708 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 37 



again from the committee on instruction in agriculture, " during the 

 past fifteen or twenty years nearly every agricultural college in the 

 country has been working at high pressure. Nearly all of them 

 have been growing more rapidly in enrollment than in teaching staflF 

 and equipment. The result has been crowded class rooms, large 

 laboratory sections, many hours in class and laboratory for teachers 

 with correspondingly few hours for preparation, and too much of a 

 tendency to get things done somehow, whether well done or not. 



" Just now there seems to be a breathing spell so far as the resident 

 teaching work is concerned. There are fewer students, probably 30 

 per cent less. The class rooms are less crowded. The sections are 

 smaller, and the number of students each instructor is required to 

 teach has in many cases decreased. The present time seems, there- 

 fore, to be opportune to consider how we have been doing things and 

 how we ma}' do better." 



The committee was of the opinion that for these reasons not within 

 a decade '' has there been a time so favorable for giving serious at- 

 tention to measures for improving the quality of teaching in the col- 

 leges themselves as the present war emergency afi'ords." It is to be 

 hoped that this optimistic view will prove justified, though there 

 should not be overlooked the serious depletion of faculties or the 

 possibility that in some States the reduction in enrollment may afford 

 a pretext for a curtailment of financial support. 



The decreased burden of teaching may also open up opportunities 

 in many cases for greater attention to research and extension work. 

 It may thus permit, for example, considerable additional investiga- 

 tion and experimentation which has a definite and direct bearing on 

 present agricultural problems and so render a most timely and valu- 

 able service. 



If the reduction in enrollment of agricultural students by nearly 

 one-third seems discouraging, it is well to reflect that in England 

 wholesale losses of faculties and students have occurred, that several 

 institutions have closed their doors, and that others have been very 

 seriously restricted in their operations. Likewise the Ontario Agri- 

 cultural College reports a smaller registration in the entire institu- 

 tion than in its freshman class prior to the war. In our own country 

 no such developments are expected and often the enrollment is far in 

 excess of that of a few years ago. Some of this difference is prob- 

 ably due to the fact that in this country the principle of selective 

 service was adopted as the basis of raising the National Army. 

 When the importance of trained agricultural leadership becomes 

 thoroughly realized, particularly in its relations to the existing emer- 

 gency, there need be little doubt that the agricultural colleges, as 

 the training ground for such leadership, will receive and retain the 

 full support in every direction which they will need for this vital 

 service. 



