42 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL .SOCIETY. 



clear-brained inmates of our farm homes have failed to master. 

 The spraying of fruit with fungicides and insecticides illustrates 

 how readily the necessary manipulation was acquired when the 

 reasons for these operations became evident. It is the explana- 

 tion of phenomena, then, which the extended course of study 

 should give in order that the farmer may know how to adapt 

 himself to the varying and complex conditions which he meets in 

 his work. 



The same educator, whose utterances I have called in question, 

 has made other statements in his address which should not pass 

 unnoticed. He declares that " arranging different courses of 

 study, in a general agricultural course, is as nearly haphazard a 

 process as anything can be in matters of instruction," and, that 

 " certain text-books may be assigned to the senior year in one of 

 these colleges, with absolutely no reason why they should not 

 have been assigned to the freshman year, or, for that matter, to 

 some year of the preparatory school course." 



It would have been gratifying if President Murkland had illus- 

 trated this statement by specifying particular studies which are 

 so devoid of relation to other subjects that their place in a course 

 of study is in no way indicated, for then his meaning would be 

 more clear. Did he have in mind the subject of tillage, which, 

 unless considered in the light of the underlying principles of 

 chemistry and physics, would be taught in a manner unworthy 

 an extended course of instruction. Did he refer to the teaching 

 of horticulture, Avhich, to be intelligently and systematically done, 

 must be based upon a previously acc^uired knowledge of botany ? 

 Did he mean the subject of plant nutrition, in which the instruc- 

 tion is always halting and unsatisfactory, if the student knows no 

 chemistry ? Or animal nutrition, to the proper consideration of 

 which must be brought more than a smattering of chemical and 

 physiological information ? I believe I am fairly familiar with 

 the list of subjects that could properly be placed in a four years' 

 course in agriculture, and I know of no one which does not seem 

 to have its position as closely indicated as is the case with many 

 mathematical and language subjects, and with some subjects the 

 logical oj'der is almost imperatively fixed. 



Tlie statements and conclusions lead to a wide range of (piestions 

 which we cannot discuss here. 1 will briefly notice one, however. 

 Have the schools of lower grade and the short course in agricult- 



