DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 69 



3. Average number of recitation hours per week in English, per 



student, for this term in his course: 



Highest possible 3 . 80 



Lowest possible 1 .75 



4. Actual average number of recitation hours in English taken 



per student per week in this term 2 . 61 



NOTE: — The discrepancy between average (1) and average (4) is explained by the fact 

 that average (1) deals with students actually enrolky;! in the English department 

 and doing work in English during the term or the year; while average (4) takes in 

 all regular students doing work in the three courses of the college. In several 

 terms and during a whole year of one course no English work is assigned. The 



• average number of recitation hours in English for a four-year agricultural student 



* during his course is 3.08; for a five-year agricultural student it is 3.50; for a 

 mechanical four-year student it is 1.50; for a mechanical five-year student it is 

 2.33; for a four-year woman student it is 3.33; and for a five-year woman student 

 it is 3.66. In the mechanical courses a correspondingly larger amount of modern 

 language work is required. 



The departnient has been unusually successful in oratory and debate 

 during the past year, winning by a unanimous decision the debate with 

 the Normal College on the question : ''Resolved, that the restrictions 

 placed on the suffrage in Mississippi by the State constitution in effect 

 January 1. 1892, are legally and morally justifiable,'' and tying for 

 second place, according to ranks in the Inter-collegiate Oratorical Con- 

 test. In the debate we had the more unpopular, the affirmative, side 

 of the question. I take much pride in recording here that, in spite of 

 any unconscious jjrejudice on the part of judges against an agricultural 

 college in such contests, in the three debates so far with Ypsilanti, out 

 of the nine votes cast by judges, they have received only one vote more 

 than ourselves; while in the tnter-collegiate oratorical contests of the 

 last four years the averages of .the awards give us the second place in 

 a list of nine colleges, with the exception of ourselves, mainly denomi- 

 national and purely literary. In my opinion such facts are strong and 

 convincing evidence, not merely of the efficient work of the English 

 department, but more especially of the value of the training given by 

 our system of education, enabling the student to acquit himself as a 

 man, not only in the matter of earning a livelihood, but also in all the 

 relations of life. Here, in the realm distinctively ai)propriated by the 

 literary college, we find him facing his competitors as an equal among 

 equals; and with the equipment that the Agricultural Colleg-e gives, 

 winning from them not only respect but also victory. 



In this connection, and in view of the fact that during the year seri- 

 ous effort has been made to diminish the time devoted to English work, 

 I desire to discuss somewhat at length the relation of the English work 

 to the curriculum of our college. 



The Agricultural College as an educational institution is, it is true, 

 a distinct and well-defined revolt from the ideals and methods of' the 

 old education. It recognizes the material needs of meii as primary, and 

 the preparation for meeting those needs as the i)rop(,'r and legitimate 

 business of education. It teaches agriculture instead of Latin because 

 agriculture enables one to win his bread, while Latin does not. It. goes 

 further than this; it systematizes and dignifies such subjects as agri- 

 culture and seeks to give them an educational as well as an utilitarian 

 value. But education at an agricultural college, while thus rightly and 



