yU .< oJXu INAUGURATION mis I! Mfi I I * zc 1 * c £i?iH o yiw J. JA/tij.3 Kenyon 1C. Kntterfielii AS PRESIDENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OCTOBER SEVENTEENTH, 1906 c t2 0 i OO AA OF THE Massachusetts Agricultural College Henry F. French, M. A. Paul A. Chadbourne, D. D., LL. D. William S. Clark, Ph. D., LL. D. Charles L. Flint, M. A., LL. B. Levi Stockbridge, Paul A. Chadbourne, D. D., LL. D. James C. Greenough, M. A. Henry H. Goodell, LL. D. Kenyon L. Butterfield, A. M. - 1864-1866 1866- 1867 1867- 1879 1879- 1880 1880- 1882 1882- 1883 1883- 1886 1886-1905 1906- Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/inaugurationofkeOObutt ©riter nf iExmtoa PR A YER By Rev. Henry Hague MUSIC ADDRESS On behalf of the Board of Trustees By Hon. Charles A. Gleason Vice President of the Board PRESENTATION OF THE CHARTER , SEAL AND KEYS OF THE COLLEGE By Marquis F. Dickinson, Esq. INAUGURAL ADDRESS The Forward Movement in Agricultural Education By President Kenyon L. Butterfield, A. M. < By HON. CHARLES A. GLEASON. President Kenyon L. Butterfield, Ladies and Gentlemen : We meet here to-day to begin an important era in the history of this college, situated in this valley renowned for its numerous institutions of learning. For nearly forty years the doors of this college have been opened, not only to the students of this Commonwealth, but of America, and to some beyond the sea. Its graduates are many, scattered far and wide, and through its inspiration and training have made for themselves a name and record which is an honor to them and their alma mater. Some of the most successful of them sit on this platform, and are in this audience to-day. The President’s chair has been occupied by men who have given the best of their lives for this institution. Some of them have broken down in the service and most of them have gone to their rest. Our beloved and lamented Goodell, so lately departed, spent most of his life and did most of his work here. I am not here to-day to speak the praise of those who have done their work, but to welcome our new President to his new duties ; to give a word of cheer and to bid him God-speed in his work. In the absence of the Governor, which is deeply regretted, it becomes my most agreeable privilege, in behalf of 8 the Board of Trustees, to extend a most cordial welcome to you, Mr. President. I do it because the Trustees feel that a warm welcome should be given you, and want it done. I do it per- sonally because in my heart it is a pleasure to do it. We welcome you in behalf of the State of Massachusetts, to these grounds and halls as custodian and director, believing they are placed in good hands. We welcome you to this body of students, representing the best brain of the land, athletic in body, eager and active in mind ; brought together here for the training and culture this institution affords. As president of this college you will not only be their instructor, counsellor, and friend, but your life and example will become their ideal, and we are rejoicing to-day in the expecta- tion that your influence will affect the standard both of culture and character of the students. We welcome you to this historic town, beautiful in location, renowned for its scenic attractions, its well cultivated farms, the intelligence and culture of its people. We can but hope that you will find a pleasant home here for yourself and family. We welcome you to this board of faculty. I can not do it as they have, and will do it, for themselves. They are, and have been a large part of this college. It is enough for me to say that they will give you the same faithful and loyal support they have been giving in the past. I want to welcome you in behalf of the agriculture of Massa- chusetts, — both the farmers who are farming for pleasure, and those who are farming for a livelihood. I can truly speak for the latter class from an experience of more than forty years on a dairy farm. This college has been a place where many of the interests of the farmer have centered and their interest has been increasing in the work done here. We have a notion, sir, from the good things you are saying, that the hard-working farmers of Massa- 9 chusetts will find in you an able friend. In taking the position of President of this college, you will be associated with the officers of the other colleges of this valley — colleges that rank high among the colleges of America, from whom, I am sure, you will receive just recognition and a warm welcome. The standing of this college, your attainments, and the reputa- tion you bring here entitle you to a good position in this circle. Your modesty may incline you to take a low seat, but we believe you will be asked up higher, for you are to take a prominent part in the educational work in Western Massachusetts. And now, Mr. President, in behalf of these Trustees, I give you our most cordial and hearty welcome, assuring you of our support and assistance when needed. You will find the Board of Trustees loyal to the college and its President, — several of them the alumni of the college and all of them its loyal friends. You have come here in favorable times. The winds are blow- ing from the right direction. The Trustees wanted you to come, and the farmers and all interested in the college are glad you have come. And while we believe in the injunction of the King of Israel, “ Let not him who girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off,” yet we confidently expect a successful administration that will be an honor to the State and government that does so much for the maintenance of this college. Abatrart of % Abbresa Of MARQUIS F. DICKINSON of Boston Mr. Dickinson’s address opened with a biographical resume of the admin istations of the seven past Presidents of the Col- lege, Henry F. French, Paul A. Chadbourne, William S. Clark, Charles L. Flint, Levi Stockbridge, James C. Greenough and Henry Hill Goodell. More than three-fourths of the forty-two years