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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. i 



giving the needed accuracy and direction 

 to the knowledge that it is sought to im- 

 part. But such aid should serve to stimu- 

 late and supplement the activities of other 

 agencies and of the various communities 

 that are to be benefited and should be so 

 related to the colleges as in no way to 

 hamper their academic work. 



Has not the time come when extension 

 work should be carried on through the co- 

 ordinated effort of the state department of 

 education, the department or board of agri- 

 culture, the colleges, the normal and sec- 

 ondary schools, the churches, the grange, 

 the railroads, the chambers of commerce 

 and other business and commercial bodies, 

 all of which should be associated in a board 

 of direction and should contribute to a per- 

 manent and salaried faculty of instruction ? 

 There is every reason why the agricultural 

 college should have an important place in 

 the education of the public, but is there 

 now any reason why it should attempt to 

 compass the whole field or burden itself 

 with the entire responsibility, financial or 

 otherwise, for such efforts? 



There are those who will argue, I sus- 

 pect, that the closer limitation of the work 

 of the college faculty to the higher ranges 

 of academic training would cause these 

 institutions to lose their vital connection 

 with public thought and needs. We cer- 

 tainly have no use for a fossilized center of 

 learning in these days when the college 

 must be regarded as a public servant, but 

 to prevent its petrification it is not neces- 

 sary that the farmers' picnic, the grange 

 hall, the institute platform or the railroad 

 train shall be frequented by the teacher 

 and investigator. These excursions from 

 college halls may be replaced by expedi- 

 tions for the careful study of social and 

 economic conditions as they are seen on the 

 farm and in the various business operations 



that are related to agriculture, with no loss, 

 but rather a gain, in the value of the service 

 rendered. 



When an issue is raised concerning voca- 

 tional curriculums we enter upon debatable 

 ground. This audience needs not to be 

 told that many a faculty session has been 

 devoted to a vigorous, even heated, discus- 

 sion over the relative proportions and dis- 

 tribution of studies in agricultural and en- 

 gineering courses, for there are present 

 many who are in the midst of a contest that 

 is still being waged. Only general consid- 

 erations concerning this much-debated mat- 

 ter are in order at this time. 



A proper regard for a student's success 

 in after life requires that at least three 

 considerations shall enter into the use of 

 his time and into the arrangement and 

 subject matter of the coiirse of study he is 

 expected to pursue. These are the devel- 

 opment of personal power, the cultivation 

 of both the sense and understanding of 

 social and moral obligations and prepara- 

 tion for vocational activity. 



The development of personal power is 

 placed first because it is the all-comprehen- 

 sive factor in determining individual effi- 

 ciency. It is not attained through the mere 

 storing of information or through famil- 

 iarity with technical details, for knowledge 

 and skill are but instruments for use. It 

 consists essentially of the power of initia- 

 tive, the ability to think clearly and to 

 reason sanely and fundamentally, and, 

 above all, it involves that mastery of self 

 and of the raw materials of life that lies at 

 the foundation of all individual success. 



Personal power is acquired through dis- 

 cipline, and so the disciplinary value of a 

 course of study is a prime consideration. 

 Have we not to some extent lost sight of 

 the great and abiding truth that the intel- 

 lectual and moral culture of man as a man 



