INTELLIGENCE 



3009 



INTENSIVE FARMING 



extraordinarily superior intelligence are about 

 as numerous as the feeble-minded. 



Occasionally a child is found who tests as 

 high as 150 or even 160 IQ. An idea of what 

 such intelligence can accomplish is illustrated 

 by the following cases which have come under 

 the observation of the writer (Terman) : (1) 

 Girl, aged seven and a half years, IQ 140, car- 

 rying fifth grade school work with marks 95 

 to 100; (2) Boy, aged eight and a half years, 

 IQ 150, leading his class in the sixth grade; 

 (3) Boy, aged ten years, IQ 140, doing excel- 

 lent work in the seventh grade. 



On the other, hand, children of 75 IQ are 

 never capable of doing satisfactory work in 

 the grade where they belong by real age. After 

 they have been in school five or six years such 

 children are usually doing very inferior work 

 in a grade from two to four years below where 

 they belong by age. Children of 95 to 105 

 IQ practically always make normal progress 

 unless prevented by illness or lack of oppor- 

 tunity. Those testing around 85 IQ are merely 

 dull; they cannot be classified as feeble- 

 minded, but they are rarely capable of making 

 the eight grades in eight years. 



The Uses of Intelligence Tests. The value 

 of the test method lies both in its accuracy 

 and its convenience. By its use the child of 

 exceptional mentality, whether feeble-minded 

 or genius, is quickly identified and the exact 

 grade of his ability determined. The test is 

 made in less than an hour and gives a more 

 accurate idea of a subject's intelligence than 

 would be possible on the basis of years of ordi- 

 nary observation. What a child will be able 

 to accomplish in his school work can be fore- 

 cast with a high degree of accuracy by means 

 of a test given when he enters school at the 

 age of six years. 



Largely because of the lack of intelligence 

 tests the majority of high-grade feeble-minded 

 and border-line cases were formerly but rarely 

 identified. Such individuals may be perfectly 

 normal in appearance and yet have the mental 

 traits of average children of nine or ten years. 

 Their mental resources are scanty, they are 

 weak in such powers as reasoning and judg- 

 ment, they have little foresight or prudence, 

 and they are correspondingly weak in social 

 and moral responsibility. They cannot' com- 

 pete on equal terms with their fellows, cannot 

 secure or hold good positions, and therefore 

 easily become vagabonds, paupers, or criminals. 



Many investigations in which the tests have 

 been applied in juvenile courts, reform schools 

 189 



and prisons prove that at least one-fourth of 

 the offenders who come before the courts are 

 feeble-minded and that almost as many more 

 are little above the border-line level. Of 400 

 juvenile delinquents, examined by one of the 

 writer's students, about 120, or 30 per cent, 

 tested below 75 IQ. Since the cost of crime in 

 the United States is conservatively reckoned 

 at $500,000,000 per year, it is evident that psy- 

 chology has found here one of its most fruitful 

 applications. 



Tests of vagrants and unemployed have 

 given results hardly less startling. Of 150 

 "hoboes" tested under the direction of the 

 writer, one-fifth were found to be definitely 

 feeble-minded and another fifth were border- 

 line cases. Tests made by others have given 

 results in substantial agreement with these. 

 By the use of intelligence tests tens of thou- 

 sands of feeble-minded persons now at large 

 will ultimately be brought under the care of 

 the state. 



Intelligence tests have many other applica- 

 tions. Thus the vexed question as to the rela- 

 tive intelligence of the various races of man- 

 kind will have to be answered by the test 

 method. Investigations have already been 

 made which indicate that negroes, the Ameri- 

 can Indians, and the Mexicans are significantly 

 inferior in mental ability to the average whites 

 of the United States. 



Similar comparisons of the IQ's of boys and 

 girls have failed to show any very significant 

 sex differences in intelligence, although girls 

 have been found to average slightly better 

 than the boys, age for age. L.M.T. 



Consult Stern's The Psychological Methods of 

 Measuring Intelligence; Terman's The Binet- 

 Simon Intelligence Scale; Including a Complete 

 Guide for the Use of the Stanford Revision and 

 Extension. 



INTEN'SIVE FARMING. According to the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, "the 

 man who makes every part of his land produce, 

 either directly or indirectly, is an intensive 

 farmer, if he makes it produce to its utmost 

 in quantity and quality." In Europe most of 

 the farms are small, and the density of popula- 

 tion compels intensive farming. Consequently, 

 every square rod of tillable land is under cul- 

 tivation, and the farmers keep their soil in 

 such a high state of fertility that, notwith- 

 standing the thousands of years of cultivation, 

 the production per acre increases from year to 

 year. All waste that can possibly be used for 

 fertilizer is saved, and to this are added green- 



