178 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



SEVERAL STATES UNITE. 



For the present and until the agricultural colleges have been 

 greatly strengthened and until the institute force has been greatly 

 enlarged, it will be necessary for several states to unite in a normal 

 school to be held at dillerent institutions each year and to be 

 equipped with a teaching force contributed by each. This would 

 overcome the diHticulties mentioned, and make it possible to classify 

 the students and thus enable them to devote their time to subjects 

 that more nearly relate to their several specialities. No one in- 

 stitution would be seriously embarrassed by the loss of the number 

 of its teaching force, which it would be called upon to furnish, and 

 the additional number of subjects otfered in such a school would give 

 a character to the meeting and enthusiasm to the teachers and 

 scholars that would do much to popularize it and give it standing 

 among educational institutions. 



An essential feature of a school that is to train institute lecturers 

 is, that it shall be in contact with field demonstrations or experi- 

 ments in agriculture that are conducted along scientific lines. By 

 changing the location of the normal school each year to a different 

 institution, the students would have the advantage of contact with 

 a wide range of experiment work, and thus be far better equipped 

 for giving instruction than would be possible if they had only visited 

 a single institution. The expense to the students would be but 

 slightly increased by this method, and the extended acquaintance 

 with fellows-workers and college experts thus formed would be of 

 lasting benefit. States might be grouped whose agricultural inter- 

 ests are most similar, as for instance, New York, New Jersey, Penn- 

 sylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Ohio. These six states repre- 

 sented in 1903, an aggregate instruction force of 217 lecturers. Fif- 

 teen of these lecturers were reported as being connected with the 

 experiment stations of the several states or the faculties of their 

 agricultural collges, leaving 202 who would be likely to be in atten- 

 dance at a school formed by a union of the six states designated. 

 If there were added to these, one local manager for each county in 

 these six states, numbering 262. there would be a total of 464. 



It is reasonable also to expect that others, knowing of the normal 

 school of instruction provided and of its high character, would be 

 attracted in perhaps considerable numbers^ thus adding to the classes 

 that would annually assemble. 



Suitable courses of study for such a school could be prepared by 

 the deans of the agricultural faculties of the several agricultural 

 colleges and by the directors of the experiment stations of the 

 states interested, together with the State directors of institutes for 

 these states, this body forming a board of control. These represen- 



