Arizona republican., 1909-08-20
Experts Unable to Agree al
 the Portland Conference VIEWS OF A DELEGATE
It Is His Belief That There Has Not Been Such a Waste of Natural Re sources as the Public Was Scared Into Believing.

Portland, Aug. 19.-Speaking before the convention of the association of American agricultural colleges and ex- pertinent stations today on "the con servation of our natural resources, . Prof L. c. Carpenter of Fort Collins, Colorado, declared that the waste at the present of natural resources is not so great as to justify the prominence generally given the subject He main tained that there was considerable misconception about the o-called un- necessary waste of natural resources of the country and thought that con- ditions were not as deplorable as painted.
 The subject of providing agricultural training in schools of secondary grade come up again and was the subject of two papers, interesting especially be- cause of the antagonisms of one speakers views to the other The first was a paper of Dean E. A. Burnett, of Nebraska, who said:.
 Tt is granted that agricultural col leges serve but a few of the young
 
 primary and secondary schools must furnish the only opportunity for the average boy and girl to secure an edu- cation. The great mass of boys and girls never attend college and the present high school curriculums do not articulate well with agricultural col leges. The great need. then. at the present time. is an adequate education in the secondary schools. There are but two methods proposed for the eX- tension of agricultural training to those schools. One is to include it in the high school courses. and the other to establish agricultural schools with sufficiently diversified courses in strictly rural communities and give them, in addition to income by local taxation. support from the state"
 Dean Eugene Davenport of Illinois in replying said:
 If the agricultural colleges and ex- pertinent stations have shown any thing, it is because that science can help the occupation of farming and that agriculture can be successfully taught. They have shown, too, incl dentally. that whether the young man
 
 farm depends upon the kind of educa- ton he gets. This is the foundation for the demand that agriculture be taught in schools other than in one college of each state; also that agri culture should be taught as a second ary school subject. so as to reach the many who cannot go to college. I would insist that every high school that has a country constituency should put in a department of agriculture, and that the boy who is to be a farm CT. or thinks he is, should devote a fourth of his time to that study. It is bad policy to educate people of differ ent professions separately. The prop CT principle is industrial courses in ex- isting schools. not a separate system of agricultural schools"
 After Dean Davenport had concluded Dean A B. Cordley of Oregon discuss ed the question of how best the agri- cultural college can serve the farmer in solving rural problems. Dr Cord ley said in substance:
 State experimentations and the de- partment of agriculture have accumu- lated a vast store of facts regarding agricultural science. What is further needed is some method of bringing to- gether these facts, welding them to- gether into a rational system, or sys- tems, of farm practice. and actually demonstrating their adaptability and practicability to local conditions. All this can be done by a system of well conducted demonstration farms.
 "TO fulfill their mission such farms must be more than self supporting. They must be more profitable than the farms in their respective localities. If the system adopted for any such farm is not profitable the demonstra- ton farms.
 At the general session of the associa- tion tonight the report was read of the committed on the utilization of exist ing societies and Associations organ ized for the consideration of subjects relating to agricultural science.