€> 30.73 cop.TL 567 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS, A. C. TRUE, Director. SOME FEATURES OF RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. BY xU C. TRUE, Director of Office of Experiment Stations. [Reprint from Annual Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for the year ended June 30, 1902.] Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/somefeaturesofreOOtrue 630.73 T76 so CONTENTS. Graduate School of Agriculture The science of agriculture Educational values of courses in agriculture College courses in agriculture Aims and scope Methods of instruction Equipment Description of departments Agronomy Animal husbandry .w Dairy husbandry Holticulture Household science Veterinary science Courses offered Agricultural course Agronomy Horticulture Animal husbandry Dairy husbandry Thremmatology Veterinary science Secondary education in agriculture Secondary agricultural education in Wisconsin Agricultural courses in town high schools hi Page. 417 423 435 439 439 440 440 440 440 441 441 441 441 442 442 442 442 445 446 447 448 448 448 449 452 ILLUSTRATIONS. Page. Plate XLII. Agricultural education, College of Agriculture, University of Illinois 438 XLIII. Fig. 1. — Agricultural education, new main building of the Mara- thon County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy. Fig. 2. — Agricultural education, new main building of the Dunn County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy. . 450 IV SOME FEATURES OF RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. By A. C. True, Director of Office of Experiment Stations. The past } r ear has been a notable one in the history of the move- ment for definite education in the science and practice of agriculture in the United States. Along almost all lines of agricultural education there has been unusuall} 7 rapid progress; but especially in the differ- entiation of different grades of instruction in agricultural branches and in the organization of separate courses and institutions to meet the needs of students of different ages and attainments has there been remarkable activity. In this article an attempt has been made to show some of the main features of this advancement and to illustrate them by concrete examples of institutions successfully organized on a new and progressive basis. GRADUATE SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. A new enterprise in agricultural education has been inaugurated by the establishment of the Graduate School of Agriculture, which held a four weeks’ session during the month of July, 1902, at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. The plan for this school was originated by Prof. Thomas F. Hunt, dean of the College of Agriculture and Domestic Science of the Ohio State University, the purpose being to establish a school for advanced students of agriculture at which lead- ing teachers and investigators of the agricultural colleges and experi- ment stations and this Department should present in some regular way summaries of the recent progress of agricultural science, illustrate improved methods of teaching agricultural subjects, and afford a some- what extended opportunity for the discussion of live topics drawn from the rapidly advancing science of agriculture. This idea received the cordial approval of President Thompson, of the Ohio State University, and on the recommendations of these two men the board of trustees of the university voted to establish such a school and generously made provision for the financial support of its first session. The Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations at its convention in 1901 favored the plan for the school and voted that if the success of the first session seemed to justify its con- tinuance, it be made a cooperative enterprise under the control of the S. Doc. 10T 27 417 418 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. association. The Secretary of Agriculture also expressed his cordial approval of this movement, and on his advice the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations consented to act as dean and other officers of the Department of Agriculture to be members of its faculty. Under these favorable auspices there was little difficulty in securing a strong faculty. As actually organized this included 35 men, of whom 26 are professors in agricultural colleges, T are leading officers of the Depart- ment of Agriculture, and 2 are officers of the New York State Experi- ment Station. Courses were offered in agronomy, zootechny, dairy- ing, and breeding of plants and animals. The school was housed in the substantial and well-equipped agricultural building of the Ohio State University, where were illustrated the most improved apparatus of instruction in soil physics, dairying, and other agricultural sub- jects. Besides the live stock of the university farm, leading breeders of Ohio furnished choice animals for the stock-judging exercises. General problems of agricultural science and pedagogy were dis- cussed at the inaugural exercises and at Saturda}^ morning conferences. Among the topics thus treated were the history of agricultural educa- tion and research in the United States; the organization of agricultural education in colleges, secondary schools, nature-study courses, corre- spondence courses, farmers’ institutes, and various forms of university extension; what constitutes a science of agriculture; and methods and value of cooperative experiments. Through social assemblies, visits to typical Ohio farms, and much informal discussion whenever the students met each other, the educational influences of the school were greatly extended. Sevent}^-five students were in attendance. These were drawn from 28 States and Territories, including such widely separated regions as Maine, Oregon, California, New Mexico, and Alabama. There was one student from Canada and one from Argen- tina. There was also one woman, and the colored race was represented by teachers from the Tuskegee Institute and the North Carolina Agri- cultural College. Twenty-seven of the students are professors or assistant professors of agriculture in agricultural colleges, 31 are assistants in the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 9 are recent college graduates, and 8 are engaged in farming. Considering the character of the faculty and students, it goes with- out saying that the whole period of the session was occupied with the most earnest and profitable work. Without doubt the influence of this school will be felt throughout the country in the improvement of courses of instruction in agriculture and the strengthening of the lines and methods of investigation of agricultural subjects. In other ways the school will exert a beneficial influence. So rapid has been the accumulation of materials for a real science of agriculture during the past few years that even professional students of agriculture have not realized how large a mass of knowledge is already available for mold- RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 419 ing into a systematic body of truth which may be utilized for peda- gogic purposes, as well as for inductions of scientific and practical value. The summaries given by the experts gathered at this graduate school have emphasized this fact and shown in a striking manner that agricultural education and research may now be properly and effi- ciently organized with reference to the science of agriculture itself rather than be, as heretofore, very largely a matter of the sciences related to agriculture. This will serve to stimulate greatly the move- ment already begun for the reduction of materials of agricultural science to “ pedagogic form” for use in colleges and secondary schools, and for the reorganization of agricultural institutions of research on the basis of the divisions and subdivisions of agriculture, instead of physics, chemistry, botany, and other primary and secondary sciences. The day will thus be hastened when the science of agriculture will rank with such tertiary sciences as geology, geography, and medicine as one of the great systems of knowledge of direct benefit to mankind. The objects and aims of this school were explained by the dean in an address at the inaugural exercises, from which the following para- graphs are taken: Our system of agricultural education and research, which vitally affects the progress of our vast agricultural interests, has developed very rapidly, its effective organization covering only about one-quarter of a century. Especially within the last decade there has been a remarkable development in the amount and variety of agricultural research, in the methods of agricultural education, and in the financial resources of the institutions for agricultural education and research. This has led to rapid changes in the organization and work of these institutions, and in the requirements of training and experience which are considered essential to the success of agricultural teachers and investigators. The demand for work on these teachers and investi- gators has also rapidly increased in variety and amount. Under the existing organization of our agricultural colleges and experiment sta- tions the workers must very often be both teachers and investigators. •Very few of our agricultural colleges are as yet able to do more than give their students an undergraduate course in agricultural sub- jects, and in a considerable number of those institutions even the courses which lead to a bachelor’s degree are not yet raised to the standard set by our older and stronger colleges. We are just passing out of the era when boards of trustees considered that they had done enough for agriculture as a part of the college curriculum by having on the faculty one man whom they denominated a professor of agricul ture. Considerable progress has of late been made in the division of the general subject of agriculture into branches and specialties to be taught by different members of college faculties, and a few of our stronger universities and colleges have advanced sufficiently in this 420 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. direction to have established what in some real sense may be called an agricultural facult} T . But it is still true that the opportunities for thorough training in agricultural science, such as is given in other sciences and in preparation for the old learned professions, are inade- quate. If this school does nothing more than to illustrate in some measure what ma} T be done in the differentiation of agricultural sub- jects and the development of agricultural faculties for university instruction in agriculture it will have served a useful purpose. In considering the work of such a school as this it must be remem- bered that the regular college course in agriculture, however well planned and conducted, can do little more than give the student gen- eral instruction in the principles of agriculture. It will not ordinarily make him an expert in any one line. There is a need of higher instruc- tion in the different branches of agricultural sciences in order that we may have thoroughly trained agricultural specialists and experts. We can not hope to attain and maintain leadership in the application of science to agriculture without university instruction in agricultural science. The agricultural schools and colleges ma} T give sufficient training to fit men to succeed well as farmers, farm managers, teachers of the general science of agriculture, and editors of agricultural jour- nals. But the graduates of these institutions attempting to do high- grade teaching or investigating must have some further means of secur- ing the thorough and special training the } 7 require. One aim of this graduate school is to provide a certain measure of this advanced and special instruction and thereby to illustrate some of the lines along which our universities need to establish advanced courses of instruc- tion in agricultural specialties. The response which has been made to the call for teachers and students to organize this school is a good indication of the general widespread feeling among the men already engaged in the work of instruction and research in agriculture in this country that there is a real need for deeper and wider instruction in agricultural science. The need of a larger number of men and women well trained in agricultural science and familiar with the most approved methods of agricultural practice is keenly felt in various directions. Not only is the present supply of competent workers in these lines inadequate to meet the enlarged demand for professors and investigators in our agri- cultural colleges, experiment stations, and departments of agriculture, but the spread of agricultural instruction into secondary schools of agriculture and into our public high schools is greatly hindered because teachers trained in agricultural subjects are lacking. The comparatively few men well trained for service in agricultural institutions, farmers’ institutes, and, generally speaking, in the cause of agricultural advancement on rational and scientific lines are badly overworked at present. We must have more workers of the right RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 421 kind to swell the ranks of the vanguard of agricultural progress, and it is hoped that this school will do something to find and train recruits for this honorable service. The cause of agricultural education and research is developing under peculiar conditions. Popular interest in this matter is already so great that demands are made upon the workers in our colleges and stations far beyond their ability to meet. At the same time through their own efforts, and those of workers in kindred institutions at home and abroad, the materials for a true science of agriculture are accumulat- ing faster than they are being reduced to a systematic form. While it is true that within the past few } T ears there has been an unusual amount of activity in book writing on subjects pertaining to agricul- tural science and practice, yet there remain many agricultural sub- jects on which there are no treatises that can be considered fairly up to date. Moreover, books of reference, including dictionaries and encyclopedias, have not kept up with the advance of knowledge along agricultural lines, though within the past few years the makers of such works have made hopeful progress in this direction. In man} r lines of agricultural education and research the methods of instruction and investigation have not been thoroughly proved, and the apparatus and illustrative material needed in agricultural laboratories, schools, and colleges are as yet ver} r inadequate. This school may therefore serve a very useful purpose in bringing to its students summaries of up-to-date information on various agri- cultural subjects, and in pointing out ways in which the methods of teaching and investigating agricultural subjects may be improved and the apparatus and illustrative material for instruction and research in these subjects may be increased in variety and effectiveness. Like other great progressive movements of our day, the cause of agricultural education and research needs systematic promotion in two directions. Well-defined plans are needed for the development of our institutions for agricultural education and research to meet the enlarged demands of our people for information and training in these lines. We do well, therefore, to bring the workers in our agricultural institutions together to discuss the organization and development of our s}"stem of agricultural education and research. But there is also required a more thorough discussion of the methods of instruction and research in agriculture. It is true that we already have some means for carrying on general discussion in both these directions. The Department of Agriculture, especially through its Office of Experiment Stations, has acted as a center for the collection and dis- semination of information regarding the organization of agricultural education and research and methods of teaching and investigation. The Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations has also served a most useful purpose in both these lines of 422 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. endeavor. It has, however, been felt by mam^ of the managers and workers in our agricultural institutions that neither the dissemination of publications nor the brief meetings of the Association of Colleges and Stations sufficiently met the need for a center of discussion for these general problems. For this reason the proposition for the establishment of this Graduate School of Agriculture met with much favor among the general officers of our institutions for agricultural education and research as well as among the workers in these institip tions. Though the period during which the sessions of this school can be held is necessarily brief, it nevertheless gives a much longer time for the discussion of these problems than is afforded by the meet- ings of the Association of Colleges and Stations. By bringing together here for a month a considerable number of our leading agricultural teachers and investigators in these lines and a select body of the more recent graduates of our agricultural colleges who are just entering or about to enter on the work of teaching and