26 Report of the Director. 



quately discussed in most colleges of mechanic arts or engineering, 

 for such colleges have another and special point of view. Several 

 of the colleges of agriculture are now developing departments of 

 farm machinery. The subject needs emphasis in the East as well 

 as in the West. In fact, it needs greater emphasis here ; machinery 

 has been developed mostly for easy conditions and large areas. 

 It now needs to be developed for the more difficult and complex 

 Eastern conditions. For the present, however, our own College of 

 Agriculture cannot establish such a department, as the existing 

 departments must first be fully equipped. 



2. Rural Engineering. — Under this term are included such field 

 engineering problems as have to do specially with agricultural enter- 

 prises, as surveying with reference to land measure, drainage, irri- 

 gation, road-making, water-supplies, and many of the lesser prob 

 lems of bridge-building, traction development, and other construc- 

 tion. Nearly all the land of the country is to be in farms (using 

 the word farm to include organized and managed forests), and 

 the complete utilization of this land will demand the expenditure 

 of much engineering skill. The engineer will probably contribute 

 as much as any other man to the making of the ideal country life. 

 Professional engineering subjects must be left to the technical 

 engineering schools ; but training must also be provided from the 

 agricultural point of view and in connection with other agricultural 

 studies. These agricultural engineering subjects are bound to mul- 

 tiply. Irrigation, for example, is not to be confined to arid regions ; 

 it must be added to humid regions not only to overcome the effect 

 of drought but to cause the land to produce to its utmost. Irriga- 

 tion for humid climates presents a special set of problems, for it 

 must be intimately associated with drainage, and these problems are 

 not yet thoroughly understood. The name " rural engineering " 

 now appears in the curricula of some agricultural colleges. We 

 cannot yet develop this range of work at Cornell. 



3. Rural Art. — Almost from the first, the agricultural colleges 

 have included landscape gardening in their curricula. In fact, they 

 are the only institutions that have taught it. The subject is con- 

 sidered to be their special province. To this day there is only one 

 professional school covering this field and that is recently organized 

 at Harvard. At least twenty-two of the land-grant institutions are 

 now giving instruction in these subjects. 



As a country life and agricultural subject, landscape gardening 

 (or landscape architecture) has to do primarily with the making of 



