98 EXPEBIMENT STATION EECORD. 



Vermont University and Station. — Dr. Guy P. Benton, president of Miami 

 University, Oxford, Ohio, has been chosen president of the University. G. C. 

 Cunningham, a 1909 graduate of the Ontario Agricultural College and a ix)St- 

 graduate student in plant pathology and bacteriology at the University of Wis- 

 consin, has been appointed assistant plant pathologist in the station and has 

 entered upon his duties. Clarence Carpenter, a 1911 graduate of the university, 

 has been appointed assistant bacteriologist, and P. M. Lombard assistant horti- 

 culturist. 



A better-farming-special train was recently sent out in northern Vermont. 

 One car was devoted to forestry and horticulture, one to farm crops and fer- 

 tilizers, one to dairying, and a fourth to agricultural education and home 

 economics. 



West Virginia University. — D. W. Working has resigned as superintendent of 

 agricultural extension to accept a position in the Office of Farm Management of 

 this Department. 



Agricultural College in British Columbia. — An act of the recent provincial 

 legislature sets aside 170 acres at Point Grey, a Vancouver suburb, for the site 

 of a provincial university, and makes a grant of 2,000,000 acres of public lands 

 for its maintenance. Plans are being formulated for the erection of over 30 

 buildings. One important group is to be provided for a college of agriculture, 

 with accompanying schools of forestry, domestic science, and veterinary science. 

 A. central farm in connection with the college is proposed, as well as several 

 branch farms in the Province. 



Agricultural Instruction in Porto Rico. — Instruction in agriculture is now 

 offered by the University of Porto Rico, at Rio Piedras, and by the department 

 of education in 6 of the 41 supervisory districts, the latter being work of an 

 elementary nature. In each of these districts there is a special teacher of agri- 

 culture who gives instruction in the graded schools and superintends the work 

 of the rural teachers in that subject. Gardens are maintained in connection 

 with the work and in some instances the sale of the products, such as sugar 

 cane, pineapples, citrus fruits, tobacco, and vegetables, has placed quite a fund 

 at the disposal of the teacher for the purchase of fertilizers, implements, etc. 

 Courses in manual training and domestic science are maintained in the high 

 school and university courses, and courses in sewing to a limited extent in the 

 graded schools. 



A New Association of Agriciiltural Educators. — A conference on secondary 

 agricultural education was held in Chicago April 10. It was attended by repre- 

 sentatives of the departments of agricultural education of Minnesota, Wiscon- 

 sin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, the principals of the 3 agricultural 

 schools in Minnesota, and the specialists in agricultural education of the New 

 York State Department of Education, the United States Bureau of Education, 

 and this Office. 



Among the topics discussed at the conference was the number of units feasible 

 to be taught in high schools having special teachers of agriculture, in consoli- 

 dated rural or graded schools, and in one-room rural schools. As regards the 

 number of units in the four-year high school course it was voted as the consen- 

 sus of opinion that, if a special teacher of agi-iculture is provided, four years of 

 agriculture are feasible and desirable. There was also considerable discussion 

 of the scope of rural school nature study and of ways and means of securing 

 up-to-date information on agricultural education. A resolution was adopted 

 requesting the cooperation of the United States Commissioner of Education . 

 and the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations in the collecting of suchj 

 material. 