of our academic life has been under the guidance of two of these men, Clark and Goodell, one of whom served twelve years, the other nineteen. Both were marked personages, dis- tinguished alike by force of character and brilliant qualities of leadership. Each was here long enough to impress himself deeply upon the institution, and to leave a strong and permanent influence. The second part of the address treated of the enormous de- velopment of our agricultural resources and production during the last half century and the coincident expansion of our system of agricultural education. At the head of the movement stands the Agricultural Department at Washington, which, in some sense, has now become the greatest university in the world, enjoying an annual appropriation by Congress amounting to five or six million dollars. It holds guardianship over the various state agricultural and industrial colleges established under the Morrill Act of 1862, and superintends the experiment stations connected therewith. Thus are bound together all the best and essential features of our system of agricultural education. The growth of agricultural education in Massachusetts since 1850 was touched upon. The Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege is distinctly an agricultural institution, but this dominant purpose implies no neglect of those courses of study, in lan- guage, literature, history and economics, which form an indis- pensable part of the liberal education it aims to give. Statistics collated in 1893 indicated that considerably more than half our graduates up to that time were farmers, or were engaged in pur- suits closely allied thereto, such as agricultural editors, teachers in agricultural colleges, experiment station directors, or workers in other special lines of agricultural effort. One-seventh of the whole number of graduates in the first twenty-two years were employed in agricultural colleges and experiment stations, and among them were three college presidents, eight professors of agriculture, five of horticulture and botany, three experiment station directors and several vice-directors. The address concluded with the following words of induc- tion : “And now after these discursive wanderings in fields of biography and agriculture I turn to the particular duty assigned me this afternoon, that of investing the new Presi- dent with the emblems of his office. On the second day of January last you, Sir, were unani- mously elected by our Board of Trustees to the high office of President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. The fact that your honored father was for many years Secre- tary of the Board of Agriculture of Michigan affords ample guaranty that your heredity is agriculturally sound and correct. It was a fortunate circumstance that you were reared in that state, a leader in agricultural education, for she was one of three states with agricultural colleges in operation when the Morrill bill was enacted. Your graduation from the Mich- 12 igan Agricultural College at Lansing in 1891 was just the starting point we could have desired for you. Your subse- quent active employment along agricultural lines, as Assistant Secretary of the college, in Grange Work, and as Superintend- ent of Farmers’ Institutes, where you inaugurated and devel- oped the Michigan Plan, so-called, your post-graduate course in the great university of your native state at Ann Arbor, where you received your Master’s degree ; your experience there as a teacher of rural sociology, your interest in that subject and in the life of rural communities, all testify to the intense activi- ties of your early life. Your selection as one of the leaders in the work of the Carnegie Institution, which you are still carry- ing on, is proof of the estimation in which you are held among experts in the direction of your special studies. Four years ago the authorities of the neighboring state of Rhode Island, recognizing your fitness, chose you as the head of their State College at Kingston. The record of your brief administration in that place amply justified their choice and won cordial support. And now we have summoned you here to a somewhat larger field of effort. You are bidden welcome by the four great estates of this college, — Trustees, Faculty, Alumni and Students. You enter upon no holiday service. We lead you up rather to hard work and mayhap to some trials and discourage- ments. These are the inevitable concomitants of high and noble endeavor, and are incident to the occupation of all respon- sible positions in life. But the very presence of difficulties and the surmounting of them only enrich the success with which faithful and conscientious effort crowns one’s work. It has been said that every great pleasure comes off the keen edge of suffer- ing. To this we may fairly add that every great success is most highly valued when it is won against heavy odds, or fol- lows intense opposition. You are never to forget that you are the head and ruler of this college. To you the Trustees com- 1 3 mit its government and guidance. Take the advice of your faculty when you need it, or when you cannot get along with- out it, and then, to borrow the language of our courts, decide each case “according to the law and the evidence given you.” As Trustees, we refuse to constitute ourselves a Court of Appeals for the regular decision of questions of discipline that may arise between you and others here. We shall be willing to act only under very exceptional circumstances, or in great emergencies. Such responsibilities as these will sometimes demand of you great firmness, but you will not fail of success if you carry in your mind the words of Tennyson : — “O well for him whose will is strong, He suffers, but he cannot suffer long, He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong. For him nor moves the loud world’s random mock, Nor all calamity’s hugest waves confound, Who stands a promontory of rock, That compassed