PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION. 279 



supplemented by milling and baking tests, thereby acquainting the 

 grower in a practical way with the requirements and point of view 

 of the miller and the consumer. 



The object lessons from tlie exhibits were explained and emphasized 

 anew by a large corps of lecturers and demonstrators. The speakers 

 included men prominent in state and national atfairs, a long list 

 of scientists from this Department and the agricultural colleges 

 and experiment stations, and many experts engaged in various com- 

 mercial phases of the industries. Not infrequently the audience 

 taxed the capacity of the two lecture halls which were available. 

 A special feature was a two-day session of the Commission on Country 

 Life, in which farmers, agricultural editors, professional and busi- 

 ness men, nnd many others participated. 



The third day of the exposition was set aside by the management 

 as Agricultural College Day, and special trains brought several 

 hundreds of students from the near-by States for the occasion. But 

 to a large degree the name might well have been applied to each 

 and every day of the exposition, so prominent was the influence of 

 these institutions, and so apparent the confidence and esteem with 

 which their work was regarded. In the main auditorium a prom- 

 inent section was reserved for their special exhibits, 12 institutions 

 presenting illustrative material with reference to their work both 

 in general and with particular reference to those phases relating to 

 crop improvement. Thus, Illinois showed that the protein content 

 of corn could be increased by selection; Ohio, that wheat must be 

 improved by selection, and not by the fanning mill; Indiana com- 

 pared the results of continuous cropping with rotation in wheat 

 growing; and Wisconsin showed how, through the State Experiment 

 Association, improved seed has been distributed in the State. The 

 Iowa and Xel)raska exhibits were especially elaborate, the former 

 giving prominence to cultural methods, and the latter to feeding 

 problems and cereal diseases and insect pests. 



A novel and instructive feature for women was what was known 

 as the " model kitchen," This was in reality a school of domestic 

 science, and was under the management of the head of the domestic 

 science department of the Iowa College, assisted by teachers of home 

 economics from the Illinois and Missouri universities and elsewhere. 

 Here a ten-day course was given to a class of young Avomen number- 

 ing ()0, with daily demonstrations and lectures which were open to 

 the general public. 



For the farmers and experts in embryo — the students in the agri- 

 cidtural colleges — a special incentive was offered in the form of a 

 judging contest. In this, teams from the Iowa and Kansas colleges 

 and the Missouri University struggled in a keen but good-natured 

 competition, finally won by the Iowa College, for the possession of 



