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I)lant breeding, soil fertility, and irrigation in their entirety. Even though these 

 men only superintend the work, they uiu<t hiive the broad training. 



The discipline derived from the study of any sul>.1ect is of vital value. In 

 judging any mental work a tirst consideration is i)ower to produce scholars with 

 the ability to do things. I'ntil recently the formal discipline theory supplii'd the 

 cimtrolling jirinciiile in curriculum construction. The friends of this theory 

 maintained that just as a man might accumulate capital in a factory and after- 

 wards employ it in banking or conunerce, so the student might develo]i skill in 

 ilie study of the classics, which could afterwards be used in constructing a 

 r.iilroad. suiiei'intending a mine, or managing a r.-inch. Now. it is seriously 

 (liicstioned if there be .-my such thing as generalized habit. The habit of neat- 

 ness in niiinuscrijits ac(iuired by the teacher of English does not always extend 

 to his personal appearance. The habits of (U'der and exactness shown in the 

 cl.'iss room of the mathematics teacher need not appear in his business affairs. 

 Every athlete shows that the training necessary to develop the burst of speed 

 f the sprinter will not create the endurance of the long-distance runner. Skill 

 in the observation of the i)arts of a i>lant gives no assistance in mastering the 

 letters of a word in si»elling. ("ommitting history nami's renders no aid in re- 

 membering scientific ti-rms. .\bility to interjiret poetiw yields no hel]! in the 

 interpretation of a scientific problem. No one expects a fish to live on land 

 when the ])ond goes dry. nor the blacksmith who h;is lost his job to enter the 

 emi)loy of .-i cal)inetniaker. The old educational maxim. *' Learn to do by doing." 

 needs no revision. If you want to learn to swim. jumi» into water, and wa.ste no 

 time climbing mountains; if you expect to fight in a modern army, get behind 

 a Mau.ser rifie and take no chances with a leather shield and wooden spear. 



Any so-called scientist can discourse as learnedly as Weism.-inn upon the 

 theory of heredity, but real business begins when the theory is put to the test 

 ill stock and grain lireeding. It is of small consc(|uence to a boy. set to deter- 

 mine the dimensions of the boards for the construction of a box. what answer 

 he gets if the matter extends no further than a few figures on a slate which 

 may be erased with a drop of water; but it is an entirely different affair when 

 he takes a saw and a board and nuist cut them out. One man's guess at the 

 weight of a cow is as good as another's until she is driven upon the scales. 

 The student in trigonometry may not get beyond the diagrams and letters until 

 he undertakes surv<'ying. A school hoy at Eton wrote upon the door of the (Jreek 

 room. "This road leads to nowher(>," and the jirofessor aptly reiilied below, 

 " But nevertheless a very good road for exercise." Who h;is not watched the 

 first football eleven at sign;il ]iractice? What an imjiregnable line! What per- 

 fect interference I But horrors, a few minutes later when the game begins, what 

 breaking through the line I What smashing of heads and interference I The 

 first is exercise, the second the real game. 



Darwin in twenty-eight years of observation never proved that his theory 

 of slow and gradual changes through environment would account for the origin 

 of si)ecies. But De Vries (|uickly established his mutation theory in the green- 

 house and nursery. The former held that monstrosities would not perpetuate 

 their peculiar characteristics, and thus would become extinct; the latter showed 

 that radical departures from the type fixed their individual qualities in their 

 offspring. These (rl)servations are not offered as an argument against the study 

 of classics and metaphysics. Neither are they intended to discredit pure science. 

 The aim has been to secure a place in the household of disciplinary subjectsi for 

 applied science. 



The adjudication of the claim of pure and applied science in the curriculum of 

 the land-grant colleges nece.ssarily raises the (piestion of the utilitarian value 

 of knowledge. Educational values are subject to the same laws as commercial 

 values. This statement will sound sacrilegious to many. Some will claim that 

 there is a residue in education that escapes the tapeline of the practical man 

 and refuses to be measured in terms of money. This position is a sentiment, a 

 satisfaction, a joy. a culture. It prefers frayed clothes, chilly garrets, and 

 cold potatoes; and this is proper enough for the eccentric few. Generally this 

 same culture composes a poem and the friends of the author subscribe for 

 enough copies of a de luxe edition to Scare away the wolf ; or writes a lecture 

 and negotiates with some Young Men's Christian Association to exploit it at 

 so much per night. There is an educational market just as surely as there 

 is a grain market. In this market the vendei-s and ])urchasers of educational 

 wares meet to barter. Here the author with his story meets the reading public ; 

 the architect finds a contractor ; the engineer consults the railroad promoter, 



