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SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



July. 1922 



Report of Committee on Graduate Study 



Bv Dr. F. C. Harrison, Principal. Macdonald College, P. Q. 



Modem education has reached a very in- 

 tensive stage. In the last fifty years the 

 progress has been phenomenal. Discovery 

 Hias trod on the heels of discovery, science 

 Ihas laid bare the secrets of nature, new 

 sciences have emerged with a leap like 

 Pallas Athene who sprang forth from the 

 liead of Zeus with a mighty war shout and in 

 complete armour. In her power and wisdom 

 were harmoniously blended, and our modern 

 sciences quite fittingly take her place. Com- 

 mensurate with this progress and advance of 

 science, we have been brought to an age of 

 specialism, as it is impossible for one man to 

 master even the whole of a science, and the 

 interlocking of many sciences has brought 

 forth the necessity for broad and compre- 

 hensive training. For example, thirty years 

 ago there was a Professor of Natural His- 

 tory and Geology at the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural College. Some years later his work 

 was divided and Professors of Horticulture, 

 Botany, Entomology and Bacteriology were 

 created. These have again been sub-divided 

 in some of our Canadian institutions and the 

 sub-division has been even more extensive in 

 American Agricultural Colleges. For exam- 

 ple, instead of a Professor of Botany there 

 may be found Professors of Economic Bo- 

 tany, Ecology, Cryptogamic Botany, Plant 

 Pathology, Algology, etc. Entomology has 

 also been divided and we have Professors 

 devoting themselves to a single order. This 

 evolution takes place as intensively in other 

 sciences, until teachers have found that it is 

 impossible to cram into four years of under- 

 graduate life, all that is thought necessary 

 for such a man to know. Hence, in a num- 

 ber of faculties the course has been consi- 

 derably lengthened. For example, in med- 

 icine six year courses are quite common, and 

 after the completion of such a course a 

 graduate walks the hospitals for several ad- 

 ditional years. In some institutions the B. 

 A. is necessary as a prerequisite to regis- 

 tration in medicine. 



In law, the courses have been lengthened. 

 In many institutions the B. A. is required 

 for entering the study of law. 



In arts, men who specialise in History, 

 Economics, Education, are bound to go for- 

 ward for advanced degrees if they desire to 



find situations. 



In applied science, the same course is fol- 

 lowed, e.g. chemical, mining and electrical 

 engineers, etc., have to spend considerable 

 time in apprenticeship before they can find 

 situations. 



How is it in agriculture.^ Let us first 

 examine the field. Agriculture in many re- 

 spects approaches medicine more closely. The 

 sciences of Chemistry, Biology, Physics, 

 Bacteriology, in their widest application, 

 are the foundations on which both sciences 

 are built. The undergraduate in agriculture 

 has a very large number of subjects to as- 

 similate. In addition to the sciences men- 

 tioned there are the professional subjects 

 Animal Husbandry, Agronomy, Horticul- 

 ture, Poultry, Farm Engineering, English, 

 Economics. Mathematics. In the attempt 

 to reduce the number of Subjects, many in- 

 stitutions permit students to either specialize 

 or select certain subjects in order to re- 

 duce the task of the student. Often the 

 result is the building of a rather . frail 

 foundation in the science subjects, and the 

 general result may be stated by saying that 

 after four years of study, really amounting 

 to about 32 months of lecture and laboratory 

 work, the student is ready to go forward, 

 and if of sufficient standing, to take up post- 

 graduate work. But if the exigencies of 

 medicine call for now at least six years work 

 and more often seven and eight, surely agri- 

 culture needs as much for men who are to 

 teach or do research work. 



In a few words, the amount and nature of 

 work in agriculture is now so large that it is 

 impossible for the average student to obtain 

 the necessary training and assimilate the ne- 

 cessary facts in four years of undergraduate 

 work. 



The field of research is vast, and the re- 

 sults that may be expected from well plan- 

 ned and properly carried out research have 

 the added stimulus that such w.ork is of high 

 practical utility. 



The soil offers many problems, its bio- 

 logical activities, the solution of the soil 

 acidity problem in the east, and the prob- 

 ability of its relation to soil toxicity, clover 

 sickness, etc., the aerial denudation of soils 

 in the west, the quick decomposition of 



