Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

In explaining this matter to the association in November, 1900, President Thompson made it clear that it was the purpose of the Ohio State University to inaugurate a movement in which the colleges represented in the association would be expected to cooperate. "The proposition would be to have a faculty of instruction gathered from the colleges and experiment stations represented in this convention." It was to be "an intercollegiate school of agriculture" and to have "a migratory character" if experience showed that it was best "to take it from institution to institution."

The association referred this matter to its executive committee, which at the convention in November, 1901, reported its approval of the plan suggested by the Ohio State University and recommended the holding of the first session of the school during the summer of 1902 "under the control of the president of the said university, with the expectation of adopting the school as a cooperative enterprise under the control of the convention should the success of the first session seem to justify the continuance of the school."

In 1900 the board of trustees of Ohio State University had made an appropriation of $1,000 to finance such a school, and the next year the authorities of the university, having learned in advance of the decision of the executive committee of the college association, took some preliminary steps toward its organization. The Secretary of Agriculture expressed his approval of this project and his willingness to have the Director of the Office of Experiment Stations act as its dean and other officers of the department to be members of the faculty.

Many of the officers of the colleges and stations expressed their interest in the school in response to a circular letter from the university. With this and other information before them the association approved the report of its executive committee. The university then took prompt action to hold the first session during July, 1902. The writer was made dean, and Thomas F. Hunt acted as registrar. The school was opened July 7, 1902, and continued for four weeks. At the inaugural exercises addresses were made by James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture; H. C. White, president of the Georgia College of Agriculture, as chairman of the executive committee of the association of agricultural colleges; and the dean.

Courses were offered in three main lines-agronomy, zootechny, and dairying. A special course in plant and animal breeding was also planned and arrangements made for general exercises in agricultural pedagogy and on special topics to be held in the Saturday morning periods.

The university authorities put at the disposal of the school the large and well-appointed building devoted exclusively to the instruction given in the college of agriculture of the university, known as Townshend Hall. This building contains well-appointed lecture rooms, thoroughly equipped laboratories, and an agricultural library. Animals of different kinds and breeds were obtained from leading breeders in Ohio for use in demonstration exercises. A matriculation fee of $6 for each student for the whole session or any part thereof was asked, this being the fee regularly charged by the Ohio State University for each term. Arrangements for board and lodging were made in the neighborhood of the university for from $5 to $7

per week, and the north dormitory of the university was open to the school, where board and lodging were provided at $5 per week and for table board at $4 per week.

The faculty included 35 men, of whom 26 are professors in agricultural colleges, 7 are leading officers of the Department of Agriculture, and 2 are officers of the New York State Experiment Station. Seventy-five students were in attendance. These were drawn from 28 States and Territories, including such widely separated regions as Maine, Oregon, California, New Mex.co, and Alabama. There was 1 student from Canada and 1 from Argentina. There was also 1 woman, and the colored race was represented by teachers from the Tuskegee Institute and the North Carolina Agricultural College. Twenty-seven of the students are professors or assistant professors of agriculture in agricultural colleges, 31 are assistants in the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 9 are recent college graduates, and 8 are engaged in farming.

The lectures and other exercises given at the school were as a rule of a high order. Much new information was presented, as well as useful reviews and summaries, with special reference to the needs of different students. There was a large amount of interesting and profitable discussion among students and the faculty both inside and outside the lecture rooms. The course of study was pursued with great earnestness by both faculty and students and it was even necessary to restrain the faculty and students from too prolonged exercises. The Saturday morning conferences proved to be of great interest. Among the topics treated in these exercises were the organization of agricultural education in colieges, secondary schools, nature-study courses, correspondence courses, farmers' institutes, and various forms of university extension, what constitutes a science of agriculture, the educational values of courses in agriculture, and methods and values of cooperative experiments (499).

The broad aim of this school, which in considerable measure, was justified by its results, was thus stated by its dean at the session in 1902 (439):

In an unusual measure we believe this school will furnish inspiration and up-to-date knowledge to workers in our agricultural institutions, gathered out of many States and Territories; but beyond this, we believe that in its ultimate results this school will greatly aid in the formation of public opinion in favor of the more thorough and rational organization of agricultural education and research in the United States.

The school will aim to solidify and amplify the organization of education and research in agricultural subjects on the basis of agriculture itself, considered as both a science and an art. It will seek on the one hand to help on the movement for grouping the results of investigation in many scient fic lines into a fairly well-defined body of knowledge, to be known as the science of agriculture, comparable with such sciences as geology, geography, and medicine, and on the other hand to quicken and broaden the movement for the direct application of science in manifold ways to the art of agriculture. While we expect to pursue our work with high standards of scientific and pedagogical effort, we will not for a moment lose sight of the farmer and the requirements of practical agriculture. All our labor will be counted as in vain if it does not issue sooner or later in the growing of plants and animals better adapted to the uses of men and the evolution of a system of farming in which the financial returns shall be more satisfactory to the intelligent and thrifty farmers, and under which the general level of intelligence, comfort, and upright and harmonious living of our rural population shall be perceptibly and increasingly raised.