round with turbulent sound, In middle ocean meets the surging shock, Tempest buffeted, citadel crowned.” And now, Kenyon Leech Butterfield, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts, speaking in the name and on behalf of the Board of Trustees, delegated by them to perform this act of investiture, I commit to your hands, as the emblems of your authority and of your right of possession here, the Charter, the Seal and the Keys of this institution. I pronounce you President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and as such present you to this sympathetic and waiting audience. Above all things I invoke for you, and your great work, the constant favor and blessing of Almighty God. inaugural Aitirrsu The Forward Movement in Agricultural Education By PRESIDENT KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD, A. M. Among all the varying phases of our wonderful educational advancement during the past half century, none is more signifi- cant from the standpoint of the schools and none more impor- tant in respect to resulting industrial and social effects, than the development of agricultural education. These fifty years have brought us 63 colleges of agriculture, registering at this time some 3,000 students who are pursuing agriculture as a college subject, with nearly 5,000 more in shorter courses ; a great Federal Department of Agriculture with hundreds of trained men at work ; farmers’ institutes in every state, reach- ing a million farmers each year ; agricultural high schools and high school courses springing up here and there ; and an earnest campaign begun in behalf of the study of agriculture in the primary schools. These various agencies for agricultural research and education are probably costing us not less than ten million dollars a year. This great establishment has given us an army of well-trained men who devote their whole time to the study or teaching of agricultural science and practice ; a *5 really large, though perhaps relatively inconspicuous, number of college graduates who are successful farmers ; and it has informed and inspired hosts of adult farmers and farmers’ wives. Its immediate and its indirect influences upon the agricultural industry and upon rural life as a whole are not easily catalogued. This establishment is also winning its way into an organic relationship with our whole educational struct- ure. It is being recognized by educators ; its methods are acknowledged to be wise methods; its subject matter is admit- ted, by some at least, to possess value as mind-training stuff. This position of influence has not been attained quickly or easily. We are barely emerging from the struggle. The half- century has seen pioneer work. Frankly, it has been an experimental stage. The agricultural colleges particularly, have made their way against the most serious opposition. They have come perilously near the traditional fate prescribed for the house divided against itself. For educators have ridiculed them, both because they failed to turn out farmers and because they pretended to raise agriculture to the status of a college subject and thus invaded sacred ground ; farmers have laughed at them because it was believed that “ book- farming ” was a fatal malady. As we study the history of these colleges we cannot avoid the conclusion that this opposition has been to a degree the fault of the colleges themselves. Some of the colleges as a whole, and many instructors individually, were out of touch with the problems of the farmers. Instead of approaching their work from the concrete need of the farmer, they maintain- ed an academic superiority that was perhaps self-satisfying, but that prevented the doing of their real work. That vital sym- pathy between teacher and toiler, which is indispensable in all technical education, was missing. In some cases the colleges did not have the courage of their purpose, and refused to break i6 away from the conventional college methods or subjects. This went so far at times that they seemed to be attempting to com- pete with the u old-line ” colleges, with the inevitable result that faculty and student body became infused with ideas fatal to agricultural training. But perhaps the more serious, because a fundamental, difficulty was the curriculum. It was generally admitted that the natural sciences were the bed-rock of agricult- ural instruction. And so the natural sciences were taught and fairly well taught. It was recognized that agricultural science, in so far as it existed or can exist, is “ applied ” science. The trouble occurred at this point. The teacher of science did not always make the application. Agriculture as a special subject did not have a large place in the course and consequently the student was brought up to the point where science became agriculture and was dropped there to make his own application. The so-called agricultural course then became a science course with leanings towards agriculture, but not an agricultural course in the true vocational sense. Yet this primary difficulty with the curriculum was by no means entirely the fault of the college. The college was strug- gling against conditions that it did not create and that it could not immediately remove. One reason why the student was left to his own application of scientific principles to concrete farm problems was because the teacher himself had not made the application. In other words, the body of knowledge to be taught was limited and imperfect. Consequently there were relatively few strong teachers of agriculture. The colleges could not get them because they did not exist. Furthermore, the industrial situation has not until somewhat recently seemed to justify an ambitious young man in taking a college course as a preparation for farming. So long as low- priced lands remained, so long as virgin soil could be had for the asking, there was no premium upon a schooling for agricult- ure. On the other hand the demand for skilled men in other