March 19, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



427 



preparation by one of the professors of a text 

 on agricultural education which is regarded 

 as well toward the head of the list upon that 

 subject. But there seems to be still a field for 

 educational work in agriculture, apparently 

 not touched by any of the current courses, by 

 which the subject matter of botany, zoology, 

 geology and meteorology can be correlated with 

 history through the common ground of agri- 

 culture. 



The recent article upon agricultural botany, 

 by Dr. Copeland, in Science, September 18, 

 has suggested some details of such possible 

 correlation in addition to a general plan al- 

 ready in mind. The scope of the course in 

 mind is just the reverse of the work as ordi- 

 narily catalogued as a " Course in Agricul- 

 ture " in the state colleges. Such courses take 

 the general subject, agriculture, and divide it 

 into its component parts, assigning portions to 

 agronomy, to horticulture, to animal hus- 

 bandry, soils, farm management and the other 

 familiar departments. The other plan would 

 take the work in the botanical laboratory and 

 would show where it is of common application 

 in the regular work of the farm; and in zool- 

 ogy, why the domestic animals are so useful 

 to man through their anatomy and physiology, 

 in place of merely noting their places as mam- 

 mals in taxonomie scheme. It would show that 

 the development of the technique of agricul- 

 ture has been the companion, if not the guide, 

 to advancing civilization through ethnology 

 and anthropology to modern history, com- 

 mercial and industrial. 



This is an ambitious aim and would require 

 much careful selection of material, before it 

 could be regarded as definitely outlined. The 

 final form would be an adjustment of the 

 ideas of several rather than the dictum of an 

 individual, as has been the case with college- 

 entrance requirements in the sciences, although 

 no official sanction, outside the several insti- 

 tutions which might offer the course, would 

 be called for. As here outlined, the principal 

 work of the course would be cared for by the 

 regular staff of instructors in botany, zoology, 

 geology, etc., the specialists in agronomy, live- 

 stock or soils being left with their respective 

 subjects in the technical school. Under such 



regular teachers, however, those details in their 

 course which relate to agriculture in any 

 manner are to be brought out and made the 

 peg upon which to hang the several facts of 

 structure, behavior or adaptation observed. 



The field as a whole may be divided into 

 four sections, as follows : 



1. Soil. — The basis of agricultural activity. 

 Origin of soils; types of soil; properties of 

 different soils; soil biology; soil management. 



2. Plants. — The factory of agricultural prod- 

 ucts. Seeds; growth; nutrition; reproduc- 

 tion; weeds and diseases; phytogeography ; 

 agricultural ecology. 



3. Animals. — The product of agricultural 

 factory. Nutrition; anatomy; physiology; 

 breeds ; uses ; predacious and beneficial species. 



4. Man. — The controlling factor in agricul- 

 ture. Races, civilization, colonization; com- 

 merce; rural and urban; raw materials and 

 manufactures. 



In attempting to assign to these topics their 

 places in the four-year course, it must be re- 

 membered that it is not practical agriculture, 

 but fundamental agriculture, that is in mind; 

 it is not an attempt to make farmers, but to 

 show how the farmer gets the results he does 

 from certain methods of procedure, and why 

 he is using those methods instead of some 

 others, in a historical and economic, rather 

 than technical and special study. Thus under 

 the subject of soils, the danger of severe wash- 

 ing of fall-plowed fields in the south would be 

 contrasted with the beneficial effects of the 

 frost work on similarly treated fields in the 

 colder states. Through the aid of the depart- 

 ments or instructors in bacteriology and 

 mycology, relation between soil bacteria, root- 

 infesting fungi and other organisms could be 

 shown as scientific reasons behind the ob- 

 served benefits of crop rotation, thus connect- 

 ing the work on soils with that on crop plants. 

 In the consideration of plants, the fact that 

 upon green plants all animal life depends ia 

 the keynote, with details added discussing the 

 parts of such plants utilized in particular 

 cases, thus connecting directly with the study 

 of those animals which make direct use of 

 plant tissues for food. Under animals, the 

 adaptation of the teeth to hard-stemmed forage 



