March 1907.] 



175 



Miscellaneous. 



An interesting and very valuable line of observation would be the study of 

 kinds of plants found on various parts ot the farm, and the differences in the soil 

 composition, state of cultivation, water content, etc., which are found with the 

 various associations of plant? The development of forests from cultivated land 

 could be followed up for several years, noticing first the appearance of annual 

 weeds, then perennial weeds and grasses followed by shrubs, next pine and 

 cedars, and these possibly followed by other trees, springing up under the evergreens. 

 Another good ecological problem would ba an examination of different orchard 

 varieties with reference to their power to set fruit without the help of insects. 

 Considerable could be learned by tying bags of fine netting over the buds before 

 they open, to prevent the access of insects, leaving them on until the flowers are 

 gone. A collection of notes on the local uses of wild plants would be highly 

 desirable. — Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin, No. 59, June, 1904. 



RECENT PROBLEMS IN AGRICULTURE. 



What a University Farm is for. 



Liberty Hyde Bailey, Professor of Agriculture in Cornell University 

 delivered a lecture for the University of California in August, 1905, on "Present 

 Problems in Agriculture." That portion of the lecture which dealt with the question 

 of the purposes of a University Farm is here printed as a contribution to a question 

 of pressing public interest. 



The Agricultural College idea is by no means new ; it is at least two hundred 

 years old. In this country the Agricultural College, as an established fact, originated 

 about fifty years ago. Year after next will be celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of 

 the Agricultural College, near Lansing, Michigan. The first agricultural colleges 

 were established as a protest against the older kind of education that did not put 

 men into touch with real affairs. The Land Grant Act of 1862 marks one of the 

 greatest epochs in the history of education ; it is the Magna Charta of Education. 

 Ics purpose was to give instruction in those subjects and affairs which have to do 

 with real life- And, what are they *? They are largely agriculture and the mechanical 

 arts. As these agricultural colleges were largely a protest against the older education, 

 it was perfectly natural that at first they should be separate institutions. 



About one-half of the agricultural colleges of the Union are separate from 

 the universities proper. They are doing good work, and I am saying nothing what- 

 ever derogatory to them. There are some reasons still given for havin? separate 

 agricultural colleges. It is said that other courses will attract the young men from 

 the farm. Now, if the agricultural college can't hold the young men it ought to lose 

 them ; the time is past when we shall put blinders on the young men. Again, it is 

 that the farm boy will be looked down on, but students will not look down upon him 

 if his work is of equally high grade as that pursued in other courses, Sometimes 

 the agricultural college is wanted in a separate locality to satisfy local pride. A 

 locality wants to have an agricultural college and offers inducements to get it. This 

 does not consider the merits of the case in some cases, a broom factory might be just 

 as satisfying to the community. The university idea is coming to be a unifying 

 dea in the community, and all university work should be kept together. The 

 time is past when the agricultural college should be torn out of the university and 

 be set off by itself. 



The agricultural college is founded on the conception that education must 

 relate itself to life. Important corollaries follow. In the first place, agricultural 

 education should not necessarily be bound by academic methods. The teaching work 

 in a college really divides itself into two parts, (a) the true college work, leading to 



