42 THE farmer's education. 



be able to investigate, isolate, and propagate new forms. It is 

 never necessary for the farmer to do this, nor would he have 

 the appliances to do it, or tlie time to devote to it. He does 

 not even need to know how they look, for he can never see 

 them without an expensive microscope, nor, if he should see 

 them, would he be able to distinguish one from the other, 

 unless constantly engaged in observing them. It requires a 

 long time to become a bacteriologist, and constant practice to 

 retain the art. It does not pay to teach such a difficult thing 

 to one who can never make use of it. If the farmer suspects 

 the presence of malignant bacteria in a plant or. a product, 

 his Agricultural College will make the investigation for him. 

 Such accurate knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of 

 plants and animals as will enable one to trace and remove the 

 causes of disease, is gained only by dissection and microscopic 

 examination of living organisms, or those which have lived. 

 This art, also, could not be practised by the farmer if he knew 

 it, for lack of time, practice, and appliances. Why, then, learn 

 it? Most of what he needs to know, in this and other lines, 

 has already been discovered at great cost. It is silly to spend 

 money to do over what has already been well done. His 

 Agricultural College and its graduates will tell the farmer 

 what is now known that concerns him, and will undertake 

 the investigation of all new phenomena. 



The phenomena of nature are infinite in variety, and new 

 occasions for investigation are constantly arising. Upon these 

 problems able men in all civilized countries are engaged, and 

 the results of their studies are embodied in the special litera- 

 ture of their own languages. To keep abreast of tliese discov- 

 eries, and therefore save the cost of unnecessary duplicating 

 work in investigation, the ability to read other languages 

 than one's own is required. For this reason some part of the 

 time spent in an Agricultural College is, or should be, devoted 

 to the acquiring of a reading knowledge of one or more mod- 

 ern languages, usually the German and French, which are 

 rich in accumulated information not accessible in English. 

 It is seldom that any real mastery of these languages is 

 attained by students, but they do become qualified to discover 



