28 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



What shall be accepted as sufficient for admission to the 

 technical colleoe, the colleiie of atjriculture, for instance? 

 How lono; shall the course be ? What kind of testimonial, or 

 degree, shall be conferred at the end of the course ? These 

 are living questions, and will not soon be finally answered. 

 But some suggestions, with principles back of them, may be 

 made. 



Naturally, one begins with the last, for the end determines 

 the beginning, as truly as the beginning conditions the end. 

 And, in the first place, there should be no degree, represent- 

 ing four years of college residence, which can be regarded 

 as of less worth, less honorable, than any other degree 

 representing the same expenditure of time. If at the end 

 of four years spent in one college there is a bachelor's degree 

 conferred, making the bachelor of arts a person of rightful 

 distinction, the agricultural college ought not to confer a 

 degree which may be considered as less honorable, as is the 

 decree of bachelor of science. I think I hazard nothino- in 

 saying that the letters B.S. attached to a graduate's name do 

 not carry so much weight as the letters B.A., and that is 

 not so very much. This whole matter could be greatly 

 simplified, and would be, if it were a settled principle that 

 the degree of A.B. means that the one receiving it has, after 

 a definite preparation, satisfactorily completed a four years' 

 course of study in an institution of collegiate grade, — it does 

 not matter what the course, scientific, technical or classical. 

 This suggestion is not new, nor is it original with me. But 

 I am convinced that it is correct in principle, and that if it 

 should be applied to the so-called agricultural colleges it 

 would be to the general benefit of industrial education, per- 

 haps of all education. 



But this assumes that the institution is of collegiate grade ; 

 and the grade ,of an institution is largely determined by the 

 requirements of admission to it. We cannot admit students 

 with poor preparation or with no preparation at all, and 

 with such material maintain a standard of scholarship worthy 

 of the collegiate name. The question of the degree, thus, 

 involves the question as to the length of the course and the 

 question as to the requirements for admission. As to length 

 of the course, it should not be less than four years, unless a 



