DEPARTMENT REPORTS 31 



KErORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE. 



To the President: 



Sir — I have the honor to submit the following report of the Depart- 

 ment of Practical Agriculture for the year ending June 30, 1901. 



But one change has been made during the current year in the teaching 

 force of this department. Mr. J. J. Ferguson was made instructor in 

 animal husbandry and ^Ir. John Michels. a graduate of the University of 

 Wisconsin, was elected to the position of assistant instructor in dairying. 



(Iraduates from the agricultural course continue to be in demand 

 as instructors in agriculture or as experimentalists at experiment 

 stations. This being true it has been thought advisable to make it 

 possible for students having such work in mind to elect advanced work 

 along agricultural lines. 



AVe are pleased to state, and we believe it can be said without fear 

 of successful contradiction, that there never was a time within the 

 past fifteen years' history of the institution when agriculture and 

 agricultural instruction have received so large a share of the agricultural 

 student's thought and interest as now. Ten years ago it was no uncom- 

 mon thing to hear groups of students not onlj' ridiculing students who 

 took a lively interest in their agricultural work, but instructors and 

 the information they conveyed to the student. It is a source of pleasure 

 to all friends of the college and agricultural education in general that 

 this change of sentiment has taken place. Personally we believe it a 

 heakhy atmosphere for the boy or young man of the farm to breathe for 

 four or more years. 



In our last report we said "agricultural instruction is in a transi- 

 tional stage." AA'hat was true one year ago is more true today. A j-ear 

 has only shown the greater possibilities. In that time it has been found 

 that more interests and industries of the farm are capable of being 

 taught in class-room, laboratory, barn and field. To see that none of 

 these growing interests suffer, groAvth of the department is necessary. 



In our judgment the two phases of agricultural instruction most 

 neglected at our institution at present are dairying and farm crops. 

 We cannot give more attention to these subjects without more time. 

 Those best informed know that the curriculum of the agricultural course 

 is already crowded. It seems then inevitable that within the near 

 future our agricultural students should be better prepared before 

 taking up a college course in agriculture. 



There certjiinly should be provision made for the agricultural student 

 who wishes to take up station or agricultural college work aftei* gradua- 

 tion to pursue the study of modern languages and have such work 

 credited. However desirable it may be for the college to graduate men 

 thoroughly equij»])ed along jiractical agricultural lines it is not, in the 

 mind of tlie writer, foreign to oiir work to train instructors in agricul- 

 ttire and exi)erimentalists. 



During the ]»ast year it has been the effort of the department to 

 bi'ing students into closer touch with jiractical farm life iind ty])ica) 



