Instruction in vocational agriculture in the secondary schools of the state is carried on under the provisions of federal legislation, embodied in national vocational education acts. The first of these acts, popularly known as the Smith-Hughes Act, was passed in 1917 and is still in force. The latest, the George Dean Act, which increases substantially the amount of the federal subsidy provided in the act of 1917 and extends its provisions to include additional vocations, became operative in 1938.

Because of its comparative newness, the program in vocational agriculture is not generally well understood or appreciated except in communities where the work has been carried on successfully for a number of years. Attempts to acquaint the general public with the program have been scattered and sporadic, with the result that the current ideas concerning it have been acquired by hearsay or long-range observation and consequently are not always accurate or adequate.