526 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



This summary shows that there are at present 268 instructors who 

 may be credited to those departments, an average of 5.7 officers to an 

 institution. But in thirty-one colleges the number is below this aver- 

 age, and in only sixteen is it equal to or above it. As a matter of fact, 

 the average would be material^ lower were it not for some six or 

 eight institutions which have a sufficiently large number of instructors 

 to place them in a class by themselves. Several colleges have only a 

 single instructor for these subjects, and often he has teaching work in 

 other branches or duties in the experiment station. More than half 

 of the colleges have from three to five men in these two departments, 

 while eight institutions have from eight to twelve men. Cornell Uni- 

 versity lists fifteen instructors in these departments, Iowa twenty, and 

 Illinois twenty-one, while Wisconsin heads the list with twenty-three, 

 although several of this number are obviously employed for the short- 

 course work. 



These numbers include not only the professors in the branches of 

 agriculture and horticulture, but the assistants and instructors as well. 

 Considering the number of men which the leading colleges now regard 

 as necessary to represent the more general divisions of the subject, it 

 will be seen that a relatively small number of colleges have what can 

 be regarded as a strong agricultural faculty, or have made great 

 progress in diversifying the subject in the direction of providing assist- 

 ant professors or instructors in its various branches. 



A study of the relation between the teaching force in agriculture 

 and horticulture and the number of students in these subjects brings 

 out some interesting points, both in relation to the different agri- 

 cultural colleges and to other departments of these and similar 

 institutions. 



Excluding three colleges for which the returns are incomplete, the 

 general average the country over is a little over ten students to an 

 instructor in agriculture and horticulture. But the variation is very 

 wide. At several institutions there are only two or three students for 

 each instructor in those subjects, while in Illinois there are eight, in 

 Michigan thirteen, in Iowa eighteen, in Oregon and Texas twenty, in 

 Missouri twenty-two, in Massachusetts thirty-six, in South Carolina 

 forty-six, and in Mississippi sixty-eight agricultural students for each 

 instructor. At eighteen colleges there are ten or more students to 

 each instructor in these branches. 



Taking all departments of the colleges of agriculture and mechanic 

 arts, and considering all courses except the short and preparatory 

 courses, there is an average of almost exactly ten students to each 

 officer of the college, or the same number as given above for the 

 departments of agriculture and horticulture. The proportion at the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which embraces the mechanic 



