AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11888, 11 May 1899, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION.

(By PROFESSOR W. H. HENRY,

Wisconsin College.) To Justin S. Morrill, or Vermont, belongs tli© credit of initiating the effort, which has led to the establishment of at least one agricultural college in each State of the Union. In 1858 Mr Morrill, then a member of the Lower House of Congress, introduced a Bill providing for these institutions. It was vetoed by James Buchanan. In 1862 a similar measure was approved bv Abraham Lincoln. By this Act 11,000,000 acres of land were divided among the several States, 30,000 acres being given for each representative. - in Congress. New York was the largest recipient, receiving . 990,000 vicres (for its thirty-one representatives and two Senators. Some of the smaller States received only gO,OOO acres. . * In his plea Mr ,Morrill pointed out the fact that rich men out of their abundant means had provided schools for the education of those who were to follow the professions, white no one had made provision for the higher education of the children of the industrial classes, on which the nation must rely for its strength ■'and support. Since no one had cared for these, he argued,; it was the duty of tb3 General Government to make liberal provisions in the way of schools for technical training. He especially urged this from the agricultural standpoint. . The manner m which the grants were received, bestowed and disposed off would make a book. Out of this grant was founded the great Cornell University. ' Michigan - gave hers to her agricultural college, alfsa-dy located at Lansing. Illinois founded -a new mstitu-. tion at Champaign, lowa a college at Ames, Indiana gave hers' to Purdue, and Wisconsin and Minnesota to their State Universities. ' . In many cases the magnificent gitt was frittered away in the most senseless manner, if stronger words would not better characterise the operation, borne btates carefully conserved the grant, and showed good judgment. Cornell University, Michigan, and lowa, with others, are on the list of States that wisely conserved what the Government gave them. Wisconsin, Illinois, and Kentucky are among the States that did poorly with the.gift. In 1889, when 'lie saw that the, mcome from the land grant was far less than had been anticipated, Senator . MomU.introdSl a supplementary-. Act by winchthe ,s££s receive 25,000 dollars annually from Government land sales to supplement these industrial institutions. More than a third of a century has passed since their founding, and we can now look 52 S see the , crude ...«*£«• and the many mistakes whicn necessarily follow such a . : sudden- givmg „f an immense grant.. In most of the States the people were not ready tor .an. agricultural college, and tie,farmers cared nothing about, so that those classically inclined and who were familiar with educational effort easily warped the funds in directions not contemplated by the originators It is not too much to say that in those times there were very few indeed who knew what an agricultural college should be in equipment' or curriculum. And even' had this been known there were not the teachers available to impart the instruction. And, further, had there been both there would not at first have been pupils to- be taught. Our country was too new, agriculture too crude, and the farmers too busy taking up Government land and skimming the fertility off its surface to care anything i about agricultural education. With the marked "changes rapidly coming on. the whole situation, is assuming a new phase. Our agricultural colleges are growing in I strength and equipment, men are preparing I themselves specifically for the work and lea,minw what and how to teach. As these come on the young men from the farm are turning their/faces, to.these educational institutions, fully "appreciating the;'great-ad-vantages which may accrue to them from the offered instruction. In working out this

great problem, of agricultural education in America tHere lias been' an enormous sacrifice of money, energy, and effort, but-at last wo are getting down to business as we should.

It is but natural that over such a -wide expanse of country where so many different conditions. and views on eflucaiapn, prevail our agricultural colleges should take on a wide diversity of effort, and that their success should vary gristly. At first the courses of instruction were almost 'wholly scientific in character, not differing materially from that given the engineer or the professional man, the only addition being a smattering of agriculture often unworthy of the term. This was because there were neither the teachers,. the pedagogical methods, nor the equipment necessary. Year by ; year our agricultural colleges have grown., more agricultural and more practical. The amount of real training in agriculture whifth one can gain at any of our leading institutions is now' very considerable in amount and usually of excellent quality. We are-slowly but surely learning what' to : teach in agriculture and how it should W r taugh't. In our State universities the four-year course in agriculture is usually a combination/of ferae scientific training with more~-or less agricultural instruction and practice. Sometimes it is about all science, but generallyjtfeere is considerable agriculture. Those graduating from these long courses usually .do not expect to go back to the farm, but look for positions in the Department, of Agriculture at Washington, as instructors in agricultural colleges or workers in-experi-ment stations, or choose to- follow some tech* nical line in advance, as they suppose," of the straight occupation of farming. It is of a recent phase of agricultural educational effort that J desire to speak particularly at this time. A number of institutions, goaded by the charge that they had no pupils, endeavoured to meet the farmers by giving practical short courses of instruction. With some such courses were a mere "tab to the whale " —something given to allay gnmibikiganddisoonteat. With others it was an earnest effort to get down to farmer conditions and teach young farmers something about fanning.' At the University of Wisconsin, for example, we could not get the young mem to take the long course -in agriculture> while we found that they would come to study in what is called the short course. Instruction was offered for twelve weeks during the winter, when the young farmers could best be spared from, the farm. Thirteen years ago this effort was • begun with nineteen pupils. This year sees over, three hundred pupils studying agriculture at the- University of Wisconskii Our course of twelve weeks has grown to two winters of fourteen weeks each. Creamery and, cheese factory operations are taught as a separate branch, covering twelve , weeks. As the farmers learn of the school, and: what it can do for their sons our attendance increases. As we strive to teach real agriv culture, and as we improve our equipment and facilities generally our numbers increase. In this course we teach nothing but agriculture and pay no attention to the previous general training of -the students, holding that they should remain in- a country district school until they have completed that course. These young men are daily drilled in the feeding, breeding and management of live stock, the cultivation and management of. crops, construction and ventilation of farm buildings, the care and management of gardens and orchards, farm bla«ksmitfaing, farm carpentry, etc. More than a score of ', teachers give their whole energies to these lines of instruction..,'.

