722 REPORT <»F OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



ftloit is iiu'ctiiiy its ivwiird in the upward trend of cducatioiial iiicthods 

 and ill tlio more wliolosonic attitude of tho noj^ro race toward indus- 

 trial education. 



And yet. o})tiniislic as we may he, we should not lose sight of the 

 fact that the institutions under consideration have many needs. Some 

 of the more prominent of these needs as regards instruction in agri- 

 culture may he summed up as follows: 



(i) Better instructors: These should lie hetter ti*ained in up-to-date 

 methods of teaching agriculture and should have a l)roader and more 

 hopeful ^•iew of the agricultural situation than is now })revalent in 

 these institutions. They should ))e i)j"imarily teachers of agriculture; 

 not teachers of chemistry or hotany as related to agriculture. It 

 would also ))e intinit(dy ))etter if they could ))roaden their horizon by 

 taking postgraduate^ work in some other college than the one from 

 which they graduate. 



(2) Better text-books of agriculture: Man}' of those now in use are 

 anti<|uated. At one time they w^ere conijjarativel}' sound, but later 

 and better l)ooks have ai)peared and should speedilv replace those 

 not thoroughly suited to the more modern method of teaching 

 agriculture. 



(3) Better library facilities: Few of these schools have anything 

 like adequate reference lil)raries. The total value of their libraries 

 ($30,31)0) is less than that of single libraries in man}- of the agricul- 

 tural colleges for w^hites. 



(4) Better la])orat()ry facilities: Onlj' two or three of these insti- 

 tutes have any laboratory e({uipnient for teaching agricidture. 



(5) Better farm buildings, livc^ stock, machinery, and other equip- 

 ment: Some of these schools have farms with thoroughly modern 

 ecpiipment and are practicing di^■ersitied farming, but the}' are the 

 exception to the general rule. 



(6) More liberal funds: It has been shown above that the income 

 per student of the colored schools is scarcely more than half that of 

 the colleges for whites. It will hardly })e possible to make nmch 

 improvement in their stati' of instruction and material equipment 

 until they have better financial support. 



(7) Better methods of instruction: These will surely come and can 

 only come when the other needs are more or less fully supplied. 

 With better-trained instructors, better text-books and library facili- 

 ties, better laboratory and farm equipments and methods, we shall 

 speedily have in these schools ))etter methods of instruction and a 

 more rational attitude toward the fundamental industry of the South. 



Detailed statements regardino- the facilities and methods of instruc- 

 tion in agriculture in the different colleges and schools for negroes in 

 the South are given below. An article by C. L. (xoodrich describing 

 the methods of instruction in agriculture in Hampton Normal and 

 Agricultural Institute is given on page 739. 



