the veterinary curricula would be about right if those courses not usually taught in the veterinary college were eliminated. An additional criticism is that the student has no freedom in choice of subjects during his senior year.

Increasing the entrance requirements as is suggested would solve much of the difficulty concerning the total number of hours. An average of the total number of essentially veterinary hours is 3,560. Even this is more than should be required if the colleges received better-prepared students. With competent and experienced members of the staff this total could no doubt be reduced to 3,000 hours without in any way impairing the end results. The suggestion would naturally follow that veterinary colleges reduce the hours in those subjects which are shown in the graphs to have a total number of hours considerably above the average, and that those extremely low be increased.

It must be kept in mind, however, that courses at different colleges are not the same as to content even though they are listed under the same name. For example, surgery may include only work relating to surgical exercises in one institution, while in another it may include horse shoeing, opthalmology, some obstetrics, or other related subjects. The later condition will be found to prevail in institutions where there has been an attempt to abolish 1 and 2 hour courses. This is commendable since the educational efficiency appears to be higher in 5 and 6 hour courses than it is in 1 and 2 hour courses.

There has been some demand for specialization in veterinary medicine. Little has been allowed up to the present time, largely because there has not been sufficient time to master the general course that is admittedly necessary before specialization should be considered. Undoubtedly there should be some opportunity for veterinary students to elect some subject or group of subjects in their senior year which would better prepare them for service in special capacities following graduation. The present congested condition of curricula must first be relieved, however, before provision can be made for specialization.

Another method of providing specialization is suggested in the form of postgraduate work. This is usually pursued only by those who are preparing themselves for institutional service (education or research) and should be of a different character and grade than undergraduate work.

Degrees. The degree of doctor of veterinary medicine is the one that has finally been adopted by all veterinary colleges. It must be recognized that the educational requirements necessary to receive the degree are really those usually required for the bachelor's degree in other lines. For this reason there is some feeling that the veterinary

colleges of the United States should grant the bachelor of veterinary medicine degree and confer the doctor's degree only after satisfactory postgraduate work. If the entrance requirements are advanced within a reasonable time to two years of college training, it would be advisable to permit the degree to remain as it is. If this is not done the doctor of veterinary medicine degree should be conferred as a graduate degree, and should, therefore, represent more than the regular four years of work of collegiate grade.

Research and graduate work.-Research is perhaps the greatest stimulus to educational work. The possibility of constantly adding new facts and ideas to the material presented to students encourages and stimulates the teacher. There are undoubtedly fewer good teachers than there are members of the various faculties; there are a still smaller number of outstanding research men. The combination of a good research man and successful teacher is rare.

There is great need for more extensive research work in the field of veterinary medicine. Graduates must now be turned out without definite information on too many important phases of their professional work.

Research and teaching should not be entirely divorced by organization but should be correlated in such a way that the one will act as an aid to the other. The research organization can assist very materially with the graduate work which should be developed more extensively in at least one-half of the veterinary colleges. It should naturally be developed in those having sufficient financial support and personnel to do creditable work. Not all research institutions offer graduate work, but it is difficult to conceive of good graduate work without research of some character. The two are so closely linked that colleges which do not have provision for research should not pretend to offer work for graduate students. Considerable research in veterinary medicine is being carried on at agricultural experiment stations where there is insufficient opportunity for graduate courses in veterinary medicine. Veterinary colleges considering additions to their staff should when possible draw men from agricultural or other colleges instead of from veterinary colleges. It does not help veterinary education if the veterinary colleges attempt to rob one another of strong men. Faculty personnel should be built up by additions of the strongest men in education and research not now in veterinary colleges. This will be necessary until the veterinary colleges can train more young men for institutional service through their own organizations.

