EDITORIAL. 3 



It is a rather noteworthy fact that the Secretary of AgTiciilturc 

 should ))e invited to address such a body as the National Educational 

 Association, upon a sul)ject related to education in a special field, but 

 it is significant of the position which the head of the National Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has attained within the past few years. Secretary 

 Wilson's subject was, '" The education of the American farmer," and 

 the manner in which he treated it showed that he had bestowed much 

 study on this branch of industrial education and its needs and require- 

 ments, and was thoroughly conv^ersant with the latest progress and 

 views regarding it. It was an earnest plea for the education of "the 

 producers of wealth," to the end that they might not only become 

 more intelligent and efficient in their craft, but might live on higher 

 levels of comfort and happiness, and have more time to devote to 

 intellectual, moral, and spiritual life. 



Agricultural education was characterized as "the great field of 

 applied science where the grower seeks the help of the scholar, of the 

 experimenter, and of the observer." The breadth of the subject and 

 its relations make it necessary that study "should begin with the 

 primary school and continue through life. . . . The four-year college 

 course does not begin soon enough nor continue long enough to meet 

 the requirements of our day in this regard. Teachers are wanted in 

 primary and secondary schools and in postgraduate work in the 

 universities. They are wanted to do work that has not been done in 

 all the ages — the discovery of truths imderlying production, and their 

 application to the farm." 



Secretary Wilson commended very heartily the movement in a num- 

 ber of the States looking toward the introduction of the elements of 

 agricultural science into common and secondary schools. The educa- 

 tion of the teachers in these schools he believed to be the place to begin, 

 and he advised that this should Ije provided at the expense of the State. 

 "The faculty of the agricultural college of the State is the repository 

 of this information, and the teachers should have their expenses paid 

 while they are becoming possessed of it." The magnitude and char- 

 acter of this new departure should command the highest order of ability 

 in working out the pedagogic scheme and in effecting the proper organ- 

 ization. "We want a man now to organize the education of half the 

 people under our flag, who till the soil and furnish 65 per cent of our 

 exports; who create the wealth of the country from materials found 

 in earth, air, and Avater; we want organization from the primary 

 schools to the university and beyond into fields, where things grow; 

 into the stable and yard, through which crops go to the market; into 

 the factory, where skill should add to value; into the pasture, where 

 skill should direct form, feature, and development; into the cultiva- 

 tion, where science should defy drought and deluge; into fertilization, 

 where observation and experience must be supplemented by education 

 regarding soils and their composition." 



