98 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [8 :3— Mar.. \\)lt 



training of manual art teachers. Accompanying me was a man 

 who had devoted years to the study of this problem, who not 

 only knew it in its manifold applications, but who was a skilled 

 technician himself. We found on display the work that the stu- 

 dents had made during the year. In the main the articles ex- 

 hibited were simple household articles of furniture. The stu- 

 dents seemed to take no small amount of pride in showing us 

 about and in calling our attention to their tools, their benches, 

 and their products. My friend inquired with interest as to their 

 more intimate knowledge of the kinds of wood, their relative 

 abundance, their respective locations, their market value, the 

 methods employed in curing and preventing them, and the various- 

 commercial uses to which they might be put. Strange as it may 

 seem, those students were dreadfully deficient on this side of their 

 work. They had acquired a technique, they were masters of the 

 skill, but they had no familiarity with the content side. They 

 knew the art but not the science of manual training. This is the 

 ever present danger in the teaching of any vocational subject. In 

 our great haste for application and for immediate tangible results, 

 we may neglect that broad foundation which makes technique 

 meaningful. The elimination of the so-called impractical in- 

 variably results in the inefficient functioning of the remainder. 

 The very highest and by far the most practical results will be 

 secured in teaching the science of agriculture instead of teach- 

 ing the art of agriculture. One may be able to teach agriculture 

 without knowing how to harness a horse, to milk a cow, or to 

 bind grain. It is time that we had ceased sneering at the more 

 purely scientific aspect of this subject, and of others, for that 

 matter. Pure science always leads to practical science, and the 

 present generation undoubtedly needs a greater respect for it. 



However, we must remember that the "literature of agricul- 

 ture should never divorce the pupil from actual and sympathetic 

 contact with the materials of education." Laboratories and ex- 

 periment stations will not be permitted to remain idle. ^ly plea 

 is that the art of agriculture be practiced more scientifically and 

 I hold that this can best be accomplished by placing the primary 

 and predominating emphasis upon the scientific side so that every 

 prospective farmer who graduates from our schools will be 

 equipped with the scientific method. 



I must leave other principles of interest for your discussion. 

 Nothing has been said about the motives agriculture supplies for 

 work, about the adaptation of the material to local needs, abotit 

 the futility of attempting to popularize such a course in all high 



