EDITORIAL. 403 



instructors. Wlien these conditions are fulfilled, he maintained that 

 agricultural chemistry, '■■ a bastard made up of the various sciences," 

 can be eliminated from the course of instruction; and he declared 

 that this " stop gap " is out of place except where the needs of the 

 agricultural student are not fully met by the respective branches of 

 natural science. 



This characterization of agricultural chemistry and its function 

 was quite naturally resented by the friends of that specialty, not only 

 as being grossly unfair to that subject which has in so large a measure 

 furnished the basis for agricultural instruction, but as a reversion 

 to an obsolete and impracticable system. The matter was taken up 

 at the meeting of the Association of German Stations in September, 

 1907, and Thiel was replied to in the public j)ress. 



It was contended that if Thiel's characterization were true, Liebig, 

 Avith a large part of his life work, and a long list of other chemists 

 like Henneberg, Knop, Wolff, Boussingault, Gilbert, and others, 

 are to be regarded as " stop gaps," servants of a " bastard science," 

 which has no place in the ideal curriculum. An army of agricultural 

 chemists who are carrying on a work of recognized importance in 

 every country of the civilized world would be dissolved, and those 

 in whose hands the research in plant and animal nutrition has rested 

 since the time of Liebig would have no place in the institutions of 

 learning. 



It was shown that the same contention Avould apply equally well 

 to all aiDplied science, and that logically all such branches must be 

 stricken from the programme as individual departments of study 

 and be restored to the respective departments of pure science on 

 which they rest. Wliat the agricultural chemists formerly taught 

 would fall to the various branches of natural science — chemistry, 

 botany, zoology, geology, etc. But in these dej^artments the student 

 of agriculture would not find what he needs, for, it was pointed out, 

 at no university have the professors in general science concerned 

 themselves with the special needs of the agricultural student, and 

 these professors already have so broad a field to cover that they 

 must needs restrict their lectlires to principles and general facts. 



Furtliermore, the association laid down the broad principle that 

 it is -one thing to know the essential facts of a single branch of nat- 

 ural science, and quite another thing to be able to marshal the facts 

 of various sciences and to formulate from them principles which 

 apply to the phenomena of agriculture. Although agricultural 

 chemistry, like all applied sciences, draws its stock in trade from 

 the primary sciences like chemistry, botany, geology, etc., the man- 

 ner in which it handles these facts makes its methods essentially 

 distinct and gives it an individuality. It is a characteristic and a 

 strength of every applied science, in contradistinction to the primary 



