62 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



time to know only what they can learn in six weeks; arrange for them; 

 give them all that is possible in that time. There are those who are com- 

 pelled to branch out into orcharding, or small fruit raising, or stock rais- 

 ing, or dairying, as the case may be; yet they feel a lack of knowledge 

 and could take a few weeks of training with infinite profit. Where shall 

 these men look if not to the Agricultural College? Arrange courses for 

 them; instruct them in such form as they are able to take. There has 

 been too little flexibiltiy about our colleges. We must try to diagnose 

 each case, its needs, its limitations, and to fit our work to the require- 

 ments of the individual; not require all indivduals to fit themselves to 

 our work and course. 



After all, however, the great work of the college is its effect on agri- 

 culture as a profession. And this great work is most subtle in its pro- 

 cesses, most diflScult to describe or to prove. It is like tlie sunshine, 

 noiseless, hidden in its processes; but take it away and the faded leaf, 

 the spindling, unhealthy growths reveal its usefulness. Every profes- 

 . feion has won its way to dignity, standing, the respect of mankind, 

 through the application of science to its processes. As long as medicine 

 remained an affair of the barber's skill and the old woman's mysterious 

 spells and charms, it had no recognized place in the world's opinion. It 

 was laughed at in health, feared and dreaded in sickness. With Har- 

 vey's discovery of the circulation of the blood, science came to the res- 

 cue. Medical schools were established, a recognized course of training 

 gave dignity and standing to the physician, and medicine took its proper 

 place among the world's learned professions. In our own day the nor- 

 mal school has been doing the same thing. From Wackford Squeers, of 

 Dotheboys Hall to Thomas Arnold of Rugby; from Ichabod Crane to 

 Horace Mann is a tremendous step in tl.e current public estimate of the 

 teacher. And this great advance has been brought about by the normal 

 school idea, by the application of scientific methods and study to the pro- 

 cesses of teaching. It is true that the number of actual normal school 

 graduates is inconsiderable compared with the vast army of teachers 

 employed in this broad land; but it is also true that of all the vast army 

 not one remains entirely unaffected, uninfluenced by the change in the 

 attitude of the public toward the profession of teaching. Our schools 

 everywhere have felt the impulse and childhood is stronger, brighter, 

 happier for it. And this change of attitude, this impulsion toward 

 saner methods, healthier goals, a wider, surer, quicker development, is 

 directly traceable to the normal school. 



Thus it must be, and, indeed, already is, with agriculture. The world 

 is beginning to know that there is a science of agriculture, that the man 

 on the farm is not a mere beast of burden who has imitatively learned 

 certain routine processes which are sometimes causelessly successful, 

 sometimes causelessly not. The scientific spirit is beginning to per- 

 meate the whole body of farmers. They meet together in institutes to 

 compare experiences, to reason from effect to cause, to conform future 

 methods to past deductions. Every mail-bag that traverses the land 

 bears bulletins from scientist to farmer, or letters of information and 

 inquiry from farmer to scientist. Nay, the farmer is himself becoming 

 a scientist. His eyes are open, he is observing, considering, comparing, 

 experimenting, drawing conclusions. As never before, he is working 



