EDITORIAL. 607 



thropic in many of its activities, is probably due to the humanizing 

 influence of the educational activities supported and stimulated by 

 the Government." 



It is refreshing to have a liberal-minded, appreciative estimate of 

 these institutions, based on an intelligent and intimate study of 

 their activities and influence. It is inspiring, because it shows 

 how large a factor they have actually been in the evolution of in- 

 dustrial education. The other side has often been presented, and, 

 as if misrepresentation had become a habit, credit continues to be 

 denied them, even when they have attained a high degree of success 

 and the results are so much in evidence. 



. One critic .who view s^the^Jurirfi^" ^f ^bp. g go-iqiltnral colleges a^c! 

 that of training farmers, and hence argues fdi- the trade school stand- 

 "arcl, has recently, in connection with a discussion of the proposed 

 reorganization of a state institution, presented an elaborate argument 

 in favor of an agricultural school pure and simple, maintaining that 

 agricultural education can not be properly developed when associated 

 with engineering. Again, a document has quite recently been issued 

 giving the distribution of college and vmiversity graduates among the 

 professions and various walks of life, including agriculture. This 

 survey evidently takes a similar view of the scope of agriculture, for 

 we read in- the deductions from the analysis that '' in spite of the 

 comparatively large number of agricultural courses, farming does 

 not attract and never has attracted a very large number of college 

 graduates." It may be mentioned in passing that the list of insti- 

 tutions studied includes only three of the state universities of the 

 central west having courses in agriculture, and not a single separate 

 college of agriculture and mechanic arts. The largest quota of 

 graduates entering farming from the colleges included in the analysis 

 is reported as less than four per cent, in the years 1836 to 1840, a 

 time when there were, of course, no agricultural courses in any 

 American colleges. After this the deduction follows (from data ten 

 years old or more for fully half the institutions)" that " although the 

 number of graduates entering agricultural pursuits is increasing, it 

 is not increasing so rapidly as the number entering other profes- 

 sions. Consequentlj^ the curve for the college-bred farmer is falling." 



It is hoped that some time we may have reliable statistics on the 

 graduates of land-gTant colleges, made on a basis which will show 

 not only how many are going into farming as a business, but how 

 many are entering the broader field which the agricultural colleges 

 represent. Until we have this and a recognized distinction between 

 the duty of these institutions toward farming as a trade, and toward 

 the immeasurably broader field of agriculture as a great fundamental 

 66501°— No. 7—12 2 



