EDITORIAL. 527 



arts without the agriculture, is eight students to each instructor, taking 

 the whole institution. 



An article in a recent issue of Sou net gives returns for twenty-one 

 of the leading American universities showing the number of students 

 and instructors, and the relative proportion between them in each case. 

 The range of the latter is from one instructor to 4.74 students (Johns 

 Hopkins) to 1:17.45 (Missouri University) and 1:18.63 (Minnesota 

 University). The average for the twenty-one institutions is one 

 instructor to ten students, which, curiously enough, agrees with the 

 relation of students to instructors in agriculture and horticulture. 



Several of the universities mentioned have colleges of agriculture 

 connected with them, and in every such ease but one the relation of 

 students to instructors is larger in the university than in agriculture 

 and horticulture. Missouri is the exception, with 17.45 students to 

 each instructor for the whole university, and twenty-two to one in 

 agriculture and horticulture. For the University of Illinois the pro- 

 portion is one instructor to 8.85 students, and in agriculture and hor- 

 ticulture one to eight. 



The above relationships are given as illustrating conditions which 

 exist, and not as a statement of the needs of the instruction force in 

 agriculture. The number of students to be taught at any given time 

 is not regarded as the proper basis for determining the strength of the 

 teaching force, if the subject of agriculture is to be properly devel- 

 oped in the institution; but it has so frequently been the basis of con- 

 tention on the part of college officers that it is interesting to see how 

 it has actuall}* worked out. 



The average derived above of one instructor to ten students, repre- 

 senting as it does all departments of the twent} T -one universities cited 

 and the colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts as a whole, may 

 fairly be applied to any single department or group of departments. 

 Hence it may be used, as it was above, as a basis of comparison in the 

 case of the departments of agriculture and horticulture, considering 

 these two together; for surely no one will contend that a smaller 

 instruction force in proportion to the students to be taught is needed 

 in those departments than in others where less laboratory and practi- 

 cum work are involved. 



At eighteen agricultural colleges the number of instructors in agri- 

 culture and horticulture is less than one instructor to ten students, 

 i. e., the instruction force is below the above average. In fifteen of 

 these cases there are five or less instructors in the departments of 

 agriculture and horticulture, the average for these fifteen being 3.8 

 instructors. In all of these institutions several of the instructors are 

 also carrying important departments in the experiment station, the 

 directorship often being included. Evidently in these cases insuffi- 



