39 



point of departure would be the fact that certain of the lessons 

 actually do call out a real interested and independent effort 

 on the part of the student. That ounce of fact is worth tons of 

 theorizing. Then if it is true that the greatest good which can 

 come to the student out of such courses is the development of 

 his own powers of obtaining knowledge, it would not seem far to 

 this principle : The laboratory course should be composed mainly 

 of those lessons zvliicJi the instructor can so present as to arouse in- 

 dependent effort on the part of the student. 



" Then the question will at once arise ' What about the lessons 

 of which this is not true ; what about the many and important 

 topics in which the student can at best scarcely do more than to 

 perform faithfully the task assigned ? ' My answer would be to 

 remove most of them frankly to the domain of lecture and demon- 

 stration. A good demonstration, where the student feels the 

 spark of inspiration from the teacher's performance and example, 

 is far better for both teacher and student than a time-serving 

 laboratory exercise. 



" No doubt a certain proportion of laboratory lessons which 

 are mere verification exercises are desirable, but on the whole it 

 still remains true that for culture students tJie laboratory hours are 

 too precious to be used in anything but independence begetting zvork. 

 In the lecture room is the place to see that the course is rounded 

 out, kept coherent, and the ground covered." 



In a recent paper, Charles J. Brand, of the U. S. Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, traces the history of alfalfa in the United States. 

 The earliest date of introduction is 1855, from South America to 

 California; the next, 1857, from Europe to Minnesota. 



The South American seed finding a congenial soil and climate 

 easily became the basis of an extensive industry now netting 

 .^"150,000,000 a year. The European seed, despite the favorable 

 soil in Minnesota, was acclimated with difficulty ; but Grimm, the 

 farmer who introduced it, worked with " characteristic German 

 persistence, realizing neither the practical nor the scientific im- 

 portance of his unconscious experiment in acclimatization." He 



