University of Nebraska Lincoln - Cornhusker Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

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OF AGRICULTURE L. D. BURTON, former President of the University of Chicago, once rennarked that agriculture might well be the nucleus of a highly cultural educational institu- tion, and that the arts and sciences could become important and significant in an agricultural college in a particular and promising way. This statement Is sound and has especial application in Nebraska. In this state almost one-half of the people live on farms. Certainly the cultural development of the state de- pends to a large extent on the improvement of its agriculture. The enriching of life has Its technical aspects, Its occupational problems. Art and work must not and should not be separated. The College of Agriculture provides opportunity for a broad and useful education, with particular atten- tion to rural problems. In addition to Its four-year college course In agriculture and home economics, and the four-year high school course at Curtis, there are general and specialized short courses which stress par- ticularly the practices of agriculture. The College also affords opportunity for adult education. The meet- ings of Organized Agriculture, as well as many special meetings on the college campus, attract annually several thousand farm people. The Agricultural Exten- sion Service, through its meetings held In rural com- munities, reaches tho usands of other farmers and farm women, hiundreds of questions are answered by letters each week, and a large number of people call to present their problems personally. In addition, the 4-H Club work carried on through the Extension Serv- ice reaches thousands of boys and girls. All of this requires a staff of research workers, teachers, and extension workers. It is clear from this that the College of Agriculture is equipped with adequate machinery for the carrying out of its purpose. Improvements of the material and mechanical sort can be made here and there but on the whole the organization has been well worked out and Sciences furnishes a background for the work of and the means of reaching thousands of people have been made a reality. Questions of larger importance, however, are facing the administrative heads of the College now. These involve the newer purposes of the College, the sort of education that will be more useful, and the means of providing more useful educa- tion. It Is true that much more can be done In the way of improving the farming practices and living con- ditions in the rural communities, but the enriching of life cannot go on further without considerable atten- tion to the advancement of economic, political, and social studies, In general those studies that have to do with the improvement of community and social life, and a richer life Includes the arts and other means of improving leisure time. In short, greater Intelligence and intellect must be applied to the broad problem of improving rural civilization and the College of Agri- culture, along with other agencies, is doing its best to help. In this wood-worlcing class at the Ag College the students are trained to become teachers for Smith-Hughes positions in high schools throughout the state. Especial attention is devoted to the problems presented by the many aspects of rural building. A draw-bar test in operation at the tractor testing station of the University. Each year new models of all the standard tract- ors are carefully tested and examined. The results of these tests are followed by those who use tractors all over the world.

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.rfrt ' .vrtryr ' sy BTr. THE COLLEGE DEAN W. W. BURR To the Patrons of the University: Occasionally those who are responsible for an insti- tution like the College of Agriculture should reflect on the subject of its purposes and should take account of changing purposes as well as of progress. Basically the purpose of the College of Agriculture is and has been that of education in those subjects that effect improvement in agriculture and rural life. For women students the primary aim is to provide them with the knowledge and technique essential to satisfactory homes and home life. For men the purpose is a better understanding of the principles underly ng suc- cessful farm practices and the relation of agriculture to other industries. As agricultural problems become more difficult and complex, the range of activities of the College widens, and its purposes and aims become of increasing importance to the state and the nation. Just now the national government and also the farmers are looking to the colleges of agriculture for information and leadership in connection with the nation-wide effort to make agriculture more stable and profitable. Regardless of how well the present efforts at control of production succeed, we may look in the future toward an increasing need for more information and more leaders to be used in furthering the work of co-ordinating production and consumption demands and in solving many other problems. Increasing com- plexity of problems will require better education. For these reasons the College of Agriculture strives continually to improve its facilities for education. At the present time the curriculum is undergoing a thorough scrutiny, the purpose of which is to find means of broadening and deepening it. The faculty is being encouraged to redefine its aims and to reorganize its courses, with the ultimate object of making the purpose of the College clearer and the educational service of the College more important to the state and society. The student needs equip- ment that will aid him in his encounter with the reali- ties of life, but, more important than that, society needs people who are acquainted with the directions and trends of civilization in those areas and regions of our civilized life that are agricultural. In other words, we need more fully informed and highly intelli- gent agricultural leaders. Young men and women with genuine ability will continue to find that agricul- ture and home economics are large fields with excel- lent opportunities. Respectfully, u , u . Studon+s oi the College of Agriculture learning to identify cuts of meat and to judge their excellence. Cooking tests are employed as a means for determining the effect of different rations for animals upon the palatablllty of their mea+s. Scene In a barn at the College of Agriculture where a class of students is judging dairy cattle. The most proficient of those skilled in weighing the merits of these cattle are chosen to compete in national stock judging contests.

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THE COLLEGE OF DEAN C. H. OLDFATHER To the Students of Nebraska: The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest college in the University of Nebraska, and in spirit and purpose it tries to reflect the oldest type of formal educational known. The first formal educa- tion was concerned with teaching a person how to live . Every other college in the University has as its purpose instruction in how to gain a living ; in other words they are professional schools and, in consequence, the instruction in them points definitely towards preparation for a particular profession, such as law, medicine, dentistry, or the like. Now ihe College of Arts and Sciences holds out no special appeal to the student who wishes to take the shortest road to a profession. It has in mind the student who wishes to spend some years in learn- ing more intimately both the world in which he is living and the past which has shaped the present: the boy or girl who desires to make use of the accumulated experience of the race, in order to con- tribute a measurable part to the building of a new political and social order. Among the many lessons which have been learned from the current depression one was distinctly worth while: that it was bad that people lost their money, but the disheartening thing was that people felt that when they had lost their money they had lost everything. Think of it. We are living in one of the most interesting periods in the history of mankind. New phenomena opening up every day in the field of science, to such a degree that the scientists them- selves are at times confused; economic structures and theories tumbling and new organizations being planned, on a scale scarcely dreamed of before; political institutions, which had been thought to repre- sent in principle the ultimate progress of the race, overthrown in many countries and strongly challenged in every other; social institutions, such as the home and education, undermined for lack of vision and inability to measure comparative values. All these things are taking place about us, and yet so many men and women measure life in terms of a new auto- mobile with a large number of gadgets or of a winter in Florida. The years you may spend in the College of Arts and Sciences should help you to understand what is going on about you. It should, therefore, enable you to look at life as a great adventure , which holds out to the reflecting man rewards which are abiding. Yours very truly. Q iQ mjf(Z j Since 1932 the College of Fine Arts has been Incorporated in the College of Arts and Sciences as the Department of Fine Arts. This Is a portion of the class In portrait painting, taken in one of the upperclassmen studios. Students are here seen working in a botany laboratory. These laboratories, conducted under the supervision of the advanced students and faculty of the department, offer opportunities for research and experimentation.