02 STATE BOARD OF AORICULTURE. 



iuiniediate practical use and d(jc.s not like to put forth the bard mental 

 work required to master and understand them. I wish to state to 

 such students that in my opinion these fundamental scientitic studies 

 ai-e the most important in a practical way of any taught in the engineer- 

 ing courses. One reason which makes 4^heni of great importance is 

 this fact that the fundamental studies are usually of such a nature 

 that if they are not acquired in college they Avill never be acquired 

 in after life. The practical application of these fundamental studies 

 gives us our various engineering courses and if one is well grounded 

 in the fundamental studies the practical applications can often be 

 obtained as well or better outside of a college course as in the eoursie. 

 To an engineer, the most important of all fundamental studies is with- 

 out doubt mathematics. It is true that many noted engineers have 

 succeeded in certain lines of work without the use of much mathematics ; 

 but it is not certain that even in those lines of work they Avould not 

 have succeeded better and produced better results had the training 

 in mathematics been better. 



I feel sometimes that a fcAv engineers have decried the advantages 

 of the higher mathemetics simply because they have not been required 

 to practically apply them to any great extent, and they have entirely 

 overlooked the fact that the logical training produced by the study 

 of mathematics has been to them of great practical us? even though 

 many of the applications have been unused. 



The hard beaten and closely defined paths of mathematics give little 

 opportunity for flights of the imagination or the poetical dreams of 

 fancy. However, its logical methods produce precision of thought, 

 accuracy of statement and soundness of conclusions Avithout which an 

 engineer could not produce useful or practical results, 



I should also add as a fundamental study for an engincM?r, English 

 since there is no profession so much dependent upon description as 

 relating to the development of any engineering work in question, the 

 probable expenses and the financial results produced. It is perhaps 

 fair to state that few engineers have succeeded who are not to a great 

 extent masters of their mother tongue. They might be deficient in 

 the art of spelling without serious detriment, perhaps, but not in 

 the art of speaking or writing if they succeed as engineers. 



For these various reasons, English should occupy an important place 

 in the course of every American engineering college. A criticism of 

 many of the English studies taught in our colleges can be made on the 

 ground that they are not confined to teaching students how to use the 

 English language but on the other hand, waste the time of engineering 

 students by taking up matters which although of interest to the 

 s'pecialist in language, is of no earthly value to a man who merely needs 

 to learn ils use. 



It is necessary that an engineer should know how to ai>ply the funda- 

 mental studies of a college course so as to produce practical useful 

 results. To secure that end, students in college courses should be trained 

 by lectures, recitations and laboratories in the application of mathe- 

 matics, physics, chemistry and English to the various specialties which 

 they propose to master as a preparation for their future work. These 

 specialties I will not discuss in this place, since they must necessarily 

 differ in different colleges with the time available for instruction, con- 



