The New International Encyclopædia/True, Alfred Charles

TRUE, Alfred Charles (1853—). An American educator and agriculturist, born at Middletown, Conn. He graduated at Wesleyan University in 1873, was principal of the high school at Essex, N. Y., in 1873-74, from 1875 to 1882 was an instructor in the State Normal School at Westfield, Mass., and in 1882-84 studied at Harvard. In 1884-88 he was an instructor in the Wesleyan University, in 1888 entered the office of Experiment Stations in the United States Department of Agriculture (q.v.), was editor there in 1889-90, vice-director in 1891-92, and became director in 1893. He was dean of the first graduate school of agriculture held in the United States (at Columbus, Ohio, 1902), and as chairman of the committee on methods of teaching agriculture of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations, was for years prominent in the movement for the improvement of college courses in agriculture, and the extension of agricultural instruction to the elementary and secondary schools. He organized agricultural investigations in Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico, and the work of the Department of Agriculture relating to irrigation, agricultural engineering, and the farmers' institutes. He particularly studied the organization and management of institutions for agricultural education and research, and published several monographs on this subject, chiefly in the bulletins of the office, including: Education and Research in Agriculture in the United States (1894); Agricultural Experiment Stations: Their Objects and Work (1895); The Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States (with V. A. Clark, 1900); Agricultural Experiment Stations in Foreign Countries (with D. J. Crosby, 1902); and Progress in Agricultural Education (1902). For ten years he was chief editor of the Experiment Station Record. He contributed articles on agriculture and horticulture to the New International Encyclopædia and Webster's International Dictionary.