coFFMAx] SECOXDARY SCHOOL AGRICULTURE 97 



reorganization of other sciences. It can only be developed by the 

 application of scientific principles to the facts in its own field. 

 The principles of agriculture will be deduced and organized and 

 applied through the study of the chemistry and productivity of 

 different types of soils, the culture of certain forms of plant life, 

 animal husbandry and the like. With some of these the botanist 

 would have no concern; with others, the zoologist, and with still 

 others, the climatologist. Moreover the botanist would be in- 

 terested in a multitude of facts and phenomena that would have 

 but a passing interest for the agriculturalist. Even if they were 

 to take the same fact for study, it is not altogether improbable 

 that there would be a somewhat noticeable difference in treat- 

 ment because of a difference in point of view. 



Apparently, it has been assumed in some quarters that the 

 scholarly and expert botanist will therefore be an equally skill- 

 ful agriculturalist, and that this principle holds true for the teach- 

 ers of each of the other sciences. Such a thing may occur. Of 

 course, there is some transfer of knowledge, of skill, and of 

 power, from one of these fields to each of the others, but the 

 correlation, although positive, is far less, I believe, than we are 

 disposed to suspect. The transfer occurs only when the facts are 

 alike or when the methods are similar. If the correlation of 

 degree of relationship were f)erfect we should need no study of 

 agriculture ; it would already have been taken care of by the other 

 sciences. If one wishes the habits and knowledge that corre- 

 spond to any field, those that really make it unique and distinguish 

 it from all other fields, he can secure them only by studying the 

 facts and processes that belong to that field. 



It will be noted that throughout the discussion of the last 

 principle, I have implied that agriculture is both an art and a 

 science. That it is an art requires no discussion as it has been 

 practiced for centuries ; that it is a science is a fact that its ad- 

 vocates are trying to demonstrate. In the secondan,' schools 

 shall we emphasize it as an art or as a science? Or shall the two 

 phases be given equal emphasis? To my mind it will never be 

 rational to emphasize the art side to the serious neglect of the 

 science side, nor will it ever be rational to emphasize the science 

 side to the utter neglect of the art side. If either must be neg- 

 lected in the school, I am convinced that it is better to teach agri- 

 culture without emphasizing its technique than it is to teach 

 it without emphasizing its content. An illustration from another 

 field will make clear what I mean. Soirie time ago it was my 

 privilege to visit one of the best schools in this countrv for the 



