EDITORIAL 



363 



tain to soil productivity and plant and 

 animal propogation, and the student is 

 thus limited. 



Agriculture is a grand and complex 

 subject, involving the applied knowl- 

 edge of some features of physics, chem- 

 istry, astronomy, meteorology, mineral- 

 ogy, general geology, physiography, 

 physical geography, botany, zoology 

 (including, of course, entomology), 

 evolution, anatomy, physiology and 

 hygiene. If the chief of these subjects 

 were taught rationally based upon their 

 relationship to human needs, and the 

 practical application of their teaching 

 emphasized, the student would be able 

 to make use of his knowledge, not only 

 in agriculture, but in any field toward 

 which he might wish to turn. Thus a 

 student of the sciences is broadened : 

 he is equipped with a means at once of 

 reaching farther than is permitted with- 

 in the narrow scope of the practical ap- 

 plications that comprise only one line 

 of human activity. 



The chief value of the sciences lies in 

 the development of a great plan of clas- 

 sification in relationship, as shown in 

 Nature and called Taxonomy. When 

 systematic botany is taught as such 

 the pupil at once sees the relationship 

 of plants, as expressed in orders, fami- 

 lies, genera, species, and subspecies. 

 The same is true in the study of other 

 natural sciences, and even in the in- 

 organic sciences. In astronomy the re- 

 lationship of planets is so definite that 

 some were discovered in searching for 

 them in the place where exact mathe- 

 matical calculation showed they should 

 be found. In chemistry certain rare ele- 

 ments have been discovered only long 

 after it was well knoAvn,by their respec- 

 tive places in natural classification, 

 that such should exist, and there are 

 places now known for others yet to be 

 discovered. It means a great deal for 

 the learner to take up a systematic 

 science and be made properly aware of 

 such facts. In not other study than in 

 systematic science can the beauties of 

 these subjects be thus emphasized. 



In teaching the sciences we teach the 

 entire structural plan of the subject as 

 a unit, and thus in studying the funda- 

 mental classification exnressed within 

 a subject, one obtains a bird's-eye view 

 of it as a whole. In studying more 

 minutely the difi'erent branches of a 

 science he sees the relationship of its 



dili'erent parts to one another, and of 

 this particular science to others, i his 

 view IS not to be obtained in any other 

 way than through a rational scientific 

 study of the sciences, i his does not 

 mean that the economic features of the 

 subject should be lost, but rather, that 

 by rational teaching those principles 

 which are of economic value can be 

 emphasized ; but other principles, 

 which are today not considered of great 

 value, may also be taught, and their 

 value may be discovered and used at 

 some time in the future. 



A person who has studied the sciences 

 properly and rationally is equipped to 

 go into practical agriculture and under- 

 stand for himself the relationship of 

 the new complexities which he may 

 meet. He is not only equipped for this, 

 but also prepared to take up the sev- 

 eral other arts which are based more 

 or less upon the sciences which he has 

 studied ; while the one who has studied 

 agriculture only, is equipped to take 

 up but this one art, or closely related 

 subjects, and he is trained to follow 

 only in the routine in which he has 

 been taught. He has not learned the 

 broad relationship of the sciences com- 

 prising the art, and naturally he is un- 

 qualified to make use of their applica- 

 tion to other subjects. 



If the admission of nature study and 

 agriculture in the schools is to mean 

 the crowding out of the fundamental 

 sciences, such as physics, chemistry, 

 botany, zoology and geology, we as 

 science teachers are justified in looking 

 upon it with alarm. It is our duty, as 

 persons particularly trained in these 

 subjects, to see that they have proper 

 inspiration and reception in our schools. 

 If we teach them fairly and emphasize 

 at proper places their practical teach- 

 ings, there would be no need of the in- 

 troduction of those subjects that are 

 fragmentarily based upon such sciences 

 until after the pupils are qualified to 

 take them up as advanced subjects, 

 rather than to reverse the natural se- 

 quence, and attempt to make them the 

 means of entering into a study of the 

 practical fields of human activity. 



Xature study has its place as a means 

 of interesting verv young puoils in the 

 world of Nature about them, and it also 

 has it proper educational value as the 

 l);isis (if much other work, such as draw- 

 ing- and language. Pupils certainly pre- 