investigation, it is believed that we have a more efficient opportunity for live discussion of up-to- date problems of agricultural education and research than has hitherto existed. Through the generous liberality of the trustees and officers of the Ohio State University, the broad-minded approval of the honorable Secretary of Agriculture, and the cordial cooperation of the Associa- tion of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations it has been possible to put this enterprise on an efficient basis, and the school therefore begins its sessions under most favorable auspices. Considering the character of its faculty and students there is every reason to believe that the entire session of the school will be filled with the most earnest teaching and the most thorough discussion of the subjects included in the course. In an unusual measure we believe this school will furnish inspiration and up-to-date knowledge to workers in our agricultural institutions, gathered out of many States and Ter- ritories; but beyond this, we believe that in its ultimate results this school will greatly aid in the formation of public opinion in favor of the more thorough and rational organization of agricultural education and research in the United States. The school will aim to solidify and amplify the organization of edu- cation and research in agricultural subjects on the basis of agriculture itself, considered as both a science and an art. It will seek on the one hand to help on the movement for grouping the results of investiga- tion in many scientific lines into a fairly well-defined body of knowledge, to be known as the science of agriculture, comparable with such sci- ences as geology, geography, and medicine, and on the other hand to quicken and broaden the movement for the direct application of science in manifold ways to the art of agriculture. While we expect to pur- sue our work with high standards of scientific and pedagogical effort, we wjll not fora moment lose sight of the farmer and the requirements RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 423 of practical agriculture. All our labor will be counted as in vain if it does not issue sooner or later in the growing of plants and animals better adapted to the uses of men and the evolution of a system of farming in which the financial returns shall be more satisfactory to the intelligent and thrifty farmers, and under which the general level of intelligence, comfort, and upright and harmonious living of our rural population shall be perceptibly and increasingly raised. We believe that the wide movement for the establishment of agri- cultural schools, colleges, experiment stations, and departments of agriculture, from which already such important results have come, has in it vast potentialities not only for the bettering of the financial and other material conditions of the rural population, but also, and far more, for their intellectual and moral quickening. Wherever there is a definite movement by which men pursue systematic and long-con- tinued investigations along the line of any industry, whether in the realm of administration, invention, or science, with the result that the organization, processes, and appliance of that industry are changed in the direction of more thorough system and greater complexit}\ there follows necessarily higher intellectual activity and a more elevated morality in the mass of workers in that industry. Our aim, therefore, is a high one and our inspiration to the most strenuous effort in the few weeks in which we are assembled in this school is a lofty one. We seek to lay the lines and set the pace by which the workers in the cause of agricultural education and research in every State and Territory of this Union and in the most distant island over which our flag floats shall march to the conquest of new facts and principles which may be utilized for the advancement of agricultural practice and the more efficient instruction of the farmer and his children along agricultural lines. Papers on the science of agriculture and the educational values of courses in agriculture were read at this school by its dean, the sub- stance of which is given below: THE SCIENCE OF AGRICULTURE. In order to make an intelligent and correct answer to the question whether there is a science of agriculture, we must first clearly under- stand what is meant by the terms u science” and 44 a science.” For this purpose we may fairly appeal to books of reference in common use which have been brought reasonably well up to date, so that they may be taken as expressing the consensus of scholars on this subject in our day. I ask your attention, therefore, first to the definition of science given in Johnson’s Encyclopedia, revised edition: Science. — In a general sense, knowledge reduced to order; that is, knowledge so classified and arranged as to be easily remembered, readily referred to, and advan- tageously applied. All science is based on the assumption that the laws of nature 424 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. are immutable. From this point of view science may be regarded as a knowledge of the laws of nature, embracing the process of experiment, observation, and compari- son, by which they are discovered, and the modes of reasoning by which their oper- ation in the production of phenomena is made known. Hence most widely it signifies the knowledge of a truth in relation to other truths. Next let us examine the definitions of “science” and “a science” given in the Standard Dictionary: Science. — (1) Knowledge gained and verified by exact observation and correct thinking, especially as methodically formulated and arranged in a rational system; also, the sum of universal knowledge. Science in the wide sense includes (1) science proper , embracing (a) exact knowl- edge of facts (historical or empirical science), (6) exact knowledge of laws, obtained by correlating facts (nomological science), and (c) exact knowledge of proximate causes (rational science) ; and (2) philosophy. In the narrow sense of positive science the word is used as including only the first two divisions of science proper. A Science. — (2) Any department of knowledge in which the results of investiga- tion have been worked out and systematized; an exact and systematic statement of knowledge concerning some subject or group of subjects; especially- a system of ascertained facts and principles covering and attempting to give adequate expression to a great natural group or division of knowledge, as the sciences of astronomy, botany, chemistry, and medicine; the science of theology. We may, then, have a “Science of Agriculture,” provided there is a body of knowledge about agriculture which has been “ gained and verified by exact observation and correct thinking,” and “in which the results of investigation have been worked out and systematized.” This science should embrace (a) an exact knowledge of facts and (b) an exact knowledge of laws, obtained by correlating facts. But there are different kinds of facts and laws, and in order to see what is the real character of the Science of Agriculture and its rela- tion to other sciences it will be well to make at least a rough classifi- cation of sciences. There are, first, the mathematical and physical sciences, which deal with the facts and laws of number and space and the properties of matter The mathematical sciences are algebra, arithmetic, and geometry. The physical sciences, considered as the sciences which treat of dead matter, or of energy apart from vitality, are astronomy, mechanics, physics, and chemistry. These sciences which deal with the ultimate constitution of matter may for our purpose be termed Primary Sciences. Some may also consider biology, as the science of life or living organisms, as a primary science; but as a matter of fact, we study under the head of biology very largely the physics and chemistry of the matter comprising living organisms, so that biological sciences are really complex sciences which deal not so much with the ultimate constitution of matter and life as with secondary facts and phenomena as revealed in living organisms. The } 7 belong, therefore, to what may be called Secondary Sciences. RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 425 Thus physiology is very largely the physics and chemistry of the plant or animal, as mineralogy is the physics and chemistry of min- erals. These secondary sciences of course have their descriptive side, under which the objects with which they deal are described and classi- fied. Among the secondary sciences are botany, zoology, physiologj", mineralogy, etc. There is a third class of sciences which are of a still more complex nature, dealing with large complex objects or groups of objects, and making use in special ways of the facts and laws included in the primary and secondary sciences. Such, for example, are the sciences of geology, geography, and medicine, and in this class I would also put the science of agriculture. For our purpose, at least, we may call these sciences Tertiary Sciences. Without doubt greater refinements of classification would be required if we were making an exhaustive study of the relations of the various sciences to each other. We should at the outset of such a study find great difficulty in exactly defining the boundaries of each science, for the more closely we study the different forms and groups of matter and living organisms the more clearly we see the intermingling and overlapping of laws and phenomena. The relations of this to our present subject I shall briefly consider later. It will, however, help to remove difficulties in defining the science of agriculture if we keep in mind the somewhat rough and ready classification of sciences, which I have made into three groups — Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. The primary sciences are those which deal with the constitution of things. The secondary sciences are those which classify and describe natural objects and explain their constitution and functions — on the basis of the primary sciences. The tertiary sciences are those which deal with aggregations of natural objects correlated so as to form a natural or artificial system, which may be described as a whole, and the constitution and functions of which may be explained on the basis of the primary and secondary sciences. From the complex and diverse nature of the systems with which the tertiary sciences deal it is hardly to be expected that they can be satis- factorily classified, or that they will individually permit of rigid and adequate definition. It will always be somewhat 'difficult to differenti- ate them absolutely from the sciences underlying them, but in this respect they differ only in degree from the primary and secondary sciences. In the development of modern science, with its almost limit- less ramification sand the numerous points of view from which scientific investigations may be pursued and their results recorded, it is no longer possible to make logical and fixed boundaries for particular sciences. Whether the science of nutrition, for instance, shall be con- 426 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. sidered physiological chemistry or chemical physiology or a branch of biology^ — either botanical or zoological — will depend a good deal on the point of view of the scientist defining it. Nevertheless, I believe it is possible to sufficiently differentiate the individual tertiary sciences so that they may be considered as organic wholes rather than mere aggregations of underlying sciences. And, as 1 shall endeavor to show later, I deem it very important that they should be thus differentiated and studied. Let us, therefore, examine the definitions which may T fairly be given to some of these tertiary sciences. The following outline of the main divisions of the sciences of geol- ogy, geography, medicine, and agriculture may make clearer the com- parative view of these sciences presented herewith : Geology (science of litho- sphere): Dynamic Geology. Petrography. Structural Geology. Physiography. Historic Geology — Stratigraphic. Paleontologic. Economic Geology. Geologic Technology. Medicine: Pathology. Medical Chemistry. Pharmacology. Therapeutics. Surgery. Hygiene and Sanitation. Medical Jurisprudence. Geography: Mathematical (a) Astronomical. (6) Mathematical proper Physical (a) Physiography. (6) Hydrography. Political (a) Ethnography. ( b ) Ethnology. { Geodesy. Topography. Cartography, Agriculture: r Agronomy. i Breeding. Plant Production \ Horticulture. ^Culture. Zootechny l Forestry. Mammaliculture. Aviculture. Pisciculture. Apiculture. Sericulture. J Preservation. Breeding. Nutrition. Management. Agrotechny. Rural Engineering. Rural Economics. Geology , as the science of the earth, or more strictly' of the litho- sphere, may be subdivided as stated above. The relation of Geology^ to other sciences is thus stated by G. K. Gilbert in Johnson’s Cyclopedia: It is related to physical geography, the science of the surface. This relation is peculiarly intimate, because the same series of changes which have produced the texture and structure of the crust have also produced the forms of the surface, so that the processes of change belong alike to dynamic geology and physical geography; and physiography is claimed by both sciences. Mineralogy, though strictly a department of chemistry, is interwoven with petrography, and their relations are doubtless destined to become still more intimate as the genesis of rocks and minerals comes to be better understood. Paleontology, though an inseparable part of historic geology, is equally inseparable from biology; but while neither affiliation can be RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 427 abandoned, there is a well-developed tendency to divide this science into two parts— biologic paleontology being concerned chiefly with the sequence or evolution of living forms as illustrated by fossils, and geologic paleontology with the association of.fosals in faunas and floras. The development of the Science of Geography is well shown for our present purposes in the following 1 extract from an article by Guyot and Gilbert in Johnson’s Cyclopedia: Geography is, literally, a description of the earth. This is General Descriptive Geog- raphy. But the great process of physical and natural science, as well as the science of man in all his conditions, has awakened a desire for a higher, more comprehen- sive, and intelligent knowledge of the earth. To describe without rising to the causes and descending to the consequences of the phenomena is not science. The reflective mind craves more. While studying the earth in its natural aspects, it wishes to learn why these natural phenomena are as they appear, how they are pro- duced, and what laws govern them. It seeks to understand the relations of mutual dependence that bind them together, as causes and effects, .into a vast system, into one great individual mechanism, which is the terrestrial globe itself, with all it con- tains. Such a science must endeavor to discover those incessant mutual actions of the different portions of physical nature upon each other, of inorganic nature upon organized beings — upon man in particular — and upon the successive development of human societies; in a word, to study the reciprocal action of all these forces, the perpetual play of which constitutes what might be called the life of the globe. This is Scientific Geography , which may be defined as the science of the general phenomena of the globe, and its life, in reference to their connection with mutual dependence. It may be asked whether a science which thus embraces the whole domain of nature and man has a claim to an individual existence; but when geology has taught the composition of the earth’s crust and the history of its gradual formation, physics, the laws which govern matter; when botany and zoology have classified the plants and animals according to their affinities and differences in a grand system of life; when ethnography and history have done their special work it still remains for geog- raphy to trace out the relations of these various orders of things to each other. Geography needs the results of all these sciences, but is not to be confounded with them. Geography, as the science of the earth, is naturally divided into three great depart- ments corresponding to three orders of facts: The earth considered as a planet, a part of the solar system, or Astronomical Geography; the earth considered in itself, the Geography of Nature, or Physical Geography; the earth considered as the abode of man, the Geography of Man. These three departments are usually called Mathe- matical, Physical, and Political Geography. I have given this account of geography because it illustrates very well on what broad lines a Tertiary science may be constructed. Geography, as a science in this modern sense, is of very recent date and has hardly yet passed the time of struggle for recognition as a distinct science. This is not remarkable, because the new science of geography embraces material drawn from many sciences. Mathe- matics, physics, botany, zoology, geology, astronomy, meteorology, ethnology, and statistics — these at least are embraced in geography, and there have been many scientists (of whom a few remain unto this present day) who