The rapid growth of the literature on rural economics and sociology in recent years is indicated by comparison of the reports of the bibliographer of the Land-Grant College Association in 1913 and 1921. In the former year 128 books and other separate publications issued during the previous seven years were listed. In 1921 the list included 362 titles, grouped as follows: Agricultural history and development, 21; agricultural land, 12; cooperation, 17; cost of production, 26; farm labor and wages, 17; farm management, 36; marketing, 56; rural church, 11; rural credit, 35; rural economics, general, 29; rural population, 11; rural school, 8; rural sociology, general, 40; rural surveys, 16; and tenancy, 13.

At the meeting of the Land-Grant College Association in 1923, B. H. Hibbard, of the College of Agriculture of the University of Wisconsin, in a paper on the rôle of economics in the training of agricultural students, pointed out that three plans for organizing work in agricultural economics had been tried in the land-grant institutions. It had been taught (1) in a separate department in the college of agriculture, (2) in a division of the department of economics in the college of letters and sciences, and (3) in several departments dealing with production in an agricultural college. The first method, according to Professor Hibbard, is the only one which thus far has given any degree of satisfaction. The course in economics for agricultural students should include not less than seven semester units, four of which should be given to the general principles of economics and three to the application of these principles to agriculture. This course should come not later than junior year and might advantageously be preceded in sophomore year by studies in economic history, agricultural geography, and bookkeeping. Specialization in agricultural economics for those students majoring in this subject should be arranged for in junior and senior

years.

This subject was also discussed by Henry C. Taylor, Chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. He advocated the teaching of economic geography, agricultural history, elementary statistics and graphic methods, and farm inventories and accounts in freshman and sophomore years and the outlines of agricultural economics in junior year. These required courses should be followed by the choice of three special courses from the following list: Agricultural statistics, farm management and practice, marketing of farm products, cooperative marketing at home and abroad, agricultural finance, land problems, country-life problems.

It should be borne in mind that what the student gets out of the study of economics is not a formula that will serve as a guide to his actions in the future, but rather a method of gathering facts and analyzing problems, which method may be applied to the solution of such problems as will arise from time to time as he enters on the duties of everyday life (499).

In its division of rural social science, the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1923-24 offered a required course in the elements of rural sociology and elective courses on the social condition of rural people, rural government, rural organization, field work in rural sociology, and rural social surveys. This was in addition to one required course in agricultural industry and resources and 14 electrive courses in various branches of rural economics.

At the New York College of Agriculture at Cornell University in 1924-25 courses were listed in about 20 different subjects under the heads of farm management, marketing, rural economy, and history of agriculture in the department of agricultural economics and farm management, and in the department of rural social organization courses are offered on the social problems of rural communities, the rural family, organization of agriculture in the United States, rural leadership, the rural community, the social psychology of rural life, the village, field work in rural society, and research in rural social organization.

In an article on the development of the work in agricultural economics and allied subjects published in Bureau of Education Bulletin 37, 1924, Doctor Taylor sums up progress in recent years as follows:

In the academic year 1909-10, 82 courses, averaging 3.3 credits, were offered in 40 of our agricultural colleges, while in the academic year 1919-20, 308 courses, averaging 3.4 credits, were offered, or an increase of 275 per cent in the number of courses offered. Instruction in farm management increased rapidly, as indicated by the fact that the number of courses offered increased from 42, averaging 3.6 credits, in 1910 to 85 courses, averaging 3.9 credits, in 1920. This shows an increase of 102 per cent in the courses offered in this subject. The courses offered in agricultural economics increased from 22, averaging 3.1 credits, to 56, averaging 2.9 credits, or an increase of 155 per cent for the period 1910 to 1920. Courses in marketing were not introduced until 1911, in which year two courses were offered. The growth in this subject has been rapid, and to-day land-grant colleges are offering 42 courses. All other courses besides farm management, agricultural economics, and marketing have increased from 18 to 125 per cent (469).

In 1910, 22 colleges employed 28 part-time instructors and 6 colleges had 11 full-time instructors in agricultural economics; in 1915, 31 colleges reported 49 part-time instructors and 14 had 46 full-time instructors; in 1921, 30 colleges reported 79 instructors and 26 colleges had 104 full-time instructors. In 1921, 70 of these instructors in 29 colleges had bachelor of science degrees; 60 instructors in 27 colleges had master of science degrees; and 41 instructors in 21 colleges had the doctor of philosophy degrees. At that time 33 landgrant colleges reported 6,908 regular, 3,109 special, 294 short-course, and 268 post-graduate students, making a total of 10,579 students engaged in work in agricultural economics, farm management, and allied subjects.

In the same publication C. J. Galpin states that from 1911 to 1922 rural sociology was admitted into 40 land-grant colleges and full-time professors of this subject were employed in 15 colleges (469).

Courses in rural sociology have thus far been mainly of undergraduate grade and have usually been for juniors and seniors. A few colleges are offering graduate courses. A considerable number of master's degrees and a few doctorates have been granted to students majoring in rural sociology.

RECENT RESEARCH WORK OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES

The agricultural colleges have continued to do research mainly through the experiment stations. Because of conditions growing out of the World War the growth of the stations during the past decade has been relatively slow.

In 1925 these stations had an annual income of about $10,500,000, including $1,440,000 from the Federal Government under the Hatch

and Adams Acts. They employed about 2,400 trained workers, about half of whom did more or less teaching in the colleges. They issue annually about 1,000 publications freely distributed to nearly a million addresses. The contents of these publications are generally summarized in the agricultural press and form the basis of much of the extension work of the colleges. Many of them find their way abroad. Summaries of all of them are regularly published in the Experiment Station Record and sent to libraries and agricultural institutions throughout the world.

