308 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The executive committee was ordered to take the necessary steps 

 toward securing legislation for the issuing of uniforms by the Govern- 

 ment to the various colleges. 



The special committee on revision of the constitution of the Associa- 

 tion submitted a report suggesting two forms of revision. The first, 

 approved by the majority of the committee, and of those with whom 

 the committee conferred — 



"proposes the abolition of all sections, so that if adopted the annual convention 

 of the Association would thereafter he a meeting of the executive officers of colleges 

 and stations with such other and special delegates as the institutions respectively 

 saw tit to send to these conferences. It is believed by those favoring this plan that 

 it will effectively bung the Association back to its original purpose, namely, the 

 consideration in annual conference of the problems of college and station adminis- 

 tration as affecting («) internal working, (b) relations to the Government of the 

 United States. (<■) relations to the State governments respectively, (d) relations to 

 other institutions, and (e) attitude towards new legislation proposed from time to 

 time. . . . 



"While concurring in the main with the conclusions of the majority as already 

 set forth, the minority of your committee believes that no other suitable organiza- 

 tion exists to bring together for beneficial conference the teachers of agriculture and 

 horticulture and the sciences as applied thereto with the station investigators in 

 those lines. Therefore it is proposed as an alternative to the plan and recommenda- 

 tions of the majority to so revise the constitution of the Association as to provide 

 for three sections: (1) <>n college and station work and administration, (2) on agri- 

 culture and the sciences applied thereto, and (3) on horticulture and the sciences 

 applied thereto." 



Tbe verbal changes in the present constitution necessary to carry 

 into effect either of these plans is pointed out in the report. 



The Association directed that provision be made for discussion of 

 these propositions at the next convention. 



The second report of the committee on methods of teaching agricul- 

 ture' was submitted by A. C. True. This report was accepted and the 

 committee continued. 



The annual address of the president, Gr. T. Fairchild, of Kansas, dis- 

 cussed in a scholarly manner the evolution of agricultural education 

 under three main heads — education for agriculture, education in agri- 

 culture, and education by agriculture. 



"[In the first of these three stages] the professor's instruction was necessarily a 

 body of information — historical, accounting for habits and practices- demonstrative, 

 illustrating the best practice from cullings of reports, addresses, and descriptions of 

 travel — iu fact, it was a great deal about agriculture, with little of it. The eleva- 

 tion of mind in the man was still to be cared for by a solid training outside of the 

 art to be taught. . . . Moreover, bhe very body of information was a matter of 

 dispute. The professor was charged with incompetency. His crops were said to 

 be inferior; his specimens of stock for illustrative purposes were said to he not 

 types; his instructions were not applicable to the pioneer farming to which his 

 pupils were accustomed ; his methods were extravagant; in short, his farming was 



'See 1'. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Circular 37. For first report 

 see Bulletin 41, p. 57, and Circular 32 of the same Office. 



