REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR. 



To the President of Cornell University: 



Sir. — I herewith submit my report of the College of Agriculture 

 for the year ended September 30, 1908. This report includes an ac- 

 count of the general operations of the Experiment Station part of 

 the College for the year ended June 30, 1908. It consists of reports 

 submitted by each of the separate departments, including the work 

 of the departments in regular teaching, extension, and investigation, 

 together with recommendations as to the most important needs of 

 the departments for their best development. 



These different departmental reports sufficiently indicate the status 

 of the College and the main needs, without further comments from 

 me. They all agree in showing that the College of Agriculture is 

 now pressed almost to its fullest capacity by the numbers of students 

 and by the demands for work in all parts of the State. In fact, the 

 College is now confronted with the prospect of limiting the number 

 of students. It will be unwise to accept a much greater number of 

 students than we now have without an increased staff and additional 

 facilities. The instruction is largely personal, the student himself 

 working with the materials rather than merely receiving lectures and 

 reciting from texts. It is of the utmost importance that this personal 

 method be maintained and its effectiveness even increased, even if it 

 becomes necessary to set an arbitrary limit to the number of students. 

 I think that 500 regular, special and post-graduate enrollments should 

 be the outside limit with the present staff and equipment, and this 

 limit we shall probably reach or overpass this coming year. This 

 number of students fills all the laboratories and lecture-rooms and 

 consumes all the time and strength of the present instructing staff; 

 the addition of the winter-course students taxes the accommodations 

 quite beyond the possibility of doing the best work. 



I think that these facts should be publicly known. The College 

 is set by the State to serve the needs of the State; how fully we 

 can meet these needs will depend on the extent to which the State 

 provides the means. 



Respectfully submitted, 



L. H. BAILEY, 

 Director Nezv York State College of Agriculture. 

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