Special students usually are mature and come for a specific purpose. If after a conference with the department head or the dean of agriculture it is believed that they can handle the work in which they are interested, they usually carry their courses with facility. The experience of many institutions justifies the practice of admitting them to regular courses. Many young men of ability of 21 years of age or over have not had the opportunity to acquire a secondary school education. Such men often are well-read, well-informed, and are capable of handling the college work. State-supported institutions undoubtedly should be in a position to give them this privilege when they want it and as they need it.

Admission of students to short courses in agriculture of less than 4 years but of at least 12 weeks duration is on an entirely different basis in most institutions. These courses usually are of secondary grade and are so planned that those who have a common-school education may enroll with benefit. The usual provision for enrollment in these courses is completion of the equivalent of eighth grade work and the attainment of the age of 16, 17, or 18 years. In a few instances the ability to read and write is the only requirement specified. Completion of two years of high-school work is required in one instance and experience of two years or more in farming in two instances.

Transfers from Other Institutions

Because of the large number of private colleges and because of the growth of junior colleges, applications for admission to the agricultural colleges with advanced standing are frequent. Applicants who have had two years of college work may reasonably expect to be able to receive a bachelor's degree in agriculture in two additional years, whatever subjects may have been covered previously. This is possible when the first two years work has been of a character to fit in with the curricula in agriculture or when there is a large flexibility in the latter, with much opportunity for electives. When this is not the case, it may take more than two years to complete the work in an agricultural curriculum even though a student may have already completed satisfactorily two years of college work. For instance, much of the applied work in agriculture has prerequisites in the general sciences and the necessary work in these sciences and in agriculture usually can not be covered in two years time. Definite plans for coordination and integration of the first years of the curricula in these colleges and the curricula in agriculture in order that transfer of students between them may be facilitated are reported from 13 institutions.

The University of Nebraska reports that junior colleges in Nebraska are organizing their curricula in cooperation with the university examiner so as to correlate the work in sciences and other subjects with similar work of the university, thus making graduation possible in two years. The Utah Agricultural College reports that junior colleges have their courses so arranged as to be similar

to the first two years at the agricultural college. The University of Tennessee reports an arrangement with one college whereby students may take there the equivalent of two years of work consisting of English, first courses in science, agriculture, and mathematics and then complete the work at the University of Tennessee. At the University of Idaho the branch of the university at Pocatello has a 2-year curriculum. This is so outlined that two years in the agricultural curriculum may be taken at that branch and two years at the university at Moscow permitting graduation at the end of four years. Iowa State College reports that three years of work at a private college followed by two years in agriculture at the Iowa State College permits the giving of a degree from both institutions. In Ohio arrangements have been made by the university and certain of the smaller colleges whereby students attend three years at the cooperating college and two years at the college of agriculture. At the end of the four years the Bachelor of Arts degree is conferred by the cooperating college and at the end of five years the degree of Bachelor of Science in Agriculture is conferred by the Ohio State University.

In every State where there are private colleges or junior colleges whose students in considerable numbers may wish to secure college training in agriculture, it is desirable that these institutions and the land-grant college in the State in which they are located take steps to facilitate the transfer of students from one institution to the other with little or no loss of college credit. Clearly, however, it would be wasteful and otherwise inadvisable for the junior colleges and private institutions to attempt to secure the expensive facilities required to teach agriculture upon the college level in order to accomplish such ease of transfer. It would appear that such adjustments as are advisable should be made by the agricultural college. It is probable that change of objective on the part of the student will always entail some apparent loss of time.

The Smith-Hughes student.-Advanced credit toward degrees in agriculture is nowhere granted for agricultural courses taken in Smith-Hughes schools or in other secondary schools. In a comparatively few instances certain college courses may be omitted by those who have taken Smith-Hughes work and more advanced courses substituted. Connecticut Agricultural College, the universities of Florida, Maine, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wyoming, and the State College of Washington report from three to six freshman agricultural courses where this practice is permitted. Such courses usually are introductory, similar to or identical with those given in practically all the agricultural institutions of the country to all students, many of whom have had no agricultural work. They are comparable to

111490°-30-VOL 1-51

beginning courses in chemistry, which, in some institutions, freshmen who have had good high-school courses in chemistry may omit, substituting more advanced work.

The problem of properly caring at the same time for the student who has had no agriculture and one who has had from two to eight units in Smith-Hughes high schools has not yet been solved. It may be necessary in the future to give some introductory courses in agriculture to all students who are not from the farm and who have had no agriculture and to raise the level of the regular required courses given to students who have had much farm experience or agricultural work in secondary schools. In no institution reporting have special sections for Smith-Hughes students been established. Apparently it has been impossible to work out a plan whereby this could be done.

