Miscellaneous. 



176 



[March 1907. 



a Bachelor's degree ; (6) postgraduate work, leading to two degrees, the first of these 

 being the Master's degree, which should be giveu for experimental and investiga- 

 tional work, the work involved and in the collection and accumulation of facts, etc.. 

 and the Doctor's degree, which should be given for a philosophical consideration of 

 the facts and the collections of data. 



Two great enterprises have now come into the college— the experiment station 

 and university extension. They are not university work in the old academic sense, 

 The extension enterprises form the best illustrations of the leadership the university 

 has now acquired in public affairs. The university is required to do university 

 extension work, aud it goes beyond the academic ideals. Agricultural education also 

 rests upon a large and quickened idea of the laboratory methods into every school in 

 the country ; the kindergarten, manual training, the school garden, and science 

 work— all mean the laboratory method. And now we also introduce the affairs of 

 every-day life into the schools. All laboratories are pedagogically valuable in pro- 

 portion as they are in vital connection with theoretical instruction. No school, 

 whether in California or elsewhere, from the primary school to the university is a 

 good school unless it has laboratory work. The effort is now being made to introduce 

 into every high school in New York a year's work in biology for the first year. 



All this brings up the whole question of the university farm. The college or 

 university farm developed with the Laud Grant Act. In its history it has gone 

 through several phases. It was first conceived of largely as a model farm, and of 

 course the model farms became the laughing stock of the farmers of the state ; and 

 they will always be. If they are model farms they have little pedagogical use. One 

 farm cannot be a pattern farm for all conditions. There are thousands of model 

 farms. Model f anus are good farmers' farms. The state cannot afford to go into the 

 model farm business in connection with university work. 



In the second place, the farms came to be used merely to illustrate farm 

 practices. In the old days we had museums in our colleges, and persons could go and 

 exclaim as they saw the wonders. We still need museums, but we also have collections 

 with which to work. It is not enough that students merely see things growing or 

 see different breeds of animals. They must come nearer than merely to look ; they 

 must use and handle. 



Again, college farms were sometimes run with the idea of making a profit ; 

 but you cannot run a farm.with profit with student labor. If the state is to make 

 money out of a farm, then it must not be used for teaching purposes, but must be 

 conceived of as an out-and-out business enterprise. 



In the next place, there was an idea that these farms ought to represent 

 the commonwealth — that a farm should be "typical" of the state. It is a mighty 

 poor state that can be typified in one farm. If the state wants a typical farm let it 

 have it, but do not burden the University with it. Put it in charge of a Chamber of 

 Commerce or other advertising organization. Anybody can farm typical land. 



Then there was a long period of years when the college was used very 

 little or even not at all. Not knowing just what to do with them, many of them 

 have been allowed to drift. 



Then there came the passage of the Hatch Act in 1887, which established the 

 experiment stations ; and this afforded a means of utilizing the college farm. There 

 are a good many of our institutions which are now carrying farm lands as experi- 

 ment stations. Of course we should have farms for research. There are two kinds 

 of research work on farms. One kind of research is in farm practice ; the other 

 is research in the fundamental physical, chemical, and physiological problems, 

 which must be done on some farm directly under control. 



