Short Courses at Michigan State University have evolved from their tenuous and tentative beginnings to well-planned academic instructional programs. The Short Course Department's responsibilities have evolved similarly, from a conglomeration of tasks ranging from sponsorship of Farmer's Institutes, Farmer's Week activities, county fair and State Fair exhibits, conferences, and diverse educational programs, to academic and on-the-job training programs generally 18 to 24 months in duration.

The beet sugar course continued for six years and included a period of instruction in the Lansing Sugar Factory. This is one of the first instances, if not the first, where students were given off-campus on-the-job instruction (5-V41). In 1906, six students from the creamery course were placed in local creameries and supervised placement training began (5-V45:76).

Rapid changes in agriculture in the early 1900's resulted in changes in some courses and the termination of others which became obsolete. The farm dairy course became the creamery course, which in turn separated buttermaking and cheesemaking operations into two courses. From these two courses cam the dairy manufacturing, dairy production, and ice cream making courses. Specialized courses within the dairy industry have continued to the present with periodic changed in course duration and emphases. Approximately 3,600 students have been enrolled in these two to twelve week courses prior to 1966.

The students of 1906-1907 were an eager group, according to Professor Smith. They elected to take military drill from 5:00 - 6:00 p.m. daily and led Smith to say,

Tours and trips to agricultural enterprises and events have long been a part of short courses. As many as 40 students made annual visits to the Chicago International Livestock Show in the 1920's.

The emphasis in class work has been on practical knowledge and technical skills of agriculture , but general or enrichment courses, tours and extracurricular activities have contributed greatly to helping students understand their culture and their responsibilities to society.

Advanced general agriculture courses had been tried without success in 1904 when the course was given over eight weeks and in 1906, as a result of student petitions, a second-year eight-week advanced course was offered. Certificate of completion were awarded to graduates of all programs in 1908.

In the summer of 1924 Mr. H. J. (Shad) Gallagher, a Short Course Institute instructor in agriculture engineering, visited the students in the expanded two-year 32-week course at their homes to check on their required home and farm improvement projects. The policy of calling on students, to visit with them and their parents and to view their opportunities and projects first hand, is still a vital part of the close relationship between the Department and its students.

An eight-week cooking course began in the winter of 1901. Although twelve young ladies attended, it was discontinued until 1914 when it was called the housekeeperıs course. Class work included care of the home, cooking, sewing, gardening and poultry. Dairy and agriculture class were added the next year. The home economics course was oriented toward the farm wife and had no vocational application. It had very low enrollments and was offered only sporadically until the W. K. Kellogg Foundation began awarding scholarships in 1938-39. The course terminated in 1955 after enrollments and scholarships declined.

Fruit growing or horticulture began as a six-week course in 1897. It became an eight-week course and, with the exception of nine year, 1927-1938, when it was offered for two and four-week periods, has continued to date. It is now know as the commercial fruit course and may be included as a specialized interest course within the young Farmer General Agriculture Program.

Other courses which were held over a period of several years were as follows: Agriculture engineering course, eight weeks (1920-1960); poultry course, eight weeks (1927-1952); truck and tractor course, four weeks (1917-1928); forestry course, four to eight weeks (1937-1953); and horse-shoeing course, twelve weeks (1946-1961). Numerous other courses were held, but for fewer years.

The agricultural industry programs, Forest Practice (since discontinued), Farm Equipment Service and Sales, and Nursery and Landscape Management, began in 1945, followed by Elevator and Farm Supply in 1946 and Commercial Floriculture in 1947. These programs include one year of class work on the State University campus and either six mouths or one year of placement training.

Classes within the short course programs have been taught, with few exceptions, by regular College and University faculty members. The Short Course Department staff has been relatively small, considering the diversity of instuctional programs and conferences which were administered by the Department.

During both world wars and the depression year of the early 1930's, courses emphasizing food production at home were offered. When radio came into importance in the late 1920's, three hours of class work per week were offered students on an elective basis. Students were taught how to build receiving sets, and for several years short course credit classes were offered over the radio. During World War II , the womenıs land-caring course, and numerous farm security and defense-type courses, similar to the war work courses of 1918, were given.