industries entirely outran the supply. The new commercialism which arose after the Civil war encouraged daring minds. The call coming from the pursuits of the city was well-nigh impossi- ble to resist. The farm-bred boy had a hundred charming paths of escape from the drudgery he had learned to loathe. So the boy did not go to college to learn agriculture. The mill could not make flour of beans. The purpose of this brief survey of the pioneer stage of agri- cultural education is not to find fault with the men who have been at the helm. But it may serve to explain why progress has not been more rapid. It may also give us warning of some pitfalls to be avoided. The encouraging fact is that today we stand at the threshold of a new era in agricultural education. The frontier work is over. Our predecessors have cleared the way for us. Agricultural colleges have won the favor of most farmers and of many educators. They have developed a corps of well-trained and enthusiastic teachers. There is now a body of knowledge so complete and so exact as to be almost worthy the name of agricultural science, which is rapidly assuming pedagogic form. The call of the soil is being heard by young men of parts. The mutiplication of great cities has created a new market. The virgin lands are cultivated. Intensive farm- ing is developing — and intensive farming means education. All forms of agricultural education are expanding to meet the new conditions. And we find ourselves in the current of a great “forward movement ” in agricultural education. It would seem that an attempt to analyze this movement might give us the best means of approach to the formulation of a policy for a particular college. And because we do have in mind the concrete task that lies before the college of agriculture, this analysis will attempt specifically to show the connection of the agricultural college with the general movement of agricult- i8 ural development. Perhaps a better title for this address would be “ The work of the agricultural college, viewed in relation to the forward movement for agricultural betterment.” There are three phases of this question — the pedagogical, the sociological, and the administrative. I. The pedagogical phase. Very naturally the agricultural course has been commonly listed as a technical course, a course that fitted a man for definite industrial work. It has been included in the dreaded category of bread-and-butter courses. Its value from the standpoint of education or culture has not been generally admitted. Probably agricultural educators themselves have failed to emphasize the educative value of agriculture as a subject of study. But now it is seen that a college course in agriculture must justify itself pedagogically as well as industrially, — it must educate men as well as train far- mers and scientists. Of course this principle of culture has been urged from the beginning of agricultural colleges, but its present application is new ; because under the old regime breadth was to be secured, not by the study of agriculture, but by the study of general subjects preceding the study of agricul- ture. Now we have come to believe that agriculture itself may be so defined and its subject-matter so taught that it will be educative, broadening, cultural. This position is tenable, how- ever, only by accepting considerations like these : That different types of mind may be educated through differ- ent subjects, much as different animals thrive on widely differ- ent foods : That a vocational education need not be, and indeed should not be, merely technical. But that, as vocation itself is educa- tive, so the proper course of study leading to a vocation may be truly cultural : That modern agriculture as a vocation, both on its practical 1 9 and on its scientific sides, and consequently an adequate course of training preparatory to it, is so broad, with such intimate relations to all the natural and social sciences, with boundaries so well defined, with principles sufficiently established, and in fine with a content so varied, so inclusive, so significant, that its earnest pursuit as a subject of study, by those interested in it, will yield that discipline and liberal training that belong to the educated man : Finally, that all this does not involve the abolition of literary training, but rather the attempt to coordinate such training intimately with the more technical aspects of the course. Cer- tainly no sane educator would for a moment urge a course that would tend to perpetuate the anomaly, now all too frequent, and one unfortunately not wholly confined to technical institu- tions, of sending out some men who can neither spell, read, talk, nor write their mother-tongue acceptably, or men who have the vaguest notions of the social and industrial problems of the day, and even more hazy ideas of their own responsibilities with respect to these problems. Now if this principle of the educative value of a well-balanced agricultural course is fully accepted, and if such a course can be actually evolved, as we believe to be possible, several impor- tant results will accrue, — results that utimately may have con- siderable bearing upon our general educational philosophy and practice. i. The sharp distinction sometimes drawn between voca- tional studies and culture studies is already being modified. Sometime it may be obliterated. Probably we shall have a new definition of culture. At any rate vocation hereafter is to be glorified, not only for what it contributes to national and individual prosperity, but for its educational possibilities. Vocation is not merely technique. It is not merely bread-win- ning. At its best it is a form of social service in which the 20 whole man is engaged. It relates itself to most of the individ- ual demands for growth, and even more vitally to the social demands of family and of state and of civil society. Hence we shall discover a way of making a vocational training also a liberal training. 