have claimed that geography is merely a loose aggregation of materials drawn from different sciences, and should 428 REPORT OE OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. therefore not be considered as a distinct science. Others have claimed that it is merely a branch of some existing science, e. g., astronomy or geolog}^. But as geographers have kept at their work and have elaborated and correlated the different parts of the science of geogra- phy, the distinctiveness of this body of knowledge has become more apparent and the advantages of studying the subjects included in geography in a systematic way according to their groupings as geog- raphy have been more clearly revealed. Hence in our best institu- tions for higher learning, instead of being contented with giving the student instruction in the sciences related to geography, special and distinct courses in geography are being offered, and it is coming to be recognized that even the teachers of elementary geography should have special training in the science of geography in the normal school, or the college or university. The Science of Medicine is one of the Tertiary sciences, which, like the science of agriculture, has been profoundly affected by recent researches in other sciences. It is, therefore, in process of reconstruc- tion. And one marked effect of the remarkable widening of the scientific basis of the practice of medicine has been that the science of medicine has lost that clear-cut definition which in past times it was thought to have. For this reason, while there are numerous old treatises in which elaborate classifications of the science of medicine are set forth, such classifications have almost entirely disappeared from the recent literature of medicine. At the same time we have in medical institutions and treatises an advancing elaboration and differentiation of courses and subjects bearing on the science of human disease and its prevention or cure. On the basis of ' a thorough study of the consti- tution, morphology, and physiology of the normal human being, the modern science of medicine embraces pathology (anatomical and physi- ological), medical chemistry, pharmacology, therapeutics, surgery, hygiene and sanitation, and medical jurisprudence. Medicine is then a science which uses materials drawn from many sciences. These mate- rials are grouped in new and special ways with reference to their ulti- mate usefulness as a basis for an art or practice. This practice is clearly differentiated from the science and 3 T et indissolubH united with it. In this respect medicine and agriculture are comparable. In the case of both there is a science (now, as we believe, on a sound basis and rapidily developing along right lines); but there is also a practice, which is every year being more profoundly and beneficially affected by the science explaining the principles on which its processes are founded and revealing the facts and laws by means of which its opera- tions may be further improved. The Science of Agriculture is that body of knowledge (gained and verified b} r exact observation and correct thinking, methodically for- mulated and arranged in a rational system) in which the facts relating RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 429 to the production of plants and animals useful to man and the uses of these plants and animals are accurately^ set forth, and a rational expla^ nation is given of the phenomena and laws involved in such production and uses. It is obvious that this body of knowledge may be Variously subdivided, according to different purposes of study or application. But in order to bring out more clearly my conception of the science, I shall now attempt to make and define one series of subdivisions. Agriculture, as the science of the production and use of plants and animals useful to man, may be divided into Plant Production, Animal Production or Zootechny, Agricultural Technology or Agrotechny^, Rural Engineering, and Rural Economics. Under Plant Production is included whatever relates to the natural or artificial environment (i. e., climate, soil, water, fertilizers) of use- ful plants, their structure, composition, physiology", botanical relations, varieties, geographical distribution, culture, harvesting, preservation, and uses, and the obstructions to their growth, preservation, or use. Plant Production may be subdivided into Agronomy, which deals with what are commonly called field or farm corps; Horticulture, which deals with vegetables, fruits, and ornamental plants, especially as grown in gardens, small plantations, or parks; and Forestry, which deals with trees and shrubs grown in large tracts. It is obvious that the boundaries of these divisions of Plant Production can not be very exact. Whether sweet potatoes or beans shall be called agronomical or horticultural crops will depend largely on the conditions of their culture; and whether a certain kind of a tree shall be considered a forest tree or an ornamental plant, will depend on the method of its culture and use. The science of Plant Production derives its materials from meteorology , agricultural physics and chemistry, economic botany, bacteriology, vegetable physiology- and pathology, economic entomol- ogy, economic zoology, and perhaps from other sciences. But these materials may be grouped in their relations to the processes involved in the production and uses of different kinds of plants, so as to form a distinct body of knowledge fairly entitled to the name of Science of Plant Production as one of the divisions of the Science of Agriculture. The Science of Plant Production may be subdivided either accord- ing to groups of plants as suggested above, i. e., into Agronomy, Horticulture, and Forestry, or along other lines, e. g., Plant Breeding, Plant Culture, and Plant Preservation. Thus the plant breeder may be differentiated from the plant physiologist as a man who is an expert in the science of improving the varieties of useful plants for particular purposes, taking into account the climate and soil in which the plants are to be grown, and the economic uses to which they are to be put. He must be a plant physiologist; but if he is only that, he will not be a successful plant breeder. The plant culturist should understand the physics and chemistry" of soils, the botanical relations and physiology 430 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. of useful plants, the uses to which these plants are devoted, and the weeds, fungi, bacteria, insects, and other pests which may impede their growth. He must know all this in relation to the problems of the growth of plants under the actual conditions in field and green- house, or he has not mastered the science, to say nothing of the art of plant culture. The second great division of the Science of Agriculture is Animal Production, or Zootechny. This includes whatever relates to the anatomy, physiology, zoological relations, domestication, types and breeds, breeding, feeding, hygiene, management, and uses of useful animals. It may also include the science which treats of diseases and other impediments to the production of animals, i. e., Veterinary Science, though this is in itself a large and distinct body of knowl- edge, and bears only the same relation to Zootechny that the science of medicine bears to anthropology. Zootechny may be subdivided, according to the kinds of animals studied, into Mammal iculture, Aviculture, Pisciculture, Apiculture, Sericulture, or into such branches as Animal Breeding, Animal Nutri- tion, and Animal Management. Agrotechny includes whatever relates to the conversion of raw mate- rials produced in agriculture into manufactured articles for use in commerce and the arts. It may also include the processes of handling these raw materials in connection with their commercial uses, as in the case of milk and cream sold for consumption. It also involves whatever relates to departures from standards set for manufactured articles, i. e., adulterations and sophistications, in somewhat the same way that the diseases of plants and animals are related to Agronomy and Zootechny T . Agrotechny is naturally divided into specialties according to the kinds of materials, e. g., foods and feeding stuffs, liquors, oils, textiles, and leather. The subdivision of most importance as a subject of school instruction in the United States is dairying. Rural Engineering includes those branches of civil and mechanical engineering which relate to the locating, arranging, and equipment of farms and the construction and operation of farm implements and machinery. It embraces the surveying of farms, the location of farm buildings and works, the construction of buildings, water, irrigation, drainage, and sewage system, and roads. It also involves the princi- ples of mechanics as applied to farm machinery and the use of differ- ent kinds of power for agricultural purposes. As a branch of the Sci- ence of Agriculture it involves an understanding of the requirements of the plants and animals to be grown and used on the farm, as well as the needs of the human inhabitants as related to engineering problems. Rural Economics may be more or less broadly defined according to the point of view. It at least includes whatever is related to agricul- RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 431 turo considered as a means for the production, preservation, and dis- tribution of wealth by the use of land for the growing of plants and animals. It may include the development of agriculture as a business (history of agriculture), as well as the facts and principles of farm management under present conditions. If formulated and studied in its relation to the production and uses of useful plants and animals, Rural Economics may fairly be claimed to be a branch of the Science of Agriculture, though the same facts and principles may easily be so grouped as to make a subdivision of political economy or sociology. It should be understood that, while insisting on the existence of a real Science of Agriculture, I do not claim that the boundaries of this science can be determined with anything like mathematical precision. But this is, as has already been said, also true in greater or less degree of all the sciences. It is also true that in making subdivisions of an} r science scholars do not now insist on rigid divisions, or attach any very great impor- tance to any particular scheme of classification. But when this has been granted it must be insisted that, for such purposes as the organ- ization of courses of study and the administration of great insti- tutions of research, there should be the recognition of such sciences as geolog} T , geography, medicine, and agriculture as the basis for the organization of the curriculum or administrative system; for practi- cally a good deal depends in our colleges and scientific institutions on the point of view of the managers, teachers, and investigators. As long as we admit the nonexistence of a Science of Agriculture, and are satisfied with aiding agriculture through teaching and investigation in the sciences related to agriculture, we shall have boards of trustees and college presidents who will be satisfied when their chemists, physi- cists, and botanists add to their ordinary teaching of the principles of chemistry, pl^sics, and botany a limited amount of information regarding the application of those sciences to agriculture; and the teachers themselves, approaching the subject from the standpoint of the primary or secondary sciences, will be most likely to subordinate the agricultural side of their instruction to the general view of their favorite science; so that the pupils will learn a great deal more about the relations of agricultural subjects to botany or chemistry than they will about the relation of botanical and chemical knowledge to the production of useful plants and animals. The establishment of such an organization as the Bureau of Plant Industry in the Department of Agriculture marks an immense gain, not only in effectiveness of administration, but in the relation of the scientific effort of the investigators to agriculture. Now, the men in that Bureau feel that they are working primarily as agricultural scien- tists rather than merely as botanists. Their outlook toward their work is changed; there is a disposition to lay under contribution every 432 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. science required to work out the complex problems of agriculture, and there is every reason to believe that they will accomplish for the Science of Plant Production, as part of the Science of Agriculture, what that great Bureau known as the Geological Survey has done for the Science of Geology. All questions regarding the exact boundaries of the Science of Agriculture or of its subdivisions sink into insignifi- cance when compared with the substantial fact that there is a rapidly increasing body of knowledge which fairly constitutes a Science of Agriculture, and that by organizing our colleges of agriculture, experi- ment stations, and Department of Agriculture on the basis of this science we may secure such increased efficiency of work and adminis- tration as will greatfy widen the scope and thoroughness of this science, and, through its effective application to practice in an ever- increasing number of ways, do more to improve the art of agriculture than would ever be possible as long as there were simply fragments of knowledge regarding agricultural subjects scattered through a score of sciences. The fact that there is an art of agriculture, and that this art in its cruder forms involves comparatively simple operations, in no wa} T militates against the need and feasibility of having a science of agri- culture. There is a practice of medicine as well as a science of medicine. In his humbler work the doctor or the surgeon performs many simple manual operations which have been similarly performed for thousands of years and long prior to the formulation of any science of medicine. We readily grant that the operations of agriculture ma} r be per- formed by persons ignorant of the science, but it is already evident that a right knowledge of the science may be very helpful in the practice of the art. It is also becoming apparent that the teaching of chemistry, botany, and zoology, even on their economic sides, is not enough to satisfy the needs of agriculture. There must be teaching of the science of agriculture as such, from the university down. The method of m} r present discussion of the science of agriculture has been chosen because there are still those who rank high in scien- tific and pedagogical circles who claim that there is no such thing as a science of agriculture, and this view of the matter has not onfy had great influence in shaping courses of instruction and methods of investigation along agricultural lines in the past, but is still operating in our colleges and experiment stations to prevent the formulation of vastly better courses of instruction and methods of investigation in these lines. W ithout doubt, the theoretical and practical denial of the possibility of a science of agriculture has had much to do with the comparative^ slow growth of the science and the present unsatisfactory condition of agricultural instruction in many of our colleges. Nevertheless, a RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 433 science of agriculture has been developed and has already reached such a stage that its claims are each year being more distinctly recog- nized in our agricultural colleges. The differentiation of the body of knowledge, which may fairly be called the science of agriculture, from the other sciences will lead to profound changes in the methods of teaching agricultural subjects, the equipment for such instruction, and the arrangement of courses to meet the needs of different classes of students. We are, in fact, already in the midst of such changes. The most obvious result of this movement thus far is the division of the subject of agriculture among several instructors in a college, so as to make at least the beginnings of a real agricultural facult}^. Thus we now have quite commonly in our agricultural colleges professors of agronomy, animal husbandry (zootechny), dairying, horticulture, and veterinary science. When a group of instructors is thus formed the natural consequence is a special building in which they may work, to a certain extent at least, in cooperation. When the building is provided it is seen to be appropriate and desirable that it should contain special arrangements, facilities, apparatus, etc., suited to the requirements of the subjects to be taught in it. This leads the instructors in several branches of agri- culture to set their wits to work to devise special arrangements and apparatus which will improve the quality and thoroughness of their instruction. Along with this there is more study of the relation of the different topics to each other in a scheme of instruction, the rear- rangement of courses, the improvement of methods of teaching, and the discussion of the whole subject of the pedagogy of agricultural science. Such a ferment and development is already making trouble for the presidents and boards of trustees of our agricultural colleges. The simple and inexpensive facilities which have hitherto sufficed for