106 STATE BOAUD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the college curriculum as a part of the shrinkage process. Ou the other 

 hand a three credit study in sociology was added to tJie required work 

 in the home economics course, while an additional elective in United 

 States history was inserted in the agricultural, home economics and 

 forestry courses. 



One of the results of these alterations which is of considerable im- 

 portance to the department has been the contraction of the depart- 

 mental teaching staff from six members to four. It was found that 

 all of the eliminations which were made from the History and Economics 

 studies comprised subjects which were given in the freshmen and sub- 

 froshmen years where classes are large and class sections numerous. 

 Withdrawing subjects like these meant simply that duplicate teachers 

 could be dispensed with and the curtailment just mentioned was the 

 result. The increasing restriction of the work done by this department 

 to the elective years where large classes can be handled, and, to fewer 

 subjects, as a result of the eliminations which have been mentioned, 

 will afford the opportunity for greater specialization by the members 

 of the department — a desirable result in every way. 



In connection with this matter of departmental efficiency I feel that 

 not a little has been lost through the withdrawal at the end of last 

 year of the customary allowances of departmental stationery with the 

 names of all members of the department printed thereupon. Some of 

 the departments of this college have a history as old as that of the 

 college itself and one or two of them have reputations so widely ex- 

 tended that to have it shown upon letterheads that he is associated with 

 such a department is no small addition to the pay of the not overly re- 

 munerated young instructors in these departments. The teachers in 

 History and Economics during the past year have contributed from 

 their own j'ockets the necessary amounts for purchasing departmental 

 stationery upon which the names of all the members thereof appeared. 

 This seems a rather unjust tax to levy, however, since much of this 

 stationery is used wholly in connection with the college bu>siness. It 

 seems desirable in every way that the old arrangement of department 

 paper, a aried according to the needs of the different departments, might 

 be resumed. 



The worth of every subject presented in a college course is naturally 

 enhanced by having such an arrangement of conditions as will pemiit 

 this subject to have the space in the college curriculum which its im- 

 portance deserves. Two of the subjects in this department have now 

 acquired for themselves situations which alloAV them, to be presented 

 fairly ade(iuately and quite efficiently. These are Economics and Amer- 

 ican History. The first of these subjects runs throughout the entire 

 college year in three of the college courses and furnishes no problems 

 in adaption m,ore serious to the teacher than those of selection. When 

 it is remembered that not a few of our larger schools offer as many as 

 sixty or seventy courses in this subject and that additional ones are 

 constantly being developed, it will be seen that the problem at this 

 place of choosing just the ones which should be given dur- 

 ing three terms has no easy solution. . The solution which 

 was approved during the past year involved the study of eco- 

 nomic resources during the first term, economic i)rinrii)]<'R during the 

 second and American industrial development during the third term. 



