CONVENTION OF ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL 

 COLLEGES AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS, 1911. 



The convention of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations at Columbus, Ohio, was the twenty-flfth annual meeting 

 of this association, although its quarter centennial will not occur until 1912. 



Commissioner Colman called a convention of representatives of the agi'icul- 

 tural colleges and experiment stations which met in Washington in July, 1885. 

 That meeting appointed a committee to act for the body, and the next meeting 

 was called in October, 1SS7, after the passage of the Hatch Act. At that meeting 

 a permanent organization was effected, and it has been regarded as the first 

 regular convention of the present association. Two conventions were held in 

 1889, one at Knoxville, Tenn., in March, and another at Washington in Novem- 

 ber, so that 25 such gatherings have been held, not counting the initial one in 

 1885. 



The Columbus convention began November 15 and continued through the 

 17th. The attendance was a large and representative one, and the meetings 

 were of great interest. They were held at the State University, where excellent 

 facilities were afforded for the general sessions and the meetings of sections, as 

 well as for the comfort of those attending. 



President's address. — The presidential address, by Dr. W. H. Jordan, dealt 

 mainly with certain ideals of education, the need of leadership in agriculture, 

 and the agricultural colleges in relation to these. 



Dr. Jordan held it to be fanciful to expect that any large proportion of actual 

 farmers will ever be college trained, and he pointed to the fact that in the past 

 the influence of the agricultural college has been largely exerted through men 

 who have become investigators, teachers, publicists, and managers of large 

 agricultural enterprises, rather than through the distribution of practical 

 farmers. Because of the real needs of the times it was thought that the 

 material resources and the human knowledge at the command of the agricul- 

 tural college, and the plans and purposes there merged, should be directed 

 toward souAd inquiry and the training of young men and women for such 

 service as will only be rendered by the few. 



In the vocational courses training in the fundamental sciences was pointed 

 out as a requirement in making effective workers. The lack of this was 

 thought to be a too prevalent weakness. " If the colleges expect to give their 

 gi-aduates a good start on the road to success as teachers and station workers 

 they should seriously consider a curriculum that deals more largely with the 

 fundamental sciences and less with agricultural technics as a superstructure." 

 And, furthermore, " the man is best prepared for the life of a farmer who knows 

 the most about the fundamental sciences and their relation to his vocation, and 

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