Report of the Director. xxxi 



and in the future all homes should be organized on rational pro- 

 cedure and trained ideals. 



7. We are not meeting our responsibilities in respect to the train- 

 ing of teachers for rural communities. We have had the nucleus 

 of a Normal Department for some time, but it is not growing in 

 the way that it should. It has practically no offices of its own, and 

 has no laboratories or lecture rooms. I have long felt that such a 

 department should have an actual rural school in operation as a part 

 of its laboratory ecjuipment, and have attempted to secure this addi- 

 tion. I urge most careful attention to this division of the College 

 of Agriculture. 



8. Quarters must speedily be secured for the Department of 

 Rural Art. This department has never had a class room. In fact, 

 it has no place in the College of Agriculture except one small office 

 that has no window. The draughting work is now performed in 

 the drawing rooms of the College of Architecture. This arrange- 

 ment has been satisfactory to us and we should be glad to continue 

 it; but the tim€ is practically at hand when, because O'f the growth 

 of both the College of Architecture and of our Rural Art work, 

 other quarters must be provided for the draughting. Plan work 

 of the kind that a landscape architect must do requires large space. 

 I do not think that the importance of this department has gener- 

 ally been appreciated, but I am convinced that we must develop 

 the scenery attractiveness of the open country if we are to make 

 rural life as resourceful and satisfying as it is capable of being. 

 The purpose of our Department of Rural Art is not only to train 

 landscape architects, but also to develop a point of view in all our 

 students on the necessity of good surroundings in rural homes, 

 school grounds, churches, cemeteries, highways, and all other 

 spaces. There is a growing demand for our advice on these mat- 

 ters from farmers, school officers, and others. It is not the pur- 

 pose of the Rural Art Department to do the work that lies prop- 

 erly within the field of the professional landscape architect or land- 

 scape gardener. The development of rural art really lies mostly 

 outside the field of professional practice and comes within the 

 scope of the activities of an educational institution. Any awaken- 

 ing of public sentiment as to the necessity of better surroundings 

 in the farming country should increase the general demand for 

 professional practice as well as to be of inestimable value to the 

 people themselves. I have long had in mind a low building of the 

 vungalow type, neatly placed in an attractive planting, which should 



