8 



bacteriologists, irrigation engineers, &c., who are no doubt 

 distributed according to the wants of each locality. There are 

 also 54 persons employed in the stations under the head of 

 "miscellaneous"; 423 of these station officials do a. certain 

 amount of teaching in the colleges with which their stations 

 are connected. During the year the stations published 403 

 annual reports and bulletins, which were distributed to 731,000 

 addresses. Most of the stations report a constantly increasing 

 correspondence with farmers on a wide variety of topics. 



The American System of Agricultural Education. 



" The American system of agricultural education," say Dr. 

 True and Mr. Dick J . Crosby in their Bulletin published under 

 this title by the United States Department of Agriculture in 

 1904, " includes a number of different classes 'of institutions 

 which, taken together, provide all grades of instruction in 

 agriculture from graduate courses leading to the doctor's 

 degree, to nature study courses in the kindergarten and the 

 primary school. These institutions may be considered under 

 four general heads : (1) Departments of original research and 

 graduate study in agriculture ; (2) agricultural colleges ; (3) 

 secondary schools of agriculture ; (4) primary schools. The 

 secondary and primary instruction in agriculture is of com- 

 paratively recent development, but is well worthy of considera- 

 tion in this connection. The graduate and collegiate courses, 

 on the other hand, are well-established and take rank with the 

 best agricultural courses in the much older universities and 

 colleges of Europe. 



" The American institutions for instruction and research in 

 agriculture are brought \ together to constitute a national 

 system of higher education in the sciences and industries 

 through the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and 

 Experiment Stations, the Office of Experiment Stations of the 

 Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Education of 

 the Department of the Interior, each of these agencies being 

 entitled to membership in the Association. This Association 

 was organised in Washington, October 18, 1887, and has since 

 been very active and efficient in its efforts to promote agricul- 

 tural education. At its convention in 1894 it appointed a com- 

 mittee on entrance requirements for courses of study and degrees, 



