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prescribed in his curriculum. If six years of study were required of him, the student in engineering could complete in the first three years the 40 to 44 hours of science now prescribed and in addition about 50 hours in such humanistic studies as literature, history, political science, etc., while in the last three years he would devote his mind, enlarged and vitalized by the study of the liberal arts and of physical science, to the mastery of the technical subjects in which he could not fail to show a facility and superiority of work which it would be unreasonable to expect and difficult to discover among the students so much less liberally trained, who now pursue the four year courses in engineering. Such a six year course would admit the student to both the A. B. and the C. E. or M. E. degree without any change in the existing rules. And a programme is published by the Faculty of Civil Engineering, as one might be by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, for the guidance of candidates who might be disposed to take the prolonged course. Such students at matriculation would be obliged to satisfy the requirements for admission to the College of Arts and Sciences.

It has hitherto been possible for students to take the arts degree and the engineering degree in six years. A few have availed themselves of the privilege, but the number has always been small. For this and other reasons the President believes it would be going too far at the present time to require all candidates for a degree in engineering to spend six years in study and secure the A. B. degree as well as the professional degree. But the President also holds that it is very desirable that young men should have some college training in language, literature, history, etc., before entering upon their professional studies. And he is disposed to think that the time has arrived when Cornell University might safely insist on a fifth year of study in

the engineering courses, the additional time to be spent wholly on humanistic studies during the first two years of the five year course while the student was also pursuing his work in pure science-mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. This plan would, of course, not be so near the ideal as a six year course, but it would be a great improvement on the present arrangement, and that not only because it afforded to prospective engineers the means of securing at least some culture from the humanities but also because it would infallibly awaken interests and stimulate tastes which would induce them to pursue these studies further in the years that followed. Indeed many of them, noting that two degrees could be obtained by an additional year, might go on to the six year course in arts and engineering, even though at entrance they had not contemplated more than the five year course which the President believes should be prescribed in the near future. With this presentation of the case he recommends the matter to the earnest consideration of the Faculties and Trustees. He himself is persuaded that no improvement which could now be effected in the character of the instruction offered by the technical colleges at Cornell University could compare with the gain which would accrue to those colleges by having the minds of their students nurtured, strengthened, and liberalized as they might be if the students devoted even half their time during the first two years of the course to the English language and literature, history, political science, and other subjects of humanistic culture.

What has been said of the engineering courses applies with still more force to the work in architecture, since architecture is pre-eminently one of the fine arts, which are naturally associated with liberal culture. The leading architects and teachers have come to recognize not only that the technical training given in the professional schools

should be improved, as it might be by strengthening the faculties and by attaching to them practical architects of recognized standing to supervise and criticize the work in design, but also that some liberal education in the humanities should be required of students before they are admitted to the technical course. Here is the way in which the Professor in charge of the College of Architecture presents the matter in his report :

"If Cornell is to hold her place of distinction in the field of architectural education, we must move in no uncertain way to meet the well-founded demands of the men who are directing the thought and doing the work of the profession. Within the past two decades architectural education has undergone very great changes in this country, and at no time have the changes and advance been more marked than within the past few years. The schools of twenty years ago had not attracted the interest and support of the profession and were handicapped accordingly. To-day one of the most potent factors in urging them to higher standards is the direct interest manifested in their work by prominent architects personally, and by leading professional organizations through public discussion and official committees."

"There is an emphatic demand for broader cultural training on the one hand; on the other hand the demand is equally emphatic that the technical training not only be kept fully up to present standards but that it be strengthened along certain lines. In other words, the profession is demanding that the schools furnish more training. In order to do this they must either advance their requirements for admission or lengthen their course beyond the traditional four year period. "

Professor Martin himself apparently sees no alternative between the graduate school of architecture and the traditional four year course based on high school graduation. But the via media recommended above offers a method of effecting the desiderated improvements on the latter without adopting the risks of the former-risks which outside a great city could scarcely fail to be overwhelming.

THE UNIVERSITY AND THE FARMER

The census for 1900 showed that there were in round numbers 227,000 farms in the State of New York.

The

value of the farm property of the State was $1,069,723,895, and the value of the annual farm products was $245,270,600, in both of which New York is surpassed by Illinois, Iowa, and Ohio. The value of the flocks and herds of New York State is $139.514.947: $60,007,605 for horses, $387,253 for mules, $54,607,281 for milch cows, $14,855,158 for other cattle, $4,009,525 for sheep, and $5,648, 125 for swine. The State has also 67,457 dairy farms or about one sixth of all in the entire Union. The milk produced in 1899 (the last year for which figures are available) was 772,799,352 gallons. Of this amount 445,427,888 gallons were sold and $36,248,833 received therefor. New York ranks first among the states in the annual production of milk and butter and second in the production of cheese, the total value of all dairy produce in 1899 being $55.474.155. New York also ranks first in the number of dairy cows (1,501,608), and in the annual production of hay and forage ($55,237,446), vegetables ($25.756,000), forest products ($7,671,ooo), flowers and plants ($2,878,000), small fruits ($2,538,000), beans ($2,472,000), nursery products ($1,703,000), and hops ($1,600,000).

But there is another side to the picture. Up to 1870 New York held first place among the states in the value of its farm property. But in 1880 it was surpased by Ohio, in 1890 by both Ohio and Illinois, and in 1900 by Ohio, Illinois, and Iowa. In population too there has been a decline in the rural counties owing partly to a lower birth rate but mainly to migration of the population to the cities and other regions. Still there were 1,200 more farm families in the State in 1900 than in 1890. But the families who owned their farms had decreased by 3,479 and the families hiring farms had increased by 3,238; so that the percentage of farms worked by owners had decreased in the decade from 79.8 to 74.4 and the percentage worked by

tenants had increased from 20.2 to 23.9. Furthermore onethird of the 227,000 farms in the State were in 1900 reported as encumbered. Finally, there was between 1880 and 1900 an annual decrease in the value of farm property of $7,330,000.

In the interpretation of the figures which have been given certain fundamental facts must be kept in mind. First of all, agriculture in New York and generally in the East is in the process of adaptation to new conditions, in the course of which some farms have been abandoned and others enlarged, as in the keen competition some farmers have increased in prosperity and others have retrograded. Secondly, the land in New York is still productive, as is clear from the fact that, while in farm acreage it ranks seventeenth among the states (only 69% of the total acreage of New York being improved land), in the value of farm property it ranks fourth, or, again, that, though in the total value of its farm crops it is surpassed by Illinois, Iowa, Texas, and Ohio, in the value per acre of farm products it surpasses them, the figures being for New York $15.73 per acre, for Ohio $13.36, Illinois $12.48, Texas $12.25, Iowa $12.22. Thirdly, the great and unparalleled markets of the State of New York are better than ever they were. Fourthly, experience is already showing that an intelligent study of the demands of the market and an intelligent diversification of agricultural enterprise-with due regard to the condition of the soil and the competition of the western prairies as well as the needs of the local market-offer a road to prosperity to the farmers of New York.

After all allowance is made for adverse factors, the objective conditions are still favorable for successful farming in New York. And with industry and energy, which are the gifts of nature or the products of family training, and with intelligence, which it is the function of education to

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