1919] EDITORIAL. 105 



agement, and floriculture. The courses in rural economics and soci- 

 ology dealt with farm management, agricultural economics, rural 

 organization and sociology, and comparative agriculture. There was 

 also a general course in agriculture offered as an elective for stu- 

 dents in other colleges of the university. 



The college was headed by Dean Hayward of the Delaware Col- 

 lege as director, with Capt. E. N. Wentworth, formerly of the Iowa 

 and Kansas colleges, as assistant director. The faculty numbered 

 about fifty, nearly all of whom were originally from the instruction 

 and extension forces of the agricultural colleges. A partial list of 

 its members shows sixteen of these institutions represented, and 

 might easily have been mistaken a few years ago for a' roster of the 

 staff of the Graduate School of Agriculture. 



The student body varied at different times, but reached a maxi- 

 mum enrollment of over fifteen hundred and was even more com- 

 posite than the faculty. Former agTicultural college seniors from 

 the Middle West rubbed elbows with prospective freshmen from 

 New England or the South, and a captain from the Pacific coast 

 sometimes found himself under instruction in stock judging or fruit 

 growing or rural sociology by a sergeant from New York or Penn- 

 sylvania. This diversity of training and experience complicated 

 the arranging of courses, but gi'eatly added to the interest and value 

 of recitations, conferences, club work, etc. 



A high school education or its equivalent, together with some f ann 

 or agricultural college experience, was required for admission to 

 the college. In order to give an opportunity for advanced work, 

 instruction in most subjects was divided into what were known as 

 A, B, and C courses, corresponding to beginners', intermediate, and 

 more advanced grades. Certain prerequisites were set up for en- 

 rollment in B and C courses, such as a minimum amount of chem- 

 istry for advanced soils work or of elementary genetics for some of 

 the instruction in animal breeding. 



In quality, the student body ranked notably high. The average age 

 of the students was probably not very much greater than in most col- 

 leges, but they appeared considerably more mature and manifested a 

 distinctive seriousness of purpose. Evidence of this is shown by the 

 fact that in numerous instances where their military units were re- 

 turned to this country during the spring students voluntarily elected 

 to remain to complete their courses. It is stated that the mid-term 

 reports showed less than twenty-five men in the entire college doing 

 unsatisfactory work. 



In a general way the instruction was given much as in the agricul- 

 tural colleges at home. Perhaps the most serious handicap en- 

 countered was the absence of laboratories. Considerable equipment 

 was available, however, in farm machinery, and French illustrative 



