Apbil 23, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



647 



And finally a word as to the second point 

 I mentioned some lines back. 



Our young people should get their san- 

 itary instruction from thoroughly compe- 

 tent sources, or they would do better to 

 have none at all, because false .teaching is 

 dangerous. Books are often much out of 

 date and it is always better to rely upon 

 the freshly accumulated experience of 

 those who are in touch with the active 

 problems of the day. Even though the 

 hours must be few during which the stu- 

 dent is in contact with some one who is 

 master of his specialty, yet the benefit 

 derived greatly surpasses that obtained 

 during a longer period of second-hand 

 teaching. 



There is no branch of instruction that 

 lends itself more readily to what has been 

 termed the "alumni lecture course" than 

 does that of sanitary science. 



Subsequent to the leettire a thorough 

 quiz could be readily carried on by a per- 

 son detailed for that purpose, but it should 

 be based upon the points developed by the 

 lecture and the latter should be given by 

 a man who is thoroughly competent and 

 actively engaged in his profession. 



W. P. Mason 



TEE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURAL 

 CHEMISTRY ' 



It may seem uncalled for at a time when 

 agricultural chemistry has been undergo- 

 ing such rapid evolution and expansion in 

 the United States, to enter upon a discus- 

 sion of its future. It is, nevertheless, true 

 that conditions are now developing in this 

 and other countries and have reached their 

 culmination in Germany, which make a dis- 

 cussion of this subject not only desirable 

 and timely, but practically imperative. 

 There is no time when it is so important 

 ^Address of the chairman of the Section of 

 Agricultural and Food Chemistry, delivered at 

 the Baltimore meeting of the association. 



to bring out correct views as to the nature 

 of the development of an educational move- 

 ment as when it is feeling some new and 

 enormous impetus. When building pro- 

 gresses slowly and by stages much time is 

 afforded for changes of plan as the work 

 progresses, but where the progress is rapid 

 and one stage follows another in quick suc- 

 cession it is of vastly greater importance 

 that the plans shall have been fully per- 

 fected at the outset. The latter situation 

 is certainly now before us so far as con- 

 cerns agriculture and the sciences closely 

 related thereto. The agitation for the 

 teaching of nature study in its application 

 to agriculture in the primary schools, the 

 introduction of elementary agricultural iu- 

 struction into the high school, the rapidly 

 increasing demand for collegiate agricul- 

 tural instruction and the imperative and 

 almost unmet demand for university train- 

 ing as a proper preparation of teachers for 

 the agricultural college and of investiga- 

 tors for the work of the experiment sta- 

 tions, have created a new and unique 

 situation which should be met not only 

 immediately, but most wisely. The present 

 difficulty is not encountered solely at a 

 single stage, but is more or less acute, as 

 concerns the school, college and university. 

 It is therefore of vital importance to recog- 

 nize the first and most pressing need in 

 order that by meeting it the whole situation 

 may be relieved most quickly and satisfac- 

 torily. 



The teacher of nature study in the ele- 

 mentary school would naturally be trained 

 in the high school or normal school, but in 

 this line of instruction these schools are 

 lacking; hence there is now coming a de- 

 mand upon the agricultural college to sup- 

 ply such teachers. The necessity under 

 these conditions for sound instruction in 

 the agricultural college and for men with 

 thorough university training to teach in 

 them, is greater than ever before. 



