I9i i.] 



Agricultural Education. 



913 



welcomed at the College annually. In addition, experimental 

 work is carried out on plots on nearly 5,000 farms, as well as 

 on the College farm. Another building which is not to be 

 found in agricultural colleges in this country is a machinery 

 hall, containing specimens of all the most modern types of 

 agricultural machines. 



Another remarkable institution is the Macdonald College, 

 in the State of Quebec, built and endowed by Sir William 

 Macdonald at a cost of nearly one million sterling. The 

 site (including the farm) covers 560 acres, and the buildings 

 are on the same scale of magnificence as the Ontario College. 

 In the case of both these Colleges no students are admitted 

 who have not worked for at least one year on a farm. 



In addition to teaching institutions, the Canadian Govern- 

 ment maintains a central experimental farm at Ottawa, where 

 a staff of workers is continuously engaged in experimental 

 and advisory work. The amount of work done in the latter 

 capacity may be gauged by the fact that about 50,000 letters 

 of inquiry are received and answered every year. 



The Reading deputation also visited the famous Cornell 

 University at Ithaca, New York State, and here again we 

 have the same tale of seemingly unlimited expenditure on 

 agricultural education. The buildings and equipment of the 

 agricultural department here cost ^,'80,000, but a scheme 

 involving the expenditure of ,£250,000 is under considera- 

 tion. The College farm extends to 1,000 acres. Tuition is 

 free to regular students. The staff of lecturers and assistants 

 numbers 70, organised in 20 departments, and 968 students 

 attended in the session of 1909-19 10. Bulletins are regularly 

 distributed gratis to 5,000 farmers, and leaflets on domestic 

 economy are issued annually to farmers' wives, and on Home 

 Nature Study to teachers and to boys and girls, in very large 

 numbers. The Wisconsin College is organised on similar 

 lines, and its activity is as pronounced. 



These two colleges are not exceptional institutions. Each 

 State in the Union possesses a well-equipped agricultural 

 college financed by Federal as well as by State grants, 

 the former being restricted to aiding current expenditure 

 only, for it is a cardinal principle of the Central Govern- 

 ment that the capital outlay must be provided by the States, 



3 S 



