302 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



At its public opening exercises, the School was welcomed to the 

 University of Missouri b}^ Dean Walter Williams of the School of 

 Journalism, as the representative of President Hill who was in 

 Europe, and by Dean Mumford of the College of Agriculture. Dean 

 True of the Graduate School briefly outlined its history and pointed 

 out some of the reasons for its continuance. In this connection he 

 directed attention to the fact that " the desirability and importance 

 of such an agency as the Graduate School of Agi-iculture, which 

 aims to influence the whole movement relating to agricultural edu- 

 cation and research by giving it certain impulses from the top, can 

 not be determined by the number of persons who come directly under 

 its influence. They are rather largely to be found in the character 

 and extent of the movement and the tendencies which are develop- 

 ing in it." 



Dean True also briefly summarized some of the important develop- 

 ments of American agi'iculture and agricultural education and re- 

 search during the twelve years since the establishment of the Gradu- 

 ate School. Census comparisons of conditions in 1900 and 1910 were 

 quoted, showing an increase in the proportion of improved lands 

 from 49.4 to 54.4 per cent, an increase of land values of 118 per cent, 

 and an increase in the proportion of the total farm investment repre- 

 sented by land from G3.9 to 69.5 per cent. Under these conditions 

 "the farmers, with land much higher in price, are loudly calling for 

 increased knowledge of ways to use their land more economically and 

 with greater returns. But this knowledge can only be obtained by 

 more highly trained men, for the remaining agricultural problems 

 are complex and difficult to solve." 



Meanwhile boys from both country and city have been going to 

 agricultural colleges in much larger numbers. During the past de- 

 cade the number of students taking the full four-year course in agri- 

 culture has increased from approximately 2,500 to 12,500, or an in- 

 crease of 500 per cent. The nmnber of white students registered in 

 short and special courses has doubled, now aggregating about 11,000. 

 Since 1910, the annual number of graduates in agriculture has in- 

 creased from 708 to 1,384, and the number receiving advanced de- 

 grees from 74 to 164. The total revenues of the land-grant colleges 

 have practically tripled and those of the experiment stations have 

 more than tripled, the increase being esj^eciall}^ notable from sources 

 other than federal funds. Similarlj^ the number of men on the staffs 

 of the experiment stations has increased from about 750 to approxi- 

 mately 1,600, and the number of these doing no teaching from 375 

 to 925. 



Along with the increase in the activities of the experiment sta- 

 tions and the number of students taking the college courses in agri- 

 culture, the number of secondary schools in Avhich airricidture is 



