 1900
which established the foundations and cleared the pathways
for the twentieth-century developments in agricultural
education. For the period prior to the establishment of
the state agricultural college in 1872 the movements and
the developments on a wide front are presented. Those parts
of the movements, the developments, the in stitu tion s, or
the programs which did not affect agricultural education
have been purposely omitted. Following V irginia’s acceptance
of the federal land-grant scrip for the purpose of estab­
lishing an agricultural college, the story as developed
herein is for the la st three and a half decades of the nine­
teenth century restricted to events involved in establishing
and promoting the land-grant agricultural college for whites.
With the beginning of the twentieth century this study is
restricted even further in that consideration is given only
to the events in connection with the inauguration and the
development of agricultural education as a part of the
secondary school program for whites in the state. With the
beginning of the Smith-Hughes program in vocational agri­
culture, attention is restricted yet further to the events
connected with the inauguration and the development of the
Smith-Hughes program offered for white boys enrolled in the
public high schools of the state. S p ecifically omitted
from this study are the Smith-Hughes programs in vocational
agriculture in part-time instruction, evening instruction,