DEPARTMENT OF RURAL ECONOMY 



TEACHING 



Teaching in the Department continues the same as last year. The 

 courses lately added to the curriculum have had more than a normal 

 increase in numbers, especially the course in cooperation. This course 

 is beginning to appeal to many as a new avenue of effort in both town 

 and country. 



The normal growth of students in the Department makes it impossible 

 to give as much personal attention to each as is desirable. 



INVESTIGATION 



Aside from library work on problems arising mainly in the lecture 

 courses, but little has been done in investigation. In connection with 

 the study of cooperation in New York (as an extension enterprise), 

 considerable time has been spent in investigation. 



EXTENSION 



The main efforts of the Department have been centered on the pre- 

 liminary work looking toward a study of the whole problem of coopera- 

 tion, mainly in the State of New York. Within a short time the gathering 

 of data will begin all over the State, and it is expected to have available 

 not only historical data but also such information as will make easier the 

 forwarding of all cooperative efforts in the State; in other words, to have 

 a center where live data on all kinds of cooperative effort may be found. 



The means available have not been sufficient to encourage a man to 

 take up this work. It is hoped that this vital field may be occupied by a 

 man temperamentally and educationally fitted for the work, and that the 

 remuneration will be attractive enough to make it worth while. With 

 the data that it is proposed to collect, and the best library on the subject 

 in the country, the cause of cooperation would be much forwarded and 

 the College could be made the center of such enterprise. 



RECOMMENDATION 



As has been said in every previous report, the greatest needs of the 

 Department are : space to accommodate the undergraduate students, and 

 the graduate students who are now turned away; an opportunity to 

 develop the teaching and investigative work; and provision for the 

 extension work. 



Teaching is now done in four different rooms in three different build- 

 ings, and two of these buildings do not belong to the College of Agri- 



6 [cxlv] 



