xxviii Report of the Director. 



Scope of a College of Agriculture. 



A college of agriculture is an institution that stands broadly for 

 rural civilization and that includes within its scope such a range of 

 subjects as will enable it to develop an entire philosophy or scheme 

 of country life, as founded on agricultural pursuits. This means 

 that such an institution must include within its range all the subjects 

 that have to do with the growing, handling and caring for crops, 

 the rearing, handling and caring for animals in health and disease, 

 and all the subjects that underlie the development of good farm 

 homes, together with the social, economic and educational questions 

 involved. It must handle all the live-stock, forestry, cropping and 

 other questions. All the work of such a college should be tied 

 together by the two departments of Farm Management and Rural 

 Economy (or their equivalents). The growth of a State college 

 of agriculture is limited only by the limitations of the subjects for 

 which it stands and the willingness of the people on whose support 

 it rests. 



If this conception of a college of agriculture is sound, then it fol- 

 lows that the New York State College of Agriculture must be 

 expanded, and it must take in work that is now outside its organ- 

 ization. It is now highly developed in some of its departments, but 

 it does not cover the entire field. 



In order to develop any of its work in the most fundamental 

 way, great attention must be given to research, the spirit of the 

 quest for truth dominating it and making it secure. There can be 

 no spirited teaching of college grade in the natural sciences unless 

 it is founded on original personal investigation. 



Enlarged Facilities. 



The New York State College of Agriculture is now growing so 

 rapidly, both in its local and extension work, that the mere physical 

 lack of floor space for lectures and laboratories has come to be 

 acute. We are now face to face with the problem either of de- 

 veloping the space and equipment in the College of Agriculture or 

 limiting the number of students who shall be received. Inasmuch 

 as the new interest in country life is only beginning to express 

 itself, it would seem to be a misfortune for the State to limit the 

 facilities for collegiate instruction and extension work; yet this is 

 a question that the State itself must settle. We cannot be ex- 

 pected to receive more students than can be accommodated with 

 the facilities that the State provides. 



