CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



15 



of applying old knowledge, teachers and extension workers would soon reach 

 the "bottom of the barrel." The part that the Experiment Station is playing 

 in the development of the avocado industry is well understood and appreciated 

 by some of you who have had occasion to make use of your own Citrus Experi- 

 ment Station at Riverside. 



Teaching, or resident instruction, has to do with the training of young men 

 and women who enroll for the regular four year degree course in Agriculture. 

 It is too long a story to tell here. Suffice it to say that the leaders and investi- 

 gators of the future are being prepared now in the agricultural colleges and science 

 departments of the universities all over this country. The University of California 

 hopes to maintain the position it has attained in training investigators, leaders and 

 teachers. 



To the members of this association, interested as you are in education, I 

 would bespeak the high school as an instrument for your use in developing an 

 increased interest in the avocado industry. At the present time approximately 

 one hundred departments of vocational agriculture have been established in Cali- 

 fornia high schools. We ought to begin in the elementary schools to interest 

 the coming generation in agriculture. Shall we support a vocational department 

 of agriculture in our local high school? Some of you may be called on to 

 answer this question. I am constantly visiting high schools in this state and I 

 am more than pleased with the very excellent work that is being done in agriculture. 



As to the extension activities of the University, there are two kinds, — the 

 University Extension service carried on by the University and the Agricultural 

 Extension work carried on within the College of Agriculture. Most of you are 

 familiar with the county agent work. This is the most important kind of exten- 

 sion work that we have under v/ay. Those of you who have to deal with your 

 county farm bureau and who have met Mr. Hodgson know whereof I speak. 



Another phase of our extension work, and that is what I desire to emphasize 

 here, is that of correspondence course instruction. It is unfortunate that the 

 great majority of the people interested in agriculture do not even avail them- 

 selves of the short courses in agriculture. Only a very few can take resident 

 instruction. 



In order that the College of Agriculture might be of the greatest possible 

 service to the people of the state. Dean Hunt started the correspondence courses 

 soon after assuming his duties in California. He had inaugurated similar work 

 in Ohio State University and at the Pennsylvania State College. The corres- 

 pondence course work is designed for the man on the land who wishes to pursue 

 systematic instruction. He enrolls for the course of his choice and soon after 

 receives the first two lessons. As soon as he has studied the first lesson and has 

 prepared his answers to the questions that are a part of each lesson, he mails his 

 answers to the University and begins on the second lesson. As soon as the 

 answers to the first lesson are received at Berkeley they are carefully gone over 

 by the correspondence course instructor, points not well understood are explained, 

 the lesson is graded, its receipt recorded, and it is returned. The third lesson 

 is mailed at the same time. Special technical questions are referred to the 

 specialist best able to answer same. This, in brief, is the mechanics of cor- 

 respondence course study. 



A few years ago a correspondence course in Avocado Culture was prepared 

 by Dr. Coit. Up to the present time approximately one hundred people have 

 availed themselves of that course. In eight years over 42,000 people in this and 



