58 



" (3) The emphasis of experimentation work should lie on 

 the most important agricultural problems. Problems like rice, 

 cotton, wheat, beans, sugar beets, sericulture, pig-raising, 

 poultry-raising, insects and disease, and improvements of farm 

 implements, etc. should receive the best attention. The ex- 

 perimental station should be strongly organized so that it not 

 only can solve the problems but will be able to distribute or sell 

 good seeds, breeds and improved implements for the benefit of 

 the farmer. 



' ' (4) The college should adopt the elective system and require 

 five-years residence for graduation. The best arrangement is to 

 put all the general work on the first two or three years and in 

 the last two or three years let students select the subjects they 

 prefer to study. 



"(5) The college should have direct control over all the 

 agricultural teachers and farm advisors in the rural districts. 

 They should be the field workers of the college, the extension 

 division. 



' ' Agricultural Middle Schools. According to the educational 

 statistics of 1916 we have 40 Agricultural middle schools in 

 China with 4393 as total number of students and $526,046 Mex. 

 as the total budget of the year. 



4 'The trouble with this kind of school is that it is without 

 definite aim. It is not expected to train specialists, since this 

 belongs to the function of agricultural colleges, nor is it expect- 

 ed to train farm han^s because reward of a farm hand is so low 

 that the graduate of this kind of a school will never want to be 

 one. At best it could be turned into a vocational school, training 

 men for definite vocations in agriculture. If so, their courses of 

 study should be changed from a general into a special nature. 

 A school training students for running a cotton farm of over 30 

 acres should teach nothing but subjects that have to do with 

 running the farm. But it is probable that such vocational 

 courses could be better offered in the agricultural college as 

 short courses of no longer than two years, and the money spent 

 in the agricultural middle schools thus more efficiently used in 

 the college. 



' ' Agricultural Primary Schools. There are about 161 schools 

 of this type in China. They are of higher primary grade and 

 most of the farmers' sons cannot afford to enter. The courses 

 of study are again too general and bear no relation to the local 



