Act. 12-15-32 MEN PLAN OF REPORT ON AGRICULTURE AND DOMESTIC SCIENCE. 1. Purpose of the report. 2. Agriculture, our greatest asset. 3. Agricultural conditions and possibilities. (a) The alarming view of present conditions. (b) Our possibilities. 4. How shall we improve our agriculture and rural life? (a) By reaching the adult farmer. (b) By reaching the coming generation. 5. Means of reaching these classes. (a) Through the State University. (b) Through extension work. (c) Though the normal schools and other secondary schools of the State. (d) Through high schools. (e) Through elementary schools. (f) Through special agencies. 6. Equipment needed. (a) For the University. (b) For the normal schools. (c) For the high schools and secondary schools. (d) For the elementary schools. 7. Results of special efforts in other countries and states. 287640 THE PURPOSE OF THIS REPORT. This special report has for its purpose the discussion of the relation of the schools under the management of the State Board of Regents to the social and industrial development of the state with special reference to agriculture and domestic science. There is no disposition on our part to neglect any department or phase of the work which is being carried on in the eleven state institutions with which we are officially connected. Indeed we fully realize that each branch of work or study fills some particular need of our state, and we earnestly urge our lawmakers to give careful consideration to the various recommendations made in the formal reports found in Part One. However, all of these matters cannot be discussed in detail, hence we have deemed it wise to bring together with much care many facts, opinions and recommendations relating to agriculture and domestic science-two of the most important departments which have been much neglected in the past. Inasmuch as this report will fall into the hands of the members of the Legislature, we have adapted its contents to what we believe to be the essential characteristics of the legislation to which a lawmaking body should give its first and best attention. In our judgment, those characteristics are as follows: 1. Application to a large percentage of our citizenship. Fully 70 per cent of the people of West Virginia live on farms and all of our population live in homes, hence any legislation that directly or indirectly makes for better farming and home-keeping will be comprehensive in its influence. 2. Provision for the future. The savage cares only for today and its needs. The civilized man looks to the future. A state which is supposed to be unlimited in the length of its life, should work on a program covering long stretches of the future. Belief in the foregoing statement is our excuse for outlining in this report more than can be accomplished in one or two years, and for asking for material equipment beyond our immediate demands. 3. Effective provisions for extending the influence of the law to the units of the citizenship—the individual. In many places in the following pages will be found discussions and references pertaining to institutions and activities over which the Board of Regents has no control. We have thus trespassed in order to show our ideas of the entire ramifications of desirable laws relating to the topics under special consideration. We fully realize that many and diverse demands are made upon you as Governor, and that confusing numbers of worthy and unworthy propositions are laid before you and the members of the Legislature for consideration. Realizing these conditions, we have endeavored to set out with brevity, and as much clearness and force as we could command, the propositions which we think worthy of consideration and the facts supporting these propositions. For the sake of convenience and emphasis, we use many tables of comparisons, illustrations and diagrams. With such purposes in mind, we hope to make the pages which follow worthy of careful consideration. |
