EDITORIAL. 303 



ticulty has been experienced in securing teachers having the requisite 

 combination of scientific knowledge and practical skill and experience. 

 The same difficulty presents itself when farm managers are sought 

 among the graduates of our agricultural colleges. This presents one 

 of the problems of higher education in agriculture as yet unsolved. 

 Experience seems to show that the requisite practical skill and art of 

 management required for the successful conduct of actual farm opera- 

 tions can not as a rule be acquired by students during the period of 

 their life spent in school and college. They must obtain this after- 

 Avards by actual contact with the practical problems of the farm. The 

 case is analagous to that of students in medicine or pedagogy. Just 

 as the graduates of medical schools ought to have hospital practice 

 before setting out as regular practitioners, and the graduates of normal 

 schools ought to have actual school work under skilled supervision 

 before taking charge of schools for themselves, so the graduates of 

 agricultural colleges ought in some way to have opportunities for 

 engaging in farm practice before the}' are accredited as qualified to be 

 instructors in agriculture or farm managers. Already there is a con- 

 siderable demand for well-equipped farm managers, and in the near 

 future there are likely to be more openings for well-trained men as 

 instructors in secondar}- and practical schools of agriculture. There 

 is, therefore, encouragement for graduates of our agricultural colleges 

 to give special attention to fitting themselves to meet such demands. 



Plans are being made to hold a graduate school of agriculture at the 

 Ohio State University in July, 1902. The first session of this school 

 will be held under the auspices of that university, whose board of 

 trustees has assumed financial responsibility for this new enterprise. 

 The Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations at its recent session in Washington approved the proposition 

 to hold such a school, and voted to assume responsibility for it after 

 the first session, thus making it a cooperative enterprise for the col- 

 leges and experiment stations represented in the association. 



Secretary Wilson has taken great interest in the project, and acting 

 on his advice, the Director of this Office has consented to act as dean of 

 the school at its first session, and other officers of the Department will 

 be on its faculty. It is planned to hold a four weeks' session, during 

 which advanced instruction and laboratory practice will be given in 

 three general lines, agronomy, zootechny, and dairying. This instruc- 

 tion will be along both scientific and practical lines, and will he of a 

 character to meet the requirements of advanced students. The coop- 

 eration of the leaders in agricultural education and researcli in this 

 country is already assured, and there is good promise of an uinisually 

 strong faculty. A prospectus will be issued about January 15, 11»02. 

 Correspondence regarding the school should be addressed to Prof. 

 T. F. Hunt, Columbus, Ohio. 



