PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 271 



partment of Agriculture and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 

 passage of the Hatch Act. 



In the section on college work and administration, four general 

 topics were considered, viz, Educational Policy, The Value of Gen- 

 eral Culture in Technical Courses, Administrative Methods, and 

 Military Discipline. 



Under the first of these topics. President Andrew Sledd pre- 

 sented a paper on Rural versus Urban Conditions in the Determina- 

 tion of Educational Policy. He held that educational policy should 

 be adapted to the specialized needs of ditferent communities and that 

 its first object should be to raise standards of living on a purely 

 physical basis. In addition to this, the farmer should also be given 

 training that will furnish him poise and contentment. He should be 

 a patriotic, high-thinking man, yet contented with life on the farm. 

 So he must have opportunity, not only for gaining a livelihood, but 

 also for society, recreation, and mental activity. Such opportunity 

 must come largely through a multiplication of educational centers 

 distributed over a State, rather than through one centralized college 

 or university. 



President Sledd believes that a moderate degree of specialization 

 should begin early in any school system, but full specialization not 

 till the close of the college course. In the high schools the special- 

 ization curve for the student who does not go further should rise 

 sharply until it covers two-thirds of the course, but for the prospec- 

 tive college student it should rise more slowly and cover only about 

 the last third of the high-school course. 



Speaking on the value of general culture in technical courses in 

 the land-grant colleges, President G. E. Fellows argued that culture 

 may be obtained from any subject which is so thoroughly taught as 

 to make students efficient. He would introduce into the college 

 course only so much of the so-called cultural studies as will fit 

 graduates to associate with others and present their ideas eifectively. 



Administrative Methods in American Colleges was the title of a 

 paper by President P. H. Mell, who outlined briefly four forms of 

 college administration: (1) That form in which the Avhole college 

 community takes part in government but which is applicable only 

 to conditions in Europe, (2) government by trustees, (3) govern- 

 ment by faculty, and (4) presidential government. He did not be- 

 lieve that the trustees should enter actively into the details of college 

 administration, but should manage the larger alfairs of the college, 

 provide and look after its finances, and fill vacancies, subject to the 

 recommendation of the jiresident. Government by faculty he con- 

 sidered too slow and cumbersome for modern educational institutions 

 and he therefore favored j)residential government. The president 

 should be a good business man, but more than a money getter. He 



