XXU DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



sible positions of Profs, of Agriculture and Horticulture, respectively at 

 Purdue. 



We found them doing efficient work and their services seem to be highly 

 appreciated by those in authority. 



The Professors of Agriculture from the Agricultural Colleges and agri- 

 cultural departments of the Universities of Kansas, Missousi, Illinois, Iowa, 

 Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, with Prof. Lazenby of the Ohio 

 Experimental Station and Hon Waldo Brown of Ohio and several other gentle- 

 men were present. 



The following topics were discussed and the interchange of views must prove 

 mutually helpful to us in our work as teachers of Agriculture. 



1. How can the teachers of Agriculture and Horticultvire best excite the interest and 



enlist the sympathies of the farmers of their respective States ? 



2. What should be embraced in a comse of practical Agricultm-e, and how can this 



course be arranged so as to meet the wants of those who desire to pursue it for a 

 short time? 



3. How much manual labor or practice should be required of AgTicultui-al students ? 



4. What are among the most essential mieans of illustration in teacliing Agriculture 



and Horticulture ? 



5. What are the chief hindrances to successful teaching ? 



6. What relatiou should the Agricidtural College sustain to the National Department of 



Agriclture ? 



It was the unanimous expression of these teachers, from the leading Agri- 

 cultural Colleges of this country, that the subject of Practical Agriculture was 

 the most difficult to present, so as to interest and hold the attention of classes, 

 in the whole range of college work. 



If this is the verdict of those instructors who have but a small number of 

 students in the Agricultural course (who are in College for the special pur- 

 pose of studying Agriculture) and who are not burdened with any of the 

 annoyances which a system of student labor entails ; how is the fact intensi- 

 fied when, as is the case in our own College, we have classes varying during 

 the year from 49 to 92, embracing not alone those who desire the study of 

 Practical Agriculture, but many who do not and who have very little if any 

 interest in the work. 



Then the great difference so far as knowledge of agriculture is concerned 

 among the members of my classes. To illustrate, in my last Freshman class 

 I had a young man from Japan, who knew but little about cattle. Next to 

 him was a young man whose father has for years bred good cattle and who has 

 picked up a good deal of information concerning them. What the one can 

 understand will not' be very well adapted to the other. One needs milk and 

 the other meat and the teacher of Agriculture is expected to give each his 

 portion in due season. Again the students from the town and city have little 

 knowledge of agriculture, while some of the young men from the farm think 

 they know all about it and need no instruction. 



In mathematics and the sciences, students of the same class begin together 

 on an equality, one knows as much of the subject as another. 



I note these facts as practical difficulties in the work of instruction, which 

 are too often overlooked. 



