EDITORIAL. 303 



taught has vastly increased. In 1903, very few secondary schools 

 were giving instruction in agriculture. At present there are over 

 2,000. 



Ten years ago there was scarcely any agricultural extension work 

 performed outside of the work carried on by the fanners' institutes. 

 To-day there are 1.300 men employed as state, district, and county 

 agents, and as boys' and girls' club workers. The money appro- 

 priated under the Smith-Lever Act alone will call for at least '2,o00 

 men for extension work in the next ten j'ears. Even if this number 

 is employed in addition to those already in the field, to reach all the 

 farm operators each extension worker will have to come in contact 

 with at least 2,000 farm operators a year, or over 4,000 farm or agri- 

 cultural workers. 



There are also over seven hundred positions in the U. 8. Depart- 

 ment of Agricultui-e for which graduation at an agricultural college 

 is a prerequisite, and doubtless there are many other positions in 

 which the Department would use graduates of agricultural colleges 

 if these colleges Avere giving more highly specialized and advanced 

 courses of instruction in agricultural lines. As it is, the Depart- 

 ment is now often compelled to take men who are well trained in 

 chemistry or biology and give them the special training along agri- 

 cultural lines required Ijy the work in which they are engaged. 



'• How different, then, is the condition of these colleges from what 

 it was even twelve years ago ! Then they were just beginning to feel 

 the impulse of a more prosperous agriculture and the turn of the 

 tide of popular sentiment in favor of agricultural education. Xow 

 they are at a flood tide of popular favor, which is even so strong as 

 to threaten to sweep them from safe moorings. The demand for 

 trained men on the farms and in commercial pursuits allied to agri- 

 culture is more than keeping pace with the increase of students and 

 graduates, and is even depleting the faculties of the agricultural 

 colleges. To this must now be added the very large demand for 

 agricultural graduates in extension work. . . . 



'' Is it any wonder that the friends of higher education and re- 

 search in agriculture are perplexed and troubled? How shall we 

 meet the incessant demand for agricultural graduates in practical 

 life and in extension work and at the same time strengthen and 

 increase the facilities of our agricultural colleges and the staffs of our 

 experiment stations and great Department of Agriculture? To have 

 well-trained men on our farms and to carry practical information to 

 the multitudes of our farmers is tremendously important. But 

 where are we to get in sufficient numbers the highly trained and effi- 

 cient college professors who are to teach the thousands of students 

 in our colleges and whence are to come the elaborately equipped men 

 of sufficient originality to conduct thorough and successful researches 



