Report of the Director. 29 



and philosophy has. been developed in these lines in Europe, particu- 

 larly in Germany. These subjects are in many ways the most im- 

 portant that fall to the field of a college of agriculture. Economic 

 and social questions are proper subjects to be taught in a college of 

 agriculture, so far as they bear on rural questions. They must be 

 founded, of course, on the study of sound principles as taught regu- 

 larly in arts colleges. The application of them to country-life con- 

 ditions is founded on agricultural thought and practice ; and many 

 of the questions are purely agricultural. Rural economics is as logi- 

 cally a part of our agricultural curriculum as is agricultural chem- 

 istry. The entire effort of a college of agriculture is devoted to the 

 elevation of country living: that is, it eventuates into social and 

 economic studies, 



8. Normal Department. — It is devolving largely on the colleges 

 of agriculture to revive and redirect the rural school. The schools 

 must be made effective in their localities. We do not need new sub- 

 jects in the schools so much as reorganization. Teachers must be 

 trained for the new school, and a good part of the responsibility of 

 training them must rest with the agricultural colleges, because these 

 colleges are near the problem. The recent report of the Commission 

 on Industrial and Technical Education for Massachusetts, under the 

 chairmanship of Carroll D. Wright, proposes that a normal depart- 

 ment be established in the Massachusetts Agricultural College to 

 train teachers for the rural schools of that state ; and a bill embody- 

 ing this recommendation is now before the Massachusetts legislature. 

 In our own case we already have the beginnings of normal work in 

 the two-year special course in nature-study for teachers ; the need of 

 reorganizing and extending this department I consider to be urgent. 



II. Extension Work. 



The extension work comprises all those teaching enterprises that 

 are not of academic kind and that aim to reach the people and their 

 problems in the places where the problems are. It is capable of 

 accomplishing great good. In fact, it is a question whether it is not 

 the most needful just now of any agricultural teaching. It should 

 be clearly separated from college work, with its own staff of experts 

 trained especially for it. In this way it is not at all inconsistent with 

 college eft"orts, but rather a supplement to them ; and it need in no 

 way detract from the efficiency and standing of academic teaching. 



