ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 249 



were in college, it was taught as a demonstrated scientific truth that 

 mankind, in no very distant future, must disappear from the fact of the 

 globe for lack of nitrogen in the soil. We know better now. So com- 

 pletely has this better knowledge been accepted and acted upon in agri- 

 cultural operations that we have almost forgotten that we ever thought 

 differently. 



The year the speaker entered college Professor Burrill discovered the 

 cause of pear blight. Pear blight still continues on its way, but how 

 Immensely has the horizen of our knowledge concerning plant and ani- 

 mal diseases widened. Not only has agricultural and horticultural 

 operations been greatly modified but the practice of humane veterinary 

 medicine have been revolutionized, and with it all, the mind of the human 

 race seems to have expanded; reason has taken the place of supersti- 

 tion. 



The establishment in 1888 of experimentaUjtations. in each of the 

 states has furnished a fountain from which is fiowing knowledge recog- 

 nized to be of the highest importance to agriculture. Knowledge whi(}^h 

 now has some semblance at least of scientific accuracy. Knowledge 

 which is as accurate as can be expected when we consider the great 

 difficulty of the subject. The effect of this progress of which but a hint 

 has been given is that little that is taught today of technical agriculture 

 was taught fifteen years ago. 



It is necessary to remember that the old type of classical college 

 required only a building of moderate dimensions, and a department 

 therein for equipment, a desk, a few chairs, a pointer, some chalk, and a 

 number of erasers. Thirty years ago the necessity of equipment for the 

 teaching of the pure science was but little recognized. The necessity 

 for a fairly equipped chemical laboratory was indeed understood. A 

 herbarium for the botanist, a few snakes and other specimens in alco- 

 hol for the zoologist, a number of cork lined boxes for the entomologist, 

 a small collection of minerals and stones for the geologist, a manikin 

 and a few bones for the physiologist was about all that was thought 

 necessary. When it came to the department of agriculture, a few sam- 



