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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1117 



aware of the fact that there are a world of 

 things appertaining to common practises 

 which we know little about. But this lack 

 of knowledge should not discourage us, as 

 was the case of the fond parent in the story 

 who put his son through a seven years' 

 medical college course and then was thor- 

 oughly disgusted because the young man 

 couldn 't tell him how to cure a wart. 



On the other hand, we should be stimu- 

 lated to greater effort in seeking out facts 

 for ourselves and we should not ignore too 

 many of the little things just because they 

 may seem commonplace. If a young man 

 wants a problem he need not look far to find 

 one. But let us get away from stereotyped 

 statements and try to acquire a new stock 

 of first-hand information. 



Somehow or other our horticultural liter- 

 ature has gradually become permeated with 

 dogmatic statements and unsupported opin- 

 ions which our students are permitted to 

 absorb as gospel truths. Who is to blame 

 for this I can not say and I fear it would 

 not be profitable to try to place the blame. 

 Conditions are probably responsible for the 

 most part in bringing about this state of 

 affairs. For horticulture is one of the old- 

 est of the agricultural groups recognized by 

 the colleges and stations. "Without any ex- 

 perimental facts at their disposal and with 

 few or no facilities for securing experi- 

 mental information, men were called upon 

 to give instruction in fruit-growing and 

 gardening and they met the situation as 

 best they could by drawing upon their own 

 practical experience or the experience of 

 horticultural friends and did their best to 

 explain why certain things had to be done 

 so and so, even though it sometimes became 

 necessary to draw heavily upon their imagi- 

 nation. But, in the language of the day, 

 they "got away with it" and some of us 

 have continued, more or less, to keep up the 

 practise. 



Reform, however, is coming about and 

 coming from a 'source least expected, viz., 

 from the students that we have to teach. 

 With the rapid raising of standards for en- 

 trance in the agricultural colleges, came a 

 class of students with good fundamental 

 training who refused to accept the time- 

 honored statements so general in horticul- 

 ture without at least plausible explanations. 

 I feel certain that this has been the chief 

 force that has broken the old traditions and 

 is bringing about a brand-new horticulture. 

 I am sure a brighter day is dawning and 

 that we shall soon be free from all the ham- 

 pering fetters of the past. 



One reason for my cheerfulness regarding 

 the horticultural situation is the result of 

 an inquiry which I recently addressed to all 

 the experiment stations in the United 

 States. Since there is somewhat of a 

 scarcity of reliable horticultural literature 

 along many lines, I greatly feared that ad- 

 ministrative officials might be placing bet- 

 ter facilities at the disposal of their depart- 

 ments of chemistry, botany, etc., but I fibad 

 that apparently such is not the case. My 

 findings show that approximately half of 

 the stations of the United States have one 

 or more officials in horticulture designated 

 as research men, but that eighteen per cent, 

 of these persons do some teaching. How- 

 ever, I did not learn the nature of this 

 teaching. If it is a limited amount of grad- 

 uate or upper class instruction the men will 

 be all the better investigators, but with too 

 much lower class work their research titles 

 may become a farce. Station directors often 

 reported men as doing no teaching while the 

 men themselves said that under stress of cir- 

 cumstances they were compelled to do a con- 

 siderable amount of teaching. Deans and 

 directors are sometimes great "boosters." 

 From incomplete replies representing thirty 

 or thirty-five institutions, it appears that 

 horticulture is fully as weU represented by 