In 1924-25 the total number of projects carried on by the experiment stations was 5,538. These dealt with a great variety of problems relating to soils, field crops, horticulture, animal husbandry, plant and animal diseases, beneficial and injurious insects, noxious animals, dairying, rural engineering, farm buildings, water supply, sanitation, foods and human nutrition, etc. There were also 235 projects in the field of rural economics and sociology.

The Purnell Act of February 24, 1925, authorizes an increase of Federal funds to the experiment stations to the extent of $20,000 to each State for the fiscal year 1926 and an additional sum of $10,000 each year for four years, after which the annual sum will be $60,000 as long as this law is in force. (Fig. 23.) Appropriations under this act must be made annually by Congress:

The funds appropriated pursuant to this act shall be applied only to paying the necessary expenses of conducting investigations or making experiments bearing directly on the production, manufacture, preparation, use, distribution, and marketing of agricultural products, and including such scientific researches as have for their purpose the establishment and maintenance of a permanent and efficient agricultural industry, and such economic and sociological investigations as have for their purpose the development and improvement of the rural home and rural life, and for printing and disseminating the results of said researches.

It is expected that this act will greatly broaden and strengthen the research work of the agricultural experiment stations in the fields of rural economics and sociology and home economics, and that this will react very favorably on the resident teaching and extension work of these institutions in such lines. The history of the Purnell Act is given in the Proceedings of the Land-Grant College Association for 1925.

SHORT COURSES

The wide spread of the extension work and the great increase of secondary schools in which agriculture was taught, brought into prominence problems relating to the short-course work of the agricultural colleges, which had become very varied and complex. In 1924 the committee on college organization and policy of the LandGrant College Association, with the approval of its executive body, asked the committee on instruction in agriculture, home economics, and mechanic arts" to study the aims, character, duration and present status, proposed development and changes of the short courses offered at the land-grant institutions" (499). It was found that 45 of these institutions were offering short courses in agriculture, as compared with 22 in home economics and 24 in mechanic arts. These courses varied in length from one day to three years. They covered a wide range, including such subjects as general agriculture, farm manage

ment, agronomy, horticulture, forestry, animal husbandry, dairying, veterinary medicine, and economic entomology; and those of median scope, such as soils, market gardening, cotton, deciduous fruits, citrus and subtropical fruits, floriculture, beef cattle, poultry, beekeeping, farm structures; or specialties, such as grain grading or judging, nut culture, ice-cream making, cotton marketing and classing, elevator

management, and land classification and appraisals. There were also courses for canners, herdsmen, gardeners, nurserymen, editors, and teachers.

A considerable amount of the short-course work listed under mechanic arts was in the field of agricultural engineering and the special units, such as tractor repair and operation, gas engines, blacksmithing, etc.

In general the short courses in agriculture aimed (1) to prepare persons not in school to engage in agricultural pursuits, (2) to increase the knowledge and improve the practices of persons engaged in agriculture, (3) to acquaint the students with the personnel, equipment, and other facilities of the colleges for aiding them in their vocations after they returned to their homes. Special directors of short courses were employed at a number of the land-grant institutions.

The character and variety of the short-course work are evidently being affected by present day educational movements of various kinds. There is, for example, a widespread feeling that the large investment of funds in the buildings, equipment, and faculties of the colleges is not justified unless the plant and personnel of these institutions are being used to the fullest extent. Then there is the prevalent notion that mature persons engaged in particular pursuits are greatly benefited by even a short stay at the institutions where they may receive intensive instruction or information from experts. Thus we have what are called unit courses of various kinds for doctors, teachers, butter-makers, poultrymen, fruit growers, automobile chauffeurs, metermen, plumbers, and home makers (499).

The committee felt that the colleges should make a definite effort to organize their short-course work so that it would not interfere with the proper performance of the research, long-course teaching, and extension work. They believed that the demand for short courses would continue to increase and that the present-day outlook in education favored the use of such courses. It was therefore desirable that the colleges should agree on standard definitions of short courses and employ uniform terms in stating their duration and character. To aid in this matter the committee made suggestions, as follows:

(1) A short course is a course of systematic instruction in a given subject or group of subjects of shorter duration than a 4-year college course and not leading to a degree. Obviously a course of systematic instruction can not be given in a few unrelated lectures within a period of a few days.

(2) Extension meetings, farmers' weeks, and similar meetings for a few days, having a miscellaneous program and no really systematic instruction, should not be called short courses but conferences or institutes.

(3) Short courses may be classified according to their duration as years' courses, months' courses, or weeks' courses and should be designated by their duration rather than by the general term "short course." For example, instead of announcing a short course in dairying, occupying six weeks, the college should announce a 6-weeks' course in dairying.

(4) Full consideration should be given by the colleges to whatever informational or instructional work is being done by their extension departments, by the special secondary schools, or by the ordinary high schools, and they should so limit and organize short courses as to give them a definite place in the college program without duplicating the work of other agencies (499).

Unit courses based on job analyses of special agricultural enterprises were advocated. These should be especially suited to agricultural conditions within the State where the college is located and should be planned for mature persons engaged in or expecting to engage in farming or other definite pursuit.

GENERAL STATUS OF THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES

Since 1915 the work of the agricultural colleges in the United States has been greatly broadened and strengthened. The organization of these institutions has also been more sharply defined so as to make the major lines of work distinct as (1) research (mainly