84 
the production of food for the human race; 
for some soils appear still to lack enough 
available plant food at certain stages of 
growth, and others give rise to conditions, 
naturally, which require chemical and 
physical amelioration. It is an incontro- 
vertible fact that soils derived from given 
kinds of rocks have usually distinct needs, 
whereas such treatment may be wholly neg- 
lected in the case of soils derived from 
rocks of a different character. For these 
and other obvious reasons the agronomist, 
in order to be well equipped to meet situa- 
tions which may arise in another state, or 
in a new position to which he may be 
ealled, will find it of distinct aid if his 
fundamental educational equipment in- 
eludes geology, mineralogy and physics in 
its special application to the many prob- 
lems of the soil. 
The agronomist will be brought face to 
face with emergencies and questions in- 
volving physical chemistry, the founda- 
tion for which is supplied not only by gen- 
eral chemistry, but also by knowledge of 
mathematics involving the calculus. 
Finally, above and before all should be 
placed the subject of English, the call for 
which in some station bulletins is obvious, 
and in the use of which none can be too 
proficient. 
It may be argued that the fundamental 
educational requirements as presented en- 
eroach upon other domains of science, that 
they are too comprehensive and are more 
exacting than the conditions demand. 
Nevertheless our progress as agronomists 
ean not attain its maximum by depending 
wholly upon men who are trained only in 
a narrow specialty.. Those engaged in 
given lines of agronomical research must 
have a sufficiently broad training in order 
to grasp the significance and bearing of 
factors lying frequently much outside of 
their strict domain. Had not Hellriegel 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Vou. XXXV. No. 890 
possessed an outlook broader than that cir- 
cumscribed by the mere limits of chemis- 
try, it is problematical if the discovery of 
nitrogen assimilation through the inter- 
vention of microorganisms might not have 
remained a problem for ourselves. 
It is not enough that the teacher or in- 
vestigator in agronomy be skilled in its art, 
but he must be trained in all of the natu- 
ral sciences which are closely related to 
crops, fertilizers, soil amendments and to 
soils themselves in all of their several re- 
lations. The man who looks forward to 
service in the west or middle west can not 
neglect the chemistry of fertilizers in their 
relation to the special crop and to the 
special soil, for the fertilizer problem is 
advancing westward at a rapid rate and 
many of the present-day needs of the east 
will, in the near future, become the needs 
of much of the west and middle west. 
From what has been said it must be 
obvious that the ordinary college course 
can not be considered an adequate prepa- 
ration for the life work of the agronomist, 
whether he be engaged in teaching or in 
research, but that this must be supple- 
mented by at least three years’ work at the 
university. Conversely, it must be equally 
obvious that he who would succeed in the 
fullest degree in his scientific achievements 
in the domain of agronomy must also be fa- 
miliar with the subject as an art, and if 
this knowledge was not acquired at home 
on the farm, before the beginning of the 
college course, it should surely be made a 
part of his equipment before entering upon 
the university course. 
The demands of the times make impera- 
tive not only a knowledge of the art of 
agronomy and the possession of the foun- 
dation contributed by the college and uni- 
versity, but they demand that the teacher 
or investigator keep continually in touch 
with the work of others in this and other 
