The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-09-09
The Agricultural
Experiment Staten
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The agricultural experiment station.
a department of the college. is largely
supported by the United States gov
eminent and devoted TO the work of
original research in agriculture. 1t is
the policy of the station to make es-
pecial study OF THE agricultural prob
lens peculiar to Utah. Irrigation is
at the foundation of our agriculture
The mission the station officers have
set before them is to study the funda-
mental problems and the peculiarities
OF crop production under an irriga-
ton system, using the word crop n its
broadest significance to include both
plants and animals. At all points the
advancement of agricultural science in
its fundamental character is kept in
view.
The law establishing the experiment
stations requires that several report is
and bulletins shall be issued each year
to disseminate the results of the work
of the station among the people To
date seventy bulletins and seven re-
ports have been issued These bulletins
and reports are sent free to residents
OF the state, upon application Five
thousand copies of each of the bulle-
tins and reports are issued. The sta
ton is also means of disseminating
agricultural information through CORE
spondence and answers to Inquiries, and
also by articles sent to the press of
the state.
College instruction in Agriculture.
In the arrangement of the college
work in agriculture, the first purpose
in view has been to meet the needs of
that large class who expect to make
the farm their home. Students who
enter the college from the eighth grade
enter at once on a course in agricul-
ture. This is continued the secoad year
and with the third year offers very
complete course in practical agcicul-
ture. Those who can attend only one
two or three years will yet have been
made acquainted with facts and prin-
ciples that could not fail to help them
in their farm work. The lrst three
years also offer very thorough
course in English and mathematics,
with sufficient elementary science to
enable the student to readily compIe-
bend the work given.
Following the above course are three
years which lead to a degree and Gives
the student that information in sci
ence that will enable him to under
stand and grapple with the deeper
problems in agricultural practice. In
the Junior and senior year the student
is allowed to specialize either in ag
ronOmy, in animal industry and dairy
ing, or in horticulture. Those who
complete this course are qualified 10
take positions as teachers and assist
anus III COlAGEeS ana experiment STA
tions, or as managers of large farms.
However, this course is designed not
alone to give special agricultural train
ing, but TO give a broad education. The
farmer in America is both proprie tor
and manager of his farm, and is,
moreover, a citizen in the country
where the citizen is sovereign.
The education of such a man should
be broad and suggestive. The agricul-
tural course, as arranged, brings the
student into contact with nearly all
the specialists of the college and opens
TO him many fields that invite future
study and research.
The course cannot be arranged as a
manual training course AS practical
ly all the students are from the farm,
it is assumed that the student is ac-
Quainted with the various manual oper-
atoms of farm work. and the aim is to
supplement this work by that technical
training which. as a rule, the farm does
not afford. Special emphasis is laid
on the training of the faculties of OBJ
servation, reason and judgment From
the first year of the course the aim
is to make the student acquainted with
those terms that will enable him to
study profitably, and with interest, the
best books and papers on agricultural
topics.
The college and department libraries
enable the student to become acquaint-
ed with a. wide range of agricultural
and related literature, while the labora-
tories of the college and experiment
station afford opportunity for training
and experience that would be impOs-
sible to get from books. The outline
of the course and the description of
the studies prescribed VIII give a fuller
understanding of the work offered. (See
catalogue of the agricultural college of
Utah.)
The winter course in agriculture is
designed to meet the needs of young
men of mature years, who desire to
excel in some agricultural pursuit and
who feel the need of more thoroughly
preparing for their work, but can de-
vote only the winter season to such
preparation.
The subjects presented are those
about which everyone engaged in agri-
cultural pursuits should have a definite
knowledge of, both the science and the
art-the underlying principles and the
best practice-relating thereto. The
class room instruction will be supple
mented by practice in the livestock
judging room, veterinary hospital, col
lege dairy, agricultural and horticuI-
tural laboratories and green houses,
and by visits of inspection to herds
and farms and other points of interest
For instruction in the above lines
the Agriculture College of Utah was
never before so thoroughly equipped.
The new cattle barn and sheep barn,
with a large number of pure bred ami
mails of different breeds, viii afford ex-
cellent facilities for the work in animal
husbandry. These new buildings will
afford room for seventy-five head of
cattle and sixty sheep. For the COM
ing year the station poultry is made
available for study. A new laboratory
will be equipped for the study of soil
and agricultural physics, and a depart
ment museum will be started and locat-
ed SO as to be readily available for ref
erence and study. The college dairy
viii be remodeled and some additional
equipment added
In those departments of natural
science closely related TO agriculture.
particularly chemistry and botany, the
Facilities for instruction are also verv
much better than heretofore
The Farmers Institute.
The laws of the state provide that
the agricultural college shall hold
farmers institutes in various parts of
the state each year, and provide funds
70 meet the expenses of such meetings
This permits the officers of the college
to carry the especial work of the in
stitution to the homes of the peoDle
and thus give instruction to those who
could not possibly come to the college.
In addition to the college officers ex-
perts in various lines of agriculture arr.
engaged to add to the interest ami
value of those meetings. The arrange
ment of this work is placed in charge
of a committee of which Director j. A.
Widtsoe is chairman.