316 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



agriculture, where wise supervision has secured good teachers and 

 suitable laboratory equipment and other illustrative material. A 

 report to the National Education Association showed that 36 colleges 

 and universities now accept a half unit or a unit of agriculture 

 toward entrance requirements. This is as it should be, for while 

 agriculture is taught in the secondary schools primarily for the boy 

 who is not going to college, there is no reason why the colleges 

 should hesitate or refuse to give credit for a subject now so widely 

 taught, if it be well taught. 



The details from which this brief summary has been made will be 

 found in the following pages. 



EDUCATIONAL WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The educational w^ork of the department continues to grow, and 

 the demands made upon it for speakers, literature, and advice relat- 

 ing to school work in agriculture have been larger than ever before. 

 As heretofore, the Office of Experiment Stations has rej^resented the 

 department in its relations with educational institutions, but the 

 other bureaus and divisions have also done more than in former 

 years to extend the general development of facilities for instruction 

 in agriculture. 



The work of the Weather Bureau school of instruction is described 

 as follows in the report of the chief of that bureau : 



The work of instructing probationary appointees lias continued along the lines 

 pursued during the previous year, except that more attention has been given to 

 map making, especially the making of stencil or milliograph maps. 



By the time they have finished their course of preliminary instruction at the 

 central ofHee the student observers have a fair idea of the method of handling 

 otficial correspondence, and a number of them are quite proficient in sending 

 and receiving telegraphic messages. Upon arriving at stations they are already 

 qualified to make maps, take observations, prepare meteorological forms, and 

 perform the various other station duties. 



Thirty-six men received instruction during the past year, and all but eight 

 had been given station assignments at its close. 



The work of the Bureau of Animal Industry with reference to 

 veterinary instruction in the United States was described in my last 

 report. Referring to that matter in his 1910 report the chief of the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry says: 



As stated in my last report, the courses of instruction in the various veteri- 

 nary colleges in the United States were investigated by two committees, and 

 certain recommendations as to requirements for admission to the civil-service 

 examination for veterinary positions in the bureau were approved by the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture and the United States Civil Service Commission, to take 

 effect September 1, 1909. Most of the colleges have been disposed to meet the 

 requirements of the regulations in order that their graduates may be eligible 

 to the bureau service, and there has already been considerable improvement in 



