EDITOEIAL. 529 



tion to the number of instructors, and within certain limits this is 

 believed to be true. If a student upon entering college finds scanty 

 provision made for instruction in agriculture, whereas other depart- 

 ments are well equipped and offer greater inspiration for work, he is 

 quite likely to drift over into those other courses, or take only a half- 

 hearted interest in his work; and he certainly will not become an 

 ardent missionary for the agricultural course of that college after he 

 graduates and goes forth to his life work. 



The spectacle of the college with a goodly number of students in 

 agriculture still clinging to the single "professor of agriculture," who 

 perhaps divides his time with the experiment station and farmers' 

 institute work, is not inspiring or one for any State to be proud of in 

 this day. Every agricultural State should have progressed beyond 

 that stage, and if it has not is it any surprise that it finds little demand 

 for agricultural education? 



We are making much progress in working out the methods of teach- 

 ing agriculture, and in giving' it pedagogic form; and a number of 

 States are making encouraging progress in differentiating the teaching 

 force and in training specialists for various branches of the subject. 

 The example of the institutions which have thus developed and differ- 

 entiated the subject has had a great influence in giving dignity and 

 respect to that course, in arousing the interest and securing the confi- 

 dence of farmers, and in placing agricultural instruction on a higher 

 plane. But we can not claim as a whole to have done the subject full 

 credit yet, or to have placed the course on a par with some others in 

 the institution. The need for men of agricultural training, and the 

 generally favorable public sentiment at present, give agriculture a 

 strong claim for support. 



The work of the experiment stations is judged quite largely by 

 the outside public through their publications. These have changed in 

 many ways since the stations were organized. They have been sys- 

 tematized and improved in general appearance, they are confined more 

 largely to reports of investigation and experiment, and the work which 

 they report is unmistakably higher in general character, indicating 

 that more intricate problems are now commanding attention. 



But the number of bulletins and reports issued by the stations has 

 not changed materially in the past decade. In a way this is a good 

 indication, for it suggests what observation confirms, that closer atten- 

 tion is being paid to investigation and less to compiling what has 

 already been known. As a matter of fact, station men are now so 

 occupied with their researches and experiments that very many of 

 them find difficulty in getting time for writing bulletins. Further- 

 more, the expense for printing and mailing, where there are no 

 special funds for this, has about reached the maximum which the 



