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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1206 



ing tliat it is, we may now inquire as to the 

 directions in which leadership is most 

 needed. 



When the land grant colleges first came 

 into existence, the thought forced to the 

 front, which has gripped the public mind 

 ever since, was that agricultural education 

 had for its function growing the extra blade 

 of grass through the enlarged vocational 

 efficiency of the farmer. Directed by this 

 conception of its main purpose, the college 

 of agriculture has in many instances been 

 severely commercialized. Because of the 

 changes that have arisen in our social and 

 economic conditions and the increase of 

 agencies established for the promotion of 

 agricultural progress, the time has now 

 come when we must ask the question 

 whether the ultra-practical point of view 

 so widely prevalent among agricultural 

 teachers is the one that will fully meet the 

 developing situation. 



We are obliged to abandon the notion, if 

 we ever held it, that these colleges will 

 train within their walls any large propor- 

 tion of the men and women that will live 

 on the land. On the other hand, we must 

 take practical cognizance of the fact that 

 the by-products of the college, such as agri- 

 culture in the high schools, extension teach- 

 ing and farm bureaus, are the agencies that 

 are now touching farmers and farm homes 

 in a more intimate way than was ever pos- 

 sible by the college and are accomplishing 

 much that in earlier days the college was 

 expected to do. There is now an unfilled 

 demand for the highest type of leadership 

 in these and other directions. This lead- 

 ership, if it satisfies the demandis that con- 

 front it, must be much more than merely 

 technical and vocational. The future of 

 the rural people is now greatly concerned 

 with factors other than larger production. 



It is increasingly evident that the social 

 environment of the farm and the broad 



economic conditions to which the farmer is 

 now related, in the determination of which 

 he must be a factor, must now receive 

 major attention. It is not exaggeration to 

 declare that the social organization of a 

 rural community and the extent to which 

 farmers successfully meet competing inter- 

 ests are now determinative factors in agri- 

 cultural welfare and progress. The edu- 

 cational policy which is concerned chiefly 

 with the problems of larger and cheaper 

 crops will come far short of meeting the 

 situation adequately. If these colleges of 

 agriculture are to aid in developing men 

 capable of the needed leadership, must 

 they not lay the foundation in their gradu- 

 ates for the intelligent and successful con- 

 sideration of the broad questions relating 

 to rural sociology and economics? Should 

 not these graduates become leaders of 

 thought in all that pertains to community 

 welfare and progress? The question then 

 is. Do a majority of the colleges of agri- 

 culture adequately provide training of this 

 type? 



Having outlined a type of leadership 

 now demanded for agricultural progress, we 

 may now consider what should be the policy 

 of the colleges of agriculture as related to 

 the subject-matter of the courses of study 

 and to the point of view established in the 

 minds of the students through contact with 

 their teachers. There has been more or less 

 prevalent what some of us regard as a con- 

 venient fallacy, comforting, perhaps, to 

 those who cater to popular notions as to 

 what is practical in education, that a study 

 of the sciences as applied to the various 

 phases of agricultural practise and engag- 

 ing the mind vnth such ultra-practical 

 subjects as judging corn or cattle, making 

 butter and cheese, orchard culture or 

 poultry keeping, completes the round of 

 the training essential to the agricultural 

 college graduate and that in the interests 



