the time is not far distant when even further constructional needs will be imperative.

With the enlargement of the staff, especially through the appointment of two additional professors, the work of the department has been differentiated, as is detailed in the report of the Director of that course.

Extension Service. The organization of the county representative system, i. e., the establishment of resident extension instructors in the several counties of the state has proved most successful. Legislative provision was made two years ago for ten such representatives for 1914 and sixteen for the following year. Applications were early received for the full quota and well qualified men were finally selected for this important work. The success of the work is such that there is no question but that practically all of the counties that have already taken up this movement will be heartily in favor of its continuance. The probabilities are that the quota available for 1915 will all be taken early in the year. It will doubtless be necessary to secure modifying legislation that will permit of the further development of this system, but in doing so, it is to be hoped that the maximum number of counties in which this work is authorized will not be made too large. It is our belief that provision can easily be made for twenty in 1916, and not to exceed twenty-five for the next year of the biennium. The problem in this work that is hard to solve is not with reference to the co-operation of the county, but to find properly trained men who are sure to succeed in this most difficult relation. Residing permanently as these men do in the counties which they serve, they have got to live with the possible errors which they may make. As representatives of the University, they bear a degree of responsibility that is much more than would be the case if connected only with the public school system of the community.

So far the County Representative System has only been applied to farm problems, but the problems of the farm home are equally pressing and in the no distant future, we should be rendering community aid to the farmer's wife as well as to the farmer himself. I do not think this aspect of the subject is yet organized sufficiently well to warrant at the present time. the installation of county women representatives, but I do be

lieve that the time is now ripe for beginning this work on a wider basis. My recommendation would be, if the County Representative law is amended this winter, that it include provision for the appointment of at least two women representatives at large whose entire time can be given to field work on the problems of the farm home.

Farmers' Institutes. Among the changes to be made in the Farmers' Institutes with the inauguration of a new superintendent is the transfer of the demonstration work on the county and state farms which has heretofore been carried on by Professor Norgord, and the development of the educational trains.

In my last report I referred to the crop demonstration work which Professor Norgord has so successfully developed and recommended that he be given additional assistance. With his duties as Superintendent of Farmers' Institutes, and as manager of our Hill farms, it is impossible for him to give adequate personal attention to the organization of the demonstration work on these state and county farms. Nowhere are we able to get as valuable results for so little expenditure as is being done in this work. Each of these twenty odd centers throughout the state has become a well recognized location for the dissemination of not only improved seed stock but a demonstration point for better farm practices. This year the needs of the women have also been thoroughly met by the assignment of Professor Kelley from the Home Economics Department, who has attended with Professor Norgord a large number of his demonstration meetings. I heartily endorse the request of the Superintendent for an increase of $2,500 in the funds available for the Farmers' Institutes work to enable this new line of summer effort to be carried on most effectively.

Branch Stations. Reference has already been made to the results that are being secured at these important centers in the northern and central portions of the state. The further constructional and equipment needs of the branch stations are there set forth. With the growing amount of general executive and extension activities which the departmental men, who act in an executive capacity, are obliged to meet, it would be highly advantageous to the research work of these stations, if we could locate staff members at some of these points who could devote their time uninterruptedly to the experimental work.

PRESENT FISCAL POLICY HAMPERS INVESTIGATION

In connection with our experimental work along practical feeding lines, it should be possible for the station to feed considerable numbers of live stock on a practical scale, in order to be able to advise the farmer on relative costs of production where different methods are employed. Under the present financial plan all moneys received from sale of farm products, other than milk, are required by law to be deposited in the State Treasury and cannot be used as a revolving fund for the continuance of such experiments. This restriction makes it difficult to continue any practical tests of this character, as the amounts involved for purchase of such stock make so large a draft on the operating budget. In this respect, we are therefore placed at a great disadvantage in comparison with other experiment stations of the Mississippi valley, all of which are able to use the proceeds arising from the sale of such stock for the continuance of similar experimental work. Efforts should be made this year to modify existing legislation so as to include such operations in our revolving funds, the same as milk and other dairy products.

H. L. RUSSELL,

Dean.

REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE COURSE IN HOME ECONOMICS

Dean H. L. Russell,

College of Agriculture.

Dear Sir: I have the pleasure to submit herewith the biennial report as Director of the Course in Home Economics.

The Department of Home Economics which has just completed its fifth year in the College of Agriculture has continued. to grow steadily, as shown by the following table.

* Elections in other colleges not restricted to juniors and seniors. ** Students electing one or more courses in Home Economics.

Educational Standards. The course of study has been developed along the educational theory that during the freshman and sophomore years the student should acquire a broad foundation in the use of English and at least one foreign language and the beginning courses in such sciences as seemed most nearly fundamental, namely:-chemistry, physics, physiology, bacteriology, and zoology. With this end in view there are but three courses in home economics offered during these years and but one elective, which the student is advised to take in either literature, economics, history, or biology.

This policy has made it possible for normal school graduates to enter and complete our course in five semesters, or two years and a summer session. It has also made it possible for students

who desire to attend for the first two years any of the smaller colleges in the state to do so without penalizing them too severely. This, in a measure, meets the desire of parents to place their daughters in a more cloistered environment during later adolescent years.

The entrance of students from other institutions on advanced credit standing, has grown so that today over fifteen other colleges and universities are contributing students who enter for junior and senior work. In a similar way we have graduate stu dents who come desiring to gain advanced standing or a broader view of the teaching phases of the work.

There is a slowly increasing number of junior and senior Letters and Science students who elect from one to five courses in an endeavor to gain a broader foundation for their future work in the home, a few only, electing to take a teaching minor in home economics. To this end we offer throughout the year one course which has no science prerequisites and one course in applied design which is fundamental for all other applied design studies. With the beginning course in foods this gives a fair review of the home problems so that the future home keeper is not so seriously handicapped. In 1914 the senior course in Humanics was opened, on attendance standing, to seniors in Letters and Science. This gives a review of the laws of child development and care in home, school, and state in the belief that it may help in the training to a better standard in citizenship in the future. About fifty seniors from Letters and Science elected the course.

Majors in Home Economics. Up till the year 1913–14 the course in Home Economics offered no major other than the gencral one which endeavored to fit the graduate not only for life. but for professional work in teaching either or both domestic science and domestic art in the high school or normal school, or food or textiles in the college courses in home economics.

In 1913-14 the course was broadened so that while the freshman and sophomore work is obligatory the student may, in the beginning of the junior year, elect a major in either food or textiles, thus giving a more intensive study to the work without limiting the scope of the electives in other colleges. It is the policy of the department to develop in the near future, majors in institutional management, dietetics, housing, hospital administration, vocational instruction, and to co-operate with the Depart

9-B. R.