Montana State University Bozeman - Montanan Yearbook (Bozeman, MT)

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and often an indirect rather than a direct route must be taken to get to the point aimed at. The leaders in thought and endeavor in Montana believe in agricultural education and in the potentiality of a strong agricultural department in building and developing the agriculture of the state. The line of least resistance, therefore, was towards providing live stock and live stock buildings. Thus a dairy building, a granary, a cattle barn, a hog house, poultry buildings and a horse barn have been built, and finally an agricultural building provided for. Had an additional $7,000 voted by the legislature, but lost through an error of a clerk, been available, a steer feeding and a sheep feeding barn would have been provided, thus completing the immediate needs of the agricultural department. The purpose of this organization and equipment from the college and agricultural extension standpoint, is to provide thorough and efficient instruction in the special problems of Montana agriculture. From the standpoint of the Experiment Station, the purpose is to add year by year to our knowledge and control of the forces that make towards larger and more economic results in farm practice. The Montana station is putting the weight of its funds into the creative or improvement side of the agricultural problem. We are endeavoring to find the kind of grains, forage, crops, fruits, trees, etc., best suited to Montana conditions on the irrigated or non-irrigated lands, also the best methods of soil management, cultivation, irrigation, etc. Next we are endeavoring to find how to best utilize the fodders and grains in feeding all kinds of live stock, and then trying to improve those animals so as to make them more efficient machines for economic productions. On the defensive or protective side of the work, we are studying the insect pests and plant diseases that injure or destroy the farmer’s crops; and also how to control, prevent and cure the evils resulting from use or abuse of irrigation water. In the near future we plan to take up the study of the diseases that affect the live stock of the farm. This, in a general way, presents the work and aims of the agricultural department of the college. Those who would wish for a more thorough knowledge will find it in the publications of the college and Experiment Station. ENGINEERING SELECTING AN ENGINEERING EDUCATION The young man who has completed his course in the high school, has reached a point in life when it is necessary for him to decide upon the next step in his future. Should he turn his attention to the trades, 18

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from the horticultural department. These departments of the agricultural work are what may be called units, and the expansion from this will be in these departments, by the addition of assistant helpers. Another thought in the organization was the division of the lines of work to be undertaken. At the head of the college work in agriculture is a department of research, the Experiment Station, which has a separate staff of workers with a separate head known as the Director, who is charged with the responsibility of so using the funds placed at his disposal, and so organizing the working force as to accomplish the largest possible amount of accurate work in original investigations in the agricultural field: and to seeing that the facts worked out are presented clearly and comprehensively to the people. The Experiment Station is endowed with funds given especially for its work. From the U. S. Government $24,000 is received each year and this in three years becomes S30.000. From the State S7.500 is obtained for maintenance : $4,000 for dry farming experiments and Si,500 per year for horticultural work. In addition to this, about $6,000 per year is obtained through co-operative work undertaken with the railways, with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and with communities in the state; and about S5.000 is obtained from produce sold from the farms. The whole making about $48,000 per year. This is nearly three times the income of the Experiment Station six years ago. The next division in the agricultural work is the college department of agriculture, through which it is aimed to reach and educate along scientific and practical agricultural lines the young people who come to us for such information. The college takes the facts of scientific agriculture as elucidated by this and other experiment stations of the world and moulds them into pedagogic form for the information, training and development of the students. The next division in the agricultural work is the college department is grouped under the head of Agricultural Extension, through which it is endeavoring to bring the work of the Experiment Station and the college in a clear and practical manner home to the people of the state. Through correspondence in answer to inquiries for information, through the Farmers Institute work, popular bulletins on practical agricultural topics, farmers' reading courses, rural school leaflets, etc., the latest facts and the best practices in agriculture are brought into the homes of all the people who ask for information and help. With the organization worked out and the direction of our endeavors laid down, the next thought was to provide the equipment and buildings necessary to make the plans possible. When funds are dependent upon popular support and the amount available is limited, very careful planning has to be done to get needed buildings and equipment, 17

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environment will undoubtedly have done much to assist him in making the selection; if, however, he desires a higher education, he often finds it difficult to decide just what course to pursue. We find many parents desiring that their sons shall follow some one of the professions, prompted by the mistaken idea that it is more honorable to earn the living with the brains than with the hands, regardless of the results to which the brain action may lead. In Europe, and especially England, this feeling has become a part of the national life, with the sure result of forming class distinction. The young American should early realize that that which has made his country what it is, has been the ability of our forefathers to think and act for themselves. Xo greater honor can be paid to our people, when in foreign lands, than the fact that they can be recognized by their mental bearing and ability to think and act for themselves. Although a higher education is something after which all men should seek, yet it should not be obtained at a sacrifice to the thought that all honest labor is both honorable and ennobling. It is far better for the American boy to stand high in some trade, which requires the daily use of his hands to perform, than to be some itinerant doctor, lawyer or engineer. It is far better to look back upon a life's work well performed with the hands, than to view with regret a dishonest and poorly performed life of mental service. The young man who enters the engineering profession, with the thought that he will always work with clean hands and a laundered shirt, has a wrong conception of the profession. Although the profession requires that he must always have “clean hands and a pure heart,” the thought is in the moral sense alone. His profession will require the use of head, hands and feet. He must master himself before he can control others. He must learn to obey if he desires to be obeyed. The student entering the profession should, first of all, fix his ideals high. ITe should never be alone content with obtaining an ability to survey. Surveying is but the A-B-C of engineering, and he who learns no more, occupies to the profession the same position that the school boy of the first grade occupies to the common school education. The would-be engineer must also realize that the engineering professions are the most difficult of all professions to master. He will ever occupy the position of student to the great teacher, Nature, to whom he will ever turn for instruction. His term of study will cease only when his tired eyes close in their last great sleep. His text book will be Nature's own, and will ever be open to him, yet, as he turns the leaves, he will ever find new pages constantly being presented to his astonished gaze. The young man entering the profession should realize at the start, that the sloth has no place here; and that when once commenced, the 19