PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 021 



For students preparing to enter a four-year agricultural course, high-sclujul agri- 

 cultural courses two or three years in length have been organized; also in some 

 instances one-year or two-year prei^aratory courses. These high-school courses also 

 serve many more students as finishing courses — i)reparation for life work. This is 

 the purpose served also hy the so-called practical one-year and two-year agricultural 

 courses organized for those of limited scholastic attainment — courses having a mini- 

 mum of culture studies and pure science and a maximum of ai)plied science. Thirty 

 colleges now offer courses falling under one of these two classes, and all but nine of 

 these courses are more than one year in length. 



Great importance attaches to courses of this nature, and great care should be 

 exercised in jjlanniiig them, because it is the graduates of these courses more than 

 the graduates of the four-year courses who go back to the farms. It will be said, and 

 it is true, that the best and most thorough course of study is none too good for the 

 farmer, that a man should be as well trained for the profession of farming as for the 

 law or medicine; l)ut it uuist be remembered that there were well-defined courses of 

 study in law and medicine long centuries before the farmer was considered worthy of 

 instruction. In these professions there is now a great body of trained men and 

 specialists from whose ranks special positions may be filled, while in agriculture the 

 men of scientific attainments are comparatively so few and the demand for them in 

 college, station, and other attractive and remunerative positions is so great that few 

 bachelor-degree men feel that they can afford to go back to the farm. For the 

 present, then, and for some years to come, the college of agriculture will have an 

 important mission to i)erforiu through its secondary and short courses in thetrainir>' 

 of young men for the practice of agriculture. 



For those actually engaged in agricultural occupations — the farmers, dairymei., 

 and fruit growers, and their sons and daughters who are unable to leave home during 

 the busy seasons — the special winter courses have been organized. These courses vary 

 in length from a w^eek or ten days to ten or twelve weeks. They are in most cases 

 severely practical. They center around the judging pavilion, the laboratory, the 

 dairy, and the cheese room, with lectures and readings to supplement the practicums. 

 The nature of these courses is even more varied than their length of term. Twenty- 

 two colleges offer courses in general agriculture, including more or less thorough 

 instruction in plant production, animal husbandry, dairying, poultry culture, etc.; 

 nineteen offer courses in general dairying; three in creamery management; two in 

 farm dairying; two in cheese making; five in animal husl)andry; nine in horticul- 

 ture; four in poultry culture; three in domestic science, with more or less of horti- 

 culture, floriculture, and like subjects adapted to the needs of young women; and 

 one each in agronomy, bee culture, forestry, T)eet-sugar production, farm mechanics, 

 correspon<lence cdurses, l)()taiiy, l)acterii>l(igy, and entomology. Two colleges offer 

 courses designated agriculture and horticulture; two, c(»urses designated agriculture 

 and dairying; and (jne, a course in agriculture, horticulture, and mechanic arts. 

 Most, if not all, of these courses include instruction in a number of subjects not indi- 

 cated in the names of the courses. There are also a large number of practicuni 

 courses and lec;ture courses which are confined to a single line of practice, such as 

 cereal judging, stock judging, and the destruction of noxious insects. Six colleges 

 . offer a tf)tal f)f fort}'-four such courses. 



The special winter courses are the utility courses, important because of their influ- 

 ence on the presi'iit-day agricultural ])ractice an<l Itccause of the influence of present 

 practice on future practice. And pn'sent practice is sure to have a powerful influence 

 on the young people who are to be the future farmers and on the quality of soil, farm 

 machinery, aiid domestic animals with which these young people will have to do 

 wlien they take diarge of the farms. The special winter courses, then, are an 

 important and legitimate feature of agricultural instruction, capable of giving a strong 

 uplift to present agricultural conditions. 



