The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-02-10
4 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICIJL.
TURE AND MECHANIC ARTS.

TURE AND MECHANIC ARTS.
To the Editor: have for some time
been of the opinion that the Agricultural
and Mechanical College, the Experiment
Station, and the Fertilizer Control Sta
zion, should be in one department, to be
allied THE Department of Agriculture
and Mechanic Arts" and to be controlled
by one Board of Trustees, who should
all be paid out of the tax arising from
fertilizers.
y board must meet for the manage
ment and control of the fertilizer bust
less and the tax arising therefrom, any
now, and while they are met together
hey may as well do other public service
without cost out of any other funds.
The Legislature ought to pass law
that their per diem and mileage should
be paid out of this fund and that they
should receive none except what they
get in this way. Then YOU would never
lear of any more difficulty about not
)eing able TO use that fund for such a
patriotic. legitimate and lawful purpose.
IN that way the college money would not
be eaten into with salaries and mileage
If boards. to start with but all it's
money could be taken for the legitimate
urposc of increasing its facilities for
Instruction, especially its appliances for
'ractical instruction.
The Experiment Station ought to be
so closely connected with the college
roper as to be one and the same, and
he fifteen thousand dollars which now
Eoes exclusively or almost exclusively, to
hat department., should be SO managed
as TO increase the college facilities by
about fifteen thousand dollars worth per
annum. As director or some officer
of the Experiment Station is needed to
conduct the experiments required by law,
the board should require him to be eX-
,fficio professor at the college, and give
him such assistants as will facilitate his
work in both departments-as far as
oSSibe using those assistants both for
urposes of teaching and experimental
ion. The money used for experiment.
ny in seeds and plants, soils. etc, might
'e paid to men who could carry on
uch experiments and at the same time
lssist the professors of horticulture in
heir work. If certain classes of men,
neither now employed or proposed to be
Employed, should say that they could not
ONE up to these requirements, let the
GARD advertise for such as can and
viii. Salaries of two thousand dollars
or professors and q thousand and twelve
hundred and fifteen hundred for assist
,nts can easily find such men as will
gladly undertake the job.
In this way the Experiment Station
money (the money which now goes main
V or solely for experimentation can be
paid for the legitimate expenses of the
'ollege, and ut the same time the work
If experimentation be carried on in
such close connection with the college
rs to be of great service to that institu-
ion in giving practical instruction and
inject lessons to the students. furnishing
;ome of the advanced students with the
means of making a little money in some
asses and. at the same time. carrying
)ut the letter and the spirit of the law
rs well as or even better than it is now
carried ont.
The salaries of such as are engaged in
teaching chemistry at the college should
paid out of the funds arising from
he tax ON fertilizers. lhis, of course,
very simple and easy. as the leading
hemist in the analyses of fertilizers
nd such Of his assistants as are deem
d requisite should be required, ex Off
10. TO teach chemistry at the college.
Plenty can be found who will gladly UNI
dertakc this and do it most efficiently.
Two farms, two dairies and two sets
Of experiments in agriculture, seeds,
soils, diseases of plants, etc, are, in my
judgment, useless expenditures; one
would do. not onlytas well, but bettei
and would carry out the law equally as
well and even better, because efficiency
would be secured by concentration.
BY using the money from the fertilizer
fax, as far as may be practicable. to
pay the expenses of teaching chemistry
at the college and of the Board of Trus-
tees and its local executive committee
and perhaps some other expenses may
'e squeezed out of this money n the
future as | happen to know has been
lone in the past) and by using the Ok
eminent Station money, fifteen thousand
lollars per annum, more directly for the
legitimate purposes of the college, it will
he seen ut Il glance that more money
will be left TO put into the meehan' ca,
department to establish Il textile school
and to do whatever else may be neces-
AIRY for developing that department. for
which the college was primarily be-
gun. | should say that with good
board of twenty-five or thirty FRIENDS
OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION in
North Carolina mot selected ON account
of political influence or to pat ( tends
n offices and professo~ships. but bona
ide. having at heart the interest of the
college and of mechanical education and
If practical and experimental farming
in North Caroina) probably ten or fif-
teen thousand dollars per annum could
easily be saved out of the funds of the
olleoe for the purpose at this time of es-
tablishing. equipping and conducting a
textile school, and the college in all It's
departments would be greatly benefited
the change and reorganization. No
cody is so afraid of reorganization rs
ONE one who is afraid he will lose his
alary or some friend of such person.
| cannot see why two works which are
rs close to each other as that of expert
nentation required by United States law
and the instruction of the students in
agricultural and mechanical science re,
quired by the same law should be sep.
| arated into departments as they now are
or be under separate boards (as they al
some time have been) nor can see any