738 EXPEKIMENT STATION RECORD. 



is the duty of the State, but also that this education should be vitally 

 related to the occupations of the masses. The wisdom of agricultural 

 instruction and its tangible value to the country at large and to a wide 

 range of industries directly dependent upon agriculture have now 

 become evident to the pedagogue and the farmer alike, and in an 

 encouraging measure to the legislator as well. 



Things always move more slowly at the start, but agricultural 

 education is now moving faster and faster every year, so that with 

 the rapid development of efficient courses for it much greater prog- 

 ress may reasonably be expected in the near future, the effects of which 

 will be far-reaching in our national life. 



When the Michigan Agricultural College holds its semicentennial 

 jubilee two years from now, there will be very much to report in the 

 progress of agricultural education and the influence of the agricul- 

 tural college. There will be great cause for congratulation over what 

 has finally been accomplished, and every encouragement in the out- 

 look, for it will be evident that the dark ages of agricultural educa- 

 tion in the United States have passed. 



The avenues open to graduates in agriculture increase in number 

 and variety with each year. For a time the agricultural colleges and 

 the experiment stations absorbed those who cared to enter the pro- 

 fessional lines of agriculture, and the fertilizer trade was the main 

 outlook of the agricultural chemists on the industrial side. In the 

 course of time State boards and departments of agriculture added 

 agricultural graduates to their forces; and the National Department 

 of Agriculture, as it developed and differentiated, recruited its corps 

 of workers quite largely from that source. 



Gradually private enterprise began to employ such men, and the 

 creamery industry now claims many operatives trained in the dairy 

 school. Manufacturing establishments which stand in close relation- 

 ship to agriculture find it advantageous to have men on their force 

 who are experts in agricultural lines, and this advantage is especially 

 noticeable in establishments which include among their products or 

 by-products materials designed for spraying, feeding, fertilizing, and 

 other agricultural uses. Railroads are coming to find use for such 

 men, as are also large development enterprises of various sorts. The 

 landscape gardener is in steady demand for city parks and private 

 grounds, and the farm superintendent or manager of large estates who 

 has had a college training is becoming more common every year and 

 more sought for. 



The usefulness of the economic entomologist in the practical walks 

 of life was long ago recognized, not only as an investigator but in the 

 protection of trees and shrubs of parks and cities. Many municipal- 

 ities now number such an officer, as they do also instructors in the 

 elements of agriculture and in gardening in the public schools. 



