24 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
of Modern Languages, History, Philos¬ 
ophy, and Ancient Languages. We offer 
four year courses in Horticulture, Agri¬ 
culture, Mechanical, Civil and Electrical 
Engineering in addition to four year 
courses in General Science and four year 
course in Literature, Philosophy, and 
Pedagogy, which do not belong under 
this head. We also offer a two year 
course in Agriculture, and a two year 
course in the Mechanical Arts. 
Under the Buckman Bill we are re 
quired to maintain certain entrance re¬ 
quirements which may be modified by 
the Board of Control. They have been 
so modified, and we now admit studenfs 
who have completed the eleventh grade of 
the public schools. We accept actual 
farmer boys in the department of Agri¬ 
culture without their coming up to those 
requirements. The young farmer boys 
throughout the State who really want to 
learn the scientific elements of agricul¬ 
ture and horticulture and the elements of 
mechanical arts have an open door and a 
hearty welcome into the institution. 
We hold, with the possible exception 
of a few of our men who are still joined 
to their idols of “culture,” that our first 
duty is to the largest body of our citizens, 
and the last duty to the smallest body, 
and we have done all that we can to ac¬ 
complish that result. 
Now I want to tell you some of the 
results. I said it was a hard matter to 
convince the people after you convince 
school men. We are convinced that the 
methods of education which we represent 
are the proper methods; we are howling 
dervishes in our conviction. You can 
hear us howl. If you listen you can 
hear Prof. Rolfs and myself howl clear 
down on the Gulf Coast and on the East 
Coast and down in the Everglades. We 
are convinced. The next proposition is 
to convince the people that this proposi¬ 
tion is true and that we are prepared to 
serve them. Let me give you a few 
facts and figures. Before I give you 
these, let me illustrate from the situation 
in the State of Missouri. There are 555 
high schools in that State which are re¬ 
quired to give instruction in agriculture. 
In these schools, how many do you think 
were taking Latin and how many do you 
think were taking the course in agricul¬ 
ture? Out of the students in 555 high 
schools which were required by the law 
to have a course in agriculture, 28,000 
students, who had the opportunity 
brought to them in the schools to take 
agriculture and at the same time the op¬ 
portunity to take Latin, 14,000 were tak¬ 
ing Latin and 1,180 taking agriculture! 
Now, in our own State Institution, we 
have an enrollment under the Agricul¬ 
tural and Mechanical College Acts, of 
college students amounting to fifty-two. 
That does not count two or three grad¬ 
uate students or some 25 or 26 students 
who are taking the literary course. The 
total enrollment for the year just closed 
has been 103—very small, but still the 
largest college enrollment in the State. 
We include in this 31 preparatory and 
some graduate students, but of those tak¬ 
ing the regular Agricultural and Mechan¬ 
ical College courses, there were 52. 
Now, gentlemen, the doors are open 
for a scientific education along the lines 
in which you are most interested. Prof. 
Rolfs and myself are going up and down 
the State trying to convince the people 
that what they want and need is educa¬ 
tion along the practical lines of agricul¬ 
ture and horticulture. There is no tui¬ 
tion fee, no laboratory fee; board, fuel 
and lights at $15.00 per month; and yet 
we have under the agriculture college 
professors, 52 students in agriculture and 
