116 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 394. 



to be practically nil, we may hope that per- 

 haps this difficulty is eliminated. 



EoDNEY H. True. 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Department of Agriculture. 



GRADUATE SCHOOL OF AaBICULTURE. 



The Graduate School of Agriculture, the 

 first of its kind in the United States, began a 

 four weeks' session at Ohio State University, 

 Columbus, Ohio, July 7. About 70 students 

 from 25 States are in attendance, of whom 

 nearly 50 are officers of agricultural colleges 

 and experiment stations. The faculty con- 

 sists of about 30 leading teachers and investi- 

 gators in agricultural science. Advanced 

 courses are given in agronomy, breeding of 

 plants and animals, zooteehny and dairying. 

 At the inaugural exercises held on the evening 

 of July 7 addresses were delivered by Hon. 

 James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture ; Hon. 

 Wm. M. Liggett, dean of the College of Agri- 

 culture of the University of Minnesota; Dr. 

 H. C. White, president of Georgia State Col- 

 lege of Agriculture and Mechajiic Arts; Dr. 

 A. C. True, director of U. S. Office of Experi- 

 ment Stations and dean of the Graduate 

 School of Agriculture; and President W. O. 

 Thompson, of Ohio State University. In his 

 address explaining the objects and aims of this 

 school the dean showed that the rapid develop- 

 ment of agricultural education and research 

 in this country in recent years had created a 

 demand for well-trained teachers and investi- 

 gators which the agricultural colleges as at 

 present organized could not meet. Especially 

 had the latest development in the direction of 

 the division of the general subject of agricul- 

 ture into specialties created a necessity for 

 university instruction in agriculture. "One 

 aim of this graduate school is to provide a 

 certain measure of this advanced and special 

 instruction and thereby to illustrate some of 

 the lines along which our universities need to 

 establish advanced courses of instruction in 

 agricultural specialties." The school may also 

 serve a usefvil piirpose in bringing to its stu- 

 dents up-to-date information on various agri- 

 cultural subjects and in pointing out ways in 

 which the methods of teaching and investi- 



gating agricultural subjects may be improved, 

 and the apparatus and illustrative material for 

 instruction and research in these subjects may 

 be increased in variety and effectiveness. The 

 school serves to solidify and amplify the or- 

 ganization of agricultural education and re- 

 search on the basis of agriculture itself, con- 

 sidered as both a science and an art. "The 

 signs all indicate," said Dr. True, "that we 

 are on the edge of a widespread movement to 

 organize agricultural education in this coun- 

 try on a much broader basis in order that it 

 may permeate the mass of our rural popula- 

 tion. The people are looking to the agricul- 

 tural colleges to lead in this movement. In a 

 large way it may be said that the hoped-for 

 leaders in this new enterprise are here as- 

 sembled. Surely our councils will have been 

 futile if they do not give an impetus and 

 direction to the plans for popular agricul- 

 tural education now being formulated. The 

 people are already offering our higher insti- 

 tutions for agricultural education and re- 

 search relatively large sums of money and are 

 evidently intending to give them more. If 

 we can find a way here to make the work of 

 our agricultural colleges, experiment stations . 

 and Department of Agriculture in any re- 

 spects more effective and satisfactory, we 

 shall surely reap ample reward in increased 

 material support for our instruction and re- 

 searches and stronger popular confidence in 

 our usefulness as instruments of agriciiltural 

 advancement." 



Considering the character of the faculty 

 and students of this school important results 

 may be expected from the inauguration of this 

 new enterprise in agricultural education. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Albert medal of the Society of Arts, 

 London, has for the present year been award- 

 ed to Professor Alexander Graham Bell, for 

 his invention of the telephone. 



Peesidext Eliot, of Harvard University, 

 was elected president of the National Educa- 

 tional Association at the recent Minneapolis 

 meeting. 



The eminent astronomer. Professor Gio- 

 vanni Schiaparelli, has been elected an associ- 



