March 3, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



343 



some of the problems of livest interest to 

 the land-grant colleges, and the discussion 

 served to clarify the views on a number of 

 important points. 



The question as to how far the land- 

 grant institutions should engage in teach- 

 ing elementary subjects not generally recog- 

 nized as belonging to the collegiate curricu- 

 lum, was opened by a paper by President 

 W. 0. Thompson, who justified bringing 

 the elementary instruction quite low down, 

 on the ground of the lack of proper train- 

 ing in the rural schools, and also com- 

 mended the short courses. Dr. R. H. Jesse, 

 of Missouri, took the opposite view, and 

 maintained that the remedy for the condi- 

 tion lay in the improvement of the public 

 school system by the introdiiction of agri- 

 cultural studies. While this was acknowl- 

 edged to be the long way, as changes of 

 this sort are slow of realization, he be- 

 lieved it to be the right way, which would 

 justify itself in the long run. He disap- 

 proved of the establishment of agricultural 

 high schools or preparatory departments 

 for the agricultural colleges, but thought 

 that the college of agriculture should rest 

 on the public school system. Professor L. 

 H. Bailey, of Cornell University, took a 

 middle ground upon this question, holding 

 that while these forms of elementary in- 

 struction do not properly belong in the col- 

 lege and are a temporary expediency, thej^ 

 are entirely warranted by the fact that the 

 land-grant colleges do not at present ar- 

 ticulate with the common schools. He be- 

 lieved that the final issue would be to pre- 

 pare the public schools to prepare for the 

 land-grant colleges, as they now prepare 

 for the colleges of arts and sciences; but 

 as this will occupy many years, perhaps a 

 generation, he believed that the pressing 

 problems of to-day must be taken care of, 

 and on that ground defended the short and 

 low-grade courses as temporary expedients. 



Other speakers presented the local diffi- 



culties in confining the instruction to a 

 four-year course, and maintained that the 

 short courses had first aroused genuine in- 

 terest and confidence in agricultural edu- 

 cation, and that the more elementary 

 grades of work did not obscure the college 

 course. Under present conditions there is 

 a large body of young men who are not and 

 can not be prepared to enter the regular 

 college course, and for these young men, 

 who come to the college in increasing num- 

 bers, elementary and short courses were 

 demanded. 



The discussion of this question was con- 

 tinued in a paper by President J. L. 

 Snyder, of Michigan, upon the subject 

 'What Can and Should be Done to Increase 

 the Interest in and Appreciation for the 

 Agricultural Side of Technical Training.' 

 President Snyder urged that the courses in 

 agriculture must be technical, and that the 

 agricultural department must have equal 

 advantages in the way of equipment, teach- 

 ing force and buildings, with the other de- 

 partments of the college or university. 

 Short courses were advocated for those un- 

 able to take the longer courses. The speak- 

 er described what was done in Michigan to 

 aiouse interest in the agricultural work by 

 maintaining close relations with the public 

 schools, advertising the institution in vari- 

 ous ways, and running excursions to the 

 college during August, which the past year 

 were attended by about 8,000 people. 



Dean Davenport, of the University of 

 Illinois, urged the need of differentiation 

 of the subject of agricultiire, and a larger 

 number of instructors to cover different 

 phases of the subject. Great progress has 

 been made in this direction at a number of 

 the institutions, but in many cases the 

 teaching force was thought to be entirely 

 inadequate. He made the point clear that 

 the number of men to be taught should not 

 be the unit in manning the staff of the agri- 

 cultural department, as it has often been 



