John Sherman, of Ohio, and Dawes, of Massachusetts, an amendment to this effect was embodied in section 2 of the Hatch Act.

It is also interesting to note that while the Carpenter and Holmes bills provided for a direct appropriation from the Treasury the Hatch bill stipulated that the station fund should come from the sales of public lands, thus following the precedents set in the educa

tional bills which had been before Congress during the previous 15

years.

The Hatch Act became a law March 2, 1887. To the surprise of many who had not followed this legislation closely, it was soon discovered that in this act Congress had only authorized, but had not made an appropriation. This caused some difficulties in carrying the work of stations already established. The first appropriation

under the Hatch Act was made in 1888 and at that time a precedent was established, which has since been followed, of including this fund in the annual appropriation act for the Department of Agriculture.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS

The executive committee appointed at the Washington convention of 1885, which had actively promoted the passage of the Hatch Act, saw that many problems would arise regarding the interpretation and administration of this act, the relations under it of the landgrant colleges, experiment stations, and Department of Agriculture, and the more comprehensive organization and management of experiment stations in all the States and Territories. President Atherton, as chairman of this committee, therefore called a meeting of representatives of the colleges and stations, which met at Washington, October, 18-20, 1887. (499).

At this meeting the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations was organized and the constitution proposed by the executive committee was adopted with few amendments. As stated in its constitution

The object of this association shall be the consideration and discussion of all questions pertaining to the successful progress and administration of the colleges and stations included in the association.

At any regularly called meeting of the association each college established under the act of Congress approved July 2, 1862, and each experiment station established under State or congressional authority, and the Department of Agriculture, shall be entitled to one delegate; but no delegates shall cast more than one vote. * * *

The officers of this association 'shall be a president, five vice presidents, and a secretary, who shall act as treasurer.

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The president, secretary, and five persons, to be chosen by the association, shall constitute an executive committee, which shall elect its own chairman. The executive committee shall determine the time and place of the next meeting of the association, shall issue its call for said meetings, stating the general purpose thereof, not less than thirty days before the date at which it shall be held; shall provide a well-prepared order of business and programme of exercises for such meeting, and shall make seasonable issue of said programme.

The executive committee shall be charged with the general arrangement and conduct of the meeting called by it; at which meeting, before its adjournment, a new executive committee shall be chosen.

In 1889 an amendment provided for permanent committees, and a committee on college work was appointed, out of which was developed in 1890 a section on college work. The Office of Experiment Stations was made a member of the association, with a voting delegate.

President Atherton, of Pennsylvania, was elected first president of the association, and Charles E. Thorne, of Ohio, secretary and treasurer. The executive committee included Henry E. Alvord, of Massachusetts; Edwin Willits, of Michigan; James K. Patterson, of Kentucky; Charles W. Dabney, of Tennessee; Charles K. Adams, of New York; and Charles E. Thorne, of Ohio.

The form of organization adopted in the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations has greatly promoted continuous and effective efforts for the improvement of the educational and material conditions of the land-grant institutions. The

annual conventions have afforded a broad basis for personal contacts of leading officers of these institutions and the Federal departments dealing with their affairs and for the discussion of many important problems relating to the organization and work of the institutions represented in the association.

The executive committee with broad authority to act during the intervals between conventions, as well as temporary and standing committees for the consideration of different phases of the work of the colleges and stations, have been able to keep the association in continuous action in many important ways.

The inclusion of members from Federal departments in the conventions and committees of the association had many advantages. This was particularly true with reference to agricultural education and research, in the promotion of which the United States Department of Agriculture, and especially the Office of Experiment Stations, established October 1, 1888, cooperated actively and effectively. The proceedings of the association at its annual conventions for 21 years (1889-1909) were published as bulletins of the Office of Experiment Stations, thus insuring their regular appearance and distribution, as well as official sanction. Summaries of these proceedings and other information about the educational work of the colleges were also given in the Experiment Station Record.

One of the first pieces of work which this office undertook in 1888-89 was the collection of information, documents, and photographs from the agricultural colleges for a report and exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1889. There were thus brought together, though imperfectly, considerable data regarding the history and status of these institutions, and in this way their appreciation of the fact that they collectively constituted a unique system of agricultural education with great possibilities was considerably strengthened.

Thus there came about a general movement for the accumulation of new agricultural knowledge, its reduction to pedagogical form, the enlargement of agricultural faculties, the broadening and specialization of agricultural courses, the securing of better and more adequate buildings, apparatus, and other equipment, and much wider and more effective measures for enlisting the confidence and support of the agricultural people and giving them aid and information which they greatly appreciated.

In the conventions of the association for the first decade after the preliminary meeting in Washington in 1885 questions relating to the funds, organization, and work of the experiment stations naturally occupied a large place on the programs and in the discussions. However, from the beginning educational problems were more or less discussed, and gradually arrangements were made for their orderly and continuous consideration.

