624 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. - ■ 



he will have to do, and to make a good citizen is the highest kind of edu- 

 cation. And something of that is what we are trying to do at Purdue 

 University. 



This in:^tltution was founded by an Act of Congress in 1S<>2. The 

 Act as passed by Congress at that time provided for the establishment 

 in every State of the Union which would accept the conditions proposed 

 by the l)ill, according to two terms of the Act, not schools, but colleges 

 giving '•instruction in agriculture and the mechauic arts." These are 

 the exact woi'ds of the bill. Based on that Act of Congress, they estab- 

 lished in evei-y State in the Union colleges giving instruction in agri- 

 culture and the mechanic arts, which two terms include all the industries 

 based on/- agriculture and the mechanical arts. That is what Purdue is 

 trying to do. It is giving instruction, so far as it is al)le at the present 

 time, in all of the industrial arts, including agriculture. The process of 

 doing that emphasizes a new kind of educational method. The labora- 

 tory method. Iiccause it is not enough to teach boys out of books. He 

 has to deal with the living thing, or if he has to deal with the machine or 

 tool, his training must include actual handling of that living thing or 

 tool. And so the education in the industrial arts involves laboratory 

 work. It necessitates a large and complete equipment for instruction 

 and laboratory woi'k in the industrial arts. 



Purdue has grown in the last four years. If your business increased 

 SO per cent, in four years' time, you will see what that means. You would 

 have to increase the size of your i)lant. You would have to increase the 

 nmnber of your managers and workmen. That would mean that you 

 would have to expend in your business pretty nearly 80 per cent, more mon- 

 ey. Well. Purdue has been growing to the extent of 80 per cent, in attend- 

 ance within four years. It has increased 80 per cent, in attendance in four 

 years, and its income has been increased 15 per cent. That is the big thing 

 about the college. So that today we stand facing that condition at Purdue, 

 an increase of 80 per cent, in attendance and an increase of only 15 

 per cent, in the income, and so you can see where that leaves us at 

 this time with regard to taking care of our students. We have over 

 1,300 students at this time, and we have very little more means to 

 take care of them with than when we had 750 students a few years 

 ago. That is one of the problems; one of the needs of the institution. 

 I say this to show you that there is a demand on the part of the i)ul)lic 

 for this kind of education which Purdue University is giving. The de- 

 mand is not equally distributed. The greater part of the students in 

 this institution are to be found in the engineering school. I think that is 

 not altogether a wise demand. I don't know that it would be necessary 

 or advisal)le to have less demand for the engineering education at this 

 time. luit I believe the greatest demand of all ought to come for the agri- 

 cultural education. There is no field of industry in which training counts 

 for so much as it does there, and there is no field of industry in which 