2. Even now it is true that the courses in agriculture are being worked over in the light of pedagogical principles. We are giving increased emphasis to the training which a subject gives as compared with the information it may carry. We are insisting that teachers of agriculture shall be teachers first of all, and we will not permit keenness for new knowledge and ability for research to stand in lieu of that rather rare and costly gift — teaching power. Our faculties will be concerned about produc- ing well-rounded men as well as about developing highly specialized departments of knowledge. We will have depart- ments and professors of agricultural education. 3. Agriculture is to be amply recognized in the schools. If agriculture, properly defined and taught, is efficient educational material, both city boy and country boy may profit by it. The one because he will reach a knowledge of and a sympathy with nature not easily secured in any other way ; the other because he is utilizing his environment — physical, industrial, and social — as a means of education. Moreover, in that enlargement of the scope of industrial education which will sooner or later pro- vide for all the youth of the state, agriculture will demand equivalent, though different and appropriate, opportunities for boys who want to farm and for boys who want to run looms and build bridges. So we shall see some forms of agriculture intro- duced into the lower schools, both in city and in country. The high schools will provide courses in agriculture. And at no distant time we shall have a system of distinctively agricultural high schools. 4. Eventually the well-balanced agricultural course in the land-grant colleges will appeal to men who see in it a means of general education. This is only the logical outcome of the contention that certain types of mind can best be developed through that body of knowledge which should be comprised in a broad course in agriculture. I look for the time when students will choose the agricultural course because it forms for them the best foundation for a life-work, even though they may not fol- low rural pursuits, just as today hundreds of men take the law course as a preparation for business or for politics. II. The second general aspect of the forward movement in agricultural education is the sociological. The principle which applies here is that the function of the agricultural college is one of leadership in all lines of rural betterment. The college has obligations to the farmers as well as to its students. The growing of greater crops is not the sole question in rural life. Nothing that concerns the material, the economic, the social, the moral welfare of rural communities is foreign to the interest of the college. It is not only a school , but it is also a leader in a great class and national movement. Hence the college will touch the real farm problem at all vital points. It will endeavor to reach all classes of people with all subjects of interest in country life. This new purpose of the agricultural college to relate itself to all the broad economic and sociological aspects of rural life is involving the college in some very important and interesting departures from the old view of the work that a col- lege is set to perform. i . There will be a wider application of the social sciences to the problems of agriculturists. Of course the new agriculture can have no other substantial basis than a thorough knowledge of the soil and of the laws of plant and animal growth. But the time has come when the farm problem is not only a question of scientific agriculture, but also, if possible, even more a ques- 22 tion of economics, sociology, civics. The farmer must maintain his status in the social and political structure or go the way of the English yeoman. He must be industrially strong, but his industrial strength cannot be maintained simply by making two blades of grass grow where but one grew before. The farm problem is economic as well as technical. That all this is realized clearly enough by practical farmers may be illustrated from the practices of the representative farmers’ organizations such as the Grange. The Grange has been the true friend of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations, its members con- stantly discuss practical farm topics, and most of them have a lively respect for the whole movement toward scientific agricul- ture. But the Grange gives even more of the time in its literary programs to topics that have to do with education, social life, economics, legislation. This is significant of a deep-seated feeling that along these lines lies the continued independence of the farming classes. The land-grant colleges are just beginning to appreciate this feeling. In the past courses in the elements of political economy and of civics have been given in the agricultural colleges ; and in those universities where the agricultural college is a depart- ment of the university, opportunity has been offered for more extended work in these subjects. But even yet there is in this country, except in isolated cases, virtually no adequate instruc- tion in social science applied to rural problems. It is as if an agricultural college taught animal physiology but omitted stock- breeding and feeding ; taught botany, but not horticulture ; physics, but not tillage ; chemistry, but not soil-fertility. I desire to quote with approval from an editorial in a recent number of the New England Homestead : “ Instruction in the science and practice of [agricul- tural] cooperation, and in the actual business manage- ment of associated enterprise, is therefore a crying need 2 3 of the present hour. This need will increase from year to year. The whole tendency of present and future is toward closer association of individuals. The student and the farmer call for the best possible training in cooperative effort.” This illustrates a growing conception of the field of research and teaching which our