Vol. LXn. No. 2794. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 15, 1903. 
SI PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 
AN INTERVIEW WITH PROF. U. H. BAILEY. 
Noble Plans for Educating the Farmer. 
During the past year the New York Agricultural Col¬ 
lege has been reorganized. After long and faithful ser¬ 
vice Prof. I. P. Roberts retired as head of the College, 
and Prof. L. H. Bailey took his place as director, which 
is equivalent to the presidency of this College of Cornell 
University. The effort which was made to induce the 
last New York Legislature to house the College as it de¬ 
serves created a new interest in agricultural education, 
and there are thousands who will be glad to learn what 
the new director hopes and plans for the future. Antici¬ 
pating this desire, I have asked Prof. Bailey a few lead¬ 
ing questions, and they, with his answers, are printed 
below. They are worthy a careful study, not only by 
New York farmers, but by everyone who believes in the 
future of American agriculture. h. w. c. 
What do you mean by the "reorganization^’ of the 
College f 
We mean that it is growing, expanding. All the ac¬ 
customed lines of work are to he carried for¬ 
ward, and new lines are to be added. An educa¬ 
tional institution must grow and enter new 
fields, as a business organization must. For ex¬ 
ample, the old professorship of agriculture is 
being divided into its several parts in many 
colleges. It is no longer sufficient to have a 
single professorship covering all agriculture, 
any more than a single professorship of medi¬ 
cine for a medical college, or a single professor¬ 
ship of language for a classical college. Long 
ago the colleges separated out a professorship 
of horticulture. The work heretofore so well 
done by Professor Roberts at Cornell is to be 
divided among several men. The directorship 
falls to one man; the field crops and farm man¬ 
agement (now known as agronomy)', falls to an¬ 
other; the animal husbandry falls to another; 
the dairy industry falls to another. There will 
also be a new professorship of soil investiga¬ 
tion, to consider all the advanced questions of 
soil, physics, soil surveys, etc., subjects that are 
now considered to be coordinate with soil chem¬ 
istry itself. The United States Department of 
Agriculture is taking great interest in the re¬ 
organization of this College, and, among other 
things, it is sending one of its best men to start 
the work in soil investigation. There will be a 
course devoted to the farm home, comprising 
such subjects as farm architecture, sanitation, 
adornment of the premises, woman’s work, and 
domestic science, the home life and literature, 
and other questions that stand for a general up¬ 
lift in all the ideals of living for the country. 
There is also to be a special course in landscape 
gardening. This will also extend the infiuence 
of the College into the lines of civic improve¬ 
ment, which is now coming to be such an im¬ 
portant subject. It is expected that the very large 
poultry interests of the State will receive special addi¬ 
tional attention. About a dozen new teachers and in¬ 
vestigators are now being added to the corps of pro¬ 
fessors and instructors in the College of Agriculture. 
The University has also purchased three farms, lying 
contiguous to the old University farm, to provide for 
the growth of the College. Every one connected with 
the institution, including the Board of Trustees and 
the President, is thoroughly in sympathy with all this 
agricultural work, and wants to push it for the 
benefit of the farmer. 
What do you mean by "College” and "University?” 
Cornell University comprises several coordinate 
colleges, and the Graduate Department. These col¬ 
leges are Arts and Sciences, Law, State Veterinary 
Ckillege, Medicine, Mechanical Engineering, and 
others. One of them is the College of Agriculture, 
with its special corps of more than 80 officers. The 
past year there were about 250 students in the Col¬ 
lege, and many thousands in the State connected 
with its correspondence courses. 
Mow is the College supported? 