agricultural instruction will no longer do. Agriculture claims, and is now in a position to rightly claim, the same kind of treatment as is now quite generally accorded to engineering and mechanic arts. If the teachers of agriculture are really alive to their business and suc- cessful in their endeavors to systematize their subjects and improve the quality of their teaching, they will devise and develop methods, apparatus, and illustrative material which will call for an increased amount of money to properly house and maintain. We shall have failed in one of the great purposes of this summer school if the teachers of agriculture here assembled do not return to their respect- ive institutions better prepared and mqre in earnest to contend in every proper way for the development and increase of the agricul- tural faculties, and the facilities for agricultural instruction. This is not a matter of tine buildings and extensive fields. The real prob- lem before the agricultural faculties is to devise more and better apparatus; to discover far better methods of utilizing the college S. Doc. 104 28 434 REPOET OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. farm as a real agricultural laboratory; to provide live-stock rooms and barns and plant houses, which will be of more real use as aids to instruction. The more the teachers of agriculture show they have grasped the pedagogic principles involved in the proper presentation of their subjects to students, and the more the} r collect and utilize appropriate apparatus and illustrative material, the easier it will be to get for them proper housing and equipment. What we need especially now are original and ingenious teachers. Really competent men have a better chance of great success than ever before. Meanwhile the investigations in progress in experiment stations and the Department of Agriculture and kindred institutions are rapidty widening the boundaries of the science of agriculture and increasing the material for instruction. Those men who are sifting the results of these investigations and writing books and other summaries are performing a very useful service. The science must have a form and body in literature before it can hope for general recognition. Its claims are being recognized in a hopeful way by the editors of diction- aries, cj^clopedias, and other general works of reference. The great Cyclopedia of Horticulture marks a distinct gain for the cause of agri- cultural science, and will, it is to be hoped, soon be supplemented by a Cyclopedia of Agriculture. There need be no fear that the elaboration of the Science of Agri- culture, the definition of its relation to the primary and secondaiy sci- ences, and the making of more thorough and severe requirements for courses in agriculture in our colleges will stand in the way of broad- ening the field of agricultural instruction, so as to make it reach the great body of our youths in agricultural communities, who, from the necessities of their condition and environment, will not be able to attend our colleges. On the contrary, the more definite the Science of Agriculture is made, and the more thorough the pedagogics of agricultural instruction become, the easier it will be to provide good text-books and manuals for elementary instruction in agriculture, and to prepare courses and teachers of agricultural subjects for the lower schools. Hand in hand with the improvement and definition of the Science of Geography, the establishment of university courses on this subject, and the enlargement of geographical research, has gone the improvement of the text-books and manuals of geography in all grades of schools, and the betterment of teachers and facilities for instruction in this subject. The lowest grades of schools, as well as the highest, have realized beneficial effect^ from the thorough overhauling of geo- graphical science which the past quarter of a century has witnessed. A^d so it will be with agriculture. As definite results of investiga- tions accumulate, as college courses are improved, as thorough trea- tises on agricultural science multiply, it w r ill be easier to devise effective and useful nature-study lessons in agricultural subjects for our ele- mentary schools, suitable outline courses in the theory and practice of RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 435 agriculture for our high schools, and good secondary courses in gen- eral agriculture, in horticulture, in dairying, and in other special branches for the special agricultural schools, which have already been so successfully conducted in a few places* and which we hope and expect to see established before long in many agricultural regions of our country. I have spoken of these things because I deem it of great importance at this juncture that our teachers and investigators should regard the definition and formulation of a Science of Agriculture as a matter of prime importance. For with the establishment and general recogni- tion of such a science will come, not only the broadening and strength- ening of institutions for higher research and education in agricultural subjects, but also a vast widening of the range of agricultural education, until it permeates the mass of our rural population and shows its beneficial results in the general elevation of the intellectual activities of our agricultural people, as well as in the improvement of the mate- rial conditions and gains of our agricultural practice. For the Science of Agriculture is one of those peculiar products of our broader and better conceptions of the field and office of science. It exists not for itself alone, but rather for the betterment of mankind. EDUCATIONAL VALUES OF COURSES IN AGRICULTURE. The educational values of courses in agriculture are determined by the same pedagogic standards as are applied to courses in other subjects. According to President Eliot, of Harvard Universit} 7 , the essential constituents of education in the highest sense are as follows: 44 We must learn to see straight and clear; to compare and infer; to make an accurate record; to remember; to express our thoughts with precision, and to hold fast on lofty ideals.” u There is also,” he says, 4 4 general recognition of the principle that effective power in action is the true end of education rather than the storing up of information or the cultivation of faculties which are mainly receptive, discriminating, or critical.” According to Professor Hanus, professor of education in the same university, the subjects of instruction in a modern school course of study may be classified as follows: 44 (1) Language and literature; (2) social study— history (including the history of industry and commerce, as well as political history), government, descriptive economics; (3) art (including the history of art, as well as drawing, painting, model- ing, music); (4) mathematics; (5) physical and biological science; and (6) manual training.” The first two classes of subjects have a higher educational value, theoretically, provided the student is interested in them, but if he has a greater interest in subjects of the other classes, they may have for him a higher educational value and may be advantageously used for 436 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS; the development of habits of efficiency. The individuality of the pupil is considered of more importance as the pupil advances in age and maturity. School courses, especially in high school and college, should therefore particularly promote the development of each pupil’s dominant interests and powers, and further should seek to render these interests and powers subservient to life’s serious purposes, which include self-support or some worthy form of service, and intelligent, active participation in human affairs. In this view of the educational problem as related to modern civili- zation with its elaborate industrial system, we do well to unite culture and vocational studies in school and college courses. In considering the courses of study for our agricultural colleges in the light of these pedagogic principles, we should always bear in mind that a properly constituted agricultural course, taken as a whole, wdll include both culture and vocational studies. This is well illustrated by the course of study proposed for our agricultural colleges by stand- ing’ committees of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. This four-} T ear college course includes English, modern languages, psychology, ethics, political economy, gen- eral history, constitutional law, drawing, algebra, geometry, and trigo- nometry, as culture studies; next there are the pure sciences — physics, chemistry, botany, zoology, physiolog} r , geology, and meteorology; lastly, the vocational studies — agriculture, horticulture and forestry, veterinary science, and agricultural chemistry. As regards the time assigned to these subjects, we find two-thirds of the entire course is occupied with culture and scientific studies, leaving one-third of the time for agricultural science and its applications to the art of agricul- ture. There is no need, then, to discuss the educational values of two-thirds of this course, for these are already well established. It will perhaps help us to determine more accurately the educational values of the remaining third, i. e., the agricultural portion of the course, if we divide it into two sections. A large part of it consists of the study of the different branches of the science of agriculture. Essentially these have educational values as scientific studies, varying according to their nature and scope. In their entirety they cover quite a wide range, since they include materials drawn from physics, chemistry, various biological sciences, engineering, and economics. Leaving out for the present the manual operations which we desire to consider sepa- rate^ as the second section of the agricultural division of the college course, agricultural science embraces all the other lines of instruction laid down by Professor Hanus, except language and literature; that is, it includes physical and biological science, mathematics, art, and social study. Properly taught, the student of agricultural science will " See straight and clear, compare and infer, make an accurate record, RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 437 remember, express his thoughts with precision, and hold fast on lofty ideals.” From the complex nature of the agricultural sciences they should have high educational values along these different lines. The objects, facts, and phenomena brought before the student of agricultural science are of such a kind as to test his capacity to “ see straight and clear” in a very high degree. Whatever previous train- ing he has had in this line will doubtless aid him in this new and higher field of science; but however good his previous training, he wull find very much to train and to develop his perceptive powers in observing the complex things involved in agricultural science. The soil, culti- vated plants, domestic animals are not simple and elementary things, easy to be apprehended and comprehended. If we are to know them in any accurate sense, we must see straight and clear and long. These agricultural subjects also furnish innumerable opportunities for com- parisons, most of which will be far from simple, and the problems of correct inferences in this line of study are as difficult as they are multitudinous. The classification of soils and the determination of their relative fer- tility and adaptation to different crops, the judging of live stock on the broad basis of their fitness for particular uses, what opportunities in such studies “to compare and infer.” Considered as “mental gym- nastics” a class in stock judging may have as much exercise as a class puzzling- over the mysteries of the Latin or Greek subjunctive mood — that is, if our agricultural students are taught and not lectured. No one would dispute that the agricultural subjects give ample opportunity for exercise in “making an accurate record” of what is learned. Memory certainly need not lack for exercise amid the innumerable multitude of items included in these agricultural subjects. It is undoubtedly a pity that memory training is too much neglected in our modern educational schemes, but this is not for lack of materials on which to work; it is often a lack of proper selection of things to be remembered, or the misguided effort to remember too many unimpor- tant items. And if ever there were subjects in which it was desirable to express our thought with precision it is these agricultural subjects. If only agricultural writers, teachers, and students would learn to do that, so that we might distinguish between their actual knowledge and their theories, it would be a great gain for the cause of truth and science. And the expression of the thought may come through language or mathematics or the graphic arts. It also may be fairly claimed that the study of agriculture in its human relations may have an ethical side of much educational value. We should teach men in our agricultural colleges to be intelligent 438 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. farmers, not simply that they may thus make a better living, but also that they may be leaders in making agriculture alive, progessive art, which in the future shall provide a more stable and satisfacton^ basis for thrifty, intelligent, and refined rural communities, as well as a stronger guarant} T for the manufactures, commerce, art, literature, and science of a higher civilization, in which industrial and civil peace, and not war, shall be the established order. But the relative educational value of agricultural courses will depend largely on the methods of teaching employed. Among the pedagogic principles which should underlie good teaching of agricultural subjects are the following: (1) The foundation of educational success in agricultural courses must be laid in the interest of the student. The teacher should, how- ever, remember that this is not the only principle to be observed. There may be much interest without much instruction. The stump speaker often excites his hearers to the highest pitch of interest with- out giving them any useful information, and a teacher may keep pupils in an excited state of mind without their makipg any material progress in learning. (2) There should be careful selection and systematic arrangement of topics to be taught in a given course, so that the student will learn the most important things which he needs to know, and will be put in possession of a system of truth regarding agriculture which he can grasp and hold as a permanent mental possession. (3) The methods of teaching agricultural subjects should be such as to afford the opportunitj r and impose the necessity on the student of exerting himself strenuously to gain the mastery of these subjects — hence the advantage of the so-called laboratory methods as contrasted with lecturing. (4) To give a high educational value to agricultural courses atten- tion must be paid to the time element in education, meaning b} r this not so much the duration of agricultural courses as the relative amount of mental activity compressed into a given time through skillful teach- ing. Hence the necessity of much attention to the devising of labora- tory methods of instruction which will permit rapid and varied work, the previous preparation of materials, so that there may not be delays in the class room, and the holding of the student to strenuous effort from first to last. (5) The educational value, of course, in agriculture will also depend on the extent to which they are made the means for developing origi- nality and executive capacity in the students. It is not enough that through such courses the student shall gain much exact and useful knowledge or correct methods of activity. He should acquire ability to seek and find new truth and to guide and control the activities of other men in practical scientific lines. The college graduate is not the Agricultural Education— College of Agriculture, University of Illinois. Senate Doc. No. 1 04. Plate XLII RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 439 nan lie ought to be unless he is capable of adding to the sum of human knowledge and becoming a leader in human progress. The quality of the future work of our experiment stations and departments of agri- culture will depend on the original power developed in the graduates from our agricultural courses. The progress of the practical agri- culture of this country in competition with the world will depend very largely on the quality of the leadership of the graduates from these agricultural courses. And the organization of the agricultural indus- tries on right lines, as well as the betterment of the social condition of agricultural communities, will naturally depend very much on the work of the agricultural colleges and their graduates. The signs all point to the wider and stronger influence of educated men in the large affairs of industry and public business, including the narrower range of public business which we ordinarily call the government. In these broad lines there will be abundant opportunities for agricultural gradu- ates to make for themselves honorable and useful careers. Their success in this direction will depend largely on the quality of