agricultural colleges must give. There is a score of other questions that are vital phases of rural better- ment. The complicated question of taxation is fundamental to agricultural prosperity ; the difficult problems of railway trans- portation have the closest connection with the farmers’ welfare ; the subject of markets and of marketing is of no less real importance than all the phases of crop and animal production ; farmers’ organizations are not so insistent upon recognition as are labor unions, but their success is just as essential to class integrity ; the support and administration of an adequate system of rural schools is not for pedagogs and normal schools alone, but is intimately bound up with all other aspects of rural life ; the religious institutions of the country can not well be ignored in any comprehensive analysis of the rural problem. So the list might be prolonged. It is unwise as a mere matter of good education not to give students in agricultural colleges a clear notion of these social questions as they relate to the farm ; but this omission will prove well-nigh suicidal if the colleges desire to take leadership in solving the farm problem. For that problem is social as well as scientific, — it is economic as well as chemical, socio- logical as well as physical, a moral as well as a business ques- tion. , Is it too much to say that here lies the great untilled field in agricultural education ? 2. We will soon have a well-developed system of agricultural college extension teaching. There is a growing recognition of the importance of providing adequate opportunities for agricultural 24 instruction within the schools — primary, secondary and collegi- ate. But perfect, if you can, the primary and secondary schools in this respect, double the present period of actual attendance, quadruple the number of students at agricultural colleges, and you still have the great mass of younger farmers untutored save in the use of the elementary tools of education, or at best in the mere alphabet of those sciences that have to do with farm life. How shall this deficiency be remedied ? Through extension teaching. The problem of the extension work is not only to keep these tools sharp, but to give to every farmer and farmer’s wife, to the young, to the middle-aged, and to the old-people, whose school days are gone by forever, a chance to keep up with the march of investigation and practice, to understand the fundamental principles of scientific agricult- ure, to appreciate the needs of the farmer in maintaining his social and political status, to inspire to alertness of mind and hopefulness of spirit. This is the immediate need in agricultural education. Whatever may be our ideas about the practicability of giving extension work a large place in the organization of the typical college or university, we must admit that the spirit of university extension has found a secure lodgment within our educational system. There is no longer any question that our educational centres and our educated men may directly and powerfully influence the study and thought of the fairly intelligent masses, provided the people are fed with “food convenient for them.” Chautauqua is an unanswerable argument for this statement. So among farmers. Today the underlying principles as well as the highest art of agriculture are proclaimed from thousands of platforms, in every state of the union, at farmers’ institutes, Granges, farmers’ clubs, through farm papers, through the vast correspondence of professors in agricultural colleges and investigators in experiment stations, through correspondence 2 5 courses, lecture courses, traveling libraries, reading courses, etc. The possibilities of this sort of work have been tested. The need of the future is threefold — a coordination of forces, a 1 broadening in scope, and a great enlargement of effort. These results can best be accomplished by establishing at every land- grant college a well equipped “ Department of college extension t in agriculture ” — perhaps it ought to be “ for agriculture.” Because the work should be so broadened as to include instruc- tion not only in agricultural science and art, but in domestic science and art and in applied social science. The agricultural college is the proper place for centralizing this extension teaching, because this work is first of all educa- tional in its aims. It is not a scheme to advertise the college. It is a plan by which as much of the college as will bear trans- portation is sent out on a mission of education to the multitude who cannot come to the college for instruction. And let it be said also that the organization of an extension department need not involve any interference with the work of other agencies which attempt to educate adult farmers. Indeed, one of the purposes of the department will be to secure a closer coopera- tion between the college and the board of agriculture, the Grange, the horticultural societies, the normal schools, the state department of education. Cooperation, not antagonism, will be its motto. The importance of the department of college extension lies in the fact that through it all the forces that aim to disseminate information among the rural masses can be focussed. All the aims of the college that are extra-academic can here be centralized. This department will be the interpre- + ter between the scholarly pursuit and the popular need. 3. The farm home is to be fully considered in schemes of agricultural education. It is probably true that among the rural i people more young women than young men are educated. More of them have had a high school training at least. 