DRY FARMING-—EDUCATION IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS 
definite ‘system’ of dry farming has been 
or is likely to be established that will 
be of general applicability to all or any 
considerable part of the Great Plains 
area; (2) that any hard and fast rules 
can be adopted to govern the methods 
of tillage or of time and depth of plow- 
ing; (38) that deep tillage invariably 
and necessarily increases the water hold- 
ing capacity of the soil or facilitates root 
development; (4) that alternate crop- 
ping and summer tillage can be relied 
upon as a safe basis for a permanent 
agriculture or that it will invariably 
overcome the effects of severe and long- 
continued droughts; and (5) that the 
farmer can be taught by given rules how 
to operate a dry land farm.” 
H. C. CHILcort, 
U. S Department of Agriculture Yearbook 1911. 
E S R. 27-6 
Dry Lanp FARMING. 
chard, Cultivation of. 
Dury or Water. See Irrigation. 
Dwarr APPLE. See Apple, Botany of. 
EASTERN APPLE. See Apple, Botany of. 
See Apple Or- 
Education in the Common 
Schools 
Agricultural 
In an article of this character for 
a work on horticulture, we are necessa- 
rily more or less restricted to those por- 
tions of the subject which relate to our 
work and the purpose for which it is 
published. However, in order that we 
may have a proper setting for that de- 
partment of the subject suited to our 
purpose, it is pertinent that we should 
outline the subject of education and then 
perfectly treat that part of the subject 
which is adapted to our work. In a gen- 
eral outline, we have seen nothing that 
seems to us clearer and more logical than 
that by Herbert Spencer, who says that 
a child should be taught to avoid the 
dangers of many kinds through which 
he must pass in order to live. These 
dangers imply the perils of accident, 
diseases, temperature. climate, environ- 
ment and all those things that might af- 
fect the organism unfavorably. Second, 
he should be taught those things that 
pertain to self-sustenance. He should 
2—17 
913 
know how to provide for himself and 
not be dependent upon the intelligence 
and the labor of others for those things 
which are necessary to sustain life. 
Third, he should be taught those things 
that pertain to social relations, of mar- 
riage, the family and society in general, 
and be able to meet the conditions neces- 
Sary in order that he may act the part 
of a good citizen. Fourth, he should be 
taught those things that tend to unfold 
the mind, develop and strengthen the 
character and that tend to the refine- 
ments of life. 
This is not quite a complete outline 
of Spencer’s “Philosophy of Education,” 
but it gives the main points and seems 
to cover the ground so thoroughly and 
to be so clear that we have adopted it 
here. Now, in relation to education in 
agriculture or horticulture in the public 
schools, we are confronted with that 
question in a very practical way in that 
it is being carried on throughout the 
whole country. On the question of vo- 
cational training in the public schools, 
students are being taught home economics 
and mechanics. Boys are taught how 
to handle tools in carpentering and vari- 
ous other things relating to those oc- 
cupations which they will probably fol- 
low when they grow up to manhood and 
are charged with the responsibilities of 
life. 
In ancient times and during the Mid- 
dle Ages, education was for the most 
part the privilege of a few persons, most- 
ly of the aristocratic classes who ruled 
the masses and these masses were kept 
in ignorance. "With the growth of the 
democratic and republican ideas of gov- 
ernment, there has grown up a _ tend- 
ency to educate the masses, and to do 
so at the public expense. Under the old 
system of education, emphasis was giv- 
en to the classes. Probably this was. 
true in part, because science did not oc- 
cupy the broad field which it has come 
to occupy with the new discoveries of 
truth through the means of the tele- 
scope, microscope and other instruments 
used for investigation and discovery. 
Now that science is so large a part of 
the sum total of human knowledge, and 
