434 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN". 



years and 4 months ; the average age of the freshman entrants in 

 agriculture, 20 years and 5 months. 



An agricultural high school is not being conducted at Davis, but 

 there is being given a three years' course in agriculture to students of 

 university age who do not have the requirements for admission to 

 college. In addition to the students who come to Davis because they 

 do not have the requirements to enter college, there are high school 

 graduates who desire to spend onl}^ two years in further study and Avho 

 find the last two years at Davis upon which they can enter better suited 

 to their needs than the first two years at Berkeley. Every effort should 

 be made to meet the needs of this class of men. The minimum age of 

 entrance at Davis should be raised to 18 years, first, because the student 

 should be induced to exhaust his local agencies of education before 

 entering the farm school ; and, second, because when he has completed 

 his three years' work he should be mature enough to enter upon 

 business for himself. 



Emphasis should be placed upon the fact that the training offered at 

 Davis has nothing to do with the introduction of agriculture into the 

 high schools. This should be done, but it is a wholly different thing. 

 The high school system should be so arranged that every boy and girl 

 betAveen the ages of 15 and IS can sleep at home. The boys and girls 

 between these ages need their parents and equally important, perhaps, 

 the parents need the children. Eighteen is the accepted age for breaking 

 home ties. Prom 18 to 22 is that transitional period during which the 

 young man or woman gets adjusted to his or her surroundings. A 

 student enters college a boy and leaves it a man. In some ways, this 

 is the most important fact concerning his university career. If this 

 view is accepted, it will at once become apparent that the University 

 Farm school at Davis is not a local institution. It may be just as 

 useful to the young man who lives in Imperial Valley or in Butte 

 County as to one born within five miles of Davis. 



Unless the ranches of California are to be abandoned or are to be 

 cultivated by foreigners, there are in California at this moment more 

 than 8,000 young men between the ages of 18 and 21 who will some 

 day occupy the land. Less than six hundred are now receiving 

 instruction in agriculture at Berkeley and Davis. In a comparatively 

 few years, a thousand students of agriculture will be enrolled at each 

 place unless we do something to stop them. It should be determined at 

 once what is the most efficient number that can be accommodated at 

 Davis. It should be determined whether it is to be 300 or 600 or 

 1,000. Plans should be made to start a new unit at Fresno as soon as 

 the most efficient number that can be cared for at Davis is reached. 

 At Fresno, where the University owns 5,000 acres of land, there is an 

 opportunity to build up the most extensive, most varied, and best 

 instruction in horticulture, both for farm school and University, that 

 is to be found in the world. No other such possibility exists anywhere. 

 At Davis special emphasis should be placed upon dairying, animal 

 husbandry and deciduous tree fruits. At Fresno, the emphasis should 



