June, 1921. 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



241 



accord, although it is not reasonable to assume that all 

 will agree as to their relative importance. Fortunately, 

 it is not essential that in this unanimity of opinion 

 should obtain; but it is surely not without significance, 

 that, after providing for organization, the maintenance 

 of high standards in the profession should have been 

 the first object specified by the Ottawa Convention. 



Permit me at this point to preface this part of my 

 address with the statement that, in my judgment the 

 ]uiraniount issues of immediate, pressing importance 

 whicli should engage the earnest consideration of the 

 members of this society, are three in number, viz: fl) 

 Agricultural education, in the broadest acceptance of 

 that term; (2) Agricultural policies — Dominion, Pro- 

 vincial and College and (3) Organization of technical 

 iigriculturists, from tbe standpoint of the individual as 

 well as from that of the profession. 



Growing out of these, but very closely related to 

 them, .we have many secondary issues such as: fa) 

 the official publication, (b) Finance, (e) Fees, (d) 

 Locals, and (e) Survey of Agricultural Education. 



Time will not permit of more than a passing refer- 

 ence to certain phases of the more important of the-sie 

 issues and none whatever to the most of them. How- 

 ever it is th? intention of your executive that these 

 questions will all be dealt with in the reports of the 

 committees or in the discuissions during the sessions of 

 this Convention. 



As educator^ we; have, as a rule, good material to 

 educate. We have the foundations upon which to 

 build ; but at present we are taxed to the limit to admit 

 all qualified students, and, iinfortunatelyj are com- 

 pelled to consider ways and means of keeping our en- 

 rollment do^\^3. Arbitrary limitation of student at- 

 tendance will not long be tolerated by the public; but 

 for the present we are confronted with the question of 

 raising our standards, of increasing our fees, of ex- 

 cluding partial students, of raising the unit-number in 

 our classes, or perhaps of doing all four, because the 

 number of students seems to be increasing, in almost 

 geometric ratio. Surely in this field alone there are 

 ample opportunities for effective work for every mem- 

 ber of the society who is interested in agricultural edu- 

 cation in one or more of its various aspects. Some of 

 the more recent educational experiments in agricultural 

 teaching have greater pedagogic consistency than the 

 old, and have been evolved largely as the result of a 

 careful re-examination of tlie curricula of other col- 

 leges. 



True, each college has its. own constituency, its own 

 regional environment, its own peculiar type of prob- 

 lems. Our courses, however, are, or should be, deter- 

 mined by the needs of the community they are designed 

 to serve. Through this society these experiments in 

 education might be expanded, and made even wider in 

 their application. No one in search of a practical edu- 

 cational problem, which has a direct bearing on agri- 

 culture in all its phases, need go beyond this to find 

 one worthy of his best endeavour. 



Let us place, then, at the head of the list of objects 

 towards which the society should work, insistence upon 

 higher academic standard for undergraduates and lar- 

 ger opportunities and'better facilities for post graduate 

 courses. 



And the second, namely, greater insistence upon, and 

 more adequate provision for, investigation and research 

 is. in importance like unto the first. The attainment 

 of a measure of success in these two directions will 

 contribute directly towards and will render significant 



service to, the cause of securing better qualified in- 

 structors on the teaching staffs of our colleges. As the 

 result of more thorough training there will inevitably 

 follow, quite aside from organization, a more generous 

 recognition of the sei"vices of agricultural graduates 

 so long as they combine-, in the present high degree, a 

 willingness to labor with the hand as well as with the 

 brain. 



No other decision of the Ottawa Convention was 

 more encouraging or was fraught with greater possi- 

 bilities for progress than was this. In their attitude 

 towards this question the delegates showed that they 

 realized the importance of higher academic standards, 

 that tbey M'ere prepared to face the issues squarely, 

 and unitedlv to bend their energies to the accomplish- 

 ment of this fundamental task. 



Under the general heading of education permit me to 

 say a iew words about research. The treatment will 

 necessarily be very fragmentary because it is designed 

 primarily to emphasize one important point which is, 

 I fear, all too frequently overlooked. Research has 

 never been understood by the general public in this 

 country, nor can we reasonably expect it will be until 

 it has been interpreted, concretely, by investigators for 

 leverv' class of our agricultural population. Because 

 teaching is better understood than is original research. 

 we are often told that the first duty of the colleges of 

 agriculture is to tpaeh. and that investigation and re- 

 search can wait. Not infrequently the penalty of such 

 a policy is a species of "intellectual parasitism" and a 

 growing inability on the part of some instructors to 

 profit by the more: advanced work of others. 



Research is not something apart from the legitimate 

 function of a college. On the contrary, it is an integral 

 part of any progressive institution's work. As such, 

 it should not be left to chance, or receive attention only 

 after apparently more urgent iieeds have been met. A 

 definite sum .should be set aside for this purpose in the 

 budget and annual reports of progress should be .sub- 

 mitted to the administration the same as teaching de- 

 partments ar" required to do. Not infrequently many 

 research workers constitute the barrier to their own 

 progress, and to that of their fellow-workers, by being 

 disposed to stress imduly, the independence of the in- 

 vestigator; just as .some teachers attach undue import- 

 ance to what they term "academic freedom." The 

 investigator is justly entitled to as much consideration 

 and recognition as the teacher, but not more. Like the 

 teacher, he must have a definite program, and his re- 

 sults must be made a.vailable to the public. Moreover 

 he is the man who .should present the results of his 

 creative power to the people whenever his findings 

 lend themselves to such treatment. 



Given, then, a program, reasonable facilities for 

 work and the means of giving due publicit.v to the re- 

 sults, investigators and their work will receive more 

 generous recognition and will not leave themselves so 

 open to the oft-r?peated charge that the mystical work 

 "research" is imployed to provide another means of 

 "giving laz.v professors more time to loaf." 



In some quarters we have had all too much reason 

 to suspect th'at this idea has obtained such a fiitn foot- 

 hold that a long and aggressive campaign of education 

 will be necessary to disabuse the public mind of this 

 wholly erroneous conception. 



The second important object of the society, as we 

 have noted, is the bringing about of more co-operation 

 between the workers in the Dominion and Provincial 

 Departments of Agriculture, and these, in turn, with 



