September 5, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



333 



Obviously the departments of any agricul- 

 tural-eollege-esperiment-station organization 

 are divided according to the work to be spe- 

 cialized in by each department. Obviously 

 also the number of departments will vary ac- 

 cording to the financial resources of the insti- 

 tution and the degree of specialization. The 

 number of departments will usually increase 

 as the institution grows older and stronger. 



The work of each department shall be di- 

 rected by the head of that department and he 

 shall accomplish, through the aid of assistants 

 of various ranks, all the work within the field 

 of the department. Assistants in any depart- 

 ment may be of any desired rank, and it may 

 well be understood that they are subordinate 

 to the head of the department only as a matter 

 of administrative convenience. 



Up to recent times, two distinct lines of 

 work have been recognized as coming within 

 the function of agricultural colleges, namely, 

 research and teaching. Moreover, up to 

 recent times, the teaching in the agricultural 

 colleges has been confined mainly to ordinary 

 instruction in college classes. Of late years it 

 is becoming more and more evident that this 

 is not sufficient. It is not necessary here to 

 review the various means by which the teach- 

 ing work of the colleges is being and must be 

 carried beyond the classrooms proper. 



It is necessary to emphasize that wherever 

 this extension teaching is carried, it must still 

 be teaching, and that it differs only somewhat 

 in place and method from any other teaching. 

 Whether it is classroom teaching or extension 

 teaching is absolutely the same so far as ad- 

 ministration is concerned. The same depart- 

 ments which do one kind of teaching must 

 finish their duty. The same departments 

 which do research work and carry the results 

 into the classroom by the process of teaching, 

 must finish their duty and carry the results 

 along with other accumulated data directly to 

 the state at large. Whether a department 

 shall disseminate information by having stu- 

 dents come to its classrooms or whether it 

 shall extend itself by going to the four corners 

 of the state, does not change the department. 



except perhaps in number of assistants and 

 specialists who will be necessary to accomplish 

 the increased work. 



If all this be true, what is the logical rela- 

 tion of the extension department and what is 

 the need therefor? 



The later-day call for extension " depart- 

 ments " in agricultural colleges has grown out 

 of the insistent demand that the agricultural 

 colleges shall actually serve the state. Exten- 

 sion departments are, therefore, evidences of 

 our growing democracy, crude and ungainly 

 as that may often seem. 



Logically, the extension department of any 

 college includes all movements, inaugurated 

 by the dean and director, to extend the work 

 of his organization into the state. The dean 

 and director may be his own extension man, 

 that is, he may personally direct the work of 

 disseminating information from his institu- 

 tion. If due to lack of time or inclination, 

 he extends the work of his institution through 

 the medium of a superintendent of extension, 

 the case is not altered. The superintendent 

 or secretary of extension, if there be one, must 

 logically function as an assistant to the dean 

 and director. 



The authority of the superintendent of ex- 

 tension is whatever authority is given him by 

 the dean of the college, whose assistant he is. 

 He should have no power to usurp the author- 

 ity of any of the heads of departments, nor 

 does he have control over any of the work or 

 any of the time of assistants in any of the 

 departments, for if he has such authority, he 

 will be a general nuisance around all depart- 

 ments, which means around the entire insti- 

 tution and the entire state. If he is strong 

 enough in personality, he will disrupt the 

 entire organization. 



The logical work of the superintendent of 

 extension is to assist the dean in collecting 

 and disseminating agricultural information. 

 His usefulness in the institution will be meas- 

 ured by his ability to do this to the fullest 

 extent harmoniously. In detail, his work 

 would naturally include such matters as the 

 arrangement of meetings throughout his state, 

 and to secure speakers from the college to 



