Miscellaneous. 



260 



[March, 1912. 



policy we shall move away f rom it as 

 rapidly as circumstances will permit. 

 Such a policy is a practical assumption 

 that there is no place in the agricultural 

 field tor the highest type of intellectual 

 development and equipment, an assump- 

 tion to which no well-informed student 

 of social and economic conditions is 

 likely to consent. If we also take into 

 consideration the fact that the digiuity 

 and importance of agricultural oppor- 

 tunities receive little emphasis in those 

 institutions where the main trend of 

 thought and training is in other direc- 

 tions we see sufficient reasons why the 

 agricultural college should not relegate 

 to other agencies its clearly indicated 

 function — the production of the leader- 

 ship that is needed for advancing the in- 

 terests of the farm. 



And so, because of the unsatisfied 

 demand for adequately trained teachers 

 and investigators, because of the com- 

 plex and difficult problems related to 

 tarm life that insistently face us, so 

 many of which are unsolved, because 

 the redirection and upbuilding of rural- 

 life institutions need for their accom- 

 plishment the guidance of leaders of a 

 nigh order of ability, and because of the 

 greatly increasing demand for service in 

 these several directions which is only par- 

 tially met, should we not insist that the 

 material resources and the human know- 

 ledge at the command of the agricultural 

 college and the plans and purposses there 

 nourished should be directed toward 

 sound inquiry and the training of young 

 men and women for such service as will 

 only be rendered by the few. Until we 

 have means beyond what can reason- 

 ably be expended in increasing the effi- 

 ciency of the colleges and stations, is it 

 a wise policy to assign to other purposes 

 funds that should be applied to securing 

 and holding teachers and investigators 

 of large attainments and success, those 

 who are masters in their special fields ? 

 Agriculture needs more of such men and 

 should be able to create for them a 

 favorable environment for their work. 



And we now come to a question to- 

 wards which this discussion has been 

 aiming from the very first. What con- 

 ditions should prevail in college instruc- 

 tion and what results should be kept in 

 view in the training of young men and 

 women for vocational and social leader- 

 ship? 



In considering this question we may 

 well begin by asking what qualities 

 should be possessed by those who are to 

 enter effectively into the service of agri- 

 culture and country life ? There can be 

 but one answer. They are the same 

 fundamentally that are essential to 



efficiency and well rounded suceess in 

 any calling or profession. If the teacher, 

 the investigator, the statesman, the 

 lawyer or the business man should pos- 

 sess integrity of thought and purpose, 

 be able to reason keenly and base his 

 reasoning on fundamental and well- 

 grounded principles, so should those 

 who are to assume responsibility and 

 leadership in agricultural affairs. There 

 is no place for loose thinking and the 

 empiricism of superficial knowledge in 

 the consideration of the economic and 

 social problems pertaining to the open 

 country. It is hardly conceivable, 

 either, that the college will succeed in 

 developing in its students these neces- 

 sary qualities by any educational me- 

 thods essentially different from those 

 commended by long experience. The 

 pedagogical tools may differ from the 

 old ones, but the ultimate result, if it is 

 worth while, will be those attributes of 

 mind and character that have long been 

 recognized as the distinctive marks of 

 strong men and women. 



As preliminary to a discussion of the 

 conditions essential to the attainment 

 of this result, we may safely establish 

 certain premises on which to base any 

 contentions that may follow. These 

 premises, conceded on every hand, 

 are the following: first, the subject 

 matter of the class room should be 

 concise and severely engage the student's 

 mind ; second, the instruction given, in 

 whatever field, should represent the 

 latest and best conclusions ; third, this 

 instruction, if it is to secure tor the 

 graduate an advantage over the merely 

 practical man, must give a well-groun- 

 ded acquaintance with fundamental 

 facts and principles ; fourth, the college 

 should so react upon the young men and 

 women that come within its influence as 

 to develop in them high ideals of living. 



There are three factors that are most 

 intimately related to these fundamental 

 conditions, the teacher, the curriculum 

 and as an outgrowth of these two that 

 somewhat intangible influence we call 

 college atmosphere. 



What about the larger of these fac- 

 tors, the teacher ? It should be required 

 of him as one great essential that he be 

 a man of scholarly spirit and attain- 

 ments, and being such he should have 

 opportunity for study and reflection. 

 Is it not time to inquire whether we do 

 not need a renaissance of the atmos- 

 phere of scholarship in our vocational 

 colleges, an atmosphere that must first 

 surround the teacher there to be brea- 

 thed in by the students? Because we 

 have been exalting the man with a so- 

 called practical touch, poesessed of the 



