646 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



witli regard to their occupation. He suggested that the Secretary of 

 Agriculture be requested "to consider the advisability and propriety 

 of arrangiug for the editing, under the direction of tbe National Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, of such a series of books as the necessities of our 

 farming interests seem to require." The suggestions of this paper 

 were referred to a committee of three, consisting of 0. W. Dabney, jr.. 

 Assistant Secretary of Agriculture; W. H. Jordan, of New York; and 

 W. A. Henry, of Wisconsin, to report at the next convention. 



A progress report of the committee on methods of teaching agricul- 

 ture was presented by A. 0. True, of this Office, as secretary of the 

 committee. As the result of a preliminary study of data collected by 

 the committee from the agricultural colleges throughout tlie country, it 

 appears that "there exists at present in this country no standard for 

 instruction in agriculture. There is a bewildering variety as regards 

 the topics taught, the time devoted to each toj^ic, the order in which 

 the different toi)ics occur in the course, the relative amounts of class- 

 room work and laboratory or practical exercises, etc." 



To afford a basis for further discussion of this matter the committee 

 proposed a tentative scheme for the division of. what is commonly des- 

 ignated agriculture in courses of study into several distinct branches 

 or subdivisions, and for giving each of these branches a definite name, 

 as follows: 



'1. Agronomy, or agricul-|' Climate, soils, fertilizers, and crops — 

 tare (technical). { phint production. 



, Zoiiteebny, or animal in-J Animal physiology and animal pro- 

 dustry. \ duction. 



Agrotechuy, or agricul-| Agricultural industries, e.g., dairying, 

 Agriculture..-^ tural technology. 1 sugar making. 



Rural engineering, farmf -r. i i • • • i- ^ j- 



mechanics, or" iarm Roads, drains irrigation systems, larm 



,' buildings, etc. 



equipment. [ =" ' 



Rural econimiy. or farmf Geueralpolicy of farm management, ru- 

 mauagement. [ ral law, agricultural bookkeeping,etc. 



Accompanying the report' were papers on " Some features of Euro- 

 pean institutions for agricultural education," by A. C. True, and "Agri- 

 cultural education in the Scandinavian countries," by F. W. Woll. 



C. S. Murkland, of New Hampshire, submitted the report of the com- 

 mittee on entrance requirements, courses of study, and degrees, which 

 was ordered i^rinted. The principal conclusions of this report may be 

 summed up as follows : 



(1) That two series of entrance requirements, a standard series and a minimum 

 series, be approved by the Association. 



As a standard series of entrance requirements, to be adopted as soon as possible, 

 ■we recommend the following: Physical geography; United States history; arith- 

 metic, including the metric system; algebra, to quadratics; English grammar and 

 composition, together with the English requirements of the New England Associa- 

 tion of Colleges and Preparatory Schools ; plane geometry; one foreign language; 

 one of the natural sciences ; ancient, general, or English history. 



'The report and accompanying papers have been published as Circular No. 32 of 

 this Office. 