26 Agencies for the benefit of farm women are constantly enlarg- ing in number and usefulness. The Grange and other farmers’ organizations give increasing opportunities for the women of the farm to assert themselves. The farmers’ institutes are « reaching many. The newer plans for rest-rooms and town and country clubs have the additional merit of seeking to bring town and country women into closer sympathy. Some of the land-grant colleges, through their departments of domestic science or through home-making courses for women, are doing something. But we are yet on the outer fringe of the problem. The attempt to organize proper facilities for the training of women for a full, free life in the country homes of America, has not been seriously made. Nevertheless the current of opinion and effort is setting in toward organized instruction for farm women. It is seen that no longer should there exist the anomaly of a scheme of education for country-life that omits that hemisphere of living represented in the farm home. This is far from a mere matter of cookery. Every phase of the household life of the country home must be touched. Dietetics, household industries, household art, child-culture — the whole range of influences exerted by the rural home is within the pale of this effort. There is obviously a large question here, — the agricultural colleges are to lead in its solution. And whatever else they may attempt for the regeneration of rural life, they can attempt nothing nobler nor more fruitful than to inspire a forward movement among the women of the farm. 4. The agricultural college is to assist if not to lead in the work of correlating and federating the various efforts for rural better- ment. The state already fosters universities, agricultural col- t leges, departments of agriculture, departments of public instru- tion, normal schools — all heading some movement or other that has to do with rural and agricultural education or with some i general phase of rural betterment. There is also a multitude 2 7 of voluntary organizations working for the same ends — Granges, farmers’ clubs, dairy and horticultural societies, village improve- ment societies. No one will deny that great good will come if i all these different agencies shall be able to work together, if all shall recognize the importance of the work done by the others, if each shall accept its allotted task without encroaching upon the work of others, if each shall understand the whole rural problem and the relation of each specific person or organization to that problem. Now it is impossible to centralize these agencies into one compact system. But may not the agricultu- ral colleges have a natural leadership in an attempt to correlate all these forces in so far as they have to do with the rural peo- ple ? Such leadership will require mutual concession, and wisdom, and tact. I am pursuaded that the forward movement in agricultural education is recognizing this need and that the tide is turning toward a much closer cooperation among these various agencies. Therefore I believe that the solidarity of the farm problem will not only be recognized, but it will be cemented, through the activities of the agricultural college. We shall see that the farm problem is many-phased but a unit, that the individual farmer alone cannot solve it, that the agricultural college alone cannot solve it, that farmers’ organizations alone are not adequate, that political agitation alone will not work out agricultural salvation, that neither the agricultural editor, nor the country school teacher, nor the rural social settlement worker, nor the active member of the village improvement society can single-handed solve it. Each movement and each person is necessary. But * all movements will be more effective if it is recognized that they together are a great whole and that only by intelligent cooperation can balance be maintained. The fact that in seve- 1 ral cases successful “ Conferences on rural progress ” have been held and that several “ Leagues for rural progress ” have been 28 organized is significant of a desire to get together, on the part of the agencies and the individuals concerned in every phase of the farm problem, not only that each may see the problem in its entirety, but also that each may learn to cut his own work to fit the larger pattern. III. The third and last phase of the forward movement in agricultural education grows out of the practical problems of college organization and administration imposed upon us by the new regime. We must here content ourselves with a mere mention of several rather important considerations. 1. The unity of the college will be recognized and strictly maintained. There is no difficulty whatever in appreciating the distinctions between the research work of the institution, as exemplified in the experiment station, the academic work as illustrated by the teaching of graduate and under-graduate stu- dents in residence, and the extension work which carries out to the masses of adult people the light and the knowledge of the college and experiment station. It is not, or at least it ought not to be, difficult to see that these three different phases of college work are complementary and that all are essential. In practice it may not be easy to carry out the principle. There is danger that the teacher shall lose touch with the farmer ; that the station worker may segregate his interests and hold aloof from the problems of the teaching faculty ; that both may look upon extension work as an advertising scheme instead of regarding it as a phase of education to be developed just as sedulously and to be dignified just as fully as the academic and research work. The agricultural college is one in purpose, one in interest, one in results. Its workers must not permit the provincial interests of their particular fields to obscure the unity of the whole. 