Tuition is free in the College. So far as public funds 
are concerned, the support of the University is as 
follows: The interest on certain proceeds of the Land 
Grant of 1862 for maintenance of a college of agricul¬ 
ture and mechanic arts In each State. The State of 
New York holds in trust certain funds and pays 
interest annually at the rate of five per cent. This 
interest is appropriated by each Legislature. It 
amounts to about $34,000; but the University expends 
more than this sum on the maintenance of instruc¬ 
tion given to students in agriculture, not count¬ 
ing expenditures that are required for support of 
the mechanic arts and other subjects contemplated 
by the Land Grant Act. The University also re¬ 
ceives $25,000 annually from the United States Treas¬ 
ury, under an act of Congress passed in 1890, sup¬ 
plementing the original Land Grant Fund. The Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture receives as much of this fund as 
the College of Mechanical Engineering does. The 
Experiment Station, which is a department of the 
College of Agriculture, receives its support wholly 
from the United States Government. The College re¬ 
ceives no money from the State for the purpose of 
carrying on its regular stated teaching and experi¬ 
mental work. For several years, however, the State 
has made a liberal appropriation for the extension 
of work in agriculture throughout the State, and the 
College of Agriculture is made the agent, under the 
supervision of the Commissioner of Agriculture, for 
prosecuting this work. This added a new line of work. 
What is the "ewtension work”? 
It is very large, and several special reports have 
been devoted to it. A special circular explaining it 
will be Issued September 1. A college of agriculture 
can no longer confine itself to the teaching of mere 
technical agriculture. It must stand also for the 
rural school, the farm home, and every enterprise 
that makes farm life attractive and profitable. Col¬ 
leges and universities have necessarily stood mostly 
for the city person, or for those persons In the coun¬ 
try who would gravitate towards the city. The Col¬ 
lege of Agriculture stands for the country and the 
persons who would live In the country. Its motto 
is, “the open country for the country’s sake.’’ There¬ 
fore, an extension work is really necessary to a 
modern agricultural education enterprise. We must 
reach more people and a greater variety of interests 
than can be touched by teaching only those who come 
to the college. The schools must be led to see that it 
is vitally important that the children’s minds be 
directed towards the farm and the country rather 
than towards the city. We have been teaching the 
things that lead away from the farm. The college 
does not lead the boy away from the farm; he is 
usually led away, if at all, by many influences before 
he ever goes to college. 
The extension work falls under these general 
heads: 
1. The nature-study work, to put the chil¬ 
dren and the schools into closer sympathy and 
touch with farming and country life. This com¬ 
prises the Junior Naturalist Clubs, the Junior 
Gardeners, the Teachers’ Home-Study Course, 
and other enterprises. 
2. The reading-courses, of two parts—the 
farmers’ reading-course, the farmers’ wives’ 
reading-course. 
3. Experimenting and lecturing and teaching 
throughout the State. Many hundred experi¬ 
ments have been made and are making on many 
subjects connected with soil fertility, tillage, 
spraying, crop-growing, stock and dairy prob¬ 
lems, poultry raising, fruit growing, etc. 
4. The short Winter-courses of 11 weeks at 
Ithaca, comprising a general agricultural course 
and a dairy course. 
What new limes of work will the College take up? 
Many. They cannot all be outlined to you 
now. But in general it may be said that it will 
be the endeavor of the College to reach every 
agricultural and country life interest in the 
State. For instance, the whole question of milk 
sanitation and milk distribution will be given 
much attention. The farmer is Interested not 
only in producing milk, but In selling it. Con¬ 
sumers must be taught that there is quality in 
milk, as there is in cheese or bread. Clean milk, 
healthful milk, nutritious milk, must be the 
endeavor everywhere. We must know how best 
to produce sanitary milk; how to bottle it, 
handle it, and transport it; whether it may 
carry germs of disease, and 20 other Important 
questions. 
Every farm and every crop has its problems. The 
modern agricultural college and experiment station 
stand ready to attack these problems. But there 
is one great class of problems that Is in need of 
special attention in New York State. These ques¬ 
tions may be called, collectively, the problem of the 
hill lands. The hill farms are usually the least pro¬ 
ductive farms. They must be regenerated. How 
this can be done can be learned only by long "study 
and experiment. But there are several lines of attack 
that promise well. One is to renew and improve the 
permanent pastures; and this question will be made 
the subject of a special inquiry by ProfessoK Hunt and 
others. Another Is to endeavor to revive the sheep 
industry. 
Another is to determine whether it Is pos¬ 
sible to recuperate the beef industry in the East. 
Still another is to devise some cheap,and practicable 
means of growing apples for export, on these hills. 
PROFESSOR L. H. BAILEY. Fig. 217 
