CONVENTION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES*. 435 



Undergraduate Courses in Land-Grant Colleges? President (i. A. 

 Harter advocated the B. S. degree, to be placed on the same level as 

 the B. A. degree in the requirements leading to it. lie maintained 

 that the degrees B. Agr. and B. S. A. (bachelor of science in agricul- 

 ture) should be done away with, and that the tendency to multiply 

 degrees should be resisted. Dr. A. B. Storms contended for the 

 B. S. A. degree for agricultural students as being more definite; while 

 others maintained that that degree recognized the agricultural work 

 as professional, and that distinction should be made between the 

 general academic degrees and professional degrees. 



The question as to the intent and purpose of the Morrill Act in 

 regard to military instruction was introduced by a paper by President 

 M. H. Buckham, of Vermont, which traced the history of the incor- 

 poration of the military clause in the Morrill Act, and presented such 

 documentary evidence as is to be found relative to the intent and pur- 

 pose at the time the Act was passed. The special interest in this topic 

 has grown out of General Order 65, issued by the War Department, 

 which prescribes the amount of military instruction which the officers 

 detailed to the colleges for this duty are expected to require. Through 

 failure to compty with these requirements, several institutions have 

 incurred an unfavorable report, which has resulted in the withdrawal 

 of the detail. President Buckham suggested that less emphasis be 

 placed on the manual and technical branches of military training, and 

 more upon the higher, the intellectual topics in the military art, since 

 the students at these land-grant colleges "take military tactics as a 

 part of a liberal education, not to tit them to serve as enlisted men." 



The quite lengthy discussion upon this topic showed that with the 

 general advocacy of the importance of military work, and the desire to 

 comply with the law in this respect, there was a quite general dissent 

 from the present requirements of the War Department; and the presi- 

 dents of several large institutions stated that if full compliance with 

 General Order 65 were insisted upon they should be under the necessity 

 of declining a detail and making provision for carrying out the mili- 

 tary instruction in their own way. 



A resolution introduced by President Van Hise, of Wisconsin, 

 instructed the executive committee to present the views of the asso- 

 ciation to the President or the Secretary of War, and this resolution 

 was later passed by the association at one of the general sessions. 



SECTION ON EXPERIMENT STATION WOKK. 



This section considered the general subject of the breeding and 

 improvement of plants and animals, and held a conference on the 

 question of the amount of teaching which it is desirable for station 

 workers to do. 



