11 



is at present able to establish, equip and properly conduct a normal 

 school of agriculture such as the institute work now demands for 

 the education of its lecturers. 



The first practical difficulty in the way of any state undertaking 

 to establish such a school is the fact, that the institute lecture force 

 in most of the states is comparatively small. Because of this and 

 by reason of the limited number of instructors available at any one 

 institution, it is almost impossible to divide the lecture force into 

 classes of sufficient number that the instruction given may be suited 

 to the peculiar needs of the several lecturers in the line of their 

 specialities. Unless this can be done each student will be obliged, 

 if he wishes to occupy his time, to attend all of the lectures, whether 

 the subjects are those upon which he desires information or not, and 

 thus during the entire course he may have had but one or two lec- 

 tures on his particular speciality. 



The second difficulty is, that most of the agricultural colleges and 

 experiment stations are not as yet sufficiently equipped in their 

 teaching force of experts to do more than cover a quite limited range 

 of topics. Some institutions make a speciality of a single phase of 

 agriculture, as animal husbandry, forestry, irrigation, plant breed- 

 ing, soil physics or other branches of farming, and are not prepared 

 to give advanced or post-graduate instruction in the particular sub 

 jects which the institute lecturer expects to teach. 



A third difficulty is, that no one institution can afford to give the 

 use of its teaching force for the length of time needed to make a 

 course effective. A four or six weeks' term is an impossibility for 

 any agricultural college or experiment station, and yet this is not 

 too long for institute workers to devote to the study of their several 

 specialities. One week is about as much as any institution can con 

 tribute annually outside of its regular work, and this is too short a 

 period for the proper treatment of the subjects that need to be con 

 sidered. 



SEVERAL STATES UNITE. 



For the present and until the agricultural colleges have been 

 greatly strengthened and until the institute force has been greatly 

 enlarged, it will be necessary for several states to unite in a normal 

 school to be held at different institutions each year and to be 

 equipped with a teaching force contributed by each. This would 

 overcome the difficulties mentioned, and make it possible to classify 

 the students and thus enable them to devote their time to subjects 

 that more nearly relate to their several specialities. No one in- 

 stitution would be seriously embarrassed by the loss of the number 

 of its teaching force, which it would be called upon to furnish, and 



