EDITOR'S TABLE. 



555 



people's representatives. It is read- 

 ily conceded that private industries 

 and enterprises of all kinds call for 

 training and experience and special 

 knowledge on the part of those who 

 conduct them ; but Government busi- 

 ness is supposed to be so simple that 

 a wayfaring man, though a pro- 

 nounced fool, need not err therein. 

 There is more or less hypocrisy, how- 

 ever, in the pretension. The real un- 

 derlying thought is that, outside of 

 the two great killing departments, 

 no very serious harm can be done by 

 official incompetence, and that the 

 great thing is to provide for " the 

 boys." No idea could be more false. 

 The evil that can be done by unwise 

 economic measures, for example, is 

 incalculable. The army and navy 

 are brought into action only when 

 the dogs of war have been let loose; 

 but the influence of the civil depart- 

 ments of the Government acts un- 

 ceasingly, and touches the life of the 

 people at a thousand points. 



In the matter of public education 

 science has never had the recognition 

 to which it is entitled; nor will it 

 have until the people as a whole know 

 better what science is — until they 

 cease to think of it as a thing of mys- 

 teries and technicalities, and come to 

 understand that it is simply the or- 

 ganization of knowledge and the ren- 

 dering of it available for guidance 

 in the business of life. Meantime, 

 wherever circumstances are favor- 

 able, the education of the young, even 

 of the youngest, should be given as 

 far as possible a scientific character. 

 We are strongly inclined to the opin- 

 ion that, in a country whose funda- 

 mental industry is agriculture, an ef- 

 fort should be made in all schools to 

 impart a few sound elementary ideas 

 as to the principles of agriculture. 

 What better starting point could 

 there be for scientific instruction 

 than the soil out of which we derive, 

 mediately or immediately, all that 

 goes to sustain life? It seems to us 

 that no human being should be per- 



mitted to be wholly ignorant of the 

 conditions upon which the success- 

 ful cultivation of the soil depends, 

 and we are persuaded that the sub- 

 ject might, by proper treatment, be 

 made deeply interesting to the vast 

 majority of school children. 



A prominent Englishman, Mr. 

 Boyd-Kinnear, has lately been dis- 

 cussing this matter in a London pa- 

 per. He points out that a knowledge 

 of the scientific principles of agri- 

 culture is of fundamental impor- 

 tance, and that whatever else is 

 taught in the national schools, the 

 sciences on which farming rests — 

 physics, chemistry, mechanics, and 

 the physiology of plants and animals 

 — should hold a principal place. He 

 observes that in order to know agri- 

 culture it is necessary to understand, 

 first of all, the elements and the ac- 

 tion of the soil and the air. There is 

 urgent need, he contends, for teach- 

 ing what is known on these subjects 

 and for pursuing research into the 

 much larger field of the unknown. 

 In these remarks we entirely concur, 

 and we believe that it would be a 

 happy thing for this country, and 

 for every country, if education could 

 be so administered that, instead of 

 tending, as it so often does, to sepa- 

 rate human beings from the soil, it 

 should tend to establish in their 

 minds a sense of their dependence on 

 it and an intelligent, if possible a 

 loving, interest in the operations by 

 which the living of the world is won 

 and the face of Nature is beautified. 

 Here, as we conceive, is where scien- 

 tific teaching should begin. Such 

 a system of instruction would do 

 much more than increase the intel- 

 ligence of the farming community, 

 though that would be a benefit of the 

 first magnitude; it would so trans- 

 form public opinion in general that 

 the divorce we now see between sci- 

 ence and the State would no longer 

 be possible. The whole national life 

 would be placed on a sounder ba- 

 sis; and it would probably be found 



