54 



are ignorant of agricultural science will not succeed in a bigli degree in inter- 

 esting i)ui)ils in that branch of study, even could a public sentiment put this task 

 upon them. 



Under present conditions the agricultural college will not, as a rule, be called 

 upon for speakei's for the institutes. It is the experiment station men, and 

 so-called " jjractical men," who are in close touch with the work of the station, 

 that the people will come out to hear. It is the experiment station and not the 

 agricultural college that has wrought such a marvelous change in the farmers 

 of America toward scientific agriculture. Professor Chaml)erlain comments 

 upon the change in the institutes that took place soon after the Hatch Act 

 brought into existence the experiment stations, as follows : 



" It was my privilege to compare the agricultural conventions of this State 

 (Wisconsin) at two periods sei)arated by a decade within which the exi)eriment 

 station became a i)oteiit intiuence. The dominant intellectual and moral atti- 

 tude uf tile earlier period was distinctly disputatious and dogmatic. * '■= * 

 In the second period the dominant attitude was that of scientiflc confereiice." 



But while it is the stations that are giving new life and character to the 

 institutes, it is the colleges that are the " head center " for the dissemination 

 of agricultural truth. 



The stations working through the institutes may arouse the people and create 

 a seutiment in favor of agricultural education, but the colleges working through 

 the schools must do the main ]>art of the work of dissendnation. 



It may be said that tlie act that called the stations into existence provided for 

 the distribution of the knowledge to be gained by means of bulletins and circu- 

 lar!?. ];>ut this is insutlicient and inadetiuate. Only one farmer in twenty 

 attends the institutes. Of those who attend, only one in twenty receives the 

 bulletins. Of those who receive the bulletins, only one in two reads them. Of 

 those who read them, only one in two jmts into practice the truth presented. 

 One in l,(iU() in vital touch with the station — a lilieral estimate. 



And so it happens tliat "dissemination does not keep pace with discovery." 

 Or, as the Hon. .John Hamilton puts it, " We have a great reservoir full of val- 

 uable scientitic information to which the mains have not as yet been laid." To 

 be sure, the tigricultural colleges have laid mains to this reservoir of scientitic 

 truth, but they have not yet extended them through the lower schools to the 

 l^eople. This is the one great jiresent need. 



The farmers' institute, too, has done a little tapping of the reservoir, but the 

 flow is siuall, and only that which is immediately helpful is sotight. Great 

 principles and underlying truths must come, if at all. through the other chan- 

 nel — the college and the schools. 



Hence, the relation of the agricultui'al college to the farmers' institute is 

 laainly indirect but important. 



(1) It is closely related to tlie experiment station, wliicli is the .source of life 

 to the institute. From the exix^riment station it receives some of its most valu- 

 able materi.-il. and it gives back to the station some of its very best product. 



(2) It should ])e closely related to the high school and to the normal school, 

 for these are the sources of life to the connnon schools. From the high school 

 it should receive its very best students. an-I to the high school it should give 

 teachers and such a course of study as \\ill promote intei-est in c-ountry life and 

 a thirst for higher agricultural education. 



(8) It is related more directly to the institute because of its part in prepar- 

 ing the men who are sent out b\- the station as siieakers and leaders in the dis- 

 cussion of agricultural topics. To be sure, the institute asks for men from the 

 experiment stations, but the experiment stations ask for men from the agricul- 

 tural colleges. 



