PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION 245 



the past. These are some of the classes of agricultural leaders 

 which our age demands: 



(1) Men capable of organizing and managing large and complex 

 agricultural institutions, such as the National and State departments 

 of agriculture, agricultural colleges, and experiment stations. 



(2) Agricultural scientists capable of inaugurating and conduct- 

 ing the higher research. 



(3) Men combining scientific accuracy with practical judgment 

 and thus able to conduct experiments of a more practical character. 



(4) Men and women combining scientific and practical knowledge 

 of agriculture with pedagogical knowledge and aptitude to formu- 

 late and conduct agricultural courses in colleges and schools. 



(5) Men combining scientific and practical knowledge of agri- 

 culture with ability to attract and instruct adult farmers and others 

 in popular assemblies. 



(6) Men combining scientific and practical knowledge of agricul- 

 ture with business ability which will enable them to achieve success 

 as progressive farmers and farm managers. 



Turning from the workers to the subject-matter on which they 

 work, we find a host of general and special problems pressing for 

 solution. Leaving to specialists in the graduate school and else- 

 where the consideration of particular topics, we may appropriately 

 call attention to a few of the general matters in regard to which this 

 school should have somewhat to say. In agricultural research, for 

 example, there is just now urgent need of a clear definition of the 

 problems requiring investigation. This has been brought out in a 

 striking way in the correspondence which the Office of Experiment 

 Stations has recently had regarding lines of work which may be 

 appropriately conducted under the Adams Act. In many instances 

 the plans of work presented not only fail to make any clear distinc- 

 tion between original research and verification or demonstration, 

 but also do not set forth in a definite way the nature and scope of 

 the problems, the solution of which is projected. This is not strange. 

 The science of agriculture is new and President Woodward of the 

 Carnegie Institution, who is having much experience in such mat- 

 ters, tells us that the newer the science the less sharply defined are 

 its problems. For this reason while the Carnegie Institution has had 

 little difficulty in securing definite proposals for work in old sciences, 

 such as astronomy and physics, it has had much trouble in determin- 

 ing what ought to be done in new sciences, such as anthropology. 

 But if this is so, it does not relieve the workers in the newer sciences 

 from the obligation to study deeply the nature of the subjects on 

 which they are working and to make serious efforts to define the 

 problems which they propose to investigate. Unless the work of 

 research has a definite aim it is most likely to miss the mark. 