EARLY WORK OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

The Morrill bill of 1890 was not brought to the attention of the individual colleges or their association until after its introduction by Senator Morrill. The executive committee of the association, of which Henry E. Alvord was chairman, then worked actively in

its support and was assisted by representatives from most of the colleges. Coming so soon after the passage of the Hatch Act, the second Morrill Act greatly strengthened the educational work of the land-grant colleges. Encouraged by this new recognition of the value of these colleges by the Federal Government, the State legislatures were more easily led to make liberal appropriations for buildings and facilities for instruction in these institutions. The friends of agricultural education became more active in urging their claims upon faculties, boards of management, and legislatures, and met with increasing success in securing for agriculture a larger recognition in the college curriculum. The establishment of the experiment stations had attached to these colleges a much larger and stronger body of men whose prime interest was on the side of agriculture, and the increased financial revenues of the colleges made it possible to utilize the service of many more instructors in agricultural subjects. The economic condition of agriculture did not, however, favor an immediate increase in the number of agricultural students, or tend to hold those who began agricultural studies until they had completed the four years' course.

The section on college work of the association reported at the New Orleans meeting in 1892 that engineering courses were much more popular than those in agriculture. In Illinois, for example, there was that year a decrease of 11 students in agriculture and an increase of 50 in mechanic arts. In Indiana there was an increase of 15 in agriculture but of 87 in engineering. Many colleges were erecting buildings for mechanic arts. At this meeting Professor Henry, of Wisconsin, urged that there should be greater specialization of instruction in agriculture, that it should be made more practical, and that short courses should be organized to attract agricultural students and meet the actual needs and conditions of a large body of farm youth. He had already had considerable success in these directions, having organized at the Wisconsin College a short course in 1886 and a dairy school for the practical instruction of men to manage creameries and cheese factories. (See p. 75.)

At the New Orleans meeting of the association in 1892 there was much discussion about the agricultural curriculum. President Fairchild, of the Kansas Agricultural College, in a paper on "The relations of technical to general courses of study" gave the plan followed at his institution: (1) Admit directly from the common schools; (2) give as early as possible, with English and mathematics, an introduction to nature through drawing and botany, with mechanical training in simple construction; (3) with chemistry and mineralogy apply science in agriculture, horticulture, economic entomology, and household economy, with practice in all; (4) with mathematics, mechanics, agricultural chemistry, and physics, give training in surveying and common engineering; (5) give general problems in thinking and reasoning, illustrated by everyday facts and practice in the arts of construction and production; (6) keep students thinking along the line of the industries; (7) make the faculty a unit in their sympathy for the purpose and methods of the college; (8) interest the students in the objects and arouse their pride in the college; (9) bring the college to the people; (10) cultivate the interest of the alumni.

S. W. Johnson, of Connecticut, favored a fundamental course in the sciences underlying both agriculture and the mechanic arts, with instruction in greenhouses, laboratories, shops, and barns, and a postgraduate course for special training. W. M. Hays, then from North Dakota, called attention to the specialization of agricultural education in the colleges in Michigan and Wisconsin, the dairy schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the secondary school of agriculture in Minnesota.

P. M. Harwood, of Michigan, argued for the organization of agricultural instruction in one college department with assistants in "vegetable economy and animal industry." At the Michigan college the freshmen had instruction on breeds of livestock, the sophomores on field crops, the juniors on animal husbandry, and the seniors on special agricultural subjects. Student labor was made educational by making it experimental.

The statistics of the land-grant colleges in 1894 as published in Circular 27 of the Office of Experiment Stations showed that 17 colleges had less than 25 students in agricultural courses, 13 had less than 75, and 6 less than 150. The States in which there were more than 150 students were Kansas with 460, Mississippi 216, Massachusetts 204, Texas 187, Michigan 181, Iowa 179, and Minnesota 175. In these statistics there was no differentiation of students in long and short courses. The total number of students in agricultural courses in all the land-grant colleges that year was 3,847 and the number of graduates was 229. Fourteen colleges had no graduates in agriculture, 21 had less than 5, 4 had less than 10, and only 7 had over 10. The latter included Alabama with 12, Kansas 39, Massachusetts 34, Michigan 14, Minnesota 20, Rhode Island 12, and Wisconsin 20.

In 1893 at Chicago Professor Henry, of Wisconsin, in his presidential address before the association urged a division of labor as regards teachers and investigators. The latter should do only a little teaching of advanced students. At that year's meeting the Chicago exposition largely engrossed the attention of the association. The cooperative exhibit of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, with the Office of Experiment Stations, did much to strengthen the feeling of unity of interest in the nation-wide system of agricultural education and a desire to do more to promote its improvement.

At the Washington meeting in 1894 there was great interest in the plans of the Department of Agriculture with reference to the supervision of the Hatch fund, which had been given to it by Congress at the request of Secretary Morton. The inspection of the work and finances of the stations inaugurated that year by the Office of Experiment Stations had unexpected results as regards agricultural instruction. The annual visits to the stations were made for a number of years by the director and assistant director of the office. They were thus enabled not only to discover what relations existed between the stations and the teaching departments of the colleges but also to learn much about the status of agricultural instruction in these institutions. At that time they were often called in conference with boards of trustees or their committees, presidents, and heads of departments, especially at the younger colleges, and were consulted about the qualifications of teachers, courses of instruction and equip