teacher. Our educational methods have been greatly im- 

 proved by the introduction of the laboratory, whereby a stu- 

 dent is set at work with a personal problem. The laboratory 

 work may be the actual observation and study of a plant dis- 

 ease or an animal disease, of a rock, a soil, a physical phe- 

 nomenon, the making of a school-garden, the making of cheese 

 or butter, the feeding of a cow or horse, the incubating of eggs, 

 work in an orchard or greenhouse, the planning of grounds or 

 buildings, or whatever other actualwork that it is worth while 

 to do under the guidance of a teacher. Now, a man's farm is 

 his laboratory. No one may direct him how to manage his 

 farm ; but a good teacher coming to his place may set him into 

 new lines of thinking and put him in the way of helping him- 

 self. In a moment of my younger enthusiasm I once wrote that 

 every farm in the State should be visited at least once each year 

 by a good teacher. My calmer judgment leads me to expand the 

 statement to the effect that every farm in the State should be 

 considered as one part in an underlying fabric of human evolu- 

 tion, and that in the interest of society every farm should 

 ultimately be known to someone who represents society, to the 

 end that that farm may be made a more effective unit in the 

 great plan. 



Whenever an agricultural problem is worked out in the 

 laboratory, its application should be at once widely demon- 

 strated in the field under actual farm or garden conditions, and 

 this of itself will require a large corps of high-class men. This 

 will relieve the continuing demand for local experiment sta- 

 tions. Field laboratories will need to be established in the 

 localities until the application of the problem to the locality is 



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