hart] PLACE AND FUXCTION OF AGRICULTURE 1^3 



sciences. On the plant side it is a component part of botany. 

 On the soil and climatic side it is a part of physics, chemistry, and 

 meteorology. On the animal side it is zoology, entomology, and 

 bacteriology. On its industrial and commercial side it is identi- 

 fied with sociology. These propositions appear so nearly self- 

 evident that no proof seems necessary to secure assent to them. 

 It must be bourne in mind, however, that what has just been said 

 applies to agriculture as a science. From these considerations 

 it is evident that the scientific study of agriculture is a study of 

 the applications of the laws and principles drawn from the domain 

 of other sciences. Xo other study has ever engaged the attention 

 of scholars which has so many different elements or aspects as 

 agriculture. On this account, no other study offers so extensive a 

 field for the application of other sciences. Almost every other 

 science known to man is called upon in a greater or less degree for 

 some contribution to the science of agriculture. From this point 

 of view agriculture becomes the lure, the inspiration, the motive 

 for the pursuit and application of scientific knowledge. But this 

 is the field of the investigator, the experimenter, the expert, the 

 specialist. There is another aspect of the study of agriculture 

 much less profound. 



The learning of the simple practical arts of agriculture is on a 

 oasis totally different from the exhaustive study of the subject as 

 a science. The art or doing side of agriculture has been the slow 

 patient work of ages. The indefinite and vague body of knowl- 

 edge which has grown up partly by accident, partly by experi- 

 ment and observation, has been the work of the farmer. This is 

 commonly known as practical agriculture. It is one thing to 

 know that doing something in a certain way will produce a given 

 result. It is quite another thing to know the reason why the 

 operation produces a given result. In the first case the result is 

 considered reason enough. In the second case the law underlying 

 the process is the reason. 



Agriculture on its practical side contains a large fund of 

 material well adapted for teaching purposes to those untrained 

 in the sciences underlying its various operations. Right modes 

 of planting may be taught without much reference to why some 

 seeds are placed deeper than others. Good tillage can be taught 

 even tho the laws of capillarity, soil temperature and the like are 

 not understood. Legumes may be grown and plowed under and 



