EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXVI. March, 1912. No. 4. 



Data recently compiled in this Office bring out some very interest- 

 ing facts concerning the rapid development of college and school 

 courses in agriculture in the United States since the publication of 

 similar data in May, 1910. In this interval of less than two years 

 the total number of institutions of all kinds reporting students in 

 agriculture has almost trebled. From a total of 864 such institutions 

 in 1910, the number has now increased to 2,546. This increase is at 

 an average rate of seventy-six institutions a month. 



As might be expected, the number of collegiate courses in agri- 

 culture has not increased. Although there are now sixty-one col- 

 legiate courses, as compared with fifty-seven in 1910, the increase is 

 due to the establishment of college courses in forestry in four 

 institutions. There is a considerable increase in the number of pri- 

 vately endowed colleges reporting courses in agriculture, but on 

 account of the nature of their work in agriculture these colleges are 

 listed among the secondary institutions. 



In most cases these privately endowed colleges disclaim any inten- 

 tion of trying to compete with the State colleges of agriculture, 

 frankly announcing that their work is secondary or " practical." 

 More than two-thirds of the institutions of this class are in the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, Nebraska having eight, Illinois six, and seven other 

 States from one to three each. Two of these secondary courses are 

 horticultural, maintained in well-known colleges for women in Massa- 

 chusetts, and two of the agricultural courses are given by prominent 

 universities in New York. 



The largest numerical increase in agricultural courses has been 

 among institutions offering secondary courses, of which there are 

 now listed 2,154, as compared with 630 in 1910. These include the 

 forty privately endowed colleges mentioned above, thirty-five State 

 colleges of agriculture offering secondary courses in agriculture, and 

 a large number of agricultural high schools and public and private 

 high schools and academies. In making up this list only those insti- 

 tutions reporting students in agriculture as a separate subject of in- 

 struction have been included, and in the case of high schools and 

 academies which are also doing grammar-school work the enrollment 

 of students of agriculture in one or more high-school years of the 

 course has been the basis for admission to the list. 



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