WHAT SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN OUR 

 COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE? x 



IN an old book containing the wisdom of an age two thou- 

 sand years older than the present, I find this quotation : 

 "How can he get wisdom that holdeth the plow and that 

 glorieth in the goad, that driveth oxen and is occupied in 

 their labors and whose talk is of bullocks?" 



Apparently the same need of instruction was as urgent 

 then as now, and the tiller of the soil in the fertile plains 

 of the eastern world felt that there was something more to 

 be desired than simply f ollowing, day in, day out, the dreary 

 routine his fathers had left him. That there were sources 

 of information even then is evident from the fact that the 

 wise Solomon could discourse of trees, from the cedar of 

 Lebanon even to the hyssop springing out of the wall; and 

 it is added that he spake also of beasts, of fowls, of creeping 

 things, and of fishes. The same questions that stirred the 

 heart of the agricultural seer so many centuries ago are 

 pressing with renewed force now, and more light is sought 

 on all the difficult problems that present themselves to the 

 farmer of to-day. It is the mission of the agricultural colleges 

 to furnish this light and lead the way. 



I am asked to present this afternoon a brief paper on 

 what should be taught in our agricultural colleges. Per- 



1 An Address delivered at Washington, D. C., November 10, 1896. 

 From Proceeding* of the Tenth Annual Convention of the Association 

 of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. 



