76 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
failed to make the connection for himself. For many years his 
board and bills have been paid automatically and without exer- 
tion on his own part; indeed, he has come to consider going to 
school as a kind of occupation,—why not after sixteen years of 
carefree experience? Such an unhappy result of universal 
education may and does occur in techincal courses, but far 
more rarely than in the non-technical. 
Again, the materials and the applications of an agricultural 
course are concrete and close at hand. They le within the 
student’s personal purview and well within his capacity to 
understand. 
Much of the material of education is of necessity abstract or 
else far away either in time or space. The concrete is clear and 
easy of apprehension. It is enticing, for its presents opportu- 
nities. It is exhilarating for the connection and the meanings 
are evident and world-wide. 
Still again, agriculture provides something for the student 
to do. It enjoins performances. It threatens failure but it in- 
vites success. And all this is well worth while. 
Much of the material and motive of education lie entirely 
beyond the ability of the student to exert the slightest influence 
upon the course of events. : 
He sorely needs opportunity for trying out his powers of 
construction as well as those of expression, and among all the 
subjects that offer this opportunity, agriculture is one of the 
best because it is concrete and because it lies close at hand. It 
is a inan’s job. It is tremendously full of opportunities and 
consequences. It provides good material on which the boy 
may whet his faculties. The prospect is eminently educational. 
Incidentally, the field, the materials, and the philosophy of 
farming afford an almost infinite variety of engaging opportu- 
nity for meditation and for expression, and healthy intelligent 
expression is vitally connected with intellectual growth. 
Agriculture in practice is an art as well as a science. As a 
subject of instruction it is a science. The content is eminently 
useful, leading to the proper conduct of the great business of 
production. Its study demonstrates that successful civilization 
; 
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