SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART X. 531 



The Two Weeks' Annual Short Course At The Iowa 



State College. 



The annual short course at Ames was held December 31st to January 

 12, 1907, with the 1,000 mark surpassed in number attending. This enroll- 

 ment is the largest that has been ever recorded and goes to show that the 

 farmers of the state are fully appreciative of the work being done by 

 the Iowa State College. The attendance this year was remarkable not 

 only for the large number present but also for the intense interest dis- 

 played in every class and at every session of the twelve days given 

 over to the promotion of a greater agricultural knowledge. 



Not only was Iowa represented, but men came from all over the 

 country to take this work. Connecticut, Georgia, Montana, Texas, Penn- 

 sylvania, Ohio and California represented the range of states. Some 

 came even from England, Canada, Mexico and Argentine Republic. The 

 state wide interest in the short course movement was well illustrated by 

 the presence of delegates from many corn clubs and county farmers' in- 

 stitutes. These organizations paid the expenses of their delegates to 

 attend the college. The school met this movement in a frank way by 

 remitting the tuition dues of such delegates. All the institutes did not 

 avail themselves of these opportunities due to the lateness of getting out 

 the information concerning the college's unexpected liberality and next 

 year even a larger number of the delegates are expected. 



Since their inception six years ago the stock and grain judging courses 

 have been in high favor with the farmers of the state, and this year, as 

 was to be expected, they lead in numbers of students enrolled, about 

 three-fourths of the total number present taking tnem. The three other 

 courses — dairying, domestic science and horticulture — inaugurated more 

 recently, had a goodly following, ranking in the order named in popu- 

 larity. About 100 took dairying, thirty-five young men from the best 

 nurseries and gardens of tne state came to learn of the things horti- 

 cultural, and in the domestic science there were about fifty young ladies 

 studying how to make the home happier and better. 



One of the greatest collections of live stock ever assembled in an 

 agricultural scaool for the use of students had been gathered together 

 by Dean Chas. F. Curtiss for this occasion. Both breeding and fat sheep 

 were handled. Leicestei's. Shropshires, South downs and Oxfords were 

 viewed from the mutton standpoint, and a few Lincolns and Ra—- 

 boullets were present to show "the present day requirements of the wool 



