Washington State University - Chinook Yearbook (Pullman, WA)

Page 28 text:

Agriculture GEORGR SEVERANCB The courses of study offered in this Department arc intended to give a thorough training in the field of Agriculture as a science. The practice of Agri¬ culture as a vocation is not lost sight of, but the fundamental purpose of the work is a mastery of the science itself. The work of Agriculture proper is preceded by as thorough a training as possible in the sciences which underlie the principles of Agriculture, such as Botany, Chemistry, Veterinary Science, and Zoology. Political Science, History, Modern Languages and Literature are given a prominent place, so that the complete course equips the student with a well-balanced cduaction. The completion of the course in Agriculture pre¬ pares the student for intelligent, practical farming; for farm management and supervision; for investigating agricultural prob¬ lems in connection with Experiment Station work; for teaching Agriculture and the allied Sciences; or for work in the United States Department of Agriculture. The demand for men trained to fill such positions far exceeds the supply. The courses are so planned that tlie work naturally falls into the three following groups: Agronomy, Animal Husbandry, and Dairying. The stu¬ dent is allowed to select the group which he prefers, and then opportunity is given to choose between a wide range of studies. The Department acts on the theory that their first duty is to prepare the student to earn a living; that food must precede culture. They are not seeking the cheap rewards of immediate success at the expense of future stagnation, but are combining the fundamental lessons of science with the demonstrations of skilled methods of business. The substantial aim of the Department is permanent prosperity, spring¬ ing from conservation of natural wealth, from a restored soil fertility, from an intelligent policy of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, from approved practices in Agronomy, and from the employment of scientific systems of farm accounting. That such an aim has abundantly succeeded at Washington State College has been evidenced by the careers of its hundreds of graduates, who have taken their training back into the environment from which they came, and have made it count decisively in larger yields, in more constant income values, and in the accumulative successes that a more varied, more skillful, and more ennobling type of farm life. 24

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Education By both state and national law the College is charged with the duty of preparing teachers for the public schools of the state. The Department of Education was established to fulfill this obligation and is working in close co-operation with other departments of the College in the preparation of superintendents, principals, supervisors of such special subjects as Agri¬ culture, Horticulture, Home Economics, Manual Training, and Music, and teachers of the subjects taught in the high schools of the state. At the beginning of the present school year there were added to the Department two two-year courses tor teachers. One for the preparation of teachers of Manual Arts and one for the preparation of teachers of Agri¬ culture and Horticulture. These new courses have been approved by the State Board of Education and the College has been authorized to grant teacher’s diplomas to those who complete either of them. During the past year the equipment of the department has been greatly increased and now consists of a High School Text-Book Library of over two hundred volumes, a well-equipped psychological laboratory and a professional library of twelve hundred volumes. The library is also supplied with the current numbers and bound volumes of a number of the leading educational periodicals. 26