The logical process in evaluation and passing on entrance credentials of all regular and special students as well as those with advanced standing would seem to be for all credentials to go to the central office of the institution for handling whether that be known as the registrar's office, the office of the direc tor of admissions, or by some other name. From the registrar's office they may be referred in certain cases to the office of the dean of agriculture for review and record, and then returned to the registrar for permanent filing and reference. Students with advance standing may properly be referred to a special institutional or college committee for action and returned to the registrar for recording.

Special students usually come for a specific purpose and their cases undoubtedly should be referred to the divisions or colleges in which they wish to major, so that the dean of the division or special college committees may handle these cases with care and to the best satisfaction of the students and of the institution. Recommendation should then be returned to the registrar's office for action and record.

Student Registration and Guidance

The guidance a student receives through the four years contributes much to his success or failure. Many come to enroll with preconceived notions of what they wish to take, which do not fit in at all with the offerings of the institution or the sequence of work necessary to attain certain goals. They need careful guidance so that their work may be well arranged and so that they may not be discouraged. Others who are less individualistic should have equally good guidance throughout their college years.

The institutional advisory system is discussed in Part VI of this report dealing with student relations and welfare. The part of the agricultural college officers in such systems requires that the more experienced members of the faculty and those with a broad point of view be especially charged with student advisement. Normally these are the busiest men on the staff and because of this the advisory work is often given to younger and less experienced persons. Always, under any system, the way should be open for students to consult the dean or the director of resident instruction who presumably is not in

terested in promoting any particular subject, as is the case occasionally with men who have highly specialized training. The advisory system, in spite of its limitations, gives opportunity for personal contacts of value both to students and to staff.

Student Enrollment

Student enrollment in agriculture in land-grant colleges until about 1890 was very small. The colleges had not been established because of any large public demand for instruction in agriculture of college grade. Moreover, following the Civil War there was rapid expansion of the farming area as the western fever took hold of soldiers and others alike and overproduction of agricultural products was the result. Transportation was difficult and very expensive. A mere subsistence from what was produced on the farm and a home were practically all the income that a farmer could obtain. Then came the panic of 1873 and extremely low prices for agricultural products. There did not seem to be any real reason why young men should enroll in courses to prepare for an occupation in which there seemed to be such small promise. Parents and those who took the rôle of farm leaders then, as in the period from 1920 to 1927, advised their sons and young men who were fortunate enough to go to college, not to enroll in agriculture but to study something else. Agricultural enrollment was not at all likely to increase under such conditions.

The depression of 1873 continued over a period of years and the prices of farm products increased very slowly. Some improvement in farm conditions came in the late seventies with a setback again in the early eighties. Not until 1903, according to the records of the Office of Education, was an enrollment of 2,405 students reached in the regular agricultural curricula of land-grant colleges. At about this time new departments were established, new courses introduced in agronomy, horticulture, and dairying, and beginnings were made in animal husbandry.

Demand for farm products improved and a much larger interest among farmers in agricultural methods and practices followed. Farmers' institutes were organized in many States, and college professors were in demand as speakers at these meetings. Here they talked of their experiments and of the results they had obtained and told how these could be applied in practice. Sometimes there were vigorous disagreements and the professors had to exert themselves to prove their point. Often they were right and what they proposed could be applied. Farmers began to have more confidence in the agricultural colleges and in their recommendations.

Coincident with this movement came improvement in the economic conditions on the farms because of better prices. Improved machinery and rapid extension of its use took some of the drudgery out of farm labor. Further agricultural employments in specialized fields other than farming developed with amazing rapidity. A gradual change in sentiment toward agriculture and agricultural education became evident. This was reflected by an increase in agricultural enrollments. By 1910 enrollments in the regular agricultural curricula had reached 6,255. The following chart shows the enrollments in the regular 4-year curricula in agriculture for this period.

With rising prices for agricultural products popular discussions of the high cost of living appeared in the general press, in journals, and in magazines. Experiment stations every year were turning out results that could be used. Good will toward and confidence in the agricultural institutions increased and by 1915, a year after the beginning of the World War, agricultural enrollment had reached a total of 14,886 students, considerably more than twice the number five years before. By 1916 almost 800 more or a total of 15,669 were enrolled.

The agricultural colleges were in prosperous condition when in 1917 this country entered the Great War. The response of the young men of college age was immediate. They enlisted in large numbers. The draft then went into effect. The effect on enrollments in agriculture as well as in other college work was immediate and by 1918-19