12 



may be selected from the following : — Agriculture, botany, 

 horticulture, landscape gardening, chemistry, physics, ento- 

 mology, veterinary science, engineering, English, French, 

 German, Latin. 



A similar arrangement prevails at the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, where agricultural students pursuing the prescribed 

 course for two years are allowed to choose either agriculture, 

 horticulture or forestry.* 



The system of making subjects optional is gaining ground in 

 all the agricultural colleges ; there is also a tendency to divide 

 the subject of agriculture into special branches, such as plant 

 industry (agronomy, horticulture, and forestry), animal industry, 

 agrotechny (dairying, sugar-making), rural engineering, and 

 rural economy. 



Dr. True and Mr. Crosby write : " Along with the improve- 

 ment of the college courses in agriculture has come the realisa- 

 tion of the true function of these courses. It is now well under- 

 stood that they are for the training of the leaders in agricultural 

 progress and not for the general education of the agricultural 

 masses.*' 



Many of the agricultural colleges have organised short and 

 special courses for students who cannot follow the whole course. 

 An account of the special courses at the Universities of Illinois 

 and Minnesota will be given later. 



A good deal is also being done by the colleges in the way of 

 L * university extension " movements, by which educational 

 influences are brought to bear through farmers' institutes, and 

 by means of reading courses for farmers, correspondence 

 courses, and the introduction of nature study and school garden 

 work for children. 



It would be difficult , if not impossible, within the scope of 

 a report of this nature to give detailed information as to 

 the courses of study in all the agricultural colleges of the 

 United States. Bulletin No. 127, published in 1903, gives, 

 however, not only some very interesting suggestions by 

 the Committee on methods of teaching agriculture of the 

 Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 

 Stations, but also considerable detailed information as to the 



* Some of these courses may have been slightly altered since 1904, the date of 

 the publication of the Bulletin from which this information is taken. 