the teaching they receive in agricultural courses. COLLEGE COURSES IN AGRICULTURE. The movement for the specialization of the different branches of the science of agriculture and the development of a highly organized faculty in our agricultural colleges has gone furthest in the Colleg'e of Agriculture of the University of Illinois (PI. XLII), of which Prof. Eugene Davenport is dean. The aims and scope of the instruction given in this college are set forth in the university catalogue for 1901-2, from which the following statements are taken: AIMS AND SCOPE. The College of Agriculture offers students an education designed to fit them for the business of farming and at the same time to furnish a means of culture. This educa- tion is, therefore, partly technical and partly cultural. Its end is the training of students to be not only successful farmers, but good citizens and successful men as well. In other words, it seeks to provide an education suitable to the needs of rural people. Of the courses leading to graduation in the College of Agriculture, the technical portion constitutes about one-half of the entire work of the student. Of the remain- ing portion of the course, thirty-five hours are prescribed in the sciences nearest related to agriculture. Since the technical subjects are also of a scientific character, the course as a whole is essentially scientific, rather than literary; yet the college is mindful of the educational importance of history, literature, language, and the polit- ical sciences, and reasonable attention is therefore given to these subject and their pursuit is encouraged by a liberal amount of open electives. The college also offers, through the department of household science, a variety of courses especially treating of the affairs of the home. 440 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION. Of the 20 instructors in technical subjects, 16 devote their entire time to agricul- ture. Instruction is by laboratory work, supplemented by text-books, lectures, and reference readings, which are almost constantly assigned from standard volumes and periodicals. The student is brought into close practical contact with his subject. He takes levels, lays tile, tests the draft of tools, traces root systems of corn and other crops, tests germination of seeds, determines the fertility in soils and the effects of different crops and of different rotations upon soil fertility. He does budding, grafting, trimming, and spraying, and works out problems in landscape gardening. He tests milk, operates separators, makes and judges butter and cheese. He studies cuts of meat and samples of wool, judges a great variety of animals, and has practice in diagnosing and treating their diseases. EQUIPMENT. The college keeps on deposit from the largest manufacturers several thousand dollars’ worth of plows, cultivators, planters, cutters, shelters, grinders, mowers, binders, engines, etc. It has extensive collections of agricultural plants and seeds and their products. Laboratories are well equipped with apparatus and appliances for the study of manures, fertilizers, fertility of soils, soil physics, soil bacteriology, germination of seeds, corn judging, etc. The grounds of the university and the fields and orchards of the experiment station are always available for illustration in class work. An illustrative series of colored casts of fruit and enlarged models of fruits and flowers, collections of seeds and woods, cabinets of beneficial and noxious insects with specimens of their work, photographs, maps, charts, drawings, and lan- tern slides all afford valuable material for study and illustration. Specimens of Morgan horses; Shorthorn, Jersey, Ayrshire, and Holstein-Friesian cattle; Shropshire, Merino, and Dorset sheep, and Berkshire swine afford material for judging. This material, moreover, is largely increased by loans from prominent herds. In the dairy department is a complete outfit for a milk-testing laboratory and for cream separation and butter and cheese making. The department of veteri- nary science owns a collection illustrating materia medica, a collection of pathological specimens illustrating special abnormal bony development, and a papier-mache model of a horse, capable of dissection, and showing every important detail of structure. 'In addition are levels, lanterns, microscopes, and cameras, an extensive list of agricultural journals, a complete file of experiment station bulletins from all the States, and an excellent assortment of standard reference books, including nearly all the pedigree registers published. DESCRIPTION OF DEPARTMENTS. AGRONOMY. The department of agronomy, with a staff of six, gives instruction in those subjects which relate especially to the field and its affairs, as drainage, farm machinery, field crops, the physics and bacteriology of the soil, manures, rotation and fertility, the history of agriculture, farm management, and comparative agriculture. The object is to acquaint the student with the facts and principles connected with the improve- ment of soils, the preservation of fertility, the nature of the various crops and the conditions governing their successful and economic production, and with the devel- opment of agriculture. This object is attained bv the application of the laboratory methods of study to these subjects, supplemented with lectures, class-room work, n nd a free use of standard literature. RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 441 ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. In this department three instructors give courses covering the separate study of sheep, swine, beef, and dairy cattle and their products; heavy and light horses, with their care and training; the management of farm herds, and the principles and practices of feeding and of breeding. The purpose is to familiarize the student with animals, first, as to their fitness for specific purposes; second, as to their care and management; third, as to their improvement by breeding, and fourth, as to the commercial production of animal products. This familiarity is gained by an exhaust- ive study of the uses of domestic animals, the history and character of their breeds, together with extensive practice in stock judging, supplemented by a careful study of the methods of successful stockmen and of the known principles of feeding and of organic evolution. DAIRY HUSBANDRY. Three instructors give extended courses in the study of milk and its economic pro- duction; the characteristics . of the dairy cow and the management of dairy farms; the separation of cream and the making of butter and cheese; factory management; dairy bacteriology; city milk supply and the standardizing and pasteurizing of milk and cream. HORTICULTURE. Five instructors conduct courses in orchard management, small-fruit culture, and vegetable gardening, nut culture, floriculture, landscape gardening, and forestry; in fruit propagation, greenhouse management, and the evolution of cultivated plants, and in commercial horticulture and nursery management. The purpose is to acquaint the student with the principles and practice of fruit raising and vegetable gardening, both for home and market, and with successful methods of combating insect and fungus -enemies. The sense of the beautiful is cultivated and given expression in floriculture and landscape gardening, to the end that more of nature’s beauty shall pervade the home and its surroundings. The student studies plant life and learns how to propagate, cultivate, and improve the forms that have been found useful or ornamental in the way of vegetables, fruits, flowers, and trees. As in other depart- ments, he follows the methods of the laboratory in that he learns to do by doing, supplementing everything with numerous references to standard literature. HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE. The department of household science stands for a recognition of the importance of adequate and proper training for home duties. It aims to provide opportunity for a scientific study of some of the problems of the management of the house, including the distribution of income according to recognized business principles. The courses of instruction given in the department are planned to meet the needs of two classes of students, viz, (a) those students who specialize in other lines of work, but desire a knowledge of the general principles and facts of household science; ( b ) those students who wish to make a specialty of household science by a compre- hensive study of the affairs of the home, together with the arts and sciences whose applications are directly connected with the management and care of the home. The department occupies the entire second floor of the north wing of the agricul- tural building and is supplied with laboratories, apparatus, and illustrative material, such as charts, specimens of various kinds of building material, and exhibits illus- trating the chemical composition and products obtained in the manufacture of cer- tain foods. The students have access also to the museum of the architectural department, as well as the benefit of close association with the art department. 442 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. VETERINARY SCIENCE. Courses are offered in veterinary anatomy and physiology, in veterinary materia medica, and in the theory and practice of veterinary medicine and surgery. The object is to acquaint the student with the structure and activities of animals in health, the characteristic symptoms of disease, and the materials and methods of successful treatment. He therefore makes careful study of the structure of domestic animals and of the nature of their derangements and the characteristic action of remedial agents. The weekly clinic gives opportunity for practical experience in the diagnosis and treatment of the more ordinary diseases. COURSES OFFERED. The College of Agriculture offers the following courses leading to the degree of bachelor of science: Agricultural course; general course. AGRICULTURAL COURSE. This course is designed to tit young men for the business and relations of country life. Students may graduate upon completing the studies of the prescribed list (and a specified number of electives). Classification of subjects. Prescribed. Agronomy. Animal husbandry. Botany. Chemistry. Dairy husbandry Economics. Geology. Horticulture. Military. Physical training. Rhetoric. Thremmatology. Zoology. [A list of the different courses offered i of the topics included in each course, folk Elective. Agronomy. « Animal husbandry. « Botany . a Dairy husbandry. « Horticulture . a English. Rhetoric . a Zoology . a Veterinary science. the agricultural subjects, with an outline vs.] AGRONOMY. 1. Drainage and irrigation . — Location of drains and irrigation conduits, leveling, dig- ging, laying tile and pipes, filling, and subsequent care; cost of construction and efficiency; sewers for the disposal of waste water from farm buildings and the sewage from kitchen and toilet; farm water pipes, pipe and thread cutting. Class work, laboratory, and field practice. 2. Field machinery . — The tools and machinery of the field — plows, harrows, and hoes; seeders, drills, corn and potato planters; cultivators, weeders, and spraying machines; mowers, rakes, self-binders, corn harvesters and huskers, potato diggers, wagons, etc. Class work and laboratory practice, including setting up and testing machines, noting construction and elements necessary for successful work. « Courses in addition to those prescribed. RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 443 3. Farm power machinery. — Horsepowers, gas engines, traction engines, windmills, pumps, corn shellers, feed cutters, grinders, and thrashing machines — their construc- tion, efficiency, durability, and care. Class room and laboratory work. 4. Farm buildings , fences , and roads. — The arrangement, design, construction, and cost of farm buildings, especially of barns, granaries, and silos; the different kinds of fences, their cost, construction, efficiency, and durability; cost and construction of roads and walks. Class work and practice in designing and drafting buildings, operating fence-building machines, setting and testing fence posts, making walks, etc. 5. Farm crops. — Quality and improvement. Judging of corn and oats, wheat grad- ing, methods of improving quality, shrinkage of grain, care of stored crops to prevent injury and loss. Class and laboratory work. 6. Farm crops. — Germination and growth. Vitality and germination of seeds, preservation of seeds, methods of seeding; conditions of plant growth; peculiarities of the different agricultural plants in respect to structure, habits, and requirements for successful growth; enemies to plant growth — weeds and weed seeds, their identi- fication and methods of destruction, fungus diseases, such as smut of oats and wheat, and blight, scab, and rot of potatoes, methods of prevention; insects injurious to farm crops, and how to combat them. Class room, laboratory, and field work. 7. Special crops. — A special study of farm crops taken up under an agricultural out- line — grain crops, root crops, forage crops, sugar and fiber crops — their history and distribution over the earth, methods of culture, cost of production, consumption of products, and residues or by-products. Class work supplemented by practical field work and a study of the results of previous experiments, such as detasseling corn, injury to roots of corn by cultivation; selection and breeding of corn and other crops, with special reference to practices which apply directly to Illinois conditions. Stu- dents will have an excellent opportunity to study the work of the agricultural experiment station. 8. Field experiments. — Special work by the students, conducted in the field. This work consists in testing varieties of corn, oats, wheat, potatoes, and other farm crops; methods of planting corn, seeding grains, grasses, and other forage crops; culture of corn, potatoes, and sugar beets; practice in treating oats and wheat for smut, and potatoes for scab, and studying the effects upon the crops; combating chinch bugs and other injurious insects. Other practical experiments may be arranged with the instructor. Special opportunities will be given to advanced students of high-class standing to take up experiments, under assignment and direction of the instructor in farm crops, on certain large farms in the State, arrangements having been made with the farm owners or managers for such experiments. 9. Soil physics and management. — This course is designed to prepare the student better to understand the effects of the different methods of treatment of soils, and the influence of these methods upon moisture, texture, aeration, fertility, and produc- tion. It comprises a study of the origin of soils, of the various methods of soil for- mation, of their mechanical composition and classification; of soil moisture and means for conserving it; of soil texture as affecting capillarity, osmosis, diffusion, and as affected by plowing, harrowing, cultivating, rolling, and cropping; of the wasting of soils by washing; fall or spring plowing and drainage as affecting mois- ture, temperatures, and root development. The work of the class room is supple- mented by laboratory work, comprising the determination of such questions as specific gravity, relative gravity, water-holding capacity, and capillary power of vari- ous soils; also the study of the physical effects of different systems of rotation and of continuous cropping with various crops, and the mechanical analysis of soils. 10. Special problems in soil physics. — This work is intended for students wishing to specialize further in the study of the physical properties of soils, and will include the determination by electrical methods of the temperature, moisture, and soluble 444 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. salt content of various soils under actual field conditions; effect of different depths of plowing, cultivation, and rolling on soil conditions; effects of different methods of preparing seed beds; the physical questions involved in the formation and redemp- tion of the so-called “alkali,” “barren,” or “dead dog” soils, and of other peculiar soils of Illinois. 11. Soil bacteriology. — A study of the morphology and activities of the bacteria w T hich are connected with the elaboration of plant food in the soil or which induce changes of vital importance to agriculture, with regard to the effects of cropping and tillage upon these organisms, and with special reference to the study of those forms which are concerned with the formation of nitrates and nitrites in the soil, and with the accumulation of nitrogen by leguminous crops. Class room and laboratory work. 12. Fertilizers , rotations , and fertility. — The influence of fertility, natural or sup- plied, upon the yield of various crops; the effect of different crops upon the soil and upon succeeding crops; different rotations and the ultimate effect of different systems of farming upon the fertility and productive capacity of soils. The above will be supplemented by a laboratory study of manures and fertilizers; their composition, and their agricultural and commercial value; of soils cropped continuously with dif- ferent crops and with a series of crops; of the fertility of soils of different types or classes from different sections of Illinois. 