EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol. XXXI. December, 1914. No. 8. 



From the beginning of agricultural instruction and experimenta- 

 tion, the study of field crops, their growth, nutrition, and reproduc- 

 tion, has naturally occupied a prominence second to no other subject. 

 Crops are aggregations of plants, governed by definite laws and re- 

 sponsive to various factors and conditions. These laws and the in- 

 fluence of factors and conditions on the life activities of crop plants, 

 such as we know of them, are embraced in plant physiology. 



Hence an intelligent understanding of plants and their growth 

 implies a study of plant physiology, not in a superficial way but as 

 one of the fundamental subjects in acquiring intimate familiarity 

 with agricultural plants and the factors of their growth. Some 

 general empirical information can be acquired through lectures on 

 botany, agi'onomy, or agi'icultural chemistry, as is done in short 

 course instruction, but the needs of a reasoning knowledge and mi- 

 derstanding are not satisfied in this way. They require a more 

 thorough insight. The place where the subject is taught is less es- 

 sential than that it should be taught thoroughly and effectively. And 

 a consideration of it needs to enter more largely into certain features 

 of agi'icultural experimentation. 



In a recent publication" a criticism is given of the courses of 

 botany in the agricultural colleges of this country, and a plea is 

 made for more attention to plant physiology. If, as the author 

 claims, "the object of agricultural education is to produce farmers 

 who will do their work more intelligently," the criticism is well 

 taken. If the object of education is to train the student how to ob- 

 serve and correlate facts without reference to their practical applica- 

 tion, then the pedagogical value of physiology will be found equal to 

 any other branch of the science of botany. For the individual who con- 

 templates following agricultural pursuits a proper understanding of 

 plant life is essential, and such a view can be obtained only by 

 observing how different organs of the plant cooperate to produce the 

 phenomena of growth, nutrition, reproduction, etc. 



"Science, n. ser., 40 (1914), No. 1029, pp. 401-405. 



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