282 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS, 



especially important, because the aofricultural rollpfjes and experi- 

 ment stations, havinfr passed thron«rli a period when their material 

 eijuipment and resources were «j:roatly enlar«j:ed and strenofthened, 

 were be^nnnin*; to <j:ive much irreater attention to the character of 

 their personnel. A ^reat demand for better trained men had there- 

 fore arisen, and it was the province of the school to encourage and 

 stinmlate the more thorough training of agricultural teachers and 

 investigators. 



President J. L. Snyder, of the Michigan Agricultural College, as 

 president of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations, responded to the address of welcome on behalf 

 of the association and spoke briefly of the relations of the association 

 to the graduate school. lie also emphasized the importance of good 

 teaching in the agricultural colleges and the need that the agricul- 

 tural specialists employed as teachers should study pedagogy and 

 adapt their instruction to the requirements of different grades of 

 students. In a broader way he urged all teachers, whether in school 

 or college, to consider the fundamental importance of agriculture 

 as providing for the general welfare of the people. 



Director L. H. Bailey, as chairman of the committee on graduate 

 study, spoke on the character of graduate study in agriculture and 

 the degrees to be given for agricultural courses. He attributed the 

 late development of graduate study to the fact that until recently 

 agricultural knowledge has not been well organized, and there have 

 been no recognized standards for postgraduate work as there have 

 been for undergraduate Avork. In his opinion, graduate work is the 

 normal and natural work of a university as distinguished from a 

 college, and needs to be definitely recognized as such and to be or- 

 ganized. It should tend to systematize all educational effort and to 

 establish relationships between the different phases of educational 

 work. 



In regard to the character of post-graduate work, he placed the 

 first emphasis on its content. It should be personal work and must 

 be pursued largely alone wnth the minimum of the ordinary teachers' 

 helps. It should be really post graduate in its character and not 

 merely additional undergraduate work, as is often the case. It is 

 now becoming necessary to select the men who are worthy to under- 

 take it, as not every man who has the technical or formal baccalau- 

 reate requirements has a post-graduate mind. Most men would bet- 

 ter not ask for a master's degree, and only now and then may one 

 apply for a doctorate. 



He also said that in the agricultural colleges it is necessary to make 

 the post-graduate work dynamic. One may study so long as to get 

 out of touch with the activities of life, and a result of the general 

 educational systems is to make the students passive; they are not 