Supervision.-Veterinary colleges have been under more or less supervision since 1908 when the Bureau of Animal Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture conducted a survey of all

the veterinary colleges of the United States. Regulations were formulated as set forth in Bureau of Animal Industry Circular No. 128. Graduates from the colleges not complying with the requirements of this circular were ineligible to take the civil-service examinations for the veterinary inspection service in the Bureau of Animal Industry. The influence of this supervision has always been for improvement. But in the matter of entrance requirements these regulations have been conservative and did not specify four years of high school until all the colleges were forced to this requirement by other agencies. The United States Department of Agriculture is the largest single employer of veterinarians in the United States; it is reasonable that it should have an interest in the veterinary colleges. It is also perfectly proper that minimum requirements should be set forth for the colleges from which it receives graduates.

Any Federal supervision of veterinary education will be subject to criticism so long as the institutions are entirely State supported. On the other hand, as has already been pointed out, veterinary colleges are necessarily doing an "interstate business." Supervision of the technical material offered might quite naturally come within the range of the Bureau of Animal Industry. Just now the great problem is one of coordinating and adjusting veterinary education with our entire scheme of higher education in all professional lines. Veterinary education needs the support, sympathy, and encouragement of persons engaged in other branches of higher education until the necessary adjustments have been made. The state of veterinary education is critical at this time, and firm yet sympathetic supervision and ample support is very important if the profession is to become the useful agent in serving humanity that it should.

The American Veterinary Medical Association has for years shown a keen interest in educational problems and has done much to elevate standards. It has acted in much the same capacity for veterinary education as did the American Medical Association with the medical colleges. It is always difficult, however, to secure the adoption of a constructive plan which continues over a period of years in an organization numbering thousands of individual memberships. Too frequently members of organizations think of future educational standards in terms of their own educational equipment. Increased educational standards have always had opponents inside the veterinary colleges. In the last analysis much of this opposition is due to the fact that staff members lack scientific background themselves. The American Veterinary Medical Association can do much, but its classification of all the present veterinary colleges as class A institutions does not stimulate correction of the weakness in the system of veterinary education as it now exists.

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There is one other organization which might reasonably assume the responsibility of supervising and assisting the veterinary colleges, the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities. Whether this organization which includes all but one of the institutions now maintaining colleges of veterinary medicine would be willing and able to exercise leadership and the degree of compulsion upon its own membership that will be needed is doubtful.

To many this report will seem very critical. It was meant to be so. The presence of veterinary education in our land-grant colleges needs no apology or defense. Volumes could be written concerning the valuable service the graduates of veterinary colleges have rendered. Much praise could properly be bestowed on some features in connection with some of our present veterinary institutions. Space in this report is too limited to permit the publication of this material. It is the object of this report to call attention to the imperfections rather than to praise the perfect.

PART VI.-SUMMER SESSION

All except four land-grant institutions-Alaska Agricultural College, Connecticut Agricultural College, Montana State College, and Rhode Island State College-maintain summer sessions which are fast becoming as much a part of the college year as the regular term from September to June. Only 39 institutions, however, having summer courses replied to the questionnaire on the summer session, so this chapter is based mainly on the 39 returns, and does not include the following institutions which conduct summer terms: University of Arizona, University of Maine, University of Maryland, Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College, University of Missouri, New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Ohio State University, University of Porto Rico, and University of Wyoming.

The summer session is often independently managed in the landgrant colleges, although credits earned by students apply to the requirements of the regular session. College plants, buildings, and equipment which would otherwise lie idle during the summer months are turned over for mutual benefit of both students and administration. As the demand for summer training increases new courses are added and new incentives increase enrollments. In the past decade several institutions have opened summer courses where none was given previously.

Summer sessions provide professional instruction to public-school teachers and administrators during their long summer vacations in 18 institutions. Regular students may shorten their college courses by attending summer schools; in some instances a 4-year course may be completed in three college years and three summer sessions; they may also make up work in which they have failed during the regular term. Additional college credits may be earned. Opportunity is offered to qualify as vocational teachers in the southern institutions. Teachers may renew or extend their teaching certificates through summer work and adults may complete a college education. Graduates may pursue graduate work. Master's degrees may be earned in three or four summers. Subfreshmen have opportunities to make up entrance requirements. Normal school students may receive the bachelor's degree for work in summer sessions. Administrators find their greatest opportunity to improve teachers in service. School people of the State become acquainted. Complete