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the problem is: is it legitimate for the Territory thai makes high demand upon 
the college for education In mechanic arts to devote part of its funds to 
instruction in the elements of mechanic arts? There is not in Arizona, and prob- 
ably net in the Other three Territories, a single institution thai gives good sec- 
ondary manual-training Instruction. Yet there Is greal need of manual training 
there. The pressure for instruction in the mechanic arts, mining, civil and 
mechanical engineering, is almost irresistible in Arizona, and we are obliged to 
prepare for the entrance into the courses In mechanic arts quite as much as for 
the agricultural courses. 
El Davenport. It seems to he assumed regarding Instruction in agriculture 
that it is a four-year course or a two-year course or a short course or nothing. 
In my opinion the unit is too large. The farm hoy waids instruction in a 
particular subject: he is not thinking much about graduating, and when you 
meet him at the door the first day with the proposition that he must choose 
either a four-year course or two-year course or short course be is likely to take 
the line of least resistance. A large proportion of the work of our universities 
and colleges has to do primarily with students who do not graduate. For every 
student who graduates about three or four do not. The influence of the college 
and university system of this country is not exerted solely through its grad- 
uates. It is through the great mass of students, many of whom do not complete 
the regular courses. Let us stop talking about four-year courses, therefore, 
and fix the eye on the student. Let him take one or two or three years. Let 
him get those things he wants, without regard to whether he graduates or not. 
Now. there is much elementary instruction in hitching up the team, in plow- 
ing the field and getting in the crop, in feeding the pigs and getting the steers 
to market, and the average student of 18 coming to us from the farm is often 
better prepared for college than the average high school graduate. It is an obli- 
gation of these colleges to make a system of secondary education for the country 
people. In Illinois we simply cut across all precedent and all lines of responsibil- 
ity by saying to the boys on the farm, "Come to the university and choose the sub- 
jects you wish to study. These are the things we undertake to teach in agri- 
culture, about 80 of them : if you want any of them, go ahead. If you can not 
do business here you will go home. But if you take those subjects you must 
take certain other subjects with them, and one of them is English. And if you 
stay long you will take some science, because certain subjects require science." 
Three-fourths of the boys that come from the farm have not had much educa- 
tion, but they do well in the sciences. We had 20 students six years ago, and 
now we have 340, taken just as they come. One-half of the work they do is 
done in other departments of the university than that of agriculture — civil en- 
gineering, English language, botany, history, chemistry. (Jreek and Latin, if 
they want it — and the percentage of failure on the part of our students is below 
the average of the university; the percentage of graduation as high. The 
situation is much the same in all institutions. Three-fourths of the students 
in all lines never graduate. 
We have a splendid preparation of a scholastic order for the city people, but 
we have no such preparation for the country people. Let us have a little better 
preparatory course for the farmer, and stop talking about four-year courses 
and about conditions for admissions, but bring the student to the college and let 
him take up at once the subject he wishes to study. We are setting up too high 
a standard for agricultural courses when we demand that if students will not 
take the four-year course therefore they must take something peculiar and in- 
ferior. If you confront them with such conditions you will drive them out of 
the agricultural courses. It is not done in other lines ; why do it in agricul- 
ture? Identify the boy with his subject. We have seniors, juniors, sopho- 