2. The rapid development of agricultural science since the 2 9 advent of the experiment stations has given to the subject, “ agriculture,” a very broad and inclusive sense, and has led to a multiplication of subdivisions that is somewhat disconcerting, and yet which is absolutely necessary. Specialization in agri- culture is just as logical as in science and it is coming just as surely as it came in science. Twenty-five years ago horticulture broke away from botany. More recently forestry became differ- entiated from horticulture. It follows therefore that the agri- cultural college which hopes to keep modern, will no longer be satisfied with an agricultural and horticultural department manned by three or four men, but will substitute therefor an agricultural faculty made up of one or two dozen men, each man strong in a specialty. The extent of this change and the char- acter of the differentiation will be determined by the type of the rural interests of the state, and by the financial resources of the college. But the principle is of universal application. 3. To carry out the forward movement in agricultural edu- cation much larger appropriations of money than are now avail- able must be granted by the state. Indeed this is, on the prac- tical side, the prime question that confronts agricultural educa- tion. Thoroughly trained investigators are not common but they can be had; there will be no lack of attendance at agricul- tural colleges ; there is no inherent difficulty in interesting farmers in extension work. In fact the forward movement in agricultural education in most states of the union now waits very largely upon one consideration — adequate appropriations. The difficulty of the problem before the Massachusetts Agricul- tural College is measured, I take it, very largely by the degree ^ to which the public sentiment of this Commonwealth, as expressed through the legislature, will stand sponsor for a pro- gram that attempts to forward in the most thorough way the ^ vital rural interests of the state. I have endeavored to interpret as best I may the present 30 tendencies in agricultural education. This interpretation may be biased by desire and ideals, yet I think it is a fair analy- sis of an actual movement, not in all respects clearly defined, and yet one that is emerging into shape. The extent to which this college can accept the full program suggested must be determined by the future. Today we are met in the halls of one of the earlier agricultural colleges, one that has succeeded in a peculiar way in maintaining its distinctive character. This college has a noble history, it has trained a large number of men for many high callings — men who are loyal to its welfare, it has a world-wide reputation, it possesses a physical plant that is a creditable foundation for a great college, it is set in an environment of unusual charm, it has teachers and investigators of high authority in their respective fields, it has a growing body of students secured without resort to artful advertising. Best of all it now faces a condition of agriculture more hopeful than at any time since its organization as a college. Never before has New England agriculture seemed so promising. The tide countryward is setting in. The opportunities for men trained at an agricultural college are multiplying. This college occupies a strategic position among New England institutions of similar character. Some of our friends, even in those colleges, are looking to us for leadership. Certainly the sky is bright with promise of great things to be achieved. Let us then con- nect ourselves as fully as we can with the forward movement in rural betterment and realize to the utmost the possibilities that are ours. In closing, may I indulge in a brief personal word ? I come to this college full of optimism for the progress of American agriculture, full of hope for the betterment of agriculture in New England, and with a firm faith in the mission and oppor- tunities open to the Massachusetts Agricultural College. I desire to conserve all that is best in the structure that has been wrought out by the toil and wisdom of those who have served here. I wish to see the college make full use of every new opportunity as it arises. I am not anxious for mere numbers, nor shall I ignore the value of numbers. I shall be ambitious for the college to keep its place among the great agricultural colleges of the world. I shall be jealous of its honor and fame. I am aware that I follow in the steps of one greatly loved, whose single-hearted service for long years imposes a great task as well as bestows a great blessing on his successors. I take the reins from the hands of one of the sons of the college, whose patience, wisdom, and powers of toil have carried the college most successfully over a difficult portage. In attempting to follow these men, I must ask from all the most generous sup- port and the kindest charity. I need the loyalty of the alumni ; the fidelity of the student body ; the hearty cooperation of the faculty ; the support of the Trustees ; the consideration of every citizen of Amherst ; the earnest help of the farmers ; and the intelligent interest of the general public. May I not hope for all these, at least until I prove unworthy of them ? In return all I can now give is a most earnest pledge of devotion to the college and its highest interests, as God gives me the vision to see those interests, and with His help to attempt to unlock the future’s portal with a key designed in the light of the great need which this college seems destined to fulfill. 3 0112 105823311 Hist nf ©fftrial iMrgatrs PRESENT AT THE INAUGURATION Pres. Wm, E. Huntington, Boston University. Prof. George D. Olds, Amherst College. Prof. Cornelia M. Clapp, Mt. Holyoke College. Pres. G. Stanley Hall, Pres. Henry Lefavour, Pres. Charles S. Howe, Prof. Alfred E. Burton, Pres. Rufus W. Stimson, Pres. Howard Edwards, Clark University. Simmons College. Case School of Applied Science. Mass. Institute of Technology. Conn. Agricultural College. R. I. College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Pres. George E. Fellows, University of Maine. Prof. C. D. Smith, Michigan Agricultural College. Pres. Carroll D. Wright, Clark College. Dr. Edward Hitchcock, Amherst College. The Veteran Leader in the Physical Training of College Men. Former Pres. James C. Greenough was also present.