LACK OF TRAINED WORKERS. 23 



This has led to numerous changes in the personnel of our experiment 

 stations, partly through the transfer of their officers to outside 

 enterprises, and partly through the changes of officers from one 

 station to another on account of differences in salary and other 

 attractions. 



The lack of trained investigators is especially manifest in those lines 

 of research which have grown out of the more recent development 

 of agricultural science. That is, it is most difficult to find efficient 

 investigators in such lines as soil physics, agronomy, zootechny (animal 

 production), agricultural bacteriology, and agricultural engineering. 



To aid in remedying this lack, this Department is taking into its 

 service as many young men as it can, who come in the capacity of 

 scientific aids and student assistants. In this way it hopes not only to 

 train men for promotion in its own service, but also to send back 

 trained workers to the agricultural colleges and experiment stations in 

 the different States. Under present conditions the number of such 

 graduate students which the Department can bring into relation to 

 itself is quite limited. 



With a view to further remedying this difficulty, a movement has 

 been inaugurated by the Ohio State University for the establishment 

 of a Graduate Summer School of Agriculture. This movement has 

 received the indorsement of the honorable Secretary of Agriculture 

 and also of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations. The Ohio State University has undertaken to 

 defray the expenses of the first session of the school, but if this proves 

 a success, the school will hereafter be under the control of a committee 

 appointed by the Association of Colleges and Stations. It will thus 

 become a cooperative enterprise, and to further carry out this idea 

 it is proposed to hold future sessions at institutions in different parts 

 of the country. Plans are now being made to hold the first session 

 in July, 1902. Great interest is being manifested in this project both 

 in this Department and in the agricultural colleges. The Director of 

 this Office will act as dean of the school and a considerable number of 

 the leaders in agricultural education and research in this country have 

 consented to serve on its faculty. 



By bringing together in this way the most efficient and experienced 

 workers in our agricultural institutions, the younger men already 

 engaged in agricultural education and research, and a number of the 

 more recent graduates of our colleges who desire to fit themselves as 

 teachers or investigators in agricultural lines, it is believed that even 

 though the sessions of the school cover a short period, they will do 

 much to inspire and encourage more thorough and satisfactory prep- 

 aration for work in our institutions for agricultural education and 

 research. 



