176 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



One-third added to the present product of potatoes and grain 

 would be more than $524,UU0,00U ($C24,540,836). 



One-third added to the staple products would amount to over $.306,- 

 000,000 (1306,618,511), and with like additions to other crops and 

 animals not enumerated, would reach a total of $1,442,419,469, all 

 added to the present product and all going into the farjners' bank 

 account. 



This prepares the way for the more direct discussion of the topic 

 assigned me in this paper — "Normal Schools of Agriculture for In- 

 stitute Workers." What kind of a school should this be? 



OF SUPERIOR GRADE. 



A school for preparing men and women to become efiScient work 

 ers in farmers' institutes ought not to be of an elementary or primary 

 grade. The kind of information that is needed in institutes is the 

 latest and most advanced, and if the workers are to be able to fur- 

 nish it they must have had the advantage of superior training. The 

 best is none too good, and only the best is good enough. This means 

 that the force of teachers must be composed of capable men, thor- 

 oughly informed with respect to the sciences that affect agriculture 

 and with the details of practices that are most approved. No half- 

 educated scientist is fit to teach in such an institution, any more 

 than a half-trained classical scholar is fit to teach in the University 

 of Athens. 



The men a-nd women attending such a school have had for the most 

 part much experience in practical agriculture and most of them have 

 more than ordinary education. They come not for general culture, 

 but for receiving instruction in some speciality in which they are 

 already well-informed. They are^ therefore, in a sense post-grad- 

 uate students of agriculture so far as their specialities are con- 

 cerned. 



MUST TEACH SPECIALITIES. 



The school that is to be adapted to their wants will need to provide 

 for the teaching of numerous specialities. This will necessitate a 

 large faculty of expert specialists to give instruction, all of whom 

 should be teachers of experience. Specialities in institute work dif- 

 fer in character from those ordinarily taught as specialities in col- 

 lege. A man who lectures in the institutes on dairying is a specialist 

 in institute work. But in a training school for preparing men to 

 give instruction on dairying, there would be needed the services of 

 several specialists: One on bacteriology, one on chemistry, one on 

 animal physiology, one on animal nutrition, one on the management 

 of milk and cream and one on butter and cheese; all experts, whose 

 special qualifications are needed to train the institute lecturer who 

 is to make the giving of dairy instruction a speciality. A similar 



