302 ANNUAL REPORT 



There is to-day a large call for active young men of good educa- 

 tion and experience in horticultural pursuits. This training 

 may be gained with very little expense, and I think a young man 

 with it is more independent and as sure of a living and a compe- 

 tence, as he would be by any other system. 



I wish to call your attention to a few facts taken mostly from 

 a paper by President Goodell, of the Massachusetts Agricultural 

 College bearing on this point, and showing somewhat the extent 

 of agricultural education abroad: 



In all, the German empire contains not less than one hundred 

 and eighty-four agricultural colleges and experiment stations. 



The agricultural school at Berlin forms simply a department 

 of the university, having its own separate faculty, lecture rooms, 

 apparatus, etc. Its staff consists of ten professors, twenty in- 

 structors, and six assistants, besides clerks, modelers and others. 



The French government recommends that in the selection of 

 teachers, preference be given to those able to impart instruction 

 in agricultural subjects; and in some departments this is made a 

 requisit of first importance. France contains not less than 

 eighty -nine agricultural schools, and twenty-five schools of horti- 

 culture. 



The Abbott institution at Glasnevin furnishes the higher 

 agricultural education of Ireland; and to it are brought yearly 

 at the expense of the government, the schoolmasters of the lower 

 schools, fifty at a time, for a six weeks' course. 



In closing, it seems to me that the lessons we have to learn 

 from foreign governments and from our own experience are : 

 That the state must take the lead in introducing and maintain- 

 ing agricultural education; and that agricultural science should 

 be introduced into all our public schools, from the lower grades 

 up; and be made compulsory, even if in order to find time for it, 

 we have to dispense with some of the less important studies now 

 taught. 



In a state like Minnesota, whose main resources are agricul- 

 tural, there can not be too great a dissemination of agricultural 

 education. 



In this age of close competition and speculation, we should 

 remember that the day when quacks and empirics were success- 

 ful has gone by and that now, intelligence, care and foresight, 

 when associated with industry, are the winning qualities. To-day 

 the man with the best training wins, and it is but the carrying 

 out in every day life of the idea, that other things being equal, 



