Table Of ContentCopyright by
Clarence Monk
THE PLACE OP MATHEMATICS III I.IODER1T AGRICULTURAL EDUCATIOIT
IN THE UNITED STATES
by
Clarence Monk
This dissertation has boon approved for final examination by
the studont's Dissertation Committee whose written approval
is on file in the Advanced School.
Dissertation Committee:
Howard P. Fehr, Chairman
John R. Clark, Member of Committee
Helen M. Walker, Member of Committee
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Tinder the Joint Committee on Graduate Instruction
Columbia University
195>2
THE PLACE OF MATHEMATICS IN MODERN AGRICULTURAL
EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES
by
Clarence Monk
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The purpose of the study was to determine the
mathematical needs of undergraduate agricultural students
in colleges of agriculture throughout the United States.
The mathematical needs were defined as the necessary
mathematical knowledge the undergraduate student of
agriculture should possess to use his professional agri
cultural texts intelligently.
Correspondence with the heads of eight divisions
of agriculture in one land-grant college in each of the
forty-eight states revealed general dissatisfaction with
the present mathematical training of undergraduate agri
cultural students. There was conflict both as to the
proper subject-matter content and the teaching approach
to be employed in a mathematics course for agricultural
students. However, the big majority of agricultural
workers felt that the basic need of their students was
a functional course in elementary mathematics— arith
metic especially. A growing need for statistics was
riot ed.
2
With reference to a proper mathematical background,
a distinction was made between the student whose college
education would terminate with the bachelor’s degree
(the student with which this study is concerned) and the
student who would later do graduate study.
The opinions of the professors of agriculture sug
gested the following hypotheses:
1. The content of professional agricultural texts
is quantitative in character.
2. The content of professional agricultural texts
draws upon the traditional areas of mathematics
from arithmetic through calculus.
3. The content of the traditional, compartmentalized
college algebra, trigonometry, analytical geome
try, and calculus is the content used in the
quantitative thinking found in professional
agricultural texts.
\
To show the problem in its proper perspective, a
brief historical study was made. It was found that there
had been conflict between the teachers of the pure and
applied sciences in the agricultural colleges ever since
the founding of these schools in the practical arts.
In the investigation of the three hypotheses listed,
a thorough analysis of the mathematical content of the
professional agricultural texts was made.
As a basis for the study, the ten most commonly
used agricultural texts (usage having been determined by
correspondence with forty-eight land-grant colleges) were
3
selected in each of eight basic areas of agriculture:
agricultural economics, non-professional agricultural
engineering, agronomy, animal husbandry, dairy husbandry,
poultry husbandry, horticulture, and forestry. At least
five of the ten most commonly used agricultural texts in
each area were chosen for a tabulation of the mathematical
concepts employed in them. The remaining texts of the
ten were examined for mathematics over and beyond that
found in those texts for which tabulations were made.
In analyzing the agricultural texts for their
mathematical content, the author of this study personally
went through each text page by page, working the problems
and noting the mathematical concepts employed in the
reading matter, charts, graphs, and diagrams. Entries
were made under the general headings of arithmetic, alge
bra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and statistics.
The mathematical content discovered in the agricul
tural texts definitely confirmed Hypotheses 1 and 2,
mathematical concepts from arithmetic through calculus
having been encountered in the agricultural texts. How
ever, a knowledge of calculus was not presupposed by the
authors of the agricultural texts.
By comparing the mathematics found in the analysis
of the agricultural texts with the content of traditional
mathematics texts, Hypothesis 3 was refuted, in that the
mathematics texts used in the traditional courses omitted
some topics (statistics, numerous geometric facts, index
numbers, certain types of graphs, alignment charts, the
metric system, the use of logarithmic graph paper) signi
ficant to an understanding of the agricultural texts and
included much material (simultaneous quadratic equations,
complex numbers, higher degree equations, inequalities,
mathematical induction, determinants, partial fractions,
inverse trigonometric functions) which was not applied in
the undergraduate study of agriculture. An examination of
the content of a text in general or basic mathematics
showed that general mathematics more nearly met the needs
of agricultural students than the traditional, compart
mentalized courses. A check on a text in agricultural
mathematics indicated that a course in general mathematics
specifically slanted toward agricultural applications gave
most promise of satisfying the mathematical needs of agri
cultural students. However, since the most commonly used
text in agricultural mathematics did not adequately cover
all the mathematical concepts discovered in the agricul
tural texts, an outline for a proposed course in agricul
tural mathematics was given. This course would not
interfere with the subsequent successful pursuit of courses
in analytic geometry, calculus, and statistics.