13. Investigation of the fertility of special soils. — This course is primarily designed to enable the student to study the fertility of those special soils in which he may be particularly interested, and to become familiar with the correct principles and methods of such investigations. It will include the determination of the nature and quantity of the elements of fertility in the soils investigated, the effect upon various crops of different fertilizers added to the soils, as determined by pot cultures, and, where possible, by plat experiments. This work will be supplemented by a system- atic study of the work of experiment stations and experimenters along these lines of investigations. 14. History of agriculture. — The history and development of agricultural practice and progress, wfith special reference to the methods employed in ancient times and the effect upon agriculture of the introduction of rational crop rotations, the intelli- gent use of fertilizers, the introduction of machinery, and the systematic breeding of animals and plants. 15. Comparative agriculture. — Reasons for the differences in the agriculture of dif- ferent times, peoples, and countries, and why it is that the agriculture of a region or of a farm is a definite and individual problem, together with the need of harmo- nizing agricultural practice with natural conditions as well as with the findings of science; circumstances that influence agricultural practice, as soil, climate, machin- ery, race, custom, land tenure, etc., and what is best under different conditions. 16. German agricultural readings. — A study of the latest agricultural experiments and investigations published in the German language, special attention being given to soils and crops. The current numbers of German journals of agricultural science will be required and used as a text. This course is designed to give the student a broader knowledge of the recent advances in scientific agriculture, and, incidentally, it will aid him in making a practical application of a foreign language. It is recom- mended that it be taken after agronomy. 17. Special work in farm mechanics. — Students may arrange for special work in any of the lines covering drainage or farm machinery, either in the second semester or the summer. 18. Investigation and thesis. — This course varies in the subject-matter of study according to the department in which theses are written. The w r ork is under the direction of the head of the department in which the work is done. RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 445 HORTICULTURE. 1. Principles of fruit growing. — This course, which is designed for all students in the college of agriculture, deals with the fundamental principles of fruit culture. It embraces a study of location with reference to climate and markets, planting, soil treatment, pruning, protection from insects and diseases, harvesting, and marketing. Recitations, reference readings, and practical exercises. 2. Small-fruit culture. — A study of the strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, dewberry, currant, gooseberry, cranberry, and juneberry ; each studied with reference to history, importance, and extent of cultivation, soil, location, fertilizers, propagation, plant- ing, tillage, pruning, insect enemies, diseases, varieties, harvesting, marketing, profits. Recitations and reference readings, with occasional practical exercises. 3. Vegetable gardening. — Kitchen and market gardening, including a study of all the common vegetables. 4. Plant houses. — The construction and management of plant houses, with especial reference to the growing of vegetables under glass. Text-book and laboratory work. 5. Plant propagation. — Grafting, budding, layering, making cuttings, pollination, seedage, etc. Text-book and laboratory work. 6. Nursery methods. — A study of some details of nursery management and their relation to horticulture in general. Lectures and reference readings. 7. Spraying. — The theory and practice of spraying plants, embracing a study of materials and methods employed in the combating of insects and fungus diseases. Recitations, reference readings, and laboratory work. 8. Orcharding. — A comprehensive study of pomaceous fruits — apple, pear, quince; drupaceous or stone fruits — plum, cherry, peach, nectarine, apricot. Each fruit studied with reference to the points enumerated under 2, above. Lectures, text- books, and laboratory work. 9. Forestry. — This course embraces a study of forest trees and their natural uses, their distribution, and their artificial production. The relations of forest and climate are studied, and the general topics of forestry legislation and economy are discussed. 10. Landscape gardening. — Ornamental and landscape gardening, with special refer- ence to the beautifying of home surroundings. Lectures illustrated by means of lan- tern slides and charts, recitations, reference readings, and practical exercises. 11. Economic botany. — Useful plants and plant products. Lectures and assigned readings. 12. Evolution of cultivated plants.^— Comprising a study of organic evolution and the modification of plants by domestication. 13. Viticulture. — A comprehensive study of the grape and its products. 14. Nut culture. — The cultivation and management of nut-bearing trees for com- mercial purposes. 15. Floriculture. — Amateur and commercial floriculture, including a study of win- dow gardening, and the growing of cut flowers and decorative plants. 16. General horticulture. — For students not registered in the college of agriculture. A course covering the general principles and processes of fruit growing, gardening, floriculture, and ornamental planting. 17. Commercial horticulture. — A course giving practical training for those students intending to follow horticulture as a business. Work in houses, orchards, and gar- dens; suited to ability and requirements of each student. Special permission required for admission into this course. 18. Experimental horticulture. — A course for those intending to engage in professional horticulture or experiment-station work. For advanced students. 19. Special investigations and thesis work. — Required of candidates for graduation. 446 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. 1. Sheep , mutton, and wool. — The comparative quality and value of mutton cuts; different grades of wool and their uses in manufactures, together with a critical examination of animals both for mutton, wool, and breeding purposes. The devel- opment and characteristics of the several breeds; the most successful methods of flock masters and the economic production of mutton and wool for the markets of the world. Lectures, assigned readings, and extensive practice in judging. 2. Swine and their products. — A study of the types and breeds of swine and the most successful methods of growing and marketing their products. Lectures, assigned readings, and practice in judging. 4. Market classes, heavy horses. — The horse market; an outline of the types and classes in demand; special study of the heavy horse; of the uses to which he is put and of the breeds suitable for his production, together with the best methods of producing and fitting heavy horses for market. Lectures, assigned readings, and exhaustive practice in judging. 5. Market classes, light horses. — Coach, carriage, and road horses; bus horses, cab horses, and saddlers; artillery and cavalry horses; a systematic study of their classes and types and of the breeds and methods most suitable for their production; also handling and fitting for market. Lectures, assigned readings, and practice in judging. 7. Principles of stock feeding . — The functional activities of the animal body and the end products of their metabolism. Foods are considered, first, chemically, as afford- ing materials for the construction of the body tissues or animal products, as meat, milk, wool, etc. ; s?cond, dynamically, as supplying the potential energy for the body processes and for external labor; third, as to the fertilizing value of their residues. 8. Stock breeding. (See Thremmatology 1.) 9. Investigation and thesis. — Upon lines to be arranged with instructor for one or both semesters, according to nature of the subject. 10. Meat. — The various cuts of beef, mutton, and pork — their comparative food value, quality, and cost; a critical study of quality and richness in meat; the by- products of the slaughterhouse and their bearing upon the cost of meat. Lectures, assigned readings, and demonstrations. 11. Market grades of beef cattle. — An outline of the market types and grades, includ- ing prime steers, stockers, and feeders. A study of beef type from the standpoint of the butcher, the feeder, and the breeder. Lectures, assigned readings, and exhaust- ive practice in judging. 12. Breeds of beef cattle. — The history, development, and characteristics of the breeds suitable for beef production. Tracing pedigrees, and a critical study of the same. (This course is intended for students expecting to own or manage pure-bred herds.) Lectures, assigned readings, and exhaustive practice in judging. 13. Beef production. — Methods and practices in breeding and feeding beef cattle for the open market. By-products of the feed lot and their bearing upon the cost of beef. It is recommended that this course should be taken after Animal Husbandry 1. Lectures, assigned readings, and a study of experimental work. 14. Management of pure-bred herds of beef cattle.— Like Animal Husbandry 3, this course is intended for students anticipating the management or ownership of regis- tered herds. The breeding herd, and its housing, feed, and management. The selection and fitting of animals for sale and for the show ring. Disposal of surplus stock. Lectures and assigned readings. 15. Dairy cattle. (See Dairy Husbandry 2 and 3. ) 16. Stable management and feeding.— Stables; stable floors, fixtures and other equip- ment, and their care; feeding and care of work horses and drivers at labor and at rest; care of harness, vehicles, etc. Lectures and reference readings. RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 447 17. The education and driving of the horse. — A critical study of the mental qualities, peculiarities, and limitations of the horse, together with the most successful methods of educating and training him for skillful work at labor or on the road. The rules and practices of correct driving, the responsibilities of the driver, and the courtesies of the public highway. Lectures, readings, and practice. 18. Breeds of light horses. — Their history, development, characteristics, and uses. Lectures and assigned readings. 19. Breeds of draft horses. — Their history, development, and characteristics. Lec- tures and assigned readings. 20. Breeding , rearing , and management. — Selection of breeding stock; care and man- agement of stallions, mares, and foals; buying, selling, and showing. Lectures and assigned readings. DAIRY HUSBANDRY. 1. Milk. — The character and composition of normal milk; standardizing milk and cream; proper precautions to prevent contamination; the care and uses of milk; practice with the Babcock test and the lactometer, supplemented by lectures and reference readings and by laboratory experiments upon contamination of milk. 2. Dairy cattle. — The cow as a factor in the economic production of milk, butter, and cheese; difference in the efficiency of individual animals; establishment of the dairy herd by selection and grading with pure-bred sires; the principal characteristics of the dairy cow, with extensive practice in judging; the various breeds adapted to dairy purposes, their history and characteristics, with practice in judging by both dairy and breed standards. 3. Dairy-farm management. — Soiling and pasturing dairy cows; crops adapted to the dairy farm, and best methods of converting these into milk; the place and value of the silo on the dairy farm and the best methods of handling and feeding silage; a study of the best and most economical systems of feeding, together with the care and raising of calves; housing and general care of the herd; arrangement, ventilation, and care of dairy barn. 4. Cream separation. — A critical study of different systems of cream separation as to rapidity and efficiency, and the comparison of different machines, especially cen- trifugal separators; designed to betaken in conjunction with course. 5. Butter making. — Ripening the cream; churning, working, packing, and scoring the butter; designed to be taken in conjunction with course. 6. Cheese making. — Practice in setting milk, cutting and cooking the curd, and pressing and curing cheese. One-half of the time will be devoted to the manufacture of Cheddar cheese and the remainder to fancy cheeses, as Swiss, Edam, Gouda, cot- tage, etc. 7. Factory management. — Cooperative and company creameries and cheese factories; planning construction, equipment, and operation of plants, including care of engines, boilers, and refrigerating machines; a study of the construction and different insula- tions of creamery refrigerators, both for natural and mechanical means of refrigera- tion; also practice in pipe cutting and soldering. 8. City milk supply. — Sources of milk, together wdth methods of shipping, handling, and distributing, and of securing a healthful product for large cities. 9. Comparative dairying. — A study of the dairy systems and practice of different countries, including the care and management of dairy cattle. The principal dairy products of the different countries and the methods of handling and sale, particularly the preparation ofpmilk for direct consumption. The more important conditions, historical and present, and local and inherited influences affecting dairy practices. Recitations, reference readings, and illustrated lectures. 10. Dairy husbandry , minor. — A study of the composition and variations of milk, 448 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. detection of adulterations by means of the Babcock test and lactometer; standardiz- ing milk and cream; methods of detection of impure and unwholesome milk; where and to what extent milk becomes contaminated, and methods of prevention; scoring butter and cheese. This course is required for graduation of all students in agricul- ture who do not take more extended courses in dairy husbandry. 11. Dairy bacteriology. — A careful study of the distribution of bacteria as deter- mined by a bacteriological analysis of air in the open field, dairy rooms, and dairy barns under different conditions, showing where and to what extent milk may become contaminated through the air and from the cow during process of milking and subsequently; also how this contamination may be largely avoided by proper methods. The effect of bacteria on milk and on the rapidity with which it sours after being produced under different degrees of cleanliness and held at different temperatures. The part that bacteria play in the ripening of cream and making of butter and in the manufacture and ripening of cheese. 12. Investigation and thesis.— Subject arranged with instructor. 13. Fancy products. — The manufacture of koumiss and primost and of different grades of ice cream. A study of the modifications of milk. THREMMATOLOGY. 1. Applied evolution. — The principles of evolution as applied to the improvement of domesticated animals and plants. Variation, its extent and causes. Selection, and its effect in changing type, as illustrated both in nature and in domestication. The nature of heredity and the manner of its operation under the influence of environ- ment. Reflex action, habit, and instinct, as bearing upon the question of the inheritance of acquired characters. The origin, correlation, and disappearance of characters. The laws of frequency and regression as bearing upon achievements that may be confidently expected. 2. Investigation and thesis. VETERINARY SCIENCE. 1. Anatomy and physiology. — The anatomy and physiology of the domestic animals, diseases of the bony structure, and lameness. The instruction is given by lectures, aided by demonstrations with use of skeletons and of other apparatus, as follows: Dr. Auzoux’s complete model of the horse, which is in 97 pieces and exhibits 3,000 details of structure; papier-mache model of the horse’s foot, the teeth of the horse, and dissections of animals. This work is supplemented with the study of text- books. 2. Veterinary materia medica. — This subject, which treats of the agents for the cure of disease or injury, and for the preservation of health among domestic animals, is taught by lectures and text-books, illustrated by specimens of the drugs used in vet- erinary practice. The compounding of medicines also receives attention. 