62 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



ren branch. When I remember this, my kitchen becomes a 

 temple and the steaming pots censers of incense, Hfting my 

 heart up from the sordid and low to the high places where the 

 winds of life are stirring.— C F. Saunders in Young People. 



I 



ADVANTAGE OF PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE. 



T is a good thing to know ideas. It is a good idea to know 

 things. The scholastic work of yesterday dealt with ab- 

 stractions. The school training of today has to do with the 

 concrete in constantly increasing proportion. It has finally 

 dawned upon the educational world that mental discipline 

 can be given and mental power increased by systematic think- 

 ing and study of definite objects as well as by a contemplation 

 of classic poetry and philosophy. The primary purpose of 

 education is to make the mind a strong, thinking machine. If 

 there is any kind of discipline which, while giving good mental 

 discipline will also add knowledge needed in the essential 

 activities of life, this eminently practical age wants it. 



A knowledge of Greek poetry is a pleasing accomplishment, 

 but it does not help a man to plow a furrow, to drive a nail 

 or to run an engine. The demand for practical education has 

 become tremendously great in recent years. By the term 

 "practical education" that is meant, which, while giving dis- 

 cipline, adds an equipment of knowledge about things which 

 a man must know, or should know, to conduct his business to 

 the best advantage. 



The manual training schools and the agricultural colleges 

 came in response to the demand for this kind of education. 

 These schools have demonstrated their worth. Their critics 

 have been disarmed by the great body of trained men which 

 they annually turn out upon the farm and into the shops. The 

 sturdy sense of this age finds as much music in rattling looms 

 and clattering reapers as in the twang of Apollo's silver bow. 



