PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 355 



nalism, millinir industry, forestry and highway engineering in Kan- 

 sas, farm drainage in Maryhmd (Princess Anne Academy), rural 

 engineering in Mississippi, a four-year general science course in New 

 Jersey, and landscape gardening in Pennsylvania. In Washington 

 a four-year collegiate course in forestry was added and the two-year 

 forestry course was reduced to one year of purely technical work. 



At a conference .of forest schools held in Washington, D. C, De- 

 cember 30-31, 1909, a committee consisting of H. S. Graves, B. E. 

 Fernow, Filibert Roth, R. T. Fisher, and Gifford Pinchot reported 

 to the conference a plan for establishing a minimum standard cur- 

 riculum in forestry and looking toward the permanent organization 

 of a forest conference. This report was adopted and the committee 

 continued, with power to call a meeting of such a conference and to 

 formulate a constitution for the proposed association, and, in con- 

 sultation with the Forest Service and other employers of foresters, 

 to prepare a standard of forest education. 



The agiicultural colleges have frequently been criticized for not 

 sending more of their graduates back to the farms. These criticisms 

 have come from those who do not take into consideration the fact that 

 many of these graduates who take up work in the agricultural col- 

 leges and experiment stations are exerting a wider influence for the 

 advancement of aginculture than they could as farmers. However 

 that may be, it seems from recent investigation of the matter on the 

 part of a few of the colleges that a very large percentage of the 

 graduates of the larger, better equipped agricultural colleges actually 

 return almost immediately to the farms. As an indication of this, 30 

 of the 38 graduates of the animal-husbandry course in Iowa State 

 College will engage in farming, 4 will teach in agincultural colleges, 

 and 1 will go into agricultural journalism. Only 3 of these graduates 

 were looking for positions at commencement time and these wanted 

 to become farm managers. Out of 189 recent graduates of the same 

 institution who are engaged in agriculture, 132 are farmers. Accord- 

 ing to a recent compilation as to the pursuits followed by the alumni 

 of the Illinois College of Agriculture during the past ten years, 115 

 of the total 184 graduates are engaged in farming, 40 are connected 

 with the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 7 are with the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, and another is an agri- 

 cultural editor, making about 90 per cent connected with the agri- 

 cultural industry. 



COURSES FOR TEACHERS. 



At least 4G of the agricultural colleges maintained teacher-training 

 courses in agriculture, and these courses varied from summer courses 

 of a few weeks to regular four-year courses with additional graduate 

 work. Four-year courses for teachers are offered by 22 colleges, in- 