3. Theory and practice of veterinary medicine and surgery. — This subject is taught by lectures and text-books on the diseases of domestic animals, and is illustrated with specimens of morbid anatomy and by observations and practice at the free clinics. The latter are held at the veterinary infirmary once a week. The students assist in the operations, and thus obtain a practical knowledge of the subject. Dissections and post-mortem examinations are made as cases present themselves. SECONDARY EDUCATION IN AGRICULTURE. The movement for the establishment of secondary courses of instruc- tion in agiiculture has received a new impetus from the action of the State of Wisconsin in providing’ for the establishment of county agrri- RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 449 cultural high schools. An account of the movement for the establish- ment of these schools in Wisconsin is given in the following paper by Prof. W. A. Henry, dean of the College of Agriculture of the Univer- sity of Wisconsin: SECONDARY AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN WISCONSIN. The recent action of the Dunn County and the Marathon County boards in pro- viding county agricultural schools is of such unusual importance to this Common- wealth that due cognizance should be taken of the same by all good citizens interested in educational advancement. The beginning of this movement reaches back many years. Sixteen years ago the regents of the University of Wisconsin becoming dis- satisfied with the small attendance of bona fide agricultural students at the univer- sity, appointed a committee to consider the best means of bringing about a change. As chairman of that committee William F, Vilas prepared a report which was adopted by the board, and resulted in the establishment of what is now known as the short course in agriculture. The object of this course was to take young men directly from the farm and give them intensely practical training in agricultural lines, and then return them to the farm to make use of what they might have learned at the university. From an insignificant beginning this course of instruction has grown until it now has crowded the university accommodations to the utmost, with inabil- ity to accommodate all who seek instruction in some lines. To shut out nonresident attendance, the fees have been made practically prohibitory to those coming from other States. Thoughtful educators and others interested in the intellectual development of our State have for some time past been impressed with the fact that it was simply out of the question for the university to attempt to provide instruction in elementary agri- culture for all that needed such instruction, or even for those who might come to the university for that purpose. Thousands of young men should receive such training annually, and such numbers could not be accommodated at any one central point without incurring expense for such instruction entirely beyond the powers of the State to meet. Moreover, it is the function of the university to impart the highest form of instruction rather than to undertake elementary work in educational lines. Up to the present time there has been no place aside from the university where the young farmer could gain any training helpful in preparing himself for his future vocation. The city schools do uot provide suitable training in many particulars for those who intend to live upon the farm. Urban educational effort is along urban lines toward urban conditions, and does rot recognize in any way the vast fund of useful knowledge relating to the country and to country life. The farmer boy attending the village or city high school is being educated away from the farm rather than toward the farm, with all its possibilities for a useful life. To meet the wants of the large number of rural young folk who desire to secure some higher education than is afforded by the district school, and yet desire to keep in touch with farm life and farm conditions, some form of secondary agricultural schools seems imperative. To understand the subject historically in Wisconsin, it is necessary at this point to take up another line of educational effort. We have in our State seven normal schools, with an attendance of about 2,200 pupils. Great as is this number, it is unfortunate to report that the graduates of these schools have not to any extent gone into the rural schools as teachers. Even those who leave the normal schools before graduation do not supply in any large measure the demands for trained teachers made by the country schools. As a consequence the 5,000 rural schools in Wisconsin have been largely without specially trained teachers in the past. There recently arose the thought of establishing county training schools for teachers, and the Wisconsin s. Doc. 10rt 29 450 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. legislature of 1899 enacted a law permitting two counties, but not more, to found county training schools for teachers and provided that if these fulfilled certain requirements they should each be allowed to draw $1,250 annually from the State treasury. Marathon and Dunn counties were the first to apply for the benefits of this act and thereby secured the State appropriation. From their inception these schools have been a success in training teachers who afterwards teach in the country district schools. So pleased was the State at the success of the two-county training schools for teachers that the legislature of 1901 doubled the State allowance, making it $2,500 annually to each school, and authorized the establishment of four additional county training schools for teachers, making the number allotted six in all. Six such schools are now in operation. The legislature of 1901 further provided that after that year all school-teachers should be examined in the elements of agriculture. The reader who may have followed this presentation thus far will readily see how naturally and easily the next step in our educational development has been taken. The overcrowded condition of the college of agriculture at the university in its elementary work, the wonderful success of the novel idea of county normal schools for rural teachers and the requirements of examination of all teachers in the elements of agriculture have brought us forward to a point where a further move is essential to the rounding out of a rational system of education for our Commonwealth. In December, 1898, State Superintendent L. D. Harvey, in a paper before the State Teachers’ Association in Milwaukee, brought to the attention of educators the sub- ject of county agricultural schools. The legislature of 1899 directed the superin- tendent of public instruction to investigate and report upon the methods of instruction in manual training and the theory and art of agriculture in other countries and States. Superintendent Harvey’s report on this matter covers 83 pages of interesting data. Everything was now ready for the final move, which was made without serious difficulty, there being a surprising agreement of our legislators as to its necessity and expediency. Superintendent Harvey prepared a bill providing for the establishment of county schools of agriculture and domestic science. A digest of the law (chapter 288, Laws of 1901) is as follows: Section 1. The county board of any county is authorized to establish and maintain “ a county school of agriculture and domestic economy.” Section 2 provides for a county school board to control such school. Sections 3 and 4 provide for two counties to unite in a joint agricultural school. Section 5 makes the county treasurer the ex-officio treasurer of the board. Section 6. In all county schools of agriculture and domestic economy organized under the provisions of this act, instruction shall be given in the elements of agri- culture, including instruction concerning the soil, plant life, and the animal life of the farm; a system of farm accounts shall also be taught; instruction shall also be given in manual training and domestic economy, and such other subjects as may be prescribed. Section 7. Each such school shall have connected with it a tract of land suitable for purposes of experiment and demonstration, and not less than 3 acres in area. Section 8. The schools organized under the provisions of this act shall be free to inhabitants of the county or counties contributing to their support, who shall be qualified to pursue this course of study, provided they shall have at least the quali- fications required for completion of the course of study for common schools. When- ever students of advanced age desire admission to the school during the winter months in sufficient number to warrant the organization of special classes for their instruction such classes shall be organized and continued for such time as their attendance may make necessary. Section 9 provides that the State superintendent shall render assistance, and, “with the advice of the dean of the college of agriculture of the State University,” he shall prescribe the courses of study to be pursued and determine the qualifications required of the teachers employed in such schools. Senate Doc. No. 104. Plate XLIII. Fig. 1 .—Agricultural Education— New Main Building of the Marathon County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy. Fig. 2.— Agricultural Education— New Main Building of the Dunn County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy. RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 451 Section 10 provides that a school complying with the provisions of the law may be placed on the approved list of county schools of agriculture and domestic economy. The secretary of such school shall report annually the condition of the school to the State superintendent, setting forth the cost of the school, character of the work done, number of teachers employed, etc. If the State superintendent is satisfied that the school is up to grade, he shall certify the same to the secretary of state, who shall pay over to such school a sum equal to one-half the amount actually expended for instruction in such school, provided that the total amount so expended shall not exceed $5,000 in any one year. But two schools can draw State aid under this act. This allows a sum not exceeding $2,500 to be turned over by the State to each of the two county schools allowed under this act. Marathon and Dunn, the two counties which were first to nave county teachers’ training schools under the law of 1899, are the first to avail themselves of the law above summarized. When it is known that both these counties are located in the newer parts of our State, it will be realized that “push and progress ” is the watch- word of these ambitious people. Having learned from direct observation the merits of county normal schools, these counties have gone a step further and completed their educational system by arranging for county schools of agriculture and domestic economy. The Marathon County School of Agriculture and Domestic Economy, located at Wausau, Wis., was opened October 6, 1902. (PI. XL1II, fig. 1) The buildings and equipment provided for this school cost $20,000. The school grounds cover 6 acres. The course of study for boys includes soils, plants, animal husbandry, rural archi- tecture, blacksmith ing, carpentry, and mechanical drawing. The course of study for girls includes cooking, laundering, sewing, floriculture, and home management and decoration. Both courses include English language and literature, United States history, civil government, and commercial arithmetic with farm accounts. Tuition is free to students living in Marathon County. The cost of board and rooms runs from $2.50 to $3. On November 26, 1902, this school was reported to have 62 stu- dents — 15 boys and 47 girls. The average age of the students was 16 years. The principal of the school is R. B. Johns, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. The Dunn County School of Agriculture and Domestic Science is located at Menom- onie. (PI. XLIII, fig 2.) This school is centrally located in the county and is equipped with a fine brick main building, erected by the county at a cost of $16,000, for the joint use of this school and the county teachers’ training school, and a frame building for shop work, which, with grounds surrounding the school, cost $5,000. The farm work is done on the county asylum farm 1 mile distant from the school. The course of study for boys includes instruction regarding soils, fertilizers, plant life, horticulture, field crops, animal husbandry, dairying, poultry, economic insects, farm accounts, blacksmithing and other metal work, carpentry, and rural architecture. The course of study for girls includes work in sewing, cooking, home economy and management, drawing and designing, domestic hygiene, chemistry of foods, dairy- ing, poultry, farm accounts, and horticulture. Both courses include studies in United States history, civil government, library readings, English, and elementary science. Only two years will be required to complete the full course for either boys or girls, and shorter courses may \>e pursued. Tuition is free to students living in Dunn County. Others will pay $25 per year, except that the first ten students from other counties will be admitted for the first year on the payment of only $10 each. Students may find board and rooms in private families in Menomonie at prices ranging from $2.25 to $3.75 per week. Students can board themselves for about $2 per week. The school opened October 20, 1902, and by December 44 students had registered — 32 boys and 12 girls — of an average age of 18? years. This number has since 452 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. increased. They are from country schools, with few exceptions. The principal of the school is Dr. K. C. Davis, a graduate of the Kansas Agricultural College and recently horticulturist at the West Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station. State Superintendent Harvey, who has watched both these efforts from the begin- ning, and to whose credit the conception of the county agricultural schools in Wis- consin must ever stand, states that there will be required in the county training school for teachers 2 teachers and in the county agricultural school 3 teachers as a minimum. In the agricultural school there will be needed 1 principal, who will teach branches of agriculture, 1 teacher of manual training, 1 teacher of domestic economy. Each will teach some academic branch in addition. As all teachers in the rural schools must now pass examination in the elements of agriculture, it will be seen that the union of these two branches of education in one school is a wise one. Mr. Harvey states that pupils from the rural schools who have completed the course of study provided for such schools will doubtless be admitted to these agricultural schools; that their training here should be covered in a two years’ course. If the experiments in Dunn and Marathon counties prove successful, no doubt other counties will likewise establish county agricultural schools, and the system will gradually spread over the State. The wisdom of experimenting with the county training school system by allowing only two schools at first and later following along the same lines for agricultural schools is to be highly commended. The State is experimenting along the best lines of educational effort, and the people are gradually being educated to new and important changes, which, if wrought too suddenly, might bring dissatisfaction and revulsion. If the system of county agricultural schools shall gradually extend over the State, the time is not far distant when there can be a material rise in the grade of scholar- ship required for the admission of short-course students to the university. When this comes about, the university will receive graduates from the county agricultural schools and give to such advanced agricultural training. It will relegate to the county schools much of the elementary work which it is now doing. Among its other functions, it will prepare teachers for the county agricultural schools and give to such young men as wish a higher degree of agricultural training than they can secure in the county schools. The farmers’ sons and daughters will now have near at home schools specially devoted to their interests, helpful to them in their future farm life. In the judgment of the writer, the addition of county training schools for teachers and county agricul- tural schools rounds out our educational system in Wisconsin in a symmetrical and complete manner. No class of people or interests in the State are longer left uncared for educationally. City children are educated in their way for the city, and country children are educated for country life. Much remains, of course, to be done in the way of perfecting the system, but the main lines are now properly laid. Wisconsin is the first State in the Union to provide for secondary agricultural education by a system of county schools specially designed to meet the needs of farmers’ sons and daughters. AGRICULTURAL COURSES IN TOWN HIGH SCHOOLS. To aid in the movement for the organization of secondary courses in agriculture, the committee on methods of teaching agriculture of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations made a report on this subject to the convention of the associa- RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 453 tion, held at Atlanta, Ga., in October, 1902. That portion of this report which relates to the public high schools is given below: In addition to provision for instruction in agriculture in connection with the col- leges and in special agricultural high schools the teaching of agriculture should be introduced into the public high schools in or near the rural communities. There are many villages and cities in the United States which are dependent