. A more eager, earnest set of young farmers can-nowhere be found. They haye come directly from tise farm, aad they will ' return to it in March next: It is interesting to note *that in the case of our Wisconsin school probabJy 40 per cent of the young men studying with us in the farm ccurses -will hire out on farms next spring as farm hands.' The call for these young men is beyond out ability to supply. Farmers write us 'thai they want one or 'more- young men who have attended our school the coming season tc work on their farms, saying that they prefer our stndents ; because they are industrious, temperate, and j they can have them sit at their own tables I without being ashamed of them, or having them influence the younger members of the ! family unfavourably through bad J habits, bad manners, etc. Last spring at the end of the short-course term we hired out fiftyone' of these farmer studenfe within two weeks' time, and had many more calls than there Avere young men seeking places. These young men fcund places from Massachu- ' tetts to California. * i The University of Minnesota, -in the deI bire to get. nearer the farmers, has hit upon i.'ft happy line of effort. Here the students ppend three winters of'six months each in pursuing academic studies, combined with agriculture" and the domestic sciences. Thus their common school education, is-increased

and they are kept near the farm and th« home in thought and training. A total attendance of about four hundred plainly attests the wonderful popularity of this institution among the farmers of tire State, and shows how wisely the university authorities have planned. I believe that tha experiences of Minnesota and Wisconsin, added to the wort of such institutions as Michigan and lowa, show plainly that in •tall the older agricoltural States at least, by properly studying the needs of the fanning class, a large attendance can be secured at the agricultural college. Each State must work out the problem, to suit its parficular condition, for no doobttbey vary-more than one would suspect from a cursory examination. In the eighteen years' work given 10 building up the College of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin I have become more and more impressed with- theoiecssßity for making agricultural instraction intensely practical. I hold that when the teacher properly trndersfcaods Ins work this practical instruction can be scientific and norma! in every particular, and that it is only through ignorance and lack of appreciation 1 of the true situation that there is any warfare between th© scientific ami the practical. True practice is based on sctence, and tteinore intensely scientific we are the more are we practical. Again, Lbsve been deeply impressed wiiJi the heavy cost, of real agriantnral «ducation. Such instruction can be imparted only in a small measure in lectures. Each" student must receive mfividnal training and bo closely watched over by expert instructors. It is easy to "lecture a class to death"; it is difficult and expensive to give them that kind of instruction which they can use in their everyday farm operations at home, and which wall make better practical farmers of them. I

Readers generally, I am sore, will decfetr* their willingness to stand by their agricultural colleges. This moral support is all right and good as far as it goes." Now, aro they vriSang to grre it the •financial support needed? A daps traiamg for the yoong fsrmeis, propcey grveo, -wfll cosfc much more than a day's training for the lawyer or-thb-sc&eßtiiSG student, for the farmer must have be&re him expensive apparatus ax.d living plants and animals viiu -which to w»rk. These are costly« in tie first instance, and see expensive to maintain. The lawyere-can be taught in large classes. The farmer student must haare individual assistance. Will our farmers who say they .give their agricultural colleges moral support see to it .that they are praprely equipped in library, laboratory, field aaod stable? Onr teachere are rapidly learning how to teach practical agrJCTltare; will oar fanciers whose sons are to recehae this instruction" strengthen these teachers with the moral and fjnasnraail so much need?