CONVENTION OF COLLEGES AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 11 



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Preparatimi of men. — The subject of the preparation of men for teaching and 

 for experiment station work was presented in papers by Prof. Alfred Vivian, 

 of Ohio State University, and Dr. H. J. Wheeler, of the Rhode Island Station. 



Prof. Vivian held the best training for teachers or investigators in agricul- 

 tural lines to consist in. " first, a good collegiate course in agriculture along the 

 lines recommended by the committee of this association, this course to include 

 a good foundation in general science, a fair introduction to the humanities, in- 

 cluding a reading knowledge of German, a general survey of the whole field of 

 agriculture, and a limited specialization in one department. Upon this must be 

 built graduate study with the major in the line in which the student expects 

 to devote himself. In connection with his major he should be introduced to the 

 principles of good research and should do a part of his minor work in 

 education." 



Much of the dissatisfaction with the grade of teachers in agriculture was 

 attributed to the tendency of institutions to draw into their work men who 

 have had little or nothing beyond the undergraduate courses. " The average 

 man with his B. S. from an agricultural college has been able to secure a 

 position paying as much as the one open in pure science and the humanities to 

 the man with his Ph. D. While such a condition of affairs exists there is little 

 incentive for the agricultural student to prepare himself properly for his life 

 work." It was suggested that a system of scholarships and fellowships to 

 encourage graduate study on the part of exceptional men would give great 

 returns in the production of efficient teachers and investigators. 



Dr. Wheeler also considered the salary situation the " present great drawback 

 in the way of securing better-trained men." The inequality which results when 

 men of quite limited training are advanced to relatively good salaries in a few 

 years after graduation tends to discourage advanced study. 



In the training of men for college and station positions he took the ground 

 that such men should be thoroughly trained in the use of the English language 

 and should have a reading knowledge of both French and German. They 

 should also be sufficiently trained in economics to hold sound views and promul- 

 gate only rational doctrine. 



The specialist should avoid narrowness in his study, which should be 

 thorough and systematic and should include the various sciences related to his 

 specialty, considered in a broad way. He pointed out the advantages, for 

 example, of such breadth of training for the agronomist, animal husbandman, 

 horticulturist, etc., in making them resourceful and enabling them to see their 

 problems clearly and attack them effectively. 



College organization and policy. — The new committee on college organization 

 and policy made its first report, through Dr. W. E. Stone. It dealt mainly with 

 the attitude which the land-grant colleges should take toward the movement to 

 popularize agricultural knowledge and improve agricultural practice. The 

 committee took the view that these colleges should assume the leadership in 

 these activities, and that the ultimate organization of these agencies should 

 center in these institutions. 



It was recommended that in practice a division of these various activities 

 should be made into coordinate departments, (1) the college or department 

 of agriculture, charged with college instruction; (2) the experiment station, 

 charged with experimentation and research; and (3) the department of agri- 

 cultural extension, charged with the extramural work of instruction, demonstra- 

 tion, and popular teaching of every form, and including such supervision of 

 secondary teaching as may be called for. 



