TWELFTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 745 



It is then, by the intimate union of theory and practice, that the indus- 

 trial arts are to be elevated and true industrial progress to be made. All 

 the great inventions which have so greatly facilitated the progress of indus- 

 try have been the productions of theoretical science, the insights of theo- 

 retical thinkers — instance, the steam engine and the cotton loom. It is to 

 chemical science that we owe the perfect dyeing of our clothes, and to 

 mechanical science their weaving. To scientific ingenuity is due the wool- 

 comber and the cotton-gin. It is the knowledge of mathematical science 

 that has led to the improved construction of our houses, our carriages, and 

 our ships. It was the knowledge of chemistry that suggested the analysis 

 of soils, and led to the discovery of the principle of rotation of crops. It 

 is also science that has suggested improved ways of cultivation, and that 

 has brought our agricultural and manufacturing machinery to their pres- 

 ent high standard of efficiency. It is the engineering skill of college-trained 

 men that has reclaimed the waste lands on the banks of the Mississippi 

 and on the coasts of Holland. And it was the scholarly De Lesseps who 

 conceived the immensely practical plan of cutting the Suez Canal, and 

 later, the present work at the Isthmus of Panama. It is science that is 

 now grappling with the problem of blights and injurious insects, and it 

 should be a matter of pride for our State that of all the attempts made by 

 the scientists of all countries for the successful treatment of phylloxera — 

 for which France offers a prize of $1,000,000 — the nearest approach to suc- 

 cess was recently made by a graduate of our own State University. 



But all this is only the direct application of knowledge to practice. 

 There is an indirect application which is not less important — only less 

 obvious. It is the conversion of well assimilated knowledge into personal 

 force. It is that education which gives the quick eye, the keen insight, 

 the ready action, the general alertness, and decisiveness of attitude of the 

 entire individual. It was this thought that Bacon had in mind when he 

 said that a young man could plow closer to a stump without hitting it, for 

 having had a college education. And, other things being equal, the state- 

 ment is true, because of the general accuracy and activity of mind induced 

 by scientific thought. 



In both direct and indirect ways, so strong is the dependence of indus- 

 trial progress upon science, that the development of the industrial arts can- 

 not precede the growth of scientific education, but must proceed hand in 

 hand with it. It is the realization of the need for scientific training in 

 those engaged in industrial pursuits that is giving rise to the rapid increase 

 of industrial schools, in our country and elsewhere. And only when that 

 need is generally recognized and acted upon will the arts of industry, on 

 our coast and throughout the world, fulfill their highest ideal of progress. 



