EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XIX. January, 1!)08. No. 5. 



The position of agricultural chemistry as a teaching subject in 

 German universities and schools of agriculture has become a matter 

 of apprehension on the part of its followers, and has lately been the 

 subject of discussion in the public press. The chief parties to the 

 discussion have been the Association t)f German Experiment Sta- 

 tions and the Director of the Ministry of Agriculture, Domains, and 

 Forests, Dr. H. Thiel. As the birthplace of agricultural chemistry 

 and until recently the place of its highest development, this discus- 

 sion and the facts leading up to it are matters of more than local in- 

 terest, as Avell as the bearing of the subject on the organization of 

 instruction and experimentation in agriculture. 



There has long been a feeling in Germany that agricultural chem- 

 istry was not receiving the recognition due to it, and Avas not main- 

 taining the position it formerly occupied. Of late, it appears, it has 

 not held out such possibilities for a career as to induce young men 

 to enter it. It is thus considered to be on the wane, as a result of the 

 attitude toward it, and this condition is felt to be detrimental alike 

 to agricultural instruction and to the future of agricultural research. 



The importance of this matter led to its being made a special topic 

 for discussion at the meeting of the association last winter. On that 

 occasion Prof. Th. Pfeiffer, of Breslau, presented a paper in which 

 he showed the decline of agricultural chemistry in German universi- 

 ties, and maintained that at present it does not occupy a position 

 commensurate with its importance or equal to that of other branches 

 of agricultural science. Of nine universities concerned only two, 

 Konigsberg and Breslau, have full {ordinarias) " professorships in 

 agricultural chemistry, and four others have only limited professor- 

 ships, which do not entitle their occupants to a voice in the de- 

 liberations of the faculty, and in only a few instances permit them to 

 hold final examinations. Under the German university system this 

 latter provision has considerable influence on the courses elected by 

 students. 



<* In German universities professors are of two grades, ordinariu.'^ (full or un- 

 limited) and extraordinarius (limited or subordinate). 



401 



