EDITORIAL. 403 



appointing and shows little indication of a broad conception regard- 

 ing it. Even on its practical side agriculture is very much more than 

 " farming," and there can be no system of agricultural education 

 worthy of the name which, even in its lower ranges, does not take 

 into account the human problems of country life. From any educa- 

 tional point of view agriculture is not properly considered in the 

 same class as what is ordinarily called a " trade." 



Especially when higher institutions of learning are under consid- 

 eration it is important that we should have in mind agriculture as 

 signifying a broad fundamental industry conducted under a great 

 variety of forms and conditions, based on complex scientific prin- 

 ciples, and involving economic and sociological factors the impor- 

 tance of which we as yet only dimly apprehend. It is a condition 

 under which a large share of the people live. 



The scope of the agricultural college is not always clearl}" realized, 

 even among men engaged in other branches of education. It is 

 thought of too often as relating merely to the education of farmers' 

 boys for farming, and the graduates who do not devote themselves 

 to farming are regarded as having in a sense obtained their educa- 

 tion under false pretenses, and are cited to illustrate the manner in 

 which these institutions are being prostituted. The field of the 

 agricultural college is the whole industry of agriculture — all that 

 pertains to the production and handling of agricultural products, the 

 economics of the business, the protection of the industry from fraud 

 of various kinds, and the life and conditions under which' the indus- 

 try is carried on. In no other branch of industrial education does the 

 public take so narrow and superficial a view in judging of success or 

 apparently expect so much by way of tangible results. The trouble 

 is that in the popular conception, and often that of educators in 

 other branches, agriculture signifies merely farming. 



It is well to remember that the training of men for the agricultural 

 vocations includes not merely general farming, dairying, stock rais- 

 ing, and the like, but the horticultural pursuits, fruit growing, land- 

 scape gardening, park superintendence, seed and nursery business, 

 forestry, fertilizer manufacture, agricultural editing, and such pro- 

 fessional branches as veterinary science, agricultural botany, agri- 

 cultural chemistry, agricultural engineering, economic entomology, 

 and the like. The mission of the true college includes also the edu- 

 cation of agricultural teachers for different grades of work, of men 

 capable of experimentation and research, and of national, state, and 

 municipal experts. It is beginning to include also studies in the 

 economics of agriculture, the sociological problems of the open coun- 

 try, and the movements for rural betterment. 



It is only when we take the broad view of agriculture that we are 

 able to understand what a task it has been to build up, even to such 



