Report of the Director. 17 



always being done, however, under the administration of the regular 

 state commission provided for the care of the forests. Such work 

 ought to grow in importance year by year, rendering direct service 

 both to the farmers and to the State government. It should be able 

 to meet the economic needs of the people, to provide one more 

 agency to educate persons in terms of their daily lives, and also to 

 train professional foresters. 



Rural Engineering. — Under this term was included such field en- 

 gineering problems as have to do specially with agricultural enter- 

 prises, as surveying with reference to land measure, drainage, irri- 

 gation, road-making, water-supplies, and many of the lesser prob- 

 lems of bridge-building, traction development, and other construc- 

 tion. Nearly all the land of the open country is to be in farms 

 (using the word farm to include organized and managed forests), 

 and the complete utilization of this land will demand the expendi- 

 ture of much engineering skill. The engineer will probably con- 

 tribute as much as any other man to the making of the ideal country- 

 life. Professional engineering problems must be left to the techni- 

 cal engineering schools ; but training must also be provided from the 

 agricultural point of view and in connection with other agricultural 

 studies. These agricultural engineering subjects are bound to mul- 

 tiply. Irrigation, for example, is not to be confined to arid regions ; 

 it must be added to humid regions not only to overcome the effect 

 of drought but to cause the land to produce to its utmost. Irriga- 

 tion for humid climates presents a special set of problems, for it 

 must be intimately associated with drainage, and these problems 

 are not yet thoroughly understood. The problem of efficient high- 

 ways needs very much to be considered. This is primarily an agri- 

 cultural problem, because these roads should be made to serve coun- 

 try necessities rather than urban necessities. It has relation not 

 only to transportation, but to valuation to farm property and to the 

 developing of the economic and social phases in general. The high- 

 way commissioners, or other local officers, are farmers or closely 

 associated with farmers ; they should be given opportunity in a 

 short-course to receive practical instruction in road-making. The 

 efifectiveness of the road work of the State will be determined very 

 largely by the training of the men who have the work in charge in the 

 different localities, or who make public sentiment in those localities. 



Rural Architecture. — Rural architecture is, for the most part, 

 hopelessly inefficient and therefore hopelessly inartistic. Real farm 

 architecture will ncit be handled by professional architects because 

 there are no fees in it ; and, as in the case of rural art in general, 