It is concluded that the proposed course in general
mathematics related to agriculture is the best solution of
the problem of meeting the mathematical needs of under
graduate agricultural students.
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T
For their friendly guidance and invaluable
assistance in this research, the author wishes to
express his sincere appreciation to the members of
his dissertation committee: Dr. Howard F. Fehr,
Dr. John R. Clark, Dr. Helen M. Walker, Dr. Frank W.
Cyr; to Dr. Zeke L. Loflin (Head of the Mathematics
Department of Southwestern Louisiana Institute);
and to the many professors in the agricultural
colleges who cooperated so generously in supplying
data vital to this study.
ii
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE PROBLEM................................... 1
II. BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE PROBLEM . . 26
III. THE PROCEDURES IN COLLECTING AND ORGANIZING
THE DATA...................................... 42
IV. AN INVESTIGATION OF HYPOTHESES 1 AND 2 . . . . 5$
V. AN INVESTIGATION OF HYPOTHESIS 3 ............... 127
VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.........................163
VII. OUTLINE OF PROPOSED COURSE IN AGRICULTURAL
MATHEMATICS..................................... 16S
BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 1$2
APPENDIX A. THE FORTY-EIGHT LAND-GRANT COLLEGES
INCLUDED IN THE S T U D Y ...................193
APPENDIX B. RESPONSES OF THE DEANS OF THE TEN LARGEST
COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE REGARDING THE
PER CENT OF UNDERGRADUATE AGRICULTURAL
STUDENTS MAJORING IN THE EIGHT AREAS OF
INSTRUCTION COVERED BY THE STUDY . . . . 197
APPENDIX C. TEN MOST COMMONLY USED AGRICULTURAL TEXTS
IN EACH OF EIGHT AREAS OF INSTRUCTION . 199 '
ill
CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
It is the purpose of this study to determine the
mathematical needs of students in agriculture and to
examine certain issues relative to effective learning of
mathematics in agriculture.
The study is specifically concerned with agricul
tural education on the undergraduate college level, and
consequently the mathematical needs of the student are
defined as the necessary mathematical knowledge the college
student must possess to use with understanding the profes
sional agricultural texts prescribed in the basic under
graduate curricula. This research does not embrace an
analysis of the mathematics contained in the required
courses in physics, chemistry, statistics, and mathematics.
The mathematics involved in these tool subjects is consid
ered only as it is encountered in its applications in the
professional agricultural texts. In other words, the
study is an attempt to determine the mathematics that the
undergraduate student in agriculture actually uses in
professional application.
In the words of an outstanding president of Iowa
State College, agriculture is defined as follows:
Agriculture means the development of soil
management systems for the purpose of building
2
up and maintaining soil fertility; the breeding,
the production, management, and distribution of
crops of all kinds; the breeding, feeding,
management, and sale of livestock; the prepara
tion for market of certain products such as milk,
butter, cheese, honey, and fruit products; the
operation of economic and social forces as they
affect the value and movement of farm products
and the well-being of farm folks.1
Considering the broad scope of agriculture as
defined, it is not surprising that one writer^ lists thirty-
five areas of specialization or concentration, a fact
confirmed by a review of the current catalogues issued by
colleges of agriculture. Consequently, this research is
limited to eight of the more basic areas in which the bulk
of the college instruction is concentrated.^ The areas
represented in the study are: agricultural engineering
(non-professional), agricultural economics, agronomy, animal
husbandry, dairy husbandry (including dairy products),
poultry husbandry, horticulture, and forestry. The defini
tion of each area studied is given in Chapter IV.
Professional agricultural engineering is not
covered in this study since this program of studies is
^Raymond A. Pearson, "The Great Responsibility of
Land-Grant Institutions," Association of Land-Grant Colleges,
Proceedings of the Thirty-eighth Annual Convention. 1924.P.28.
2Carter V. Good, compiler, A Guide to Colleges,
Universities, and Professional Schools in tKe United States,
pp. 256-271.
^The deans of the ten largest colleges of agriculture
were asked to make an estimate of the per cent of the under
graduate agricultural enrollment majoring in the eight areas
selected. These estimates are given in Appendix B.