The fundamental basis of the development of courses of instruction in agriculture was also presented with some elaboration by the dean in a paper on the science of agriculture and in one on educational values of courses of agriculture. Both these papers were published in the Report of the Office of Experiment Stations for 1902 (439) and the latter in Bulletin 19 of Ohio State University. The science of agriculture was compared with geology, geography, and medicine, as a science which is made up of materials

derived from other more fundamental sciences such as chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, etc. It may be defined as

that body of knowledge (gained and verified by exact observation and correct thinking, methodically formulated and arranged in a rational system) in which the facts relating to the production of plants and animals useful to man and the uses of these plants and animals are accurately set forth, and a rational explanation is given of the phenomena and laws involved in such production and uses. It is obvious that this body of knowledge may be variously subdivided according to different purposes of study or application.

Agriculture may be divided into plant production, animal production or zootechny, agricultural technology or agrotechny, rural engineering, and rural economics.

Under plant production is included whatever relates to the natural or artificial environment (i. e., climate, soil, water, fertilizers) of useful plants, their structure, composition, physiology, botanical relations, varieties, geographical distr.bution, culture, harvesting, preservation, and uses, and the obstructions to their growth, preservation, or use. Plant production may be subdivided into agronomy, which deals with what are commonly called field or farm crops; horticulture, which deals with vegetables, fruits, and ornamental plants, especially as grown in gardens, small plantations, or parks; and forestry, which deals with trees and shrubs grown in large tracts.

Animal production includes—

*

whatever relates to the anatomy, physiology, zoological relations, domestication, types and breeds, breeding, feeding, hygiene, management, and uses of useful animals. It may also include * diseases and other impediments to the production of animals, i. e., veterinary medicine, though this is in itself a large and distinct body of knowledge.

Animal production may be subdivided according to the different kinds of animals or into such branches as animal breeding, animal nutrition, and animal management.

Agrotechny includes whatever relates to the conversion of raw materials produced in agriculture into manufactured articles for use in commerce and the arts. It may also include the processes of handling these raw materials in connection with their commercial uses, as in the case of milk and cream sold for consumption. It also involves whatever relates to departures from standards set for manufactured articles, i. e., adulterations and sophistications, in somewhat the same way that the diseases of plants and animals are related to agronomy and zootechny. Agrotechny is naturally divided into specialities according to the kinds of materials, e. g., foods and feeding stuffs, liquors, oils, textiles, and leather. The subdivision of most importance as a subject of school instruction in the United States is dairying.

Rural engineering includes those branches of civil and mechanical engineering which relate to the locating, arranging, and equipment of farms and the construction and operation of farm implements and machinery. It embraces the surveying of farms, the location of farm buildings and works, the construction of buildings, water, irrigation, drainage, and sewage systems, and roads. It also involves the principles of mechanics as applied to farm machinery and the use of different kinds of power for agricultural purposes.

Rural economics may be more or less broadly defined according to the point of view. It at least includes whatever is related to agriculture considered as a means for the production, preservation, and distribution of wealth by the use of land for the growing of plants and animals. It may include the development of agriculture as a business (history of agriculture), as well as the facts and principles of farm management under present conditions.

The practical advantages of organizing agricultural instruction on a science of agriculture rather than on the relations of the fundamental sciences to agriculture were pointed out.

The differentiation of the body of knowledge, which may fairly be called the science of agriculture, from the other sciences will lead to profound changes in

237

the methods of teaching agricultural subjects, the equipment for such instruction, and the arrangement of courses to meet the needs of different classes of students. We are, in fact, already in the midst of such changes. The most obvious result of this movement thus far is the division of the subject of agriculture among several instructors in a college, so as to make at least the beginnings of a real agricultural faculty. Thus we now have quite commonly in our agricultural colleges professors of agronomy, animal husbandry (zooWhen a group of intechny), dairying, horticulture, and veterinary science. structors is thus formed the natural consequence is a special building in which they may work, to a certain extent at least, in cooperation. When the building is provided it is seen to be appropriate and desirable that it should contain special arrangements, facilities, apparatus, etc., suited to the requirements of the subjects to be taught in it. This leads the instructors in several branches of agriculture to set their wits to work to devise special arrangements and apparatus which will improve the quality and thoroughness of their instruction. Along with this there is more study of the relation of the different topics to each other in a scheme of instruction, the rearrangement of courses, the improvement of methods of teaching, and the discussion of the whole subject of the pedagogy of agricultural science.

