March 31, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



449 



there came a lull tlie chairman asked Hilgard 

 to speak. He rose alertly, showing them a 

 slim, graceful figure, and when he had folded 

 and pocketed the blue glasses which a long- 

 continued eye trouble forced him to wear, they 

 saw a scholarly face illumined with an eager- 

 ness, cordiality and brightness of expression 

 which seemed to say to them: I never was in 

 such a delightful place before in my life. Be- 

 fore he could say a word he had them trans- 

 fixed with surprise and curiosity, and when he 

 began to speak in a low, conversational voice, 

 with an accent which compelled them to listen 

 closely, every man was at attention. He was 

 saying that lie was glad to meet them ; that no 

 one could do much for farming unless he had 

 personal knowledge and support of farmers; 

 that he had listened with interest to what they 

 had been saying and much of it doubtless 

 would be helpful to him; that other things 

 they could talk over and agree upon when they 

 became better acquainted ; that he had come to 

 California to try, with their help and support, 

 to know California, from the rocks to the sky, 

 and proposed to use all that he had learned in 

 other lands merely as a help to begin to know 

 California, which he already perceived was 

 different from any other land in which he had 

 lived and worked. He wished to work from 

 California outward, not to try to fit old 

 theories to a new state. He had always been 

 interested in differences and wanted to see 

 what they were and how they worked in fann- 

 ing. On his father's farm in Illinois he 

 learned that the soil was not all alike and he 

 had been told that soil differed when it came 

 from different rocks, when it was moved about 

 in different ways, and when other things were 

 mixed with it, and that since boyhood he had 

 been studying the rocks, the soils, the plants, 

 to see what was in the soil and in the plant in 

 the hope of matching them up to get the best 

 crops and the most money in farming. Then 

 followed a charming half -hour with soil forma- 

 tion and movement, tillage, fertilization, etc., 

 without a scientific term, without reference to 

 a chemical formula, all straight farming talk 

 about soils and plants. Finally he said he had 

 come to find out how these things worked in 

 California. 



Within a few years Hilgard was able to 

 render his first great service to the community 

 in which he lived by promoting a sympathetic 

 understanding between the farmers of the 

 state and scientific learning, so that the col- 

 lege of agriculture became firmly established 

 as a part of the state university by constitu- 

 tional amendment. The influence of this 

 achievement was wide-reaching, for it has 

 proven a rock upon which efforts for dismem- 

 berment of land-grant universities in other 

 states have been dashed to pieces. 



Hilgard's scholarly preparation was wide. 

 Aside from scientific branches, he knew his 

 Latin and his Greek and the literatures of 

 them, and only the distinguished professor of 

 German of that day could sioipass him in con- 

 versational scope in- modern languages. And 

 he loved all this learning and constantly used 

 it familiarly, while, beyond all conscious em- 

 ployment of it, there it was forming his 

 thought, gracing his style and in every way 

 influencing his action and enriching his life. 



He was thus able ultimately to command the 

 interest and respect of both the scientific and 

 classical portions of the university commtmity 

 in his service to the state. He was always 

 broader than his own science. He was a real 

 man and a true philosopher. 



Hilgard's work was permanently successful 

 because with clear vision he founded it upon 

 principles the soundness of which has since 

 been demonstrated and generally recognized. 

 In his first report, published in 1877 he said: 



A knowledge of facts and principles and not the 

 achievement of manual dexterity, must be the 

 leading object of a truly useful course of instruc- 

 tion in agriculture. . . . Object teaching should 

 be made the preeminent method of instruction in 

 natural, and more especially in technical science. 

 Manual exercise should be made the adjunct of the 

 instruction in principles. 



Thus Hilgard announced at the very begin- 

 ning his adoption of the laboratory and field 

 method of instruction and he pursued it so far 

 as he could command the outfit for it. 



That the structure of Hilgard's achieve- 

 ments in the University of California was his 

 own from the ground up, appears from another 

 extract from his first report. 



