236 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



Iowa College. Miss Isabel Bevier, of Illinois, talked on the subject 

 of home economics in the land-grant college, approaching the subject 

 from the standpoint of the home and its needs. She stated that the 

 development of suitable courses of home economics is limited at the 

 present time only by the resources of the institution, the ability, tact, 

 skill, and wisdom of the people in charge of the work, and the attitude 

 of mind of colaborers in the institution. 



THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE. 



The second session of the Graduate School of Agriculture was held 

 at the college of agriculture of the University of Illinois, July 2-28, 

 1906. Dr. A. C. True, Director of the Office of Experiment Stations 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture, was again selected 

 as dean of the school, and Prof. Eugene Davenport, dean of the college 

 of agriculture of the University of Illinois, acted as registrar. 



The opening exercises of the school were held on the evening of 

 July 4, when the school was welcomed to the university by Dr. T. J. 

 Burrill, vice-president of the university. Prof. L. H. Bailej^ presided 

 and made an address in which he pointed out the need of a compre- 

 hensive system of agricultural education comprising institutions or 

 departments for research, graduate study, college courses, extension 

 work, and secondary and elementary courses. The graduate school 

 is needed to aid in the more complete establishment of such a system 

 and to stimulate workers in our agricultural institutions to more 

 thorough study and research. 



A paper by Dr. H. W. Wiley, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry of 

 the United vStates Department of Agriculture, was also presented, in 

 which the meager opportunities for study along agricultural lines in 

 preparation for the doctor's degree at our leading universities were 

 shown. These were contrasted with the wider opportunities for such 

 work offered in the German universities and the greater extent to 

 which advanced study in agricultural lines is encouraged. Doctor 

 Wile}^ declared that "there are no problems of a strictly scientific 

 character which at the present time have more intimate relations to the 

 welfare of the people than those which are connected with agriculture. 

 The field of research also in this region is more fruitful, the number of 

 prol)lcms greater, and the o])portunities for discovery wider than in 

 almost any other field of scientific investigation. The establishment 

 of agricultural colleges and experiment stations is giving proper train- 

 ing to a vast body of young men, many of whom ought to enter the 

 university and ccmtinue the studies of their college days. * * * 

 What the friends of agricultiu^e should ask is that in the future our 

 great universities should recognize agricultural science as one of the 

 leading branches to which attention should be paid in graduate 

 studies." 



