54 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



study as offered in the College are revised from time to time, and 

 standing committees are constantly seeking to study and improve the 

 curricula and methods of teaching. There is offered landscape 

 gardening, which has for its primary object the improvement and 

 adornment of the home ground ; the same applies to the curriculum in 

 floriculture. Household organization and activities, and home eco- 

 nomics are subjects which apply alike to every household in the state. 

 The work of the College, therefore, in a broad way applies to all 

 citizens and cannot be regarded as favoring one class to the exclusion 

 of another. The Agricultural Extension Service and the county 

 farm advisers are now organized in some ninety-five of the one 

 hundred and two counties in the state. 



Citizens of the state visit the University and its Experiment Sta- 

 tion in large numbers. It is conservative to say that not less than ten 

 thousand people annually come to the twin cities primarily because of 

 its Agricultural College and Agricultural Experiment Station. The 

 visits to such an institution, if for but a single day, do much in arous- 

 ing and redirecting the dormant energies of mind. 



THE CONTRIBUTION OF EUGENE DAVENPORT 



The accomplishments of the past twenty-five years in agricultural 

 education have not just happened nor just come to pass ; they have been 

 the result of wise guidance and leadership. Somebody's watchful- 

 ness, somebody's thoughtfulness, somebody's thoroness is always re- 

 quired. While many men have contributed to the development of 

 agricultural education in the last quarter of a century, I do not feel 

 it proper to make these general observations without referring to the 

 skilful management and organizing ability of Dean Eugene Daven- 

 port, who is abundantly entitled to all the credit he may ever receive 

 for the splendid upbuilding of the great Agricultural College of the 

 University of Illinois ; and for the unique and unsurpassed service that 

 he has rendered in the promotion of agricultural interests and of 

 the affairs of the state at large. Looking backward it little matters 

 who was governor of the state for four or eight years, but it is of in- 

 finite concern to Illinois citizenry as to who for the past twenty-seven 

 years outlined the plans for the development of our agricultural in- 

 dustry, how it should be studied, taught, and developed from the 

 standpoint of public policy. 



While agriculture has grown greatly in Illinois, as a result of 

 this guidance, Dean Davenport has also largely contributed to the 

 wealth and worth of community life and social well-being in the way 



