THE NEEDS OF AGRICULTURE. 47 



drudgery. " But in every career, and agriculture is no exception, even the 

 highest toil over details, takes the most time, and makes the heaviest drain 

 on energies. In the sharp competition which our country feels now more 

 than ever before it is the man who is willing to work with his hands, to 

 master details" and attend to them personally, in short to engage in 

 drudgery, who will find employment and promotion and their rewards on the 

 farm as well as elsewhere. Education, however thorough, does not relieve 

 anybody from the duties which devolve on our common humanity. And it 

 is pedantry and conceit of the silliest sort, it seems to me, to vaunt our 

 system of education, the one in which Ego was trained, and to berate all 

 others as inferior. The truth is, all systems have their weak as well as their 

 strong points. Conservative and temperate claims for any system to which 

 we have pinned our faith, or which in a measure stands sponsor for the 

 culture we may possess is the height of wisdom. 



We need to lay more stress on the practical uses of education, of culture 

 on the farm and elsewhere. What can its possessor do?— not so much what 

 be can say. The accumulation of knowledge alone will not answer, but dis- 

 cretion, wisdom to use wisely, must complement the knowledge gained. 



Practical education is the cry on every hand, and yet how many of the 

 educational institutions of the country are failing to give young men, and 

 women too, such training as will make them of real use in the world. As 

 illustraiiug this fact, permit me to call your attention to a brief extract from 

 the annual report of Chief Constructor, T. D. Wilson, of the Navy Depart- 

 ment. He sharply criticises the system of education by which it isattemptcd 

 at the Annapolis Academy to fit young men to build and sail ships. lie says 

 he finis that under this system tlie cadets are " compelled to devote exhaust- 

 ing effort and a profligate sacrifice of time to acquirements which, so far as 

 actual ship-building is concerned, are empty accomplishments and mere 

 abstractions," and adds: 



" I must express the opinion that much of what is now considered deep professional 

 learninfi^ is shallow schi)lastie pe Ian try. which cm only embarrass its possess )r wliea 

 confronted with actual work. What is then required is tlie perfect knowledge of work- 

 manship and material ; the ready perception of their excellence or defect : knowledge 

 of men and money, and fertility of meclianical resources. It is only necessary under 

 our laws for a candidate to have passed creditably through the Naval Academy to be 

 immediately appointed as assistant naval constructor ; nor is there anything likely to 

 prevent such men. without ])ractical experience or perhaps natural litness. from being 

 intrusted at an early date with vast and complicated co istractions of the future navy. 

 The Annapolis graduates are thrust upan the constructi >n corps without practical 

 knowledge of sliip-yard procedure, and devoid of that all-important quality, experi- 

 ence in the management of men." 



In writing this Mr. Wilson had in view only the naval academy and its 

 graduates, with whom he has to deal, but the most of his observations may 

 be generally applied to the educational systems in all our colleges, and when 

 made general will be endorsed by no small proportion of our practical busi- 

 ness men who have ever employed young graduates as assistants in their 

 stores, shops or factories. Nearly all our colleges, and our academies as well, 

 aim to fit boys for what are known as the learned professions, law, medicine, 

 teaching and preaching, and the result is a profligate sacrifice of effort and 

 time to acquirements which, so far as actual work in any other calling is con- 

 cerned, are empty accomplishments and mere abstractions; and even in the 

 professions the young man with all the advantage of a liberal education finds 

 himself early in his career outstripped by those who have been '' knocked 