on the farms surrounding them for their commercial prosperity, if not for their very existence. The high schools maintained in these places draw their students largely from the farms. There is good reason why communities of this kind should seek through their schools to promote the interests of the industry to which they owe so much. They should at least cooperate with the surrounding rural communities to secure for the farmers’ children technical education in agriculture parallel to the education in commercial business and mechanic arts which many of the city high schools are now offering to their students. As previously stated, the high-school system of the United States has been rapidly developed in the past few years in the direction of broadening the courses in natural science and industrial arts and in the provision for numerous elective courses in these and other subjects. While it continues to supply college preparatory courses for the limited number of students intending to pursue their school career beyond the high school, its chief business is to educate the nine out of every ten of its students who are to step from its halls into active life. In our largest and wealthiest cities this change of aim of the high school has led to the establishment not only of numer- ous courses in the classics, modern languages, natural sciences, mathematics, history, and political economy, but also of separate high schools with elaborate courses in business forms and mechanic arts. The smaller cities are striving to follow in the same path as far as their means will permit. Agriculture has thus far been almost entirely neglected in the high-school pro- grammes, and it is high time that the friends of agricultural education should make a systematic effort to have the claims of this fundamental industry acknowledged and satisfied in the curricula of the public high schools. Since successful agriculture is essential to the prosperity and well-being of urban as well as rural communities, there should be cooperation between country districts, villages, cities, and the States to provide the means for the maintenance of agricultural courses in the high schools. As a practical measure it is believed that such courses may be added to those already existing in many high schools by the addition of a single teacher, who should be an agricultural college graduate, to the teaching force already supplied. The expense of maintaining this teacher and his equipment may properly be shared by the State, the village, or city maintaining the high school, and the country district from which the pupils from the farms are drawn to this school. The State may properly aid this movement by offering a stated sum annually to high schools maintaining agricultural courses. Already many small townships are paying the tuition of pupils attending high schools in neighboring townships, and this system should be extended with the proviso that such tuition fees paid for students desiring agricultural courses should be devoted to the maintenance of agricultural courses. The balance neces- sary to maintain these courses will, it is believed, be cheerfully paid by the villages or cities maintaining the high schools as soon as they realize that such expenditure is in the nature of an investment, the returns from which in the way of better and more abundant agricultural products will be certain and remunerative. In order that it may be apparent that agricultural courses may be offered in the high schools without any violent or radical reorganization of existing programmes 454 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. for such schools, a number of tentative schedules for such courses are presented here- with along with various courses already existing in high schools in different parts of the country. An examination of numerous high-school programmes has revealed a very great variety in their courses as regards the number of different branches and the amount of time devoted to each branch in any particular course. In general, however, it may be said that the average high-school course in this country presup- poses that the student has had an eight-year course in a primary school, where he has been taught reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, elements of English grammar and composition, geography, and United States history. The best primary schools also give some instruction in drawing, music, nature study, and woodworking, or sewing and cooking. The high-school course covers four years and will ordinarily embrace instruction in algebra, geometry, ancient and modern history, English, drawing, and music, together with various combinations of Latin, Greek, French, German, and the ele- ments of natural sciences (especially chemistry, physics, and botany). Whenever the manual arts or the natural sciences are largely introduced into high-school courses the practical effect is to reduce the amount of time given to the ancient and modern languages. With improved instruction in English and science the effect of this on the general training of the student is not as marked as it might otherwise be, and whatever the theoretical pedagogical value of instruction in ancient or modern languages, there is little doubt that when a choice has to be made between these subjects and those which relate directly to the pursuit by which the pupil is to gain his livelihood, it will in most cases be desirable that he shall choose the things of most direct benefit in his life work. That it will not always be necessary for the student of agriculture to entirely neglect the study of at least one ancient or modern language in this high-school course, provided his tastes or attainments lead him in that direction, may be seen from examination of the programmes of courses presented herewith. With the introduction of agriculture into the high-school course, it is presumed that the courses in physics, chemistry, botany, and zoology will be so shaped as to form an appropriate introduction to the more formal instruction in the different branches of agriculture, i. e., agronomy, zootechny, dairying, rural engineering, and rural economy. As indicated in previous reports of this committee, we would include under agronomy whatever is taught regarding climate, soils, fertilizers, and the bot- any, varieties, culture, harvesting, preservation, uses, and enemies of farm crops; under zootechny, the theory and practice of animal production, including the breed- ing, feeding, hygiene, and management of farm animals; under dairying, the princi- ples and methods involved in the handling and sale of milk for consumption and in the making of butter and cheese; under, rural engineering, principles and methods involved in the laying out of farms, and the construction and use of farm buildings, systems for water supply, irrigation, drainage, sewerage, roads, and machinery; under rural economy, the history of agriculture, capital, labor systems, cost of production, marketing, records, accounts, etc., as related to farm management. Beginning with the simpler forms of high-school courses, we present a programme prepared under direction of the State superintendent of public instruction in Indiana and recommended for use in that State in high schools where at least two teachers are employed exclusively in high-school work, and along with this a tentative agri- cultural course prepared by your committee, which presupposes an additional teacher. RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 455 Programme for high schools in Indiana. a FIRST YEAR. General course. Tentative agricultural course. Algebra 5 English 5 Latin 5 Physics or chemistry 5 English 5 Algebra 5 Plants and their cultivation (i. e., botany- general and economic) S Physics 5 SECOND YEAR. Algebra (one-third year)... Geometry (two-thirds year) English Latin History 5 English S 5 Algebra \ c 5 Geometry f 5 Animals and their management (i. e., zo- 5 ology — general and economic) 5 Chemistry 5 THIRD YEAR. Geometry (two-thirds year) Elective b (one-third year) . English History 5 English & 5 Geometry, Latin, or German & 5 Agronomy (with special attention to local 5 crops) History & FOURTH YEAR. Elective & 5 Zoology or botany 5 Latin 5 History 5 History 5 Political economy 5 Zootechny and dairying 5 Latin or German 5 a With each subject the number of recitation periods per week is given. b Mathematics, physical geography, oratory, or advanced physiology. With the introduction of agriculture into high schools of this kind the division of studies among three teachers might be as follows: A. B. C. English. Chemistry. Physics. Latin. Botany. Mathematics. German. Zoology. Agriculture. History. Political economy. Teacher B should be an agricultural college graduate and would ordinarily be a man who might be principal of the school. Teachers A and C would ordinarily be women. As an example of a high school in a city of medium size, that of Lowell, Mass, (population, 95,000; chief industry, cotton manufacturing), has been selected. Eight courses are offered, but only the classical, modern language, and manual- training courses, recommended as general training courses, are given herewith. Studies in italics are elective. 456 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS, Programme of Lowell ( Mass . ) High School. a FIRST YEAR. Classical course. Modern-language course. Manual-training course. Tentative agricultural course. English 5 Algebra 5 Latin 5 Physical geography 2\ English 5 Latin 5 Algebra 5 Physical geography. 2| English 5 Algebra 5 Manual training .. 5 Physical geography. 2£ English 5 Algebra 5 Plants and their cultivation (i. e., botany— general and economic) ... 5 Physics 2£ SECOND YEAR. History and Eng- History and Eng- History and Eng- History and Eng- lish : 5 lish 5 lish B lish 5 Geometry 5 Physics 5 Manual training . . 5 Animals and their Physics 5 Geometry 5 Geometry 5 management Latin or French 5 French 5 Physics 5 French 5 (i. e., zoology — general and eco- nomic) 5 Cheyiistry 5 Geometry 5 French or German or Latin c 5 THIRD YEAR. History and Eng- lish 5 Arithmetic 2| Physiology 2i Chemistry 2\ German 5 Latin 5 Astronomy and ge- ology b 5 History and Eng- lish 5 Arithmetic 2£ Physiology 2| Chemistry 2\ German 5 French.. i 5 Astronomy and ge- ology b 5 History and Eng- lish 5 Manual training . . 5 Arithmetic 2i Physiology 2| Chemistry 5 German 5 French 5 Astronomy and ge- ology b 5 History and Eng- lish 5 Agronomy and ru- ral engin eering ... 5 Arithmetic 2£ Physiology 2£ Chemistry 5 French or German or Latin c 5 Astronomy and ge- ology b 5 FOURTH YEAR. English .... 5 English .... 5 English 5 English 5 History .... 5 History .... 5 Manual training. . . 5 Zootechny and Chemistry .... 5 Chemistry .... 5 History 5 dairying 5 German .... 5 German .... 5 Chemistry 5 History 5 Latin .... 5 Botany .... 2h German 5 Rural economy and Botany .... 2 | French 5 farm management. 2* Geometry and trig- Entomology 2^ onometry 5 Trigonometry and surveying French or German or 5 Latin c 5 a With each subject the number of recitation periods per week is given. bMay be taken the fourth year instead of the third: c Whatever language is elected should be continued through at least two years. Another example of a high school in a city of medium size has been selected, viz, Des Moines, Iowa (population, 62,000), which is in the midst of a rich agricultural district. This illustrates a course of study in which the elective system predominates. By simply adding to the curriculum for the second, third, and fourth years electives in agriculture a course of study much better adapted to the needs of pupils from the rural districts could be arranged. RECENT PBOGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 457 Programme of Des Moines (Iowa) High School. a FIRST YEAR. Present course of study. Algebra Zoology English Drawing Botany Latin Phgsical geography. Geology Tentative agricultural course. 5 2 * 3 2 2$ 5 2s 2j Algebra Zoology English Drawing Botany Latin Physical geography Geology 5 2i 3 2 2 * 5 2s 2 * SECOND YEAR. Algebra Geometry English History Physiology Latin Bookkeeping and commercial law. •*s 2s 5 2j 5 5 Algebra Geometry English History Physiology Plants and their cultivation (i. e., botany — general and economic) Animals andtheir management (i. e., zoology — general and economic) Latin ^ Bookkeeping and commercial law 2* 2 * 2* 5 2s 2s 2i 5 5 THIRD YEAR. Geometry 5 English 5 Latin 5 Greek 5 German 5 French 5 Chemistry 5 Civics and economics 5 English history 2| American history 5 Geometry 5 English 5 Agronomy and rural engineering 5 Latin 5 Greek 5 German 5 French 5 Chemistry 5 Civics and economics 5 English history 2£ American history 5 FOURTH YEAR. Physics 5 English 5 Latin 5 Greek 5 German 5 French 5 Civics and economics 5 American history 5 Trigonometry 2\ Astronomy 2£ Physics 5 English 5 Zootechny and dairying 5 Rural economy and farm management 2£ Latin 5 Greek 5 German 5 French 5 Civics and economics 5 American history 5 Trigonometry 2s Astronomy 2£ a With each subject the number of recitation periods per week is given. Each pupil must take studies occupying at least 15 periods in addition to English. Subjects in italics are elective. As an example of a high school in a large city, that of Washington, D. C. (popu- lation 279,000), has been selected. In this city there are also- business and manual- training high schools with elaborate special courses. For our present purpose the tentative agricultural course is compared with the courses offered in the general high school. 458 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. Programme of Washington High School. a FIRST YEAR. Academic course. Scientific course. Tentative agricultural course. English 5 History 5 Algebra 5 Latin 5 Drawing English 5 History 5 Algebra 5 German 5 Drawing English 5 Algebra 5 Plants and their cultivation (i. e., botany — general and economic) 5 Physics 5 Drawing or woodworking. . SECOND YEAR. English \ - English history j Greek 5 Geometry 5 Latin 5 Physics or chemistry 5 Drawing English 1 c English history j Geometry 5 German or French 5 Physics or chemistry 5 Drawing English f> Geometry 5 Animals and their manage- ment (i. e., zoology — gen- eral and economic) 5 Chemistry 5 Drawing or woodworking.. THIRD YEAR. English 5 Latin 5 French 5 German 5 Greek 5 Biology, or advanced chem- istry, or advanced physics . 5 Political economy 5 Solid geometry 5 Trigonometry and surveying, or history 5 English 5 German or French 5 Biology, or advanced chem- istry, or advanced physics . . 5 French 5 Political economy 5 Solid geometry 5 Trigonometry and surveying, or history 5 English 5 History 5 Agronomy and rural engi- neering 5 Biology 5 Trigonometry and survey- ing 5 Latin 5 German 5 Bookkeeping 5 Drawing 5 FOURTH YEAR. English 5 Latin 5 Advanced biology, or chem- istry, or physics 5 Greek 5 History, or analytical ge- ometry and college algebra . 5 French 5 German 5 Spanish 5 English 5 German or French 5 Advanced biology, or chem- istry, or physics 5 History, or analytical geome- try and college algebra 5 French 5 Spanish 5 English 3 Political economy 5 Zootechny and dairying 5 Rural economics and farm management 2 History 5 Latin 5 German 5 Drawing 5 Bookkeeping 5 Entomology 5 ttWith each subject the number of recitation periods per week is given. Each candidate fora diploma must take studies occupying at least 20 periods, except in the fourth year, when the minimum requirement is 18 periods. Subjects in italics are elective. It is believed that the presentation of schedules as above justifies the assertion that it is entirely practicable to adjust an agricultural course of high-school grade to existing high-school schedules and to make this agricultural course fairly satisfactory for the purposes of general training, as well as elementary instruction in the theory and practice of agriculture. The graduate of such an agricultural course may fairly be expected to understand the scientific basis of improved agriculture and to have an intelligent appreciation of the needs of a progressive agriculture. He will then be in position to profit by the results of the investigations of the experiment stations and by the information regarding the progress of his art which may come to him from the njore intelligent of his neighbors, farmers’ institutes, and good books and jour- nals. He will be likely to become an intelligent and progressive farmer as well as a refined and useful citizen and home-maker. RECENT PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 459 In the present condition of secondary education in this country there is no room for dogmatism regarding courses of study, but there is every reason why the friends of agricultural education should assert their right to be heard in claiming the importance, desirability, and feasibility of including instruction in agricultural sub- jects in high-school programmes. Your committee has proceeded on the assumption that the definite formulation of tentative secondary courses in agriculture would con- tribute to the more intelligent discussion of this important subject. If continued, it may hereafter give more attention to this subject and report such further suggestions as more extended study may bring out. A. C. True, T. F. Hunt, H. T. French, H. H. Wing, Committee . 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