--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Widstoe, John A. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 16 number: 9 published: 1913-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Widstoe, John A., "The Utah Agricultural College," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 9 (July 1913): 952–954.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1609unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1609unse start_page: 952 end_page: 954 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1609unse publication_year: 1913 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1913, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Utah Agricultural College The Utah Agricultural College BY DR. JOHN A. WIDTSOE, PRESIDENT The love of the people of Utah for higher education is well shown by the fact that in the Utah Agricultural College the enrollment of students is larger in proportion to the population of the State than in any other agricultural college of the United States. For every 227 of population one was a student at the college in 1912-13. This unusual record is due to the fostering care which Utah has always given the cause of education. The University of Utah was organized almost before the Pioneers had really established themselves in their new-found wilderness. The Utah Agricultural College was created in 1888 by the first territorial legislative assembly after the passage by Congress of the famous Hatch Act, authorizing the establishment of agricultural experiment stations. In the fall of 1890, a year and a half later, the doors of the new building were opened to students. From that day to the present the college has been generously supported by the State administrations, and has been largely patronized by the people of the state. The Utah Agricultural College has had a somewhat remarkable history. In its opening announcement it declared its purpose so to teach and apply all the arts and sciences, in full present-day light, that agriculture, home economics, engineering, commerce, mechanic arts, and all other industrial pursuits would receive intellectual dignity as well as practical power, and thus be made quite comparable with the time-honored professions of law, medi- 954 IMPROVEMENT ERA cine and theology. This was not a well-accepted doctrine in 1890, and the Utah college was among the first to declare openly and without shame that it would give itself to the professional dignifying of the common pursuits of mankind. Instruction was offered from the beginning in agriculture, domestic science and arts, mechanic arts, civil engineering, mining engineering and irrigation engineering. These were the first courses, in these subjects, excepting domestic arts, to be offered in this State. During the second year, instruction in commerce was added. This was quite an educational departure, for it was not considered good form, twenty-five years ago, for colleges to teach commercial subjects. However, in a year or two the business course developed into a full fledged college course, offering a degree in commerce. The Utah Agricultural College thus became the first institution in the West and one of the first in the whole country to recognize the educational value of commercial studies and to dignify commerce by placing it on a college basis. In recent years, the great universities have at last recognized commerce and several have even given it the great dignity of making it a part of the post graduate work. To the Utah Agricultural College belongs the credit of having founded instruction, in Utah, in agriculture, home economics, engineering, mechanic arts and commerce, and of having been among the pioneers in the work in the whole land, and of ever standing firmly for the intellectual elevation of all the necessary pursuits of mankind. It is now as before the aim of the college to consider, as far as possible, every problem of the rural communities. Grea<" wealth has been taken from Utah mines, but Utah is essentially a rural state. The cultivation of the land, with all the activities of commerce and trades that are derived from it, determines the building of a commonwealth. The college, therefore, attempts to treat every phase of the rural problem, by discovering and teaching the natural resources of the state, and by teaching the methods whereby these resources may be utilized in the best manner. The college in its growth has gradually standardized its work until, today, it is upon the basis of the standard colleges of the United States. However, its doors have always been wide open for all the people, and it is, therefore, maintaining a large number of practical courses open without examination to all men and women over eighteen years of age. Moreover, short courses of various kinds are offered from year to year to make the service of the college as large as possible. The Agricultural Experiment Station, which was provided for in the organic act of the college, has undertaken to solve the agricultural problems of an arid state. When the station was organized, little was known concerning countries under a limited rainfall, for modern agriculture had been founded in countries of THE UTAH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 955 abundant rainfall. Utah can point with pride to the success which has attended the labors of her experiment station. By the investigations of the station, the nature of the soils, climate and waters of the state has been determined ; the best crops and the best live stock for Utah farms have been sought out; the dairy, horticultural and sugar beet business has been encouraged; the value of the irrigation water has been increased manifold, and the tens of millions of acres that never can be irrigated have been in part reclaimed by the methods of dry-farming, and, in general, farm life in an arid country has been made more pleasant and profitable. The pioneer work of the Utah station has been adopted by the other Western states, and in other arid countries of the world, until today millions of acres of land receiving limited rainfall are being reclaimed by the steady efforts of the Utah station. The Utah Experiment Station is without question one of the foremost in the United States. The extension division of the college devotes itself to the business of bringing the message of good agriculture and homemaking to the people of the state who can not attend the regular work on the college campus. Its work is accomplished by movable schools, farmers' institutes, lectures, study clubs, correspondence-studies, and any other device that will serve the people best. The number who take part in this work is far larger in proportion to the population than in any other state. The legislative assemblies have dealt generously with the extension work. At the session just closed, another evidence of the up-to-dateness of Utah in modern education was given, in the passage of an act, possibly the first of its kind in the West, providing for farm and home demonstrators, elbow instructors, in every county of the state. In the extension movement, now grown to large dimensions, Utah is also a pioneer, for it was in 1896 that the first extension bill became a law. From the first president to the last faculty member employed, great care has been given to the selection of men and women with high scholarship, unquestioned morality and a clear understanding of the purpose of the college. Considering its numbers, the faculty of the Utah Agricultural College is unsurpassed in scholarship among the agricultural colleges. Fifteen hold their doctor's degrees ; all of the professors and assistant professors have taken considerable graduate work ; all faculty members are college graduates. To secure a professorship in the college a training equivalent to the doctor's degree is required. The graduates of the College are greatly sought after within and without the state. Though the Utah Agricultural College graduates more students than all the other intermountain agricultural colleges together, it has so far been impossible to supp y the demand. At the present time graduates of the college hold 956 IMPROVEMENT ERA responsible positions under the state and federal governments in every western state. Many are in foreign countries. Five of the graduates of the college were employed last year by Argentina to assist in the introduction in our South American sister republic of dry-farming methods. An unusual proportion of the graduates have continued their studies in the large universities of the East, where they have left excellent records. In fact, the Utah Agricultural College is quite willing to be judged by its graduates. Naturally, the support of the people of Utah has been the main cause of the success of the institution. The people have had a keen sympathy for the kind of work attempted by the college. From the earliest days the people of Utah looked with an understanding eye on education, and Brigham Young, the founder of the state, declared that the schools should give the kind of work now ordinarily given by the agricultural colleges. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Agricultural College of Utah has been able to render great service to its state. This brief review of the history and work of the Utah Agricultural College shows that Utah has good reason to be proud of her Agricultural College. An institution created with intelligence, founded in wisdom, supported with loyalty, and doing its work unafraid of the criticisms of those who do not understand, must of necessity render a good account of itself. It has labored honestly and to the fullest of its knowledge to serve its state. It has stood and does stand squarely for the education of all the people ; for the toilers ; for those who do the necessary work of the world ; for those who are, in fact, the strength of our great republic— to make more beautiful and more profitable the lives of those who were forgotten in the older scheme of education. The college hopes that, as the days come, it may serve more largely, more wisely, with more love, with more vision, and may be received with even a fuller measure of confidence from the people, so that it may unfold for the use of man the great natural resources of our State and may show how man may become, joyfully, the master of the earth. LOGAN, UTAH