According to President Eliot, of Harvard University, the essential constituents of education in the highest sense are as follows: "We must learn to see straight and clear; to compare and infer; to make an accurate record; to remember; to express our thoughts with precision, and to hold fast on lofty general recognition of the principle that ideals." "There is also," he says, effective power in action is the true end of education rather than the storing up of information or the cultivation of faculties which are mainly receptive, discriminating, or critical."

66

School courses, especially in high school and college, should therefore particularly promote the development of each pupil's dominant interests and powers, and further should seek to render these interests and powers subservient to life's serious purposes, which include self-support or some worthy form of service, and intelligent, active participation in human affairs.

A properly constituted agricultural course, taken as a whole, will include both cultural and vocational studies. The educational value of two-thirds of the course would not be disputed. As regards the strictly agricultural portion of the course, much of it consists of materials drawn from physics, chemistry, various biological sciences, engineering, and economics. The objects, facts, and phenomena brought before the student of agricultural science are of such a kind as to test his capacity to "see straight and clear" in a very high degree. There is also abundant opportunity "to compare and infer and make "an accurate record" of what is learned, as well as to exercise the memory and to express thoughts with precision.

[ocr errors]

It also may be fairly claimed that the study of agriculture in its human relations may have an ethical side of much educational value. We should teach men in our agricultural colleges to be intelligent farmers, not simply that they may thus make a better living, but also that they may be leaders in making agriculture a live, progressive art, which in the future shall provide a more stable and satisfactory basis for thrifty, intelligent, and refined rural communities, as well as a stronger guaranty for the manufactures, commerce, art, literature, and science of a higher civilization, in which industrial and civil peace, and not war, shall be the established order.

Full responsibility for this enterprise was then assumed by the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations and a committee on graduate work was appointed to have general charge of the school. This committee reported in 1904 in favor of holding sessions biennially, and advocated that each college contribute a small sum toward its maintenance. On this plan the second session was held at the University of Illinois in 1906, with a faculty of 35 leading agricultural teachers and investigators. Ninety-one students and 40 visitors from 34 States and Territories,

Hungary, and India were enrolled. Courses were given in agronomy, horticulture, plant physiology, zootechny, and plant and animal breeding.

The third session was held at the New York College of Agriculture, in cooperation with the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, with a faculty of 50 members, in addition to 18 speakers at special meetings. On the faculty, besides officers of the agricultural colleges and stations, were the United States Commissioner of Education, the New York commissioner of agriculture, the State entomologist, and representatives of Teachers' College of Columbia University, the Carnegie Institution, Sheffield Scientific School and the Royal Agricultural College at Berlin, Germany. The students numbered 164, including 15 women registered in the Graduate School of Home Economics. They came from 37 States, the District of Columbia, Canada, China, and India, and included at least 40 heads of departments in agricultural colleges and stations. "Probably never before had there been gathered together for so extended a period so large and enthusiastic a body of scientific men interested in agriculture." Courses were given in biochemistry, agronomy, horticulture, entomology, dairy husbandry and dairying, poultry, and veterinary medicine.

At the fourth session, held at the Iowa State College in 1910, the courses included plant physiology and pathology, agronomy, horticulture, animal husbandry, poultry, dairying, and for the first time rural engineering, rural economics, and sociology. The faculty numbered 57, including representatives of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, the Royal Imperial College of Agriculture, Vienna, Austria, the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Ontario Agricultural College. The students numbered 205, including 15 women and 3 negroes, from 39 States, the District of Columbia, Canada, Scotland, Cuba. Denmark, Russia, and the Transvaal.

The fifth session, at Michigan Agricultural College in 1912, had a faculty of 48 instructors, including representatives of Harvard University, Yale University, Carnegie Institution, Rothamsted Experiment Station, Cambridge University, England, and the Hygienic Institute at Munich, Germany. The students numbered 180, including 41 women enrolled in the Graduate School of Home Economics. They came from 34 States, Porto Rico, Canada, Russia, China, and Japan. There were courses in soils, plant physiology, animal physiology, agronomy, horticulture, beef and dairy cattle, swine, poultry, rural engineering, rural economics, and farm management.

The sixth session, at the University of Missouri in 1914, had courses in genetics, agronomy, animal husbandry, horticulture, immunity and disease resistance, rural economics, and farm management. The faculty was purposely limited to 29 members, including representatives of the Carnegie Institution, University of Wisconsin, Harvard University, New York Veterinary College, University of Edinburgh, and the Imperial Institute, Dahlen, Berlin, Germany. The students numbered 132, and came from 32 States, District of Columbia, Canada, and Scotland.

The seventh and final session was held at the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1916. The courses were restricted to two main

« ПредишнаНапред »