EDITORIAL. 403 



The total enrollment of students at the close of the session was 205, 

 three of whom were members of the negro race and three were women. 

 Twelve other women were registered in the Graduate School of 

 Home Economics, which was held at the college July ()-20, and 

 was conducted in close affiliation with the Graduate School of Agri- 

 culture. In 1908 the number of students was 144 men and 19 women. 

 This year the students came from ?)9 States and the District of Colum- 

 bia, in addition to three students from Canada, and one each from 

 Scotland, Cuba, Denmark, Russia, and the Transvaal. 



The public opening exercises of the school were held on the even- 

 ing of July G in the college auditorium and were attended by 700 

 persons from the college community, the town of Ames* and other 

 parts of Iowa, as well as by the members of the graduate school. 

 An address of welcome was made by Dean C. F. Curtiss on behalf 

 of the Iowa State College. President W. O. Thompson, of Ohio 

 State University, chairman of the executive committee of the Asso- 

 ciation of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, 

 responded on behalf of the association, giving an interesting account 

 of the inception of the school and urging the importance of main- 

 taining it on a high plane. 



Dr. H. P. Armsby, of Pennsylvania State College, chairman of 

 the committee on graduate study, discussed the need and importance 

 of systematic graduate study as a part of the preparation of teachers 

 and investigators in agriculture, and pointed out that the true mis- 

 sion of this national graduate school of agriculture was to stimulate 

 our college and station workers to seek a broader and deeper training 

 and to lead the way for the establishment of regular graduate courses 

 in agriculture in our best agricultural colleges. He also urged that 

 these colleges should lay great stress on the preparation of teachers 

 and investigators, since they must be the chief source from which 

 these Avorkers on behalf of agricultural progress would come. 



Dean True, of the graduate school, gave a brief history of the enter- 

 prise, and stated that among the more specific aims of the school are 

 the following: 



"(1) To stimulate more thorough study in the several branches of 

 agricultural science. 



"'(2) To promote more systematic attention to problems of agricul- 

 tural education. 



"(3) To emphasize the vital importance to agricultural progress 

 of the honest and rigid ascertainment of facts and the discovery of 

 underlj'ing principles. 



"(4) To aid the establishment on a sound basis of the profession 

 of agricultural science and teaching and tile formulation of a satis- 

 factory code of ethics for this profession, 



